Adopting Out of Birth Order

When adopting from Ethiopia, it is not uncommon to have only "guesstimates" with regard to a child's age. The further away from the baby stage a child gets, the harder it is to determine their age. Since children are not relinquished with birth records in hand, the folks in Ethiopia do the best they can to assign a child a birth date. Such was the case with K'Tyo.

When we first inquired about him, a birth date had not yet been assigned, but the general consensus was that he was a young 3. From the looks of the first pictures we received, we thought that to be fairly accurate judging by his appearance. So, in essence, we would be practically twinning he & Kaya.

Right before our court date, we were finally given a birth date for K'Tyo. Surprise!! According to this new information, he is almost 2 years older than Kaya, so instead of artificially twinning we were adopting out of birth order.

We were never really concerned about any of this because we knew God meant for this little boy to be in our family. Since that time, I have done lots of reading about the pros & cons of artificial twinning & adopting out of birth order...I am not trying to be controversial at all, but it's interesting b/c many "experts" say there are more cons than pros. However, there are lots of adoptive parents that think it's been a wonderful thing.

For us & our family? Hands down, it's been a wonderful thing.

Seriously, I have posted several times over the last year about how K'Tyo has not missed a beat with his place in the family. And he & Kaya? I did not pose them for this picture. I happened to have a camera close by when they came around the corner all giggles.

Now, don't think they don't have their sister/brother moments. Dude...Kaya is completely full of her 3-ness, which as far as I'm concerned, is way more challenging than 2! But K'Tyo is definitely one of the most patient & easygoing kids with his sister's shenanigans, & before you know it, she's over her twist & they are back to playing.

These two never cease to melt hearts with the way they stick together. When we are walking someplace, K'Tyo always takes Kaya's hand. When they want to play outside, you can find K'Tyo tying Kaya's shoes for her.

Much has changed over the past year (mostly the size clothes & shoes K'Tyo needs!), but I am so thankful that this sweet relationship between this brother & sister is one thing that has remained beautifully the same.

A Lot Changes in a Year

Here are 7 of my 8 reasons to celebrate Mother's Day!

I am thankful every day to watch these children grow. And reason #8 that's missing from the picture? (aka Kaelee) She's up & left the nest for her senior year of college. *sniff*

Last year, I spent the majority of Mother's Day on an airplane.

Many, many miles, several time zones, & an ash cloud delay later, this was Mother's Day for me. It was a day I will never forget.

Just for fun, I took a picture of K'Tyo in the pants he was wearing one year ago today. He thought I was a bit loco, but we had a few laughs about it.

To make up for the silly dress-up, we pulled out the special duds. Is he not growing up & as handsome as can be??

In a way, I can't believe it's been a year already that we came home from Ethiopia, but on the other hand, it seems like he's been here forever.

Woven Threads & Brush Strokes

Awhile back, we had an interesting thing going on in worship at church. The arts were used to demonstrate different forms of worship (poetry, painting, music, etc.) I love worship music, but outside of that, I'm not real "artsy" & wasn't sure I was going to get much out of this experience.





Boy, was I wrong. I had one of the most beautiful moments in my faith walk as a young man got up to paint. His work on that blank canvas began to parallel my life in so many ways.





At first, the brush strokes were confusing, sometimes even kinda ugly. Ooooh, but then, I began to see something wonderful emerging from what really resembled, well, a mess.





But here's where my eye for the beautiful collided with the eye of the artist. Just when I thought the picture was amazingly complete, that dude was reaching for more paint. No!!! Don't do that...it's good. Don't mess with it.





He did it anyway.





And he totally knew what he was doing. With each new stroke of color, whether I liked the color or not, this painting became more beautiful, more alive...it was breathtaking & completely unexpected.





Sounds like this life that God has been weaving together. From my perspective, it has seemed a mess at times. But for the most part, it seems just fine.

And then He weaves a new thread. Oh, my heart is so full.

But He wasn't done yet. Another dimension, another thread.

Oh, how the Lord has blessed my life.

And then He brought us a son. How wonderful. We are complete. It is good.

But He chose to weave more threads into this tapestry.

And then He began weaving threads that threatened to break my heart. Sometimes I felt completely tangled & wondered what was happening. I think He was breaking my heart to change the pattern of my tapestry, which was really never mine to begin with.

But this new pattern & tangled threads actually strengthened the fabric of this tapestry...His tapestry.

But He still was not finished.

And when it seemed that we certainly couldn't hope for anything more beautiful out of this tapestry, the great Artist has even more.

I've realized that this journey of God weaving the threads of my life, my faith, my marriage, my family, & my friendships into something of beauty is an ongoing process. There are knots, there are broken threads, there are some that go together in ways I never would have expected, but they are all working together. The term "beauty from ashes" has taken on new meaning as He continues the work with a perspective that is beyond me. I don't know what things will look like tomorrow, next year, or twenty years from now, but I look forward in hopeful expectancy of what He will do with each thread & every brush stroke.

Adoption Day

KENDI

"The Loved One"

HOPE

"Expectation; Belief"

HAPPY FOREVER FAMILY DAY!!!

*~Six Months~*

Six months ago today, Kendi came into our family.

I'm not gonna lie, I've been pretty emotional the last several days.

************

Maybe it's because I think how close I came to missing out just because I started to let the doubts & fears of this world creep into my heart.

Maybe it's because I think of her birth mom & am so in awe that she CHOSE to give this little girl life when this world says you can choose something else.

Maybe it's because when I look at her, I see the love & trust I have for my husband. He loved me enough to tell me "no" to Ethiopia because God spoke to his heart & said something different. And I trusted him enough to let him take the lead.

Maybe it's because of the special bond she has with each & every one of her brothers & sisters.

And maybe it's because she's my daughter, she's 6 months old, & I just love her beyond words.

Kendi Hope, you are an amazing little girl, & we love you!!!!

Where's Kendi?!?

PEEK-A-BOO!!!

Lots of Life

Basketball, basketball, & more basketball (Kam & Kade).

New apartment (Kaelee). Tears, but happy for her...this is what she wanted to do for her last year of college.

Rugby (my crazy KiKi).

Need to get to some shopping for Kyler...holy growing up!!

A bit of warm weather & sunshine, so little people have enjoyed some play time.

Husband working hard in his doctoral program.

A certain little "tunky-taters" has cut two teeth!!

And a busy Mama, loving life, but just too busy lately to put forth coherant thoughts in limited amounts of time! I do try to check in on many of you, though, because that's easy to do one-handed! ;o)

Be back, hopefully sooner vs. later, with some pictures!