Home ONE Month!!!

Today we celebrate being home from Ethiopia ONE month! WOW! It is so amazing to realize that 4 weeks have already flown by!!! It helps me realize that busyness of being a mom to 4 kids is cause time to go rapidly...I better enjoy EVERY moment with them!!!

T*n***e and M**l*****m have transitioned so well! They are truly incredible! I have been telling people that our adoption story is a bit of a "fairy tale". Other then a few minor bumps along the way, our adoption journey has been very smooth. We are so blessed and incredibly thankful. We pray our story will be a great encouragement to others!


Each month home (for our first year) I am going to share updates about our Ethiopian beauties:


T*n***e:
You are so incredible! You exhibit such strength and courage. You have literally had no "issues" transitioning to your new way of life in our family. You are sweet, playful (when you are comfortable in your surroundings), and super smart...your English is coming along SO FAST! 

Here are some highlights of your 1st Month:

-You enjoy being helpful...folding/putting away laundry, putting dishes in the sink, assisting your little brother and sister with tasks (like getting dressed and putting on shoes)
-Although a little over a month ago, I am fairly sure you had no concept of what having a "wardrobe" was, you have quickly become quite the fashionista! If I pick out an outfit that does not meet your approval, you are not afraid to tell me "No, Mama"...and then show me a "better" option. Your second day home you were so happy to have so much clothing that when your Oma came over you dragged her into your room, opened every dresser drawer and said, "Tensaye's"...then you proudly opened your closet doors and said, "Tensaye's" again. I have a feeling when you hit your teen years, we will probably need a clothing fund for you!
-When you originally came from Ethiopia you did not really have the concept of matching colors in your outfits. You quickly picked up this concept and now "need" to have your hair accessories perfectly match your outfits every day!
-You love being a big sister to Faithy. You are so sweet to her and often sacrifice something you are playing with and give it to her, just to make her happy.
-Your English is coming along so fast! Your longest sentence so far was when you wanted me to play a game with you and you said, "Come on Mama, sit down." You are communicating almost solely in English already (even with Millennium). I love hearing your prayers with your adorable Wolayta accent.
-Your playful personality is coming out more and more at home. You enjoy playing in the backyard and dancing with me to an Amharic Children's Music cd.
-You can't get enough jigsaw puzzles!
-You enjoy watching the "Fresh Beat Band" on TV.
-You really like doing "school" stuff...tracing letters, reading books, drawing, saying your numbers (1-20), and coloring.
-You can be a little sneaky...something Daddy and I have to watch closely.
-You had the chicken pox for a week and a half. You had them fairly badly, but were such a trooper. You did not know how to tell us that you were itchy, so you would point to an itchy spot and tell me and Daddy "Ouch"...we kept trying to get you to say "itch"...you still point the spots where the scabs were to us one-by-one.
-You do not like most veggies (corn and carrots are the exception). You have already been in time-out a few times for passionately saying, "No Mama!" when a green veggie appears in your plate. You manage to get the veggies down though, as long as you have a big cup of water to wash down each bite! 
-You have made a friend at church. She is a sweet girl named, Jessica.
-You are truly beautiful...everyone comments on your eyes!
-Your laughter is so cute...when you really get going, you have this high-pitched squeal that just refreshes my soul...and probably our neighbor's souls too! :0)


I can't wait to see what this next month brings...more English, more of your personality coming out, more of us seeing who you really are, more of you adjusting to life as a Ballard! I love you!!!


M**l*****m:
You are so stinkin' cute! You are also so much fun...always ready for a good time! You have had a couple of small things to work out during your transition into your new way of life...but considering you are only 2...you are so AMAZING and doing so well!

Here are some highlights of your 1st Month:
-Your smile lights up everything! I wish I could package it and give it to all the gloomy people in the world.
-Boundaries are a new concept for you. You are catching on but still end up in time-out multiple times a day. Because you are such a "party" guy, a lack of self-control is often the issue that leads you to needing some redirection.
-You are doing really well with English. Although your pronunciation still needs lots of work, you know tons of words and are even starting to use small sentences. On the way to church yesterday, you saw a car next to us and said, "Mama, car". I said, "Do you see a car Millennium?". Then you said, "Yes." and "Mama, I like it."Cute!
-Your voice is adorable..sort of husky and scruffy.
-It is tricky for you to say the "F-R" sound, so "frog" is "bdog" and "friend" is "bdiend". 
-You love to eat! This is good and bad. The good part is that you eat anything you are given. The bad part is that you seem to have a bit of an obsession with food...you literally get a giddy when you know food is coming. There have been a couple incidences that have given us a little concern, but they are mild...and we are already addressing the issues and seeing a great improvement!
-You love cars!
-We were told in Ethiopia that you have "night terrors". We seen them regularly our first 2 weeks together, but now they are gone at night and happen rarely during naps. 
-Faithy loves you! You are the first person she asks for in the morning when she wakes up.
-You came down with chicken pox about 10 days after we got home...then gave them to your sisters.
-You love being praised when you do something well...and we use praise often...we love seeing your face light up!
-You are built solid...and although you are half the age of your older brother and sister you are only 4-6 pounds lighter than them. People have jokingly asked "what you are made of"..."concrete" seems to be the general consensus.
-You enjoy playing in the backyard and singing songs in your native language and Amharic...we get to hear them so often that even Xavier and Faithy know how to sing them!
-You enjoy seeing pictures and video of yourself.
-Your spirit is so joyful and you love every moment (when you are not being disciplined) of every day!


