Merry Christmas! ... Miss you Silas

I love Christmas!

And this year has been especially wonderful with Kiera ... she gets it now
She has fun at the parties, playing with cousins and opening gifts. And she loves looking that the Christmas lights and singing carols, especially Away in a Manger.

It is fun to experience Christmas through the eyes of my precious girl.

Stitched Memories Christmas

Shop our unique collection of photo Christmas cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

And then I think of Silas ... we are so close to having you home. But I wish we didn't have to miss you this Christmas.

We have gifts for you under our tree.
 I want to see your face as you open your first gifts (and as your sister tells shows you how to use them)

I want to kiss you good morning on Christmas morning.
I want to see you follow your sister around to the stockings and presents under the tree.

I want to tell you about Jesus birth, this amazing gift from our God.

I want you HOME!

... soon my sweet son ... we will be together soon. And then you will never want for kiss, hugs and love.

Until then, you are in the hands of our wonderful Father God! Feel his love and peace this Christmas!

Merry Christmas!
Joel, Mandy, Kiera and Silas

Final Steps

Happy greetings family and friends,

We have some great news...
Silas' file was submitted to the US embassy in Ethiopia for review.

This is the final step for the approval of our adoption. After the embassy reviews and accepts our file, we get to bring Silas home.

This could possibly take 2 weeks, or if they find something more documentation they want, it can take another month or two.

We know Silas is in God's arms and he will be in ours in God's perfect timing. Please keep us and Silas in your prayers as we wait and prepare to be all together as a family.

We are also preparing for the last financial contribution (i.e. flights, lodging, fees) toward our adoption. We are asking for you to prayerfully consider sponsoring a puzzle piece in our Puzzle Fundraiser.

Thank you and have a Merry Christmas!
God Bless!

Joel and Mandy

"Nothing you can do to love me less"

So, we just finished our bedtime routine, brushing teeth, potty, hair, story and prayers. As is was leaving her room, Kiera stopped my heart by saying ...

"Nothing you can do to love me less mommy"

This is her version of a phrase we use often, 
"There is nothing you can do that would make me love you less."

But coming from my 2 year old, it is the sweetest.

{Well,that and when she says ...
"Your my best friend ever mommy" with all the drama and voice inflection she can put in it}

I am so happy to hear Kiera verbalizing the most important things that we have been trying to teach her...
... that she is our daughter and nothing can change that
... that even if she does something wrong we will forgive her and continue to love her more than we can say
... that our family is held together by love and forgiveness, just as God loves us and forgives us through Jesus.

I love my sweet girl!
We are so blessed!

"Finding Christmas"

So, today was the day ...

We planned a family day ... just mommy, daddy and Kiera with 2 purposes ...

1. Celebrating 2 years of Kiera being forever a part of our family. Yesterday was the 2 year anniversary of her Gotcha Day (the day we took custody of Kiera in Ethiopia and were able to bring her home later that week). We are so blessed to have Kiera in our family, I cannot even find the words to say.

2. Decorating for Christmas!

We had told Kiera we were going to find a Christmas tree today.

So ...
She woke up early of course, walked into our bedroom and said,

"Mommy, you are supposed to wake up. It's Christmas"

I tried to explain it wasn't Christmas.

So when we went to look for our tree she proceeded to say "Let's find Christmas!"
And she was serious ... and excited.

Wagon ride to Christmas trees

Searching hard for Christmas :)

We found it!

 So excited when she woke up from her nap and the tree was up with lights on it ...

Ready for her to add her touch (see her row of ornaments on the bottom of the tree)

She thought see was so smart when she hung other ornaments on the string of the "football"

So, we got done and started cleaning up and heard Kiera say

"Mommy, I can't find the matching one." ...

"What??"

(This is what we saw)

It is going to be a Merry Christmas at the Brandt's this year!

Here he is ...

This is the post you all have been waiting for ...

and I have been "patiently" waiting to send.

We have been APPROVED by the Ethiopian court to be Silas' adoptive parents. We received our MOWA letter today.

He is ours!!!

.... now we just wait a few more months (4-5 months) until everything gets in order to bring him home.

So ....
without further delay ...
we would like to introduce you to ...

Silas Timothy Abay Brandt

Silas at 11 months (when he was admitted to care center)

(after 15 days in the hospital)

Silas at 14 months

Silas at 15 months (standing)

Silas at 17 months (he got our package)

On October 29th, we got to go to the care center in Addis to meet our son for the 1st time. What a glorious day!

