Adah Derartu and Anna Mihret on the zip line

On Thursday when we went to Indian Hills Camp with Maranatha Ethiopian Christian Fellowship One of the activities the kids did was the zipline. Adah climbed the big ladder and had Faith helping her. Anna wanted to and I discouraged her because she is usually so afraid of anything that I didn't want to go through the trouble of getting her up there and then needing to climb up and carry her down. Just before it was time to quit she appealed and asked could she at least please try it. I told her yes and asked Hack if he would mind her going. She got her gear on, climbed the big ladder, sat at the edge of the ledge, grabbed the rope and took off. I was so proud of her! I couldn't believe it! They thought that Adah was the youngest one to go down the zipline. I think the helmet was bigger than she was!

Walking up with Faith

Ready for takeoff

She's off!



Coming back



What did I just do?!!

Anna climbing the big ladder up

She's off!

Flying through the air



I'm so proud of myself!!

Good job, Anna! Brave girl!



 



 

Camp week with our Ethiopian church

Look how high her feet are!

Abi Mulu

Addis helping the little ones

Swinging and Swinging and Swinging

Hi Mom!

Once a year we spend a week with our Ethopian church family at a day camp for the kids held at the Ethiopian church. One of our local kids ministry camps comes and trains the older kids on Monday, then Tuesday and Wednesday are games, free play, camp songs, skits, snacks, and lunch together.  Thursday the kids load up in the bus (this year they shared a bus with a Sudanese church) and we all go to the camp for a jam packed day of fun. Friday is only a half-day which is just as well since we are all tired from the day at camp the day before.

I make this a priority in our schedule every year. It gives my girls a chance to be with their people. A chance to be where they don't stand out, but they fit in. A place where they are loved because they are Ethiopian. You should see all the moms and teens giving out hugs and kisses, especially to the younger ones.

It's good for my boys because it forces them to know what it is to be different. They are usually the only caucasian boys in the place. They learn how to get along with boys who they don't know all that well but are fun to be with anyways. It's good for them to see the people that their sisters came from.

It's good for me because I interact with the adults, teens, and kids. I learn from the moms and each time I learn a new name. This year I took in a list of Ethiopian names and one of the dads spent hours with me filling in blanks of the meaning of the names or origin. Sometimes he would call over one of the women and they would laugh-of course, they're speaking Amharic, so I have no idea what they're saying. They laughed at one of the names because it meant little monkey. They couldn't believe that someone would name their baby after a monkey. They figured it must have meant the baby would move and jump around a lot.

It's good for the moms to see me with my kids so they see that adoptions work. They know their children are cared for and loved. One wanted to know how I got my children to respond to me instantly. They see our love for one another. They ask questions like, "What is the requirement to adopt from Ethiopia?" "Do they know their parents?" "Do they know they're adopted?" So in a sense I'm an ambassador for adoption in a different type of circle. Sometimes they want to know about adoption because they have family members in Ethopia that need to be adopted.

When we go I use my girls Ethiopian names all week. They are Addis, Mulu, Mihret (prounced more like Meh-hair-et, and Derartu (Der-are-too). I want them to respond to their Ethiopian names and often call them those anyways, I just don't have the rolling r's that their names should have.

We enjoyed our week and look forward to camp again next year!

John on the spider web rope. He helped one of the girls navigate the web.

Abi Mulu

Wild West Show

Hi Mom!

We have a new grandbaby!!

Auntie Adah with Little Scott

Our son Jacob with his firstborn

Scott Harley-We love you!!

Little Scott Harley was born July 14 at 1:03 or so weighing in at 7.1lbs and 21 1/4" long. He has sandy blonde hair and just little whispers of it. Arianne did wonderfully and delivered him within seven hours or so of being admitted. I had the privilege of watching his birth and watching my son become a dad. No greater honor.

He's our third grandbaby, second grandson, first grandson that will carry on the Grieshaber name. So each of our first three grandbabies have their own claim to fame! Makenna is our first grandbaby and first granddaughter. Isaiah is our first grandson, and Scott is the first Grieshaber grandson. Maybe Jesse and Sage will need to have twins so they have their claim to fame too. What do ya think?!

Vote for Baby Isaiah!!!