I believe this next month is going to be a great one! Thank you for being such an incredible little guy! I love you!!!

Mother's Day

Today was my first Mother's Day as a "Mom", "Mama", and "Mommy" to FOUR fabulous kids! I am such a blessed woman! Kenny made a really cute dvd for me of pictures of my recent motherhood adventures and cute clips of the kids saying, "I love you, Mama". We showed T and M a picture of their birth mother and birth sister today (we thought it would be a good way to honor her memory on this day). M*l******m was happy (he always is). T*n***e seemed a bit confused, then relieved. I explained she has "2 mama's...'Mama' and 'Ethiopian Mama'"...she seemed very happy with that!


As great as today was, I could not help but reflect on the amazing woman who brought T and M into this world. My heart aches that she could not care for her children. Her strength, courage, and sacrifice to do what she needed to do to insure her children would live and thrive humbles me. I have thought about her a lot today. We know that she loves God dearly and we are so happy that one day we will all be united in heaven! I found this poem and it does a god job putting into words what I feel for her:

Once there were two women,

Who barely knew each other.

One is in your heart forever,

The other you’ll call mother.

Two different lives,

Shaped to make yours one.

One became your guiding star,

The other became your sun.

The first gave you life,

And the second taught you how to live it.

The first gave you a need for love,

And the second was there to give it.

One gave you a nationality,

The other gave you a name.
One gave you the seed of talent,

The other gave you an aim.

One gave you emotions,

The other calmed your fears.

One saw your first sweet smile,

The other dried your tears.

One gave you a family,

It was what God intended for her to do.

The other prayed for a child,

And God led her straight to you.

And now you ask me

Through your tears,

The age old question through the years.

Heredity or environment…

Which are you a product of?

Neither, my darling… neither,

Just two different kinds of love.

Almost Home One Month!

     I can't believe we have almost been home with our children from Ethiopia one month! Time is flying by! In the 3-1/2 weeks we have been home, we have had chicken pox for 2 of the weeks...I nice gift we discovered both of our kids brought home with them from Ethiopia.  :0)
     T and M are transitioning SO much better than we expected! We were prepared for things to be really hard...but other than the exhaustion we have with having 4 kids between the ages of 2 and 5...life is really good! I will give more details about this on our "official" one month home day.
     We received our credit card bills this week...something I was dreading. They included the last chunk of fees to our agency and all of our travel expenses. Of the close to $40,000 this process has cost us, we now have $17,000 in credit card debit. Yuck! At first, I felt sick, but when I look into the eyes of T and M and see their incredible smiles...I KNOW they are worth every dime of debt we have. They are true gifts and I would go through everything we have gone through for them a million times over! 

I am so excited to celebrate "Mother's Day" on Sunday as a Mom, Mama, and 

Mommy to 4!!!!!!

Enjoy some new pictures of our family!

Day 8-April 10th: Our Travels Home

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to write about the very last leg of our trip! To be honest it was the most stressful and "not fun" part of our trip, so I have been slow to want to revisit it.

Our flight was scheduled to leave Ethiopia just before midnight. Ethiopian Air is notorious for not being on time...and they lived up to their notoriety on our trip home. We left Ethiopia almost 40 minutes late...not fun when you have 3 tired children and a connecting flight in Brussels. M*l******m was a bit of a mess on the flight...he was totally exhausted and was not liking his first experience with needing to wear a seat belt. We got lots of looks from the people around us...yes...we were "that" family. Eventually all of the kids fell asleep and we made it to Brussels in one piece. Kenny and I were already a little worn out, but happy that we were not too much of a disturbance on the plane.

