Reflections

During this time of year I find that many people like to reflect on their past year. Well, we are no different in the Richardson's house. Time is flying by so quickly. It feels like just yesterday that we came home, but at the same time I can not even remember life with out Emenet! She is such a blessing. Since I last posted in September she has traveled with me to all different places. The fall is my busy time of year with art shows. To say she was loved by all my fellow artist would be an understatement. She traveled every weekend. We spent every weekend in September in the Akron/ Canton area of Ohio selling my art glass pieces at Yankee Peddler, we then spent time in Pa and Ohio. We travelled twice to Buffalo for a show and we finished with a show in Erie. Emenet had a wonderful time spending alone time with just Grandma and I. No brothers or as she has learned from Olivia...bothers! All of the kids have been getting along wonderfully. God knew how to pick the perfect little girl for us and WOW are we Thankful!!!! She had her Christmas preschool program it was cute. She was so excited. It was all about the true meaning of Christmas. The birth of the King of Kings, the Savior of the world. Thank you Jesus for being born and more so for dying for our sins. Emenet has grown so much. We have shared so many times about adoption. God is doing wonderful things and I can hardy wait to see what 2011 will bring for our family!!!! Praise God that He chose our family to be an adoptive family. It has changed us more than we ever thought...We are the blessed ones!!!!! Hopefully I will be able to post more often in the New Year. Have a blessed Christmas.

One year ago

It was one year ago that we received the very first picture of Emenet. That was such an exciting time for us. Bill had just left for his long road trip for work and I was out shopping. I was not expecting a referral so soon from our agency. Caitlin told us we could look at the picture and decide if we wanted to except this child or not. Needless to say it was love say first sight. I could hardly wait to get home to look at the pictures. Our lives were forever changed! Fast forward one year... Today was our "re-adoption" hearing. Emenet is now "officially" ours according to the state of Pennsylvania. Your birth day is officially 10-15-2006 and your name has been changed to Emenet Elizabeth Richardson. It was a big day! We took so many pictures. After our court hearing we came back to our house and had a wonderful Ethiopian feast. She was so excited to have injera and Kik Aicha, Misser watt, and what I call beef watt. I made everything except the injera. Emenet ate till she could eat no more. It was nice to share this day with my parents sister and both sister-in-laws! What a great way to celebrate our referral anniversary! Now she can not wait till her birthday next month! She will be turning the four! Next week will be her first full week at preschool. She has turned into a busy preschooler!

It's nice to be home together as a family. Emenet and Nick were trying their hands at golf. Emenet loves to help us cook. Emenet and I made a dish from Nepal- Mo Mo's. They are dumplings, she loves to make them as much as eating them!!!!

We have been home from the hospital for over a week now. Christopher is slowly regaining his strength. He came home on IV antibiotics. We are still trusting that God will heal his facial nerve. I was so hoping Christopher would be well enough for us to go and visit our church family in Long Island, New York this weekend. Bill will be giving the sermon on Sunday and I miss seeing them. We tried to visit this spring but the weather had other ideas. I guess we will have to try again in the winter. Boy, I would just love to sit an fellowship with Pastor's David and Diane. Enough of the feeling sorry for myself! Missing this time will make our next visit even sweeter!!!

Emenet is doing great! We had our six month post placement visit while Christopher was in the hospital. It made it interesting. Our social worker is wonderful. Emenet has been doing good with talking to people she is meeting for the first time. She will actually carry on a conversation! She still is very guarded until we tell her it is okay. We had some endocrine/ growth issues with her. When we saw the endocrinologist she ordered a bone age x-ray. According to her bone age she is just turning 4. She acts more like a 4 than 5. But then there are days I feel like she should be turning 21. lol. She keep us all in smiles around here. You just never know what she is going to do or say.

We are getting ready for the start of the school year around here. The boys do not want to start school yet... I do not blame them... Mom does not want to either!!!! Emenet on the other hand is looking forward to starting school. She will be going to preschool 3 days a week! She can not wait to meet new friends. I think this will be our last year of homeschooling, Christopher is on a waiting list for a school that is for high functioning Aspeger's high schooler's. I think this would be great for him. Nick is wanting to go to high school. We are praying for wisdom as to where he will go...Lead us to the right place, Lord! We both think Emenet will be better in a traditional school setting. Praying about where that will be also. Life is changing...in so many ways...till next time... hopefully I will post more regularly....

