God wants to cuddle with me.

Sitota is not the greatest at cuddling. Actually, she hardly ever comes in for the “tuck”. You know, “the tuck”? When a baby just puts their sweet little head right in the crook of your neck. It feels so good. Just being together. I want her to trust me. To come to me for comfort. To come to me for the sheer joy of just being together. Tonight I tried really hard. I have read in books and I spoke to another adoptive parent here at the GH about the benefits of skin to skin time to encourage bonding. I thought I would try it.  The evenings are cool here and the window was open so it was a bit cool in our room. I stripped her down to her diaper. No matter how I tried she just kept her head up, looking around. “What’s that noise? What’s that flickering light? Who’s out there?” Her head kept swinging from one distraction to another. Finally, in desperation I shut the door and turned off the light and stood in the corner where it was the darkest and the fewest distractions. I began to pray and gently guide her head down to cuddle with me. Then it hit me! “God, you want to cuddle with me don’t you? How many distractions do you have to remove for me to turn to you for comfort and joy? Don’t I know how good it feels to rest my head on you? Have I never learned to rest in you? Am I this busy? Do I constantly look around at ever flickering light?
Maybe God wanted to teach me this lesson through my pursuit of Sitota’s cuddles. Maybe even in this I have a lesson to learn. In fact, I’m sure I do. My prayer has now changed. “Lord, help me to cuddle with you, to come to you for comfort and not to all the flickering lights that are constantly vying for my attention. Also, Lord, may Sitota cuddle with me and every time she does may I be reminded of my need for you and how good it feels when I turn to you.”

March 23, 2011 (Trisha’s Journal Entry)

Sitota is sleeping. I still struggle with the name change. I know it will get better. It just seems weird to call her something other than Sitina. God is good. I am thankful for his leading. How personal He is. I really appreciate the meaning of the name. 

Pause...time to pray. I need to seek the Lord. My heart is heavy.

~ As I pour my heart out to God I am reminded of the prayer I have often prayed, “Lord, help me to see her as you see her. Help me to love her as you love her”. Suddenly I realize that God loves her more than I do. He has entrusted her to our family. She is truly a gift from God. How fitting. Sitota means “gift”. The Lord has guided us to a name that will forever remind us that she is a gift from Him. Not something we made happen but something He has orchestrated. Praise the Lord!

“Our God, from your sacred home you take care of orphans and protect widows. You find families for those who are lonely.” Psalm 68:5-6a

About 1 hour after writing the above portion of this entry Wesley shares something with me that was in his English segment for home schooling. It reads:

When we say “A rose by any other name will smell as sweet”, we are saying that something will still be the same even if we give them a different name.

WOW!!!

God leads and confirms His will for our lives through prayer, reading Hid word, circumstances and council from others. The story that Wesley shared is certainly an example of confirmation through circumstances! Confirmation for both him and us!

JEHOVAH-RAAH- The Lord Leads

Yesterday was a great day spent meeting our Compassion Canada child. During our time with our guide we shared with him our new daughter’s name, Sitina. We have mentioned to several people in passing but not many people know it although our close circle is mainly Christian.  During the visit we asked him if he was familiar with the name. We chose the name Sitina because it was Ethiopian and we really liked the meaning; to be united by love. Our guide shared it with the compound worker as well and they informed us the name Sitina is only used my Muslims in Ethiopia. We had no idea... He actually asked us if the name is permanent or if we could change it... What??? Change her name??? Are you serious???  We then sent him on a mission to find out if the name was indeed only used my Muslims. After several candid interviews with random muslim people on the street we came to the conclusion that SItina is in fact a muslim name in Ethiopia. Obviously we knew nothing about this prior to today. Gary and I were sick. We knew her as Sitina since our referral. To change her name now seemed unbelievable. We just couldn’t imagine. While spending the day with our guide we considered many different Ethiopian girl names. You may ask, “why does it even matter?” There are several reasons:

1. We choose an Ethiopian name to honor our daughter’s heritage. 
2. Her birth mother is Protestant.
3. We are obviously Protestant.
4. Even though in Canada it may not matter, in Ethiopia, it does.
5. For us, we never know where the Lord may lead and we don’t want our daughter to have a muslim name and come from a Christian family. 
6. Because God cares about her name.

