A Day of Firsts!

I just wanted to write a small post because I'm so excited. I just fed Ellis his first rice cereal!!! ANd he liked it! Well at first I thought he would either throw up or start crying but I let him take some down with a bottle and he got used to the idea. Hopefully now he won't want to eat every two hours! He was craving him some rice cereal. Another first, we're about to give Abram a shower or bath depending on which one works out the best. They keep him nice and clean at the transition home but it's his first one with us! That's really all the firsts I can think of just so excited I had to write. Here's a few things we love about the boys: Abrams deep belly laugh that continuosly fills our room. Ellis starts to laugh a little when he's falling asleep and smiles a lot when we change his clothes. Abram is a cuddler. Anytime we pick him up he just puts his arm around our necks and lets us hold him. Ellis is good at looking deep into your eyes and his are so beautiful you just want to keep starring back. When Abram eats he gets food everywhere but doesn't mind and he will eat anything. As of now he really likes fruit snacks and oranges, but he's not a big fan of animal crackers. Ellis is happy when his brother is around. We could go on and on. Now this post may seem like total bliss but nothings perfect on this earth. We can tell Abram is getting more comfortable cause his rebellious (sinful) side is starting to show but this is a good learning experience and we're trying to figure out how to handle it. He's so smart he's already starting to understand things as ask him and tell him to do. Which also shows his side when he doesn't respond to come or no or now. But we think he gets it. We're still giving him his medicine and it still makes me cry to think he would still be sick if we hadn't come. He's getting better though. Please pray that when we take him back to the transition home he will understand that we are coming back for him. Please pray that the weeks we are gone will only be like a couple days in his mind. We are bonding so fast that I'm going to be scared to leave him on thursday. Also pray for our court date tomorrow! Hopefully the Embassy will like us and will declare them our boys. That's all for now. We'll let everyone know how the court date goes!

