Project 52: week twenty-eight

December 22-28

It was a busy week! A fun week filled with a lot of family time and celebrating the birth of our Savior and King. 

Sunday Snapshot:

Daddy and the babies (actually, now Elliana is in the bigs category and Colt is in the baby category all by himself:)

Hello, handsome little fellow!

 Sunday we celebrated Christmas with the Frazey family.  Each year we go to Uncle Jim and Aunt Amy's house and have dinner, exchange stockings, and open gifts.  This year was a bit crazy with 5 mobile and on the move toddlers and a newborn--but still fun as always!

The Frazey Men

All of the Frazey Family

The Frazey Women



  

Colt with his Great Grandma Helen and big cousin Jackson (who seems to just adore him, which is so adorable!)

 

 Monday we celebrated Christmas at Grandpa Bill's house with dinner and gifts.  The kids were quite the troopers for doing it a second night in a row (sort of hard when they are told to sit still and not open the new toys they get)


Aunt Kacia and Marissa with Colt

 Christmas Eve we put Colt in his new 'Baby's First Christmas' onesie and stuffed him in a stocking:)  Poor kid--but that is what happens when you are small enough to fit in one! (well, he semi fit!)

Christmas Day:
The kids gave me a wonderful present--sleep:)  They all slept until 9am! Those late night parties were tiring them out.  So we casually woke up and the kids opened their stockings from us and the gifts that Auntie Dre sent.  Then we headed to Grandma and Tank's house for the rest of the day.

New ASU headbands

Daddy playing with the new remote control car Grant and Garrett got for Raelynn

 

The rest of the week we just stayed home and enjoyed Daddy
being home before heading back to the office for work

 

December 28, 2012 was a day that forever changed our lives.  That night we received the phone call we had waited and waited for.  Our agency called to say they had a referral of our sweet little girl.  Minutes (which seemed like hours) after we hung up the phone with them we set eyes on our Elliana for the first time.  She was one month old.

And as I think back on that, now that we have a newborn in our home again, I am heartbroken.  I see Colt, so weak and helpless.  So fragile and needy.  He cries and screams.  And every time he does, I am pierced to the heart to think about my daughter who at his age was on the other side of the world laying in a street.  She was then rescued, but still not cared for as she ought to be.  No one was there rushing to her cries.  No one was there to hold her close.  She never felt the vibrations of the vocal cords coming from a lullaby to soothe her.  She never just got to lay on someone's chest and hear a heartbeat and feel the warmth of skin.  No one to stroke her cheek and dry her tears. It breaks my heart.  It broke my heart knowing all of that before--but now that I have a newborn again and am reminded of how helpless and fragile they are, it is breaking me all over again.

But here we are, one year later.  One year after seeing her photo for the first time and not only is she home with us, but she has been here almost six months! Adoption is about healing and restoration and redemption. The progress that Elliana is showing, an outsider would never know she came from past of trauma. 
She is such a different girl than when she came home in July.  She is not only developmentally on track, but she is growing emotionally as well.  Not to where a typical child her age would be--but she has come so far from where she was.  We haven't seen any regression in her since Colt was born, which is an answer to prayer and a blessing. 
She is growing and understanding what love is.  She has come out of a place of despair and hurt and is being healed.  The healing may take years, but it is happening. 
Just as I was in a place of total despair and depravation, God, in His goodness and mercy, sent forth His son to be born of a virgin and live a sinless life on my behalf.  Fully God and fully man, complete perfection. And all the debts I have are erased because Jesus Christ lived in full obedience all the way to the cross.  It is my prayer that Elliana will find her identity in Christ and will be a daughter of the King. 
It's all part of His beautiful love story and story of redemption.  Before He created the world, God knew that He would adopt me.  He knew Elliana would be an orphan and we would adopt her.  Such a privilege we have to mirror in a small way the beauty of adoption on an earthly level.  And we get a beautiful daughter in all of it, too:)


So, to celebrate this special day, we got Ethiopian food! Last year after we got off the phone, we quickly put the dinner I was preparing away and (after doing facetime with family first!) went to an Ethiopian restaurant in Gilbert.  We arrived only to be told they were full and were closing--not only for the night but for good.  They were supposed to re-locate and open a few months later.
We planned to go there again this year, but they still aren't open! So we went to Tempe to Café Lalibela.  We thought take-out would be easier than hauling our whole gang inside.

waiting for Daddy to get the food

Ethiopian food--the tortilla looking stuff is called injera and it is the utensil.  You rip a piece off and then grab the food and eat it all.  It's pretty tasty!

So thankful for our little girl

And what a difference a year makes! Last year Declan was in this car seat.  And here we are as a family of six.  God is good and continues to show His faithfulness to us.

Here we are last year: