Reflections of 2009

Of course this Christmas has been amazing. We have a precious baby boy in our home, all the way from Ethiopia. The journey all seems like such a blur now yet I daily am in awe of the miracle of MoMo.

On Christmas Day there were several minutes of tears and anguish. Thoughts of a two and a half year old boy in Ethiopia that was to be ours...........and then was not. Wonderings of "is he eating today?"..........."is he clothed today?"............"is he loved today?"..............Is he where he is supposed to be because I can't help but feel that he is meant to be with me, for in my heart I am his mom.

My biggest take away from 2009 is the way life can completely surprise you with the joy of an unexpected baby even while you are grieving the loss of a dearly loved toddler.

Life is this way, pure joy mixed with pain.

Now I ask the one who has redeemed me and I know has a purpose for my life, "what do You have for me in this?". My heart breaks for all the moms in Ethiopia who can't properly care for their children and all the children who suffer. May He find me faithful to, in any small way, do what I can to help the least of these.

Merry Christmas!

It has been a fun and productive few days in the Abbott home. I was inspired to stop being the only one in our family to shop, wrap, bake, do Christmas cards and all. So, Silas, Kate, and Maria have become the best little elf helpers you have ever seen! With all of us so busy Mo has been left to his own devices which has been a bit scary. (he actually crawled to the TOP of the stairs ~ note that at the bottom of our staircase is HARD wood floor ~ before we realized he could even climb a stair!) It has made the Christmas hustle and bustle a fun family time - crazy I know! This morning we took a little cocoa devotional break (pic above) and now they are all busy making cards. At 3 today we head to my folks (who live about one and a half miles away : ) ) for our traditional Christmas Eve time with them. Lots of FOOD and Lots of PRESENTS ~ my brother, Eric, and his girlfriend, Diane, should be there too. Tomorrow we will be home in the a.m. and have our traditional egg casserole and sticky buns (yummm ~ hope those go over well for your crew Mandy) and read the Christmas story. In the afternoon we will go up to Mike's folks (they are about 5 miles away!) and spend the evening with Mike's brother and family and have the traditional acting out of the Christmas story. Feeling so thankful for my amazing family and wishing you all a blessed holiday!

December 18 ~ Moges Michael Abbott forever

What is in a name? Well, quite a bit as we all know who have prayed and pondered over what to name each little blessing God has given us. Before we traveled to Ethiopia we decided to name Moges "Joseph Moges Abbott". Well, after travelling and coming home, and learning in the process that his name means "grace" we just haven't felt settled about his name. Yes, we sent out announcements that his name is Joseph Moges but here he is Moges, Mo, or MoMo. There is also a part of us that just doesn't want to take that cultural piece away of his given first name. So, Mike officially filed papers at the court today and we will have his court re-adoption on December 18th and he will forever be OUR Moges Michael Abbott. The perfect name for our blessing of a baby boy. His middle name is after the best man I know and it is also a name close to my heart since I have a brother named Michael who died when I was 6 and he was 11. Mo is our little gift of grace and we are so thankful.

Kate is Eight!

Oh yeah, she's sassy!

November 27 Kate turned 8 and we got to celebrate in Olympia with swimming in a hotel pool and fun with relatives. But, the party goes on. We had a big celebration here Friday night and will have a girls day out Saturday to see The Princess and The Frog.
Kate is our sunshine daisy girl. She loves drama, being contrary, singing, her new ipod shuffle loaded by dear Silas with .......... the Wicked soundtrack of course! Kate is a delight any way you look at it and we are so happy to have her at 8!

Mo on the Move

His Banner over Us is Love

We were recently hugely blessed by attending a silent auction for some dear friends who are preparing to go to Nigeria for 2 years with Free Methodist World Missions. We got to bid on a scripture wall painting that another dear friend was willing to donate. It was one of those win -win - win situations. I had wanted to ask my friend, Allison, (the artist) to paint on one wall of Mo's room when we were waiting for him but she is a busy mom herself and just couldn't ask. Well, now I got the paint and the privilege of paying money to Devin and Bridget for their mission and I am doubly blessed! Here are the pics of the outcome. I LOVE it ~ it is a section of our family verse from 08 that God used to confirm our adoption plans.

MoMo is 8 months old today

Couldn't resist a couple 8 month shots : ) Here with Silas on what I like to call a "brother break" from his homeschool work.

