Fikre. He stole my daughter, Josie's heart - so much that her love for him hadn't died down by the time we had been home a month. She wrote a letter to put in his file so that when potential families requested his information they would know how special she thought he was. Now we have been home three months and the flame is burning even stronger for this child when I thought it would have extinguished out by now. Here is my sweet girl begging for this real person's life- a boy that has woven his way into our family. Inside I am crazy (ok not just inside but outside as well). I am deep in the adjustment period of adding our fifth child to our home with a two-year-old that wasn't so sure that he wanted this new addition, and my daughter is begging for us to go back to Ethiopia and get this sweet boy. My first thought to her was, "Are you freaking kidding me???? You live in this house...don't you? And you want to add to this mass craziness!!!" I didn't say what my flesh was feeling and was careful not to break my daughter's spirit, but I agreed to asking for his file and promising to really pray about it. This seemed to help for a while, then Josie asked what if God didn't answer her prayer. We had the discussion about whether she praying for the home she wanted him to have or for God's home. She had to work on that one- she wanted God to want our home for him. God sees the big picture- I was telling her how much daddy and I wanted the six babies we had miscarried but God didn't answer that way. If He did, we wouldn't have Caleb, Josie or Rylie, and I can't imagine our lives without them.Erica at WHFC was my lifeline during our two adoptions and for Cruz's adoption, we got to take her to Africa with us for moral support and her amazing photography skills. While we were there Rylie and Josie fell in love with her. A few weeks ago she came for a week to visit and she helped Josie formulate a plan on how to raise money for this child's adoption. So whoever looks at his file can see that someone was helping financially with his adoption. He is considered a special needs baby, but not enough to qualify for a grant. So this was a great project for Jos to do while we waited on GOD! We printed out pictures of him and she and Erica made fliers to put on baby bottles we bought for people to put their spare change in. This operation was in full swing but on the inside there was a war going on in me. My heart was screaming one thing and my head another while I was crying out to God, "Why have you put this little guy in our hearts?" And "Am I missing what you are trying to tell me?!!!" Later that day while the fliers were being, made Erica got a call... God answered our prayers "Little E" was picked by his forever family. Josie went up to her room and cried "happy tears" for Little E and I'm sure a few sad ones for herself. After this experience I truly saw her seeds starting to sprout.
