2011...here we come!!

Okay, so I think this is going to be a fabulous year for our family....here are our goals (that dang accountability thing again)



1. Related to debt again (check out Dave Ramsey). We will pay off $40k in debt, this includes our 2nd mortgage on our house!! :)



2. David will be speaking at his age level. ;)



4. I will have my soap recipe perfected. (check out my soap making here)



5. We will read the bible as a family at least 3 nights per week. :)

Help keep us accountable...these are all pretty big goals, but something we can accomplish as a famly.

Goodbye 2010...you won't be missed

2010 has been a tough year...we won't be sad to see it go!! I remembered today that I did this post at the beginning of the year...in the spirit of seeing how well we did with meeting our goals...here goes:

1. Pay off all debt (student loans and cars) and only have our house mortgage left. (If you aren't convinced this is a good thing, check out Dave Ramsey)

We paid off over $20k in debt! This is outside of our regular monthly payments. :)

2. Simon will have a job, starting his new career as a Police Officer.

This was a VERY stressful one this year...God came through at the last minute and on the 29th Simon got an offer from the City of Boulder. He will be starting January 10th!!!!!!!

3. Jessica will work less. This means 40-45 hours a week outside of year end.

I did great at this one...even took two weeks off over Christmas. ;)

4. Bella will start school at Dayspring Christian Academy for 6th grade.

Yep, did this one too...she LOVES it.

5. David will talk!

David started 2010 with less than 10 words. He now has over 50 and is saying some three word sentences!! This has been such a great thing for him...

6. Nicky will start reading.

Not so much, but he can read and write his name. (In hindsight this might have been a little ambitious as he only turned 4 in Nov)

7. The entire family will spend more time worshiping our Savior together.

We have done a great job at attending church. Simon and Bella have started reading the bible together and made it through Genesis so far...

As for 2011...I will post those tomorrow....

Am so proud of my girl...

http://bellasdigs.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-business.html

SALE!! Check it out...

http://toomanyorphans.blogspot.com/2010/12/sale.html

Say Yes

The latest from our fundraiser...

http://toomanyorphans.blogspot.com/2010/07/say-yes.html

Love My Soap

My new hobby, check it out!


http://lovemysoap.blogspot.com/2010/07/cocoa-baby.html

One year ago today...

We were on our way to Ethiopia!! Amazing how fast time goes. We have had an amazing year, filled with things we expected would happen and lots of things we did not.

Tonight we had the privilege of having some new friends over who are considering African adoption as well as spending time with some friends who got home 4 weeks ago with their two boys from Ethiopia.

Quick update on David, he has been in speech therapy for about 3 months now and is doing great, our therapist has been such a blessing and we have seen a significant decrease in tantrums and David's frustration level. :)

I have been a bad blogger lately, but we have been doing great!

Why I have been MIA....

www.toomanyorphans.blogspot.com


Blessings,

Jessica

Our 5th Wedding Anniversary

Today Simon and I have been married for 5 years! This was us then...

Our lives have been blessed in so many ways. God has gotten us through: a deployment to Iraq, move to Colorado, birth of Nicky, Simon's bachelors degree, my promotion to Finance Director, adoption of David, me starting grad school, and the latest of Simon attending the police academy. Wow...God is good!!

Referral Anniversary!!

Happy 1 year referral anniversary to us! Today marks 1 year since we received our referral of David. His name was Abdulkidar and here is the first picture we saw of him

Wow, reflecting on all that has happened in a year is amazing. This adoption journey has taken many twists and turns and it was not over when we arrived home with him on American soil.

Every day has its challenges and rewards.

God has shown me what grace is through David.

God who has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have
done but because of his own purpose and grace. 2Tim1:9

David is nearly 2 and only has 10 words. David is a child with a message for us that he just can’t get out. He knows what he wants to tell us, but doesn’t have the language to do it. Can you imagine how frustrating that is? He has a purpose but no way to express it. He is frustrated, sad, lonely, and scared and the only way he can tell us is screaming. Screaming all of the time, a thousand times a day. He wants something and we don’t understand and he screams. He has no other way to express his feelings.

All of the times I loose my patience with him, when I want to just go in my room and close the door where it is quite, the times I want to put him in his room and close the door…even after that, God has still saved me…only by his grace. I am just like David, God tells me to do something and I scream, I am angry and I scream, I am sad and I scream…but God still saves me by His own purpose AND grace.

