5 months and counting!

Joshua playing outside

Christopher, Joshua, Daddy and Josiah
sitting together before our Court
appointment for our re-adoption

Josiah

Josiah dressed up as a cowboy for Halloween

Joshua dressed up as a giraffe for Halloween

It is so hard to believe that we've already been home for 5 months. As we get ready to celebrate the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ, I am filled with awe, yet once again, that He allowed us the chance to adopt. I am filled with wonder at the way in which He chose to allow our journey to take place. I was reading through our blog and am just filled with amazement for His faithfulness and goodness. This time last year, we were agonizing over the long wait. We'd been waiting 2 months for our court date to be scheuled and at times, it seemed as if it would never happen. While we were groaning (yes, out loud) and complaining, the Lord had it all in His capable hands. Praise God that we traveled when we did. It gave our family the time that we needed in order to adjust to having babies in the house again.

Since it's been SO long since I've updated the blog (PLEASE forgive me), I'll give you a quick update on the boys. They are both thriving and doing extremely well. They have begun taking just 1 nap a day, which isn't as bad as I thought it would be since they average a 2.5 hour nap (thank you Jesus). We've added some new words to their vocabulary, including "outside", and "no-no" (complete with the finger pointing). Did I mention how much they understand?? It is simply unbelievable how much these two comprehend. We are very impressed :)

They get the most joy out of going outside and going bye-bye. While they weren't crazy about their car seats when we first arrived home, they now really enjoy the idea of getting in the car to go somewhere. And getting dressed is a comical event, given that the two of them think that shoes going on their feet equals going bye-bye. They wear their shoes constantly, to give them better traction on the floors. It takes them a few minutes to comprehend that we're just going downstairs to play, not going bye-bye.

Halloween was a hoot! Matthew was out of town, but Jessica and Christopher and I took the twins out in the neighborhood to show off their costumes. Joshua went as a giraffe and Josiah was a cowboy. Of course, they were adorable and took great pleasure in all of the oohing and aahing that took place over them :)

Our social worker came to do our 2nd post-placement report and it went very well. She enjoyed seeing the boys again and seeing how they've grown. The post-placement reports are required by the Ethiopian governement. We will only have one more visit from the social worker, then we will be responsible for submitting the reports on an annual basis, until the boys turn 18. As we get ready to submit the second report, I can't help but wonder about the people who read the reports in Ethiopia. I wonder how they feel when they read about the children that have been adopted. I would imagine that they are filled with so much happiness, but also a sense of sadness that the children were not able to remain with their birth families.

It looks like nap time is over...later~!

Progress

A lot of things have been going on in our house over the last few weeks. I took Joshua in 2 weeks ago for yet another ear infection. Yes, this is his third ear infection in 3 months, always in the left ear. So, we started on antibiotics again. We took both of the boys in for their 18 month well-checks with Dr. Albert a few days later. The ear infection was gone, but we did talk about what happens if he continues to have ear infections over the next couple of months. If he gets to 6 ear infections within 6 months, we'll need to see an ENT for possible tubes in the ears. Please be in prayer against this particular issue. He seems to develop ear infections very rapidly. This time, his nose started running on Wednesday afternoon and by Thursday morning he was pulling on his ear.

On a happier note, both Joshua and Josiah have gained a total of 4 pounds and grown 2 inches since we've returned home from Ethiopia. This can be attributed, for the most part, to the fact that we've gotten rid of the parasites. They are walking ALL over the place and enjoy running away from Mommy and Daddy :) Developmentally, they've made great strides. They like to climb up the stairs (with us right behind them of course), love to take baths (hated them when we first came home), like to ride their cars all through the house and have figured out how to take the safety knobs OFF of the doors. They're favorite words are: Daddy, Bye-Bye, Ball, Nana (which is now Ba-Na-Na), Oh's (for Cheerios), and Bottle. They get the biggest kick out of going to one of Jessica's volleyball games and yelling "YAYYYYY!!!!!" at the top of their lungs with the hugest smiles on their faces. I really think that they have figured out how to get the entire gym to look at them and laugh.

Christopher celebrated his 12th birthday yesterday. Gosh, where has the time gone?? It was just yesterday that we were driving to the hospital for my scheduled 10am c-section. He is such a neat young man with a heart for the Lord and we are so proud of him. Have I mentioned that he's HUGE?! He's 5'7" tall and enjoys pointing it out to me on a daily basis. I keep telling him that he's blessed to have a Daddy who's 6'4" to override my short 5'2" genes.

Finally off to bed - more to come later :)

Born in September

I found this on a friend's blog who also adopted from Ethiopia. It really touched me, so I decided to post it our blog to see if we can light a fire in people to reach out to the beautiful people of Ethiopia by providing them with clean water.


The September Campaign Trailer - www.borninseptember.org from charity: water on Vimeo.

Having seen this country in person and personally experienced only one of the sicknesses that come from unclean water, I can't emphasize strongly enough how important clean water is to the people of Ethiopia. Would you consider helping?

Fireproof

Today, Matthew and I put the twins down for an afternoon nap, left them with Jessica and Christopher, then went to see the movie Fireproof. WHAT AN AWESOME MOVIE this is!! If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.

Official

We travelled to San Antonio this morning for our court hearing for our re-adoption. Our home study agency was Lutheran Social Services of the South and they recommended a wonderful attorney to complete our adoption for us, Victor Negron. He handled everything, down to the very last detail. We went before a really neat judge (thank you Jesus!) Judge Barbara Nellermoe. As we were walking into the courtroom, I was reminded that Adoptions are probably the only positive thing that a family court or district court judge gets to do. Most of what they see is negative and Judge Nellermoe was very happy to get to preside over our case.

So...the boys are officially Joshua Emanuel Flippen and Josiah Abenezer Flippen as of today. Thank you for praying for our journey and for our court date. I, for one, am so glad to have this part of the journey over and done with!