Our First Day as a Family

It has been only 2 days and there is already so much to say, therefore I'm going to do it in sections! THE MEETING: The meeting and the first day were better than we could have ever expected. We got ready in the morning, packed our bags for the day because we thought we'd be spending the day at the transition home but it turns out we were only there for 20 minutes. When we got in the car the driver said it was only a few minutes away but a few minutes turned to 30. We were pretty distracted by the sights we were seeing and all the people we noticed starring our way. Our trip was also full of prayers, not just prayers for what was about to happen but prayers for our safety as we weaved in and out of traffic. When we got to the transition home we gave our camera to our driver Daniel just in case the boys were there as soon as we walked in. That wasn't the case. But when we did walk in we were greeted by probably 10 little smiling faces. We had noticed several of these faces from our agencies website and it was so fun to get to see them in person and to know that all of these little precious orphans were not going to be orphans for much longer. When we arrived we asked for Bruike and Sitotawe but Bruike was getting cleaned up by his nanny so we spend some time to play with the children. Tony brought a huge blowup ball for them to play with and they loved it. They all went wild. Sadly though this one little girl got trampled on and her finger started to bleed. She started crying and me and Tony were the only ones there to pick her up. Most of the Nannies spend time with the babies and there were two middle school aged boys watching the older children. As I picked up the little girl I almost wept thinking that no one was there to see or kiss her boo boo. So I did it for her. She was sweet and I know soon her mother will be there to heal her wounds. Well the time came and we walked up the stairs and there Abram (Bruike) was. I had been anticipating this for a long time now. I tried to prepare myself for the worst and decided to try to stand off just a little bit. Well as soon as I saw him I stuck out my hand and he walked over to me and put his arms around my neck. I picked him up and he just laid his little head on my shoulder and squeezed my neck. I don't know what was going on in his head but I was thinking is this really happening. Could this be as sweet as it seems. The first day just continued to get sweeter. I held Abram for a while and they took us to the baby room. As we walked in they handed Ellis (Sitotawe) to Tony. We were all smiled at this beautiful baby who just let us hold him. The next few minutes the boys just let us hold them while we asked their Nannies questions about their schedules and what not. Within a few minutes it seemed as though us and the boys were ready to leave. By this time Tony had Abram and I had Ellis in my awesome new Moby wrap! Anyway, the young boys who were watching everyone took Abram out of Tony's arms to give him a hug and he immediately started to cry. When Tony took him back the tears were gone. On the drive home I was thinking this is crazy. Ellis fell asleep on my chest and Abram laid his head on Tony's. No tears, no need to bribe with candy. They just sat there and took it all in. THE FIRST DAY: It seemed as though they had always been ours. When we brought them into the room Ellis was ready to eat so I made him a bottle and Abram just went and laid on our bed. He spread out and smiled. From that point on we played as though we always had. From what we had seen of Abram before we thought he would be quiet and reserved. But that hasn't turned out to be the case. He's full of laughter and joy and can even be a little to crazy at times! The first time we heard him laugh we jumped to get the camera. It was only a few minutes after we'd been in the room and there has been much more laughter since then. Abram has become Tony's little buddy. I'm so thankful that Tony now has someone else to throw a ball at and Abram likes it. He runs and laughs and then tried to hit Tony back. He also enjoyed coloring, playdoh and all the usual things. He seems to be very smart. We love him and it's funny to see the simliarites between him and us. He is our child. :) One scary and unexpected thing was he is sick! He seemed ok in the morning and then after lunch you could tell he felt terrible. He slept for 2 hours and then woke up with a 103.5 temperature! All within God's providence our Guest House owner and his wife a nurse came to visit us. The nurse was there when we took his temperature and immediately sent someone to get him antibiotics. Thankful to say those antibiotics are working and Abram has felt wonderful all day. When I checked that temperature and gave him his medicine is when the tears began to flow. I was scared and so sad thinking he had been sick for so long and there was no one here to give him his medicine. I know that is will be hard to leave but I'm thankful for the timing that we are here to make sure he gets his medicine and will hopefully be healed by the time we leave. Ellis is a sweet baby who begins to smile at me more and more as I changed him and feed him. He's pretty laid back but seemed to be a little high maintenance until I started putting Gripe Water in his bottles. Things are getting better although he's on his own schedule and seems to be wide awake from 2-4 a.m. But that was only the first night. Another scary thing happened today when Ellis projectile vomited out of his nose and mouth right infront of me. I think that this is normal and he seems fine but please pray that he is. Sorry for the details, the last detail I'll add is that he's the most beautiful baby I've ever seen. :) THE FIRST NIGHT: Our first night was crazy! Abram was sick and Ellis likes to eat when he wants so I can honestly say it's the first time I've seen the clock every hour in one night. But we made it and have better hopes for tonight now that we've figured maybe one or two things out and can better prepare ourselves. Looking back on what was happening in the night is pretty funny to think about. We were scrounging around looking for bottles and wipes, flashlights, chairs. We had 2 wet beds and the baby pooped everywhere! I went to move him a little and stuck my hand in poop. However, I was just thankful that he did poop and was concerned when he hadn't. Both of the boys are asleep now and hopefully this night will be better. If not we're still thankful for God's provision in our lives and for the opportunity to love these boys through it all. This is a long post and I probably have much more to say. But that is just a little glimpse at how these past two days couldn't have been better. Abram seems to fit right in and continues to come out of his shell. We are starting to learn things that we never knew and are excited that the journey has only begun!

We Have Arrived!