Not only has David changed a lot in the last year

Jessica has changed as well. God has changed my heart for so many things…

African Boy Hair Care

So, I have been wanting to do this post for ages but have not had time...well here it is. Inquiring minds want to know how to care for African boys hair. Yes, it is different than my hair, but not quite as hard to care for as African girls hair. Admittedly David has more hair products than I do! This is adapted from several tips I have received from friends with girls. I am of strong feelings that my little boy should have as beautiful hair as little African girls!! Here is our regimen for his hair care and I will even include a new pic so you can see how CUTE it really is.

1. We wash his hair once a week (this is important, I didn't believe it at first, but they really don't need there hair washed more than that). We wash it with Pantene for Women of Color (stupid name but it works great and in a brown bottle by the other Pantene). The other days he takes a bath we just wet it with water.

2. After bath days, we use a leave in conditioner. My two favorites (we just use what is closest) are Biolage Smoothing Shine Milk and Carol's Daughter - Khoret Amen Leave-in Conditioner. I absolutely LOVE Carol's Daughter, you can find the website here. You might get sticker shock, but with boys, it lasts a LONG time. Well worth the investment.

3. Every morning we wet it with a mixture of water and oil in a spray bottle. 10 parts water to 1 part oil. I use Africa's best Ultimate Herbal oil. It was less than $5 at Walmart and will last years.

4. After wetting it with the water oil mixture, we use Carol's Daughter - Hair Milk. I love this stuff, it smells great and makes it super shiny and defines the curls.

5. On non bath nights, I will wet it with the oil water mixture before bed.

I have not had any issues with dry scalp on David.

For skin care, we use a Vaseline Intensive Care cocoa butter lotion. I am sure any kind with cocoa butter lotion will work well. His skin does get drying than our other kiddos but this seems to work better than regular lotions.

That is it, a little more intense than Nicky's hair, but well worth the time. :)

New pics

Here are a couple of new pictures I took today of David and I...he is so cute and looks so much different than he did 6 months ago!

6 months and our new life

Well, I can't believe we have had David for 6 months now. We had our 6 month post placement visit today and it felt strange to summarize David in an hour meeting with our social worker. It has only been 3 months since we saw her last, but so much has changed!

First, we now know that David is around 2 years old. To be on the conservative side, we are setting his birthday to May 12th. That makes him 21 months old, much different than the 17 months he would be with his ET birthday. After a fabulous evaluation at Children's International Adoption Clinic in Denver, we found out it his delayed in his speech and only talking at about a 14 month level. This was our biggest issue and we are relived to now know that his constant "uh, uh" is not at his age level. We will start therapy soon. Other than that, he is doing terrific, attachment is going well and he is settling in very well. Don't get me wrong...toddler adoption is hard! Our social worker said something so true today, "nature made them cute and sweet as babies so you had already feel in love with them before they became toddlers!"

Simon started the police academy in Denver two weeks ago. He is loving every minute of it and I am so proud of him. It is a huge commitment with 6 days a week for 12-13 hours a day. We feel God has provided us with everything we needed to follow Him in Simon's career path over the last several months. We are trusting in Him that He will provide Simon with a job in June when he is done with school.

So, since Simon is gone most of the time now, you can imagine that has changed my life a tad bit...no more working 12 hour days. I am now a mommy from 5pm until 8am. It has been a huge transition for our family, but surprising to me, a very fulfilling one. I have managed to remain fairly calm, mostly due to my OCD when it comes to planning. Lots of lists and lots of reminders in my Blackberry.

For Bella & Nicky, they are great. Nicky is such a fun 3 year old...we are soooo glad the 2's are gone. He has fallen into the big brother roll so quickly and actually was telling some kids at McDonald's to get away from his brother! Bella is growing to be such a wonderful big sister and sweet young woman. I am not sure how I would get through this time with Simon gone so much without her. Now, she just needs to learn her times tables!!

Well, that is the update for now...thanking God for his blessings and the grace He shows us everyday!

2010 Here We Come!

I LOVE the new year. It brings on a whole new list of possibilities for the year. Simon and I (probably mostly me) thought it would be fun to list what we think will be happening in our lives in 2010. By posting them publicly, we are somewhat accountable for the things we can control...yikes!

1. Pay off all debt (student loans and cars) and only have our house mortgage left. (If you aren't convinced this is a good thing, check out Dave Ramsey)
2. Simon will have a job, starting his new career as a Police Officer.
3. Jessica will work less. This means 40-45 hours a week outside of year end.
4. Bella will start school at Dayspring Christian Academy for 6th grade.
5. David will talk!
6. Nicky will start reading.
7. The entire family will spend more time worshiping our Savior together.

