Happy Ethiopian New Year 2004

I SO wanted to attempt a great Ethiopian dinner tonight, BUT due to our crazy Monday schedule, and my enormous ET cooking handicap and NO local ET restaurants; instead of the traditional round favorite ET food: Injera, we went for Abey's favorite round American food: Donuts..ugh (I will attempt a traditional meal next week)

Happy New Year to all our Ethiopian loved ones!!!  (Yes it isn't a typo.  It is year 2004 for them.  They maintain the Julian calendar, while we use the Gregorian.)

Some pics from Friday night's soccer game:

Abey and Faith did AWESOME!!!

My Abey-Doll

Soccer fans are sure to know Barcelona's #22:  Eric Abidal; a great player from France,

BUT I have my own precious Abey-Doll who also happens to play soccer.  Here are some pics from his first ever organized tournament.  He was invited to play on a U9 team for the club's first tournament.  He was thrilled.

Walking to the field with his soccer playing big brother...sweetness!

Receiving his FIRST trophey...so proud!  I love you Abey doll!!

Abey and Faith have their first cadet game tomorrow night providing we don't get rained out.  

David's Experience

      In recognition and honor of the incredible job my wife did throughout the adoption process, there exists no amount of appreciation measurable in human terms that can be expressed for her time and persistence.  However, I feel it necessary to reveal the convictions and experience of responding to God's voice from which others can relate or learn.
     The word that comes to mind is "promptings".  When God prompts our inner most being, what we do next not only tests the constitution of our soul, but speaks volumes of our relationship with Christ.  Just after God revealed to Moses that he was to orchestrate the greatest exodus in hisory to free His people, Moses responded by arguing and making excuses as to why he could not fulfill this role.  In ways, this limited his ministry for the rest of his life.  Likewise, I realized I had mounds of maturing to do in my walk with God as He called us to adopt from Africa.  Admittedly, I, like most men that I talked to, was lethargic in my embracement of this idea.  After realizing that all excuses and reasons for not obeying this divine calling were selfish, I responded to God's voice with the assurance of His direction in each step.  Since two more kids gives the maximum our car allows, I thought this would be a good number to stop.  Many months went by with peaks giving us confidence in our decision, and valleys that trialed our patience.  Finally, we are happy to provide a family and home for two of God's children that seem to enjoy their living arrangements.
     Over time I have learned that our Heavenly Father desires more than mere intellectual knowledge of His truth, He wants us to experience it.  For Angie and me, it was adoption.  For others, His calling may be from one of a variety of directives.  Often, in order to obtain new heights in our relationship with Him and refine certain character traits, He will implement or allow a new experience taking us beyond our comfort zones.  It was a challenge for me to sever the walls that fortified my comfort in this area.  It may mean temorary setbacks and episodes of frustraton.  But its worth is priceless from a biblical perspective and the many blessings obedience brings.  Some rewards will not be evident until faith becomes sight.  Whatever the prompting, no matter how counter-cultural or counter-intuitive it may be, God desires the best for us in our submission to Him.  Not everyone is called to adopt, but we are to help "the least of these" and be a voice for those unable to do so.  We are all called to champion and assist the disadvantaged, the homeless, widows, and orphans in some capacity.  We are all commanded to affect the world, families and communities for better  in a biblically inspired way.  Though ill-equipped in skill, talent, and knowledge, I know there will not be a shortfall of grace to complete the given task.  If God is calling you or when He calls you to a new assignment, what will be your initial response?  There will always be a diffidence unavoidable with each step new and untried, yet the blessed gurantee of His unfailing love is the common thread through a mosaic seen perfectly only through the lens of eternity.  
     Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers.
           David Donaldson  
    

Heavy Hearted

Worst drought in 60 years.  What can you do to help??  Pray, Give, Pray

Humanitarian Crisis in East Africa from A Glimmer of Hope on Vimeo.

Way Overdue!!!!!

Ok, so I knew that jumping to 5 busy kids would probably limit my blogging to once a month, but I really didn't expect it to be over 2 months!!!
We are doing well.  Abey and Faith are doing amazing!!!  I am busy and thankful!!!
Faith is a fish, a true water girl.  Abey is growing to like the water more and more.  We are weaning down on all of our doctor appointments.  I have a High Schooler now and Devin is now with Doria in middle school.  Believe it or not school started last week!  I am homeschooling A and F and although that makes me super busy, I treasure this time with them.
I will let some pics tell the story of the past couple months:

Cedar Point:

Hope ya'll had a fabulous summer.

