8 Years

This Monday marked 8 years of marriage for Joshua and myself. I must say that when I said "I do," I had no idea of what I was getting myself into! Marriage has been the most stretching, character forming, defining, and rewarding thing that I have ever experienced. We have both learned so much about mutual honor and respect, serving and supporting each other, compromise (we're still working on that one!), and choosing to love. We were good friends before we fell in love and I can proudly say that 10 years after we first met, we are still best friends as well as lovers. There is no one I would rather spend my time with!

i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root of the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

ee cummings

So here to us! May the next 8 years be as wonderful as the last!

This is us soon after we started dating.

And this is us at our wedding a year and a half later. Don't we look like little kids?

Typhoon Ondoy and How You Can Help

On September 25, Typhoon Ondoy hit the Philippines, the country where I grew up and which I will always consider as my "home." When we were kids, we loved typhoons...it was always so much fun to run around in the rain and try to walk into wind that would literally blow you backwards. There is nothing like playing cards by candlelight or toasting marshmellows over the gas stove during a power outage. However, Onday was not the kind of typhoon that offered a bit of fun. As of October 9, 337 deaths have been reported and it caused landslides and record flooding (20 feet!!!!) in and around Manila.

My parents and other missionaires were caught in the middle of this and are now busy trying to offer aid to those around them. The streets are still underwater and people are using homemade rafts and boats to get around. As most filipino homes are only one story, hundreds of thousands of families (an estimated 15 million people) lost all of their food supplies and possessions. Local churches are struggling with the loss of all of their Bibles and libraries. Here are some pictures that my parents have sent over the last few weeks. Many of these scenes are from Cainta, where I spent my middle school and high school years. The damage is unbelievable!

Here is a recent email from my parents:

We are in the midst of what is being classified as the worst disaster Manila has ever seen and has covered more than 80% of the city, aside from the other extensive area... Last Saturday the flood and typhoon waters hit with a vengeance affecting nearly everyone here in one way or another. I know that many of you have seen the scenes on the news and all is true and even more. CNN and BBC seem to be reporting that 2 million people are affected which is so strange, given that Manila is a city of 20 mill and 80% is some 15 mill....+ the folks living south and north of the city. Imagine the million++ of vehicles that were caught in the deluge, abandoned, dragged, tumbled and smashed by the waves of water.....it is a HUGE car cleanup business now...inside and engines torn down, cleaned and reassembled for the 'fortunate' ones. ...the others discarded with no insurance as this falls in the 'act of God' clause.

The areas right around us are said to be some of the most affected. Fortunately, we are in some older townhouses built on the side of a hill so no flooding -- but our roof leaked, so the water came in thru 2 ceilings, causing such damp conditions in the crawl space that strange 'upside down' plants and mushrooms have been sprouting out of the cracks where the ceiling meets the walls.... Around the corner, a missionary's teenage son was home alone, when the nearby river became blocked with torn up trees and diverted to the road beside their house, sweeping huge chunks of wall and debris down the street while the original river swirled around the other side and knocked down their lower back wall..... Around the other corner from us, the same river, running some 15 feet higher than usual, burst over the main road, pushing down the perimeter wall of the golf course, taking a car with it and tore a huge swath thru the golf greens making a mini grand canyon of sorts, spreading all the squatter garbage over the area.

The waters reached over 3 meters high at street level in the nearby subdivision of Riverside and six feet deep inside those homes , located on what is considered to be higher ground! These waters were not just mud and sewerage but diesel and sump oil from a nearby business which has now covered everything...black goo on all the animals, plants, cars, walls.... Nearly every car in that subdivision was covered by over two feet of this 'water' and is beyond repair. Tenants were stranded in their 2nd floors for more than 48 hours, many bringing the squatters in, sharing what water and food they had rescued..

Our power was off for days, still no internet... We were so thankful to have water for awhile but as soon as the power came back on, the water stopped for the next few days! Today, we have both power & water but still no internet or phone.

How You Can Help:

1. Send donations. Find a Balikbayan shipping center near you (try http://www.manilaforwarder.com/ or do an Internet search for "balikbayan"). They will give you a big box with no weight limit that you can mail to the Philippines for $100. Items needed are clothes and blankets, sanitation and first aid kits, stuffed animals and toys, school supplies, books of all kinds, Bibles, and pretty much anything else you can think of.

2. Send a Balikbayan box that is already packed with food items for aid centers in and around the Metro Manila area at http://www.forexworld.com/.

3. Send money so that missionaries and relief workers can provide food and other basic necessities to those in need. You can send it through my parents (contact me at lydiarich@hotmail.com) or send it through the following aid agencies:The Philippine Consulate, UNICEF, World Food Program, and The Philippine Red Cross.

4. For other ways to help, visit http://www.google.com/landing/typhoon-ondoy.html.

An Update on our Darlings

I just realized that it has been a really long time since I have posted about daily life and the kids. Things have been so busy that I don't even know where to start! So for you grandmas out there and anyone else who is interested, here is what is happening with each of the kids:

Liam continues to exhaust us on a daily basis with his boundless energy and inquisitive mind...seriously, I don't know how kindergarten teachers keep up with multiple 5 year olds! He is turning five in two weeks and is eagerly anticipating his Indiana Jones Lego birthday party. It will be his first real party with actual friends as opposed to just family and he can't wait!

In the spring he was accepted into Global Village Academy, this awesome language-immersion charter school just up the road from us. We have not had the intention of putting our kids in school, but GVA teaches just the way I would and even uses the same curricula I would choose. They even serve all organic food! The only problem was that Liam's birthday fell a few weeks after the cut off date for Kindergarten here in Colorado and since GVA is publically funded, he was required to take an IQ test and score in the 97 percentile (basically genuis status) to be admitted early.

