Jacob's Three Year Referralversary

Three years ago today our lives changed for ever with one phone call! Around 2pm we got our referral call that told us we had a two month old BOY waiting in Ethiopia for us!!! We were both at school and Brad rushed over to my school so we could open the email that contain his pictures and information together. We had planned on telling our family first but I couldn't help but crying and showing his picture to everyone I saw at my school.
Jacob Jafar you made me a mommy! You have brought more JOY to my life than I ever thought possible.  Being a mommy is the BEST job ever and I am so thankful that God chose me to be your mom! I hope you never grow too old for cuddles and hugs! You love to be close to me any chance you get, and I cherish every moment. We love you so much precious son!!

Oldest Pictures of Our Boys

I was looking through some old pictures of the boys. These are the earliest pictures he have of our boys from America World.

This is Jacob when he first came to the orphanage, they think he was only a few days old

Jacob is in the middle of two friends from Harar right before they came to Addis

Baby Jafar

Kaleb on his first day at America World, he was about 11 months old

Isaiah on his first day at America World, he was 9 1/2

Jacob's birth certificate picture, taken at America World when he was about 2 1/2 or 3 months old

 

Isaiah's 9th birthday, his last birthday in Debre Birhan

Isaiah's 5th birthday

the last photo taken of Isaiah in his birth town, he was 9 1/2

These pictures are so precious to us!

My Little Bunna Lovers

All three of my boys LOVE to sneak some coffee when they get the chance. I've learned that if I set my coffee cup down it will be empty when I come back to it. Crazy boys! When Isaiah lived in Ethiopia, one of his jobs with his family was getting the coffee ready and made. I asked him to explain the process to me, this is what he said:
"First we set up all you need. You need some coffee beans. You cook the beans in a pan with some water and oil. You roast them over a fire. Then you put them in a bowl and you crack (grind) them by hand with a  little hammer like thing. While you are chopping the beans, put water in the coffee pot and put it in fire to boil it. When you are done chopping the beans put them in the coffee pot. Then cook it a little bit longer until it turns all the water to black. Pour a little bit out to try it. If it doesn't taste good you might want to put 2 or 3 spoonfuls of sugar."
Isaiah grew up drinking coffee, he doesn't understand why we don't let him drink it now. I think he's had it twice since being in America. He loves it when he gets to have a sip!

Here's an Ethiopian coffee pot

Christmas 2013

We are so blessed with jobs that allowed us to be off of school and work for two weeks together as a family. We all loved every minute of being home together and getting to go visit family. J and K love talking about Baby Jesus and looked forward to celebrating his birthday with a birthday cake for breakfast. Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

 playing tennis with Gramps and Gram, Kaleb was sad he couldn't push the cart anymore

 making Christmas cookies

 cousins matching pajamas

 Christmas Eve

 Reading the Christmas story, got to open and read all 25 doors on Christmas morning

 Jacob's favorite gift

 Kaleb loved the little rocketship and helicopter

 Isaiah got a few movies and video games- movies are his love language

 Christmas morning

 singing Happy Birthday to Jesus

 Mowen cousins together Christmas morning

 Christmas night with Nana

 The next day we were at my grandparents house, this has been a favorite hang out spot at Grandma Carol and Poppop's for many years

 lets see how many cousins can eat some snacks under grandmas desk/cabinet

 Amy likes to photbomb

 Grandma Carol and Poppop got everyone matching Charlie Brown pajamas, so of course we had to take a big photo

Merry Christmas!

Jacob's 3rd Birthday

Jacob's 3rd birthday was a pirate adventure! We moved into our new house just a week before the party. We were so thankful to have plenty of space for everyone! Jacob loves all things pirates right now. Any given day you will catch him acting like a pirate. He has his pirate costume on at some point most days. He loved all the Jake and the Neverland pirate things we had at the party. All his cousins enjoyed dressing up like pirates too. I didn't even get my camera out, all these pictures are from my phone. 

 digging for treasure in the rice

 Jacob was spying everything

His birthday was November 8th, I'm just trying to catch up on blogging :)