Hope Jumping and Chatting

Ethiopian Adoptive Families Picnic (Again)

So I inadvertently didn't post a picture of Aaron, Laura, and their son Yiah.  I'd say it's because they are Wisconsin Badger fans (Aaron and Yiah both showed up wearing those garbage t-shirts because they know I'm a bit of a Nebraska Cornhusker fan) but it's because my phone only lets me upload 5 pictures at once.  Sorry guys!  Go Big Red (the real Big Red, not the big red that stole it from Nebraska when Barry Alvarez brought it with him from NU).

Church Potluck

Today was a special day at church.  Don Ziel, a man who grew up in our church and is now a lawyer for Cru (what used to be Campus Crusade for Christ) preached today.  Then after church, we had a potluck where we got to hear from three of my former students who all served in long, short-terms missions trips this summer.  Grant Brintnall shared about his month in India, Sydney Quandt shared about her 6 months in Guatemala, and Nic Mizeur shared about his 6 weeks in Zambia.  So fun to hear their stories, join them in celebrating God's greatness, and revel in the fact that I got to play just a small part in who they are today.  The pictures below are the kids at the potluck.  As you can see, Gideon hates being Hope's older brother!  So fun to see the joy and love they have for each other!

Bike Ride #2

I'm trying to be more intentional as a father in making Sundays our family day.  Beginning with church, trying to have people over for lunch/fellowship, rest/naps, supper by candlelight and Scripture/devotional reading, and doing something together as a family.  Tonight we went bike riding.  Again.  Everyone loved it except for Hope, who cried pretty much the entire time.  We may need to do something to pimp out her ride to make it a bit more comfy, or it may be an opportunity to just grin and bear it.  Either way, nothing says having great family fun like a crying daughter! 

Here they are after the ride.  As you can see, Hope is wondering why Moma is smiling at the camera AND NOT GETTING HER OUT OF THAT DREADED SEAT!!!!  Mister Jovial is doing fine and loving the ride!

Hope's Choice: N-E-B-R-A-S-K-A!

I love the fact that as a parent you give your children options and they choose the one option that makes you smile most.  Take for instance the pictures below.  Of all the hats in the world, my daughter just so happens to choose a Nebraska one.  LOVE her!

I actually did this as some of the former teens in my ministry have been asking for more pictures of Hope!

The Maiden Voyage

     Our good friends Justin and Tara have a trailer in which they tool around with their daughter Vada (their older girls are able to ride their own bikes).  I thought that that was a great idea so I began looking in to buying one of Craig's List, eBay, or new.  One day as we were chatting with Justin and Tara, they shared that another family in the church had offered them a bike trailer, but that they already had one.  

     So being naturally shy, and afraid of being too forward, I contacted said family about procuring said trailer, of which they were more than happy to depart with for the sake of uncluttering their garage!  DONE!

     So the pictures below are of the maiden voyage with the bikes and trailer.  

     Gideon LOVES riding in the back, and Hope is pretty certain that she doesn't.  However, as my dad always told us kids, "it's part of being a family."  So we continue to subject her to the "fun" of bike rides.  At some point she may begin to like it, but if not, that's okay, too!

"Lean on me, when you're not strong..."

Whitey's Ice Cream is not far from our house, and although I was leading (and honestly had no intention of stopping at Whitey's for some ice cream) it was my wife who thought that stopping at Whitey's was a great idea!  And so we did!

By the end of the trip, Hope was ready to get out and be done with "family fun night."

And so, we continue living and loving!

Quad Cities Ethiopian Adoptive Families Picnic

It seems that we have become a sort of hub or network center for Ethiopian adoptive families in the Quad Cities.  We continue to meet more and more adoptive families who have adopted through Ethiopia, and we do our best to reach out to them.  We have invited many of these families in to our home for a meal and a time of getting to know them.

Many months back, we started kicking around the idea of having a picnic or some get-together with the families in our area.  We have made contact with families from as far away as Dubuque, Iowa (60 miles north), to Galesburg, IL (an hour south), and many in between.

As our home is quite small, we didn't think that hosting 10+ families in our home was feasible.  So as we continued to talk about it, I came up with the idea of hosting it out at Bailey Retreat, a small property our church owns in Coal Valley.  It has a pavilion in case of inclimate weather, swings for the kids, shade in case it's hot, a port-a-pottie (which interestingly is in better working shape that our only bathroom in our home currently), and is fenced in (so the kids can run and have fun in a certain level of safety).

So Kathee nailed down a date, invited the families for the first-ever (that we know of) Ethiopian adoptive families picnic.  Although there were only 3 families that participated, all three families thought this event a great success and that we should continue meeting and doing so.

So who knows where this may lead.  We had fun, we enjoy both families, and will work something up again to meet!


A family in our church lent us their backyard games.  So here is Gideon helping with set-up.  

Kathee had to give Gideon the rundown of what to expect.  

As we set up a few hours before it was to begin, we were able to put Hope down for a nap in the pavilion, where she slept like a log.  

This is Ben and Elizabeth and their son and daughter, who are siblings from Ethiopia.  They adopted their kids 4 months ago.  We got into contact with them through my Thursday night Bible study.  One of the teens who was coming, was invited by another girl in our church to come.  Simone (the girl who was invited to come) is an African-American girl who volunteered to come early in order to take care of Gideon's hair.  One week when she came, she shared that she had a discussion with a teacher while in the bathroom that was adopting two kids from Ethiopia.  Simone shared about Gideon being adopted from Ethiopia and Liz asked Simone to give us her number.  So we called and invited them over for a meal.  They had just gotten back from Ethiopia and were new to the whole parenting thing, much less with two kids (one of which was 5) who didn't speak the language, etc, etc, etc.  So it was good to make contact with them.

The other family we met through the Christian lady that I co-lead a team of teenagers to Moldova with a few years ago.  Aaron and Laura had just started going to her church and upon hearing they were adopting from Ethiopia, was eager to share with us their information.  So we called them, prior to their departure to adopt their son, and spent time with them.

What fun.  We will see what happens next, but so far, so good.   

Hope's First Crawl

Over the past couple of weeks Hope has doing the butt dance and figuring out how to get her body moving.  Today she seems to have gotten down the crawling thing, and is doing really well getting around.  FUN stuff!