In remembrance...

We received the news that my (Garden) Grandma went to be with the Lord yesterday, exactly one year to the day that my Grandpa passed away. They were married 57 years.

It was just last Saturday that we were in Mo and got to visit with Grandma. She was so excited to meet Ayana for the first time. Thank you Lord for that precious time!



I love you Grandma, give Grandpa a hug for us.

OMG, so TRUE!!!

Ok, I saw this on Jen's blog and I had to post it to! So funny!

Our weekend...

We got to go to MO to see the family. Most of them met Ayana for the first time, including her older brother and sister. We had so much fun. It was hard to leave...I miss you guys already!



Thanks mom for hosting a very fun weekend!

Ayana's First Easter!

My Redeemer Lives!

Jesus has risen from the dead and was I praising the Lord for His gift?
No, all I was doing this morning was hustling to get ready for church and getting Easter baskets ready and wiping snotty noses and getting cranky from lack of sleep.

Mark 16:1-8
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, "Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?"

But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.

"Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, 'He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.' "

Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.

Lord, I repent for putting emphasis on the wrong things today. Today is the celebration of the precious gift you gave, Your sons life and then Resurrection. It's not about Easter baskets and bunnies. Thank you Lord that I can face death with confidence. Thank you that I can look forward to eternal life. Here and now, I can live in the power of His resurrection. There is no better gift or Holiday to celebrate. I love you Lord, THANK YOU!!!!!

Would you like a glass water?

Hi all,

We have been home for 7 weeks now with our Ethiopian Princess. We want to continue to be a part of Ethiopia beyond just our adoption.
Some of you have already heard of Charity Water and have joined in on this wonderful cause. In case you haven't, I urge you to pray about donating WATER.

We have a TIME BOMB!

WHY WATER.
Right now, 1.1 billion people on the planet don't have access to safe, clean drinking water. That's one in six of us.

WHO WE ARE.
charity: water is a non profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. We give 100% of the money raised to direct project costs, funding sustainable clean water solutions in areas of greatest need. Just $20 can give one person in a developing nation clean water for 20 years. To find our more about Charity Water: go to their website at: http://www.charitywater.org/

A fellow Ethiopia Adoptive parent and blogger, Lori, has started Team Ethiopia. She and others are raising money to build wells in Ethiopia. we are excited to be a part of it. Thanks Lori, you are AWESOME!

In Lori's words:
Team Ethiopia's mission is to build well(s) in Ethiopia where most of our adoptive children came from. After many of us parents have been to Ethiopia we came home different on several levels. One thing that is very clear to us is that we need and want to do more for the Ethiopian people. They are beautiful inside and out. Dirty water causes many kinds of illness and can even cause death. Several of our children came home to America with some of these water born illness' that thankfully could be treated here.

The urgency of this cause is enormous and the cost is so little. Please, donate any amount you can. Our goal is to try and get every family to donate $50. But any amount will get the job done. Together, Team Ethiopia will bring water to the many men, women, and children who desperately need it.

Won't you please join our Team!

But please, if you want to donate to our team well, you MUST do it from this page and not from the charity: water main page. If you donate from the main page then your funds will go to the general fund and not to our well.

Click on the picture to donate now!

Team ETHIOPIA! 96 members and climbing!

Live Drilling from Ethiopia:

Thank you for considering this wonderful project!

Sick baby girl...

So baby girl is sick. I knew there had to be a reason why she wasn't excited to see me when I got home the other day. No seriously, I have noticed she has not been herself. Sure enough, she woke up yesterday with goop all in her eyes and looked so bad, poor thing.

Things got worse and she didn't sleep hardly at all last night. She was having a hard time breathing and was whining and crying all night because she felt so bad poor baby. I was able to rock her to sleep a few times but it was short lived. I had to put saline drops in her nose and it kept running for hours and I would try to suck it out but it wasn't working that good. Of course, she thought I was the devil after using the nose sucker on her. Way to bond mom!

So I was exhausted by this morning and decided to not go to work but to take her to the doctor instead. Diagnoses: She has a cold/fever and allergies. They cultured her eye to make sure she didn't have pink eye too. If she didn't think I was the devil with the nose sucker, she did now with having to hold her down to get the eye culture.

It's 11:10 pm and she finally is asleep but I don't know for how long. I'm going to bed to try to get a few hours of shut eye before I have to get up again.

Please pray that Rick and I don't get sick too. Savannah already has it.

Motherhood: It can't be fun all the time.

Bed time or Play time?

I took these a few nights ago at 10:30 pm when Ayana still was not asleep... How can you resist that smile looking at you saying, "let me out of jail please."

Another day...

Today was a little better than yesterday. I came home and Ayana was taking a nap. When she woke we cuddled. She isn't feeling well. One of her eyes is watering badly and it looks a little hazy. She is also acting weird. Not eating much, very sensitive and crying a lot.
I am going to take her to the doctor tomorrow and have her checked if I can get her in. She is on allergy medicine and I have kept the dogs away from her lately just in case.

Work was crazy again today and I had to go to a Booster club meeting for cheer tonight. Ugh! I hate those things.

Breathe, one day at a time...

HARD day!

I had a rough day. Today was my first day back to work after being off for 6 weeks with Ayana. We have a caretaker coming to the house to watch her while I’m at work. When I got to work, 6 weeks of backed up work waiting for me that needs to be done yesterday. Overwhelming!!!!!!!! Then an agent wanted to show our house in the middle of the day at the last minute and the house wasn’t exactly in showing condition so I rushed home and the time I would have spent with her for lunch was spent cleaning.
I get home after a hard day and Ayana didn’t act excited to see me but was in love with the caretaker. I guess I should be happy she likes her but I have to admit, I was so jealous. She normally gets so excited to see me. Will she think the caretaker is her mommy and not me??????????????????

Heartbroken,

Amber