2 years ago ...

2 years ago today we sat in front of the judge in Ethiopian court and heard the 3 sweet words that made my heart sing...

"she is yours"

And she certainly is.

Kiera could not be any more ours if she were born from my womb those 2 years ago.

She is funny, passionate and loves music, like her father. And she is sweet and caring, like her mother.

I love our little girl more than I can say and enjoy seeing her learn and grow, literally every day.

I am excited for the next 16 years that I have her in my arms, in my care; and seeing her grow into the beautiful girl and woman that I know God has designed her to be.

Thank you Lord for the blessing of being Kiera's mom and dad!

"God is Good, All the Time!"
(the song our driver had playing in the van when we all got back in after passing court)

Submitted to Court!

We received the email we have been waiting for...

"Hi Joel and Amanda – I am writing to share the great news with you that "A’s" {Silas's} file, matched up to yours, was submitted to court today.  Our next step is to wait for the courts to reconvene (and the judge to return), so that your court date can be assigned. " 

Now we wait again to be given our court date, which is also our travel date for the 1st trip. 

Praise God! 

Things are moving forward.

And good thing too, because Kiera keeps saying things like...

"We're missing something? We're missing Silas. Silas will sit right here (pats the seat beside her)" 

BTW... lately Jesus has occupied the seat on the other side of Kiera (and Mommy accidently sat on Him once, so now we have to ask). 

Thanks for all the continued prayers! 

Joel and Mandy

Adoption Awareness Concert

So, the concert last night was a blast.

Praising God

Talking about Adoption

Singing with friends 

Here are a few quick shots of the night. 

Walk by Faith

Joel and Mandy singing "One Less" by Matthew West (theme song for Kiera's adoption)

Kiera gave mommy flowers after the concert (thanks Oma)

Silas is standing

We got new pictures of or little guy today.

Wish I could share them all with you so you could see how incredibly sweet he is...he is standing now, maybe trying to walk.

We are so thankful (and jealous) to the nannies who are loving on him right now. He had gained so much in the last few months.

Thank you Lord for trusting us with Kiera and now Silas. Please let us bring him home soon.

Happy Ethiopian New Year!

As we try to combine our American culture with Ethiopian culture, this is a fun day to celebrate in our family.

Today is the 1st day of 2005 on the Ethiopian calendar.

I will never forget what happened 11 years ago in our country...and I will continue to pray for the families and our countriess leaders. But it is nice to have something to be happy about this day.

We are praying that this year (Ethiopian 2005) we will bring home our son and have our family of 4 all together for "2006".

Happy Ethiopian New Year, everyone!

Always a Daddy's Girl

Had a busy day today ...

Church
Baptism of a previous little one of a good friend of ours
Visiting briefly with friends from our of town (and our godkids)
Nap
Attended the funeral of a Godly man, the father of a good friend
Then to dinner with the new Paster and his wife.

...After all this Kiera begs for Daddy's tie and wants him to put it on like he does. I think she just wanted to be close to him in this busy day. As soon as she had it on she was happy the rest of the night.

I love my family!

Perfect Love: Answered Prayer!

I didn't want to post the same thing on both my sites, but this is such great news I just had to share.

God is so Good!

We received a grant for the exact amount needed for Silas' referral fee. Now everything can continue to move forward to bringing him home.

Praise be to God.

See the full post at: Perfect Love: Answered Prayer!: God answers prayers!!! I am totally convinced of this. As I posted a few weeks ago, we accepted a referral of a baby boy in Ethiopia. T...

Blessings!
Joel and Mandy

We Have a Son!!

Yes, that right!

We have a son ... Silas Timothy

(we cannot share his Ethiopian name or picture online until after we pass court)

But believe me ... he is cute, just like his proud big sister.
He has beautiful big eyes and cute curls.

Silas is 14 months old, born May 2, 2011.
Our initial papers say he is 18# and 27"... he was pretty malnurished but is gaining strength fast.

Please pray with us for our son, that he would continue to gain strength and be healthy and happy until we can come meet him and bring him home.

Blessing,
Joel & Mandy

Happy Summer Vacations

So, we have been having a lot of fun the last few weeks ... I thought I should post some pictures. 

For the 4th fo July we went Grandma and Grandpa's on the lake...

Kiera and Daddy went kayaking ... Kiera liked to "row the boat"

   

She went swimming anytime we would let her 

... and she loved that she could do it "all by myself"

On Saturday we headed up to Camp Luther for the week. Joel was blessed again this year to be selected as pastor of the week and we get to go with. Kiera loved playing with the water balloon during church. 

We are having a great time.

Hope your summers are blessed too!

Mandy

Perfect Love: And the total is ...

Check out our fundraising blog to see the results of our 1st event. It is exciting to see how God is providing for us as we journey to bring home our next child.

God is Good ... All the Time!


Perfect Love: And the total is ...: $ 3,205   Yes that is correct...  We made over $ 3,000 at our garage sale fundraiser this last weekend. Everything has been depos...