On another note, driving with toddlers is NOT my idea of a good time! Joshua and Josiah don't sleep in the car and don't watch the DVD players - although they LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to listen to music and get a kick out of dancing to Rhianna or Chris Brown. In fact, we joke that Joshua is going to be the next Chris Brown. He likes to move his WHOLE body (I'm not kidding-feet, head and everything in between)when the song Forever comes on. It's quite entertaining!!

Even though the twins, don't like to ride in the car, ALL my kids are precious and an absolute joy in our lives. Later!!

Re-Adoption

We have been working on our re-adoption through the State of Texas and getting our first Post-Adoption report submitted to our adoption agency.

We have our court hearing to finalize the re-adoption this coming Tuesday, September 30th at 1pm. The re-adoption is a requirement in order for the boys to receive their Certificates of Citizenship. Please be in prayer for us as we travel to San Antonio to go before the judge in Bexar county. We'll all travel down there so that we can all be at the hearing and have our picture taken as the judge hands us our official paperwork.

We'll let you know how things go!

They're Walking :)

Both of the boys are walking now - YAY!! We like to say that they are "waddlers" instead of toddlers. They waddle back and forth, back and forth, back and forth and eventually fall down. But, they are walking more and more every day, for which I am extremely thankful for.

Joshua and Josiah are hysterical these days. Josiah likes to scrunch up his nose and put on a fake smile. Then, when you laugh at him, he cracks up laughing. Joshua also gets a big kick out of making us laugh. This afternoon, we caught Josiah throwing a plastic ball, then he threw his hands up in the air and started clapping for himself, saying "Yayyyyy!". Joshua caught on very quickly and immediately started doing the exact same thing.

The boys are gaining weight very quickly. Josiah weighed 27 pounds about 2.5 weeks ago and I'm sure that Joshua is not far behind. In fact, I've been noticing that Joshua looks a whole lot more like Josiah now that he's filled out some. When Matthew gives them a haircut, they definitely look like they are identical. I don't think we'll ever know if they're identical or fraternal...

Jessica is enjoying playing volleyball for Summit right now and Christopher is in the throws of flag football. School is a bit more challenging, but we're so proud of how the 2 of them have really buckled down and taken school very seriously so far. Yay!

As I'm writing this, I'm overwhelmed that we're almost through the first 9 weeks of school. Somehow, I thought that having 1 year olds again would slow time down again. I remember when Jessica and Christopher were toddlers (18 mos apart), sometimes it seemed like time came to a standstill. Then, there were other times that I would do a double-take and wonder where on earth all the time had gone. As Christopher is about to celebrate his 12th birthday and Jessica is coming up on her 14th (YIKES), I am stunned that life is passing so quickly. There are parts of the day that time passes so slowly, and then we go pick up Jessica and Christopher and I realize that time has sped up again and the day is already over AGAIN.

One last thing...if you think about it, please stop and praise the Lord for His goodness in your life. I'm remembering our days in Ethiopia and how happy most of those precious people were in the midst of extreme poverty and hardship. Maybe someday I'll blog about our daily adventures while we were in Addis, but I'm still not sure that is something that I'm supposed to do. I'll let you know.

Blessings, Heather

I've been so busy lately, just trying to keep up with 4 kids, that I haven't had a chance to update the blog lately. If you've been anxiously waiting for an update, I apologize for slacking off and will try to update more often.

After our last round of treatment for Giardia, we've seen MUCH improvement, Praise the Lord! We completed the Flagyl and Joshua completed the Omnicef for his ear infection and Shigella. We saw immediate results during the treatment, then saw things start to decline again. Oy!

So, I headed into the pediatrician's office, yet one more time to see have her look at the boys ears. They had run fever for a few days and were pulling at their ears, so I decided to bite the bullet and take both of them in myself. BTW, I am very proud of myself, as this is a major accomplishment for me. She checked both of them and said that Josiah was fine, but that Joshua still had an ear infection in the same ear. She asked us to do ANOTHER stool sample because things still weren't where they should be (in the diaper department). As of yesterday afternoon, Joshua was tested negative for parasites and shigella. While most would see this as a positive, understand that it is a parasites JOB to remain undetected. So, I'm not putting much faith in the test results. However...

A dear friend suggested that I try a product known as Align (www.aligngi.com). When things started going downhill again, I bought some and started giving it to both of the boys. Poof! Instant results. It is a probiotic clinically proven to help with digestive issues. After trying several other probiotics that were useless, I'm now telling everyone I know about this product in the hopes that it will help others dealing with digestive issues.

As Tigger says, TTFN (Tata for now)!

Joshua has an ear infection...would you like some Flagyl with that??

Joshua has his first official ear infection. After 6 weeks of being home with constant runny noses, I felt sure that one of the boys would get an ear infection. I knew that it was just a matter of time...

We took Joshua and Josiah in on Tuesday morning for their second round of vaccinations and I debated over whether or not to have the pediatrician step in to check Joshua's ear. Because this was a "nurse" visit, I just wasn't sure that I wanted to pay the extra copay for the doctor to step in for 5 seconds and give me a prescription or better yet, only to have her say that his ears are fine. So, we left the office to head home.

Back up a couple of days...Joshua started running a low fever Saturday night, but I checked and he had a new molar coming in. So, I gave him Tylenol every 4 hours to help with the pain and fever. He ran a fever off and on until Tuesday morning, when we took them in.

Back to the story :) A few hours after we got home from the doctor's office, Joshua starts TUGGING at his ear, like he's trying to pull it off. So, I call Dr. Albert's office to schedule an appointment. Of course, it's lunchtime by now and they don't have any openings until the following morning-Wednesday at 11:20. At this point, I'm still not convinced that he has an ear infection...

On Wednesday, I took him in and sure enough, he has a horrible ear infection in one ear and is well on his way to a bad one in the other ear. That will teach me to always listen to my "Mommy Instincts". It's been awhile since I've had toddlers, so I have to laugh this off and chalk it up to me getting back into the swing of things!

As the doctor and I were talking, I was discussing all of our "diaper issues" with her. I could see the wheels turning in her mind...she's looking through his chart and says to me "You know, Heather, Joshua is the one who tested positive for Shigella (see previous post)... but I didn't treat him for it, because he didn't have any other symptoms and everything says NOT to treat it unless you have definite symptoms. However, I'm wondering if he really does have Shigella in his system and that may be part of the problem." She prescribed a broader ranged antibiotic to fight the ear infection, but also eradicate the Shigella, just in case.

At this point, I'm ready to call in professional diaper changers, so I'm ready to consider anything that might fix it! We were still waiting for the results of both of their stool cultures to come back.

Lo and behold, Dr. Albert called me this afternoon to let me know that Joshua still tested positive for Shigella, but was negative for giardia (hmmm....). Josiah, on the other hand, tested positive again for giardia. So, we're changing the medication for the giardia to Flagyl (the NASTY tasting stuff) and we're treating both of the boys, since there's a high probability that Joshua's stool culture is wrong.

So...hopefully we'll get the digestive issues treated and they'll be out of lives for good!

Giardia

Jessica and Christopher went back to school last week, on August 13th. They are enjoying their classes and trying to get back into the routine of school. None of us can believe that the summer went by so quickly!! Matthew will be coaching Christopher's flag football team again and Jessica is training for volleyball. She was able to play in a summer league with the high schoolers from Summit-the only 8th grader asked to play with them. It was a great experience for her, especially since she LOVES volleyball!!

Joshua and Josiah are continuing to do well. We're still having some gastrointestinal issues that we're trying to get resolved. They completed their 3 day treatment of Alinia (for Giardia) on July 28th, but as of today, there's still no change in their diapers. I'm changing an average of 10 dirty diapers a day for each boy. So, their pediatrician has ordered a repeat of the stool samples for both of them and we are currently waiting for the results to come in. From all that I've learned online, alot of the Giardia from Ethiopia is resistant to treatment, mostly due to the fact that it's so common over there. When people have it over and over and over again, they become resistant to treatment. Our pediatrician prescribed the Alinia because it's a newer medication and only takes 3 days to complete, whereas the other treatment is very difficult in several ways. 1. It tastes HORRIBLE 2. It's very hard on their system (can cause severe abdominal pain, more diarrhea, etc) 3. many times the treatment is harder than the giardia itself, which I honestly can't imagine.

The other issue with testing for Giardia is that it's very difficult to catch. It's really random luck of the draw. It isn't passed with each diaper and that's where the luck comes in. I have friends who've adopted from Ethiopia and their children tested negative for Giardia multiple times over a 6 month period. But, they did have it and were treated with Flagyl (the nasty tasting stuff) and got better immediately.

I'm hoping that their pediatrician will be proactive and will treat them again, even if the stool samples are negative. If she doesn't, I'll be making an appointment at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston as they are one of the leading International Adoption Physician Networks in the country. I'd appreciate your prayers for healing so very much!

Life with twins and teenagers :)

So, as I've been taking advantage of Jessica's (13) and Christopher's (11, almost 12) help over the last few weeks, I am constantly amazed at how God has blessed me with them with them. I am so thankful that this was a group decision and that we were all totally sold out to the idea of adoption. It never would have worked otherwise.


To know that we all felt God's leading to adopt and that Jessica and Christopher are still so helpful and energetic with the twins, after the "honeymoon" has worn off, is more confirmation that we are where we are supposed to be. Now, don't get me wrong...I'm sure many of you are thinking to yourselves "Boy, are they in for a shock! Wait until the "new" wears off." I am not delusional, I promise. I do know that Jessica and Christopher will struggle at times, but when I see them pick up one of their baby brothers and see their face light up with joy, I know that they are totally in love with their new little brothers. I see Christopher run in the room and say "How's my sweet baby brother??" and I am constantly hearing "Mom, do you need my help?" and I know that I am so blessed.


We've been getting ready for school to start on August 13th. While the rest of Austin and Texas and probably the whole world, will be starting in late August to early September, our school decided to start early. Thankfully, both Jessica and Christopher are ready to go back to school, no doubt, in part, so that they will be away from fussy babies for most of the day (not that they're complaining-yet). They are finished with their summer reading and enjoying the freedom that the next 2 weeks will bring.

I am slowly, but surely, getting into a routine with Joshua and Josiah. They're eating better and seem to be gaining some weight, not that they are in need of more rolls on their legs and arms...

We went to our first Austin Ethiopia event as a family this past Saturday. Mom was here with us and we all went to my friend Heather's house for a backyard BBQ. I was surprised by how many of us in Austin are either currently in the adoption process or have completed it. There were ALOT of little Ethiopian children there. It's so neat to know that Joshua and Josiah will have a group in Austin that they can grow up with and relate to. I know that it will be a blessing in the years to come to know other Ethiopian children that have been adopted.

More later...

Pictures say it all!

Josiah is the charmer...

Joshua is the cuddler...

The two of them together are seriously CUTE!

Interesting what we found out today...

We had to go in for the second round of vaccines and a chest/rib xray for Joshua and Josiah today. Thankfully, Matthew was able to go to the appointment with me. I don't know what a single mom with twins does to survive. Really! How, on earth, do you manage 2 babies at one time?? I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what I'm going to do to survive when the day comes that I have to do something by myself with these guys! Like go to the grocery store or doctor's office...Yikes! Am I pitiful or what??

Chest xrays were completely normal. However, we have results for the stool samples. Both of the boys tested positive in all 3 samples for parasites. Yes, I know that it was a likely probability, but I was hoping for the best. ICK! ICK! ICK! They have to take 3 days of medicine and hopefully that will clear it up and we won't have to repeat the process all over again.