We considered many names and their meanings. Gary asked our guide if there was a name that sounded like Sitina. He suggested Sitota. That sounded nice... it means “gift”. How appropriate. We have said many times she is gift from God for our family. This might be it... So we went home with our heads hung low. We could not believe we were actually considering changing her name. I talked to my mother about the possibility which was a further confirmation. We talked to the GH family and they were so happy that we were considering changing her name to Sitota. “That is a good name they said, a very good name”. We went to bed last night with almost full intentions to change her name to Sitota. We woke this morning with a different attitude. She is Sitina to us... how could we change her name? God knows we didn’t choose a Muslim name on purpose. He understands... We were trying to rationalize it. 

I went down to do some laundry and Gary stayed up with the baby. His heart was so heavy. He took her in his arms, laid down on the bed with her and placed his hands on her to pray for the Lord’s leading. “God would you please direct? Does it really matter? Help us to know.”  After praying he took his Bible to read. He turned first to Ephesians. That wasn’t where he felt led to read. His Bible reading plan was set for 2 Samuel but he decided to go and read  where he typically does when he doesn’t have a particular place in mind. What day was this? The 22nd. He turned to Proverbs 22 because is was the 22nd day of the month. Verse one reads “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches”. WHAT??? Yes. That’s right. God cares about her name. Gary shared with me what he had read with tears in his eyes. How personal our Lord is. He cares about our daughter’s name. At that moment, full of thankfulness we unanimously choose the name Sitota for our sweet precious baby. We honestly feel that the Lord chose her name. We never heard of it before yesterday. Our guide suggested it to us. Our guesthouse family confirmed it was a “good name” and our Lord made the decision. ALL PRAISE AND GLORY TO GOD!

Compassion Canada

PIck-up was at 9:00am. The drive to the compound was pretty uneventful.  Compassion Canada works with local churches to support about 85,000 children in Ethiopia. That number is just staggering.  We pull up to the gate and the driver beeps. This is normal here. It lets the people know that someone is there. They open the gate and we drive in. They introduce the staff for Compassion and we sit in a tiny room and wait. Then all of a sudden, Meron, our sweet tiny sponsor child comes in to greet us. She is very small for 8 years old. We
recognized her right away from her photos. I see a woman standing outside the door. I ask who she is... She is Meron’s mother along with her two younger brothers. They are 4 and 10 months. What sweet little children. Right away I felt a connection with her mother. We arranged to visit her home but before we went we knew we wanted to purchase some items for the family to help out. Our guide and Meron’s worker
came with us to assist in our purchases. For under $100 CAN we were able to bless this family greatly by the grace of God. Many spices, teff flour to make ingera, lentils, soap, oil, bathing items and so on. This was enough for at least 2-3 months. The mother was overjoyed. We made sure to tell her that it is not us who blesses, but God through us. She was so thankful. She served us coffee (some of the best in Ethiopia BTW) and some fresh popped popcorn. This is customary for an Ethiopian coffee ceremony. She very kindly gave us some pictures as a gift of Meron’s kindergarten graduation and a family photo. She also made sure to show us a collection of photos that we have sent to Meron over the years . The stuff we do send really makes it here! Her home was only about 6’ x 14’. This consisted of a bed which the mother shared with three children and some floor space. There were no windows and in order to access the home you had to walk through a lounge type area. The outdoor area was about the same size as the home but it was shared with two other houses. Unbelievable! The home is a mud house with one light bulb and no windows. The rent per months is 15 Birr/ .90 cents. Yes .90 cents. Oh! How we complain. How unthankful we are! How we want this and that and never are satisfied with the Lord’s blessings! May I be more thankful. May I find reason to praise the Lord if I live in a shelter that size. What is wrong with me when I become discontent??? Shame on me...

 Lounge / Local bar that leads to Meron's house.

Our guide for the day ... a previous Compassion Canada child.

I am your sister... The story of our second court date and meeting Sitina's birth mom.

