Two weeks...

We've had our boy for two weeks now!! It seems like he has been with us forever. It doesn't seem like that short of a time because he has adjusted so well and has been bonding amazingly.

In two weeks these are some things we've figured out about Jeremiah. Some things that have changed too.

1. He holds our fingers, hands while we give him a bottle now
2. Makes eye contact now while drinking a bottle
3. Can hold his weight on his legs now when he couldn't before
4. Takes a pacifer (makes naps much easier!)
5. Eats a variety of foods now and ALOT of it!
6. Talks a lot now and babbles all the time
7. Is less clingy than when we first got home
8. Has a parasite! Ugh.
9. Has shown us his *nasty* side...when he gets mad watch out!! Throws his head back and kicks his legs like he is a toddler throwing a temper tantrum!! :D
10. Sleeps through the night
11. Dropped two feedings
12. Makes us laugh REALLY hard...Especially Emmy. She thinks he is SO funny.
13. Had his first doctor appt. and the Doctor thinks he is about 10 months. He is in the 5th percentile for weight. Feeding him lots of GOOD fatty foods. :D
14. Makes everyone smile
15. LOVES PLAYING WITH BALLS!!

We love you baby boy and are so blessed to be your family!! :D

Jeremiah in pictures...

We are blessed. :D

Ethiopia in a few pictures...

The pics are backwards so start from the bottom to see the first time we met our little guy!

Fwd: We met our son!!!!!!

Our son is amazing and silly...he is the life of the Transition Home so the doctor tells us!  All the nannies and staff were making him laugh and smile.  What a blessing our sweet boy is to us!  Excuse me as this post is coming to you in pure exhaustion.  3 days with about 9 hours of sleep doesn't sit well with me!!  This will be short but hopefully sweet...Praying the pictures come through.

 

We drove through the 'infamous" gate of the TH and saw the stairs where we had seen so many other families meet their children.  My heart was racing and I felt nauseous.  Really I did...I was nervous.  They informed us right before they brought him out that he was sleeping and they were going to wake him up.  He came out sad but put his little head on my chest.  Tears were coming of course...Our boy was finally in our arms.  Thank you Jesus...

 

He had a hard time going back to sleep but finally did after maybe 10 minutes or so.  He slept on me (yay!) for about 45 minutes or so.  When he woke up he was a little scared and unsure.  We got a few half smiles out of him.  But then we walked into the doctors office to talk about his file and medical records.  He lit up!!  Smiled at the doctor and the nannies...he was throwing his head back in laughter and just being plain silly!!  We loved it!  It showed us his personality...it will probably take awhile till he feels completely comfortable with us but after seeing people he knew he was much more comfortable with us holding him. 

WE ARE SOOOOOOOOOOOO IN LOVE WITH HIM!!  And tomorrow is our "Gotcha Day"...we take him in our arms for good!

 

We would appreciate your prayers for sleep!  For Jeremiah to trust us and God to comfort his little grieving heart.  For the Embassy Appt. which is long and important as we get his visa there!  And for us just to adjust as a family. 

Ethiopia is so beautiful and a country with such rich culture.  We went to a resturant where precious people performed music and dancing.  We got so choked up thinking about Jeremiah not fully knowing his culture and being taken out of it.  We know it is better than him being raised in an institution of course but I was still sad.  We are going to try to really embrace the Ethiopian culture in our family.  We want him to know what Ethiopia is about and to be proud he was born there.

 

Love to you all!

Charlie's turn to post...

It's early. Your momma is sleeping, along with everyone else in our hotel. It seems the only living creatures who are still awake are the (guesstimate) 5,000 dogs that have been barking outside our room all night and the man playing his flute, singing either in praise to his god or just singing randomly at five in the morning. What ever his reason for singing, I'm glad I'm awake to hear its. It's beautiful. It reminds me of where I am. It's Monday, March 15th and I'm in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the day I will finally meet my son in person. Not see you in someone else's arms in videos or pictures, but in my arms. Flesh on flesh, I will feel you breath, smell your hair, dry your tears, and hopefully make you smile.

As I sit here staring out at the Ethiopian sky, I can't help but reflect on the past 16 months. It was December 4th, 2008 and after attending an adoption seminar and praying about adoption for weeks, your mom and I felt God leading us to go get our second child from another country. The next 16 months were filled with prayer, mounds of paperwork, fingerprinting, meetings with social workers, and the toughest part...having patience, while having to answer question after question about when we were going to get our child. I don't blame people for asking. They genuinely care and want to know, but having to answer the question again and again without showing the true emotions your mom and I were feeling, was almost too much. But that brings us back to today. It brings me back to why today is so amazing. It brings me back to why our God is so incredible, so faithful, so merciful, and so loving. It brings me back to why every single part, high and low, of the last 16 months was so incredibly worth it. It also brings me back to the day your sister was born.

I remember being in the delivery room with your momma. We had waited the normal 9 months of pregnancy, plus the two and a half weeks she was overdue, plus the 53 hours of labor, before we could finally see Emmy's sweet face. I can't explain the moment any better that to tell you that I balled uncontrolably when I saw her. I'm not talking just a few tears. I'm talking about body shaking, headache inducing, doctor, nurse, and mommy staring at me with their jaws on the floor, crying. (I know, I know...your Dad could lose "Man Points" for admitting that last fact, but I assure you, it's ok for men to cry...uhh, sometimes.) You see, I had no idea the emotions I had running through me before seeing your sister in person. No amount of preparation or research could have prepared for such an incredibly awesome event.