And, Joshua tested positive for a bacteria in one of his samples, called Shigella. If you Google it, you'll find lots of lovely info on this particular bacteria. The strange thing is that Joshua didn't have any of the symptoms of Shigella. If he had it, we'd have definitely known it. It's a BAD bacteria! So, Dr. Albert seems to think that Matthew may have cross-contaminated one of the samples when he was changing the diaper, since we never figured out what he was so sick with in Ethiopia. When I looked Googled it, sure enough, Matthew had the worst of the symptoms. So, it looks like we've discovered what the cause of Matthew's horrible sickness was. YAY!!

Shots are BAD :(

We took the boys in for their first round of vaccines and they were little troopers. They only cried for about 30 seconds and then they were back to grins and giggles.

Dr. Albert came out to get us because she had just gotten the results back from all of their bloodwork that was drawn on Tuesday. She said that both of them were "remarkably" healthy. Only a couple of things were slightly off, but they were nothing major. We'll repeat the bloodwork in 6 months to make sure that we're on the right track.

Did I mention that we had to "collect" 3 stool samples for each baby? I say "collect", tongue in cheek, because anyone who's had to scoop poop from a baby's diaper knows that there is no neat and tidy way to do it. And, really, the whole reason for scooping poop to begin with, begs you to wear gloves. Seriously, it's NOT fun!

First Doctor Visit

We took Joshua and Josiah in this morning for their first official visit with the pediatrician. She looked them over from head to toe (literally) and seemed very impressed with how healthy they look.

They were 29 inches long and 24 pounds. At 15 months, they are a little small by American standards. Their weight puts them in the 20th percentile and their height puts them in the 15th percentile. She asked us to be working on slowly moving the boys toward table food, as right now they are only eating Stage 2 baby food, cereal and bottles. Stage 3 baby foods aren't a big hit right now. Those usually get us a "That's so gross" look and then it promptly gets spit out. They just don't like the texture of the Stage 3s, so we'll keep working on it.

We'll return in a week to begin the vaccinations, which I'm so not looking forward to. In the meantime, we went to the lab to have a FULL workup done on the boys. They drew 8 vials of blood for EACH boy. They were extremely unhappy little fellas, as you can imagine. Hoping everything is normal!

WE'RE HOME!

We arrived home last night at 5:50pm and it was somewhat surreal stepping off of the escalator, descending to precious friends and family clapping as we made our way down to baggage claim. I tried to hold it together, but the tears flowed nonetheless :) It was simply unbelievable to arrive in the U.S. with our family intact (LOL), surrounded by many of those who have prayed us along in this journey. The Lord is simply unbelievable that He would allow us to experience this journey and that we are finally home.

Due to the time that we left Addis and arrived in Texas, jet-lag has not been an issue for any of us. Once friends grabbed our luggage and put them in the car for us, we headed to Fuddruckers (what can I say-all 4 of us wanted an American hamburger). I don't think I've ever appreciated a hamburger more!

We've been home for 24 hours and it's been very smooth so far. We've been busy entertaining the boys and getting our HUGE suitcases unpacked so that we can return them to their faithful owners :) We have meals in the refrigerator, thanks to some sweet, sweet friends. Can I just say "YAY" for that AND for the refrigerator!

Joshua and Josiah are hysterical. They like to race each other around the floor, with Josiah speed-crawling (I use that term loosely, due to his size-tee hee) with his head down. That has presented some "interesting" boo-boos, to say the least. We're working on borrowing a couple of Exer-saucers to help strengthen the boys' leg muscles so that we can get them walking. I realize that I may regret trying to hurry this along, but know that it's what is best for them. Look out world when they do start walking! It will be a constant race, that is for darn sure.

I'm off to bed, as I just got Joshua back to sleep for the evening. Take a look at our "Welcome Home" video that some friends put together for us :)



Blessings,
Heather

Where's the Diet Dr. Pepper??

Greetings from Newark New Jersey!!!!

Praise be to the Lord Most High!! We made it out of Addis in barely enough time to make our flight last night at 10:45pm. I am now jumping up and down after racing through immigration and customs in Newark. I couldn't wait to get to the nearest fast food place and order whatever I could find :) That and, of course, find the nearest store that sold Diet Dr. Pepper. For those that know me very well, you know that it was a SERIOUS sacrifice for me to do without my daily staple for 2 weeks!!

Our flight out of Newark has been delayed. We now leave at 3:35pm, which should put us in Austin around 6:30. Check Continental.com for flight number 450 from Newark to Austin to check on our arrival time.

For those who are meeting us at the airport, we can't wait to hug you and show off the kids (all of them :)))))

Love you very much,
Heather

On our way home to Texas

Greetings from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!

Two days after I posted the last update, Matthew became ill. He went to a lunch meeting on Thursday and came home thinking that he was getting a sinus infection. He went to bed and hasn't left since. He has had a temp of up to 101 and has been unable to keep anything down but crackers.

Because of how sick he has been, we've decided to come home early.

We had planned a dinner party at our Guesthouse for Saturday night, but had to cancel, which we were really disappointed about. We did call Dr. Segrest, Matthew's childhood doctor who is working here in Addis, and asked him and his wife, Becky, to come look at Matthew to get his perspective on what could be wrong. He was very gracious to take a taxi all the way out to the Guesthouse to meet with us and look at Matthew. According to Dr. Segrest, having a temperature and vomiting is very common for new arrivals in Addis. There are many things here that can make a person sick, one of which is the storage of leftover foods and refrigeration. We came across some very alarming things, trust me! He recommended that Matthew take the Cipro antibiotic pills that I brought.

It was really great seeing Dr. & Mrs. Segrest and having them pray over us.

Matthew's been feeling a bit better today (Sunday) and seemed to have a little more energy this morning. At least his humor is coming back and he made me laugh several times.

After I convinced him that we needed to get home, we decided that we would call Matthew's brother to get his help in rescheduling our flights for the U.S., hoping and praying to get out of Addis Saturday evening.