My daughter Sarah entered her baby boy in the 2011 Gerber Generation Photo Search contest. To vote for our little cutie please go to your facebook page and click this link: http://apps.facebook.com/gerbe​rphotosearch/entry/139627/isai​ah.aspx. I don't remember if you need to "Like" the link or not. Then click the "Vote" button. Easy Peasy!!!
His entry id is:  139627

Thank you!!

Baby Shower!

Jake & his wife Arianne are due to have a baby soon so we celebrated with a baby shower. Arianne is so beautiful as an expectant mommy. They were blessed with lots of love from their family and friends.

Arianne & Jake (not the best pic but it's the only one they're together in)

Adoption Update

It's been a while since I've updated any adoption news. Thought you might like to know where we're at in the process! A few weeks ago we were ready to send in our dossier to our agency who would then send it to the Ethiopian embassy for translation and then off to Ethiopia. A few weeks before that I had dutifully made three copies of each document since two go to our agency and one goes with us to Ethiopia. What our agency didn't tell me was that each document needed to also be scanned and emailed to them. Ugh. It took me the better part of a week to finish that annoying step. I didn't know I could them to Kinko's to have that done, I didn't know about zip files or anything other than frustratingly taking each paper one-by-one scanning it, renaming it so I knew what it as other than a bunch of numbers and emailing it. My computer groaned, moaned, churtled, snorted and protested the whole process. Email after email kept coming back to me as unsent. Finally after a week and after they actually had our dossier in hand did I finish.  If I had known I was supposed to scan each document I would have had that part done weeks ahead.

On to happier news! Our little gal is doing fabulously! She has progressed further than we ever thought she would and she's not even home yet! She did so well that the nannies and transition home workers pooled their money and threw her a little celebration party. In a picture of her at the party she looked like a queen on her throne with her little coffee cup of whatever she was drinking.

We've been able to send her a few more care packages with outfits, books, socks, a pair of shoes, and a few pictures of herself which she enjoyed. All the items get pooled together and become community property so she sees it once as hers and then it gets shared. We parents send our items knowing that. I did find a Dora doll at Ross which I was going to send but decided to keep it for when we bring her home on the plane. The older girls really enjoyed combing hair on the dolls and this Dora has nice long hair that she can play with and should keep her busy on the plane for a bit.

In our paperwork we had a letter from our international adoption specialist doctor requesting the Ethiopian courts to expedite her case because for medical reasons. Perhaps they will heed the request and perhaps not, we'll see! From what I've heard the Ethiopian courts close on August 8 for a good month or two. That happened four years ago when we were adopting Adah Derartu and Anna Mihret. The courts were closed but since we had passed court while it was open we were able to go for embassy. At the embassy visit we're interviewed by an American embassy representative and if given permission we receive the children's Visas and Passports at that time which enable us to leave the country with them.  So we're hoping to have court before August 8 and have a successful court date the first time, which is rare because usually a document of some sort is missing. Wouldn't that be wild to actually fly to Ethiopia on the notice of perhaps a few weeks if that?

I've been listing curriculum and books on ebay to help offset the costs of our adoption fees. I've been clearing our bookshelves and homeschooling friends have generously been donating curruiculum they no longer want to us. On the last day of our homeschooling co-op we have a used curriculum sale much like a swap meet. I had Abi Mulu pass flyers around telling people what we were doing and that we could take their books if they didn't sell. I couldn't believe what happened next! Cars were literally driving by, stopping, and boxes and boxes and bags and bags of books were gettting dropped off at our selling spot. Luckily I had my fifteen passenger van, but I also had seven kids I needed to have seats for. I packed that van so tight I couldn't even see out the back window. We had to go to Anna's eye appt. and the kids literally had to climb over the front driver's seat to get out and the same to get back in. Well I'm happy to report that through all these ebay sales and the sales that day we've been able to raise about $1,000!!! I still have our toy hauler with piles of books to list so I'm sure we'll have more $$$ towards our flights. This last week I went through my bookshelves and took out almost all of the science books I have collected through the years, there were over two hundred and those sold for over $50, but hey, it's $50 we didn't have before. If the shipping weren't so expensive we would have been able to sell them for more.

Promotions

James and John promoted recently! James promoted from middle school (8th grade) to high school and John from elementary school (6th grade) to middle school. Both boys have home schooled since Kindergarten.

