God is so AMAZING...
I am in awe of how God brought this new little girl into our family! She is beautiful!!! I am so excited for the times to come. I am continuing to pray that God will bring Etsegenet home to us safely and that she will adjust easily. My dad leaves one week today to pick up Beautiful E. and I am excited to see everything come together!

Day 9&10- Coming Home

Yes, is less than 24 hours my mom and dad will be home with my new littlest sister. I cannot believe the week is already over! God has shown our family so much grace and mercy this week, I am amazed at all that HE accomplished this week.

Well, here is a recap of the girls and my week here on the Home Front, ENJOY!!!

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Day 8- Our Great Big God

Today the only thing I can begin to talk about it our Great and Wonderful God...

This morning I took the little girls to coffee as we usually do on Thursdays. Today we stayed a little bit longer than usual, so when I got home I made sure to check the missed calls to see if my parents had called... of coarse they had, it always happens like that, so I called them back. When I called them my dad answered and he told me that our Beautiful Etsegenet... had PASSED COURT!!! AHHHHH!!! I could hardly believe my ears, was I actually hearing this, was the long awaited day FINALLY HERE!!!! Yes, it was, I was jumping around the kitchen with joy trying to hold back my tires of happiness. There truly were no words to speak when I looked on my parents blog and saw my new sister between my mom and dad. She is so beautiful and has the love of God truly shining through her eyes!
Praise be to my God and Father for blessing us with this miracle!!!! God is so great He truly hears our prayers and moves mountains.

P.S.
The girls and I walked to our grandma's today and then she took us to paint pottery! We had a blast doing it, enjoy the pics...

P.P.S.
I know I forgot Day 7... I was to tired~

Day 6- Out of Our Minds

At this late hour of the night I was reading in 2 Corinthians 5 when I came across these verses, "If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died." (verses 13-14) It hit me, so many times I hear, "Your family is crazy, are you all out of your minds!!!???" As I look at my family and the worlds that have been brought under the same roof by the grace of God, there is no way I can answer anyone by saying we are not. Christ's love has compelled us to be out of our minds, crazy for him!! He loved us so much that he died for us and the most we can do is die to our earthly selves and give up ourselves for His good cause. Adoption is a step that you just take... God will reward those who follow him. Following God is not always comfortable, bit we do it for the sake of God. We take that "out of our mind" step and trust that Christ's love, which compelled us, will catch us as we take the leap of faith. There is nothing more rewarding as looking at a child and knowing that they are straight from the hand of God. Each one of my siblings is from God, but seeing my sister from China, my brother from Russia, and my two sisters from Ethiopia, I see God giving me a gift far greater than any earthly present I could ever receive... it is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance. These children are my reminder everyday that God is a faithful God, he is a true God, he is pure and he is the I AM!!! These children are HIM! They are what is specified as true religion:
"Religion that God our Gather accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27

Day 5- Half Way There

Yes, we have made it half way through! It is amazing that we only have five more days to go! Today the girls were a bit on the difficult side, but we made it through after a 2 hour nap!!! :) The plan was that they would got to ballet and gymnastics today, but after tears and sobs of, "But I don't want to go to ballet and gymnastics today!!!!" I decided to forgo the classes and call it NAP TIME! Of course that was a fight within itself for the younger of the two, who will do anything in her power not to sleep. Finally they were both quiet and I was able to get some work done. Around 5:00pm I woke them up... Isabelle had slept the whole time and was well rested while Abigail, you guessed it, did not sleep a wink. However, she was in a wonderful mood and did not give me any trouble the rest of the night. :)
This evening we had a lot of Halloween fun. Angelina was home and we decided to carve our pumpkins that we got at the pumpkin patch! I had both the girls draw a picture of what they wanted their pumpkins to look like, and then Angelina and I carved them. Abigail wanted hers to have triangle eye, a triangle nose, and a smile with one tooth lost just like her. Isabelle on the other had decided to portray her most inner feelings about mom and dad being gone, so she wanted hers to have oval eyes, a nose and a sad little mouth with tears. Although this sounds very mournful, she did it all with a smile on her face and giggling. However, they both are doing very!
At about 9:00pm all six of us kids were able to talk to my parents... They are doing very well and have felt the hand of God truly touching them and those around them. Angelina and I were in tears listening to the stories they were telling us over the phone. The Holy Spirit is doing AMAZING things over in Ethiopia and your prays are much appreciated! Thank you everyone for all your love and support.

Day 4- Such a Time as This

These last few days I have had a lot of time to think about why am here, at this point in my life...

