New Year's Eve Paella & Tapas Party

So I know New Year's Eve was almost a week ago, but I'm still proud of the party we helped throw. It featured Paella and Tapas and was delightful. And if you know anything about the Weatherfords, you know that a party is only made better by adding a theme. So, ¡Viva España! Here are the highlights.

These are but a few of the red and yellow decorations that our friend Sarah put up in her house. She spent so much time making her house look beautiful and it was definitely worth it. She and her husband hosted the party at their humble abode.

The talented Sarah also has a knack for writing beautifully, so she got to make the welcome sign. BTW, this red chalkboard sign was made by my husband from homemade chalkboard paint. It worked really well! Thanks Pinterest for the tip!

This is a bit of the tapas that people brought. We had bacon-wrapped goat cheese filled dates, chorizo and fig skewers, stuffed mushrooms, traditional Spanish cookies and chickpea/shrimp skewers. Everything was delicious, even the stuff that sounded weird.

It wouldn't be a Spanish themed party without the Sangria. We had four different kinds!

One of the stars of the party was the fire pit. This was built by Andrew and John in order to cook the paella outside. The paella was good, but I think John just had more fun being near the fire.

Me and mine enjoying ourselves. It may look like John is crying for joy for the new year to start, but actually, the smoke from the fire pit was just bothering his eyes. I made him take a picture with me anyway. The other one is my sparkly daughter.

I was too tired into the moment to remember to take a picture at midnight. I love my party loving friends that indulge our need for a themed party on every occasion. May 2012 be filled with many occasions to celebrate!

2011 in Review

To be honest, reflection on a whole year is very difficult for me. I am not a big picture kind of person. I'm detail oriented and very compartmentalized. During a year, I will deal with a situation or season in life and then put it behind me. It does not blend into the next thing and to picture a whole year as a whole takes a lot of effort in remembering. In fact, because I put things behind me so completely, I sometimes forget the event altogether.

I do know that 2011 taught me many lessons. Much of it was difficult, but we were very blessed as well. Here I've attempted to list some of what I've learned in my past year.

1. At the beginning of the year last year, I decided my word for the year would be Consistency. I was really trying to develop some discipline in many areas of my life and this was how I was going to focus. Like many resolutions, I did really good until about April. While consistency won't be my focus word this year, it is something I know I still need to add to my life.

2. John's mom passed away in April. There's so much to say on this topic, but there's a lot to learn from watching a spouse go through this kind of loss. There's heartbreak and grief, but also a certainty that she is with her Savior and not in pain any longer. We learned the need to have grace with those around us and also the abounding love that our community has for us. While we were in Kansas several times during this period, our community cleaned our apartment, fed us, encouraged us, loved us and provided for us in ways I could not have even imagined to ask for. Their initiative and caring deeply moved us. At a time when it was difficult to justify living across the country from our families, God used the people in our lives to confirm that we are still where he wants us.

3. A terrible job and resulting unemployment. This summer was a rough one. While John was still grieving his mother, he was working at a most wretched company. I do not use that word lightly. I am still working toward forgiving the people he worked with for how they treated him. It had been bad for a while, but in April/May/June, it became unbearable. I will spare you the details, but in late May the stress started to make him physically ill and we went through a very trying week of praying through what the future held for him. God made it very clear that he should quit, even though there was no hope of another job lined up. John obeyed and was unemployed for June and July. I work part time, so our financial situation was a bit stressful, but I entered a time of relying on God that I had not experienced in a while. In an economy where unemployment could last months or years, God blessed us with John's new job as a Graphic Design/Yearbook teacher at a private Christian school August 1st. There are so many lessons for John in this story, but I'll let him blog about that. For me, it stretched my faith to new limits, deepened my trust in God's provision and allowed me a dependence on Him that normal life does not force me into very often. The worship song Always by Kristian Stanfill was introduced in our church during this time and my heart has sung that song so deeply that it will always have a special meaning for me.

