Welcome home pictures!!! 5 months late!

This was one of the best moments of my life!

The many months of longing to see and hold our baby finally came to an end

and we were all together......a family of 5!!!

This is my friend's little guy that she adopted a year and a half ago.

How cute is this sign!!

Here we are getting off the plane and seeing

our other children for the first time in a week!

I missed them more than words can say!!!!

Leaving was so hard....but coming home with our baby was so worth it!!!!

Look at how small she was! What a peanut!

All 5 of us together at last!! Praise God!

Lots of kisses for little sister:)

Big sister still loves to hold her all the time!!

I can honestly say, we are doing AMAZING! Having three children is definitely busy....really busy........but truly we feel so blessed. Our Ethiopian princess is so happy and is a ball of energy! We can't imagine life without her.

More Easter Pictures!

Easter morning!!

Here are the kiddos ready for the egg hunt.

Can you see any eggs??

Our little lady finding her yellow eggs.Our 6 year old finding her pink eggs.

Eggs on the light.....I had to help them get those down:)

All her pink eggs!

All his blue eggs!!

I told the kids to close their eyes and I would bring them their presents.

Our oldest two kiddos closed their eyes and our baby copied them.....so cute!!

Little miss with her much wanted umbrella:)

And if big sister wants an umbrella, so does our little man:)

Time to go to church!!

It was a wonderful Easter!

Thank you Father in heaven for sending your Son to take the penalty for OUR sins and give us eternal life with YOU!!!!

He is the King of kings!!!!

Happy Easter (LATE)

Easter Sunday!

I need to upload more Easter pictures.....when do mothers of three kiddos have time???

Picture update

Here are some pictures of our sweet little lady.

We are all doing really well.....but I must say,

my three kiddos sure keep me busy!!

Me and my little lady just hanging out:)

Our "diaper dudes" with their Ethiopian hats.

Sweet!

Look at her features!! She is so beautiful!!!

Just for fun!

My little man working on his experiment (just vinegar and baking soda)

He had to put his "safety glasses" on:). He is such a cool kid!

My grown-up lady! She is such a big help.

Man, do we miss her when she is at school.

Can you see her cute, little piggy tails:)

Dedication Sunday

We dedicated our sweet baby girl on Sunday and it was also her first birthday!!!! What a day to celebrate her life....a life that we are dedicating to Christ! We are so blessed to have this sweet child in our lives. We thank our Heavenly Father daily for her.

My thoughts are often with her Ethiopian mother. I have been praying for her lots. I want her to know what a wonderful child "G" is. The dress that "G" is wearing was a gift from her Ethiopian mother. I was teary all day long.....every time I looked at "G" I wished her Ethiopian mother could see her. I know that I am "G's" mother and I totally feel that!!! My love for her is NO different than the love I have for my other two children!! BUT I will never replace that special woman who loved her first! It was an honor to meet her while we were in Ethiopia and is an honor that God chose us to raise this amazing child. We love "G's" Ethiopian mother and pray that one day we will see her again.

Just for fun!

I know that I still have Part 3 left and also our welcome home pictures.

I will get to those as soon as I can.

Here are some pictures just for fun.

Seriously, this girl is beautiful.....inside and out!!!!

She has such an amazing personality!!

We are sick of the cold weather outside and tired of the snow.......

so we had a tropical party inside!

Here are my three kiddos ready for the "tropics!"

We have been home for a little over two months now. We are so in LOVE with our Ethiopian princess. She has been such a blessing to our lives. We feel so blessed that God brought us on the path of adoption. I will write more on that soon!

Ethiopia-Part 2 (meeting our baby)

This is right when we walked through the gate!!

We are at HH!!!!!!!

This is the first time we saw our baby girl.

I can't believe she isn't crying in this picture.....

she bawled right when she saw us.

This is my VERY FAVORITE picture of our whole trip!

Here is Mike holding our daughter for the first time.

She was so sad. His heart was broken for her.

He was teary eyed while he prayed over her.

Me feeding her a bottle...trying to get her to calm down:(

Look how sad she was.

My heart was breaking for her.

Trying to calm her down again.

Check out that laundry.....and that's not all of it!

She finally fell asleep in my arms.

(Can you see Jana and her little (BIG) guy...he is such a doll!! We miss you guys)

Time to lay her down for her nap.

We then went back to the hotel for lunch.

Here is our hotel.

After lunch we went back to HH

to get our baby and leave for our embassy appointment.

Here is the second time I saw her. She started crying (again) right after I took this photo.

Here we are on our way to the embassy.

Poor baby girl was so scared.