He was able to get our flights rescheduled, but we were too late to be able to leave Saturday evening. So, we have reservations to leave Addis this coming Tuesday night (July 8^th) at 10:45pm and I am so thankful to know that we'll be on our way home in less than 36 hours. You just can't imagine how hard the last few days have been physically and emotionally. Trust me when I say that I have a new perspective on how easy we have it in the States!

We will be arriving into Austin around 6pm on Wednesday evening. We will be straggling in, I'm sure, but I, especially, will be extremely grateful to be home. I will have someone send an email from my Google Mail account, letting everyone know what time we will be arriving.

In the meantime, we covet your prayers for healing for Matthew and for a hedge of protection to be placed around me and the kids so that we will be able to get home without getting sick. Please pray for no delays with our flight out of Addis, as the rainy season has definitely started and it rains every evening. We can't wait to see everyone when we get home on Wednesday night.

God bless!

Heather

Greetings from Africa!

Greetings from Africa!! We arrived into Addis Ababa safely Saturday evening at 9:05pm. Yay! The plane rides were loooonnnnggg, so long, but were very smooth (Xanax may have helped with that, who knows?? LOL) We had a driver from CWA there to meet us upon arrival, as well as a driver from our guest house, Oziopia. We were also greeted by Hailu, the father of our Ethiopian friends in Austin. It's a good thing that we had a driver from the Guest house there to show the CWA driver how to get to the guest house. Driving around in Addis is an entirely different experience, let me tell you. If you have ever ridden in a taxi anywhere in Mexico, you barely have an idea of what driving around in Addis is like. There are few, if any, street lights and drivers are constantly dodging people casually walking in the streets. There is simply nothing like it anywhere, trust me!

On Sunday, our driver picked us up at 10am to go get the boys at the CWA care center. We had asked the US staff if it would be possible for us to photo and video our initial meeting and were told that it should be fine. However, when we arrived in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian staff were pretty insistent that, due to privacy issues with the other children in the facility, we would not be allowed to video or photograph the meeting. However, we talked them into finding a small private room at the infant house, so that we could get those first moments on video. They were very gracious to find a tiny room that we could use for a few minutes.

We had prepared ourselves ahead of time for the possibility that the boys would most likely cry upon meeting us. And, cry they did! Wow! But, that didn't take anything away from those incredibly sweet first minutes with the boys.

They are absolutely precious and started bonding with us as soon as we left the transition home. Within the first few hours, they were holding their arms out to me to hold them, especially when upset, and are currently really enjoying sharing me with each other. Let's just say that they are a couple of charmers J

This afternoon, at 2pm, we went to our Embassy appointment. As many who've gone before us have said, it was pretty anticlimactic for such a long and tedious process. We went through tons of security to get inside and then we waited for about 10 minutes before being called up to a small window, where we were asked a few questions about the twins and our adoption. Then we were finished...

We're so thankful to have this part of the process over with. They will deliver the twins' visas on Friday.

Jessica and Christopher are turning out to be a HUGE blessing in so many ways during this trip. They are unbelievable siblings and are pitching in to help in every imaginable way. Well, except for the diaper changes, that is!

Updates will be few and far between while we are here in Ethiopia. We have to take a taxi to the Hilton to use the business center and that is about 30 minutes away from where our guest house is.

Prayer requests:

1. For the time to pass quickly-the diesel and pollution in Addis is taking a toll on our allergies and I (personally), just want to get home and start settling in.

2. For our immune systems to remain strong. We've been here 48 hours and so far, we're all doing fine. However, things can go downhill quickly, so we covet your prayers for our health.

Much love from Ethiopia,

Heather

Prayer Requests for Travel

As we are gearing up to leave, many things have been on our hearts and minds as we contemplate going to Africa. I'm going to list the prayer requests below, in no particular order of importance :)

1. That all of our documents will be at the Embassy for our appointment at 2pm on July 1st.

2. For our health while we are away. Because we've immunized against EVERY possible thing that we can, basically our biggest risk at this point is food borne illness. Think drinking the water in Cozumel, but 10 times worse and that is what we're talking about. Ick!

3. For us to be aware of every opportunity that the Lord sets before us. We don't want to miss out on a single thing that He wants to show us or teach us.

4. For our transition with Joshua and Josiah to go well. There is always the potential risk of attachment issues. We've prayed against these issues, but know that it is a possibility that we have to be aware of. We just ask that you would pray and ask the Lord to bind our hearts together. Please specifically pray for Jessica and Christopher's transition with their new brothers. As exciting as this is, this is still a HUGE change for them.

5. For our meeting with the twins' Ethiopian family to go well. For the Lord to grant them peace over the decision that they've made and that our meeting will be a blessing to them.

5. For no lost luggage!!

That's all for now - thanks for being faithful to pray for us :)

-Heather

Final Countdown

Remember that song? It's the FINAL COUNTDOWN to our departure Friday morning. As I sit here typing this, I keep reminding myself that we only 3 full days left until we fly across the world to pick up our sons.

God is so unbelievably amazing! When I read back through our blog, I'm reminded over and over and over again how faithful He has been. When we're walking with the Lord and asking Him to guide our steps, it will be harder to walk in the wrong direction. God gives us the free choice to choose Him or another. However, when we choose Him, he requires that we give Him our All. Not 1% or 99%, but 100% of who we are must be completely abandoned to Him.

This journey is not about us or who we are or even about Joshua and Josiah. What is is about, is God. 100%, totally about the Lord. Our family is simply the tool that He is using to do His work and it has been an absolute joy to be a participant in something so amazing. I love how God does the most truly amazing stuff to show us exactly who He is :)

I'll post prayer requests tomorrow.

-Heather

Reckless Faith...

Global Food Crisis

We here in America are so blessed. As many news stations and media outlets are reporting, the food crisis is reaching new heights. I received an email this afternoon from Compassion International, asking for sponsors to commit to a day of fasting and prayer on June 25, 2008.

