Round Two

We have some really exciting news to share. . . We are preparing to adopt again!  While we must wait until January (1 year home with our kiddos) to officially begin again with our agency we are starting to fund raise now.  We have an excellent opportunity for you to get some Christmas shopping done while helping us raise some of the money we need to cover our adoption expenses.  We have partnered with Just Love Coffee to sell bags of coffee.  For EVERY bag we sell they will send us $5!!!  You can sign up on our site for a once or twice a month shipment, or just purchase one bag.  They also have travel mugs and t-shirts to purchase.  Our coffee website is

http://justlovecoffee.com/taylorfamilyadoption

Please feel free to pass our link around to everyone you know!  And we’ll be sure to keep you updated as things progress with round two in the Taylor Family Adoption Journey!  God Bless!

Lifesong For Orphans

What a blessing!  Our family was featured on the reflections blog over at Lifesong for Orphans today.  You can visit the site here: http://lifesong.squarespace.com/

  Lifesong is an incredible ministry which provides matching grants to families in the process of adopting.  It was Lifesong’s generous grant and the donations of those that matched it that provided for close to $10,000.00 we needed to bring our children home. 

If you are burdened for the orphans in our world today, this is an incredible, honest, ministry that provides funds for families to jump the hurdles of finances on their way to adoption.  If you’re unable to personally adopt I’d encourage you to answer God’s call to care for the orphans by donating to this wonderful ministry or helping a family you know of that is in the process of adoption. 

Thank you Lifesong!

How I spent my time this afternoon

Sorry you have to click on the link because I can’t get the video to upload here. 

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/3T4JObgVp7151qla

Recent Pictures

Hope you enjoy!  These are some pictures from our trip to Ohio, goofing around at home, and some water and mud fun out back.  You can click on any picture for a larger view.

 

LOL. . . go ahead

Laugh out loud!  The kids and I certainly did.  I thought I was actually going to pee my pants.

I thought I’d try giving Fikadu a mohawk. . . He and Tigist thought I was crazy. 

So I asked him if he’d rather have this instead. . . .  =)

Together for Adoption

Hopefully we’ll be attending this conference again this fall.  We encourage you to visit the website www.togetherforadoption.org

The Ever Changing Faces of the Taylor Children

Tigist lost her very first tooth yesterday. . .

Then Fikadu, not to be out done, pulled out one of his own. . .

Then Tigist decided her TWO bottom teeth should also come out today!

That makes 4 teeth out in 2 days for the Taylor kiddos!  Craziness!

Photo update

I visited the Salon de Tigist

Daddy and Fikadu showing off their muscles

I got the most colorful bunch of flowers in the entire store as an anniversary gift from the kids!

We dressed up like cows for a free meal at Chick-fil-A . . . . mysteriously there are no pictures of me! =)

 

The kids saw their first fireworks on the 4th of July

Foster Care Adoptions

While there is much to share and numerous funny anedotes to tell of our families recent activities, I needed to post this today: (Found this at www.adoptsc.com)

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There are 130,000 children in the U.S. foster care system eligible and waiting to be adopted (an additional 470,000 in need of temporary foster homes). Children are removed from their families due to neglect and/or physical, sexual or emotional abuse. Slightly more than half of children who go into foster care return to their birth families. When bio-parents are provided with help and they are still unable to parent safely and their children remain in foster care, the state terminates the parents’ rights. The children then become available for adoption. They wait an average of nearly 4 years to be adopted, with – one out of every five, waiting  just over 5 years.

Thus, many children languish for years in the foster care system frequently relocated, not belonging to anyone – feeling unloved, isolated, unwanted, undeserving – afraid to reach out to anyone, to trust, to believe in or to plan a future. 

Each year, 38,000 of these children “age out” of the system when they reach their eighteenth birthday.  Without financial or emotional support from anyone, many of these young adults struggle to belong and gain a place in society, to become productive citizens of our communities.

Of all youth aging out of the foster care system, national statistics indicate:

• 56% are unemployed and face poverty within two to four years,
• They represent 70% of all homeless youth,
• They constitute 88% of incarcerated youth and young adults,
• 40% receive welfare within two to four years,
• 40% do not graduate from high school, and
• 60% of the teenage girls will have a baby within two years.

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Do you know there are an estimated 3o0,000 Protestant churches in America?  If 1/3 of all churches raised up just ONE family to adopt a child out of the foster care system it would clear out those currently available.  And can you imagine the difference that would make in those statistics????

I know that one reason our family initially rejected the idea of foster adoptions was the idea that “these kids have too many problems” and “our parenting would be so limited and controlled by social workers.” 

