"Children Of God" and a mix of emotions....

It is hard to believe that one week ago today we saw the face of our baby girl for the very first time. I have to admit, I can't help but stare at her picture and long to hold her in my arms, oh probably 100 times a day. The other night the kids were in bed and Luke and I were sitting here looking at her pictures and I looked up at him and said "Can you believe that this is your daughter?! We will one day watch her graduate from high school, you will walk her down the aisle, she is your daughter!" It really hasn't fully set in yet. That night we layed in bed talking about how different this is from the births of our other 3 children, yet how similar. We video taped the referral phone call just as we did all three kids births. We are preparing our home for her just as we did with the other 3 kids. Yet, it is so different. I haven't carried her in my womb for 9 months, I don't know the smell of her sweet skin, I don't know how she feels in my arms, yet she is our daughter! Luke told me that now I know how he felt when I was pregnant with the kids....that connection becomes more of a reality the second we meet her face to face in person. Until then, there is so much love building in our hearts, and while we are "trying" to love loosely because she is not yet officially ours, that's just plain impossible. Just when it starts to seem that this will be more than my heart can bear, this song pops into my head.....

I'm sure most of you have seen this amazing video circulating by Third Day. Part of the message of "Children of God" really set in for me the year we dedicated Kai to the Lord. I really struggled with it- I didn't want to turn him over, he was MINE.  The more I studied about child dedication, the more it became clear to me that he is God's child, he has just given us the incredible responsibility to raise him here on earth.  Have you ever really thought about that? Then it goes a step further- John 1:12-13 says: But as many as received him, to them he gave the power to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. 13 which were born, not of blood nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  We are children of God & have been adopted through his Son! This has never felt more true than it does now....Kai, Aria, Becket & Tsehaynesh are all God's children.  So when I heard this song for the first time, tears flowed.  So turn it up and take it all in....."We are the saints, we are the children, we've been redeemed, we've been forgiven, we are the sons & daughters of God" I have a feeling that I'm going to need to remind myself of this daily for the next few months....or years(-:

The call that changed our lives forever.....

The call that we have waited over 8 months for! 

Our first family photo(-: Sorry, we had to blur your face out....we can't technically share your photo until you are legally a Nieuwenhuis! Oh, but will we have photos to share when we can.....

Dear Miss Tsehaynesh,
Yesterday we received the call that God had hand-picked YOU to be a part of our family. You were born on September 27th, 2010 and we've been wracking our brains ever since to try to remember what we were doing on that day. I can't even begin to explain the excitement and pure joy that we felt hearing about you and your amazing story for a half hr. and then seeing your precious face for the very first time! Our social worker stated that she has never referred a baby from Ethiopia with rolls, and boy do you have some rolls! If our conversion calculator is correct, you weigh approx. 15lbs and are 26inches long. Your big sister weighed that much when she was ONE. Ha! We're thrilled because its so obvious you have been very well taken care of. Praise God!! You are just beautiful. You have the biggest, brightest eyes, just like your brother Becket. You two actually look similar(-: You have the most kissable lips and we cannot wait to smooch them! After we sat there in tears for a few minutes, we snagged your new siblings from a neighbors house and brought them in for the surprise. We told them that we had some very good news and they were excited to hear about what we had to tell them. I brought them into the kitchen where we had your picture pulled up. We told them we wanted to introduce them to someone very special....they couldn't believe their eyes. They were finally looking at the baby sister they had been dreaming about for over a year! Kai just stared in awe, Aria had a BIG smile on her face as she closely pointed out every detail and Becket, he probably was the most ecstatic of all! He started jumping up and down and handed me his hands full of precious goods (turtle, lovie, blankie & paci) and says "Here Mama, me. give. things. to. baby. sisser"! Oh as if this Mama wasn't already in tears! Oh, Tsehaynesh, I'm just sitting here still in complete shock that God would choose US to be your earthly Mother & Father. We have prayed for you for so long and we absolutely can't wait to meet you soon and shower you with lots of love. We love you precious baby girl! You are always in our prayers. Hugs & Kisses, Mommy, Daddy, Kai, Aria & Becket.

8 months.....

Yesterday marked 8 months since our name was placed on the waiting list....we still have no word on our baby girl, but continue to receive encouraging updates. There is a lot going on in Ethiopia right now, which has not helped our case, but we're hopeful that the Lord has our daughter hand picked already and she's just waiting in the orphanage for us. Please pray with us that we'll receive our referral soon, so that we can bypass some of the "new practices" that are going into effect and pass court prior to Ethiopian courts closing for the rainy season(which is Aug & Sept). Here is a blurp from an email that I received recently from our agency:

"We have received word of about a dozen possible infant referrals coming our way. The paper work is just taking a long time to receive and we do not have the official documents to start referring families, but hopefully these will quickly come into our hands.

There is a light at the end of this tunnel and we are excited to see what this new month has in store for you and AAI."