tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21680178252372519372024-11-01T07:09:38.623-04:00Thanks for checking out our journey to bring our baby boy home from Ethiopia! Scroll down to the bottom of the page to start from the beginning!Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.comBlogger421125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-36410865558690701882017-07-05T12:13:00.000-04:002017-07-05T12:13:37.391-04:00

After two years of waiting and a crazy suspension on adoptions from Ethiopia, we are FINALLY home with our sweet boy. It's been almost three weeks since we landed in Indy and our family of 7 is finally all on the same continent and under the same roof! Praise the Lord! The last few weeks have been some of the most intense, all hands on deck parenting gig, but laced with so much joy and

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-70913948661305678992016-08-27T20:22:00.001-04:002016-10-10T07:09:47.234-04:00

For Sylvia's birth story, click here. Sylvia Jae Oren If you know me and Jon well, you know we are deep feelers in many realms and carry deep in our souls a very nostalgic and sentimental view of life, people, and relationships. Naturally, this characteristic within both of us lends us to be deep thinkers and feelers when it comes to the names of our children. Throughout world history, and

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-33164748962895926352016-08-22T12:18:00.004-04:002016-08-22T12:18:54.510-04:00

I snuck into the bathroom, took the test, and stood there, shocked. I walked into Penelope's room, showed Jon the test, and he laughed. A good laugh, and said, "Great! Why not!" Baby #5. Ready or not, here she comes. Little did we know, that phrase would be the exact description of her arrival! Part 2: Caught by Surprise...The Birth of Sylvia Jae For Part I of Sylvia's story, click

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-58219456623197461422016-08-18T18:42:00.001-04:002016-08-18T18:50:32.090-04:00

Sylvia's Story & Birth- Part 1 I was shocked to log into my blog and realize it's been 9 months since I've written. It makes me sad and makes me long to jump back into the writing world where so much of my heart lies. 2016 has been quite the ride as we added our surprise blessing just 5 days ago, all while we continue to wait for our 2nd Ethiopian son to come home. But, hopefully, I can find

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-73695360235146589852015-11-20T12:35:00.001-05:002015-11-20T12:35:37.191-05:00

We have a little girl to introduce you to.... Her name is Alice. I know many of you are probably thinking, "What? A 5th child? Their 4th isn't even home yet!!! These Orens are CRAZY!!!" Yes. We are crazy. But no this isn't "technically" our 5th child.... You will hear Jon and I say all the time, kids belong in their birth families, and when that's not possible, they belong in their birth

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-71314568477544308692015-10-16T21:09:00.000-04:002015-10-16T21:21:17.251-04:00

I haven't posted a detailed adoption update because up until a certain point the details can get messy and confusing. So instead, I've been posting little snippets here and there on our Facebook adoption page like, "We need two more papers for our son's file, please pray.", etc. Well, this evening, we got great news! (I love that our agency is three hours behind in Washington state, well,

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-3891037151885782402015-09-22T19:15:00.001-04:002015-09-22T19:15:59.782-04:00

A friend asked me to do a couple guest posts on her blog and one of her series is, "A Day in the Life of..." I thought it would be fun and kind of comical at the same time. A dear friend described my life once as sometimes being a high wire act at the top of the circus tent with me and the kids flying everywhere and Jon hanging on for dear life. I laughed and everyone else chuckled because it's

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-40904798561507816932015-08-20T09:03:00.001-04:002015-08-20T09:10:20.161-04:00

The night before 1st grade... We swam, we saw cousins, we went to the fair, we got a new dog and Mommy didn't care. Our summer was full of friends, gardens and sun, tomorrow starts first grade we can't wait for the fun. I get asked a lot, "Why do you homeschool?" "What about friends?" "Won't your kids turn out weird?!?!" Well, the short answer to the question of why do we homeschool? Simply

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-79199560529372738272015-08-18T21:33:00.002-04:002015-08-18T21:33:25.772-04:00

I've gotten the question/statement several times since receiving the referral of our darling 2nd boy, "It must be a lot easier this time around, with kids and the busyness of life to distract you from the wait and the months of paperwork?" Well, that would seem logical...we have three kids, we homeschool, our baby of the clan is a bit high maintenance (haha), and most days it feels like we have

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-74134514865534135672015-07-11T09:33:00.001-04:002015-07-11T09:33:57.919-04:00

July 4, 2015 marks 10 years of marriage for us. It also marks the most gracious decade of our lives. More things in life should be wildly celebrated... And with incredible joy, we renewed our vows in the midst of those who love us most. So here's a peek into an evening that will go down in history as one of the most memorable events of our lives. There are few things in life so profound as

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-34485734464899103062015-06-21T22:48:00.004-04:002015-10-14T07:15:41.689-04:00

When we went through the adoption process the first time, we were both working full-time and we had no children. We lived off of Jon's salary and my salary was fully used to pay for adoption expenses. We didn't need to run a massive campaign project to get our adoption fees met and we didn't need to apply for grants. In short, we felt very "in control" of the adoption process because one of the

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-35530579553844711072015-06-16T15:37:00.000-04:002015-06-16T16:52:51.075-04:00

We continue to be amazed at the incredible things that God has been doing in the last week to provide the funding we need by June 24th. There are lots of little details following in this blog post that are just amazing. They are details that cause us to praise God because He is the only one, who again, could have orchestrated something so incredible. All along, we have been planning on applying

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-44441788165807411822015-06-13T21:19:00.004-04:002015-10-14T07:12:18.519-04:00