I’m beginning to ask myself the questions, ” so whose “problem” is it? (are we using this word to replace “child”)    And am I really saying that “I think it would be better for these children to languish in foster care, because I don’t like someone else telling me how to parent.”  and finally “Do I not believe the gospel is powerful enough to overcome the trauma that these children have experienced?”

That last question has hit home the hardest recently.  If I honestly believe that Jesus’ death on the cross can make a sinner whole then why wouldn’t I apply that to the life of a child traumatized by sin. 

Fikadu has almost daily pointed us to Christ by saying, ” God is powerful.  He can do it!”  Whenever something comes up whether its his school work, or he sees me visibly frustrated he’ll say this and usually add in, “God is kind, He’ll help you/me.”  This simple reminder and the words of a Matt Redman song have been rolling around in my head.  Here are the words:

Your blood speaks a better word

 Than all the empty claims

 I’ve heard upon this earth

 Speaks righteousness for me

 And stands in my defense

 Jesus it’s Your blood

 

What can wash away our sins

What can make us whole again

Nothing but the blood

Nothing but the blood of Jesus

What can wash us pure as snow

Welcomed as the friends of God

Nothing but Your blood

Nothing but Your blood King Jesus

 

Your cross testifies in grace

Tells of the Father’s heart

To make a way for us

Now boldly we approach

Not earthly confidence

It’s only by Your blood

 

What can wash away our sins

What can make us whole again

Nothing but the blood

Nothing but the blood of Jesus

What can wash us pure as snow

Welcomed as the friends of God

Nothing but Your blood

Nothing but Your blood King Jesus

 

Footsteps. . .

I love seeing this picture of our family’s feet.  It reminds my of the pitter-pattering I so longed for in years past.  Late last night I finished the book ADOPTED FOR LIFE by Russell D. Moore.  What I read is quite possibly one of the most impacting and compelling books on the case for adoption.  I would highly recommend this book for all adoptive parents, all adoptees (teens and above), extended family members of those who have adopted, those contemplating adoption, and any person who knows they’ve been adopted into the family of God.  You’ll find truth for your soul and a challenge to answer how you might obey God’s command to care for the orphans.

Russell Moore concludes his book with a few pages that begin like this:

     “I’m waiting for the sound of footsteps.  It’s quite early here; the house is still and dark.”   He proceeds to share about how he is waiting for the sounds of his children’s footsteps as they race downstairs to celebrate one of his sons birthdays.  He tells about how seven years ago his son was born, but no birth announcement was sent out, no flowers were given to his wife, no cardboard storks were on his front lawn.  He didn’t hear his son’s first cries.  His son’s birth went as unnoticed as any other foreign baby’s birth on the other side of the globe.

In the busyness of life I missed writing a post that I’ve longed to write for 5 years now.  A post about celebrating my very first Mother’s Day.  If you’ve read my blog for a while now you might remember these posts from the last two years. 

http://taylorfamilyadoption.wordpress.com/2008/05/10/happy-mothers-day

http://taylorfamily.wordpress.com/2007/05/18/he-cares/

You see, just like Russell Moore was completely unaware of his son’s birth while he and his wife were struggling with infertility and miscarriages; I also was unaware that there were two children in Ethiopia who were experiencing their first year with no mother in 2007.  While I complained about not having “children of my own,” God was orchestrating a plan to bring two precious children into our lives.  While I grieved and whined out prayers to God, unaware that He had already sovereignly answered, He was shaping a heart in me to not just be a biological mother, but a spiritual mother.  I’m growing even more now to understand who a mother really is, and that being a mother is so much more then biological DNA. 

To Fikadu and Tigist, you are the children I delight in.  You are my 2 favorite children in the entire world!  You bring me much joy and help me see a deeper view of our heavenly Father’s love.  My most earnest prayer is that not only will you know the joy of being adopted on earth but that you will experience the adoption into our heavenly Father’s family.  For like you, I was once an orphan, a cosmic one, with no hope of finding an eternal home.  But today I can rejoice to know that I am a beloved daughter of God!  I can hear you playing together upstairs, it delights my heart, I long for the day when we can share more fully about the glorious design of God in making us a family.  Thank you for making motherhood such a joy!

I love how Russell Moore concludes his book, “Maybe there are abandoned children languishing right now in cribs somewhere who will be blowing out birthday candles with their new families this time next year because of your witness, your money, or your encouragement.  Maybe they’ll be yours.  I don’t know.  Like I say, I don’t know you.  But maybe you’re waiting for the sound of footsteps too.”

Thank you to the many of you who prayed, encouraged, and financially supported us in our adoption so that today I can cherish the sounds of footsteps too.