It's hard to believe the girls have already been home for two months!  I wanted to provide a quick update on each of the three kids as to how they've transitioned and major events in their lives.

 Noah
 The big news for Noah is he started development preschool the first week of November.  He goes to school every day in the morning for about 3 hours.  He loves it!  His favorite part of it all is riding the bus.  Every morning he wakes up asking if he gets to go on the bus today... he's disappointed when the weekend is here as it means no bus.  This is a picture from his first day of school.  This has been much more difficult for Courtney and I then it has been for Noah as we've watched our little boy become a big boy.  Noah also has had some potty training successes over the last few weeks so we're looking forward to the end of diapers hopefully soon!

Maya
Maya has definitely become the girly girl of the house.  She is constantly wanting to accessorize with everything from hair barrettes, to socks and shoes, to coats and recently she found some mittens to wear around.  As you can guess Maya loved Halloween, so here is a picture of her all dressed up.  She loves helping around the house and is quick to do anything for Mom and Dad that will receive praise.  Her biggest frustration is her big brother Noah who likes to pick on her sometimes, and who hasn't learned that he should stop playing when she screams.  She is now repeating a lot of words when she hears us say them and is slowly building her vocabulary of words she'll say unprompted.  She just recently learned to put on her socks and shoes all by herself.  We're still battling giardia (a nurse just told me that it's common for it to reoccur with kids who had chronic exposure) but once that's gone we're going to start potty training as she is ready!

Keira
Keira continues to make everyone laugh.  She is miss personality and is very open about how she feels (both when she's happy and mad!)  We got to make our first Emergency Room trip with Keira last month.  She was playing with Noah and while running fell and hit her head on the corner of a filing cabinet.  She got a good cut on her forehead which ended up only requiring glue, no stitches.  Physically she has made a lot of progress and is exactly where a child her age should be.  She starting to say a few words that are common to a 1 1/2 year old.  She still has her chubby cheeks so she's always getting lots of kisses and attention from everyone.

If you'd like to see more pictures of the kids or our family, you can find them here in our 2009 Photo Albums.

Throughout life we face inflection points where we've got to make a choice about what we will believe.  Will we believe God is able?  That God will come through?  That we will make it?  What we believe is a choice.  Any family going through the process of adoption asks this question frequently as they face challenges and setbacks.  Courtney and I have chosen to live a life believing the best and believing our God is able. 

This is a powerful music video from Desperation Band and their new song "Light Up The World" about God intervening here on the earth and specifically in the lives of the millions of orphans around the world!

It's hard to believe that we've already been home for three weeks!  Everyone is doing well and we continue to adjust to our new 'normal.'  This week was Courtney's first regular week back at work and her schedule seemed to work well.  Our long term goal is to get Courtney to where she can at least cut back (she's currently working 3 days a week) or even stay at home!

The girls are doing well.  Maya is getting more expressive and making her presence known.  She's still not saying much but seems to have bonded with us really well and her two siblings.  Keira makes us laugh all the time with her crazy facial expressions.  We think Maya will be the motherly, caring one while Keira will be the outgoing, life of the party type. 

The only lingering issue we have is both girls are fighting an intestinal parasite called Giardia. It doesn't make them feel bad or sick, it just causes them to have lots of dirty diapers.  We have medicine for it but it may last another few weeks.  We're just tired of changing about 4 poopy diapers a day per child.  For our sake I hope it goes away soon!

Noah continues to learn to be big brother.  He is interacting more with the girls and we know this because many more 'fights' are happening these days in our house.  Everything from toys, to sippy cups, to blankets and attention from Mom and Dad are potential for sad and upset siblings.  I guess it's all normal and part of having brothers and sisters (even thought I never remember fighting with my sister growing up... ok, just kidding!)

On the adoption front our journey is not yet complete.  We still have the process of re-adoption which is required to make it legal here in the US.  Right now both girls are considered legal residents and should be getting their green cards soon.  Re-adoption will make them officially US Citizens, get a social security number, and US birth certificate.  The last thing we want to do right now is mess with a bunch more paperwork but we don't have an option.  We'll write more about the re-adoption process as we move along.