As I have been with my two little sisters this week the verse that has continually gone through my mind is, "And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14b) Now I know that I am not Queen Esther and I am not royal, but God has prepared each one of his people for certain things. Some are made to be evangelists, some to be nurses and some are just made to be mothers.
Since I was a little, little girl all I have ever truly wanted to be is a mother. Every muscle in my being aches to have that be my life. (Working is great and all, but its not me!) So anyhow, sometimes I believe God allows us to have a glimpse of what life would be like if we actually got what we "always wanted", and that time for me is now. God has allowed me to feel the life of the "24/7 mother" though watching my sisters... And the crazy thing is.... I still want it!!! I never knew how much a part of me this is until now.
God truly has prepared me "for such a time as this". This adoption journey could not be fully completed to the greatest degree if my parents had to worry about the little girls. This is where God has me and I am so happy that he can use me in my field of passion. :) God is teaching me to not look at the things that this world says are "the proper activity for your age", but to look to him and trust that he will provide each step of the way.

Day 3- Day of Beauty

Today, the girls and I spent the day at home beautifying ourselves. Well, actually, I spent the day beautifying them. Abigail and Isabelle received the full works today... manicure, pedicure, hair cut (actually it was a trim) and a style. They were so cute with their little feet in the pedicure bowl and the paint on their tiny fingernails. Their hair was in dyer need of a trim, especially their bangs. Both of them could hardly see me through their over grown mop! They cooperated very well and I had them done in no time at all. We had a great day!
This evening, Abigail helped me make dinner , while Isabelle played outside. We made chicken and rice soup from scratch and garlic green beans. Abigail learned how to peel carrots and snap green beans. Isabelle played make-believe on the swing set out back and finally came inside to see what was going on. While I made the final touches on dinner the girls colored pictures of us three as princesses.
It is wonderful having this time to be with the girls. It feels like I have been transported back to my Senior year in High School where we spent a lot of time together. The responsibilities of being an older sister are the most enjoyable to me! God is so good to have prepared me for such a time as this. He knew that my parents would need someone to take over while they were on this journey and God has prepared me to be that person! Thank you God for being so great and such an AWESOME God!!!

Day 2- Best Friends

Who knew that two of my best friends would be 15 years younger than me? That is something only our Might God could create!
Abigail and Isabelle are my littlest best friends and today we had the best outing we have had in a long time. To give you all a bit of history, Abigail, Isabelle and I always go out to coffee once a week to spend time together. This week of course is a little different with the parents being gone, so we decided to expand our horizons and accompany our good friends the Blairs to a pumpkin patch! (I don't believe I have been to one for a least 5 years) We had a blast!! We looked a carved pumpkins, pet goats, looked at chickens, and picked out pumpkins. After the pumpkin patch we all loaded into the car and set out for a very healthy lunch of McDonald's... yum mm... :[ Abigail, Isabelle, and the youngest Blair boy Alexey, all worked up a sweat (literally) playing in the play structure for at least 45 min- 1 hr. They were running, climbing, chasing, hiding, screaming and laughing. Finally it was time to go home...
At home the girls had a quiet time until we took Angelina to ballet. When we came home we finally had time to make our COOKIES!!!! Oh, yes, we didn't forget the cookies! We had so much fun. We put on our cooking hats and our cooking lipstick and had a wonderfully beautiful cooking time. The girls added all the ingredients and I stirred! It worked out perfectly. While the cookies were in the oven we had dinner and started our Movie Night! We watched Dr. Doolittle, which the girls found hilarious, and for dessert we had cookies.
This ends the story of our perfectly wonderful day together. These three best friends will return tomorrow with more stories and entertaining pictures!!!

Day 1

So, we made it though Day 1... The girls are in bed, the house is still in order and we had a WONDERFUL day! Today was a "get in the swing of it day". We went to my grandma's house for a couple of hours and spent the rest of the day at home, not including the quick trip to the grocery store (literally it was like 15 minutes). Tomorrow should be much more interesting... we are planning on baking cookies... STAY TUNES FOR THE OUTCOME!!! :{

3, 2, 1, TAKE OFF!

Yes, we are finally here!!! Today my parents left for Ethiopia. At the not so bright, but early, hour (5:30) of the morning I dropped my mom and dad off at the airport to begin the long journey to pick up, God willing, my two new sisters! Wow, now the real journey begins. My responsibilities have already begun. It is just 8:00am and I have already gone to the airport, Starbucks (twice), and dropped off schoolbooks for my brother who forgot them at home in his frantic rush to get out the door! Sounds productive, right? Well, for now I am going to sit back and breath, for a moment, then I will go and clean the bathroom, which in our rush to help mom pack was painfully neglected! Signing out for now...

