Art night for Adoption!

You could be the proud owner of these wonderful works of art by Sophia Dixon :).  My friend Tesney is hosting an art sale to raise funds for Kate Hogeland's adoption.  Check out her family blog here.  The event will take place in downtown Northport in front of Ander's Hardware on August 2nd from 5:00-9:00 pm. There will lots of great art to purchase AND activities for the kids!  It will also be Art Night at Kentuck so you can make a night of it!  Fun, great art and a great cause.  Don't miss it!

Gotcha Day

When you've walked through the many milestones of the adoption process it seems there are many days that hold significance and are worthy of celebration in comparison to our biological kid's birthdays.  The day you turned in your paperwork, the day you received your referral, the day you met your child for the first time, the day you passed court and they became officially your child, the day you picked them up and they were with you forever, the day you brought them home and your family was all together for the first time....  It gets a little out of control!  So, I've been confused over what day is considered "gotcha day" - a popular celebration in the adoption community.  Is it the day you met, the day you passed court, the day you picked them up?  I've discovered it's different for everyone.  But today I know that, for our family, this is our gotcha day.  Meeting Selah for the first time was so special and passing court was so necessary but carrying our baby girl out of that orphanage and driving away with her in our arms was the first time that it really felt she was ours forever.   Taking her back to our guest house and bathing her, putting her in clean clothes, feeding her, and laying her down to sleep under our care - for me that was the "gotcha" moment.  Duane laughed at me because he knew the very first thing I would do was bathe her and slather her with lotion to get her all snuggly :).  I will never forget that first bath and how happy she was.

But I'll also never forget how difficult it was to watch the wonderful women who had been caring for her so well tell her goodbye.

In adoption it's easy to become so excited about "gaining" this child into your family that you forget what an enormous loss they experience in that moment that you drive away with them.  Yes, they are gaining a family and that is the most valuable thing we can give them.  But they are losing all that is familiar to them and in many ways they are losing a connection to their people and their country.  Selah is still so young, but I hope as she grows older we can celebrate Gotcha day in a way that will honor what we all gained that day, but also what she lost that day.  Only time will tell what will feel appropriate.  Today I will celebrate by hugging and kissing her as much as I did one year ago today - and I might even give her a bath and slather her with an obnoxious amount of lotion.  

Adoption is a beautiful thing.  Adoption is a hard thing.  It's rewarding and it's messy - like so many things God calls us to.  One year ago today our lives were forever changed.  God gave us our 4th strong willed child!  She is spunky and sweet and funny and brilliant and stubborn - a typical Dixon kid! 

 Happy Gotcha Day to our sweet Selah!

2 less

Look at this sweet family!  

 Stephen and Susan have been blessed with 6 beautiful daughters and now they are saying YES and opening their hearts and arms to 2 beautiful children in Haiti who are no doubt longing to be a part of a wonderful family like this.  I bet those 2 children are gonna have 7 mamas :)!  Please consider making a small donation to help them bring their children home.  They need to raise $2000 by June 20th.  Anybody who has walked this journey knows that those big numbers become just numbers.  Please consider letting yourself be used to help them reach this goal. You will get a chance to win a Kindle Fire, but really I just want you to help them because you can't wait to see 2 precious haitian children in their next family photo!  The link below will take you to their fundraiser and their blog so you can learn more about their adoption journey.  I'm so excited to see 2 more precious children become a part of a family forever and a part of our community!

Donate $5 for a chance to win a Kindle Fire!!

not your typical orphan sunday plug....

It's National Adoption Month.  Orphan Sunday is just right around the corner.  My husband will be preaching.  Adoption stories will be shared.  I feel certain a video will be shown.  Yet rather than being completely excited about the month or the Sunday, I just have to admit that I'm a little bit nervous.  Readers of this blog are fully aware that I am big on being honest and real.  However, I am not big on confrontation.  What does that have to do with Orphan Sunday or National Adoption Month?  Let's just be real.  Adoption can be, and is, a controversial and confrontational topic in our churches.  Not from the pulpit, of course.  And maybe confrontation isn't exactly the right word for what I feel lies beneath the surface, because it's rarely ever actually spoken aloud.  Maybe tension is a better word.  Another thing that I'm not big on.