4. Parenting. While Yemi has been one of the best decisions we ever made, this summer was an exceptionally trying time with her. During our stress of unemployment, her behavior was getting out of control and her temper tantrums were beyond what I knew what to do with. Beyond the typical 4 year old tantrums, there was an anger and an out-of-control kind of aspect to it that scared me. I learned so much about parenting, having grace and relying on people in my community who know more than I do. God also allowed John to start working just in time for us to get her into a wonderful preschool, which has given her the social and mental stimulation that she was so desperate for. We came to the other side of this and she is often very pleasant and funny and a joy these days.

5. Women's Retreat. On our annual women's retreat, Angel talked to us about our stories. To keep mine short, it was a wonderful time of God speaking to me and instilling a deep gratitude and appreciation for my own story. For full disclosure, I have often wanted a more “dramatic” story to share, but God let me see the beauty in my own story, that he is the Author and it is exactly as it is meant to be. I am still processing and learning how to share it boldly and use it for his glory.

A very full year for me and mine. I'm sure 2012 will be no different and I'm praying that at the beginning of 2013, I will be able to look back and see how I've become a deeper, wiser, more Christ like woman. Happy New Year!

2012 Begins My Blog Again

So I've been considering starting my blog again and a new year seems a good time to do it. I hope to make this my place for all my musings and things I wish to make public. Things about my family, verses I memorize, books I read, recipes I make, crafts I create, parties I help throw. If anyone is interested, stop by every once in a while. I hope to be more consistent than in the past, but I guess everyone always has good intentions at the beginning of the year. :)

Introducing Our Ethiopian Princess!

Isn't she the most beautiful thing you've ever seen? We found out at about 7:00 this morning that we finally passed court! So she is officially ours according to the country of Ethiopia. Now just to get her home! Here are some wonderful things you should know about our daughter (I can allow myself to say that now).

Her name is Yemiserach (Yemi) Ruth Weatherford. We are going to keep her first name as her Ethiopian name since she's already 2 1/2 years old. She is living in our adoption agency's transition home where she appears to be very well taken care of and loved. She likes to sing her ABC's and "spiritual songs," as they put it. She can climb on climbers and the nannies say she is funny. She is a good eater and she likes bananas and oranges (John and I haven't eaten an orange in years, so someone will have to show me how to pick out a good one), injera (Ethiopia's version of bread) and macaroni.

I know many of you are wondering what's next. They are going to get her visa together, which takes 3 weeks. Once that has been finalized, then we should know our travel dates. They told us it could be anywhere between 6-12 weeks from now. We have a lot to do in that time, but we are obviously so excited! I know with all my heart that everything has worked out with the most perfect timing for a purpose. She is going to fit into our family just the way she is supposed to. Thank you for all your continued support and prayers. Continue to pray for her health and safety. Pray that we would be able to prepare for her well and that we will be able to bond with her right away.

I'm so glad to be able to share her picture with all of you now. I think she's gorgeous! I can't wait until you can see her in real life!

Some news, but not the big news...

Well, some stuff has happened in our lives since my last post. We still haven't passed court, but our next court date is April 8th. The Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs in Ethiopia did write the recommendation letter we needed from them, but it was missing one of the clearances we needed to be in it. They will rewrite the letter and hopefully we will have everything we need to pass next week.

For some good news though, John is working at the puzzle company again. They haven't hired him back full time with benefits, but we are still praying for that to come. But in the meantime, he is working (actually 6 days a week because he spending Saturdays at the art gallery still). I know this helps his psyche and we are able to save some more money before we leave for Ethiopia, which is a good, good thing.

We made tee-shirts to raise money for the adoption and they came in and look marvelous! I will be giving them to people who ordered them soon. John is so talented!

Thank you all for praying with us. We were disappointed that we didn't pass court last week, but not discouraged. I have complete faith that God is doing something so great in our lives right now and He is going to bring our family together at the exact right time. In the meantime, please pray that our little girl will continue to stay healthy and safe in the transition home. That the nannies will love on her and she will be able to bond with one of her caretakers. Pray that God will continue to prepare her heart for her new home and that He will prepare ours for her so that we can all bond perfectly as if she was with us all her life.

