Obedience

This is Jesus speaking:

When you obey My commandments, you remain in My love, just as I obey my Father's commandments  and remain in His love.

John 15:10

How do we remain/abide in His love?

How did Jesus remain/abide in His Father's love?

Through obedience. 

Through obeying His commands.

What was the Father's command for His Son? What was His will for Jesus?

 But it was the LORD's good plan to crush Him and cause Him grief. Yet when His life is made an offering for sin, He will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the LORD's good plan will prosper in His hands.

Isaiah 53:10

 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.

John 3:17

God's plan was for His Son Jesus to die. 

To crush Him. 

For Him to suffer. 

Rejected. 

Beaten. 

Betrayed. 

To die. 

And Jesus willingly obeyed His Father's command. Jesus was obedient....to death.

I dare say Obedience = suffering & at times death

Dying to our flesh, daily. For myself, minute by minute.

Jesus loved His Father and wanted to please His Father.

The expression of His love was His obedience. 

He showed His Father how much He loved Him by submitting to His plan for Him to die. 

Do we obey God's commands for a reward? 

For a "blessing?"

Are we obeying Him just to  receive something something out of it? A personal gain? A desire of the flesh satisfied? 

Do we tithe "so we'll have all of our financial needs met" or do we simply tithe because God's Word says to tithe and because we love God and want to please Him we obey His Word?

Are we obeying to adopt so we'll have a cute little girl running around here with a pink tutu & converse and take super cute pictures of her to paste all over social media and my heart will be fulfilled having a girl to complete our tribe? 

I confess to you it has taken me almost 3 years to come to the place of obedience with out a reward along this adoption road. 

I say it to my kids all the time.

"My desire is for you to obey because you love me, not out of fear of discipline or for a reward."

What was Jesus' reward? Knowing He pleased His Father's plan for His life.

John 15: 11 is what got me this morning....

I have told you these things so that you will be filled with My joy. 

Yes, your joy will overflow!

John 15:11

Jesus knew that obedience brings joy! That's what He's telling us these things. 

When we obey we will be filled with HIS Joy.

The JOY of obedience.

Obedience = Suffering = Joy

I know, it's a mystery. 

Not all obedience is easy, fun, feels good. In fact is produces suffering. But that suffering leads to JOY! His joy. Not joy from things of this world. 

It sheds a whole 'nother light on:

The joy of the Lord is your strength!

Neh 8:10

Obedience leads to sacrifice. A giving up of something. A surrendering. 

All throughout scripture obedience resulted in sacrifice. 

When God told Abraham in Gen 12:1 to "leave your native country, your relatives & your father's family, and go to the land I will show you" he sacrificed & gave up a lot! And then God told Abraham to kill his only son Isaac as a sacrifice in Gen 22. Hello! But each time Abraham was obedient to God's command. 

God's sacrifice for us was giving up His one and only Son.

He gave Him up so that WE would have eternal life.

Obedience may not feel good, make sense at times; chances are its in direct opposition to what your flesh desires but if you obey God's command and His will, it will lead to JOY. And that joy will be your STRENGTH. 

 

Standing on the edge, choosing obedience, knowing it might result in a lot of suffering but knowing it will please the Lord when we walk in obedience is enough. 

Dying to self and living life through the lens of eternity, the forever battle until Heaven. 

May the things of Earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory & grace,

Kim

 On the shore of Haiti.

Other Plans.

There's so much to say.....

January: Our agency informed us that they officially lost their license in Ethiopia and we were given 2 decisions; Switch countries and remain with this agency or change agencies and start over with Ethiopia.

Listen, this battle of "changing countries" (this time it was Uganda) had been looming over us for what seems like a year and each time we have asked the Lord for guidance, a peace has never been given to make the change.

I found myself in Ps 143.

QUICKLY LORD answer me...
SHOW US where to walk...
TEACH US to do YOUR will....
HOLY SPIRIT LEAD US forward on firm footing...
FOR.THE.GLORY.OF.YOUR.NAME!

I begged this from the Lord. Cried out honestly.

