This is a video from the Together for Adoption Conference in Phoenix this weekend about our adoption of Jude Surafel and Liam Esrael. Special thanks to Brett Arndt and the creative team at The Journey for all your hard work on it.

This 4th of July was unlike any I have ever had and may ever have! It was incredible! Because this 4th of July we flew to Ethiopia to bring home our sons who have been waiting for their family for 2 years now!

On Tuesday morning, we got up, ate a quick breakfast paired with the world’s greatest coffee, then got in a Toyota van and drove to pick up our sons from the care center where they have been staying since they came to Addis 8 months ago.

As we walked up, our boys both screamed, “MommyDaddy!!” and jumped into our arms. They promptly escorted us to their room to show us they were all packed up and ready to go! We stayed to play for a bit and shared traditional Ethiopian coffee with the nannies as we gave them each a gift card, chocolates and roses that we had gotten for them.

Our boys shared one nanny named Werkalesh, who was more like a caring foster mom to them. She loved them dearly and took great care of them. As we got in the car, she began to cry as she kissed their cheeks over and over. Then she handed them a glamor shot of herself and said to them in Amharic, “Don’t forget me!” We were all so moved!

As we began driving away our driver asked, “Guest house?” but before we could reply, the boys excitedly yelled, “NO! AMERICA!!!” and we all laughed so hard. “Soon boys…soon!”

That night back at the guest house, we had pizza and gave the boys a bubble bath. At first it was scary for them and they were very apprehensive to get in. I suppose they’d never had a bath before. But once they got in, they had a blast. It’s amazing how a bubble bath is a water park to an orphan. But they’re not orphans anymore. They’re ours!

The next day, we went to the embassy to tie up all the loose ends of getting their visas and passports and making everything official from the American end. Our boys strutted in like they owned the place, with the biggest grins on their faces. I think they thought we were at the airport leaving for home. But there was no airplane… just a slide set up in the waiting area, which they wore out.

As we were being interviewed, we found out that our boys’ birth mom was a prostitute and they have different birth dads, though neither have met them. 2 years ago, Surafel had begun begging on the streets just so he could eat and she knew that wasn’t the life she wanted for her sons, so she gave them up to be adopted.

Prostitution is so common here because for many women, they are asked by their parents from a very young age to sell themselves so their families can have food. It is a choice of whether or not you eat, so for many the choice is already made. Even still, I can’t imagine it is an easy choice to carry out.

I was trying to picture what life must have been for our boys’ birth mom… how she must have felt… what her situation must be like… To have to choose to give up your sons so that they could live long enough to have families of their own. These thoughts were all going through my head, when on the way home, we met a 13 year old mom named Atist and her 1 year old son. They were begging on the streets and I couldn’t help but think that her story was not too different from our boys’ birth mom’s, and consequently, our boys. What if someone had helped her 2 years ago?

We asked her and her son to eat with us… whatever her heart desired, she could order, and a cheeseburger, fries and orange juice did just the trick. As we sat and talked with her, we found out that she had no groceries to feed her son, so we walked to the grocery story with her and bought her a cart full of groceries to share the love of Christ with her.

Just as we said goodbye to Atist, it began raining like crazy. It rains every day this time of year in Ethiopia, as it’s their winter rainy season here now. It’s been in the 50s and 60s all week, which is a nice break from the heat of St. Louis.

We got back to the guest house, cold and soaked, and put the kiddos in a bubble bath again. They had the time of their lives once again, this time lathering up soap beards and white heads of hair! When we got them out, it was a bit chilly in the room and they were shivering. What a perfect time to introduce them to a hair dryer. They were a bit startled at first, and must have thought it was a weapon or something, but as soon as they felt the warm air on their cold skin, grins the size of Texas spread across their little faces and they spent the next 30 minutes sitting under the warm air of the hair dryer.

They love brushing their teeth, which is a huge surprise. We got them each their own toothbrush and I think they are more excited about those than anything else. About 5 times a day, they just get these cheesy smiles on their faces, walk into the restroom, grab their brushes and start brushing away.

It’s also quite surprising and impressive that they are both completely potty trained. Even barely-3-year-old Esrael simply says “toilet,” then walks into the restroom and does his business! Obviously Amanda and I are pretty happy about that!

All of this has occurred between games of “Mommy! Daddy!” which is similar to Marco Polo, plus lots of cuddling, cheek-kissing, saying “I love you” and taking tons of pictures. Of course most of the pictures are being taken by Surafel. He loves it, but has no clue what he’s doing, so last night after they were asleep, we had to delete 436 pictures of Surafel’s finger off of Amanda’s phone. Hilarious!

Today we are headed to the zoo and are going to make more of the memories they have been denied for the past 2 years. Tomorrow we fly home. These are our sons and we could not love them more if they were from our own flesh.

Adoption Was (for God) and Is (for Us) Seriously Planned.
From Reclaiming Adoption

“He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:46

Adoption was not Plan B in God’s mind. There was no Plan A with lots of children who never sin and never need to be redeemed. God predestined us for adoption before the creation of the world. Plan A was creation, fall, redemption, adoption so that the full range of God’s glory and mercy and grace could be known by his adopted children. Adoption was not second best. It was planned from the beginning.

In our lives, there is something uniquely precious about having children by birth. That is a good plan. There is also something different, but also uniquely precious, about adopting children. Each has its own uniqueness. Your choice to adopt children may be sequentially second. But it does not have to be secondary. It can be as precious and significant as having children by birth. God is able to make adoption an A+ plan in our lives.