Our first visit with Santa

Christmas is always a special time of the year. My favorite part is taking the kids to go visit Santa. Santa comes to the Train Depot in Monticello every year. Hannah, Luke and Owen have all grown up going to the depot to visit Santa. The kids get Santa all to themselves in a cute little room, just our family and Santa. It is amazing. No line of parents wishing you would hurry up and no screaming kids ruining your time with Santa. We get tons of pictures and lots of video.

Last year at this time, Ava and Eliza were only home 20 days before Christmas. We figured that introducing them to a huge white man in a bright red suit and a long white beard may throw them into culture shock, so we skipped visiting Santa. This year, the girls were very excited about meeting Santa, until we got there. When they spotted Santa behind the window talking to another little girl, both girls got very quiet. Then Liza kept saying "I no like Santa". We kept telling them that Santa was sooo nice and would love to meet them. Both Darren and I started getting nervous....you just never know how they are going to react. But luckily, they walked in and warmed right up to Santa. He was so sweet with them. Each year the kids get a poster to color with a special message from Santa. And he always gives the kids two candy canes, one to keep and one to share.
Enjoy the pictures!!

One Year Home

One year ago today, we landed in Chicago with our daughters after a very long flight from Ethiopia. There was a ton of snow on the ground and the girls had no idea what to think of all the white stuff. Ava touched it and did NOT like it at all. Now she is begging for snow.



I can't believe it's been a year. Some days it feel like just yesterday we walked into our home for the first time as a family of seven. Other days, it seems like years since we were in Ethiopia. I miss it, I miss the people, the food, yes, the food - believe it or not. I miss the feeling of everyone being happy with what they have, even in the face of extreme poverty. The Ethiopian people we encountered were sweet, friendly and happy to be alive. I think everyone should experience a third world country, whether it be Ethiopia or somewhere else. The time spent immersed in the culture has forever change my life and outlook on the world. For the better. It has made me a better person, more forgiving, less judgemental and much more compassionate.



Ava and Eliza's family have given us the biggest blessing and responsibility I can think of. They have asked us to love their daughters as they were our own, to teach them about God, and give them a wonderful life. Something unfortunatly, they were not able to do. I know many people feel it is best for children to remain in the birth family home. And I will agree, in some situations it is better to leave a child with their extended family. But - do to death, disease and unbelievable poverty, sometimes that is just not possible. Many times a birth family has to consider adoption or fear the death of their child. I cannot imagine having to even consider that. Can you imagine? Either I let my child go, or I let my child die? What would you do? It hurts my heart to even think of it.



We had the gift of meeting Ava's Mother and Liza's Father while in Ethiopia. I will NEVER forget that moment I first looked at them. I broke down crying. My heart ached for them. They looked so sad, but yet when we approached they both smiled and give us hugs. Unbelievable. The conversation was very hard going from Wolaita, to Ahmaric to English, but they were able to give us their blessings and asked us to teach the girls about God. That is a promise we will keep. We tried to explain to them that we will love them with all our hearts and we promise to give them the best life we can. I hope they understood. I just kept hugging them. When the girls are a little older I want them to understand how they came to be in our family. I want them to understand that their parents did not "give" them away, they "gave" us a huge blessing. To give your child to someone else to love is one of the biggest sacrifices you can make. It's not that they didn't love the girls. Actually, they loved them so much they were willing to sacrifice their "family" to keep them alive and well. Only Jesus has made a bigger sacrifice. So what does that say about the birth families? Well, it says that they are amazing people and stronger than I could ever be.



Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. James 1:27 Defend the cause of the weak and the fatherless; Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Deliver the weak and needy from the hand of the wicked. Psalm 82:3-4



Job 29:12
for I rescued the poor who cried out for help, and the orphan who had no one to assist him;

John 14:18
“I will not abandon you as orphans, I will come to you.

HALLOWEEN

Last night was Halloween. Ava and Eliza honestly had no idea what was really going on..... We talked it up and made it sound fun and not scary. We got costumes and told them all they had to do was walk up to a neighbor's house, knock and say "Trick or Treat" and they would get CANDY!!! They were very excited. But when the time came, the nerves came out!! Check out the pictures and their faces will tell the whole story.