Now in praying for the Lord to show us what to do, we researched what our options were.
Since Uganda was the other country choice I posted on a FB group for Uganda Momma's to please contact me bc I had some questions. Adoption peeps *UGANDA MOMMA'S HAVE THEIR JUNK TOGETHER!* Each country has their own thing going as far how how adoptions are facilitated and most adoptions from Uganda are done independently from an agency. I was allowed to be a part of private FB group for Uganda momma's and received straight up facts and also asked them if they had heard of a couple of names our agency gave us they were working with in Uganda.

The other option was to switch agencies and start all over. The one I REALLY DID NOT WANT TO DO! Trust another agency after what we have been through the past 2 years? Trust another agency after this one just all of a sudden lost their license? Trust another agency PERIOD? START OVER? We've been #1 for almost 8 months! We've waited over a year (which is nothing honestly)! All our paperwork is done! We are logged into ET already! START.OVER???? Bless....

There were several agencies still active with Ethiopia that I contacted and each time had very pleasant experiences and positive but also truthful information about the stability of ET adoptions. (A lot has happened since Christmas.) I also reached out to a few friends & strangers and asked for personal references regarding their experiences with one agency specifically. The feedback was positive and so I did more research on this agencies license in ET, called with specific questions regarding ethical adoptions, etc. After several conversations with this agency and pleasant email correspondence (listen, at this point I was in tears talking with the lady bc she was so nice compared to what we had experienced the past 2 years-I'm sure she thinks I'm cra) I gave it all to Roger and said "If we switch agencies this is the one."

Roger and I prayed together and separately and had one final call to make with our agency to talk with them one last time about some specifics and make sure we understanding exactly what the deal was.

We prayed together over the phone and made the conference call.

You know what, the Lord reveals His will in many ways. This time it was through a negative circumstance and we knew the second the phone call ended what the Lord would have us do.

We withdrew from our agency on Friday, Feb 14th (Valentines Day, I know, right?) and were accepted into the International Adoption Agency (IAN) family on Feb 17th.
We had just gotten out of a movie with the kids so we were all together as a family and sitting in the car when we got the call we were accepted. I was thankful to the Lord for Him allowing all of us to be together for that!

(this pictures is before we went in for the movie but describes perfectly the way we felt after the call. Minus the tears! ) 

Over the course of Feb 14-Feb 17 my body was acting very strange.
And by strange I mean all signs were pointing to the fact that I was pregnant.

I felt sick sick to my stomach, I wanted to eat certain things, several other woman things were happening &  my body physically was acting like it was pregnant JUST like it did with each of my pregnancies with my boys. 

Sunday morning I told Roger I couldn't stand it but after church we were going straight to the store to get a test.

So we did.....

 It was negative.

I was shocked honestly bc I just felt physically exactly the way I did when I was pregnant with the boys.

I'll be curious to know further on down the road what, if anything, was transpiring around this time and welp, let's face it, we are paper-pregnant again to say the least ;) And have a new beginning with a new agency.

Was starting over what I wanted to do. Ummm NO. But, it was exactly what the Lord had in mind.

Here are a couple of testimonies of what He has done since we've changed agencies.

Remember that $20,000 grant we received like right at the start of our paperwork process several years ago? If you don't remember you have GOT to read about what He did here!

Well, we had a balance of $17,600 left over.

When IAN sent me the fee sheet, guess what the cost totaled?

$17,600!!!!!

Only the Lord y'all. 

We have literally started over with paperwork.
Application fee, application paperwork, Program paperwork, re-doing our Dossier-whole 9 yards.

Now, usually you are not placed on the dreaded wait-list until all of your documents have been complete.

They allowed us to enter onto the wait-list while we are gathering our Dossier Documents!

Only the Lord y'all.

Here is the other thing.

Our previous agency was classified as a Christian Agency. This new agency is not.
Our prayer is that through this the Lord will use our case, use us, to draw someone who might be lost to salvation in Jesus Christ. If one person comes to saving faith in Him, ONE person, this starting over will be worth every.single.tear.shed!
Will you pray for us? For all of our interaction with this agency that they will see Christ? 