Well we made it! After a few of the longest flights we've ever been on we finally arrived at the airport in Addis! From the get go we noticed a few differences in the culture that mostly made us laugh such as people cutting lines, telling us to move, moving our bags if they were in the way. There wasn't much personal space. Anyway...after the flights and going through customs we were greeted by this beautiful girl who was holding up a sign that said Tony Wells. As soon as I saw that sign we just smiled at each other and she knew who we were. Seeing her sweet face was more than welcoming and made me feel so Happy to be here! The same sweet girl just made us breakfast and will be helping us with our boys! After we left the airport we got on a short bus to be taken to the home where we are staying. It was dark out but now that it's morning we are looking at the beautiful yet rundown city and mountains that we couldn't see last night. It was a short drive that ended down some very dark and bumpy alleys...Tony and I just looked at eachother and started laughing! I said, "We are Crazy! We're in Africa and tomorrow we're going to get our Africa babies!" Tony is talking to Agiee our sweet helper and she just informed us that the boys names, Bruike means Blessing and Sitotawe means Gift. In a few minutes we are going to go meet that beautiful blessing and gift. Now the tears have started. Hopefully more updates will come soon! We're going to go get our boys now so not sure how much time we'll have to blog, but will make a great effort. As of now we are not nervous but excited and prayerful. We know this week may be tough but it won't even compare to the goodness that will come from having these boys with us home.

The Good News, The Bad News, The News

The Bad news...Ethiopia to cut Foreign Adoptions by up to 90 Percent. We had heard speculations a couple weeks ago about things changing in Ethiopia. You're always warned when you start international adoption that the country or agency could close when you're right in the middle of it. It was never something I worried about and didn't think would happen. Thankfully it hasn't happened but some things are changing. When we first read the article above it was a little shocking and did bring forth some emotion. We had lots of people asking us what this meant and if the door had been closed to our adoption. Our initial reaction to the article was thankfulness that we already have a court date but came with questions of how long we would have to wait for our boys. After researching for information we have found that hopefully all the news and changes in Ethiopia will not affect us at all. The following is hopefully some helpful information to help you understand more about all of the commotion in Ethiopia. It all has to do with an agency called MOWA:

"The Adoption Team in the Children and Youth Affairs Office (CYAO) operating under the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA) is the primary adoption authority in Ethiopia. MOWA has responsibility for all activities regarding children in Ethiopia, including welfare, foster care, domestic adoption, international adoption and investigation of neglect and abuse. When an orphaned or abandoned child comes into the custody of the Ethiopian government, the police and MOWA create the child's dossier."

"Upon completion of an international adoption from Ethiopia, MOWA prepares a request to the city of Addis Ababa for the issuance of a new birth certificate, in addition to a request to the Office of Security, Immigration and Refugee affairs for an Ethiopia passport for the adopted child in his/her new name. Both of these are best facilitated if the requests are hand-carried to the relevant offices. The U.S. Embassy needs both the new birth certificate and the passport to complete the child's U.S. immigrant visa application process."

MOWA is responsible for reviewing each individual case and sending a letter to the court system for approval. We've known cases that have not passed and it is usually because there is no letter from MOWA. The cases pass contingent upon receiving the letter. Therefore when we heard they had been writing 50 letters a day and we're going to take it down to 5 that's why we thought our case would be delayed and we would have to wait a long time for our boys.

Yesterday we read some really GOOD NEWS about the situation in this blog The WayFarer. After the announcement was made to only write 5 letters a day the director and other employees have been terminated. They have now completed their staff changes and are focusing their attention on the approx. 800 cases of current families waiting on their children. Thankfully we are in those 800 cases. It was also helpful to read a week ago in court every single case passed. I don't know if that's ever happened. Also MOWA are no longer limiting the number of letters being processed and have written up to 25 in a day. This is Great News. All of this turmoil may be helping us and hopefully will be improving Ethiopian Adoption all together. It seems to my limited knowledge that they are cleaning it up and hopefully making it more efficient in the long run. The sad thing is we have already heard of families that did not have referrals that have had to end their journey of adopting through Ethiopia. We will continue to pray for these families as they deal with the loss and confusion of what to do next. We should also pray for the leaders in Ethiopia making decisions regarding the lives of 5 million orphans and the families longing to bring them home.

