Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Sleepover



Aubrey and Alyssa had a sleepover at our friends, the Cottle's house this past weekend. They had a blast playing with their seven kiddos! The Cottles are an awesome family that have 2 biological children and 5 adopted children! We are blessed to know them!


This just happened to be Aubrey's first sleepover with a friend (asside from family) and you could tell she felt so big and special. She and Edie are the same age and are 2 peas in a pod! So Cute! I was so glad she was asked to stay over too, because being the little sister in the family she often gets left out of sleepovers, so I was happy for my little Aubrey. She didn't even hesitate when they asked her to stay too. she was like...'See ya later mom and dad. Let's get this party started!'
Glad they had fun!

Monday, September 26, 2011

Toothless!



My little first grader finally lost a tooth!
We first discovered her looth tooth about a month ago while we were eating at Pei Wei. She bit into a vietnamese chicken salad roll and complained of her tooth hurting. I went to take a look and gently touched it to find that it was wiggling a little bit! She was so excited, because all her friends in her class lost some of their teeth already and she was beginning to feel a little left out.
This little snaggle tooth got so loose that it was just dangling on for dear life to her gums but she wouldn't let me or her dad pull it out! Finally one night at 1:30 am, I got woke up by her little self saying..."mom, Can you believe it? I got up to potty and my tooth just fell out in my hand! Can you believe it?"
The next morning she said to me..."Mom, are you and dad the tooth fairy?" I didn't answer, not sure what to say, hoping if I ignored her question she would just forget about it and walk away. No Such Luck! She just sat there and said with her most serious face.."Tell me the truth." So I told her yes we are the tooth fairy, but explained to her that it was a fun game mommies and daddies liked to play with their kids, so don't tell any friends at school because it would make their parents sad. She agreed and didn't seem at all disappointed in the news. The next night she still put her tooth under her pillow and woke up with $5.00, which she used to buy some new earrings at "Justice."

Monday, September 19, 2011

The Celebration

I forgot to mention on my first post that Sept 13th is also my father-in-law's birthday as well! So, our little Jo Mo and his Papa will share a birthday! This birthday just happened to be Papa's 50th, so what better way to celebrate Papa's
50th and Josiah's 1st birthdays than at an Ethiopian restaurant!

We had a great time with just me and Aaron and the girls and Aaron's youngest sister, Andrea and their dad..aka "Papa"! We decided to venture out and try a different restaurant than where we usually go and we ended up at Ibex in Dallas. It was great! The food was great and the atmostphere was really great! It reminded me so much of Ethiopia and made me miss it! This place is particularly nice because on the weekends they have an Ethiopian DJ come and they clear part of the floor for dancing! Since we went on a Tuesday night, we didn't get to enjoy the festivities, but will for sure have to go back for this! Nevertheless, we enjoyed our night, and I think Papa enjoyed trying something new and loved the food!



This was our food before we dug into it!

And this was the aftermath! Yes..I think we all enjoyed it!

Papa and Aubrey being silly with their blue icing on their cake!
~Fun times with the Reeves Family~

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

His 1st Birthday!