 Can I be real for just a minute?

We have reached the point in the process that honestly, in my own heart, it's not even about the child/children. It's about me and the Lord.

There has been some MAJOR sanctification going on up in here.
When you take your eyes off of your circumstances and FIX them on the Lord, it changes everything.

Do I still long for her? Absolutely.
But do I long for the Lord more, you bet your bottom dollar.

Do I still think of her and pray for her? Yes ma'am I do.
But do I desire His Word above anything else, YES.I.DO!

The story of Esther along with the story of Lazarus have comforted me a lot during this season of my life. (There are sooooo many things to glean from these stories!) And have cause me to examine my motives, my view of the Lord's character and His glory & His holiness.

After Jesus received word that Lazarus was sick, instead of leaving & going to him immediately, He choose to stay where He was for 2 more days. (John 11:5)

Then He told His disciples "Lazarus is dead. And for your sakes, I'm glad I wasn't there, for now you will really believe. Come, let's go see him." (John 11:14)

After Jesus finally arrived, He was told Lazarus had been in the grave for four days.
Mary fell at His feet and said "If you had only been here, my brother would not have died!" (John 11:32)

What if Jesus would have came immediately when He heard Laz was sick? He more than likely would have spared his life and sure, people would been astonished.

BUT: 

What would have brought the Lord more glory? 
What would have caused more people to have faith and believe in Christ?

Healing a sick man?
Or raising a dead man who had been in the grave for four days?

What would have made Mary more comfortable and pleased her more?
For Jesus to come quickly and heal Laz before he died? Or allow him to die & be buried for 4 days?

I have been Mary. I have wanted the Lord to come quickly and complete this part of our adoption process by giving us a referral and bringing Lily home.
Don't you see how hard & painful this is Lord? I know it's within Your power to do this! Come quickly and fulfill this promise! Make this roller coaster end.

But Jesus choose to delay in coming. He waited for Lazarus to die. And he was really dead. Like 4 days dead.
But oh when Jesus called Lazarus out from that grave!

After Jesus had the stone over the entrance of Lazarus' grave rolled away He said to Martha "Didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believe?" (John 11:40)

After Lazarus was called out of the grave and came walking out alive the Bible says "Many of the people who were with Mary believed in Jesus when they saw this happen." (John 11:45)

So, if the Lord will receive more glory from a 4-5 year adoption rode, that has been started and re-started, hard, painful & bumpy than a smooth, 2 year rode---we.are.willing.to.go.there.

If more people will "believe in Christ" & place their faith in Him because of this delay---we.are.willing.to.go.there.

All along the way knowing He is sovereign- moving in situations, preparing hearts, working behind the scenes in places our earthly eye can not see- we are choosing to see and believe with our spiritual eyes- that He will finish what He has started, His plans will prevail. No matter how long it takes. No matter how painful it is. No matter how much it costs--we.are.all.in.
 
We can't thank you enough for all of the prayers lifted up on our behalf. On Lily's behalf &  the thoughtful tangible gifts along the way. They have encourage us so much! His little nuggets of mercy along the way and through grace we receive them.

As far as numbers go we are on the lists:

Infant Girl: 40, #24 of active families

Toddler Girl: 39, #26 of active families

Sibling group: 24, #17 of active families

So we are on 3 different lists & our #'s on the wait list are :
 #24
#26
#17

Not too bad I think! Honestly I was expecting a WHOLE lot worse!

Questions:

*So how long now?

The reality is that it could be years. They are giving us the general 18-24 month approx time but new requirements have been added to the process that will lengthen.

What's this sibling group stuff about?

From the start we felt the Lord wanted us to be willing to be open to a sibling group. Meaning if Lily has a brother or sister they would come home with us.

Over the past few weeks we have opened up our age range a bit & listed a few special needs.

We are now open to a female 0-5 & the second child 0-11.

Can I be real again?

I'm praying she has an older brother who is 11. I know, it's crazy. Please read 2 Cor 5:13.
This boy momma heart of mine.... I can't explain it. 
The Lord hard-wires us for His plans. It could include a single female or it could include 2 females or it could include a female and a male. Only the Lord knows.

