the after party

an amazing account of us arriving home at the airport is in the works. and i know it will be amazing because i'm not the one doing it :-) be patient. it is going to be worth it.

after we left the airport, our families and a couple close friends came back to our house for THE most delicious meal i have EVER tasted!

how sweet it was to have our car FULL of children!!! {and lincoln and levi handled the car seats beautifully! we were worried about that...}

our house was decorated inside and out...welcoming us HOME!!!

we so enjoyed talking to everyone, letting them get to know lincoln and levi a bit...

some of our wonderful neighbors stopped by!

my dad is the BEST listener...

pat showing off the passports for lincoln and levi that we worked and prayed SO hard for!

i love how lincoln is looking at my dad as he prayed for our meal!

my mom worked SO hard to make the day perfect...every last detail was amazing! there was SO much yummy food. and so many sweet and thoughtful decorations. and she made 2 full meals for us to have the rest of the weekend ready in the fridge. AND she stocked our kitchen so i wouldn't have to go grocery shopping right away! and she did it ALL with sawyer in tow - which i KNOW was a bit tricky! our cars were even filled up with gas! my parents thought of EVERYTHING!

i was SO excited for chick fil a nuggets - and, in my defense, these were for sawyer AND me...i didn't eat them ALL!

one of my DEAREST friends, that lives about 2 hours away, surprised me by being at the airport with her family! the fogarty's were SUCH A sweet sight to see!!! and ali had everyone that was there sign this for us!

she has walked SO closely with me through this. even blogging the entire trip for me ( i emailed each post and picture to her and she posted them). she has held me up when i didn't think i could go on.

we survived!!!

this was in the middle of it all, they just fell asleep :-)

my parents with ALL their grandchildren!

both sets of grandparents with the cassada grandkids!

it was SO fun to just play outside...to just be NORMAL!

i spent the rest of the day unpacking and doing laundry. pat played with the kids. we tried SO hard to keep everyone awake until about 7 pm and then we put them all to bed. pat said at one point, he was playing lego's with sawyer and was sitting up and literally fell asleep and was woken up when he hit the floor :-)

i have NEVER liked doing laundry. but i LOVED it that day!!!

our plane

jenn sent me this picture and email a few days ago. how amazing is that?!?

"when we were on the dulles toll road on the way to the airport, i tracked your flight and it said you would be landing in 2 minutes. i looked up in the sky and saw YOUR plane...we could even read the "ethiopia" logo on the side. the only thing i had in my hand was my phone, and i didn't have time to grab my camera, so i took a picture of it with my iphone. not the best quality, but THIS is when MY tears started flowing!! you were seriously SECONDS from HOME!!! :) "

sawyer

this was the last bag sawyer opened - the day we were coming HOME!

waiting for us

the moment.
i dreamed of it.
i planned it (figured out how to have both my arms free to HOLD him!)

these 2 missed each other SO much.
bailey started BAWLING twice the day before - just talking about seeing sawyer so soon!

oh, how we missed him!!!
his voice is the most precious thing to my ears.

loved

there will be multiple posts to capture yesterday - the day we came home.

none of the pictures are mine. people are emailing them to me (if you have some, i'd love to have them!!!)

i just love the above picture of my dad.
he worked SO hard to make our arrival perfect for us. so hard. THANK YOU, dad!!!

we felt SO loved as we arrived.
i will NEVER forget that moment! walking through those doors and hearing the screams before i even saw anyone.
it was amazing.
SO many precious people to us were there.
the PERFECT ending to a LONG LONG night/day

his first bath in america

guess what was {really} happening while everyone was waiting for us to get through customs?!?

lincoln was getting his first bath in america! :-)

he came out of the orphanage in a diaper. we quickly learned he was totally potty-trained {whoo-hoo!!!}

he only had 1 accident the ENTIRE trip.

until the plane ride home. he went #2 IN.HIS.PANTS a few hours in. he was sound asleep. woke up and just couldn't get it all figured out fast enough.

so. that's bad. but it was even WORSE because he had some ISSUES in that department. like, the SMELL was not your normal #2 smell {we have since had that diagnosed and treated and it's SO much better!!!}

i was way up in the front of the plane with levi (in a seat that had a little crib thing in front of it.)
pat was back with lincoln.
hannah and the other 3 were close to him.

bailey comes running up to me and says, "dad needs the wipes. NOW." i hand them over.
and try to not think about what it happening.

pat took him in the bathroom. threw lincoln's underwear away. and tries to clean him up with the wipes as much as he can. but the smell is NOT going anywhere.

the poor man on the other side of lincoln the rest of the plane ride...ugh.

so, we get off the plane and i can not even stand to walk NEXT to him! it's THAT bad. so, when we got our luggage, i tear threw them to find a change of clothes for him. hannah and i find a family restroom and strip him down and put him in the sink. we give him a bath right there in the sink of the bathroom in the customs area of the airport.


but i knew what was waiting for us. i wanted him to smell good :-) and i'm so glad he did!

8

a beautiful day.
so beautiful!

ethiopia day 10

 we made the most of our last day in ethiopia.

evan and stacey had met a family last time they were here that have lived in ethiopia for about 1 1/2 years.
they are living in an area called korah (those that live there call it kore)

it's near a dump that many people live on...and make their living off of.

this family is running a day care for women to allow them to work better jobs so that they can provide for their families - and also teaching them about hygiene and giving them many other skills. it was amazing to hear about.

these are the children in their day care.

 you can sponsor the children...and this is the little girl stacey sponsered for evan as his father's day gift!

 the area in the distance is the dump.
many people search the dump for food for themselves...or for things to sell.

 our kids and their kids became friends instantly

 us and the snyders

 we drove around the corner, and were able to meet the women involved with a ministry called mission ethiopia. they make amazing jewelry. a few of them shared their testimonies...so humbling and beautiful! we loved a new necklace that there was only 1 of. so, they got to work and brought about 30 of them by our guest house later that afternoon for us to buy!

 handing out granola bars and candy

 i'm going to be honest.
the sights and smells we saw were VERY hard to process. i still haven't really been able to.
between seeing it, knowing my kids were seeing it and wondering what was going on in their hearts, plus the always there emotion of issues with our 2 new ones...it was just a lot going on in my mind and heart.

pat, hannah and i all 3 came home literally feeling ILL.
i don't know what else to say about it.
not ill,  like "that was gross and i never want to go back." but ill, like "how is it that some people live like this? why????"

 the necklaces that were brought that afternoon

 we finished packing, ate an early dinner, and took a couple pics before being driven to the AIRPORT TO COME HOME!!!!

 i love this picture!

 the beginning of a very long trip home...