Worshiping with new friends!

Sunday a few of the kids and I (tiffany) hopped in the car as we do most Sunday's to go Worship our one true God (that's a song you know?) anyway , we have some friends that are Native Ethiopians. Morgan and I have enjoyed making friends with Selam and Tesh the have a beautiful daughter also adopted from Ethiopia. They have been so kind giving their time to teach us some Amharic so we can communicate not only in Addis but to the kids a bit as well. I should also tell you that when you go to the home of someone from Ethiopia unlike here you are able to drop in un anounced which we have done a couple times. They also feed you something each time you stop by. Whatever they have will do however we have had many wonderful authentic Ethiopian meals. But back to the church.... we thought since Gary and Morgan would be leaving in LESS THEN TWO WEEKS we would go to the Ethiopian Christian Church in Olathe. Their service was wonderful. We had to wear earphones and a nice guy interpreted for us the whole service and some songs. It actually was very nice to listen to his smooth calm voice tell us that Jesus Loves us, that there is no other God but him, that we are a possession of the Lord and he has a plan for your life. If you close your eyes and even say those words to yourself out loud they have a wonderful calming effect. After service which by the way started at 10am and did not get out until 12:30ish. No little 45 minute sermon here folks. Oh before the sermone started it was so wonderful to see each person walk into the sanctuary greet their neighbor and then personally bow ones head and pray to right their own hearts before the Lord and before the service began. There were also many people who raised their hands to God even shed tears as they heard of God's wonderful Love and Jesus's ultimate selfless act. It was refreshing to see that they could be open with their emotions before their friends and family with no concern of being stared at laughed at. it made me wonder how much closer each one of us might be if we were able to be completely open with our emotions before the Lord. It was a wonderful experience and yes we were the only light skinned people there. After worship there were trays of bread with Cayenne pepper rolled in and cinnamon tea that was wonderful while you ate and drank you of course had fellowship no worries and no one hurried to make it to a restaurant. They just had fellowship We were greeted and treated like an old friends. Next time we go we'll let you know, maybe you would like to join us.
Blessings........ Tiffany

Amasegnaloue.Thank you..

Wow we are vey busy with school starting, therapist coming back to see what progress has been made throughout our summer and help us to achieve some more milestones. Christy hopes to learn cursive this year. Samantha and Morgan are looking fwd to graduating. I get to have Timothy and Garrett home with me this year for schooling. We are looking fwd to Maggie Progressing in speech, Peter to walk and well we will see what wonders Henry and Camille bring.
Sorry starting to ramble... we wanted to thank everyone for their donations to the Toukoul Orphanage. At this time we have 28 bottles of Childrens Vitamins, 60 baby sleeper, hmm 40 or so baby onsies. Many hats, bibs and some cloth diapers. There are a few mini magnadoodles,toothpaste,school supplies and I am sure I am missing something. We also have some great medical supplies or did I say a bag of urine cups and at least a thousand Ziplock bagies. Thank you so much to everyone who has given because we live in the USA we will never know how much they will appreciate every single item we take over. We still have one more suitcase to fill. We would love to take over some water soxs any size any color, hair pretties, combs and size, hair grease found in your local ethnic section. Yes walmart has one. New socks and underwear. Really anything will be appreciated. They are only allowed to take four suitcases and two carry on bags. We are going to use all four suitcases for donations. What that means is Gary and Morgan will most likely have the same outfits on in every picture taken during their week in Ethiopia. The need is so great over there you just cannot justify not taking all the donations you can. They leave on Sept 2ND. If you have donations just let us know we will be happy to pick them up.
Have a wonderful weekend. ~~Tiffany~~

Tenaystillign!!! (Greetings from Camille)

And this is Camille. Isn't she beautiful? I can only imagine how beautiful she will be when she smiles. Camille does not have Down Syndrome or any other known special need. She is what we call a plain ol regular kid. We have not had a typical little one for awhile , not to worry I have gotten out my little chart so I can have an idea of when she should do what developmentally. :):):)
Initially we had thought we would bring home another son from Ethiopia about 5ish... We thought Garrett would be thrilled. He said no thanks I like girls better. Well glad to hear it we said!!! Then after much research and finding out the realities and well tortures that are done to little girls in Africa that "age" out. We decided on a girl. We did think she would be a titch older but again God is in control. One of the coolest things is that she will turn one Sept 12th... the day their plane is scheduled to touch US soil. (also my mother n laws birthday...she is a bit older then one though:) Thank you for welcoming our little ones so lovingly alongside us. May your next weeks be as joy filled as ours will getting ready for our children to finally come home. PTL!
~~~~Tiffany the very proud mother~~~~

Tenayistillign!!! (Greetings from Henry)

Introducing Henry...... This is the little guy God used to open our families eyes to what is going on "not in our own backyard!". We are so grateful to God for entrusting our family with such information and allowing us the means to do something about it. This is our fourth picture of Henry since starting our Paper pregnancy back in January. He has grown so much in the past months. It is beyond me what it will be like to finally hold him in my arms. We give Praise to God for holding our hands /hearts during this process. Just think in three short weeks he will be here, our son in his home with the family God knew would be his even before Henry was born God knew Gary would be his earthly Father and I would be his earthly Mother. If you know me very well you know I do not use the word Awesome much. It a word I reserve only for what I see as God works that are so far beyond my comprehension. Thinking about God knowing even before the earth began that one day Henry would be our son and that we would need to go to Ethiopia to get him well I think that is Awesome.~~~~~T~~~

That Book I was talking about!!!

Just an FYI because I cannot remember who all I was telling about the book "A Perfect Persecution" by James R Lucas. Well I found it on Amazon.com the direct link (if I grabbed it right) is http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0805423001/ref=sr_1_olp_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1250213837&sr=8-1 I first read this book I think a couple years ago. I could not believer the Authors insight. It was written in 2001 and at that time the publishers thought Mr. Lucas was writing WAY out of his time. Well it is only 2009 and well read it you'll be amazed at the insight God gave him so long (hehe) ago...
They start at .01 not a bad price.. I myself bought three. I have been loaning my borrowed copy out and have a waiting list to read it. Perhaps you can grab your own copy at Amazon.
Chow, Tiffany

~~~~Off To Ethiopia~~~~

Praise the Lord, we have passed the transition phase and are preparing for the final push... Well boarding a plane really! Last week we were given our travel date.. or was it the week before? Anyway Gary and Morgan are to be in Addis no later then Sept 5th. They are so excited. We have packed and repacked the little ones bag several times. Oh I just cannot imagine actually holding them for the first time. It is amazing to think that in not even a month we will have them here, in our home playing with our other children that have all prayed for their new little brother and sister for so long.
We now have computer at home and I am hoping by tomorrow I will be able to figure out how to introduce the kiddo's to you all. So check back and you will be able to see our two little beauty's. Oh by the way the little girl has been named!!
T