Do you have all of the money you need?

No. We are always saving back in our Adoption Savings account for when it's time travel and if there are 2 children we will need to raise approx $7-10,000 more. He will provide. I'm confident of this!

What about you? Do you have any questions?

We've been continuing on with life just as He would have it.

I'm entering into a season of busy-ness with work, the kids have 1 month left of school, and Roger just got back from Cuba. Nothing has slowed down :)

not by sight.

2 Cor 5:7

We are keeping our eyes on Him, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. With Him nothing is impossible and with Him we can do anything because He is our strength! He's all we want, He's all we long for. More of Him and less of us. Less of satisfying our own comfort and ease. We are taking up our cross and dying daily to our flesh all for His glory and to walk intimately with Him.
Do you know Him? Have you trusted Him as Lord and Savior of your life? I would love to talk with you if you haven't!!

May the things of Earth grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory & grace,


Kim

Staying & Standing

Sometimes when you're mind and emotions are so wrapped up in making a decision is can make it even more difficult. And if I'm honest, for me, makes it almost impossible to pray about the situation.
That's where I found myself in praying about staying with Ethiopia or changing countries. Quit honestly I got tired of thinking about myself and how I was feeling or how confused I was or how foggy my mind was. I couldn't just sit and read the Word without trying to filter every.single.passage. through the "we've got to make a decision lens." I just wanted to read it. Cause you know we can manipulate anything to go our way and slap "This is the word Lord gave us about this" behind it. Does that make sense?

After talking out & praying with a trusted sister in Christ {if you don't have one or two of those, I encourage you to ask the Lord for one/them} about the situation I decided to just start praying for my husband. The head/leader/king of our castle/captain of the boat, that's what we refer to him as anyway :)
The focus of my prayer was centered on Roger walking blameless before the Lord, asking the Lord to convict him of any sin so he could have the Lord's ear and hear clearly from Him. That He would speak to Roger and give him direction for our family, that Roger would abide in God's word and be very sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

All the while it has been time to update our Home study.
Paperwork expires and things have to be updated.

So we began re-doing things.
Fingerprints.
Medicals.
Employment verification.
Financial Information.
Etc.

It was an opportunity to see some of the same folks we had seen a year ago.
The Lord gave us opportunities to talk about that His faithfulness and share a little more about the process and domestic/international/DFACS/agencies; all sorts of stuff.

Ps-add in a week of bronchitis for Roger and round of antibiotics for me and we managed to come out alive.
Remembering October....

We're always thinking of you sweet girl.

You're always on our mind.

In Numbers 13 God promised this land to His people. He said it was theirs and that they should take it. When His people saw opposition they became cowards and started to not believe that what God had said was true. There was a nation in their way and they didn't believe God would deliver them over that nation. They sent spies and saw the land was good, but feared the the people who were in the land. They started to grumble (because it wasn't easy) and wish they had died in the wilderness or in Egypt  The promise land standing in front of them they wished they had died lost in the wilderness or as a slave in Egypt! So Moses and Aaron fell to their faces and prayed. Through their prayers, their faith, God forgave His people but there were still a consequence. God allowed an entire generation to be wiped out before giving them victory of the promise land! Moses said something so simple, but so amazing ... v. 41 - "Why are you disobeying the Lord's command? This will not succeed!" God had already delivered that land to His people, but His people were afraid that the enemy was too big, to strong and they didn't think they could conquer them. 
We will not be afraid! The Lord will give us victory for His name sake.
He gave Roger a Word and a peace.

We are staying. We are standing.

We are staying with Ethiopia.

*deep breath*long sigh*

This whole situation reminded me of 3 years ago THIS MONTH that I turned in my notice to my

-full time 8-5
-consistent paycheck
-health insurance
-retirement stuff
-incredible relationships with people I love dearly and still do
-highest paying job I'd ever had
-job that I knew if I left I'd never find another place like it, where we prayed together every morning before the work day began, I mean ALL the employees prayed together
-BEST JOB I'D EVER HAD

to be a stay at home/work at home momma and trust the Lord with His photography business full time.