Last year early on this very morning, Sept, 13, 2010, the Lord woke me up to the loud sound of an infant crying. Aaron was already at work, so it was just me. I got up thinking, where on earth is this baby that's crying? I walked around my room and looked out my window, thinking maybe there was someone outside in my front yard holding this crying baby. It was that loud, sounded like the crying was coming from within my house or just outside the window. I said out loud to myself..."what on earth is that?" and just as soon as the words came out of my mouth, in my mind the Lord whispered..."you need to remember this date." And then the crying stopped. I immediately called Aaron and told him what had happened and he asked me what it was I thought the Lord was trying to tell us. And I knew in my spirit and I said," I think He is telling us that our son was born today."
Time went on and soon February came, and we had just gotten our 171H in the mail in a record time of 6 days! I emailed Becky with YWAM and told her that we got our approval and she said... "Ok great! You are now ready to look at our waiting children's list." My response was..."What list?"
She said, "well we don't work like other agencies where we refer a child to you. From the time a child is brought into our care we pray over that child for the Lord to bring that particular child's family to them, because we believe that the Lord already has families picked out for each child." She then went onto tell me that we should log onto the waiting children's list and if the Lord is speaking to us about a specific child we can then request a referral for that child. If He's not, then we keep praying until more children are added to the list and the Lord confirms our child.
So Aaron and I were just about freaking out. We knew in our hearts that this was the Lord's moment with us! We were about to see our son's face for the first time! With hands shaking we made an account to log onto the list. Before logging on I told Aaron..."Oh my gosh, if that was what the Lord was trying to tell us on the
13th of Sept, then he would be 4 months old right now! So Aaron prayed that when we logged on that there wouldn't be any doubt whatsoever in recognizing our son! So we logged on and at the time there were about 14 kids on the list. We carefully looked at each beautiful child, but nothing was just jumping out at us. When we got down to the very bottom of the list, there he was! "Baby boy "M," 4 MONTHS OLD!" Aaron said he knew in his heart that he was looking at the face of our son the moment he saw his picture. I clicked on the picture, and read his story....It said something along the lines of ..."Baby boy "M" was found wrapped only in a beige scarf, abandoned and left on a woman's doorstep, he was then taken to the local police department where they figured him to be 2 weeks old at the time. The police gave him the estimated birthday of Sept. 11, 2010. When I saw this I knew! This was him, although the police were off by 2 days :) The Lord had already told me when his birthday was. You see, Sept. 11th in Ethiopia is the the beginning of the New Year for them, so a lot of babies found around this time are given the birthday of the new year.
In that very precious moment the Lord had us in, Aaron and I were in awe of Him. He blew us away in the way He revealed our son to us! It was one of the most incredible moments of our lives! The Lord is so personal and He speaks so clearly if we seek Him in things and have the ears to hear Him! He wants to reveal himself to us in amazing ways! And on Sept 13th last year He did just that, and He confirmed it again the following February when we saw Josiah Moti Reeves for the first time ever! That very next morning, I got out the Bible and was reading, and the Lord confirmed again through scripture. Psalm 2 popped into my mind and I started reading until I came to the words..." I will declare a decree in the heavens that you are my son." So after that day, Aaron and I claimed that scripture over that little 4 month old boy whose picture captured our hearts! We declared to everyone that "he was our son!"
I think there were some skeptical people who heard our story. Some who maybe thought I was a little off my rocker thinking that I heard a baby cry and thinking the Lord told me that it was my son's birthday. Some of you reading this now may even be thinking that! But that's ok. We know! We know it was real. It was as real an experience as me sitting here at my computer typing these words out right this very second. It was as real as seeing that face in person for the first time and holding him in my arms. I wasn't dreaming it, I was wide awake hearing that cry, and I know it was the Lord telling me...."Listen my daughter....do you hear him? That's your son who was born today."
We hear you Lord, and we are so very thankful you are such a personal God and a Father who has been so involved in leading every single step in this whole process! You stunned and amazed us through this entire journey and our hearts overflow with thankfulness to you! Thank you for this day Lord! "This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it." Thank you for our son, and leading us to him, and thank you that he will be home soon enough! Happy 1st birthday Josiah Moti Reeves. We love you so much and can't wait to celebrate every birthday for the rest of our lives with you!

These were some of the first pictures we got of him :)

Monday, September 12, 2011

My little big girl :)


My littlest girl has gotten big enough to go to preschool!!! Hard to believe, but it has happened! Aubrey will be 4 in February and she is very smart. She is artistic and funny and always wants to stay at school with her big sister, Alyssa. With her little brother coming home soon, we thought it might be a great idea to enroll her in preschool a couple days a week so that she could have something special of her very own to look forward to each week. We went school clothes shopping and bought her a special Dora the Explorer lunch box. Her Nana had already given her a special backpack so she was all set to go!





She was pretty tired when she got home after her first day, but she did great, and was ready to go again the next day!