Happy Birthday Meron!

Today is Meron's birthday. What a blessing she has been! She is jabbering dada, mama and HI! She's also pulling herself up and walking around furniture and getting into EVERYTHING! She is such a happy girl and brings such joy to our family. We feel extremely blessed and humbled that the Lord chose us to be her family. And though this is such an exciting day for us, my heart keeps going to her birth parents, and the anguish they may be feeling. It was one year ago today that a woman halfway across the world gave birth to this precious little girl and for reasons we will never know was not able to raise her. I have no doubt that she loved Meron deeply and giving her up had to be unbearable. So today as we celebrate this special little girl, we pray that the Lord will give her birth parents a sense of peace and know that their baby girl is well, happy and loved by a family that is truly blessed to have her in our lives.

How Time Flies!

Time has really flown by!! It took me four months to finally post about our trip to Ethiopia, but now that I'm getting the hang of blogging, I'm going to fast forward through the highlights of the past four months, then try and keep up with things. There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day!


When we arrrived back in Fort Wayne, we found out there had just been an ice storm the day before. This was quite the contrast from having just been in sunny Ethiopia. Welcome back to Indiana!! :)

Christmas was just a few short days after we got home. What a great gift to be able to bring Meron home in time for Christmas and all be together again.

What a sweetie!

I'm not sure I understand all of this.

It was so good to be home with our kiddos for Christmas.

Bud must have been a good boy, Santa left him a little treat too.

Getting ready for bath time.

They're already teaching her those bad video game habits!!!

Meron's first time in the snow.

Buddy loves the snow just as much as the kids. In fact, I think he thought he was one of the kids!


Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Buddy in February. He was such a huge part of our lives for fourteen years. He is missed so much. He was our first "kid", and a brother to Ty, Lane and Shelby. He brought so much joy to our family, as well as occasional frustration, like the time he ate an entire chocolate cake off the table, or when he would get wet in the pool run straight to the sand box and roll around then make a bee-line straight into the house to roll all over the carpet! Those were the days I wished we didn't have a dog, but what I remember him for the most is his love and loyalty. If he thought we were threatened, he was right there to protect us. If we were sick or sad, he was sitting right there beside us. If we were running around the back yard playing kick ball, he was running right along side us (usually tripping us up :) ) We love him and will miss him. There will never be another "Bud". He really was a great dog.

Brandt celebrated his ?? birthday. Bet you can't guess!

We celebrated Meron's baby dedication in February. This was a special day at church when we make a promise in front of family, friends and the congregation to raise Meron up to be a christian woman through our faith and through the help of the Lord's wisdom and guidance.

In March we celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. The years have flown by!!

Lane turned 11 in March! Seems like just yesterday he was such a little guy.

Shelby's drawing of a vase was chosen to be in the Fort Wayne FAME Festival that celebrates the arts.

In April, we went to North Carolina's Outer Banks for Spring Break. They are a group of barrier islands that run along the coast of North Carolina. It was very beautiful there, but it was still a little chilly and very windy. There are five lighthouses that are on the different islands. Two of them are open for climbing late spring through early fall. They both opened the week after we left, so unfortunately we missed out, but they were still neat to see. They were each painted differently and their grounds were all a little different.

This was a sunset on the ferry ride back to one of the islands.

Hanging out during a lunch pit-stop.

This is on Jockey's ridge sand dune. It was crazy windy up there!

Take them on vacation and they still find time for video games!

Too cold for playing at the beach, but we still found some cool sea shells.

All dressed up for Easter Sunday.

Grandma brought over some fun bubbles for after the egg hunt.

Meron loves her cousin Audrey! We spent an afternoon at Foster Park enjoying their beautiful flowers. Every spring they have the most beautiful tulips and daffodils in bloom.

Cute monkeys hanging in a tree!

After the park we went to Zesto's and Meron had her first ice cream cone. She absolutely loved it! She ate it so fast I'm surprised she didn't get a brain freeze.

What do you mean the ice cream's all gone!!!!

That's the last four months in a nutshell. After we got home from Ethiopia we kind of hit the ground running, as much as we would like to freeze time, life just takes hold and before we know it another day, week, month has flown by.

Home!!!

The long flight home. Dad stood in the aisle for a while so Meron could sit and not be held for a minute.

Our first photo all together as a family. What an exciting day!

Meeting my new brothers and sister and my cousin.

Meeting grandpa Mike.

Day 7

Saturday, December 20th

We flew overnight Friday night and most of the day Saturday. Meron did so good on the plane. By the time we flew into Indy, we had been traveling for 24 hours, which meant Meron had to be held for 24 hours. Needless to say she wasn't used to being held that much and especially by people she didn't know that well. She slept on and off in our arms and when she got restless, we would walk the aisles with her. We were in good company though as there were probably at least ten other adoptive families on board too. I'm sure it was quite amusing to some - all of these tired looking new parents pacing the aisles trying to entertain/sooth their child but still not knowing exactly how to do it.

