ONE YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a marvelous day it is!!

(This post is a bit late because we just got our power back after being out for 3 days)
God, this day we celebrate first and foremost, YOU!

Not to us, oh Lord, not to us
But to your name be the glory,
Because of your love and faithfulness Ps. 115

I will praise you Lord, among the nations;
I will sing of you among the people
For great is your love, higher than the heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies!! Ps. 108

Today, November 8th 2008, is our 1 year anniversary of being a family! One year ago, I was flying on a plane from Monrovia, Liberia to Denver Colorado with my sister and with 2 of the littlest most precious children I have ever known. On Nov 8th we finally came HOME together! And even though Papa was still working in Africa, O and F were ours and they were home!! Tears streamed my face today as I sat in awe of God’s goodness and faithfulness in what was an impossible feat. But NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE with HIM! When all hope was lost, His hope remained. When everything pointed to NO, He said YES! When our dreams crumbled, He picked up the pieces and created a beautiful masterpiece. When our groans and aches overwhelmed us, His peace and comfort sustained us. He whispered to Jeff and I “fight for your kids”, and we did and the victory is HIS! They came home!! We are a family!!

From the day we received their referral, we just KNEW they were ours. We fell in love with them that very day almost 2 years ago this month. We dreamed about them, we prayed for them daily, and we walked through the journey of adoption. We eagerly, and maybe a little too eagerly (sorry Donna/ Melodie) awaited photos and information about these 2 lovely Liberians. Every photo we cherished and stared at for hours as if we looked long and hard enough we would hear their voices! Our journey turned into a heavy battle to bring them home, but the Lord led us through it all holding our hands and promising His love and faithfulness until the end. Jeff met them in Oct of 2007 in our fight to bring them home and it was love at first sight! My day would come too and it did on Nov. 1, 2007. I was shaking like a leaf is what I remember as I went to the orphanage to pick up our kids!! I thought I was going to throw up I was so nervous. The kids were napping and so I got settled on a chair while the nannies got them ready to bring out. My heart raced and I tried to fight back the waterfall of tears so I wouldn’t scare them. Then, the moment came I will never ever forget, O and F, groggy eyed and sleepy, wobbled out the door and walked over to me. I lost it! The tears unloaded and my heart skipped a beat. They were more beautiful and precious than any of the photos I had seen!! They came right up to me and sweet little Fatu just melted on my legs as she leaned against me. I hugged them both gently and just sat staring at them. God’s gifts to us! How was it possible? The best gifts a mama could ever dream of!! Osobie sat on my lap and started singing Jesus Loves Me as the nanny prompted him. I wept and sobbed and hugged one of the nannies, thanking her for caring for our kids. All my butterflies flew away and a deep peace rested on me. They didn’t smile much but they were not afraid either. They held my hands, touched my skin, rested their bodies against mine and even sat on my lap. It was too wonderful to even comprehend. That day is etched in my heart.There are so many stories to share from the last year of living life together as a family! We have experienced so much joy, fun, laughter, love and adventure along with challenges and tears of course, but the JOY far outweighs the hard times!! God couldn’t have picked two more perfect kids for our family. When I look at all of our personalities, we fit so well together. Fatu is our spicy, sassy, but sweet daughter and Osobie is our thoughtful, silly, sensitive, and a little strong willed son. Fatu reminds me of myself when I was little and Osobie as of now, has a personality a lot like Jeff. That all could change in the next couple of years as we continue to grow as a family and the kids continue to adjust to us, but for now we are enjoying our family as God designed it.

As you can see in the pictures, O and F have changed SO much over the last year! They came home as babies, speaking Liberian English, laughing at running water and coffee makers, scared of roaring stuffed elephants, hugging everyone and anyone, and eating more food than Jeff and I combined. They have grown so much and grown up so fast! They have doubled in weight and probably in height too!! They are doing well in school, learning new things each day. They love to play games as a family and still love helping out around the house. I thought for sure their love for “chores” would fade away but they still like to help mama cook, sweep, mop and fold clothes. Fatu especially enjoys cooking and has recently told us she would like to be a chef, like Auntie Bootsie, when she gets older. Just the other day night we were eating out at a restaurant where they served us a cucumber type salad. Fatu dug into her salad and starting spouting off what she tasted, “I taste vinegar…hmmm…and lemon!” She LOVES food and loves to eat! She and her papa share a common interest in cooking and food. Osobie is all about creating. We call him Macguever, you know the old eighties TV show Macguever??? The man could create anything out of a rubber band, toothpick, and a battery or something like that. Well, Osobie is the master of invention. Give the boy some string, a bottle cap and a leave and he has made a boat. He wants to be a pilot and a builder when he grows up and he has now added fireman to the list!! You go boy!! We are blessed!! We celebrated our anniversary this weekend thanking God for making our family through adoption, thanking many of you for all your prayers for O and F, and praying for our friends who are still waiting for their kids to come home. And of course eating a ton of chocolate that my sweet sister Mekay sent us!! Thanks Meeks for the lovin’!! The package couldn't’t have come on a better day!!

All is well other wise; I’ll post again with some more updates on the house!! Love ya all!!