Where does the tension come from?  I think, in part, it comes from a misunderstanding.  I'm concerned that people who haven't adopted or aren't involved in orphan care in a meaningful way perceive those of us who have adopted or are involved in orphan care to be saying something like this, "Look what we've done.  Why haven't you done it, too?"  When, in reality, we are really just trying to communicate something like this, "Look what God has done for us by adopting us and then leading us through our very own adoption journey so that we can better understand His love for us, see His miraculous ways of providing for us, and experience the joy that He felt when He gave us a name and a family and a home!  We don't want you to miss out on this!"  

There's a big difference.  I think the tension comes when people mistake passion for judgement.  Of course people are going to get tired of "the whole adoption thing being shoved down their throats" (yes people, that's a quote) if what they mistakenly hear from us is judgement and self righteousness.  And maybe that is the intent of some.  But of all the adopting families that I know, none of them have hearts like that.  All of the families that I know communicate their passion for orphan care and adoption because: 1.  They love orphans. and 2.   They want others to experience the blessing of adoption (other families and other orphans).  Period.  No self righteousness.  No judgement.  Just genuine desire to communicate what God has done in and with their lives so that others may become open to allowing Him to do the same with their lives. And, of course, so that more children can have families.  

If there's one place, one community, one group where people should be able to share their passion for orphan care, it's within the church.  May we not let unspoken tension and misunderstood motives get in the way of our God's mission to bring redemption to the life of every single one of his children.  

how can this be?

I finally got all the kids settled in bed after a long day with daddy away and fevers of 101 degrees.  Ahhh.  I took a deep breath and sat down at the computer with my peanut butter, banana, and honey sandwich for dinner.  I thought I might just stumble around on here a while as I ate.  You know, just unwind after my trying day.  I sat, eating my sandwich and washing it down with my bottled spring water.  It was only a matter of seconds before I stumbled upon this photo....

and this one...

and a part of me wanted to keep eating my sandwich and look away.  But then there were these...

...and then the food became stuck in my throat.  It's hard to swallow when you're sobbing.

The tears won't stop flowing.  How can this be?  I'm serious.  HOW CAN THIS BE?!  These aren't just photos.  These are people.  I'm fretting over the fact that my pants are growing tighter and tighter as these people - these precious people I've come to love - these precious people from my daughter's country - die.

I throw away food everyday.  They are dying.  Everyday.  

I am completely and utterly distraught.  Really.  Not only by these images, but by the images that surround me everyday.  The images that surround me in my country, in my town, in my home, in my church, in MY world.  My world.  My life.  See, I am wealthier than 99 percent of the world.  Did you know that if you make $50,000 per year you are wealthier than 99 percent of the world?  Yet how many times have I flippantly uttered the words that we are "broke".  Or claimed that I couldn't "afford" to give anymore right now?  Did you know that 93 percent of the world's people don't own a car?  I have 2.  

Richard Stearns says in his book, The Hole in Our Gospel, that "we don't believe we are wealthy, so we don't see it as our responsibility to help the poor.  We are deceived."  I hate being deceived.

Look at that first photo again and tell me if these numbers don't make you uncomfortable:

Americans spend $705 billion a year on entertainment and recreation, $65 billion on jewelry, $31 billion on pets, and $13 billion on cosmetic surgery.  Not Millions.  Billions.  

Do you know what it would cost to bring basic health and nutrition to everyone in the world?

$13 billion.  Yep.  Just $13 of those $814 I just mentioned.  

Here's what I know deep inside of me. 

The bones of that 7 month old baby are not visible because of a lack of resources in our world - 

famine or no famine.  

That 7 month old baby weighs 7 1/2 pounds because of me.  

