2 Years!

We've been home with our first three (adopted) kiddos for two years this week! 
It doesn't seem like it's been two years... but then, it also feels like forever.


Sometimes I forget they have not been here since birth.


Sometimes when one of the girls asks if I gave her this toy "when I was a baby", 
I answer "yes"... then remember, she was 5 when she got that teddy bear. 


These three are so much fun.
I can't believe there were years they weren't mine.
I can't believe there were months when someone at a desk in an office said "you'll be too overwhelmed with three at once" and told us we couldn't be their parents.
I remember the day they said "okay".
I remember how I sobbed and didn't hear anything else my social worker said on the phone.
My mom was there... and she couldn't decipher my crying... so I mumbled "they said YES!"
I called my husband... who said "of course! Was there ever any doubt?" 
Ummmm... yes. There was doubt. I had doubt they would see it my way.


It's been a great two years!
We've learned so much... they've grown SO much (over 6 inches EACH!!)...
and yet, they still sing that song their first family taught them. 

Translated it says:
He is my Lord
He is my Creator
He is my God that I worship
we will never die
we will keep on moving
we will be named sons and daughters of the Lord

It's wonderful when I hear them singing this song.

Sometimes I think about their family in Ethiopia - and their family in Heaven - and I wonder... 

Does she look like her first Mother?

Does he have her nose? 

Do echoes of their laughter make it to Heaven?

Would their family recognize them today?

Adoption is born out of loss... 

but He makes beautiful things out of the dust and brokenness and pain.

Thankful for 2 years at home with these crazy littles!!