James receiving his promotion certificate from Mrs. York

John receiving his promotion certificate from Mrs. York

John and James

Vikki, John, James, and Steve

Poor James had eye issues that we thought were pink eye and it turned out to be metal and rust in his eye. He normally doesn't look so distressed!

Mother/Daughter Retreat

A few weeks ago the four girls and I went to Pine Valley Bible Camp for their FIRST annual Mother/Daughter Retreat Day. I chose to go just for the day because, well, four girls with one mom, seems exhausting to me, and it was much cheaper just to go for the day. (just sayin') One of the reasons I wanted to go were some of the ladies that were going to be there, Judy and her daughters Melissa and Jennifer. Judy was one of the speakers and Jennifer led worship. Melissa brought her three daughters adopted from the Ukraine and I was able to visit with one of them during our afternoon time at the pool. Delightful young ladies!

 Well we woke up early so we could make it in time for breakfast. We had about a half-hour drive ahead of us and hair to do. After breakfast we headed up to the opening session. After the opening session there was a breakout session time and I took the girls to the hula workshop. They had fun learning the hula and wearing grass skirts. Since they were taken care of I went to a class about Mother/Daughter blessings.

We met back up again for a tea which was also our lunch. We had little croissant sandwiches, cherry tomatoes with cream cheese dill filling, cookies, fruit, and some other yummies. All the girls from the hula class went up and did the hula for all of us. It was so cute! After our bellies were full and we were dismissed it was free time. Three of the girls chose to swim in the lovely pool and Addis chose to stay in and make a lei. After the other girls had swam for a few hours they were ready to try something new. Mulu had made some friends so she went off with them and their mom to some relay races and I went with the little girls to make leis. Anna was more into the hot chocolate making and Adah was directing me on what to put on her lei, but she clearly wanted me to do it since it was too intricate for her.

After our afternoon fun we had a great dinner and then session time again. The girls by now were totally fascinated by the crafts table where they were making all kinds of fun things. I had a relaxing and quiet time knowing they were occupied and just steps away from me.

We fellowshipped afterwards before heading home. The girls were now visiting with new found friends and I was able to visit with the wonderful ladies I had gone to see. We arrived home about ten o'clock, tired yet so happy for the time we were able to spend together and with our friends. It was time well invested in my daughters! I wish there was also something for moms and sons. Anyone?

Speaking Engagement & Isaiah's Baby Dedication

Steve & I were invited to speak at South Peoria Baptist Church this past weekend about our adoption experience. We took the four girls with us since the boys had other activities they were already committed to. We started off with prayer in a side room with Pastor Hayes and a representative from Arizona Baptist Children's Services who was also going to speak.

We spoke at both services with the second service being quite a bit fuller than the first. The girls sat in with us and did great. They were a great testimony for the ministry of adoption. We had them go up with us so the people could put a name and face to the story my husband was about to tell. All five of us girls went and sat down while Steve told our story.

He did a fantastic job. We were also able to share a video that we had downloaded from the internet. We contacted the man who made it and he gave us his full blessing. I wasn't doing so well with the video I was trying to make. I was getting pics up but couldn't get the music to snyc with it. His was so much better anyways. This is the video we played.

After Steve was done talking Pastor Hayes called me up and asked me some questions. I wasn't ready for that! One of the questions he asked was what advice I could give other moms. Thinking from the adopted mom standpoint I told the ladies to put one foot in front of the other and do the next thing. If God had called them to adopt/mother then He would help you take the next step, the next hour. We are just called to obey. He'll help us!

The second service started and this is when Isaiah, our grandson, was getting dedicated. We went up on stage with Nathan & Sarah since we as Christian grandparents will be held accountable for his walk with the Lord also. We are to encourage his parents and him to help him know the Lord.  

When the dedication was over we spoke again and Steve did an even better job than the first time. He was such a natural you wouldn't know it was his first time speaking on adoption. We had several people come up to us and ask questions. One mom wanted to know how I did it all. She only had two and was overwhelmed (been there done that). She was older (so she thought) I was five years older than her when we adopted our youngest two and am now nine years older than her adopting a three year old.  I enouraged her to be open, be faithful, seek the Lord, and He would direct her as to building her family.