You might think that sounds harsh or even ridiculous.  The truth is harsh and often even ridiculous.  The even harder thing to say is this: That baby is starving because of my sin.  Ezekiel wrote that Sodom's sin was that she was "arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy."  Maybe you would be appalled at anyone suggesting that you are arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned. 

 I am quite ashamedly all three.  This is why I sob.

It is so very easy here on our American island to forget that we are a part of a GREAT BIG WORLD.  Americans make up less than 5 % of the world's population.  How did we become so arrogant?

 The fact is, we are all connected.  What I have is something that someone else doesn't have. Period. 

Nearly 9 million people a year die from hunger or hunger related causes.
I can often be heard whining about my pudgy waist.  

Disgusting.

Nobody likes being deceived.  World Hunger is often presented as a problem with no real solution.  I think that's a lie.  Maybe I'm crazy, but is it possible that a good start to the solution would be for those of us who are overfed and unconcerned to become concerned and start eating less?  I'm not trying to be funny.  I'm serious.  We have so complicated things that we can't see what is right in front of our faces.  $13 billion dollars.  It's estimated that the total income of American churchgoers is $5.2 trillion.  And again the tears flow.

Changes are coming to this house.  I wonder how much money we could save and therefore share if we limited ourselves to dessert only once a week?  If we shared more meals in restaurants?  If we just cooked less and ate smaller portions?  It sounds so incredibly ridiculous even as I type it.  That's not even a sacrifice!  We eat dessert pretty much every day.  While people die.  I'm tired of pretending that's not a problem.

For the record, I am not suggesting that we shouldn't be able to enjoy our food.  I am merely suggesting we need to stop enjoying more than our share of it.  The truth is, I love to cook and I love to eat.  I know that for many people it's a gift and for many an art.  Sharing a meal at a table with family and friends brings us all great joy.  I have no intention of drowning in guilt every time I put a bite of food in my mouth.  I will thank God for what he has given me... but I will also acknowledge the great responsibility he placed upon me - the wealthiest 1 percent.  I intend to stop thanking Him for how richly he has blessed my family while simply pitying those He hasn't chosen to bless as richly as me.  That's just another lie. I don't believe He withheld his blessing from the 9 million who died last year.  I believe he entrusted it to us and we withheld it. 

We scold our children when they behave selfishly and refuse to share.  This passage in James 5 sounds a little bit "scoldish" to me....

Listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you.  Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.  Your gold and silver are corroded.  Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire.  You have hoarded wealth in the last days... You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence.  You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.

Am I just crazy, or is it really just not that complicated?  

Photos taken from this article: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/07/famine-in-east-africa/100115/

Statistics taken from The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns.

lovin' every minute of it

Wondering how Selah's doing now that we're home?  You know what they say about a picture being worth more than a thousand words......

gratitude

We are so thankful for all of the amazing women who took such great care of our baby girl while she waited for us.  The women who work at AWAA's transition home truly love the kids there and prepare them to go home with their families.  What an eternally important job they have!  And they do it so well. She came to us as healthy and happy as we could've possibly hoped for.

korah

I don't really even know how to start this post.  We had the opportunity to visit a part of Addis called Korah or Kore.  You know the commercials on television where they show the children who are dirty and wearing ragged clothing and covered in flies?  Have you ever been tempted to wonder if it was a reality or just a tactic to tug at your heartstrings so that you'll send money?  

It's real. 

Korah is located at the edge of a city dump.  

It has also previously been the location of a leper colony.  It's a place of extreme poverty.

We had the privilege of meeting Jerry and Christy Shannon while in Korah.

Jerry and Christy came to Ethiopia several years ago to adopt their daughter.  A couple of years ago they came back to live among the poorest of the poor in Korah.  They have opened a child care center where mothers can bring their children so that they can work without having to wear them on their backs.  The Shannon's depend on God providing the funds they need to run this daycare through family sponsorships.  It works much like World Vision or Compassion International.  They are currently turning away around 10 mothers and children a week.  After they find sponsors for all 30 of their current children, they will be able to add 20 more.

