"Baby Acicka"

Ryan and I decided that we would gradually and casually talk to Johnathan and Tenleigh about our transition from Haiti to Ethiopia.  We figured that they probably would not understand it all, and we didn't want to add any extra confusion to their young minds.  Johnathan is quite a thinker and Tenleigh is all emotion... so we figured in time we'd plant little seeds for them.

I think that the first of this topic came up while driving around with the kids.  Johnathan mentioned his friends in Tanzania (his preschool class sponsors a few children from Tanzania) and so I thought it would be a good time to simply say, "You know, I think that God has our child in Africa now."  To which Johnathan replied, "He MOVED!?"  He got me. "No, honey, our baby didn't move... I just think God has a special brother or sister chosen for you in Africa."  I could see his wheels a-turning... "Hmm..." he replied.

We spent a week at my family's lake cabin recently.  I had to bite my cheeks to keep from laughing out loud when I heard Johnathan telling Great Grandma Katie that "We're gonna get our baby in Africa now."  Makes me wonder if he really believes that we're just going to "shop around" a bit and "pick one out"!?  He is so innocent.  I love it.

Little Tenleigh is very excited about "Baby Acicka"!  Nothing really phases Miss T, so to her it's just like we're talking about more babies, more sweet faces to pray about, more fun activities to think of.  We recently switched the kids' bedrooms around and re-decorated her bedroom.  I think she may have been just as excited that our guest bedroom was going to be for "Baby Acicka" as she was about the new butterflies floating from her ceiling.  She is so resilient. I learn so much from my spunky monkey.

It is so amazing to me that our little children... ages 5 and 3.5.... are already so full of love and anticipation for their brother or sister.  They don't fully understand what adoption means, or race, or orphan.   But they don't even really seem to need to know right now.  Yes, we will educate them and we want them to fully understand the miracle of adoption.  We want them to understand and respect our child's birth family and birth country.  And as a family we will celebrate Baby Africa's heritage.  But right now, all Johnathan and Tenleigh really care about, is loving on another sibling.  Kind of a mirror image of God's love for us.  Pretty awesome and humbling to witness that in my children.

I have been researching various organizations that our family can become a part of to support Ethiopia.  I will continue with The Apparent Project through Haiti because I so totally believe in their cause, but as I originally started with The Apparent Project to stay connected to our child's birth country, I also want to do the same for our Ethiopian baby!  I still find myself checking our Haitian orphanage's blog every day to see if there are any adoption updates. Nothing since June 13.  We still have all of the beautiful Angels Waiting for Adoption page on our fridge.  We still pray for the little ones of Haiti every night.  I have a feeling that God will still bring us to Haiti again in some way.  I would love to serve at the orphanage where our hearts first landed.

We are so excited to get our paperwork off to Ethiopia, I can't even tell you!  I think it will be very soon... I'm hoping it will be very soon!  Our Baby Acicka has a brother and sister waiting, wondering, praying... every single day.