SCARED TO DEATH- HARDEST DECISION OF MY LIFE.

We could have stayed at the bank where it was

-comfortable
-consistent
-routine
-planned
-safe
-dependable
-easy

And the Lord would have still loved us and used us and blessed us.

Leaving  required us to trust the Lord more than me staying.
Leaving required us to cling to the Word more than me staying.
Leaving required position us to rely on Him for everything.

Has it been easy? Absolutely not. Has everything made sense? Absolutely not.
But I tell you one thing, I would do it all over again.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

Eph 3:20

And we are.

And that's exactly what we are trusting Him for with staying with Ethiopia.

It would be easier for us to change countries, taking matters into our own hands getting paperwork going, SEEING movement, getting the ball rolling, speeding things up.

We are trusting Him for the hard. We are trusting Him for Ethiopia. He is faithful and we know it.
And we will wait. For how long? Until He tells us to move.
Faith of a mustard seed. Faith.of.a.mustard.seed. waiting for this mountain to move.

Prepare the way of the Lord,

Make straight in the desert

a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be exalted

And every mountain and hill brought low;

The crooked places shall be made straight

and the rough places smooth;

The glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

and all flesh shall see it together.

Isaiah 40:3-5

I can't tell you enough how much your prayers have meant to us.
You hear people say or read people type "praying for you" but to KNOW someone is sincerely thinking of you and bringing you to the Father in prayer is humbling as all get out.
Cherished brother and sisters in Christ, we have felt the body of Christ by your prayers. Thank you for every hug, every text, every FB message, every blog comment.

We are believing the Lord for this license issue. Please continue to pray with us.

May the things of Earth grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace,

Kim

T-6 / Madagascar / GOOD NEWS!!!!

You may have seen this on my FB or Instagram feed last week:

This is GOOD NEWS my friends!! Our agency emailed us to let us know the license had been renewed & we were good to move forward with waiting for our daughter!!
I can't say thank you enough for the prayers, messages & texts of encouragement. The body of Christ as it's finest! THANK YOU!!

I also referenced a "fight" aka "ware zone" that ensued during the month of agony in between the bad and good news. I wanted to share what I fought in hopes of encouragement!

When we were told the news of the hold/government changes our options were:
-Wait out the changes in Ethiopia
-Switch Countries

My prayers quickly turned into ones that sounded like this:

"LORD!! What do we do?!?!?! Do we wait out these changes that could take a year or more or do we switch countries? But I don't want to switch countries Lord! My heart is tied to Ethiopia!"

"My heart is tied to Ethiopia" = prayed for, as in asked the Lord to send rain for good crops/jobs, for Him to send missionaries to pray over her & love on the people/children in her orphanage & spread the Gospel, for Christian radio to hit the airwaves there & saturate their hearing with songs that tell of our God & His story, longed for, studied about, eaten their food, looked into the eyes of beautiful Ethiopian people, talked everyday about, dreamed about, purchased their music and the list goes on and on.

The thought of "switching countries" did NOT float my boat, in fact it made me, still makes me sick to think about. "Switching countries" was NOT an option for me the 1st couple of weeks into this pause.

{Not to mention the fact that Roger kept reminding me that the Lord gave us a specific Word that our daughter was to come from Ethiopia.}

A few days into the news we learned that we indeed had a few other options we could seek out.

We could switch to an Agency (who's license was still active) that include an Ethiopia program and be placed on their wait list OR we could seek out waiting child lists' and choose a child from a list.

I reached out to a couple of lists & emailed an agency & the response was like a door closing to those options.

So back to square one. Wait or switch countries.

Here ensues the battle......

-Is this what You're doing Lord? Closing the door to ET and pointing us towards another country?

-Is this my flesh desiring to switching countries so we can get this show on the road (see some movement?)

I needed discernment.
{the ability to decide between truth and error, right and wrong. Discernment is the process of making careful distinctions in our thinking about truth. In other words, the ability to think with discernment is synonymous with an ability to think biblically.}
Biblical discernment is explained PERFECTLY in this post by John MacAuther

I knew that if we were to change countries it would be to Madagascar. 