1 Month Home..A Few Days Ago

Wow!!!  We have been BUSY!!!  Doctor appointments, Oral surgeon appointment with teeth extractions (Guess how many dentists there are in Ethiopia???...In 2007 there were 48 in the ENTIRE country.  In 2009 the population of Ethiopia was 82,824,732!!!  So that's pretty much like NONE...ZERO.  Thank you dentists who go over to serve these precious people who cannot  get care.  So grateful that my child doesn't have a sore mouth anymore and that they were baby teeth), end of school year hoorahs, and 5 kid schedules.  All good, just busy, and wouldn't want to not be.
  We are all adjusting very well.  Learning in process.  Can't believe how well they are doing.  They are so smart, loving and funny.  They can have their moments too, but that's part of the learning/adjusting.  We really are having fun with them and are SO grateful they are here. If you call you will likely be greeted by a sweet Ethiopian accented voice saying, "Ello, Donasons",
followed by many giggles.  I love it when someone asks Faith her name and she says, "Faith Donason".  Melts my heart!  On the other hand when something has gone awry in her eyes, it does not melt my heart when she proclaims,"No love....(whatever or whoever it is)!", but it does make me laugh..most of the time.  And we will all miss it when she stops referring to everything and everyone she doesn't know the name for as "This one".  Dave will always call her "Faith, This One".

   Thanks for the Zoo Pass:  Nichols, Jacksons, Quades, Hammonds, Hirscheys and Mooibrooks!!! We LOVE it!!!!

  Thanks Aunt Jean, Sally and Walter.  Your gift provided this fun set of wheels!!!

Family Fun!!!!  I LOVE our family!!!!

3 Weeks Home

We are all settling in more everyday and definitely getting a rhythm to our day.
Last week and this week Abey and Faith have been in swim lessons to prepare for a summer around water:

They LOVE swimming, Faith more so than Abey, and have the best teacher!!

Faith definitely has the concept of zero down as she opened up her underwear drawer tonight and said, "Look mom zero!" LOL  Doing laundry for 7 is a load!!!  Sorry Faith they are on their way.

Remembering our heros this Memorial Day.

2 Weeks Home

I am praising God that we feel this good at 2 weeks.  We have our moments...sometimes long moments..meltdown moments, usually when exhaustion sets in, but "sleepy..NO".  Yes, bedtime is a chore at this point, and naps are a joke although I am trying to enforce a quiet playtime in the afternoon, but I PRAISE God that once in bed, they sleep soundly...did I say I am THANKFUL for that???  I am SOO thankful for that because I really feel pretty great throughout the day and I think they do too until maybe they don't get something they want or become jealous of one another.
   We have had fun at the park, and this weekend they swam for the first time...SO fun!!!  They start swim lessons this week and are so excited about it!!  Communication is really going well although there are times when we misunderstand one another.  Little miss is excellent at Charades and uses it to explain many occurrences which leads to much laughter.  "Tom and Jerry" is The Cat and the Rat according to Abey.  We go through more bananas than we ever have before and food in general has not been a big problem.
    So that's 2 weeks home.  We are SO thankful they are here and love them to pieces.  The D's are excellent siblings...so helpful and loving!!

We Had a Great 2nd Trip to Ethiopia

My hubby will soon make a post about our second trip to our children's homeland, but here's a quick synopsis:
For starters, we took our oldest child and it was the BEST decision!!!  We are so glad he desired to go and was willing to miss school.  The bonding between him and the kids was super healthy and great!

We were blessed to spend the week with a local family in the same guest house.  It will be so fun to watch their sweet daughter grow up:

We stayed at EGH again which we LOVE!!!  The staff are all amazing!!!!!

 Thank you God for all of your promises ( a pic from our balcony):

Had fun visiting some new and favorite places:

A trip to Addis wouldn't be complete without visiting our friend Birtukan who has an amazing story and ministry:  Yezelalem Minch (Everlasting Spring:  An orphanage/foster care program caring for 1000 children and single moms, and my source for coffee as the proceeds benefit these women and children.  I just have to share as World Vision sponsors ourselves that this amazing lady was a World Vision sponsor child growing up and has turned around and is returning the gift in a BIG way.  Sponsoring children, by the way, DOES make a life saving difference with a reputable ministry.  You can do it through Yezelalem Minch, World Vision, Compassion International, Wiphan, and Children's Hopechest to name a few. )

Goodbye for now land that we love.  So grateful you impacted the heart of our biggest baby:

We'll be back even though it means going through what seems like ENDLESS lines and a very long flight...You're worth it!!!!

And we brought back some pretty darn great, adorable, precious cargo that we are blessed to call our children.