One of Nathan's friends was joking with Steve when he came off the stage that his wife must have slipped Steve $20 to say what he said about babies.  He told Steve that he threw him under the bus because all the excuses he uses with his wife on why it's not time to have children, Steve had just addressed. At the end of his talk he simply encouraged the couples not to wait to have children because children are a blessing. He told them that if they waited until their ducks were in a row, they would never be in a row. If they waited until they had enough money. They'd never have enough money and so on. I'm hoping that we stirred some hearts towards growing their family either through birth or adoption.

We ended the day off with a church bbq and visiting with the couple who was there for Arizona Baptist Children's Services and family and friends that had come for the dedication.

Happy 5th Birthday Anna!

Sisters help the celebration!

 Loving the whole idea that we are singing just to her!

 Anna and her doll that speaks Spanish so she has no idea what she says. oops!

Brazil Mission Trip

Joe (15) is going on a mission trip to Brazil this summer with our youth leaders and some of the kids in our youth group. As is typical with fundraising he sent out donation/fundraising letters awhile back. Last week he got a call from a couple who was willing to give him a very generous donation IF he went witnessing with them ten times and worked in their yard ten times.

Last Saturday was the first time Joe had ever been out witnessing and I'm sure was very apprehensive. They went to Balboa Park for Earth Day (yeah rough crowd) passed out million dollar bills which I believe have the gospel message on them. One man about fifty got in Joe's face and tried to argue with him, yelled at him, verbally abused him and Joe kept calm pointing him back to the Bible. Joe told him that he didn't know all the answers to the questions he was coming up with and told him if he wanted to know more he could talk to his mentor who knew more. The man declined telling Joe he wanted to talk to him because he was more vulnerable. Joe finally told him after the man didn't like Joe's future career choice (law enforcement) that they would have to agree to disagree because it was obvious they weren't going to come to an agreement on anything.

Yesterday they went to SDSU and passed out million dollar bills and he videotaped his mentor doing some open air preaching. Saturday he is set to go again and pass out Easter eggs with the gospel messge tucked inside and some candy.

If you have work that you would like him to do and you're local he's for hire!

Pics & Video of Little A

Last Friday, April 8, we received some pictures taken by another adoptive family who traveled to Ethopia for their court date. They also took a care package of goodies for us to give her. Later that afternoon we received a DVD of her and God is working a MIRACLE regarding her special need. He is in the miracle business and we are blessed to see Him unfolding His work before our eyes.

Contents of our care package:

I also sent off our I-600A and the fees for Homeland Security processing and fingerprinting. They'll process our documents and then send us a fingerprint appointment time. After all that is done we can have our dossier authenticated and sent off to Ethiopia!!! After our dossier is sent then we will receive news of a court date and we'll get to visit our little miss in person!!

This week we've been blessed to have $225 donated towards bringing her home. Thank you!!! We're still waiting on a second referral (second child) anyday! We'll keep you posted!!

My Crazy Adoption-Visiting Orphans Mission Trip Fundraiser

Michael, son of Kari Gibson My Crazy Adoption is going on a mission trip to Uganda. To help him raise funds his mom is selling tote/messenger bags Tote Bag Fund Raiser. Here is what she writes on her blog:

You can purchase my brand new totes with a purpose.  Each bag will help my son, Michael go to Ethiopia and Uganda in August with Man Up Trip with Visiting Orphans. Together we are raising his support and everything above and beyond will bless orphans in Ethiopia and Uganda on his trip.  Michael has helped raise $10,000 for the well project in Chucko, Ethiopia and can’t wait to visit in person the working well and see with his own eyes the miracles God has done for a rural village in Ethiopia.

CLICK HERE FOR STORE- PURCHASE YOUR TOTE TODAY!!

Our vow renewal

 Us with our pastor after the ceremony.

 Us

 Our whole family with our pastor.

Our kids watching our vows.

Hugging after the ceremony.

A few weeks ago while all of our children, our children's spouses, and our grandchildren were here we decided to renew our wedding vows. Our 30th anniversary was actually back in October but we weren't able to renew them then. Since all the kids were here we talked to our pastor (the day before) and Sage our daughter-in-law had a friend that could take pictures for us so we decided to do it! We already had a photo shoot scheduled for forty-five minutes later so we used this opportunity to do the ceremony out in our front yard area. It was good for me to resay the vows since it had been thirty years since I had said them. I moved in with Steve when I was fifteen so in March we had been living together for thirty-five years. It was wonderful to be able to do this and reaffirm our love for one another, and for our kids to witness it as well.