He still has no teeth but he gets more curls by the day! (Note the hair ~ Maria worked hard on getting it to part with some gel help)
And yes, he is on the move. Here he has mastered the backwards scoot and pulled over the mitten and hat basket in his way. (Note lack of hair gel in this shot!)
Here he was either working on his forward motion or preparing for his next baby yoga class : )

Maria turned 7 on the 16th!!

Birthday girl in new birthday outfit ~ she loves getting a new outfit on the morning of her birthday ~ last year it was a tinker bell outfit and we arrived in Disneyland on her birthday! Can't live up to that this year ~ sorry sweetie.
Yeah, Safeway. Didn't live up to my expectations of homemade but she LOVED it


Maria's love language is gifts. She LOVES receiving and picking out presents. We had a fun gymnastics party on Saturday and had 10 friends join in the fun (plus 3 siblings : ) ). Before that on Thursday my parents picked both the girls up from school, took them shopping, out to Red Robin, and then they spent the night there! On a school night no less. Maria got 2 new outfits, a new movie (Up), hair pretties, and high heel shoes. My parents joined us for dinner last night and Maria still has one more party coming with cousins, and other grandparents. She has been well celebrated!

Maria was the baby of our family until 4 months ago. It wasn't until she started kindergarten last year that I learned that she is actually a strong leader. She is kind, tender, smart, helpful, and likes to tell other kids what to do! : ) She is an amazing artist, a great organizer, very into pretty girl things, and detail oriented. She remembers the craziest things. She is a delight. It still saddens me that she had to spend the first 2 years and 8 months of her life in a Guatemalan orphanage but that just reminds me to celebrate her all the more and celebrate how the Lord brought her to us. We love you Maria Rosa! We are so proud of you and blessed beyond measure to call you daughter!

How Did I Get Here?

Somehow my new life really hit me this last weekend. I was home with Kate, Maria, Mo while Mike and Silas headed off to JUNIOR HIGH CAMP. What?! I actually get the giggles sometimes when I realize again the fact that I have a baby and a junior higher. The girls got to have their friend, Alex, spend the night and as you can see they had some great girl time. Maria was the ballet queen judge.
Mo pulled this trick on me over the weekend too. I set him down on the bath mat to get the tub ready for his first big boy bath (without baby tub) and he pulled himself up to standing beside me!
He loves taking baths and has recently discovered he always has a friend waiting to talk to him and make silly faces at him in that silver circle thing
Then he just generally is too cute for words as he screams with delight!

It was a Happy Halloween with Mo Slowly Improving

Mo has been improving very slowly the past couple days. His fever had hit 104 and he was one sick little baby. He hasn't had a fever since yesterday afternoon and although he didn't get to enjoy too much in the way of Halloween festivities (what baby does enjoy dressing up anyway!?) Mike and I definitely enjoyed the holiday more since we were not so worried. Here are a couple picks to give a flavor of the festivities. We had our usual low key Halloween including the traditional soup dinner at our neighbors before the men take the kids out trick-or-treating.

Silas the mad scientist, Kate Elphaba from Wicked, Mo the Tiger and Cowgirl Maria ready to head to the neighbors for dinner and then off to trick-or-treat
Me and MoMo on his sick Friday. It cracks me up that whenever I pull out the camera, he smiles. This one one of few smiles that day! On Thursday he had taken a serious turn for the worse and after a trip to Fred Meyer (where I was told that I sure was watching a cute chunky baby followed by "did you get him here at Fred Meyer?" - What are people thinkin!?). He started vomiting and as soon as I had him all cleaned up and had changed out of my thrown up on clothes and was rushing out the door to pick the girls up from school he did it again. We were both COVERED and fortunately I reached my dear friend Connie (who seems to always be there in a pickle) and she was able to collect all the kids from school and kept them an extra hour or two. Whew! I got Mo in the tub for a thorough cleaning of the vomit and he proceeded to poop in the tub! First time that had happened and on the perfect day! I did finally get him all cleaned up and by the time Mike got home his fever was up to 104 and I was a teary wreck! Well that gives you maybe too much of the flavor of what our days have looked like but all to say how thankful we are that our sweetie boy is much improved!

Pray for Mo Mo

Well, Silas had symptoms congruent with H1N1 flu from Thur-Monday this last week and now Mo is sick. He has had a 102 fever, coughing, fussing, little sleeping, and now a lot of congestion and some vomiting. He got sick Tuesday and seems to still be getting worse. I am one worried mama running on very little sleep so I send a big ask out into the blog world for prayer.

