Other January Stuff...

 Well, here we are at the end of January already. Wasn't Christmas just last week?! 😏 Here are some more January happenings...

My Christmas gift from the girls finally arrived. Isn't this so cool? It maps out the different routes we have flown to Ethiopia over the years.

Adrian enjoys sharing his love of Saints football with his little brother:

Jalen got his Invisalign braces...

...while Jordan gets rid of his soon.

We've had lots of cold, snowy, icy weather!

My favorite thing about winter...snuggling by the fire with a good book, a cup of coffee, and my grandma's quilt.

J and J are in the middle of basketball season...

When Quintin is tired and wants to nap on my lap, I don't mind one bit.

A note from Jordan that made my heart melt into a puddle:

Barn update: the wall and door between the garage side and gathering side are up. Now to insulate!

Congratulations, College Grad!

In December, Shana graduated with her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude. My 19-year-old is a college graduate...how did she get to this point already?! In the past few weeks, she began her first full-time job, started working towards her master’s degree, and bought her first car. She’s already out there changing the world! Congratulations, Shana! We are proud of you and love you very much! ❤️

Adoption Update...

 After a very stressful fall with lots of delays for our adoption, we are thankful that we received this email right before Christmas!

A dossier is basically a portfolio of official documents that is full of details about our family. It is used by the Haitian government to process and approve us for an adoption and to match us with a child. This email means that we are finished with the paperwork stage for now and enter the waiting phase. Eventually, we will have to start updating some paperwork and redoing our fingerprints for the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, but for now we relax a bit, trust in God's timing, and get our second round of online adoption classes finished up. We are one step closer to our child!

Happy New Year!

 2020 was a challenging, unusual, crazy, unprecedented, blessed, strange, contentious, faith-strengthening, frustrating, annoying, disappointing, surprising, relaxed, difficult, memorable, restrictive, reflective, slowed-down, annoying, and amazing year. We dealt with Covid, cancelled trips and plans, quarantines, masks, racial tensions, a very contentious election, the deaths of 2 grandparents, an uncle, and a cousin, feeling God's call to adopt again and starting the process, TONS of paperwork, classes, and home study visits, frustrating run-ins with the government, cleaning out my childhood home, moving my mom and dad to an apartment at the Villas, attending a family auction, working from home, social distancing, doing online school, hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, locusts decimating the crops in Eastern Africa, selling our rental house, building our barn, conflict in Ethiopia, several trips to Florida, a couple of trips to Michigan, etc. Through it all, God was faithful, and showed me over and over again that we are not in control. He is the only source of power and strength. 

We finished up the year with David and Larisa and their boys, who spent 4 days with us. We experienced an ice storm, spent time in front of the fire, and played lots of games together. On January 2, we had our family Christmas at Doug and Bonny's, and then Seth and his kids spent the night with us, too. 

Happy New Year!

Why does he always give me this when I want to take his picture?!🙄

A few more December tidbits: Adrian coloring pictures with Quintin and another amazing sunset. God is good.