Home

Well, we are going home from the hospital today. I never thought I would be spending this long in the hospital with Christopher again. He has been through a lot these past 12 days. My prayer is that this time we fixed everything and the placement of a shunt will prevent anything from happening again. I am excited to be heading home. It will be nice to be together as a family again. He has a bunch of recovering to do. He will have to be on IV antibiotics for 4 weeks. I am getting an education all over again. I know that God is faithful and He is mighty and He can heal Christopher's body. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for us. On to the next step of this journey....

Waiting

Waiting....There has been a whole lot of it going on here in our lives. Our oldest son Christopher is having some problems lately. On July 16th he started to leak fluid from his ear. ( he did not tell me this until Monday morning). The last time we had this is when he was 6 yrs old... it turned out to be spinal fluid, and he had to have head surgery to fix it. I took him to the pediatrician and they treated him for swimmers ear with the recommendation if the leak gets worse come back... needless to say it became worse and by Thursday we were back to the pediatrician. This time I called the doctor who fixed his leak the last time. We saw him Friday he admitted Christopher and scheduled surgery for Saturday morning. Not exactly the weekend I had planned. How quickly we all feel to our knees in prayer. Surgery lasted about 6 hours. He was not a "typical" case. The doctor, whose specialty is repairing these types of leaks, said he has never seen one like this. He is stumped. Why is it happening? We do not know. They are thinking he has high CFS pressure. When they measured the pressure, after leaking a good bit of fluid for a week, his pressures were in the high normals. The repair went well...we stayed in the neurological ICU and have just been transferred to the neurological step down unit. They were very concerned about hearing loss. The neurosurgeon said that the signal for hearing stopped during surgery then started somehow towards the end. I know how....thank you God and everyone who was praying!!!!!! Christopher says he can hear from his ear. The facial nerve that controls his facial movement is not working. I believe God can change this too. Christopher is upset that he has lost movement of half his face. I think I would be very upset if it were me. I keep telling Christopher God is in control...let's wait and see what He can do. Please pray for Christopher, this is a lot of stuff to handle for a 15 year old. Sorry for the length of this post... it helps me to put words to the many things happening. Please continue to lift Christopher up in prayer. He has an extensive tough road ahead of him... also please pray that our Heavenly Father gives the Doctors wisdom and knowledge of what to do for Christopher. We are looking at a future of many spinal taps and possibly a spinal shunt. As God has proven over and over He has a plan and a future for Christopher...He is faithful....He loves this child more than I do... He is in control! Needless to say I miss my other kiddos very much. They have been staying with my mom. We will have to do something about all the spoiling. I have been talking to Emenet and Nick by phone a couple of times a day. Now that we are in step down maybe they can come for a visit. Off to do some more waiting...and praying...and waiting....and praying....

Where does the time go?

Where does all the time go? It goes by way too fast. I can not believe it has been over five months. Emenet has been having fun! She loves to swim! She is fearless!!! She just jumps right into the pool. Her Uncle John came to visit us and He brought Rita's Italian Ice. Emenet decided she was going to feed us all our treats. She kept feeding Nick so fast he had a major brain freeze!! Last week we had lunch with a group of fellow AWAA people. (thanks Gina for arranging the lunch) We were glad to meet every one. Emenet loved seeing her friend Winnie from Ethiopia. After the lunch the two of them went to playground and played together. Emenet still has not stopped talking about it. Winnie was so kind and brought a little gift for Emenet. Bubble gum tape...she is treasuring it. She shares little pieces with her brothers but is keeping a close eye on it.( her oldest brother has a big sweet tooth) Thanks Winnie and Abigail. Next month we will be having our six month post placement report. Wow! Emenet has brought such joy to our lives. I can not imagine life without her. We are blessed!!!!

It has been way to long...