We arrived in Brussels with only 1 hour and 15 minutes to catch our next flight...we were a little concerned but figured it would work out. Well, we arrived in Brussels and knew we were in trouble when we landed in the middle of the landing area. We had to wait for EVERY person to get off the plane, then got onto a shuttle bus and eventually were taken to a building. By the time this happened we had about 45 minutes before our plane left! We got into the airport and were greeted by a HUGE security line...we thought there was no way would make the next flight. Surprisingly, the line moved fast (although M and I were searched). We got to our gate with 15 minutes to spare before our plane left...hahaha! We were now flying on Delta and they had much better customer service. Our seats were not together (because we booked the flights 5 days before we left and had to take what we could get) but some very kind people switched so we could be close together. The kind woman at the gate also gave us our boarding passes for our flight in Atlanta (this will become VERY important later).

After a nine hour flight, we arrived in Atlanta. We had 2 hours to go through customs and get T*n***e and M**l*****m's visas processed before our next flight. First, we got through the part were they checked the passports for me, Kenny, and X...that was easy. Next, we had to go to a special office where the visas for T and M were processed. God bless the guy who was working there...but he could not have moved any slower than he did. There were a few people in line ahead of us...and we quickly realized we were going to have another time crunch. After about 20 minutes, Kenny risked having things move even slower and asked the guy how much longer things would take...we had a flight in one hour. The guy was really nice, and tried to get our paperwork process "as quickly as he could" but by the time we were finished we had 30 minutes to catch our next flight...and we still had to clear customs. We went to the baggage area and discovered one of our bags was lost...the big bag that had all of the cool stuff we purchased in Ethiopia. We talked to an airport employee and they said we would have to make a claim when we got to Los Angles. We hurried off, without much time to really give it a second thought. Next we had to get to our gate, and to get there we had to board a tram that took us to the right terminal..more time lost. We arrived at the terminal with literally 15 minutes until our plane left. We headed to the security line...another long line. I knew we would not make our flight. There was an airport employee standing at the entrance to line and I asked her, "We have only had 15 minutes until our flight leaves, is there any way we will make it?" By God's grace, she ushered us through at took us to the front of a special quest line. We thought we just might make it. However, as it turns out, EVERY one of our kids carry-on bags we red-flagged and had to be searched individually (by a cranky airport employee)...YIKES! When we finished, Kenny picked up M and RAN to the gate...we only had 5 minutes! I gathered X, T and most of our carry-ons and did my best to follow behind. As we reached the gate, I see Kenny passionately talking to the person at the gate and pointing back at me, X, and T. He was telling them, "my wife and kids are coming!"...they wanted to leave us! We literally walked into the tunnel to board our plane and they closed the door.  We were SO THANKFUL the woman in Brussels ushered us our boarding passes for Atlanta...if she had not done that, we would have missed this flight! God really took care of us on that one!!!

Now for more fun...none of our assigned seats on the plane were together...not one! We were sprinkled all over the place! I told the flight attendant that 2 of our children did not speak english and we needed to figure out a way for us to be together. She was very irritated with me...and said that because of us the "entire plane was taking a delay". She begrudgingly asked people to change seats so at least a few of us could be together...she did not try too hard though. NO ONE wanted to move...I could not believe it! I got so frustrated that I yelled across the entire airplane, "TWO OF OUR CHILDREN DO NOT SPEAK ENGLISH AND NONE OF OUR SEATS ARE TOGETHER. THEY WILL FREAK OUT IF THEY ARE NOT SITTING WITH US! WILL SOMEONE PLEASE CHANGE SEATS FOR US?!?!" After my plea, Kenny was able to sit with M, and I was able to sit with T and X about 8 rows behind them. The ride home was terrible...I was not able to talk to Kenny at all. I was unable to tell him I was feeling really sick! Yes, on top of everything else...I threw up on the flight home 4-5 times...I felt awful! Thankfully, X and T were so exhausted they slept the entire flight. Kenny told me (later) that it was a bad flight for him too. The wear and tear of our travel made him physically VERY sore and he could not really move around because M fell asleep on him.

We arrived in LA at a little after 6:00pm. We were soooooooo thankful to be HOME! We were completely exhausted, but we could not wait to see our little F****! It was wonderful to come down the escalator and see our family and friends waiting to greet us....what a comforting sight. It was great to see how quickly F**** warmed up to T and T seemed to love that she had a little sister! It was so cute!!! We got the luggage that arrived and placed a claim for our lost piece of luggage (the airline ended up finding it...it had never left Brussels...and they delivered it to us the next day).

Walking through the front door of our house was SUCH a relief! We showed the kids their bedroom and the play room. Although they were tired, their smiles were amazing! Before we left for Ethiopia, we were trying to finish a remodel on our house. When we came into the house, we saw how hard my parents and aunt worked to finish the job and make the house nice for our return home! It was such a joy to show T and M their home!!! All of the kids were in bed and asleep by 9:00pm! A great end to a long journey!