The Big Reveal...INTRODUCING...

I know y'all have been waiting for a long time, so your patience is finally paying off. I'm sure you're not even reading these few sentences, just scrolling down the page to see pics of our beautiful children. Well, here ya go...pictures first; names last.

OUR FIRST FAMILY PICTURE [none of the dozen pictures are all of us looking at the camera!]:

Brian and I with our SON! He has awesome chiclet teeth. Brian's wearing his "ah-by-ay - dad" t-shirt, and I'm wearing my "eh-my-ay - mama" t-shirt.

OUR DAUGHTER...those lips are irresistible! She LOVED it when I kissed them. Lucky for me :)

Kissing my DAUGHTER for the first time...Daddy with his little man and sleeping beauty. She slept like this for about an hour. It was the sweetest thing! He held on to his little monkey security blanket the whole time!

Brian held him for a couple hours like this. They read this photo book we made for them with the pictures of us, our family, and them. He couldn't stop "reading" the book and "studying" the pictures. I love how he's snuggled up with Brian here.

Our kids have no idea what's going on, but clearly we are happy. [This was right after I had bawled my eyes out after talking with their birth mothers, so I'm not exactly having the prettiest moment]

Ok, now that you've seen their faces, let me properly introduce you to our children: Judah Abebayehu and Addise Aster Tarike Diaz. Both of their names are FILLED with meaning! Names are VERY IMPORTANT in Ethiopia. In a country where there is not financial wealth, there is great pride in their names and where they come from.

JUDAH ABEBAYEHU: Judah is from the Old Testament [Genesis 29]: the tribe of the Lion of Judah, Jesus. His name means "praise". After such a season of grieving and loss for us, "praise" is what we give to God for the gift of our son. The Lion of Judah is also a primary metaphor in Ethiopia - rich in meaning for Ethiopians! We drove past the monument in downtown Addis Ababa. Brian has a tattoo of the Lion of Judah on his left forearm, a reminder of who Christ is to us. For years we've loved this name and had no idea what deep meaning it carried for our Ethiopian son. Abebayehu [ah-beh-BAH-u], Lil' A, is his birth name. In Amharic, his name means "my flower" and has a connection to the capital city of his birth country, Addis Abeba, by some spellings.

ADDISE ASTER TARIKE: Addise [ad-i-say] Aster is a name we've had picked out for over a year. It's Amharic. When we first discovered that name, we knew it would be our daughter's name. It was beautiful and perfect. And then we learned what it meant. Addise means "new life". I have a tattoo on my wrist that says "LIFE" in Greek. It's a daily reminder that Christ has come to bring us new life, to bring life from pain and death, to adopt us into a new life with him. Aster means "flowers" [remember Abebayehu's meaning!?!?!]. My name, April Lei, means "new life" and "flowers". God knew. Tarike [tur-eak-ay] is her birth name and it means "to make peace". What an supernatural meaning for a baby girl in need of a forever home! Someday she will need to make peace with her story. We pray we will be a central part of her healing journey.

Our heart overflows and LONGS to be united forever with Judah and Addise. Their names already speak of their destiny and calling. They will be a daily reminder of God's hand upon their life, even in their mother's womb.

We're so pleased to introduce you to our kiddos. We seriously can't wait for you to meet them!

** In the not so distant future I'll add some videos. The videos are where you see just how gorgeous they are, and how captivating their personalities are!

Almost

Today was court. We passed...almost! The Ministry of Women's Affairs [MoWA] had to explain some of their comments to the judge, so we are hoping for some good news tomorrow that Lil' A and Baby T are officially ours! We fly out for Frankfurt in just a few hours, so maybe we'll celebrate tomorrow in Germany.

Today was incredibly emotional. Sweaty palms all day [no brainer if you know me well]. Anxious spirit - not in the worrysome way, just in the "I'm ready for this to be over with!" way! Lots of waiting. But once we were before the judge, she asked us 5 "yes or no" questions and we were finished. Court lasted all of 90 seconds!