Our second court date was on March 3rd. We passed! What a relief. We sat outside the court house with bated breath waiting and watching for our representative to come and share with us the news. As she approached the van we realized that SItina’s birth mother was there. Quickly we got out to greet them. Right away our representative hugged Gary and told him that it is over. We are approved. I was thankful for that because then we could just enjoy the visit that followed without wondering whether or not we passed. We were then introduced to the orphanage director that Sitina lived in and finally to her birth mother...

Sitina’s story is hers. Not mine. I have no intentions to share her personal history. That is for her to tell whom she will chose when she is older. I understand people are curious about her history but I am sure you can understand how sensitive this is. 

I would like to share my point of view with regard to meeting her birth mother. To some it up, it was an answer to prayer. She shared with us many important pieces of information with regard to Sitina’s tribal background, exact place of birth and things that she would like Sitina to know about her. We also found out that her mother is a believer! She asked us to pray for her and her situation. I assured her that not only will we be praying for her in detail but we will also teach Sitina Woyneshet to pray for her as well.  Sitina’s birth mother was very happy to know that Gary is a pastor. You should have seen her smile! 

My impression of Amerech (which means beautiful) was; she is radiant, when she smiles you can’t help but smile. She is beautiful. She is soft spoken. She is young. She is thankful. She is a hard worker. She has had a hard life. She needs prayer. I love her. 

Words cannot describe how I felt when she told me “you are my sister”. When she passed the blessing of being Sitina’s mother to me. I kissed her, on the forehead and  on the hand and we embraced many times. Gary and I had the privilege of praying for her. The translator started to interpret but we asked him to just let us pray. So there were, on the side of the road in Addis Ababa, with our hands laid on Amerech and pleading with God for this sweet woman. It was an experience like none other and one we will never forget. All thanks and glory to God for this blessed meeting.

No, I’m not dreaming (March 14th)

Last night was one of those nights that you only seem to read about or dream about. Gary and I got the kids tucked in bed and decided to watch a movie that someone had had rented here at the GH.  Caleb had been complaining of a belly ache so we got him suited up with a ziplock bag just in case he had to puke. BTW, zip locks are now an item we don’t leave home without while in Ethiopia. You can store almost anything in them and they make excellent barf bags. Just zip and chuck! 

Gary and I spend almost every waking hour together but we don’t seem to get quality time for the two of us. Now I know that watching a movie isn’t really great quality time but it was a treat for us none the less. 

While watching, Wesley came down the stairs and declared that he had puked all over Caleb (they share a bed). “Wesley, you mean Caleb puked on you?”. “No, mom, I puked all over Caleb”. Great... I get up to go upstairs and assess the situation and snap, just like that, the power goes out. One thing you should know about living in Addis, the power goes out quite regularly and randomly. So I make my way to the third floor and stumble to find the flash light (thankfully it was in it’s place). Just as he said, Caleb was COVERED in puke. With flashlight in mouth, Gary took Caleb’s hands and I took his feet and we transported him, still sleeping, to the washroom the clean him up before he awoke and realized what the heck was going on. 

Needless to say, washing laundry by hand on a good day is tuff, but washing puke covered blankets by hand in the tub is no easy task especially by flashlight. 

After the whole ordeal the lights came back on and we went back to watching our movie... we actually got quite a laugh about the whole ordeal and for the record both Wesley and Caleb are doing well today. Thanks to God.

March 9th, 2011/ Trisha's Journal Entry

It’s three weeks today since we took custody of Sitina. She has grown so much. She is so talkative and playful. Da, da, da is common. Ma ma ma is only once in a while although I am working on it. Sitina can manage to push herself to a toy but she is not up on all 4’s yet. We can tell she has a sense of humor. She loves to make a goofy toothless grins and watch us all laugh at her. 

Last night we boiled some water with our kettle and mixed a chicken noodle soup package with two Mr. Noodle type packages for supper. It was very good. Interesting how something so simple can be such a treat here. We picked up three loaves of braided bread at the local bakery for 6 Birr/ .18 cents to have with the soup. We also ordered salad from the GH. Delicious! The salad is so good.  So fresh. The red onions are super sweet here- totally different from home.  The green peppers are so hot! I really think they are some sort of hot pepper although they call them Ethiopian green peppers. Anyway, I really hope we can remain healthy regardless of eating the fresh veggies because the books say “cook it, peel it or forget it”. I’m not daring enough to order salad at any random restaurant but here at the GH they know we are scared to be sick from it so I’m sure they take good care with washing.