Not Yet

So, our third court date was today. Its result was the same as the two before it. The lady from the adoption agency said that Ethiopia is getting ready for elections there and it delayed some of our paperwork. It is yet another reminder that we have very little control over this process. I often wonder how we would be dealing with this if we hadn't gone overseas for the summer in 2002.

Before leaving for that trip, and throughout the summer, God taught us that we are not the ones in control. It is easy to remember overseas, especially when you are not in a Western country where you don't speak the language. Things are done differently and our time frames are not their time frames. We knew all this when we decided to adopt internationally. And even though we are not adopting from East Asia, the fact remains- we have no control. We do not have the right to time frames or to expect our paperwork to be worked when we want it to. I had no idea that this process would take over three years when we started, but I've known for a while that God only shows us one step at a time. He does that in his wisdom because we can't handle the whole picture at once.

I think in America we have gotten a lot better at acting like we are in control. We drive our own cars because mass transportation is too unpredictable (at least in the cities I've lived in). We make sure we have choices and we are entitled to things. We are entitled to have things "our way" and when we want it. We will complain when things are not the way we expect (remind me to tell you about a man at Taco Bell who complained to the manager because his nachos did not look like the ones in the picture). But it's all just show. We really don't control as much as we like to believe. And John and I have no control over this adoption.

The comforting fact, and one I have to constantly ask for grace to remember, is that God IS in control. There is nothing that happens outside him allowing it. And he loves our little girl way more than we can and yet he allows her to stay in the transition home away from her forever family. How can that be? Shouldn't he just teleport her home so we can start our lives together? While that would be nice in theory, I know he has something better planned. Her time there is shaping who she will be. And what He is doing in our lives right now is shaping how we will parent. And what I am most sure of, is that at the end of this whole thing, His name will be praised more than I have ever praised it before. My faith will be deeper, His truth will be more real and my reliance on Him will be stronger. And while I call him Jehovah jireh now in faith and hope that He will provide, I know that someday soon I will be shouting that from the rooftops because I have seen it happen in unexpected and phenomenal ways.

And then we can tell our daughter of the amazing things God has done in our family to bring us together. How we wanted her and thought about her and prayed for her for over three years before we even got to see her in person. We can tell of how he provided $5000 from nowhere so we could bring her home (actually, more like $20,000) and how he gave her dad the perfect job at just the right time. So while it is disappointing that we have to wait 2 more weeks to see if we pass court, God already knows when it is going to happen. He has things timed out in such a way that He gets the glory and not us.

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

Court Date Phone Call

I told you that I would let you all know as soon as we knew our court date, so here's the post. I didn't lie, this is the first time we found out about court, but it turns out that it already happened. We had our first court date today (Ethiopia time). Apparently we got missed on the round of phone calls or something because when the agency called this morning to let us know that we did not pass court today, they were trying to give us the news gently. I was more confused than anything because I didn't know if they were talking about our court date or some other thing that I didn't know about.

So, we didn't pass this time, but our new court date is on February 9 (so be praying that we pass then). The reason we didn't pass has nothing to do with our paperwork or us, so that is good news. Because of our daughter's family circumstances in Ethiopia (which I can't give the details of) the judge requested additional paperwork to prove that she's actually okay to be adopted. Ethiopia is very careful that the children they are sending out of the country have not been abducted, etc.

The lady at the agency said that they expect to have everything they need by the ninth and that they will call to let us know how it goes. So, court is coming up much fast than we thought. She said there is no way to know just yet what our travel dates will be, but most families have been traveling 5-6 weeks after they pass court. That would put us at mid- to late March! Crazy! That means we have a lot to do and a lot of money to get in a short amount of time. Luckily, with the week of prayer and fasting, God has really calmed my heart about everything and is showing me that he will provide what we need for her to get home.

Thanks so much for praying, I will keep this updated with any more news!