Gotcha Day

On this day we truly became a Forever Family in our eyes. Although we had court on the 17th, March 19th was the day we were given the opportunity to check Mawerdi out of the orphanage. This is our "Gotcha Day."  It was the day that we truly took her into our care FOREVER, and we will continue to love her FOREVER!

We celebrated of course by eating Ethiopian food, Mawerdi loves her Injera!

“Of course if you like your kids, if you love them from the moment they begin, you yourself begin all over again, in them, with them, and so there is something more to the world again.”

~William Saroyan

Court Date Anniversary

When we started Mawerdi's adoption process we bought her the American Girl Doll, Saba, which also contained a book "Saba" written by Jane Kurtz. We were thrilled to hear that Jane was having a book signing, a perfect way to celebrate the anniversary of our Court date! Jane does a wonderful job of bringing awareness of Ethiopia through books to kids, we have many of her books and can't wait to see what else she writes! She is an incredible writer who also does her best to give back to Ethiopia through fundraising libraries! This book signing event helped them raise enough money to complete the Harar Library, again only fitting since Harar is only about 30 mins from where Mawerdi was born in Dire Dawa.

What a perfect way to celebrate!

"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free."

— Frederick Douglass

The day that changed our lives forever

A year ago today we held our daughter in our arms for the very first time...forever changing our lives. We have been reflecting on how natural everything felt and yet it was still a leap of faith for us, we just followed our hearts...because from the very beginning we knew in our hearts we would be united with our daughter.

It was love at first sight!

Our daughter is truly the light of our lives, not a day goes by where we don't look into her beautiful eyes and tell her how much we love her, how special she is and lucky we are to be her parents. It is not uncommon to find us gazing at her in amazement, talking to each other about how truly blessed we are, she is a perfect fit for our family! We truly can't imagine our lives without her, yes that is cliche but it is also very true! She is not only beautiful but hilarious, smart, curious, courageous, stubborn and well we could go on. She is an extraordinary little girl who continues to amaze us each and every day. It is incredible to watch her progress and personality bloom over this last year! We see her continuing to light up the lives of everyone around her, she has that special something. WE are the lucky ones to be touched by HER light!

We love you Mawerdi, everything about you is perfect!

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."

 ~ Abraham Lincoln

“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”

~ Unknown Author


Here is our blog post soon after our arrival from Ethiopia, which includes a very sweet adoption video!

A year ago today....

A year ago today we landed in Ethiopia, our hearts full of excitement and our eyes ready to see the country that we have been dreaming about for so long! The drive from the airport to the guest house will be forever etched in our minds, we were in disbelief that we were finally in our daughter's birth country...about to meet her for the first time!

The next two months would be filled with adventure, learning, and several life changing experiences! Ethiopia will always hold a piece of our hearts, until we meet again......

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”

~ Don Williams, Jr.