As you can see, they were less then thrilled :)

As time went on Old Man Owen, taught them the art of looking super cute to get more candy

Liza, my frog, getting ready to JUMP!

Ava, my beautiful cowgirl.

Liza and Luke...we weren't really sure what Luke was supposed to be...some sort of Zombie SuperMan, I think :)

Owen, the Old Man......funny that he is wearing this mask. Darren has had this mask for years and it used to scare the boys to death. They hated it when Darren would get it out, seriously, they would run in the other room. Oh, they grow "old" so fast...pun intended. Hope everyone had as much fun as we did, ration the candy kids!!!!!

My Heart is Full

Today was the first day that our little girls were really away from us. Ava started preschool and Liza went to the sitter while I worked. I was so stressed out I was making myself sick. I know how the girls are...they rarely let me out of their site, so I knew this morning was going to be a nightmare. But much to my surprise, the girls did great. Darren dropped Liza off at Miss Mary's house and she went with no fussing. He then dropped Ava off at school and she walked up like she had done this a million times. No tears, no freak outs. Well, except for me :) I picked the girls up after I got off work at the bakery. Liza was outside playing with Miss Mary and was happy to see me! Liza and Mary had a great day, went for a long walk and played outside. As we left Liza said " I go walk with Me Mary"....she can't say Miss yet, so it comes out Me. She has talked about Mary all day. I am so happy to have a great friend that I trust so much who is able to watch Liza for me while I work. We are very lucky.

Then off we go to pick up Ava from school. I waited outside nervously with the rest of the parents. You could tell we were all thinking the same thing....."oh boy, I hope he/she had a good day" All the kids came out smiling with their backpacks and in their lines following the teachers.....and there was my little Ava with a huge smile and she walks up and says "hey Mom". I was in tears, again. I spoke with the teacher after all the kids we taken care of and she said Ava did wonderful. This huge weight was lifted, I was so worried about her. She still has her moments when she shuts down and won't make eye contact. But not today :)
My heart is so full and I am so happy. Let's hope next week goes as well............ :)

Here are a few pictures from today.


Ava and Owen having breakfast before school.



Liza eating breakfast....with that look of "don't mess with me"




Self portrait of Miss Mary and Liza


A few pictures of Ava at school

It's Official....again

Once again, I apologize for not keeping my blog up to date, but hey-I have 5 kids, what do you expect??? :)....This entry goes back to July 7th. We appeared in court and officially re-adopted the girls in the USA. They now have Illinois birth certificates, names changed and Ava's birthday was also changed. For the last 6 moths the girls have legally been named Meskerem Darren Bodine and Tabita Darren Bodine. In Ethiopia, it is customary to give the fathers first name as the child's middle name. I wasn't real keen on the middle names and I doubt the girls would be either come high school graduation when they had to walk across the stage............ :) So, they are Ava Meskerem and Eliza Tabita now. We also asked the judge to legally change Ava's birthdate. If you remember from another post we had Ava's wrist x rayed and it showed that she was really older than what her ET birth certificate claimed. It is not unusual for birth certificates to be really off, I've heard some kids were even 2-3 years off. Ava's was about a year off judging by her language, x ray and dental exam. So we, along with the doctor decided it would be safe to move her birthday up about 6 months to make adjustments for her learning english etc.

It is never a dull moment with the Bodine gang and the court room was no different. We entered and all was well.....for a short time. I was sworn in and answering questions when the girls started fighting over a pen. The baliff quickly came to the rescue with markers and paper......but they continued to want what the other one had, OF COURSE. Meanwhile, the judge keeps talking and the court reporter keeps typing....I look at her like "oh my gosh, I am so sorry". She just smiled and kept on typing. No one said a word to us about the commotion but I bet the look on our faces said it all. After all was said and done, Darren joked on Facebook that he was surprised that we weren't found in contempt of court!!

So, all paperwork is done other then post placement reports. YEAH!!! Here is our picture of the final outcome with our lawyers, judge and the whole Bodine gang.

and more and more

and more.....