Tsehai

I want to share a resource with you that was invaluable on our trip to pick up Addis & Mulu in 2008. Tsehai Loves Learning Volumes 1 & 2. We have only seen Volume 1, but we are purchasing Volume 2 for our upcoming trip. It is an educational DVD in Amharic with English subtitles, with  Select episodes dubbed into Tigrinya & Sudanese Arabic. Tsehai is a giraffe puppet who learns with other animal puppets. It is geared for ages 3-6, but my girls were about 7 & 11 when they came home three years ago and they loved it. We watched it in our hotel room and they watched it on the plane on the way home. We were able to entertain a little baby with it as well giving his mom and dad a break for a minutes. Unfortuately ours was so loved it got scratched so we are purchasing new copies. There is a preview on the website. Your Ethiopian children will love it and you'll love being able to connect with them in this fun way!

Tsehai

Anna's favorite brother

Anna has missed her Jesse since he left home last summer. After he surprised us at church she told me, "I just can't stop smiling!" She was SO happy to see him. Her smile says it all!

Surprise!

Sarah and baby Isaiah are here for a visit and had just come in the night before. Since Sarah spent the night at her friend's house I didn't see her until Sunday morning at church. We were able to sit together during the worship service, but she was up and down since she had the baby.

Church was over and I was gathering my things. I looked up and there standing before me was my daughter-in-law Sage! Then I looked to my left and there was my Jesse boy! I buried my face in his uniform and started crying like a baby. I was so happy to have my son in my arms again, except this time I was in his arms. Most of the people who were on our side of the church saw this reunion and were blessed by it.

I hadn't seen Jesse since August when we flew to Chicago for his basic training graduation. He just graduated from CTM A school, with honors mind you, and we were told that he was reporting to duty on Wednesday which was yesterday. He hadn't been home since June/July when he left so it's been about nine months for him.

He and Sage left Pensacola on Friday, and drove all the way to their new apt in the Ft. Meade, Maryland, area, dropped off their stuff and caught a flight.  Their friend Olivia picked them up from the airport so they could come to church to surprise me! Sarah, the little stinker, was in on this surprise and was part of the reason why she was here. Did anyone get a picture of this reunion? No! So I'm sorry but I don't have any pics to show you.

Anna and Adah were brought into the sanctuary from their class and Anna was so happy to see Jesse. She has REALLY missed him. When I took her into the bathroom she told me, "I can't stop smiling." Me either, sissy, me either.

Makenna turned one!

My precious little granddaughter had her birthday last week. We celebrated on Saturday at a park by her house. She had both sets of grandparents there and even a great-grandma, great-grandpa & grandma, and a great-aunt. Someone is loved!!

John and Basketball

John and Coach Conover

John has been playing basketball for our school Heritage Christian. He joined the one of the boys U12 teams halfway through the season. He had a good friend on the team so he was excited to play, and found that some of his other friends were also on the team. Last night were the awards for the basketball teams. John received "Most Improved" with two other boys. All the players were awarded a certificate with a character quality noted on it. John's was Motivated. We're very proud of John and the effort he put forth and we're glad he enjoyed it at the same time. Good job, John!

We have a referral!!

Hey everyone,

On Tuesday Steve and I went to an international doctor here in the San Diego area. We consulted with Dr. Dern when we adopted our first two girls. She gave us excellent care and advice so we brought in our referral information to see what she could tell us from the papers we held in our hands.

Our Little "A" has some special needs. We believe with our availability of medical help here in the USA she should thrive and progress quickly. We can't reveal what her special needs are, what her name is, or what she looks like until we pass court and she is legally ours. We can tell you that she is almost three.

Our next step is to finish our dossier and to send in our homestudy for immigration clearance to bring an orphan into the country.

We may or may not be pursuing a second child. If another child shows up on the Waiting Child List then we can pursue that child, or if an older child say age seven or older is available then we can add that child to our adoption without making Little "A" wait for another court date. We would need to have their court dates heard at the same time.  So this is in the Lord's hand. If He wants us to pursue another child He needs to reveal that child to us in His timing and the court's timing.

Our case just ramped up to lots of fees being due. Thank you for your prayers and support. If you feel led to help us financially please contact us on how you can give through our agency. Thank you!!!