It has been way too long since I had a chance to post on here. Bill is finally back home! We spent the weekend at a birthday party for our nephew Tristan! He loved his cake!!! Emenet did very well playing with the babies and meeting so many new people. She has been coming out of her shell around others. She loved staying at the hotel. She loved that we are all in the same room sleeping so close. She kept telling us all to go to sleep. I warned the boys that sooner or later she would be telling them what to do. It has been a very busy time here since Easter. We are trying to finish up the school year...look at new possibilities for school next year...my Mom had major back surgery... she came through the surgery...just a long recovery...got back into to working on my business...did two art and craft fairs...one was great and the other not so great. I did get a chance to talk about adoption with the promoter's son. (very curious about adoption). Looking forward to meeting one of our travel buddies, Gina, this week. It is so hard to believe that it has been four months since we were in Ethiopia. Can some one tell me how to slow time down...I just want to slow it down this time...I can not believe the boys are as old as they are! Bill is getting ready to go and help with disaster relief in Tennessee. I knew I would not be able to keep him back from this. God has placed such a strong desire for helping with disaster relief, widows and orphans...I know that the Lord is calling us to change what we are doing and get back out there in FULL time ministry again...Now if we can get our monthly support up to were it needs to be....here comes living by faith. Emenet is having such a wonderful time playing out doors these days. She wanted to plant a garden. We gave her a couple of flowers to plant and she has been taking good care of them. she is such a hard worker...we can not do any type of work with out her saying...me want to work too. She jumps right into the work. She loves to help with the cooking and cleaning too. It is sweet to see how she is adjusting to her new life here. Her language skill are getting better everyday...you just never know what she is going to do or say. Every time we call her a little nickname we are told..... I'm Emenet....sweetie not. She has brought such joy to our lives. I will try to post more often now that Bill is home and school is coming to an end!!! Yeah!!! I do not know who is more excited...the boys or me. I think it is me!!!!

Easter

We had a fun first Easter together as a famliy. We spent the Friday with Great-Grandma Mary abd Grandma Virginia and family. Emenet ran around finding as many eggs as she could carry. She was not to excited about the chocolate but the money eggs, that was a different story. We spent saturday with Mawma and Pap and all your cousins. Emenet sat at the cousins table... and even talked!!!! She loved her dress for Easter morning! She looked so pretty!!! Today she was signing as she was swinging... rrrow, rrrow you bloat, gentty dlown the sleam, mary, mary life is drleam. She is starting to come out of her shell.

It is hard to believe we have been home for two months now. Life has been busy but wonderful. Bill just came home from being gone since Feb. 15th. He is home till Easter then gone till the begining of May. Emenet is doing great. She is loving life here and is very glad the weather has become nice. We can not get her inside. Fresh air does wonders for bedtime!!!! Her and the guys love to spend time together. Christopher has turned out to be very sweet gentle with her, Nick is her buddy...he is the go to man for playing. Today he was teaching her the ABC's. Fun to watch. She is such a little fashionista... she loves jewelry, hair bands, hair clips, girly clothes,and yes those little socks with ruffles. She is always making sure she matches and looks good. That is till she gets outside and gets dirty....That she does not mind. I have thought often of our travel group and wonder how they are all doing. I love seeing all the post on their blogs and feel bad I do not post more often. Emenet is starting to speak in more sentences now. ( at least three or four words) Her favorite thing to say now is whach ya doin? It almost sound like she is from New York. She has gotten into a routine around here. She sits and does arts and crafts when the guys are in school. She loves to draw, paint and make wonderful things. I am so excited I just might have a little artist! She has been having less of a problem with our food. She loves meat...and still can not get enough Ketchup!!! She loves to give out big hugs and kisses. to say it melts my heart would be an understatement!!!! She has been such a wonderful blessing to us. It is wonderful to see how God picked the perfect child for us! I always knew He would, but to experience it is amazing! I will write more later...it is super time and I need to get the meat ready!!!!!!!lol

Everything is better with ketchup

I can not believe that it has been 5 weeks since we have been home. Ememet is doing well. She has helped celebrate both of her brother's birthdays. She loves to sing happy birthday! She loves to color and draw pictures for us. She will sit and build with legos. It has been wonderful getting to know her. She is such a sweet girl. She loves playing with her brothers. They have been great. Bill has been gone now for 2 1/2 weeks only 3 more to go! Life as a "single" parent can be busy and exhausting! I do not know how single parents do it all the time. Emenet talks to her Daddy everyday and we skype at breakfast time. She loves to eat and show him what she is eating for breakfast. Her most favorite thing to eat is ketchup, let's just say she eats a little food with her ketchup! She loves to drink chia (tea). She wants tea at every meal, but the tea must have sugar. She has adjusted to the cats and dogs. The poor cats try to get away but Emenet is quick. The dog is another story....as long as the dog stays away from her it is good. If she gets close Emenet shrieks..the dog gets excited....the dog tries to get closer the more shrieks from Emenet...and the dance goes on. It will get better. We are blessed. Emenet was so happy when my mom and sister bought this huge jar of ketchup! She giggled and jumped up and down saying ketchup. She loves it.