The statistics on the food crisis is staggering. The price for rice, beans, corn and other food staples has risen exponentially in recent months, creating extreme hardship and suffering. The higher prices are forcing people who survive on just $1 a day to spend upwards of 80 percent of their budgets just on food. As a result, many people, including millions of children, are going hungry. The longer food prices rise, the more people will be plunged into hunger and poverty. Families earning less than $2 a day cannot afford to keep up with these rising prices. There is just no margin. The impact is truly devastating and the need is so great.

Please pray with us for an end to the suffering of millions across the world who are, literally, starving to death.

For more information, please visit Compassion International at http://www.compassion.com/ and click on the information for "Global Food Crisis".

Birth Certificates

We have birth certificates for Joshua and Josiah!! Their Ethiopian birth certificates have April 16,2007 listed as their "official" birthday. I particularly love the month of April, because so many of my family members have birthdays in April. Let's see, the Johnson family now has birthdays on April 12, April 16 (Joshua and Josiah), April 18 (Mom), April 20, April 24 (Dad), April 25 , April 26 (Granddad) and NOW we have 2 new members with an April birthday. April is going to be an even busier month...

H

Video

We received new measurements today. The twins are 23 pounds and 28.5 inches tall.

I'm including a video that CWA sent to us today from a worker's recent trip to the care center in Addis Ababa. Enjoy watching the boys laughing and smiling. It's such a blessing to see them happy and carefree. Their caretakers seem to be really sweet and it blesses us to see them interracting with the twins.

Enjoy the video and PLEASE excuse the dreaded pink pants. Oh the pink!!

Much love,Heather

July 1st!!!!

Great news!! Yesterday afternoon, we received an email from Sue letting us know that we have a confirmed embassy date of Tuesday, July 1st at 2pm. YAY!!!!

We leave Austin at 6:30am on Friday, June 27th and arrive in Addis on Saturday, June 28th at 9:05pm. Our trip will look like this: Austin to Newark, Newark to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Addis Ababa. We have a 6 hour layover in Newark, which won't be any fun. However, we're going to be on our way and I doubt that a long layover in New Jersey will distract us from our joy. The great thing is that our flight leaves Newark at 5:15, which will allow us the opportunity to sleep during the nighttime flight. We're hoping that will help tremendously with the jet-lag:)

We have received plenty of balls to take with us to Addis. One of Jessica's friends is involved in Vacation Bible School this summer and their outreach this summer is...get this: "Gospel" soccer balls! So, they will be giving us a large number of soccer balls painted with the colors of salvation on it. We have another friend that owns a sporting goods store and he's donating an assortment of balls for us to take. We're so excited to deliver these to the children in Ethiopia.

That's all for now-we just wanted to share our good news with everyone!

DONATIONS NEEDED for the orphanages!!

I'm currently in the process of shopping like a mad woman! I'm trying to get together everything that we'll need in the way of OTC medicines, like Children's Advil, Tylenol and Motrin, Benadryl and various cough and cold medicines that the boys might need.

As we are getting closer to going, we've asked friends from our LINK class (Sunday School) to help us get together clothing donations (gently used) to take to the orphanages in Ethiopia. We're trying to fill up 4 large suitcases so we can bless them in a big way :) We're also trying to get donations together for soccer balls, kickballs, etc., but deflated in the packaging (which is how they come to the sporting goods stores anyway) so that we can fit as many as possible into the suitcases. We'd also like to take some frisbees.

If you feel like helping us in this effort, please contact your local sporting goods stores and ask them if they will donate deflated, brand new balls and frisbees for us to donate to the children in Ethiopia. If you are able to secure some balls and frisbees, please email me as soon as possible so that we don't get too many and have to leave some behind.

Another idea-pages and pages of small stickers for the little girls. Many Christian bookstores and scrapbooking stores have large "books" filled with tear out pages of stickers that will allow us to hand out a page of stickers to children that we see in the streets. I'd love to bless them in some small way! If you think about it, it would be wonderful if we can get Lifeway or Family Christian Bookstore to donate pages of stickers for us to take . My heart's desire is that we can take stickers with scripture on them!!

One story to share...a good friend of mine had the same court date as us, the first time around-April 23rd. It was imperative that they pass court as soon as possible, as one of her children she's adopting from Ethiopia has tuberculosis and needed to get to the US as soon as she possibly could. Well, they passed on the first try, Praise the Lord! However, they traveled on May 22nd for a May 27th court date. When they went to get her daughter's Birth Certificate and Visa, the Embassy refused to give it because of the daughter's TB infection. They have been in limbo for over a week, searching the heart of the Lord, asking for direction on what actions they should take. They are currently waiting to hear whether or not all of them will be able to come home to the US together or if their newly adopted daughter will be forced to stay behind in Ethiopia with one of the parents. Can you imagine the devastation that little girl and family must be feeling right now? To have experienced so much tragedy in her little lifetime and then see a light at the end of the tunnel, only to have something like this happen, must be very scary for her.

Feel free to send me a private email with any thoughts you might have: hflippen@austin.rr.com

Much love to all :)

Heather

Embassy Date!

I sent an email to Sue this morning asking if she had any news regarding an Embassy date being scheduled for us yet. To my surprise, I got an immediate phone call (for which I couldn't find the phone-ugh!!) and then another on my cell phone.

She was calling to let us know that we have a tentative Embassy date scheduled for July 1st, but is waiting for confirmation from the Ethiopia office before she gives us the all-clear for travel arrangements. I explained to her that we'd already made our plane reservations and Guest House accomodations and that we were planning to be in Ethiopia for an entire month. She was thrilled to hear that we're going to be there for so long and encouraged us to make sure that we have snugli's or wraps for the twins. I assured her that I'd already gotten them and they're in the suitcase ready to go!

For now, it looks as if we have a court date of July 1st - Praise the Lord!

Heather

The wait is hard...