Conflict in inevitable in our relationships with each other.  In marriage, friendships, dating,  between co-workers, and those people you work for... you aren't always going to agree on everything.  The chart below is something we use here at Life Church as we help people work through conflict.

A person who...

• ...values the relationship but has low self-esteem will most likely yield in the conflict.
• ...does not value the relationship but has high self-esteem will try to win the conflict.
• ...does not value the relationship and has low self-esteem will just withdraw from the conflict.
• Our culture typically promotes the compromise solution, which involves both people giving in some and finding ground in the middle.  Problem with this approach is you never get your way, there's a subtle temptation to keep track of everything you've given, you always feel like you're giving in and no real effort is made to resolve what's at the core of the conflict.
• ... values the relationship and has a high self-esteem will work to resolve the conflict.  This involves understanding where the other person is coming from, the root of the issue, understanding God's perspective, and loving the other person regardless of your personal feelings and position.  If you do these things then you can work together to resolve the conflict.

A conflict that is resolved does not keep coming back it.  It is settled.  True resolution means you explore and understand what's at the root of the conflict, not just addressing the symptoms (when we deal with just the symptons we keep having the same conflict over and over again.)

For those relationships in my life that I value and that are important to me, I will do whatever it takes to resolve the conflict and not just ignore it, compromise to make it just go away, or justify my position to win at any cost. 

How do you handle conflicts in your life with those you care about?

We have been home as a family of five for one full week now.  What a week it has been.  It has been filled with highs and lows, as we all adjust to our expanded family and way of life.  We've been taking it a day at a time.  We've spent a lot of time overwhelmed and not sure what to do, but the joys and reminders from God along the way of His approval and guidance far outweigh any negatives.  Thought I'd provide a brief update on each of the kids and how they're adjusting...

We made it!  We are now home on American soil, the girls have made it in the US, and we are reunited with Noah!  To finish our travel journey (as our journey of a family of five is just beginning) I thought I'd give you a quick recap of what happened.

Thursday - your prayers worked!  Everything went as we needed it to and described here.  "T" our AWAA representative picked up our visas just before the Embassy closed at 5PM.  Along with our visas each family was given a sealed yellow enveloped that could not be opened until we saw an immigration office at the point of re-entry in Washington D.C. We finished packing and head to the airport about 6:45PM for our 10:15PM flight out of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Friday - The flight home went fairly well.  There were no flight delays or baggage issues which was good.  We learned in our flight from Rwanda that Maya has some difficulty when planes are descending and her ears would hurt but that didn't really happen until our final flight in to Indianapolis. 

We did get a prescription strength sedative (Kara, the mom in one of the other families is a nurse practitioner) that we gave to several of the kids to help them sleep.  This was a big help for several of the families and with Maya.  Keira slept very well (adoptive families - Benadryl works like this as well... this is what we used with Noah last time so be sure to take some)  Spending 26 hours in planes and airports is a long time for the kids so helping them get some sleep is important.  My Mom and Sister did an amazing job with the girls on the plane, especially Maya who can be stubborn at times.  Here's a picture of them with her.

When we got to D.C. we did learn that the IR-4 Visas had an error on them.  They said all the children were of Ethiopian nationality (not Rwandan) even though it had their birthplace right as Rwanda.  This is something we noticed on the flight home but at that point it was too late to do anything about it.  The Higgin's family got held up in Immigration for this, our officer did not catch it.  We were told this may cause issues during readoption so we'll see.  Lesson - double check all government documents you get from anywhere (remember one family had a similiar issue with their Rwandan Passport for their child in Rwanda with an incorrect birth date.)

Anyways, we're back home now.  I'm writing this at 6AM Saturday morning.  The girls went to bed very well last night.  Maya woke up about 5AM but went back to sleep, I couldn't.  Feeling a little overwhelmed as we start our first full day as a family of five, but God spoke to me through this verse today:

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." - 2 Corinthians 8:9