Being there and seeing the level of poverty has the ability to leave you with a sense of overwhelming hopelessness.  But that's not the effect God intends for it to have, I know.  That's why it's so great to know a specific way that we can be Christ to the people of Korah.  The Shannon's are his physical presence there.  Can you support them by committing to one of these children?



Please visit the Embracing Hope Ethiopia website.  It's something you can do.  I am also packing a bag to send to the childcare center in a week or so.  They need size 12 month - 3T clothing and infant vitamin drops.  If you would like to help fill the bag, please let me know!  I am sending it with the Dreyfus family who will be leaving soon!

Our friends, Evan and Stacey Snyder, are sponsoring Firtuna.  Firtuna has Down Syndrome and a heart defect that needs surgery.  You can read about her here.



Noah with 2 of the Shannon children.

We also had the opportunity to visit some ladies who make jewelry for Mission Ethiopia.  It was a very humbling experience to sit and listen to these ladies brag on God and how He was providing for them through this opportunity.  The opportunity that they speak of is a chance to sit in a circle in a dark, concrete room sanding or rolling bead hour after hour just so that they can afford to put enough food on the table. But in their world, they are among the fortunate.  And Mission Ethiopia has provided them with the opportunity to provide for their family.  Some of the women were getting food and clothing from the dump before this opportunity came along.  Their necklaces are beautiful and they are so proud of their work.

I'm still processing all that I saw in Korah and praying that God continues to open my eyes and my heart.    

we're baaaack!

After a shorter than expected wait, we received the call on Monday morning, June 27th, that we had been cleared by the US Embassy to return to Ethiopia and bring our sweet Selah home!  We were elated and began preparing to leave for Ethiopia as soon as possible.  We headed out from Nashville the following Saturday and arrived in Ethiopia bright and early Monday morning.  After dropping our luggage off at the guest house and grabbing some lunch, we headed to the Transition Home to get our girl and welcome her into our arms.... for forever this time.  It was as if she had been waiting for us.  We picked her up and she jumped right into our family with laughs and smiles and cries that seemed as familiar as if she had spent her first 8 months with us.  Within a day, she was crying when I left the room and lighting up when she saw me.  I am her mother.  She knows it in her heart.  I know it in mine.  I've never been more convinced that adoption is a supernatural process.  Here are a couple of pictures from her first bath :).  She had only been with us for a couple of hours.  Look how happy she is!!

And just like that..... I'm a mother of 4!!

May 30th - not my favorite day

Monday was an emotional day to say the least.  We started the day by going to court.  The court room is on the 5th floor of the courthouse.  There are no stairs and Addis is already at a very high altitude.  This combined with the fact that it was 100 degrees in there and there was no air flowing and I was too anxious to eat much breakfast equaled a very faint me.  If you know me, you know that I faint.  I just do.  And that morning, I could feel all the symptoms coming on.  Thankfully, Yonas went to get me some water and Liz saved my life with her granola bar :).  When we finally got to enter the courtroom (it was more like a really messy office), we were sad to hear that our MOWA letter was not there and we did not pass court.  None of the 3 families we were with passed that day.  

This is us on our way to court:

This is us at lunch after we didn't pass:

Thankfully, our agency told us that our letter should be there on Wednesday and it was.  2 days isn't too long to wait.  After lunch we headed to the transition home for what would be our last visit with Selah since we were boarding a plane for Tanzania that night.  

Selah's bottle... this is her name in Amharic.

Already loving her daddy's shoulder :).

 Our last nap together :(.

Me, Liz, and our girls :).

Our travel group

Me forcing a smile.  It's almost time to go. 

One of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

So thankful for God's gift of friends. 

We had one last hoorah at the Zebra grill with the Pfeifers and the Browns.  This is Duane savoring the last bite of the best ice cream in the world!

Taking off in the plane was even harder than leaving the transition home.  We are praying we will be back to get her in a month or less!  This is it for our Ethiopia adventure.  Now on to Tanzania!!