{It's the island everyone leaves off when thinking/talking about/printing Africa.}

The Madagascar program opened up in our Agency soon after we were approved & into our paperwork. I remember the day I found out and thought, a) Where exactly is Madagascar? & b) How cool to adopt a child from there! And honestly never thought about it again, until now.

I am not exaggerating when I say that the thought of changing from Ethiopia to Madagascar literally made my heart hurt, it LITERALLY made my heart hurt. As soon as the thought came to mind I would make myself quickly think of something else. And I mean, with a quickness!
My track record with the Lord when praying over decisions/seeking His will has been asking Him to literally put it in front of me all the time, show me in His word, make it in neon pink all over the place, door WIDE OPEN, in other words Lord, make it CLEAR! No gray, no guessing, no hesitation. OR slam the door shut & prevent us from moving foward.

-As I somewhat allowed the idea of switch countries stay longer than a millisecond, I called a adoptive momma and while talking about the situation with her she shared with me that in her two adoptions, the Lord changed their country. {sick feeling}
-I walked into Publix and literally ran into a buggy filled with markdowns of Valentine Day cards and guess what theme they were, Madagascar (the movie). {sick feeling}
-When I would log onto FB random posts involving Madagascar would pop up. {sick feeling}
-I started dreaming about it. {sick feeling}

The list goes on and on. And on and on. It was beginning pop up everywhere I turned.
Except for the Word.
I told the Lord I did NOT want this to be me running wild with my own desires. Seeking this out on my own. Wanting this just to see us moving. And at the same time was begging Him to make it clear if this were His doings or not.
Did He tell us Ethiopia to get us into Madagascar?
Did He close the door to open another one?

DO YOU SEE MY STRUGGLE HERE????????

I slowly starting Googling Madagascar. Images/maps/religion/culture.
I looked for maybe 5 min's and closed it out.
{SICK FEELING}

Emily and I went to see Les Mis in Charleston, SC a couple weekends ago. That morning in our hotel our conversation ended up on Madagascar. We stumbled upon a blog of a family in Atlanta that was adopting from Madagascar, watched a video of an adoption from Madagascar & saw beautiful pictures of Madagascar.  That afternoon after we ate lunch we turned to walk down a side walk and a trolley pulled up beside us. Guess what plastered on the side of it?
MADAGASCAR

All I could do was look at her and laugh.
WHAT IN THE WORLD LORD???

I told her on the way home I guess it was time for me to get serious about praying about Madagascar.

I still had that hurt. That sting every time I thought about it.

BUT, GOD....

The Lord is so gentle. He's such a gentleman.
The sweet reminder of just being willing was remembered.

The willingness that got us here in the first place.
The willingness of two years ago when we said "Lord here is our YES. Whatever you want us to do, whatever the cost, whatever it looks like, whatever it takes, we are willing."

Maybe He just wants us to be willing to change our countries.

Willingness doesn't mean it's not going to be painful or you won't be scared to death.

It's just simply a surrender of my will and acceptance of His.

So I told Him last Tuesday morning on the way to Bible study. I'm willing Lord. It hurts to think about, it's not what I want, but if it's Your will, I'm willing.

That afternoon is when we got the news Ethiopia was GOOD TO GO & our pause was OVER!
That.after.noon!!
We were staying with Ethiopia!!!
I can't put into words exactly how I felt.
The THANKFULNESS that He allowed us to stay with Ethiopia.
The THANKFULNESS that the changes/decisions only took 1 month. ONE month people!
The RELIEF of the battle of switching countries was over, just like that. In 1 minute all of the sleepless nights constant prayer, insane emotions. Over, just like that.
The REALIZATION that the Creator of the universe bent His ear down & heard my cries and even answered me.

He's so good y'all. He's so faithful.
He only wants your "YES."
He only wants your willingness.
Let Him decide the rest. What it will look like & be full of. He'll show you and it will be very clear!

6 Months. We've been waiting six months.
Because waiting is NOT paused. It is a slow play.
Waiting has never felt so good....