We arrived in Indy in the late afternoon. We were a little apprehensive about how Meron would do in the car seat because she had never been in one before, but I think the exhaustion from the trip played in our favor. She slept most of the way home. It was so great to be back home. My sister-in-law and mother-in-law helped us surprise the kids. The kids didn't expect us home until the following Wednesday night. After they knew we were home they brought the kids home and we surprised them. It was so good to have them back in our arms.

Later that night and in the next couple of days the rest of the family came over to finally meet the baby girl we had all been praying for.

Journey to Ethiopia

This is Nigiste and her new mom Amy and her sister Jennifer. We had the opportunity to get to know them during our time in Ethiopia. They are a great couple of ladies. Nigiste was at the House of Hope with Meron. It will be great to keep contact over the years, so Meron can know another child she was in Ethiopia with.

This is Mekedes and her parents, Marianne and Steve. They arrived at the House of Hope the day before we left, so unfortunately we didn't have a lot of time to visit with them. We are thankful to have photos of a couple of the children she was at the House of Hope with to share with Meron as she gets older.

Our last day in Ethiopia. We're eager to get home, but at the same time it's hard to leave Ethiopia. We met so many wonderful people and had such great experiences it's hard to leave it all. We were very fortunate to have the time we had there. Despite it's struggles with disease and poverty, it is a great country. The countryside is beautiful and the culture there is very kind and friendly. We will tell Meron about her heritage, but hopefully someday we can take her back to visit so she can experience it herself. She is such a blessing.

Day 6
Friday, Dec.19



This was our last day in Ethiopia. Meron's travel documents were completed early so we either had the opportunity to go home today or wait until the next Tues. which would have gotten us home late Christmas Eve. There weren't any flights in between and we were missing our kids back home so much so we took the earlier flight. In retrospect, we kind of wish we would have stayed the extra couple of days we had intended because there is so much more of the country and the culture we would have liked to take in, but at the time we just wanted to be home with our kiddos. We also were going to have to go to another guest house so other families could come to the House of Hope, and before we left for Ethiopia we were told that we were not able to take Meron with us out in public because people have raised questions and concerns over the number of Ethiopian children being adopted by foreigners. While we stayed at the House of Hope, we would leave Meron with her nannies when we had to go somewhere and they had a driver that helped get us around. At the guest house we would have to leave her with nannies she didn't know, and we didn't want to do that to her after having just gone through getting to know us. We also didn't think we would have any transportation. So with that knowledge we thought our last few days would be spent sitting in the guest house, and we thought we might as well come home early if we weren't going to have the opportunity to see more of Ethiopia. Since we have been home we have found out that we could have taken Meron with us places and the guest home had a driver we could have hired. Oh well, the experiences we had were priceless and maybe someday we will be able to take Meron to see the wonderful country she came from.



Before we headed back home, we had a full day ahead of us. In the morning, Tsegay's wife took us shopping for souvenirs. We were able to by some wonderful souvenirs to give to Meron through the years as well as some beautiful items to give to her siblings to help remind them of her culture. I wish I would have thought to take some pictures while we were out and about that morning, but I think I was still a little out of it from the day before.



Later that afternoon we had the opportunity to go see Meron's orphanage where she spent the first five months of her life before she went to the transition home. It was an absolutely priceless opportunity. It's hard to describe the emotions. The pictures tell a lot.



This is a courtyard area when you first come into the orphanage.

This wooden pen area had rabbits in it, we thought they might be pets, but when we saw a rabbit skin hanging from a tree we realized that they were for food.

This sweet girl is standing in front of one of the rooms. Most of the other older children were at school while we were there. It would have been hard to see all of the older children there because unlike the House of Hope, the children here are not matched up and waiting for their families. Unfortunately, only a small number of the older children will probably be adopted.

This is the nurse. She is standing in one of the baby rooms. They have small cribs wall to wall with two babies in every crib. It is overwhelming to see the need there. The orphanage workers are wonderful people who love these children and give it their all to care for them, but the need and the number of children leave little time except for basic care such as feeding and changing.

These women are washing laundry and diapers at the orphanage. The conditions are rough and the work endless, yet they were smiling all the while.

These young women got a kick out of getting their picture taken and seeing themselves on the digital screen.

After dinner that night it was time to say goodbye to all of the amazing people we had met throughout the week, and who played such a huge part in caring for Meron and helping us make her a part of our family.

We then headed to the airport to start the long trip home.