*Yes, we’re up quite late tonight.  Papers are due tomorrow.  I finished editing, and was staying up to show solidarity, but am fading fast… Pray for Eric.  Seminary is almost DONE.

“Mommy, may I have some milk please?”

I said, “Sure, just a minute” and continued preparing Glo’s snack. Once I gave Glo her snack, I said, “Do you want some of this, Martha?”

“No, I want milk. LITERALLY.”

I think she actually used the word “literally” somewhat properly, right? HA!

I love this photo.  I found it a few days ago while sorting through some things in the garage.  It’s so silly… I think it was the night my 8 siblings and I celebrated our parents’ 25th anniversary with them.  I think we had been talking about Psalm 127 and so we were trying to look like an archer’s quiver (hence that sash/rope thingy that looks like it’s strangling Seth).  Kinda very nerdy… I know.

What stood out to me the other day when I saw this was WOW! How much has changed in a decade!  This was taken right after I started my freshman year of college.  None of us kids had significant others at the time (at least none of any significance ).  My big brothers were all preparing to graduate college in a semester or two.  And Seth – our baby – was the same age that my Noa is now.  Within weeks of this photo being taken Joel would begin dating Mary Stuart, Danny would meet Kimberly, and I would meet (or at least see from afar and swoon over) Eric.

It seems so long ago – was it only 10 and a half years?

And what makes it even crazier is to think how “little” our family looks then compared to now! We have tripled in size.

In fact, today, with the birth of my precious nephew Malachi (YAY!), there are 18 more (5 spouses, 13 grandchildren) that are part of the “full quiver” we were representing in our photo (with at least 2 more on the way this year!).

I’ve been listening to Andrew Peterson’s song “Planting Trees” a bunch recently. I love it. There is so much good stuff in there that I’ve been chewing on. He says:

“So let go of all that’s passing

Lift up the least of these

Lean into something lasting:

Planting trees“

The song is about pouring into things that will last, and one of the examples he gives is raising children.  One of my favorite things about the parallels he draws between raising children and planting trees is the fact that though we toil to plant and water, it is GOD who makes things grow. It is GOD who faithfully brings about the fruit of our labor.

When people find out I grew up in a family of nine children, I almost always get the question, “So, do you want a lot of kids too?”

Before I had kids, my answer was “YES! It was so fun! I loved it! Of course!”

Now, with three young children, my answer is still, “YES!” but I often add something to the affect of “But my mom made it look easier than it is.” 

My mom did make it looks easy in many ways.  My parents are incredible parents.

But they failed a lot too.  They are not particularly more patient and gracious than other godly people I know.   They don’t have parenting down to an art form, and they definitely don’t claim to be perfect parents. In fact, if there’s anything my parents did a lot in the years I was in their home, it was acknowledge their weaknesses, repent of their failures and sin, and reconcile with each other and us often.

No one in our house thought they were perfect, or that they had this child-rearing thing down. And because of that, when I look at this photo and think of all that has changed between then and now, I am amazed that GOD’S the one whose got it down.  He is SO FAITHFUL!

So today, rereading this and trying to finish it, I am so incredibly grateful for our mothers – Kathy and Carol – who “leaned into something lasting” in loving and nurturing and raising two very strong-willed and tough kids. I know both of them had days that they must have wondered, “is this worth it?”, “will I live to see the fruit of this labor?”  I am thankful for a faithful God who took their hard, yet imperfect work of mothering and continues to pour out his blessings through it in our lives and the lives of our children.  I am thankful that I can face today, and tomorrow, very much aware of how not-up-to-the-task I am to call of motherhood, yet know that my faithful Father is up to the task of working in and through me day in and day out. 

Praising God today for you, our sweet Mothers.

Praising God for the gift of being a mother.

Praising God, becaue He who called us is faithful!

]]> http://www.thenollfamily.com/familyblog/2012/05/13/great-is-his-faithfulness/feed/ 2 http://www.thenollfamily.com/familyblog/2012/05/12/overheard-at-my-house-56/ http://www.thenollfamily.com/familyblog/2012/05/12/overheard-at-my-house-56/#comments Sat, 12 May 2012 20:21:22 +0000 Sara-Beth http://www.thenollfamily.com/?p=3486 A really sweet treat was getting to skype with our little Asher this morning for a few moments.  You could tell he was totally overwhelmed by five faces pushing to get on the screen and see him, but it was so fun for the girls and Eric to finally get to sort of “meet” him for the first time…

Martha was a bit of a screen hog, and just had so much to say to him.  One of my favorite things she said was,

“Look Asher! It’s all your sisters!” (in an aren’t-you-so-excited??? kind of voice).

Later, after we finished skyping, she kept saying,

“I just think Asher is sooooooo cute.”

It’s true.  He is soooooooo cute, and all his sister are too. 

It was bittersweet to be in Ethiopia.  It was awesome to finally be there, but under such different circumstances than I ever imagined.  It was amazing to get to be with Asher, but hard to not get any more “official” in his adoption, and absolutely heartbreaking to leave him.  Mostly it was hard to be so close to Jonathan and David – or relatively close compared to the last 15 months we’ve loved them -  and not be able to even meet them, much less love on them and make sure they’re ok.  It was awesome to be around other adoptive families and share in their joy and watch them go through the steps that I’ve waited and hoped and prayed we’d have gone through by now.  But that was also hard, and if I’m honest there’s a big part of my heart that is still just grieving how different our adoption story is from what I thought and hoped it would be.