Someone told me a few months back, that this particular point in the adoption might be the most difficult one to wait on. I didn't believe it, well...because I couldn't imagine. After the roller coaster ride of emotions over the last 15 months, I didn't think it could possibly be more difficult than what we've already experienced. However, I was definitely mistaken!

To have been through this process and to know that the babies are officially, legally ours, yet not be able to just run over and pick them up is sometimes almost more than I, as a mother, can bear. Of course, it would be extremely difficult (but not impossible!) to just drop everything and go pick them up. But, OH HOW I WANT TO!

Anyone who has been extremely close to me over the last month of court dates has seen me ecstatic, then somewhat reserved when we were postponed the first time. The second time, Matthew was out of town for a few days and I was left to wait for news by myself. This time, I really believed that we'd get through-that it was simply a formality. However, I was blindsided by the depression and uncertainty that immediately hit me, upon hearing the words "We've been postponed AGAIN". Then, as we Christ-followers sometimes do, I began to feel guilty over the things I was questioning. "Was I being doubtful?" "Did I have so little faith?" I felt weak and pathetic and really wondered why, on Earth, God would want me to be a mother again when I couldn't "snap out of it". It was a very lonely place to be and one that I really struggled with.

However, I quickly realized that I was exactly where God wanted me to be and that was for me to be at a place where I trusted WHOLLY in Him to see this happen. It's no coincidence that for all of the 1st 3 court dates, Matthew was traveling and we were forced to be apart and, instead forced to go to the Lord. Had we been at home together, I'm certain that we would have reached for each other for comfort instead of running into the arms of our Heavenly Father.

At this point, although there is a light at the end of the tunnel, it's hard to know our children are halfway across the world, longing for a family and we simply can't get to them just yet ...

Sometimes standing and waiting is hard work, when we desperately want to run and do something. Make a paperwork move quicker, get the birth certificates printed, etc. However, I know that God orcestrates things sometimes for us to see our complete lack of control. Because I simply can't do anything else, I try to stand in faith and 'be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power"(Eph. 6:20)

Love you all!
Heather

Busy!

Well, I definitely knew that the day would come, as soon as we made it successfully through court, that life as we knew it would start to dwindle and that life would change. Over the last week, I've been trying to schedule orthodontist appointments and dentist appointments for Jessica and Christopher, but then also filling up the calendar with appointments that I need to take care of before we leave for a month out of the country. Looking at my calendar gives me a headache, I tell you!

I'm starting to compile list after list after list of all that we'll need to take over there with us. It is quite alot! It's one thing to pack for the 4 of us, but to add 2 one year olds into the mix is somewhat of a challenge. But, oh, it's all we can do to wait :)

We're still waiting for word on an Embassy Date. We haven't yet told our case manager that we've already got our flights lined up. You all know me, I believe that most information is on a "need to know" basis. For now, it would serve no purpose other than to stress her out and that wouldn't be good.

Off to bed-I'm tired!

Heather

Funny photos

I forgot to mention in the last post that we received a couple of updated photos of the twins. I had just been on the phone with Sue (our case worker @ CWA) and jokingly told her that I was ready for some photos of them NOT dressed in pink. It seems as if every batch of pictures that we receive has one or both of them dressed in something pink and, believe me, whichever one is wearing pink, doesn't seem to like it at all.

Sue tried to warn me that one of the pictures...let's see how to put this...will not be one that they will be proud to know that we have in our collection :) She told me that every time she looks at it, she just wants to wipe his mouth-oh, AND the nose. And take the pink pants off of him. Really?

So, I get the photo and it is pretty awful. And, would you believe it? Both of them are wearing pink pants!! UGH! Can't wait to bring them home and put them in some blue and green :)

FINALLY!

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

We are so thankful to be able to announce that this morning we were finally approved and are officially the proud parents of our new twin boys, Joshua Emanuel and Josiah Abenezer. Jessica screamed with joy when we told her and Christopher was really excited that, finally, his brothers are a for sure deal.

God has blessed us in this process in so many ways and we are so grateful for all of your prayers and words of encouragement. Walking through a journey like this with your friends and family close by, definitely makes the setbacks easier to handle.

We don’t have an Embassy appointment date yet, but we’ve booked our flights departing June 27th and returning July 23rd. Yes, we will be in Ethiopia for almost a full month. It just turned out that we couldn’t get the flights to fit our plans exactly, so we know that God must have some wonderful things in store for our extended stay. We already know that we will now have more time to see the country. We are also hoping that we can spend more time in the orphanage, just loving on the other children there and supporting the staff in some way. Jessica is very much hoping for the opportunity to help out in a mission hospital that a friend of ours works in. We’ll also make an overnight trip to the village where the twins are from.

God has sustained us through the long wait and we praise Him for His faithfulness. “My heart says of you, "Seek his face!" Your face, LORD, I will seek.” Psalm 27:8

“I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.Wait for the Lord; be strong, and take heart, and wait for the Lord.” Psalm 27:13-14

As we celebrate this precious day, we leave you with this: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

Praising Him,
Heather

Postponed...

April 24, 2008

Currently, Addis is experiencing power outages every four days for 12-13 hrs. per day. This is causing no small problem with communication, as you can imagine! As we last updated, we had a court date yesterday and, because of the power outage, we were forced to wait until this morning to hear about the outcome. Unfortunately, we were postponed until May 8. As soon as we learned of the postponement, we got on the phone to change our plane reservations. That, my friends, is not an easy task and the later we fly in the season, the more difficult it will become. We are about to enter the rainy season and travel is more difficult during that time for many reasons.

For some reason, unknown to us, MOWA ( the government office which overseas Ethiopian adoptions) has requested additional documentation from the region in which Joshua and Josiah are from. While we’re disappointed, we know that this is not a surprise to the Lord and trust that He knows exactly what is needed. Thank you so much for your prayers over the last few days and weeks. We’ve had tremendous peace, which can only come from Him. We refuse to allow this to steal our joy in what God is doing through this process. As I picked Jessica and Christopher up from school today, I anticipated many tears. Our daughter completely blew me away in her response. Jessica said, and I quote, “Well, that just means that God wants us to wait a little bit longer and that He has it all in control.” She even told one of her friends the exact same thing when they expressed their disappointment that we hadn’t passed on the first try. Go Jessica!

