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Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Monday Mia-isms

I have a confession to make.  Don't judge me, but I want to let you in on one of my secrets: I think babies are pretty boring.  I say this because I am having so. much. fun with Mia right now.  I absolutely love that she's becoming more and more autonomous every day.  I love that she copies everything I do.  And I love her increasing vocabulary.  When I think back to last winter, I mostly remember very long days of trying to entertain my little blob of a baby, who also incidentally never liked to be by herself...ever.  I know we had other obstacles facing us at that time, but those winter months made for long days. 

Now, Mia has us rolling with laughter and standing back in awe with how fast she is growing and changing.  I also know that if I don't take the time to document these moments, when she self-corrects they'll soon fade from memory.  So I decided to document them here and share a few with you:

Catty: Currently what she calls cats.  It's kind of like a combo of cat and kitty.

Aah-keys: Glasses.  I'm not entirely sure why she calls them this, but when you hear it in her sweet little voice, you'd melt.

Jap: Giraffe.  I can normally understand about 85% of what she says, but this one almost always throws me.  The other morning she was so frustrated with me because I couldn't figure out what she was asking me for.  I thought she wanted to jump in her bed, so when I would ask, "Jump?" I got back, "No Mommy!  Jap!"

Mon-hee: Monkey.

Ta-vis: Travis.  Yup, I accidentally taught her that her daddy's name is Travis.  I really didn't mean to, I promise!  I was calling downstairs for him one night when I had her in the bathtub, and she just picked it up.  When you ask her what his name is, she does say Daddy, but if she hears me say Travis, she'll start parroting it. 

Cock-a-doo: This one's more obvious (what a rooster says) but it's entirely adorable to hear her say it.  She's gotten quite proficient with her animal noises and can tell you what a cat, dog, pig, sheep, cow, horsey, chicken, rooster, duck, goose, bird, turkey, monkey, lion, tiger, owl, and goat says. 

She's also learning her manners well.  She says Please, Thank You, and You're Welcome, and even corrected Mommy the other day.  I asked Travis to hand me a glass of water at dinner and she, stone-faced, looked at me and said, "Mommy!  Say thank you!"

Book Fair Info!

Here's your official invite to our Usborne Book Fair on Saturday, December 4th from 1-4pm at our church, Mt. Auburn United Methodist.  The online portal is open now, though, so you can start shopping here.  The portal will close December 5th at midnight.  All proceeds will be going to our adoption fund, so thank you in advance for your support!

Not About Me

Today is Orphan Sunday.  It's a day that passes by without much fanfare in most churches, including my own.  I don't blame anyone - there are a hundred different worthy causes that need our attention (including the next Sunday which is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church).  It's also easy to get wrapped up in our own lives and trials and tribulations and forget about those things that aren't staring us in the face on a daily basis.

I have to admit that I've been feeling pretty down lately.  Because we're fundraising this time, our second adoption is starting more slowly than our first.  It'll probably take us a bit longer to get our paperwork all completed, for various reasons, but some just coming down to finances.  I know it's all in God's hands and I'm sure this is what He has called us to do, but sometimes that peace and assurance gets muffled in the midst of uncertainty and doubt. 

And many of you saw on FB the week I had with my poor mom.  She fell Monday morning at the Y and shattered her right ankle and sprained her left one.  She needed to have surgery pretty immediately to reset it, so Monday found us at the ER and then orthopedic surgeon and Tuesday was spent at the hospital.  It's going to be a long recovery, and I'm so glad I live so close by to help her out during this time.  I didn't, however, get to my Christmas ornaments yet.  This week, I promise.

So here I am, feeling sorry for myself.  And then I read this on my friend Kathy's blog:

In the past week, we were made aware of some very difficult circumstances in an orphanage in Ethiopia. Families traveling with our adoption agency visited this orphanage while they were in Addis Ababa, and got the word to those of us traveling soon that there were needs and what we could bring to help them. This was the Facebook status of one of the moms traveling with the group:

"A hard start to our day. Visited an orphanage with deplorable conditions, and left in tears. Our group was able to buy 10 crib mattresses (yes, babies are sleeping on the wooden bottoms of the cribs). But they also need massive quantities of diapers...ripped pieces of sheets wrapped around their bottoms and held in place w/ their onesie t-shirts isn't cutting it."

That's when God's gentle but firm hand gripped my shoulder and shook me.  This is what I should be feeling sorry about.  This is why we have to go back to Ethiopia.  This is why the things I'm whining about are nothing compared to this.  Can you even imagine?  Not even enough money to buy diapers.  I have visited some of the orphanages in Ethiopia, but I have not seen conditions like these.  I know they are doing the best with what they've got, but this is why these children need our help. 

Kathy and her family will be travelling to Ethiopia for Christmas for their courtdate and to meet their 3 new kiddos.  If you'd like to help in anyway, whether it be sending them some smaller item donations to take over or sending some money to purchase diapers, etc. when they arrive, contact her here. 

I'll leave you with a video my friend Kim (another adoption travel buddy) shared on FB today. 


Hope is Fading – Orphan Sunday from Allan Rosenow on Vimeo.