He's doing well

Just this week we received an update on Levi and he is growing and doing well! He is eating well and almost rolling over :) This was the first we had heard about Levi since our referral at the beginning of March so we are loving anything they can tell us about him. Oh, we also got 4 more pictures and he is so very handsome!

I was printing the pictures out on our computer when Evan got up from nap and he started saying his usual "safor, safor, safor?" which in Evanspeak means "what's that for?" I told him it was new pictures of Levi and he got a big grin on his face and tried to pull them out of the printer before they were done he was so eager to see them. Evan is 2! Shouldn't he be oblivious to this very abstract concept right now? Hmmm...the Lord is surely doing a work to knit this family together already! I can see it so clearly some moments. If this is what you are praying for us along this way, THANK YOU! Know that the Lord is being pleased to answer YOUR prayers! I have to admit that this is not something I have remembered to be specifically praying for. I do want to update you on some more specific prayer needs that I see...though it is obvious that I do not see them all, so pray for us for whatever the Lord lays on your heart :)

• Financial provision. It is hard to know exactly how much we will need as long as travel is still up in the air. In addition unexpected costs related to the adoption keep popping up.
• Donations. I would LOVE to be able to travel with two suitcases loaded with donations for the care center.
• For Levi. That he would continue to remain healthy. That he would move safely to the main care center and be loved on much!
• For us. That we would not be missing ANYTHING that the Lord would have to teach us along the way. That we would know the best plan for the Juliana and Evan when we are gone and for safety for Craig and me.

Can't wait

The house was quiet this evening. Kids were in bed, finally asleep, and Craig was busy reading the list of travel tips in the bedroom. I was looking across the living room just enjoying the quiet and it suddenly hit me that Levi will be here...HERE! Not there anymore, but HERE! He will be crawling on these floors and playing peekaboo around these doorways. And I am so not kidding you when I tell you that I was jumping up and down in my kitchen with happy tears coming out of my eyes!

Especially Easter

It is suprising even to me, but Easter with toddlers CAN be meanginful! I have run across some great tools that make Easter mean much more than candy and the Easter bunny to our little ones. Well, I guess it helps if you don't do the easter bunny at your house (gasp!). It is funny that even though they know that the easter bunny at the store and the one at the egg hunt are just people in costumes, they still get a kick out of them :)

Anyway, I wanted to share some of the fun things we do, because it can be a challenge to get kiddos to pay attention, listen, and interact about serious things. Teaching our kids the gospel is THE most important things we can do for our kids and our toddlers go crazy over these ways that we celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ in a special way on Easter.

Play-dough Easter Mountain: This idea came from Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Noel Piper (this is a GREAT book!) I'll post the recipe later this week. Each day of the week before Easter Sunday you can play out parts of the story of the Holy week with the pipe-cleaner people. Kids are captivated by this...not just my kids but I've done this with other's kids and had the same result. On Good Friday the Jesus figure is placed on the cross and then laid in the grave with the "rock" sealing the entrance. On Saturday we posted "guards" at the sides of the tomb and talked about what the disciples must have been thinking and feeling. On Sunday the kids awake to Jesus "alive" standing victoriously at the top of the hill. Both kids saw the triumphant "Jesus" at separate times that morning and both jumped up and down and shouted with joy! Noel Piper suggests that as long as children are enjoying it (and they really do!) and being somewhat serious this is a great activity, but suggests as soon as it is started to be treated as silly it is time to set this one aside.

The basic mountain with cross stuck in a hole on the top

White one is Jesus (carrying cross), Red ones are Roman soldiers, light brown are disciples

Sunday morning Juliana woke up to find the tomb (a hollowed out part underneath the mountain empty and "Jesus" alive!

Joyful Juliana...about 2 seconds later!

Resurrection Eggs: I first heard of these on the Family Life radio program and found them a few years later at Wallyworld. They are 12 plastic Easter eggs filled each with a charm that signifies part of the story of the gospel. Examples are a silver cup (the last supper, God's wrath), praying hands (Jesus in the garden), and a rock (covering the tomb). These are the eggs we hide in the house for the kids to hunt for on Easter morning. The set of eggs comes with a book that has a little reading for each egg, and you can make it as long or as short as you want. If you would want to do a few eggs a day leading up to Easter you could or keep it really informal and just discuss it with the kids while they play randomly with the eggs. I like unstructured play, so plenty of time was spent just watching the kids have fun opening and closing eggs and asking them questions about what they found. Our kids LOVE these!

Daddy and Evan on Easter morning looking through the Resurrection Eggs in no particular order.

So fun!

I LOVED making this! It will be forwarded to Levi in Ethiopia soon :)

What's happening

Though we are on hold waiting for our court date, it feels like things are moving fast-forward with the adoption since our referral. In the past month we have gotten our vaccinations and updated some paperwork that needs to be done annually. For those of you wondering, five vaccinations at one time does wipe you out for about 2 days! We are fully recovered though and that typhoid vaccine in our fridge is calling our names :) We may also need to update our homestudy soon depending on how the court date goes. We have started collecting for our garage sale at the end of May and sorting items has started to take up a significant amount of our time. What would be AWESOME would be if it happens that we have to postpone our garage sale because we will be in Ethiopia - oh, I so would not complain about that! The Lord's timing is perfect and He has been faithful to keep us waiting patiently but eagerly to see when we get to go bring Levi home. We talk about Levi a LOT these days. Evan already plays basketball with him...seriously. He will throw his basketball in the crib and shout LEVI! It will be interesting to see if pretend Levi disappears when real Levi arrives - Ha!

I finally finished the photo album that Holt will deliver to the care center for Levi. It is required that it be simple - pictures on paper, laminated and tied together - so that mailing it is easier. And just the other day I realized that it is not too early to start collecting stuff for travel. Fun!

Good deals

Oatmeal recipe: We have finally succeeded in consistently making our grocery budget! The difference makers seem to be limiting our snack cracker type foods to 1-2 boxes/month and substituting popcorn ( a healthy alternative!) most days and also limiting boxed cereals to 1-2 boxes/month to be used as snacks. Instead of cereal at breakfast we have been eating oatmeal and have found a YUMMY recipe for a homemade instant mix at my friend Paula's blog here.

Cloth diapers: Still going well! Check out diaper jungle for lots of questions, answers, and reviews.

Super cute and modest swimsuits: With summer around the corner and modesty hard to come by when shopping for that swimsuit check out swimsuits from Modbe here. I got the one below last summer with my birthday money and love it. They are quite pricey but in my opinion well worth it.

Drawer organization: I came across this great idea for organizing kid's drawers. Instead of folding and stacking so that ALL the shirts come out when my independent little girl chooses her own shirt, the shirts are rolled and put one behind the other so that they are all visible and only one comes out at a time.

Picture displays: A fun way to display our kiddos' artwork! All it takes is a 10 cent picture frame from a garage sale, a nail, and an office clip.

Party time!

New animals from mom, dad, and Juliana

The "Hit" gift of the party! Thanks Aunt B!

"Mom, you're such a party animal"

Juliana is opening a card she made for Evan. It has a spiderman on it.

A special cake for the birthday boy :) You wouldn't know there was a last minute scramble to find an eyeball would you . . . and I'll never tell where I got it from!