We did get some clarification on the twins’ orphan status when we talked to Sue today. We were under the impression that the twins’ parents or close family member would be required to attend the court hearing. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that will not be the case with our adoption, due to the circumstances in which the twins’ were relinquished. So, that is a praise that we are thankful for, simply to eliminate more grief for their family. Someday, we’ll explain the circumstances, but for now, we want to honor the twins’ story by allowing them to be the first ones to hear it. Until then, trust us when we say that they have a remarkable story to tell.

Please keep us in your prayers on the evening of May 7th and thru May 8th. Because Addis Ababa is 7 hours ahead, we know that court will be opening up around 2am our time (in Texas). While we don’t know the exact time that our case will be heard, we know that your prayers will be heard by our Heavenly Father. We are praying that there will be no more delays and that we will receive good news (QUICKLY!).

We have a court date!!!!

April 14th, 2008

We finally have a court date!! We received an email from our case manager, letting us know that our adoption will be presented to the judge on April 23rd. After waiting for so long, it’s such a blessing to know that we will finally have our day in court.

On this date, our agency’s Ethiopian staff will present our case to the judge. We are not anticipating any problems, but we also know that the road we’re traveling is bumpy at times. We are asking our faithful friends and family to join us in prayer on the 22nd and 23rd. Because Ethiopia is ahead by 7-8 hours, we expect that just as we are going to bed on the 22nd, their day will be about to begin. Sometime during the night, our case will be presented to the judge and he will make his decision. Please join us in praying that there will be no surprises and that we pass court on the first try. I doubt that we’ll sleep at all that night and anticipate that we’ll be on our knees in prayer.

After the adoption is approved, our house will go into “warp speed”. There is MUCH still to do and very little time to get it all accomplished. We’ve anticipated our travel date to be somewhere near May 23rd. So, we’ve booked our flights and, through some generous friends, were able to secure our round-trip tickets. We fly out of Austin on May 23rd, arriving in Addis Ababa on May 24th and return home to Austin on Sunday, June 8th.

e’ve made many Ethiopian friends along the way and are excited to meet their families while we are in Addis. Another really cool “God-thing” that we discovered is that Matthew’s childhood Dr. (and family friend) and his wife are currently living in Addis Ababa, doing mission work over there. We’re excited to know that we have friends from College Station that will be living in Addis while we’re there. I’m especially thankful that we’ll have access to medical care through Dr. Segrest, should we need it (though I’m praying we DO NOT).

God has known all along about my fear of going to a third-world country with my diabetes and this is one more way that He has shown me that He has every thing under control. One small corner of my heart was still afraid to travel to Addis and God whispered into my ear. “Child, I am the Most High God and I will take care of you.” I also have to snicker a bit at the fact that I secretly thought I could keep those thoughts all to myself. As if the Lord doesn’t know what I’m thinking…nothing could be further from the truth.

Thank you for keeping us and our journey in your prayers. As we near the end of this part of the journey, we are humbled to know that friends like you have made this journey with us. Joshua Emanuel and Josiah Abenezer WILL KNOW how God used every one of you to bring them home to us. I can’t wait to share their story with them about how much they were loved before we ever even knew who they were.

We’ll send out an update as soon as we hear something from our case manager. She has warned us that they don’t always receive word immediately, so it may be several days before we know something. Please remember to pray for us on April 22nd and 23rd.

A New Pediatrician to see

February 14th, 2008

We met with Dr. Kimberly Albert today, who will be the twins pediatrician, to have her review the medical results with us. Not only did she give the twins a glowing review, she also shared with us that she has twin boys of her own and could relate to what we would be experiencing as parents once the adjustment period ends. We have felt God's hand at each step and this was just another confirmation of His approval and love for us in all this.

I snickered when she said "You know, they're going to be partners in crime." I seriously thought she was JOKING! until she said "I'm very serious. One of them will try to distract you while the other one conquers what he was after." Well, that's definitely something to think about!!

Heather

2nd Medicals are in!

February 8th, 2008

We received the final medical information on the twins today. What a blessing it was to read how healthy they are. Their height and weight place them in the 75th percentile of American children. As you know, our biological children are rather tall as well, so this is just another confirmation that the twins must be Flippens.

I had to laugh when we walked in the door to the house this afternoon to find the medicals in my inbox. See, the funny thing is that I have, literally (I kid you NOT), been waiting by the computer for DAYS, waiting for the medicals to come through. It wasn't until we left town Friday morning to go on a medical mission trip to Acuna, Mexico AND I was away from my desk for the first time in days, that the information FINALLY came through. I know that our God has a sense of humor. I can just picture Him watching me anxiously waiting for that email, then it comes through the second I leave. Literally, the email came at 6:40 Friday morning, as we were leaving the house to head up to the church. Of course, I was without email or phone communication until we returned this afternoon. Ha!

Needless to say, we were seriously excited to see those second medicals today!

Heather

Moving Day...

January 22nd, 2008

Joshua and Josiah were finally moved to the capital today in Addis Ababa from the Soddo region. This is a major step towards bringing them home. It also means that the Addis Ababa orphanage recently had children adopted and taken home by their new families to create space for our sons.

We rejoice over this creation of new families and pray that their transition and adjustment period goes quickly and smoothly.

Now we wait for the final three steps to occur. First, the children will need another complete medical exam and testing. Once cleared, our paperwork will then be submitted to the court system and we will wait for a court date. Once the court date occurs with our agency representing us there, we will then have the US embassy appointment set, where we can plan our travel dates to coincide with the twins visa's being ready for our pickup.

In all, we're probably 90 days away from traveling, give or take a month.