Family Pics

Got our family photos. Our worship pastor and pro photographer Matt Paddack took these for us. He did a great job of capturing the girls' beauty. Here are some of my favorites.




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An Inside Look

Here's a few videos of the girls adjusting to living in the U.S.







Hope you enjoy!

- Dave

Two Months and Counting

We are having such a great time with our girls. We're becoming more and more like family every day.

I've started trying some things with Jacee's hair. It is still really short and super curly, so I am very proud of my first attempts at ponytails. They make her feel pretty, so I'm glad to put them in.



We had fun during the Halloween season, even though I'm always glad when Halloween is over b/c of all the yuck that comes with it. Kids love it, though.





David's parents are visiting. We are not coffee drinkers, so we never have coffee around. Jacee has said several times, "I like coffee." We've wondered if she realizes what coffee is and if she's really had it. Being from Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, we figured she very well could have. Since David's parents drink coffee, we decided to give her a little bit to see what her reaction would be. Sure enough, she drank it down and said, "I like coffee." The girl has definitely had coffee. However, I don't think we'll be giving her much over the next several years.


Whenever any of us is on the floor, Chelsea is right up on us. This is a common sight to see Chelsea and Charis hanging out together.


The girls have a lot of fun together.


Charis has started sucking her thumb. Hopefully it won't turn into a problem.

The next post will probably have our family photos that were taken last week. You're gonna love 'em; the girls are gorgeous!
--Gina

Good News and Frustration

After all the tests on both the girls has come back and everything is normal...with one exception. Charis had the BCG shot sometime while in Ethiopia to help eliminate the chance of her developing TB. So when she went to get her TB test it came back as a false positive and we had to get the chest x-ray (came back normal) and now they have to treat it. The treatment? 9 months of antibiotics! We're totally glad that she does not have the disease, but frustrated to put her on the meds for something she most likely doesn't have. Anyone else have to do this that adopted from Ethiopia?

I guess it's all part of the journey but I'll tell you this: If you have an HSA and are adopting I highly suggest you start dropping some serious coin in the account because you'll need it. Those lab tests were ridiculously expensive!

Other than that all is well on the home front and we're getting family pictures taken tomorrow. Come back for a visit to see!

- Dave

Monkeys & Snow

MONKEYS

Soon after we got Jacee home, we had to buy bedrails because she fell out of her bed a couple times. She has always slept in the upper left side of the bed. I assumed this was because she had shared a bed with several kids at the orphanage, and that became her "spot". We've been trying to get her to learn to sleep in the middle of the bed so we can eventually remove the rails. We have her move to the middle, but she always ends up back in her "spot, "crammed against the bedrail.

A couple nights ago, I decided to try a new approach. I put a pillow on the left side, forcing her over toward the right. She got a concerned look on her face and said, "No! Monkeys!" while pointing at the window on the right side of the bed. After a few minutes of discussion, I came to the understanding that when she was in Africa, monkeys would come in through the window at night, get into the families food, and make a mess. Jacee's still working on English, but this appears to be a genuine concern based on past experience. I look forward to asking her about this when she is older to see if monkeys really did come in their house.

I assured her that no monkeys could get in the house. She slept fine and left the pillow on the left side while she slept closer to the right. Again tonight we had the discussion about monkeys, but I think she understands now that no monkeys can get in the house. David had the idea to put on an ape mask and wake her up during the night, but we decided that wouldn't be a good idea.

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SNOW

This morning I told Jacee to take Chelsea (the dog) downstairs and outside. Before long, she was back in my bedroom...

J: Mom. Trees.
Me: Trees? (Then I remembered. The forecast had said there could be snow). Trees white?
J: No. Blue. (She then pointed to something that is white. Okay, so we're still working on colors).
Me: That's white. Are the trees white?
J: Yes, trees white.

I went down and looked. Yup, snow. October 10th. Crazy. And it's quite a bit of snow.
We bundled up the older girls and David took them and Chelsea sledding for a bit.
Aside from the crying spell from cold hands, Jacee enjoyed her first experience with "sah-noh."

God's Not Fair

Well, we haven't posted much lately. I'm not sure if people are checking in or not [Hi, Erica! I know you are.] We plan to get family pics done soon, but for now, here are a few we've taken at home.

Before jumping in, I thought I'd explain the girls' names. We named our four-year-old Jacee. It's pronounced like Stacy, with the emphasis on the first syllable. We kept her original Ethiopian name, Zemenesh, for her middle name. We named our 7-month-old Charis, as in charismatic without the "matic." Charis means "grace" in Greek. She really had turned out to be a little gift of grace, an extra blessing after beginning this journey with the plan to adopt one child, and such a joy. Her middle name is Takelech, which is her birth name.

The past few weeks have gone better than we could have hoped. Our girls are incredibly sweet and frankly, pretty easy. Is this how international adoption is supposed to be? We were told that Jacee is quite shy. Not so. She is outgoing and has a great sense of humor. Laughter is a huge value in our family, and Jacee, in all her silliness, has been a perfect fit. Charis is pretty much happy and content all the time (except when she's hungry or has Swine Flu--or whatever flu this is), and loves to watch all the craziness. She's sitting like a pro (so we don't mind that Chelsea the dog uses the Boppie). Davi is having a great time with new sisters--not always using the best judgment, but nobody's been killed yet. All of a sudden she seems so grown up to me.

We feel so privileged to have these three girls. When I consider that God placed these girls in our family--not any other children, but THESE girls--I am so humbled and grateful. It's not fair. Why should we be so blessed? Why does He give such incredible gifts? We don't deserve them, but oh, we are thankful for them. We belong to such a gracious God who, thank goodness, doesn't give us what we deserve. Not just in eternal life (which is HUGE in and of itself), but in the blessings throughout this life.

- Gina

You Can Take the Child Out of Ethiopia, But You Can't Take Ethiopia Out of the Child

Let's see...where to start? This week was filled with firsts for our new additions. They had their first experience with:

* Walmart
* Their pediatrician
* Culvers
* Fast-flow nipples (parents getting babies in Ethiopia, buy these!)
* Riding a trike
* Going to the park (Jacee loves the swing. Charis...not so much)
* Hectors Mexican food (kids can eat some spicy stuff!)
* Picking up/dropping off Davi @ school
* Our church

Jacee is picking up English pretty well and parrots much of what we say. Charis isn't really doing that great with it yet. Maybe it's because she's only about 7 months so we'll cut her a little slack and give it some time. The other day Gina got home from being out with our two new girls and our dog Chelsea met them at the door and Jacee responded, "Hi Chelsea!" Davi, our oldest, has been a HUGE help with the girls by playing with them, loving on them, and teaching them English.

The jet-lag didn't take too long to get over and the girls have done a pretty good job adjusting to the time change. Now if we can just keep Jacee from falling out of her bed everyone can sleep through the night! We purchased bed rails today so that ought to corral the little bugger and give her a full nights sleep without being awakened by the pounding of her body on the floor!

Now...for the title of the blog. In Ethiopia as you're driving around it's not uncommon to see various aged children wandering around on the side of the road and squatting to use the street as a bathroom. Just a few moments ago Jacee used the backyard in a way that seemed familiar to her...glad to know she's feeling like she's home! Oh, we'll be keeping the new shoes we bought today too as they're not really returnable any longer.

Better go for now...Charis is in her Bumbo seat and has had her limit.

- Dave