Getting together with our dear Friends

Two happy families. For real.

Biruk and boy O connected really nicely. Biruk wasn't even possessive over his stuff. Shocking.

Susan, you better watch out. I am in LOVE with your little man. I already miss him.

Last Saturday we finally saw our wonderful friends again since we first met in ET. I met Susan and Ken when I went to ET. We stayed at the guesthouse together. The good thing was that Susan and I had connected way before that time and really had gotten to know each other over email already. Plus we were dealing with the same court drama where one of each of our kids passed court and the other one didn't even though we were told they all 4 had passed. Many weeks had passed after we were finally told what had happened and we were fueling badly, lol. It was such a blessing to have met someone who went through the same craziness because the agency didn't disclose who it was but we found each other anyway. After that our bond/moral support for each other only got stronger by the day. Susan you are so true and your perseverance and beauty really inspires me to do more. So far I have lost 10 pounds. I hope you know that you were the one that inspired me to get off my lazy butt and start exercising again. Susan wrote a much more beautiful post about our visit and if you like to read it its right here .

Oopsi, I forgot to mention that I didn't get a photo of our husbands but they really hit it off too. Have I mentioned that we are living less than 2 hours apart? Score! No more waiting again for almost a year to get together...

Adoption friends visit

A few days ago Lisa visited with the kiddos. Amira, Biruk and Eden were at Kidane together. We haven't seen them in 1.5 years. A visit was long overdue but they are from Eastern WA so its hard to catch up. If you wanna see how iddy biddy they were click here. I have also posted a few other pics after this post were the kids are doing their Valentine cards. Sorry Susan, I wished I could have been as creative as you:(

Amira, Biruk, Eden

Amira, Biruk, Eden

The Perez and Hill Kiddos

Hanging out with friends

Last weekend we had a really good time. We were all meeting up with Courtney and Jesse and the kids' friends from ET.

Deception Pass

Kids are anxiously waiting for their friends to arrive

Sammy and Micah were at the same orphanage.

Jesse and Kevin

I LOVE this boy picture. Biruk and Tekalgn (in the front left) were at the same orphanage.

Micah has an infatuation with Jesse but I think the feeling is mutual.

True Friends

True friends are when I call them last minute:) and say "Joy, would you mind seeing my daughter while she is visiting your State"?. She replies "Yes, of course". Just like that and end of story.

Joy has been my friend since July of 2006 when we were on the journey of adopting from Zambia. Our friendship has only grown stronger through our deep love we share for God and the way we believe in raising our children. We also have our inter racial marriage in common which can have its interesting conversations, right Joy:)

Anyways, Danica loved Joy's family and I thing the feeling was super mutual on Joy's side. They went to a restaurant and had dinner and went to a fun place afterwards. Joy brought her whole gang. Husband is not in picture, he was taking pictures:) . It very important to me for Danica to get to know my very dear friends who have more than just one kid and know its still possible to live happily and peacefully and not like the family on TV "Cheaper by the Dozen". There is still this persona going around that if you have lots of children you are odd or low income.... yeah right.... Danica was amazed (I told her prior to meeting) at how well behaved all the children were. They were so well behaved because they don't get to eat out often so this was a serious treat and they knew how to be thankful. For the longest time (16 years) Danica was raised on being an only child and spoiled rotten. When we started the adoption journey, her heart had to change, slowly but surely and she is now very, very understanding and loving for what I am living and breathing for. Danica also had the opportunity to have met my dear friends in Idaho, Lisa and Signe, and she was amazed and in love as well.

Thank you Javier and Joy for hosting my baby girl. I really appreciate it.

Look at Danica and Janae. They are both on the far right. Don't they look like sisters?

Next Stop, Idaho!

Sorry, the story of this is on the bottom. I wanted to be on top but made a mistake.

15 kids between the Schumakers and the Hills, Anastasia and Danica are not in there.

BEST FRIENDS SINCE BIRTH (Nes and Biruk)
Okay these three boys together are TERROR!!!

Ready to go to the wedding

The Hill Family

One of my best friends! Signe, who is Nes' mom

Danica, Mads and Brook (new friends)

My favorite girl Omega!

