So clearly, this has not been the year of the blog. I've pretty much missed documenting all major events and I really want to get back to it as I want a record for our kids and because this blog has always served as a record of God's faithfulness.
As 2017 comes to a close, I want to highlight God's goodness. This has certainly been a year of ups and downs (and some pretty low downs if I'm honest). But, as I reflect back on it, I can say that Emmanuel, "God with us," has never left us and has been working behind the scenes as he always does.
I'll start with winter birthday season (which actually just restarted...I'm that far behind).
Nick turned 37, Colton 9, Rahel 15, Caleb 13, I turned 38 and Eli turned 5!
Winter birthday season also kicks of "ask mom everyday if it's my birthday" season for Angel.
We also got our first snow on January 7th, Ethiopian Christmas Day,
so it was a white Christmas after all.
The Snow!
We joined the YMCA....this is how busy our little town is during the New Year's resolution rush.
We celebrated 7 years together as a family (on my birthday). Every year we try to recreate one of our first pictures together.
My mom came up for project weekend....I love when she comes for project weekend.
Nick reconnected with some old friends, affectionately known as "The Supper Club"
We found Trader Joes!
Nick thought we should be pig farmers........we should not.
Happy Valentines Day from my little loves.
The kids got to meet Yordi.
We love you Yordanos!
Paw Paw preformed emergency surgery on Louie the Lion
These beauties went to their first ever Daddy Daughter Dance (we missed the boat on these I guess).
Flat Stanley visited our farm.
We celebrated FL Gee Gee's birthday from afar.
Nick came out of retirement and got the only hit on his alumni team! Impressive!
His biggest fans.
We enjoyed our museum passes.
And a slumber party.
Followed by donuts with Grandad to celebrate his birthday (the birthdays never end around here).
Eli learned to ride.
And the Schusters secured their title as our most frequent Florida guests (come back anytime!!)
Our new church joined Children's HopeChest and the Holeta Care Point to sponsor sweet Lomi.
And our family found Desta (read about that here).
The farm continued to grow....
And because Hermela's 13th birthday weekend landed on Mother's Day and her 3 sisters' recital, we kicked off summer birthday season a little early with a surprise trip to Florida where Hermela was pampered by the talented Ms. Aimee.
And we enjoyed some rare one on one time.
And attended my cousin's wedding.
Our beautiful teenager.
The recital.
Mother's Day with our moms.
The birthday girl on her actual birthday (also Mother's Day)
One lucky mom. Love all of these crazy kids (and I do mean CRAZY).
Supper Club continues
And these two handsome boys completed a fabulous year of Pre-K
(note the bandaid on Angel's ear.....I cut it while giving him a hair cut minutes before we had to leave for his last day of school performance.
Thanks to these two amazing teachers.
Construction started on the in-law cottage.
And we spent Memorial Day, which was also Caroline's 11th birthday, in Tennessee at Dollywood.
This cool girl turned 11 right behind Caroline and celebrated at the beach.
While we were in Florida, we spent time with great friends. God's love and faithfulness could not be more evident than in this picture. Many lives have been touched and paths crossed to bring this group of amazing children into our families. We are so grateful!
Best Buddies
Celebrated Father's Day a little early with this guy (who likes to remain anonymous on the world wide web, sorry dad.....this is my family record and you must be a part of it).
A date with dad and all his girls.
The farm delivered these delicious blueberries all summer long.
And finally, finally after months of asking if it was his birthday it FINALLY was.
Angel turned 5!
He was delighted!
And now has his own spot in Grandad's shop.
Even with all of the joyous pictures above,
my heart has been heavy
and this move has been hard.
But God has great plans.
Just when I needed it the most,
I started working a few hours a week
with this precious baby boy.
He has healed my heart.
And I am thankful.
A friend recently said he hadn't heard me say anything nice about living here......well, here it is:
4th of July was great.
Our little town put on quite a show.....and there was absolutely no traffic.
The kids had a "Lemons for Lomi" lemonade stand and along with the other kids in the children's ministry raised enough for a whole year of sponsorship!
Then, an event we had waited 5 years for finally happened...
.....when this sweet girl came home from Ethiopia.
We love you Tarik!
We finished our summer up with a visit form dear friends.....they now hold the "2nd Friends from Florida to Visit" award.
We love the Dunns and the kids have nicknamed our families (all 20 of us)
The Dunvins.
My brother finally made it up for a visit for the Great Solar Eclipse of 2017
He REALLY doesn't do family pictures, so this is the best I could get and it's one of my favorites.
Ms. Daves aka Sandy
(I met her as a child and just can't bring myself to call her by her first name :-)
also joined us for our Eclipse Party
The eclipse was the day before school started.
Here are all of my sweet school babies.
Rahel-10th
Caleb and Hermela 8th
Caroline and Meron- 6th
Colton-4th
Eli and Angel-Kindergarten
My kindergarten class blasting into a great school year.
I learned to crochet......
It's a pretty big deal and I'm pretty proud of myself.
And finally got my hands on sweet Tarik when we celebrated Ethiopian New Year together.
We soaked up the last few days of warm weather at this beautiful lake in the mountains.
Fall kicked off with Nick leaving to go out of town for 3 weeks.....
I almost didn't make it through.
Thank goodness my sister-in-law Oleva and mom came up and joined me and Judy for a fun girls night out.
And my mom was once again here for project weekend!!
The Schusters made their 3rd trip up!
Yordi loves the cat....the cat tolerated the love.
Then off for a fun filled weekend in D.C. with just my big girl and some great friends.
Kaleita was turning 18 and Rahel will be 16 in January, so when we were asked to go meet them in DC, we made it an early birthday trip.
We celebrated with some of Kaleita's Ethiopian relatives. It was amazing!
The hotel was fabulous
Food was delicious
City was so much fun
My almost sweet 16 beauty queen.
We took a night tour of the monuments......
We will never forget it......there were gale force winds and freezing rain gust.
But, we hit all the highlights.
This pictures just don't do it justice.
The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History
We brought delicious Ethiopian Food Home
The family was thankful!
Then we followed our trip up with Halloween in Florida with the Hellings (somehow we didn't get a picture together???).
The Minion Crew
and Gru
The Little Cottage now complete with onsite grandparents.
We attended a beautiful outdoor wedding.
Then celebrated SC Gee Gee's birthday.
And took this beautiful hike in the woods......the second nice thing I've said about living here for those of you who are counting (this is 20 minutes from our house.....come visit us :-).
We count this as PE
T is for turtle.....I love kindergarten.
And also Thanksgiving
When we returned home from Thanksgiving, a special delivery had arrived.
Jingle and Belle had returned and this is what they had to say:
And so here we are, right back at the winter birthday season..
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| Nick turns 38 |
This is the season we celebrate Emmanuel, "God with us."
And indeed, He has been with us
and we are thankful.
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel” (which means, God with us).
Matthew 1:23
So fun catching up!
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