The details. The story. The crazy ways God has been working in the life of a little boy in Ethiopia and a small family in Indiana. Ready for it? It's kind of a novel and Jon will tell me, "No one is going to read that. It's too long. They will skim."   Well, that's okay. People can skim. Yes, I'm writing for the millions of people who asked for the story, but ultimately, I'm writing out

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-85787113280415115742015-04-02T07:48:00.001-04:002015-04-02T07:48:35.481-04:00

This Easter, I've been thinking a lot about what Easter means when tragedy strikes in our lives, or the lives of those we know and love. This God we serve, this Jesus, is meant to completely permeate every inch of our life. Easter is not just about the facts that Jesus died and rose again. If the facts stay facts, and have no bearing on our every day life, we are missing the incredible benefits

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-61021997906225025482015-03-30T07:29:00.000-04:002015-03-30T07:29:21.585-04:00

Holy Week- the week and its events that lead up to the death and resurrection of Jesus. As we began our Easter tree readings with the kids last night I began to think of what the catapult is for such a world changing week is... is it power? a spiritual agenda? a way to get people to live rightly? Absolutely not. This week can be made into almost anything- the magnitude of this week and this

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-39022833240769674342015-03-26T11:29:00.001-04:002015-03-26T11:29:27.914-04:00

I like to re-post our Easter and Holy Week advent every year so I can find it easily and if anyone else is interested in the reading plans. We make an Easter tree to use with a set of the Resurrection Eggs for our Holy Week Advent. I revamped some of the Resurrection Eggs content to fit our devotions as they were too detailed for the ages of my kids. I also put together reading plans from our

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-58327182664658512792015-03-12T22:46:00.003-04:002015-03-12T22:57:46.551-04:00

This has been a question that others have asked us multiple times over the last 7 years ever since we began the adoption process for Mekonen.... so why adopt from another country? Why not adopt from here? And this time around, when we announced we are adopting from Africa again, we got the question several times. For our second adoption, the choice of where to adopt from holds an entirely

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-12741873872347247992015-03-07T12:06:00.004-05:002015-03-07T12:06:49.355-05:00

Life the last several months has been PACKED FULL and my brain is about to explode with all the things I want to write, should have written, and need to still write! Writing is my outlet. It's the way I process, the way I grow, the way I heal, the way I learn. To know we've started the adoption process again and that I haven't blogged about it shows just how time crunched life is right

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-17007319668279641362015-01-16T20:32:00.002-05:002015-01-19T08:41:45.814-05:00

Oh man, I hate how long it's been since I've posted. I have a million posts in my head that need to be written, but they keep getting put on the back burner for one reason after another! One of those reasons, is a BIG reason, and to find out what, watch this short video clip! AHHHH!!!! So there you have it. The Oren fam is expanding!!! I'm pretty sure Mekonen is more excited than anybody as

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-65686342197627911952014-12-30T11:37:00.002-05:002014-12-30T11:49:07.244-05:00

Parenting is the most competitive gig on the planet: who's kid is the smartest, the cutest, learned to read the earliest, has the most friends, is the best on the soccer team, watches the least amount of television, etc. and, nothing appears to convey those messages more than "the perfect Christmas family photo card." But I'd like to offer another thought, because that is definitely not the

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-42849225823496929672014-12-22T12:27:00.002-05:002014-12-22T12:27:36.074-05:00

Santa Claus....every year he comes up, and every year we have conversations about it. Jon grew up with Santa and I did not, so we come from both sides of the story. I'm a great fan of make-believe, imagination, and fun, fanciful stories. Several weeks ago, Mekonen lost his first tooth and I got flack for telling him about the Tooth Fairy, and letting my kids walk the streets of Disney World

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-11220643657616558812014-11-11T17:05:00.001-05:002014-11-11T17:11:09.462-05:00

The "adoption holidays" on the calendar- things like Orphan Sunday, birth mother's day, and today, national adoption day. They always stir up such a mix of opposite emotions that I find myself lost in thought most of the day, trying to make sense of them. Like today when a Mom at school says, "Hello?!?!" as I had a dazed look on my face while politely nodding in response to what I don't even know

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-81477948732662526072014-10-27T20:38:00.002-04:002014-10-27T20:43:38.235-04:00

Yesterday was a special day for us as we celebrated Penelope's baby dedication! We stood in front of God and our church family, and committed to raise Penelope with the truth of the Gospel and knowledge of Jesus and His Word.  Penelope Mae Oren Born: April 6, 2014 Dedicated on October 26, 2014 Life Verse: Lamentations 3:22-24 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-68465470988896764132014-10-09T20:59:00.002-04:002014-10-09T21:08:59.267-04:00

It's her 1/2 birthday! Craziness I tell you! We are halfway to being one year old and seeing her smash cake all over her face! This is one of my favorite ages. The pudgy, not quite as fragile stage, where they smile at almost every eye contact, and where their personalities start to come out. I cannot wait to see how it continues to unfold being #3 in this crazy crew. Happy 1/2 Birthday

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2168017825237251937.post-54384371775280043992014-10-02T22:26:00.001-04:002014-10-02T22:31:53.020-04:00

We have gotten the question "so what is classical education anyway?" many, many times, so I figured I'd write a post and add it to the homeschooling list. You can read about our main reason for homeschooling here...we desire time with our kids and are working toward a "one-piece life" experience for our family. But in addition to that, we are homeschooling to give our kids the kind of education

Rachaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04388537361396091215noreply@blogger.com1