As soon as I pray, you answer me, you encourage me by giving me strength.

Ps 138:3

Yes, the Lord has done amazing things for us!

We are glad!

Ps 126:3

Some friends & I have had this on repeat this week.

Have a listen. 

It's a good one :)

May the things of Earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory & grace,

Kim

T-4.25

We've been a waiting a little over 4 {FOUR} Months!!!

It just zipped on by just like that!

And since it's been several weeks since I posted last there are lots to fill you in on what we've been doing waiting on this little African Princess to make her arrival.

A few months ago Emily & I took a road trip to Atlanta. (That's one of our favorite things to to! Shout out to our incredible husbands who give us to time steal away!) She told me that she had surprise lunch plans for us & of course I got excited! It KILLED me but I literally had no idea where we were going until we pulled up in the parking lot & saw this sign:

 Y'all I could barley get into the dern parking space I was so excited!!!!!!!!
An AUTHENTIC ETHIOPIAN RESTAURANT!!!!
Of course I was tearing up before we could get in the door good! #tearball

We walked in to Authentic sites, music, art, people, clothing, pictures, baskets, food, you name it and it was real & straight from Ethiopia!!

Our waitress greeted us when we walked in & it.was.SURREAL! This young woman was beautiful & I couldn't help but think, my daughter! My daughter will resemble this when she is grown! SHE.WAS.BEAUTIFUL! Like, I couldn't stop starring at her.

When she sat us, it was sort of an awkward moment because I was obviously in a little state of shock/excitement/overwhelmed/emotional/every other feeling under the sun so Emily explained to her that it was our first time there & I was in the process of adopting a little girl from Ethiopia. She was very kind & patient & let me ask all sorts of questions. Part of me wanted to keep asking her questions just to hear her speak <3

Her name is Tizita. (tuh-zita) It means "melody" or "song." The way she described it was like as mother being filled with a melody/song (joy) over her baby. She just recently move to Atlanta.

We told her we wanted authentic ET food, we wanted to try everything & that I couldn't handle spicy food.
She handed us the menu:

And began to explain how it worked.
First let me point out what the Greeting says at the top:

"Sharing food from the same plate, and the breaking of injera, to pick up a mouth full of the chosen dish, signifies the bonds of friendship."

It was such a special treat to have my very first taste of Ethiopia with my best friend! What a cool thing to share with her! Our bond exceeds an injera breaking meal any day! #Jesus

Please Note: we passed on the Gursha tradition ;) HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

While we were waiting on our food I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to get up and walk around to look at things. We had the whole place to ourselves! The Lord just arranged it that way so strangers wouldn't have to see my cryface. :)

Lots of DJ equipment behind those curtains. They like to dance ;)

All of the table tops had different things on/in them.

Some were filled with seeds & all sorts of things like this one below.

Others were filled with pictures of Athletes (running of course) & pictures of their beautiful land.

This one above is of the alphabet.

You have to know the condition of my heart right now.

It's so wanting any.little.thing it can grab to soak in & know about where/who our daughter is. 

What music she is hearing, 

The language spoken around her, 

The distinct look of her people, 

Their culture, 

Their food

Their hair, 

Their skin, 

anything. 

And ALL of it was right in front of me and I was just plain ole' overwhelmed. 

It was like I had stepped inside Ethiopia for just a little while & got to feel it. 

This process is causing us to fall in love with another land/country/people we have never met before & our hearts are becoming tied there. 

I got back to our table, my heart so full of joy & longing for her at the same time.

The tears just came out.

So thankful, so so thankful to be there.

And I'm not exactly sure when we will be able to finally see her sweet face but one thing I'm sure of this...

I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

Ps 27:13

We will see her! 

So the food came, we drank tea & shared our meal from this big circle thing with all sorts of stuff on it!

Some we recognized & some we didn't but tried.

So this is what you do, you unroll the rolls of injera around the edges, tear off a piece & use it to grab whatever your going to eat & then put all of it in your mouth.
The injera bread was spongy & porous & almost tasted like sour dough bread a little.