That brings me back to today. I'm not exactly sure of what my reaction will be when I see you, but have to warn you, it might be the same as it was when I first saw your sister. You see, while the details involving how we received our first child and second child differ greatly, the emotions and questions running through my mind are exactly the same. Questions like: How can a sinner like me, be so amazingly blessed with another incredible child? How is it that I, really still a child in many ways, have been given the responsibility to raise yet another child? How will I be the best father and give this child everything he needs? These are all humbling questions, which all have one common answer...God. I will place you before the Lord every morning and every night and not try to screw up too much in between. I will do my best to make decisions for your benefit and growth and not for mine. I can assure you, I will not be the best father ever. I will not make the right decision every time. I will not always have the perfect response to stress and conflict, but I can assure you, Jeremiah Eyob, that I will love you every day of my life. That means if you get in trouble at school, wreck the car, say something hurtful, or any other "offense", I will love you. Absolutely nothing will ever change that.

The sun is rising now. I don't know exactly what today holds. I'm not sure of what your reaction will be when I hold you. Will you cry, pull away from me and reach back for your nanny, or (my personal favorite) will you snuggle into my chest and know that I am your father? I don't know and to be honest, don't really care. Today is only the start for us, my boy. The one thing I am sure of and am now being overwhelmed with emotion about, is that my God, Jesus Christ, has given me a son and today I will see him. I love you Jeremiah and thank you Jesus.

P.S. I just got off the phone with your sister and she is freaking out. She can't wait to meet you.

We are HERE!!

We are in Ethiopia and tomorrow we meet our son!  We are freaking out!!  This is such a surreal and amazing moment in our lives.  We are so excited and anxious to meet him.  Pray for sleep filled nights before he comes to stay at the hotel with us.  The plane ride didn't offer us much sleep. ;)

Emmy we love you and miss you so SO much.  We wish you could be here with us sweetie.  But we will get your brother ready to meet you...we'll try to send pictures and video too!  We can't wait to see you sweetie and have lots of FUN with Auntie Rachel and family!! :D

YAY!! 

It's here!!

We leave in 2 days!! We are so excited and thrilled to be at this stage and to bring our boy home. We are humbly asking you to cover us in prayer this next week. We leave Saturday morning the 13th at 7:55am and arrive on Sunday the 14th in Ethiopia at 7:50pm (8:50am PST). We will be in Ethiopia till Friday the 19th at 10pm (11am PST) and arrive at LAX on Saturday the 20th at 3:21pm.

Prayer requests:
1. Safe travel there, in country, back to US and flying home to OR too.
2. Safety and comfort for Charlie, Becca, Jeremiah and Emmy. Emmy will stay in the US with family so please pray for her and us as we miss eachother.
3. For Jeremiah as his world is going to change alot. Attachment to be smooth and quick.
4. Pray for all legistics to go smooth and fall into place.
5. Pray for our Embassy appointment on Wednesday morning (Tuesday night PST). This is the final step to OFFICIALLY taking Jeremiah home!! We get his Visa this day...Pray everything goes smooth and that there are no hiccups! :D
6. Pray for the flight home with Jeremiah...24 hours on a plane with our little man! Oh pray!! Ha! :D

Thank you all for your prayers and words of encouragement...We can't wait to show him off to you all!

Becca ;D

New pictures...

We got our new pictures today!! I am so excited and so thankful for Kristi taking pictures for us at the last minute. Since we didn't go this last week with them they were so kind to take pictures and video for us!(We haven't received the video yet but we'll try to post it if we can!)




We have 4 MORE DAYS TILL WE LEAVE!! I cannot believe it! It's been a long journey and it's coming to a close and then we'll start a new one! :D

6 Days!!

I can't believe it's only 6 days till we leave for Ethiopia. We are packed and ready to roll. We know this week will fly by but as of now it's slowly creeping by. We can't wait to hold our son and be a blessing to him in his life (we feel so inadequate!). Only by God's mercy, grace and love will we be a blessing to him. But he, on the other hand, will be a HUGE blessing to us. I know everytime I look at him I will thank the Lord for bringing him into our lives and praise him for not letting us miss out on this amazing gift. We could have missed it...thank you Lord we didn't!! :D

We love you Jeremiah Eyob!
Mommy, Daddy, and sister Emmy. ;)

A friend took pictures of our boy!! :D

Our dear friend whom we have been in contact with through our agency took pictures and video of our sweet boy since we couldn't be in this travel group to pick him up. She was so sweet to do this while she could have been sleeping...Thank you KRISTI! :D

"I met Jeremiah today!!! Believe it or not, they brought out the wrong child first after we had taken all pics & video. Then the coordinator said- oops wrong child.!! So I waited until they brought out your precious son. He is tiny- with small facial features....very cute boy!! He had a 6-9 mth outfit and soft baby shoes. He didn't want to stand on my lap, so don't think he was used to standing up. He had the chicken pox at some point and has lots of marks all over his body from it. Not scars, but lots of marks esp. on his face. I'm sure they'll fade in time. He must love his nanny because he was scared of me and kept wanting to cry. Got lots of pics and video for you!! Miss you-Kristi"

So excited to hold him and see him for myself!! Praying for the transition as it seems like he is attached to his nanny. This is a good thing though! The first couple days may be hard for us...but we are praying he will attach quickly to us! :D

Pray with us for sweet little Jeremiah and this new transition he will experience. For Charlie Emmy and I too. This is going to be a big change...A good, big change! :D

Test Post

Testing Testing One Two Three!

(Testing to see if we can post to our blog while in Ethiopia) :D