Still, the Lord blessed and confirmed in many ways that he has us exactly where he wants us through my time there, and I am thankful to rest in his sovereignty, not my plans and dreams.

The best part of the trip was being with Asher. Oh my.  What a boy. What a BOY!  I spent several hours a day at the transition house with him and the other children and it was such fun.  He didn’t know me as anyone special, and couldn’t have cared less about me being there (at least the first few days – he liked me more as time went on , but I loved soaking up his little personality and pouring out as much love and care as I possibly could on his little self.

I can’t show you his face yet, but here’s a small glimpse of some of the sweetness I enjoyed that week:

The girls and I made “sibling bracelets” [friendship bracelets] for them and Asher, and they’ve decided to wear theirs until he is home. We took this picture the day before I left, and I printed it to take to him:

I tried to put his on him, but he was  little wary of having it tied around his wrist, so we settled for tying it around his monkey’s wrist.

I don’t know how much of all that his little heart understood (most likely not much), but it’s a special connection for the girls, and their bracelets are constant reminders of their little brother across the ocean.

I also left him with a photo album full of pictures of his waiting family, including a photo I took and printed of us together that week. I don’t think he can even begin to grasp how much he is loved and cherished from afar, but I pray the Lord would use it to make us at least familiar and not-so-scary to him.

My last day there was the best, as he was much more warmed up to me and just let me hold and cuddle him for hours. At one point he fell asleep in my arms and I just drank in his sweetness in those moments – knowing they would have to tide me over for several months until I see him again.

What a gift those moments were…

(Looking at this photo just makes me cry, and long to have him in my arms again soon.  Please Lord…)

We hope to have a court date soon, but court dates seem rather illusive for our family, so we will just have to wait and see. I’ll keep you posted.

As always, thank you for praying and hoping with us!

]]> http://www.thenollfamily.com/familyblog/2012/05/08/im-back/feed/ 2 http://www.thenollfamily.com/familyblog/2012/04/18/im-going-to-ethiopia/ http://www.thenollfamily.com/familyblog/2012/04/18/im-going-to-ethiopia/#comments Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:31:44 +0000 Sara-Beth http://www.thenollfamily.com/?p=3471 Sorry to keep you in suspense… I meant to write more on Sunday but we’ve been quite busy the last few days.

It’s true! I AM going to Ethiopia this weekend! I am so excited and blessed to get to go.  It is not officially for our adoption, but I know God has given me this opportunity for a reason.

The official purpose of my trip is to go to escort a child home to her forever family.  I am really excited.  This is such a unique opportunity, one that was unexpected and came to us rather suddenly, but one for which I am SO thankful.  I am praying that the Lord would use me to be a blessing to this little girl as she makes this big change – that I would be used of God to bring comfort and peace to her little heart during (what is often) a tumultuous transition.

One big reason why I am taking this trip is that God has given us another little boy! I shared a while ago that our fleece before God about taking another referral (which we have been encouraged to do since last fall), was the adoption-readiness of another child for us.  2 weeks ago we heard he was ready, and the Lord has confirmed to us that we are to step out in faith again and hope to bring this sweet little guy home.

We are calling him Asher, which sounds like a shortened version of his Ethiopian name, and we plan to keep as his first name.    He has the sweetest smile and eyes that sparkle. He is almost 2 years old, and the nanny at the transition house reported he moves too fast to get good photos (though we’ve already received a ton of great pictures of him!).

As you can imagine, accepting a third referral was bittersweet in many ways. Still, we rejoice in the life of this precious boy and are humbled and thankful that the Lord has seen fit to bring him into our lives and hearts.

This does not change our commitment to fighting through prayer and anything else we can do for Jonathan and David, and we still hope and pray for the miracle of their release from the injustice that holds them right now.  We are told there is still a long road ahead, even if things would turn around to finally be in their (and our) favor.   We continue to pray fervently that the Lord brings us to the opportunity to bring one or both of them into our family and are committed to do everything we can to be able to do that.  And we ask you to keep praying with us to that end.

SO, for my few days in Ethiopia, my plan is to just soak up as much time with Asher as I can, getting to know him and starting to build a relationship with him.  I’m also praying for opportunities to move forward in the adoption though I don’t know yet if that’s even possible.

Thank you so much for your prayers for us and these boys (now THREE) that the Lord has brought into our hearts and lives.  We wonder at the story He is weaving for them and us, and just pray that we would continue to sense his leading and direction.    Please keep praying for these boys, and our whole family- especially next week as we are apart and we take another step on this journey.

I automatically said, “yeah, seriously” because I’ve wanted to visit Africa as long as I can remember.

But then it hit me and I said,

“I think I’ll go next week, ok?”

it took a minute for him to get it, but then Eric laughed, groaned and said,

“Doh!! No fair!”

True story, y’all

I AM GOING TO AFRICA IN ONE WEEK!!!!

I have to get ready for home group now, so I will fill you in on details later.

I’m so excited.