Home schooling is going better with the kids. Gary is an amazing teacher! He is really making sure Wesley & Chloe understand basic concepts they seem to have missed along the way. Today Gary mentioned to me that Wesley was encouraged with how he is coming along in math. Wonderful!

Last night Tigist braided my hair. She is one of the girls that lives here. I think she is a relative to the owner somehow. It makes sense to have your hair braided. The woman work so hard. They have so time for fussing with their hair. Yesterday I watched as one of the girls ground salt with a pestle and mortar. It took her a very long time. Grind, then sift out the larger pieces. Grind again. Sift, grind, sift, grind. Unreal...

Liga School

One of the things we had an opportunity to do since we have been in Ethiopia was to connect with CHOIR (Canadian Humanitarian Organization for International Relief). There are many projects that they are involved in. One of them is Liga school. We had the chance to tag along while they delivered 136 pairs of shoes to preschool children. We were glad for those of you that donated shoes. We brought them along with us. Wesley and Chloe were very helpful with the kids. It was a neat dynamic to see them interacting with the children. I was surprised that I didn’t feel sad being there. I really felt that the kids had hope with attending school, receiving a daily meal and bonuses like newly needed shoes being provided. It was encouraging compared to some of the seemingly hopeless situations we have seen while being in Ethiopia. Most of all, these kids need Jesus. As you look at the pictures may you be prompted to pray for them and their families; for daily provision and eternal salvation.

Meeting Sitina

As I sit here and ponder all that has happened in the last days and weeks I begin to panic! There are so many stories to tell. I don’t want to forget any of it. I have been slack keeping notes daily and now I find myself scurrying to remember...

Court date #1:

The night before we were busy planning and packing all that we needed to take with us the next day. We were excited to have the opportunity to finally pack a baby bag for Sitina. We picked out what she would wear if we passed court and were able to take her home the next day. I was scared to get my hopes up. If we didn’t pass and we were only able to visit her and not take her home I would be so disappointed. It would still be amazing to meet her but I could only imagine how hard it would be to leave her in the care home after being united. 

I hardly slept the night before. I was glad to finally get up and get the day going. The driver picked us up at 7:30 am and we picked up 2 other families that had court on the 16th as well. We arrived at the court house at about 8:30 am and climbed to the 3 or 4th floor to a large room with many waiting families. I scanned the room...was her birth mom there? Would I recognize her from the small photo I had of her? As we sat and waited I was informed that the birth mom was not there. The other two families did have the birth mother present. We were disappointed. We knew we would not pass court without her there. Our names were called. We followed our rep to the court room along with the three other families. The female judge asked us a series of 4-5 questions. All of which were answered with yes/no answers. It was over in about 5 minutes and then we left wondering what was next... 

As we suspected did not pass. The woman’s affairs did not give their comment on our case and the birth mom was absent. Disappointment. Two weeks from today we would have another hearing. They would try to find Sitina’s mom and MOWO was required to give their comment with regard to our case. 

Even though we didn’t pass that day we received a major blessing on the 16th of February. We were allowed to take custody! I have never heard of this happening before although we are one of the first families from or agency to stay between court and visa. We never even considered that we would be able to take her into our care if we didn’t pass. AMAZING! Thanks to God. 

After the hearing we took a taxi with an agency rep to the care home to meet our daughter. It was so serial. The first picture is of us standing outside the care home about to go in.

We waited inside a large room for them to bring her down. Finally they brought her in and we could see her face to face. First impressions; she is so small, she has hair, she is SO cute. I can here her breathing. She is certainly sick. We were notified that they had to take her to the hospital only a couple days before. Finally we get to hold her. She is so light. Her eyes are so big. She is so beautiful.

These are our first pictures of us being together as a family. 

Here are a couple photos of us leaving the care home.  After 3 years, 4 months of being in this process I could hardly believe that this day was happening...