October in Review (and we haven't even reached Halloween yet!)

Mo Mo is 7 months old!!
I was co-chairperson of the girl's school's scholastic book fair. It just ended today (whew!) ~ it was tons of fun and exhausting. This is my Clifford debut! Maria is not in this family pic ~ she was about 10 feet away with her fingers in her mouth too afraid of Clifford to approach!
....slices of Heaven in everyday life...
Mo bonding with his grandparents ~ here with Mike's parents ~ Grandma Shari and Grandpa Dave
Mo appropriately bundled for the many soccer games!
LOTS of Soccer - here the ball is headed straight for Silas!
Mo is getting more time to bond with grandparents. Here he is with my parents, known as Gram and Papa
Kate and I made a day trip to Seattle to see Wicked. It was an amazing time with my drama driven daughter and it was totally............you guessed it! (Remember this in a couple weeks when I post Halloween pics!)

Wanted to balance out the last post with these pics of my beautiful girl who is an amazing big sister. She loves Mo Mo very much and he loves her!

Memories of Maria

So many things about this summer and our adjustment phase with Mo have brought back memories of bringing our Guatemalan Princess home 4 years ago.
Then: Silas, Mike, and I traveled solo with no travel group
Now: Mike and I traveled with 5 other (amazing) families to share the journey
Then: We were bringing home a 2yr 8month old girl, 90% of the families we met there (in hotel, embassy, plane) were bringing home infants
Now: We were bringing home a 4 month old boy, 4 of the 5 other families we were traveling with brought home toddlers and older
Then: We were in love and in awe of all God had done
Now: We were in love and in awe of all God had done

All of our adjustments with Mo seem to have pushed up some painful issues for our sweet Maria. She is crying more, asking more questions, and generally mourning her babyhood that we can tell her nothing about. She is precious and I have been motivated to put more of her scrapbook together. (right now it only has pics from our trip to Guatemala and the first week home~what a slacker mom!) Maria LOVES looking at pics of herself. I tend to avoid it because she always wants to know where those clothes are now. (no, I haven't saved her 2t, 3t, 4t clothes) She is a funny girl. She is a fashionista. So, I am scrapbooking and putting a couple nostalgic pics here from our first days in Guatemala. She was in shock as you can tell. She is still in the process of blooming and coming out of the shell she went into on July 29th, 2005. The day we took her from all she had ever known.

Beyond Cuteness

One of my friends (just call her Super Girl) recently threw me a shower. She patiently waited til I was ready and agreed to have it at my house where I thought the girls and Mo would be most comfortable. This is the only pic I got but at least it has the two gals who did all the planning but is missing the man of honor. : ) So, here is a pic of him in the fun new pack n play that he now sleeps in full time in the office next to our room since we are still not ready to move him further away to his crib in his room.
The shower was such a blessing as my living room was filled with woman I admire so much as moms. It was a reminder to me of the amazing community of support I have. Silas made a slide show CD of our pics from our trip that was so fun to show too.




Just had to share a few new pics as Mo is growing, sitting up now, eating varied forms of mushy food, and simply adorable!

