Not Bob, not William, not Billy, not Joel

In case you are wondering, we hope to wrap up our dossier within the next couple of weeks. Then we will wait, wait until we know your name, and wait until we can come and get you. Speaking of your name, that is often what people ask me about when we talk about you. They say, what are you going to name him? Or will he have a name? My answer to them is that of course you have a name. As your dad and I have discussed your name we ask ourselves if it will be easy to read and pronounce here. We do not want you to be exhausted your whole life trying to tell people how to say your name. At the same time we would love for you to keep the Ethiopian culture in your name. So we will wait to see what it is. In the mean time we researched Ethiopian names and here are some of them we found on the male top 100 Ethiopian names list:

Kalaebe Lebna Hagos Desta Bekele

Salem Kalaeb Mangesha Ogbay Almaz

Melugeta Abebe Mathias Bereket Muluken

Henok Daniel Solomon Biruk Samuel

Abel Mohammed Yonas Elias Abraham

Addis Surafel Biniam Kibrom Tsegay

Biniyam Habtamu Fitsum Michael Abdu

Tadesse Nebiyu Ermiyas Tewodrus Ephrem

(If you, the reader, feel inspired to think of a new name an original, your very own, please share it with us!)

Little guy, your dad and I love you. Sleep tight.

Tiny Toms

Did you get a pair of Tiny Tom's in the mail today sonny boy? Your dad and I bought a pair of Tom's Shoes last week. Tom gives a pair of shoes to a child in need for every pair of shoes bought from him. He's even doing a special mission in Ethiopia right now, so I wondered if the Toms I bought will allow a pair to end up on your little feet. I won't be expecting you to have them on when we come to pick you up, but it would be quite a cool surprise if it turned out that way.

(Tom, if you happen to stumble across this could you ple

ase give my other pair of Tiny Toms to our soon-to-be son in Ethiopia? I don't know what he looks like yet, nor do I know his name, but once I find all of this out I will let you know! And could my husband's other pair please go to our son's best friend?)

Tiny Toms

for You

Tiny Toms for Your

Best Friend

Your Mom's Toms

Your Daddy's Toms

Check out their website today to get your pair of Tom's Shoes which in turn will allow a child to have a pair of shoes too.

Update

We had an adorable 11 month old at our house this weekend, and I took lots of motherhood notes as I watched one of my close friends be a mom. I'm so ready to give this motherhood thing a try.
Each day is a step closer. Our home study will be done THIS week. Finally. I feel like we have taken longer than most families to pull this together, but with working full time, I have to fit it in when I can. And, the timing is in the good Lord's hands anyway. After the home study we pull together several notarized documents for the dossier. Then we wait, and read adoption books, and lift weights. Really though, I read somewhere that a woman strained a muscle because she went from carrying no baby to carrying her adopted toddler everyday. Son, I promise to lift some weights and I may consider attaching a 20 lb weight belt to my body so I can get used to the extra weight.

Needless to say, the adoption training we've done so far has me preparing in more ways than I originally imagined.

I love you today son, and hope that you are eating well and enjoying some fresh air. Hopefully next year at this time we will be walking down the hill to the park multiple times a week. That swing has your name written all over it.

GMAPFS

These lovely smiles are some of your Aunties that cannot wait to squeeze your little cheeks. From left we have Aunt Tricia, Aunt Taryn, and Aunt Jessie. These are some of the coolest ladies, and I love doing life with them here in Kansas City. Let me tell you a bit about them.

Your Aunt Tricia enjoys running, mothers play group, and praying for and catching up with friends. She gives great hugs and is warm and welcoming. Tricia is patient and thoughtful. She is a nurse at St. Lukes Hospital and a wonderful mom to Zion and wife to Jeremy.

Aunt Taryn enjoys reading, traveling, and spending time with people...all sorts of people. She is recently pondering on life-changing ideas, and God is shaping her into someone so beautiful and honorable. She has a boyfriend named Micah, who is pretty stinkin' cool too.

And lastly we have Auntie Jessie, she loves all kinds of great things. Fashion, yoga, her kitty, her family, and warm sunny weather. She is a great wife to Mr. Gerard Brown. Jessie is talented, and it is neat to see the Lord bless the work of her hands. She connects well with people and makes them feel special.

So these are some of my pals. Aren't they lovely? I sure wish you could introduce me to your little African friends. I bet they are pretty great too.

Love you.

P.S. GMAPFS=Girls Meeting and Praying For Stuff. These are the girls that I pray with each week.

kids across africa

Dear Friends & Family-

Come enjoy coffee and art while learning about Kids Across Africa, a new Christian camp in Rwanda. It's this Friday in KC. See the flyer for details.

Dear God,

Bless this camp. May this be a sacred and safe place for African kids to come and grow to be men and women of You. Can't wait to learn more about it on Friday.