I'll be real honest with you, Tizita nor the owner of the restaurant would tell us what Tripe was when we ordered it. We tried it all, even the HOT AS FIRE spicy beef. I mean it was like someone was in my throat with a little knife jabbing me! H.O.T! After we both tried the Tripe Tizita & the owner came over to check on us & I asked him exactly what is tripe. He said "you know, tripe" and proceeded to rub his abdominal area and told us it was the stomach/intestines of a bull. Ummmmm.... WHAT? Yes, bull.

In other countries/cultures they just eat different things. Things other than Filet Minon are delicacies!
Anyway, the food was VERY good and filling! A FUN new adventure for sure!

And then it came time to leave.
GAH I'm such a tear ball.
I had to say out loud "get it together Kimberly!"

He is good Y'all. The Lord is so good.
We may not have her yet but He is giving me opportunities to get closer.
Opportunities like eating lunch at this place & experiencing a little bit of Ethiopia with my best friend.

He know, He knows my heart & my weakness & hears our prayers.
The Holy Spirit groans with us in accordance to His will. (Rom 8:26)
Would you pray with us, would you groan with us, that He would bring her home this year?
Especially those of you who have waited for your precious ones from across that big ocean.
That 2013 would be the year she is forever ours?

Emily, thank you for an unforgettable/precious day! Best.day.EVER! I love you my friend!

Thank you for your prayers & kind words of encouragement!
Every person who has asked/said "any news" "how's it going" "I'm praying for you guys".
Oh Lily you are so loved already baby girl!

Tomorrow is Christmas Day in Ethiopia!! I'm praying this is her LAST year in Ethiopia!!! That next year she'll spend Christmas with US!!!

Here's an explanation to their calendar system: http://goafrica.about.com/b/2012/08/27/recelebrate-the-year-2004-in-ethiopia.htm

It's actually pretty cool, I mean over there it's the year 2004!

Our Christmas this year was great! Started out a little weepy feeling like their was one missing, because there is BUT the Lord was ever present & filled us up to the brim with thanksgiving! We have a lot to be thankful for, esp this year.

This was probably my favorite gift & it wasn't even for me:

I have TONS of these in my momma's attic. I was a Cabbage Patch fanatic when I was a little girl!
I can't WAIT to give this to her!!!

We are still waiting& expectant! Our estimated wait time is 6-12 months. It could be longer.

Thank you for asking, thank you for praying.
Thank you Lord for grace during this time.
Do what only you can do, Lord!
Find Your glory here!
Our eyes are.on.YOU!

May the things of Earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory & grace,

Kim

Ethiopia

*Ethiopia is almost twice the size of Texas
*The favorite drink of many Ethiopians is bunna (coffee). Bunna is drank in a unique and traditional way known as a "coffee ceremony". First the coffee is roasted, then ground and placed in a Jebena (coffee pot) with boiling water. When ready it is then served to people in little cups, up to three times per ceremony.
*Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa and one of the oldest in the world.
*Ethiopia's staple food is injera, a spongy bread made of a unique crop only grown in Ethiopia called "teff." Injera is baked in a clay pan and eaten with sauce made of either meat, ground grains, beans or vegetables.
*The lively and irresistible eskista dance is performed almost entirely with the shoulders.
*Soccer is the most popular sport
*Ethiopia is the fourth poorest nation in the world with nearly 5 million orphans struggling every day to survive.
*Nearly 2 million people are infected with HIV and many children will watch their parents die of the disease.
*One in every ten children do not make it to their first birthday and one in six die before their fifth birthday

Ethiopian Flag

*Red stripe stands for power, faith and blood
*Yellow symbolizes the church, peace, natural wealth and love
*Green represents the land and hope.

The colors were also interpreted to have a connection to the Holy Trinity, and the three main provinces of Ethiopia.

*Star represents unity of the people and the races that make up Ethiopia.
*The five rays on the outside of the star represent prosperity and the blue disk represents peace.



Awesome Organizations:

Visiting Orphans
Ordinary Hero
Created for Care
Small World Adoption Agency
AMG International
Red Thread Sessions