First meeting with our baby boy!!!

Daddy's son :)

First family picture with our son (but missing his sister Kiera)

We were able to take him back to the guest house with us for a night. We had a great time getting to know his personality and seeing him smile.

Playing in the mirror at the guest house.

Peek a boo

Playing on the bed while daddy read a story
(ended up sleeping here with mommy, because I kept trying to crawl out of the bassinet during the night)

Look at that smile :)

Fell asleep in mommy's arms on the way back to the care center. 

Daddy's turn for the sleeping snuggle. 

Back at the care center before saying goodbye.

The nannies Tried to get him to sleep as we were saying goodbye 

He was stubborn, finished the bottle, stood up and reached out for us, so his nanny strapped him to her back so he would relax and sleep. 

We miss him so much already. Please continue to pray for us that these next few months go fast and we are ready when the call comes.

The Brandts,
Joel, Mandy, Kiera and Silas

Puzzle Update!

In case you want to know how our puzzle is doing.
Thank you to all who have supported us already.
God Bless!

Perfect Love: Puzzle Update!: So ... I know it has been awhile since we began this puzzle fundraiser. It has been a busy few months (we will get to that in a lit...

Court Trip Recap

It has been a memorable week... we are exhausted.
But I want to try to get this all down before I forget the details.

I was hoping to be able to add pictures of Silas by now, but we are still waiting for court approval before we post any pics ... Hopefully by next week. 

-----------------------------------------------

The day after we had court, Wednesday 10/31, we headed to Harar ... the city in eastern Ethiopia where Silas is from.

On the way there we went on a small safari through Awash National Park ...

Awash Falls

Our scout

... and drove through the beautiful countryside of Eastern Ethiopia ...

Volcanic Plain

Lake that is expanding each year because of volcanic activity (the town keeps having to move)

Finally, on Thursday we toured Harar... 


There is too much to say about Harar. There is an "old town" and "new town." The old town is the part that is enclosed within the walls. 

The city is surrounded by five gates, which originally kept the Christians at bay. The population of Harar is still largely Muslim, with its 23 Mosques to 1 Ethiopian Orthodox Church and 1 Catholic Church within the old town. 

Markets abound in Harar. These are Oromo women, who live in villages outside of Harar. In the markets, Arab, Indian and African influences merge.

Harar (main market)

Our tour guide Binyam showing us how (women only) use the injera baskets to carry things on their head. 

Old town market

 


This is a traditional Adare (Harari) guesthouse, which are typically set back behind a courtyard and an elaborately carved door. Inside, the walls are covered with Harari baskets.

Beautifully carved door

On the shelf lie carpets, one for each daughter available for an arranged marriage (guests can see this from any seat on the platforms) 

Joel and Mandy sitting on the platform (this level was originally for honored guest only)

Safes to hold gold, grain, oil and incense (not locked, but too high and deep for little kids hands to steal)

This street was called Machine GerGer Street because it's lined with tailors working on their sewing machines (and they make the gerger sound all day long).

The narrow streets of Harar are painted in vibrant colors, perhaps inspired by the city's inhabitants. This street is called "Peacemaker's Street" because Muslims and Christians would have to pass closely by eachother politely and made peace. 

We also were able to feed the hyenas ... This man feeds hyenas every night. It's not a tourist show - there have been hyena-related rituals in Harar for over 500 years.

On Friday, November 2nd, got to go visit the Harar care center before heading back to Addis for our flight home. It was great to see how much the nannies love the kids and how attentive and caring they are with them. There were only about 10 kids in the center at that time (at least by my count) and there were 4 nannies and the manager. That is great statistics. We were also able to find out more details about Silas and his life right before joining the care center. This is his story to tell some day so we will not share details on here, but we are thankful for his birth family who cared for him and wanted him to live a happy, healthy life; for the people that took him to the hospital and watched over him as he was sick; and for the nannies at both the Harar and Addis care centers that are caring for him now until we can get back to bring him home. 

Head Nanny and Manager of Harar Care center
(they said Silas is their social, smiley baby and he is doing well because he is "happy and fat")

There are so many wonderful things to see and people to meet in Ethiopia. I would love to write much more, but my daughter is waking up from her nap now. Keep watching for new posts...soon it will be pictures. 

Blessings,
Joel and Mandy