...the rest of the story

Okay buddy, I can't believe I left you hanging like this. I hosted the Easter meal Sunday and was quite busy, but I can now tell you the rest of the story. So remember how we talked about Jesus suffering and dying on "Good Friday?" Well, on Sunday Jesus rose from his tomb and was alive again. Yes, he was dead and became alive again. I know...unbelievable, huh? With God's power, anything is possible. Anything. So all of the sadness can be turned to joy because Jesus is alive and his life can shine through us.

My prayer for you is that you would be our little star shining Jesus' light so brightly among your peers in your orphanage or in your community. May your hope be solely in our living Savior, Jesus Christ. May you have peace and sweet rest tonight so that tomorrow you can share this story with your friends.

I love you.

Mom

Amen

"Sing to God, sing praise to His name,

extol Him who rides on the clouds -

His name is the LORD -

and rejoice before Him.

A Father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,

is GOD in His holy dwelling.

God sets the lonely in families..."

Psalm 68.4,5,6

"I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of Him."

1 Samuel 1.27

We are praying fervently for you son, sleep well tonight.

We are coming for you...

"Good" Friday

Dear Little Jones,

Today is "Good Friday". The word Good in this context has a very big responsibility. I think this day could be called "Unbelievable Friday", "Humbling Friday", "Why God? Friday", "Sad Friday", "Amazing Friday"...but it is called good. It is this day that we remember Jesus Christ sacrificing his whole life on our behalf. He died a very unbearable death because he loved you so much. Because he loves you, and me, and dad, and every single person on earth. That is a lot of love, isn't it? It is hard to imagine why he had to suffer so much, but he did it. He obeyed God (his father) and died. This part of the Easter story is very sad, hard to believe, and full of a love deeper than I understand. But you just wait two long days for Sunday and I will tell you the rest of this story. The rest of the story is so cool, I just can't wait to tell you!

eggs

Hey Little Guy,

How are you? Did you know that Easter is this Sunday? Easter is the coolest holiday because we celebrate Jesus coming back to life after he suffered and died on our behalf. We never want to miss the Easter service at Jacob's Well, and this year we have a special treat because both sets of our parents are coming to church with us! Yes, the Iman's and the Joneses. We will fill up half of a pew!

One tradition that the Joneses introduced me to is the annual Easter egg dying contest. Everyone gets very into it, and we have so much fun! Grandpa & Grammie judge the eggs on Sunday and hand out a grand prize. Your Aunt Katie is quite good and has a good history of having the grand prize egg. I really need to start thinking about my design.

Now that I've given you a heads up, please be thinking of your design for next year. If you are too small I'll just do one on your behalf, and then do my own of course. We can form an alliance and have a better chance of winning. Sound like a plan?

Have a blessed day tomorrow dear son. I hope you celebrate Easter with your little voice singing praises to God! We love you. May you call upon the Lord, for he alone is good. Goodnight.

"The Lord is near to those who call upon him, to all who call upon him faithfully." Psalm 145:19

your dad is funny

Your dad has a tendency to make people laugh, most often at his own expense.

home study and inquiries from kids

Hello little nugget. I guess you are sound asleep right now. I am picturing you as a little brown bundle in red pjs with footies. Or maybe the African climate doesn't call for footies. Okay, now I'm picturing those little brown toes sticking out of the red pjs. Anyway, I hope you are sleeping soundly.

We made it through our in-the-home study yesterday. The social worker (Nikki) could not get over the 3D view of our house that I developed into our emergency evacuation plan. She said that was a first! I made a 3D model of our attic renovation for Michael's carpentry needs. It came in handy yesterday as I remembered 20 minutes before our home study that I needed an emergency evac plan! Don't worry son, we are now quite prepared for emergencies!

It was a very valuable time. She shared so much that we had not thought of yet, and she gave us things to discuss so we will be more prepared. I'll share more about it later.

Michael comes home most days with stories. Stories from his freshman and sophomores at the all girls private school, stories from 7th and 8th grade PE at Academie, and stories from Kindergarden and first grade at Academie. Quite a diverse group of kids in his life right now. The best stories come from the 7th and 8th graders at Academie.

Here are some of their comments and questions:

"I would never want to be adopted, won't that be weird to know those aren't your real parents."

"Mister Jones, you gotta get him some baby js!" (Jordan sneakers)

"Boy, you gotta keep that line tight." (meaning the line between his hair and forehead)

"Your white, won't that be weird to have a black kid. What if your grandkids are black?"

"Will he have a name? Will you rename him?"

"You gotta get him some koojie for his tooshie?" (Michael thinks that this is a nickname for a certain brand of jeans.)

"Have you gotten him yet? When do you get him? Do you know him? What does he look like? Where is Ethiopia?"

"Why are you adopting?"

Needless to say, it has been quite interesting to hear all of their thoughts and honest questions.