Pondering Ethiopia

This is a post I have sat down dozens of times to write. To put more details from our trip and more thoughts from our journey. Yet each time I go to write I think I just need a little more time to process. I have come to realize that I will never fully process all that we saw and experienced on our trip and since being home. It is too big and too overwhelming. Too beautiful; too disturbing; too human; too real; too touching; too heartbreaking; too amazing; too foreign; too unfair; too humbling; too captivating. I have visited Haiti, orhanages in Tijuana Mexico, and Guatemala but nothing came close to preparing me to visit such a poor country where my sole purpose for being there was to meet and bring home my perfect, beautiful baby boy. Why? Why, do I have the privilege of being a mom who can devote all my time not only to meeting my children's basic needs of food and shelter but beyond that spend a majority of my time with life enriching activities like teaching the Bible, playing soccer, schooling, riding bikes, and playing games? Just before sitting down to write this I bought tickets to Wicked in Seattle to take my drama queen daughter in October. Moges' birthmom did not have these options. She had 2 options: keep and raise her beautiful son and hope that through begging on the streets he would be able to get enough food to survive, or relinquish him to an orphanage knowing that he would be fed and likely could be placed for adoption with a family from another part of the world who could meet all his needs more fully. Did she lack love for him in this decision? Certainly not. Did her heart break in this decision? Certainly. This element of our trip alone is too much for me to digest. I do not deserve the blessings I have been given. Years ago I struggled with God asking "why me?" saying "this is not fair" , saying "I deserve this" when Mike and I went through infertility. I now find myself on the complete polar opposite side of this struggle. Saying to God "I don't deserve this" , "I am getting more than my fair share of blessing" , and humbling asking "why me and not her?, she deserves so much more". Did He ever answer our prayers through a pregnancy? No. Did he make me a mother blessed beyond words with the 4 most amazing kids I know? Yes. Why? I don't know, it is more than I have earned or deserve and why I know Moges is the perfect boy for us. His name means "grace" and he is a gift of grace that we did nothing to deserve but has been given freely to us anyway. One of the families we traveled with brought home an 8 month old beautiful baby boy. As their story has unfolded they are faced with coming to terms with the fact that their new son has extreme special needs. They love him fiercely and are having to make decisions that no one should have to make. Their baby is precious and loved but will not have the ability to live life as we think of little boys living life even now that he will receive the best care possible. Their story could have been our story. Yet here we are with Moges rolling over, just about sitting up on his own and causing all of us to laugh heartily multiple times a day. There is no sense to make of this. I am a faith filled person and have not doubt in my God who created all things and sent His Son to redeem all things. Yet, I don't understand why this happened the way it did.
Well, these are a least a sample of my musings as I ponder and process our journey. God is good but life is not fair and goes beyond what my limited brain can comprehend.
May God find me faithful in all He has given me and called me to.

First day of School

There is something universal about laying out the first day of school outfits the night before! It should be noted however that Maria changed her mind the next morning!
Oh, the first day of school. I had as many butterflies as the girls after having quite a bit of angst over whether to send Kate or homeschool her. We settled on sending her back to her dual language school and I mostly have peace.
The girls were eager and excited after meeting their teachers last week. Mike started work late to come along too, of course worried that both girls might be clingy and need us both there. Nope. Neither were clingy and neither appeared to need either of us!
The first day of school has taken on a completely different dimension for me over the last couple years. In 2007 on the first day of school (before I was out of bed to get ready to take Kate to her first day of kinder) I got a phone call from a friend telling me that our mutual friend was at the hospital apparently about to lose her battle with colon cancer. I rushed to the hospital only to hear from her mom in the parking lot that she had died in the night.
Renie was vibrant, full of life in Jesus, passionate about her husband and 5 kids, funny, organized, steady, talkative, and beautiful. She taught me more about living an authentic life in the Lord than anyone and continues to be my best mentor in motherhood.
Fortunately her husband had agreed to let me bring dinner to their home on Wednesday (the first day of school) and stay for a chat. I brought Mo and Renie's two younger girls (13 and 16) doted over him terribly! They oohed and aahhed and asked lots of questions. Just like I used to do when they were babies! It was beautiful and oh so therapeutic to my still grieving soul. Renie trained, nurtured and loved her children better in the years she had than most mom's do in a lifetime. Renie still shines as a light for Jesus through our memories, through her children, through her husband, and through the countless lives (like mine) she mentored into becoming sold out for Jesus.
As I drove home with tears in my eyes I realized how good God is to have given me this time with this all public schooled family (both Renie and her husband worked in the schools) as a reminder of all the opportunities my children have to be salt and light.

Five Months Old!

There has been so much stirring in my heart as I continue to process our time in Ethiopia and the extreme poverty there. I hope to do a post soon to talk about some of that. In the meantime I thought I would share some fresh pics of Mo taken on August 19th - 5 month birthday!

"Cacooning"

Our adoption agency talked to us a lot about the idea of "cacooning" for the first few weeks or months home. With 3 older active kids that will be impossible once fall hits but we have taken it to heart for the remainder of our summer. We are staying home lots and just getting along together. We have had lovely days though I feel weary at times. Moges feels like a natural part of our family and it does my momma's heart so much good to see Silas, Kate and Maria love on him so well. So, here are some of our home "cacooning" pics. Life is full, beautiful, rich, and tiring but Mike and I know so well how truly blessed we are. Our early days of cacooning with Mike home were the best but he is back at work and the kids and I are figuring it out at home.