Here are some fun pics from David's first Christmas

Calling All Prayer Warriors....

It seems we may be having a new development in our lives (yes ANOTHER one). As some of you know, we received a referral for baby "T" about a year ago in November. Well, after 6 months of waiting for court, we were told there were lots of issues with his paperwork and he most likely would not be able to be adopted and we were told it would be best to accept another referral. This was incredibly heart breaking for us, but we felt God was leading us to accept the referral, fast forward to today - welcome David!

We have been adjusting well, although we did not know when we would be ready to adopt again...until last Thursday. Simon and I had both been thinking about baby "T", who by the way is 17 months old now, but did not say anything to each other. After a surprise email from another adoptive family asking if there was any chance we could still get him, we were feeling lead to contact our agency to get an update on him.

The email we received back this morning said they would check into it after Christmas. This is where all of you come in, we need your prayers like CRAZY right now. Please pray for God's will in this child's life, whether that is in our family or another, but that he will not have to live in the orphanage for another year!

Simon and I are following the opening that God has given us although we have no idea how we will 1. pay for it 2. take care of both David who is 19 months now and baby "T" who is 17 months.

More to come...

Update and Adoption Day #2

So, it has been awhile since I last blogged. My class for my masters program combined with work has sucked the life out of me. The good news is my class is over as of 30 minutes ago and I am taking the next semester off. I really need a break. I have a stack of about 10 books I have been accumulating along with David's life book still has all the ET pictures sitting in the box.

Last Wednesday we had David's court date to "validate" his adoption in our county. This is just a formality and gives us the documentation to seal the deal on his citizenship. Here are some pics and I promise I will be a better blogger!!

Our Adoption Video

We are finally done with our video from Ethiopia...enjoy. :)

God commands us to care for ophans and widows...

As many of you know, God has given me a crazy, uncomfortable, bigger than life, sad, wonderful heart for the orphans of the world. I am still processing all of this, our trip to Ethiopia and all that we saw while there.

One thing that is very clear is that God COMMANDS us to care for widows and ORPHANS in the bible. He doesn't say it would be nice, or we should consider it if we don't have anything else going on...we MUST do it. There are lots of way, adoption is not the only one.

Check out this video...orphan Sunday is right around the corner. Won't you consider helping one of the 147 million kids without a forever family (or clean water, or food, or clothes, or safety)?

Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

12 weeks!!

I can't believe we have had our sweet little boy for 12 weeks! It is so amazing how much God has changed him and us in that time. First for the changes in David...

First week we were home...

Now....

Isn't it amazing??



This was David when we brought him home, he was about 14 months:

• Wearing size 2 diapers and 9 month clothes which were still too big in the waist.
• Would not let you cradle him and cuddle.
• Had to stay in the room/bed with him until he was totally asleep or he would get very scared.
• Could only crawl, could not pull himself up.
• Terrified of baths
• Ate TONS of food, that is not an exaggeration, he ate more than Nicky.
• Had many melt downs concerning food. Would go into a total tail spin if he was the slightest bit hungry.
• Wanted to be around us always, would only play with toys if we were sitting there with him.
• Totally terrified of our dogs...would get physically scared and shake when they came near.
• Very reserved and would not let new people hold him.

David now:

• Has gained over 3 pounds and is wearing size 3 diapers and 12 month clothes
• Loves to be rocked to sleep at night, cuddles in for lots of body contact
• Lays down in bed now and goes right to sleep, no crying or fear
• Walking and running everywhere
• Loves bath time, runs to the tub as soon as he hears the water running
• Eats much less food now, appetite is like an average toddler now
• Less meltdowns about food, now it is only when we are traveling or away from our normal schedule
• Will play with the other kids for long periods of time without Simon or I sitting with them. Nicky and him wrestle together and both LOVE playing cars.
• Loves the dogs, hugs and kisses them along with telling them no!
• Staying at the church daycare during services and not crying when we leave him

Wow, it is pretty amazing when I list it all out! God has blessed us with this little boy.

Some of the time it is hard, most of the time it is rewarding, but ALL of this time we are thankful for David.

Soon I will share more about how my life has changed in the last 12 weeks...I am getting closer to being able to articulate it all...

Wonderful Sunday...

I made it through my first week back at work...amazing. We are enjoying a relaxing weekend at home and while Bella and Simon went to play tennis, I got the boys to myself. Here are some cute as ever pics....

And yes, they are wearing matching shirts!! They are going to hate me when they grow up but it is the cutest thing!!!