Now this is the best story. Her son Soso announced to Signe that he wants to marry Amira so he can be a part of our family. Really he is totally and utterly in love with Kevin. Now lets hope they get married one day? Can you imagine what beautiful children they will have?

My precious two oldest daughters, Anastasia and Danica

We had the joy of being a part of the wedding for one of the Qualls' children, Mimi. What a beautiful, 21 year old radiant bride. I must have cried throughout the whole wedding, thinking it will be Danica's turn so soon, hopefully:) This was also the MOST kid friendly wedding I have ever seen in my entire life. They were having a blast. Prior to the wedding, we were able to be most of the day with my beloved friend Signe , who is the mommy of Biruk's best friend Nes.

Next Stop, Laci's House

Laci and I have known each other since early of 2006. We only live 30 min apart. I have always been really good friends with her sister Karly. We reconnected in 2008 when we found out we were both adopting from ET in fact using the same agency each time. We adopted 2x from ET almost the same times. The first time Laci's kids came home about 6 month earlier but this time the kids came home only 2 weeks apart. We had a wonderful time. Not having Danica there we still had 15 kids but they all behaved to wonderful together. Thanks Laci and Sergio for having us all over.

Our 5 Kidane Kids
My Gang

Micah thoroughly enjoyed this tricycle. I need to buy him one

My twins

So in love with these kids

Beautiful Day

This summer I am determined to keep up with my adoption friends that are near, like 30 min to 6 hours away. Today we met up with my sweet friend Courtney and her kiddos. We both adopted from Kidane and AHOPE. Our visit was long overdue, the last time we got together was in September when her boys just got home. Had a wonderful time Courtney:)

Sammy and Micah were good buddies at AHope. I can only imagine Sammy seriously protecting Micah there. He is such a sweet boy. Today they met again for the first time since both leaving AH and at first they were both pretty shy, it was cute.

Even these three below had to warm up for a moment. They had already met each other. These are all the Kidane Kids. Misrak didn't know any of them, she was only at Kidane for less than 8 mo cuz I snatched her up quickly, lol:)
After warming up, the two set are running off to the park.

Saying good-bye

One last photo with the boys!

Brotherly Love

My little man having fun in the sand. He was actually showing out in public today with a tantrum over nothing, it was funny

Amira being herself, off on her own, in her little world

Summer Camp

This was our second year at camp. Last year the little ones weren't here so we only stayed for a day. This time we stayed the whole time, from Friday to Monday. Anastasia stayed at her favorite respite place where she hasn't been in over 2 years. She was thrilled to go there. The camp would have been too overwhelming for her. We had such an amazing time, words simply cannot describe. ALL the kids love to go to this camp no matter how old they are and look forward every year to returning. They have so many activities planned throughout the day. The kids did horseback riding, went on a train ride, in the evening we got to have a Hawaiian night and and Cowboy night. The parents got to have special parents nights were we just got to talk to the adults. It was a little sad this year because many of the new families but also the old families weren't able to return. The good thing was that we as adults made wonderful new friends and three of the families are from this area. I especially missed my Signe.

Danica even had the time of her life. We really didn't see her at all except when sleeping but when she came we were already sleeping. What was so awesome is that I knew Danica would enjoy this camp but she thought I was crazy and came along for the ride expecting a dumb camp. She like really misses all the friends she made already. Last night she even told me that she had wished she came to Idaho with me when we visited Lisa and Signe because she really connected with Lisa Q's oldest.

Everything was just so perfect and wonderful and we are so incredibly grateful to have this camp and hope we will always have it.

Kevin playing a game with the kids in the room during break time

Face Painting and Amira made a skirt

I just pray Danica doesn't look at my blog cuz she might kill me for putting up this picture. The young adults had a game in the mud.

Danica rough housing Biruk for fun

Danica swinging her sissy

The crew with Nes missing

Hawaiian night

My son got some serious rhythm

Lisa and I. How I loved seeing her again.

Amira and Stephanie, the camp director

The kids made me beautiful flowers

Biruk and his new friend

This 16 old boy was so amazing with all the little kids.

Danica and some of her new friends