Had a wonderful weekend with Bill's family. Emenet was totaly spoiled by her Aunt Nancy and Uncle John. Beautiful outfits and one sweet little ring. This girl loves the girlie things! Today was hard...Bill left for his job. He will be gone till Saturday night then leave Monday morning. He will be gone till the third week of March. Emenet does not understand where daddy went. We skyped at dinner time. She sat there and kept trying to touch him on the sreen. She is such a sweet child. We have had some bumps in the road but overall she is a sweetie. She loves building legos with her big brothers. She loves to eat Tibetan/Nepalese dumplings. This girl can eat! She is such a sweet blessing!

Snow snow,snow

I have not had much time to post on our blog. We have been home since the 23 of January. What a wonderful time of getting to know our newest addition to our family. Emenet has met both sets of grandparents. Went shoe shopping with her Aunt Kris. Boy, does this kid love socks and shoes!!!!!! On Friday we had tickets to go see Jungle Jack Hannah at theater about 45 minuets away from our home. Well, it began snowing in the afternoon and did not stop till Saturday afternoon. We had to once again cancel Christopher's birthday party. (we originally had it scheduled for Jan 31st, but could not have it because I was too sick to have it) After much shoveling (thanks Bill) we cleared our driveway. The party was on. Emenet managed to meet my two brothers and their Families. Aunt Lisa, Uncle Lou and Nicole brought Emenet beautiful clothes and her own Winnie the Pooh lap top. Keeps her very busy while we try to do school. Aunt Tammy and Erica brought a wonderful little bear that is so soft. She loves it. Aunt Lisa's sister sent an outfit with lots of bling! I can not wait to put her in the little denim jacket! Emenet was having such a wonderful time playing with her lap top she wore her self out an started falling asleep at the table. I truly enjoyed holding her as she slept her way through an awesome Mexican dinner. Thanks to all the family who braved the roads and came to the party. Emenet had a blast playing in the 24 inches of snow. It took us 10 minutes to dress her in winter clothing and three minutes and one face plant in the snow to bring the fun to an end! Well I have to go. Home schooling is calling... Will post more in a couple of days.

Home

We have been home since Saturday. Emenet is doing awesome. It has been amazing to sit back and watch her learn about her new life here. Today we had three inches of snow. The giggle she let out as she touched it for the first time was priceless! We had such an awesome travel group. I managed to bring home the flu with me. I have been trrying to isolate myself so no one else ends up with it. Just bummed I can not spend more time with my little girl. I will have to post at home pictures when I up and better.

Cleanning up

Emenet's first bath. She loved it. She likes to play with water and loves the feeling of the water running between her toes!!!

more pictures

More pictures....

Pictures of meetin her and geeting her

What a wonderful feeling. I can only say it was almost the same as when you are getting ready to have a baby. The anxious feelings,the nervousness...everything it was awesome. She has been great. She likes to smile alot.

Today is the day!

Today is the day. We are going to meet our little girl! We have to fill out paper owrk first, then we will go to lunch and then off to the transitional home to meet our sweetie. I will write more later! Here we go!!!!!!

Back from Sodo

We just came back from Sodo. We traveled with three other families. It was an adventure. Our driver David is a awesome driver. He had to drive fast while dodging all types of people and animals. It was truly an experience! The country side was beautiful! Talk about rural. The hill side villages were something out of a movie. The meeting with Emenet's mother went well. She was very quite and reserved. (sounds like the descriptions I get about Emenet When I gave her the pictures of Emenet she repeatedly kissed everyone. She said she loved to sit and play with her, and that she was a very happy girl. She would like it if she could grow up to be s teacher. She was very sad and had little to talk about. We took lots of pictures from the orphanage she was at. The nannies all loved the pictures of her also. We spent the night in the noisiest place ever!!! It was near a bus stop that worked all night, and a mosque that had a call to prayer at 4:00 am and then again at 5:30 am. What an experience for the boys and me. Will write more later...