Mesert Joy

Ahhh, here we are again!!! Four years have passed since the completion of Denis' adoption journey and I find myself at the foot of yet another blessed event! My family is adopting from Ethiopia!!!! For starters, this is a God thing. When we started this adoption we, as a family, decided on a baby boy. We are shorthanded on boys, so we thought we needed a few more. Well, God had other plans for us. Instead of referring us a baby boy we were referred a 9year old girl (Beautiful E.) and an 11month old baby girl (Meseret).

As I type my parents are packing their bags to go and pick these girls up. Well, the baby at least. Sadly our beautiful 9year old has not passed court yet, so be are praying that God will work a miracle while my parents are in Ethiopia and let her pass court while they are there!

Please be praying with us as my parents travel to Ethiopia to, God willing, pick up our newest blessings!!!

Denis Gabriel

"What is next?" was right! Who knew what God would ask our family to do after adopting Isabelle from China? It all began again shortly after we returned from China. Our good friends, the Blairs, informed us of four boys from Russia who were on a three week host program to America. There were 25 your children who had this opportunity to come to America. Sadly four of these children where not adopted by their host families. Mrs. Blair Informed us that they were going to be adopting two of the boy, a brother set, but would we please pray for the other two, there names were Ruslan and Denis. Of course we were more than willing to pray, AND, we even said we would look for a family for him. Wasn't that nice of us! We never knew then that God had us picked to be that family!!!
Six months went by and still no takers, when one night my dad turned to my mom and said, "It's us. We are supposed to adopt Denis." My mom knew that he was right and so she said so, but that did not take away the feelings of inadequacy. Denis was a 10 year old boy that we knew nothing about, but after a lot of investigation and prayer, we decided to start the paperwork.

Again, the rest is history...

Denis has now been with us four years and he is as much a part of the family as anybody. I will never be able to express how wonderful it is to have another brother. I am so happy Denis is with us and that God allowed our family to be his!

Isabelle Faith Mei

In 2003 my family adopted my little sister from Guangzhou, China. It all started when my older sister Natalie and I listened to Steven Curtis Chapman, a Christian music artist, give his family's testimony about their adoptions. His older daughter was their family adoption advocate, so Natalie and I decided to be ours. We downloaded information on different agencies and presented the facts to my parents. After both my mom and dad prayed, talked and thought a lot about it we decided to pursue an adoption from China. We gathered the paperwork, signed papers, sent it to China, and waited... and waited... and waited.
In the meantime two weeks after we sent the paperwork in, mom found out that she was expecting... WOW! This was amazing but very overwhelming. What was God thinking, two babies at one time. Our semi-small family of six was now rapidly increasing! Now we were preparing for two new additions and things were changing.
Skip ahead a few months and we are still waiting on our referral for my Chinese sister when we heard about the outbreak of SARS. China's doors closed and adoptions where put on hold. We had no clue how long this closure was for, but we diligently prayed that my sister, whoever she may be would be safe and well taken care of until we could come and pick her up.
Here at home time moved on and my baby sister Abigail was born, February 13, 2003. God blessed us with the happiest baby ever.
Finally in July of '03 we received the call that we were going to China!!! It one of the most exciting days ever! We began our travel preparations, and on September 11, 2003 all seven members of the VanWetten Family traveled to China. When we arrived in China we were required to sight see for 3 days, then we flew to Guangzhou and got Isabelle. She was beautiful!!!

The rest is history...

She is six now and on her way to becoming a wonderful young lady. She is in kindergarten and learning to read and write. Besides school, she is involved in gymnastic and ballet. Her smile shows how her life has been renewed through the love of a family. It is amazing to see the transformation that can take hold of a small person when Love becomes their source.

My family learned so much through this adoption and our hearts were opened to truly acting out the work of God. We all wondered, "What is next"...???

The Miracle of Adoption

No one will ever understand the miracle of adoption until they have lived it. The lives which we lead as Christians depend on this act, but few realize its true meaning. If God looked at adoption like so many Christians look at it, ALL OF US would be going to hell!!! God has adopted us as His own and we need to turn around and act on this love by demonstrating it to others. If you want to win a soul for God's Kingdom, adopt! This child will be saved because you have called them your own and are discipling them in the ways of our Lord Jesus Christ.

My name is Anna and I am the second oldest of nine children. Four of my siblings are adopted, thus making adoption a HUGE part of my life. These four blessing are from God and have shown me literally what my relationship with God looks like. This blog is a snapshot of my life as a sister, daughter, and follower of Jesus Christ. Enjoy, as you observe life through my eyes...