Thoughts from the Beach...

It's been a while since my last post and that's because we recently enjoyed a wonderful vacation with 22 college students in Destin, Florida. It's a great privilege to be able to take people to the beach as part of our job. For a while I wasn't exactly sure how or even if the trip was going to happen but it all came together beautifully at the last minute. This trip was such a great balance of fun and relaxation, time with God and time with people, getting to know new people while going deeper with old ones, it was awesome and we could really see lots of prayers being answered that we'd been praying throughout this past semester and year.

As wonderful as this trip was it was somewhat bittersweet. It was almost so enjoyable that I had feelings of sadness when I thought we weren't going to be on summer project this year or that we'd not be taking trips exactly like this again. I knew that our next trip to the beach was going to be a little bit different because it wasn't just going to be Tony and I anymore. Next time we go to the beach there are going to be two little additions to our family. Of course that brings excitement to our hearts and thoughts but if I'm being honest I had thoughts about things I wouldn't be able to do next time we go to the beach. I questioned things like when would I be able to sleep in again, or go for a jog in the morning, or go lay out on the beach all day long. I felt a little selfish at having the luxury of doing that already but found myself thinking and counting down the years until I would be able to do those things again. As selfish as that seems it did cross my mind a time or two.

The good thing is, those things like sleeping in, laying on the beach, and running aren't what I find my joy and satisfaction in. The satisfaction and joy in my life truly come from my relationship with Christ. This is what I kept being reminded of on this trip. I kept remembering the gospel and the call of it on mine and Tony's lives. I kept remembering the promises from Gods word of how we will rest in heaven, how his plan and purposes for our lives are good, and how his steadfast love for us will never end! That brings me reassurance in knowing that these boys are going to be a gift from God. Even though I may no longer have the luxury of sleeping in for the next 10 years, Gods' plan is good and right and we are going to have an unimaginable joy from living, loving, and learning with our boys! I left the end of the week more ready than I've ever been to go meet them and be with them til we grow old. I left the week refreshed, excited, encouraged, and loved by the creator who won't leave us or forsake us but will give us strength and comfort, and etc, I could go on and on and on again. Anyway, I'm so thankful for a creator that loves me and that has planned this adoption from the beginning. I know He's brought us this far and isn't going to leave us now. So here we go! It's time to start packing cause Ethiopia here we come!

These women are an answer to prayers we've been praying for years. Some of them knew Christians, some of them old, all loving the gospel and loving Christ. I'm thankful for the friendships that we have and the encouragement that they are. I'm also thankful for the great help they will be when the boys are here and how excited they are to babysit and to love on them soon!

Lucky for me this guy is ready for some kids to play with!

Letters to Our Boys

A couple of weeks ago the Staff Women of Campus Outreach took me out to dinner to celebrate our adoption. I love being with these women. I always leave our time together encouraged, refreshed, and wanting to hang out more. I knew that our time together this night was going to be how it usually was but for some reason felt a little uneasy about it during the day. I'm not sure if it was something I ate or nerves but my stomach was in knots all day. When asked if I was excited for the night I responded with a yes but also wanted to say that I didn't know how I felt about it. It felt weird going to a "shower" with the uncertainty of children. This was before we had received our court date and we still thought we would be waiting at least another 3-6 weeks until we received word. As I said in an earlier post receiving the court date was the first time this adoption has become real real for us. Needless to say I was a little nervous about the shower. I felt weird and almost selfish asking people to gather and bring money together for children that I wasn't 100% positive we were going to have. At the end of the night I realized all of these emotions and feelings were wrong and there was no reason for me to be sick to my stomach that day. God is in control and this night helped me realize just that.

After dinner we went back to one of their houses and had dessert. I noticed all of them taking turns going in and out of the laundry room. They were trying to be sneaky but it was hard not to notice, especially as people stared at me and smiled as they entered the room. Well, i knew it wasn't a laundry party and just figured they were signing a card which is usually what we do at showers, birthdays, etc. Little did I know the surprise they were going to bring me. (Tears just started flowing as I wrote that last sentence) Anyway...

