Little Hannah's Hope Reunion

We, like most others in the Midwest and Northeast, were snowed in today. Not even All Wheel Drive could get through the thigh high snow in the driveway and on the road, so Bear stayed home with Mama and Dada today and played hard. We took shifts, Dodd took him for an hour while I worked from home and then vice versa. The happy snow boy is sleeping soundly now, and I am posting for the first time in a while.

We spent Christmas in the Pacific Northwest with Dodd's parents. This allowed us to meet up with some families we share a special connection with. All of our children were at Hannah's Hope in Ethiopia at the same time, and they all came home within weeks of one another.

In an earlier post I wrote about spending Gotcha Day with the Andersen Family, friends from our travel group. We got to spend a second evening with them while celebrating the Gotcha Day of 3 more families; the Titus, Wenzel, and Nieunstraten families. It was a lot of fun meeting these families!

We first met Zuri, Zinnea, Bethlehem, Faith, and Grace (aren't those great names all lined up together?) in Addis Ababa just over a year ago. It is hard to explain how much joy there is in seeing kids you first met at an orphanage with their families. In witnessing how they've grown, and how happy they are.

Here are some beautiful kids.

Below you see Abigail on the left joining the Hannah's Hope posse. She is a good big sister. Zuri is on the move and Bear is not sure about hanging with all the ladies.

The beautiful girl holding Bear below is Grace. She captured my heart in Ethiopia. She was a little firecracker, and her smile and spirit stayed with me after we returned home. I felt especially compelled to pray for this little one with hope there was a loving family in her future. A few months later, I saw her unforgettable face on a blog and my heart beat faster. There she was with a mom, dad, brother and sister, living life American style. She met her family just 2 weeks after we were in Ethiopia and went home! I'm so happy to be able to watch her grow up thanks to her mom's faithful blogging. And now I've met her mom, Bonnie, who hosted this party and who inspires me with funny and insightful stories about parenting with grace and with Grace.

The moms and babes.

Happy Snow Day!