WE ARE BEYOND THRILLED!!!

yesterday, around 2:30am, our newest cousin/nephew was born!

Andrew and Elizabeth are sick so just Biruk and Becca were able to go to the hospital yesterday to visit baby Joshua.

we are so excited he is finally here!
welcome to the family little Joshua!

you should be able to see even more pics on my sister's blog in a day or 2 ~Set Apart for Him

HE MISSES ETHIOPIA

We are nearing the 6month mark of having Biruk.

I have a whole 'nother post swirling around in my head for the 6 Month Home post :)

but I wanted to document this day.

For the first 3 months home Biruk wanted nothing to do with Ethiopia ~he refused to speak Amharic, didn't want to have pics of his family up let alone even look at them in an album, didn't want to eat Ethiopian food, didn't want to play soccer, and didn't want to talk about life back in Ethiopia.

Around the 3month mark he started talking a little bit about memories he had ...they were scary, yucky memories...no wonder he didn't really want to talk about them.

About a month ago he said he'd eat injera again...and that maybe he missed doro wat. :)

About 2 weeks ago he got out his pictures of his family and he told us about everyone. Some more scary memories were revealed. *sigh*

Today something triggered him....I pulled him into our bedroom and just held and rocked him on our bed as he sobbed and sobbed.

He's been trying to be such a strong boy.

but today, thru his tears, he nodded his head when I asked him "sweetie, do you miss Ethiopia?" "do you miss your first mommy? do you miss your grandma?"

From the very first day home we've tried to make certain he knew it was OK to grieve...it was OK to miss his family and friends back there....today he finally felt comfortable to admit his heart ache.

and my heart aches for him.

I have a feeling this is only the tip of the iceberg as he now feels safe enough to grieve. We can't imagine how hard it must have been to leave his family (it is very clear he was deeply loved and probably even spoiled a bit!)....to trust us and just come with us to this new world, new family, new experiences.....

he is one brave little boy....who is working thru his grief and adjusting to his new life.

AND NOW HE'S 7.

I can't believe he's 7 today.

He's growing up...to be a sweet, loving young man.

Happy Birthday my sweet sweet boy.

I love you so very much bug.

love-mom

PENGUINS!

today we got to meet Penny and Pete ~ penguins from SeaWorld San Diego!

I work as a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines ~and Southwest and SeaWorld have been long time friends and partners (I'm sure you've seen the 737's that look like Shamu right?!)....so for fun, Pete and Penny came to our flight attendant lounge today!

A friend of mine from church, who also happens to be a flight attendant, brought her kids too ~a ton of fun for 6 kids and 2 mommies!

BECCA STARTED 1ST GRADE MATH!!

Becca (and Andrew) have been doing 1st grade language arts & reading for the last 5 weeks, but last week, Becca finished her Kindergarten Math and started her 1st grade math book.

YAY BECCA-BOO!!

She was sooo excited to get to her 1st grade math book she did the last 2 K lessons in 1 day (that's about 20 pages of math!)...I was afraid she wasn't really understanding what she was doing..just blowing thru it to finish...but nope ~she was understanding...and totally motivated to just get 'er done!


Now she's a full fledged 1st grader. :)

We're so proud of her!

MORE FOOTBALL

the boys' 2nd game of the season was Saturday...and they both did SO well!!

God, in His wonderful wisdom, knew the boys would be competitve so He gave Biruk the talent for playing offense..and Andrew the talent and love to play defense.

Biruk learned the art of "faking" this past weekend..I guess the coach showed him 1 time how to step 1 way and then run the other....and Biruk skillfully put it into practice. With time and practice ~he's going to be a great football player!

Andrew had a couple great run downs...chasing down ball carriers for the other team and pulling their flags. He's not the fastest kid on the team...but he's one of the most intense and focused and his head is in that game from start to finish.

SOOOOO proud of my boys!

look at that intensity...he's got a beat on the ball carrier and is taking off to pull his flag!

celebrating a touch down with one of his buddies (who just happens to a be a long time family friend!)

the boys together...rarely happens that they're together, but since there are only 8 kids on the team, they have to play both sides of the ball sometimes....notice Biruk playing with his mouthguard..poor guy REALLY doesn't like it and will only put it in right before each play. :)

1ST FOOTBALL GAME

Andrew lives for football. EVERY morning he asks if football will be on TV..seriously -every morning. Saturday thru Monday is the happiest part of the week for him (and John!) (and as I type this I hear screaming from the lunch table as we're watching the Ohio State game~I hear chanting of O*H...I*O!!).

So-we signed him up for his 3rd season of flag football..and of course Biruki too.

Biruk really wanted to play baseball...but he has such a short attention span we thought he'd do better with a more fast paced game like football for his first season

**note -we thought he'd want to play soccer -but nope -he's good at soccer but at least right now has no desire to play it**

this kid surprised the heck out of us.

he just might be the next great running back!

just give him the ball -tell him to run- and off he goes.

this kid has wheels!

he had at least 2 break-away runs ~almost scoring touchdowns.

YAY Biruk!!


Andrew did great too -he's great at defense and almost caught a couple guys on their break-aways. I'll try to get some pics of him next week. :)