After we had dessert and talked for a little bit they brought me a big basket full of goodies! It had handmade blankets, sippy cups (if that's how you say it), a jar full of money, and two journals labeled with an A and an E. As soon as I opened the journals I saw letters written to the boys. I immediately closed the journals and put them back in the basket as tears welled up in my eyes. I told them I was grateful but would not be able to read those in front of anyone. The letters were full of prayers and excitement and you could see the love they have for our boys. I am thankful for these women, their love and encouragement in our lives, and the joy they will bring our boys one day. Here are what a couple of the letters said...

Abram,

You are a blessing from God for your mommy and daddy. You will fill their lives with laughter and joy and have been a prayed for gift! We hope you will carry on the gospel heritage of your parents! Love,

Ellis,

I cannot wait to meet you and watch you grow! you are going to have so much fun being a Wells! I love you already and have been praying for you. Love,

Abram and Ellis,

I hope you know that you are loved and cherished by so many people! We have and will continue to pray for you. I cannot wait to watch all

that God will do in your life and where he will take you, I pray that you will put your trust & hope in Christ as your Savior. We love you,

We always liked the saying it takes a Village to raise a child and we are very thankful for the "village" God has blessed us with. The boys will be leaving a village but coming to another full of love, laughter, and joy!

The Court Date

Getting a court date is one of the most exciting days and things you wait for in the adoption process. Throughout the entire process you do paper work, you wait, you get excited because something goes through, then you do more paperwork, do more waiting, and then you get excited for the next thing to happen. It's the cycle of adoption, you love it and you don't love it. It's fun getting excited but then weird when the emotions settle down and you realize you are once again waiting. Up unto this point I've known that this adoption is going to take place and that very soon we will be the parents of two beautiful boys, but nothing has made it feel more real than receiving a court date.

When thinking about getting a court date it's almost like you're expecting this huge ceremony with cake and balloons and all of your friends to be there and the agency to send you a box with roses and a certificate saying you've arrived. But that was not the case. It was one of the most nonchalant announcements we've ever received. But I loved it exactly the way it came.

I had just gotten home from running, or meeting with a girl on campus or something, came in and sat down on the couch. Tony and I were just talking while he was checking things on the computer and all of a sudden he throws a fist pump in the air and shouts, "We have a court date!" I was so surprised that my first and typical reaction was to laugh and then ask him to repeat what he just said. So once again he says, "We got a court date babe!" I was slightly confused and then asked him what happened and when is it and then he showed me the email. The email makes me laugh because of it's simplicity about a subject to complex to comprehend. The subject line simply says, "Your Court Date" and when you open up the email says...is April 4. Please make arrangements accordingly. I love that. Such a big ordeal in such simple words. Needless to say after we got the email both of our personalities showed. Tony was running and screaming all over the house and outside of the house, while I sat on the couch with a big smile on my face and thought about who to call. Having a court date and buying plane tickets is one of the most exciting times I can remember in my life. But it's also one of the most scary times I can remember. It means this is REALLY happening and within a couple of months we are going to be the full time parents to Abram and Ellis. We could worry or be anxious but God has really blessed us in just being able to wait. To wait and pray and know that we're going to love them and that this was his plan all along. Some scriptures that I have been clinging to during this time are:

Romans 8:28, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Phillippians 4:6, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."

Isaiah 12:2-3, "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation."

It is because of the goodness, the glory, and the grace that God's poured into my life through his son Christ, that I know any and all situations will work out for good. My joy will come from the wells of salvation with which I can draw water (life, refreshment, substance and nourishment). Because my joy is from the Lord I can wait patiently and know that His will and timing are perfect and I have no need to worry. During this time of waiting and when they get here He will be my strength and my salvation!