After court we got to go back to the orphanage and see our kiddos. We were able to spend about 3 hours holding, kissing, and playing with them. It was really bittersweet knowing that we'd have to say goodbye today for a few weeks. We took a bunch of family pictures. Hopefully we'll be able to post pics once we get back home. We also hope to have a family-of-four Christmas card this year! :)

We also had an unexpected opportunity today that brought out lots of tears. We had the amazing grace of meeting our children's birth mothers after court. We were able to spend 15-20 minutes with them - asking them questions, giving our deepest thanks, ensuring their comfort that we would love their children forever, and asking their blessing for their children. I don't want to share much about our encounter because of it's intense intimacy for our children's stories, but needless to say it was beyond priceless. Pictures and video were taken in full. Heartfelt and strong hugs were given. Tears were shed. It was powerful beyond words. I'm crying as I write this. What deep love is required to give up your child when you know you cannot provide for them? That kind of mother's love levels me...

When we laid Baby T into her bed, kissed her pudgy cheeks then took Lil' A into his playroom and kissed the top of his head, we nearly lost it. We lingered with our hands on his chest and faces on his head. We walked into the hallway together and just held each other for a few moments. I cried. A lot. Brian said some comforting words. We'll be back soon. But leaving them was brutal. I cried all the way home.

As we leave Ethiopia tonight, it has been a powerful reality that after over 3 years of desiring a family, a family was formed this week. This incredibly painful season is almost over when our kids will join us and we'll be a forever family. God is oh-so good.

2nd Visit

Yesterday with our kiddos was nearly magical. We had over 2 hours with them, but it went by in the blink of an eye. Baby T was sleeping again when we got there [her morning nap starts at 10am and that's when we arrived!]. She looked beautiful sleeping in her little bed, but the nanny picked her up and gave her to "mama". She cooed and snuggled into my chest...ahhh, love. Brian went to get Lil' A, and he also looked pretty sleepy. It started to look like we were in for another sleepy day together. Baby T slept on my chest for about 15 minutes, and Lil' A snuggled on Brian.

Lil' A :: Then, the head nanny, Sister Asayech, came in with Lil' A's snack, a cup of milk. Brian fed him the milk in a sippy cup and he started to perk up. They started playing together on his lap, and Lil' A's personality started coming alive. He started smiling, showing off his big chiclet front teeth. Some friends gave us a book where we could record our voices as we read the book - it was a BIG hit with Lil' A. It was the first time that we could really see his sweet personality come alive!!!! THANKS KIM'S AND MERRITT'S! He read that book multiple times. You could tell that his little brain was making connections between the voices coming from the book and our voices. Again, LOVE! Next, we showed him the photo album book that we made for them. We put in about 20 pictures of Brian and I [it was funny to see how many different hair colors and cuts I've had in the past couple years...haha], 6 pics of our families, and 4 pics of Lil' A and Baby T. Lil' A looked through that book countless times. It was like he was memorizing the pictures, and making connections to us. It was so adorable to see him look at pictures of himself and his baby sister. I wish I could know what he was thinking, because it was clear he was truly processing all that information. Brian also started playing peek-a-boo with him, and he went from little smiles to full on giggles. We couldn't stop laughing. It was priceless!

Baby T :: She is the smiley-est baby ever. I'm already kissing the heck out of her big, gorgeous lips. And she loves it!! She's really developmentally on target. She's rolling from front-to-back and back-to-front. She's scooting on her belly [probably would've done more if she wasn't on a bed], and sitting up for long periods of time. She's got a killer finger grip, and she eats like a champ. I got to feed her some milk [not from a bottle - from a container like a little shot glass!] and cereal. And the girls' got ROLLS of fat all over her legs and arms! She's soooo healthy. We bonded BIG TIME yesterday. She was reaching for me, smiling, cooing, and even giggled a couple times. It was a great 9 month birthday together. She's my girl, for sure!

In just 4 hours we leave for court. We've been told that the actual court appointment this afternoon will last about 1 minute. Our kids' bio mothers will be at court this morning agreeing to their adoption. What an emotional day for all of us. I can't imagine what's going through their hearts. Adoption is truly supernatural, but is filled with pain and brokenness. Praying God will heal their mothers, give them peace, and allow court to be successful today.

I don't know how we are going to get on that plane tonight without them! I fear I will be a basket case boarding our plane. I will definitely leave a significant part of my heart here - both with our kids and in Ethiopia. I've really fallen in love with this place! Being with our kids is definitely causing me to pray for the quickest wait time until our Embassy appointment...more than ever. I just talked with a family who only had 3 weeks between their 2 trips. What a dream come true that would be!!!

**When we get back to the states, I'll do a couple blog posts on travel tips - what to see, do, and how to plan your trip to make the most of it. We definitely learned a few things!