Jojo Day!

On April 28th we celebrated Jojo Day! It's the anniversary of the date we had Joseph in our arms in 2008. We love celebrating this event! What a joy it was to bring this boy into our family! 

Every year I have to send 12 pictures of Joseph to Ethiopia. They also want me to write about how he's developing and growing. It's something I enjoy doing! It's fun to reflect on how much he's growing and changing.

I love this boy! I can't believe we've already had FIVE years with him!

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Faith Day!

Every year we celebrate Faith Day on the anniversary of Faith's adoption. I write a little report and turn in 12 pictures of Faith to Ethiopia. I love doing this because it gives me the opportunity to reflect on how much she has grown and developed! Here are the pictures I turned in this year:

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Ethiopia On My Mind

Last week I asked a friend who to send me some t-shirts for the kids. Koleta was happy to help me out and I was soooo excited! They are such a blessing!! She picked perfect t-shirts that my kids will love! They love it when we talk about how they are from Ethiopia! They love to hear their story about how we traveled to Ethiopia to pick them up.

There's a special bond for people who adopt from Ethiopia...I can't really explain it. I find myself praying for other families like us. I love being in touch with other adoption families! There was something very fulfilling for me to be able to finally meet two special kids that I've prayed for from the beginning of their adoption process.

Just a few days ago there was another family who finally got to pick up their sweet little girl from Ethiopia. Even though I've only been in touch with this family through Facebook....I am really touched as I think about their family coming together. Tears come to my eyes as I think about Ethiopian orphans coming into families!

Every year when we celebrate the anniversary of our adoption two other families that I've kept in touch with are also celebrating. The Meichers and The Chaneys both had babies from Joseph and Faith's orphanage. We met them when we adopted Joseph and we were all so new to adoption.

So, lately I've been thinking a lot about Ethiopia. I treasure the memories there and the amazing treasures that I have from this special country. We don't feel led to adopt again at this point, but I am so so so thankful for our memories and the connections that we have to this country. Have I mentioned that I love my kids? I really do! 

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Four years with Joseph

We recently celebrated four years of having Joseph in our family! April 28th is "Jojo Day" at our house! I blogged about Jojo Day on the kids' blog, go check it out!

These last four years have been so wonderful! We can't imagine life without Joseph. We're so thankful to have him in our family. Every year we send pictures to Ethiopia along with a post placement report. Here are the pictures we sent in this year:

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Pictures of Faith

I can't believe I just wrote Faith's 2 year post placement report. Two years ago today...November 21, 2009 we were in Ethiopia with our new baby girl!

Each year I have to send 12 photos to Ethiopia. Here's what we sent in this year:

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I remember when...

The other day we saw someone that we hadn't seen since we had adopted Faith. She said, "I remember when these two were babies!" I don't know where the time has gone, but they are certainly not babies anymore! 

We have recently made this adoption blog into a book. It's our story! It has been so neat to read the blog entries from before Joseph was even a part of our family. God has been so good to us by giving us these two precious kids! He's been so faithful.

As we look at the book we have been saying "I remember when..." a lot!

We have so many memories from the adoption process. We have memories of how hard it was to wait and wonder. We remember depending on God to bless us as we waited. We had to lean so hard on Him. We had to put our Faith in Him. We trusted Him to work out all of the details. He was faithful, even in the hard times.

There was so much support from so many of you who commented on our blog posts and said you were praying for us. You really blessed us! It's so special to read all of your comments. Thanks for walking with us through this process!

We have memories of getting the news that there was a baby in Ethiopia waiting for us!!!!! You celebrated with us! God blessed us two times and picked out these two especially for us. They complete our family so well. Only God could have arranged it so well! We trusted Him and He pulled through for us. He is so faithful!

God has directed each step. He has walked with us through it all and He put our family together in His perfect way. We couldn't have done it better, even if we tried.

Never once did we walk alone! God has been and will continue to be faithful. We trust Him!
This song says it perfectly:

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Pictures of Joseph

Every year we have to turn in 12 pictures of Joseph in a post placement report to Ethiopia. 

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Jojo Day!

April 28th was the anniversary of Joseph's adoption. We call it "Jojo Day!" We had a fun day of celebrating this boy! We talked about how we went to Ethiopia and got him out of the orphanage. We told him how we went on an airplane to America. It was fun to look back at pictures of when we first got him. What a blessing he has been to our family!! I can't imagine not having him in our lives.

We celebrated by going to Chick-Fil-A for lunch with Nammy (Tim's Mom). After dinner we went to Cold Stone for ice cream with friends and family. Then we went to a movie African Cats....which was appropriate because Jojo was adopted from Africa!!

Here are some pictures of Jojo Day!! Enjoy! 

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