Well, I am proud to tell you that he scored VERY high and tested at the second grade level, but he did not quite hit the 97% mark. I was really disapointed that he couldn't take advantage of GVA, but in the meantime our plans for Africa have solidifed and we will be leaving CO soon, so it has all worked out for the best. In the meantime, we are working with him at home on math, reading, and critical thinking. We are using 1st grade materials and they seem to be just right for him now. Josh is also teaching him chess and we plan to get him involved in music and French. At this point, we are more concerned with developing his mental reasoning and processing than we are with actual content.

Yabeserra now proudly tells everyone that she is 2 1/2 and spends most of her time following Liam around and copying everything he says! He doesn't seem to mind since he is so happy to have someone to play with. She is learning her colors and shapes, how to count to 5, and how to do puzzles. It may not sound like much, but it is pretty challenging for her. Since her vision was so impaired during her first 2 years, it is taking her longer to figure out her colors and how things go together. She loves to color and dance. I am looking forward to next year when we can put her in a dance class! At her check up last week, she weighed in at 10% and her height is 50%...it is really amazing since she wasn't on the charts at all a year ago! I would say that she is about 80% potty trained. Everyone says that girls are easier but she has taken much longer than Liam did, mainly because she could care less! It has taken a great deal of mini marshmellows to get this far!

I am afraid that Melekamu will always be refered to as the baby, but already he isn't happy about that! He is busy, busy, busy all the time working hard to keep up with his sister and brother. He is still small, at 10% for weight and height. After we gave up on him ever talking, a month ago he finally decided to branch out beyond his two words (bye-bye and eat) and is now learning multiple new words every day! He is up to two word phrases, his first being "I stinky"! I must say that I am a little disgruntled that he will freely say "love you, dada" but will only say "love you, mama" if Josh instructs him to! He certainly loves his Daddy! He has discovered trucks and balls and has fallen in love. You will rarely see him without a ball in his hand and if he drops it while we are in the car, he will scream his head off until someone picks it up for him! The joys of an 18-month old!

So that is what is happening with the kids. I will try to post some recent pictures next time I walk past the desktop in the basement!

The Frehiwot Wondye Memorial Run

Children's Heaven of Ethiopia is a wonderful organization. We are sponsoring some of the girls who are in the race and hope that you will do the same! Let's overwhelm these girls with support and show them that they can in fact make a difference!

THE FREHIWOT WONDYE MEMORIAL RUN
PLEASE SUPPORT 65 OF OUR GIRLS WHO WILL RUN 10 KM TO RAISE FUNDS FOR OUR PROGRAMME

Dear Friend of Children's Heaven,
I am writing to tell you about a special initiative that we're launching to remember a very special girl and raise much needed funds for Children's Heaven.
In June, one of our girls took her own life after an argument with her mom. Frehiwot Wondye's death shocked us all, especially the other girls, her “sisters” at Children's Heaven.
We wanted to do something positive in Frehiwot's memory and asked our girls if they would like to run in the Great Ethiopian Run. We expected about 20 to participate – to our surprise and delight, 65 girls have said yes!
So we've launched the 'Frehiwot Memorial Run' which is part of the Great Ethiopian Run, a 10km race through the streets of Addis Ababa on November 22nd.
This run is a way for the girls to mourn together and pull together during this challenging time.
Over 75% of the girls in our program are hoping to participate and would love your sponsorship as they take up this heart-healing and physically challenging endeavor.
$20 can sponsor one girl for the run and you can sponsor as many as you can. To sponsor securely online and to learn more about Children's Heaven of Ethiopia, go to http://www.childrensheaven.org/frehiwotondeemorialun4.html. Please, please be generous. It would be a very fitting tribute to Frehiwot if we raise enough money to help many more girls who are living in poverty in Addis Ababa.

I thank you in anticipation for your kind and generous support.
Yours sincerely,
Hanna Fanta

Where We're At and Where We're Headed

It was almost exactly four years ago that we left Mongolia and moved to Colorado so that Josh could begin his counseling graduate studies at Denver Seminary. In that time, he managed to graduate with honors (which is no small feat when you have a small overactive child and a working wife!), we bought our first home, I have established a great career that I can take with me wherever we go, and we added two more babies to our family through Ethiopian adoption. I often catch myself thinking about how much time we have "wasted" here while we were waiting for God to reveal the next step He has planned for us, I have to remind myself of all that we have accomplished. There has to be some reason that I can barely stay awake after 9pm!

After the 2 years we spent in Mongolia, we have known that we would be heading back overseas but we had not idea how, where, and for how long. When we started researching adoption last spring, God led us to Ethiopia, which was suprising. Africa had never really entered our thought of our future plans...in fact, although my grandparents had been medical missionaries in West Africa and my father was born and raised there, I had no real desire to ever visit. I am embarressed to say that I knew nothing about current events on that continent. Like most other Americans, I found the suffering so overwhelming that I turned away and instead sought more "managable" needs in other parts of the world. Drought, famine, starvation, HIV/AIDS, genocide, and civil unrest are not pleasant topics, especially at the magnitude seen in Africa.

But on August 21, 2008, we stepped off a plane in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and hours later, two little African darlings had stolen our hearts forever. We quickly discovered that Africa as a whole had also taken root in our hearts. We saw that taking on the responsibility of an African child meant taking on responsibility for their heritage, culture, and continent. By signing those papers, we were committing to a life that would always be connected to Africa, to its beauty and awesome majesty, to its sorrow and suffering, and to its struggles for peace and economic stability.

In March of this year after much thought and prayer, we decided that God was calling us to move to Africa full time. We started researching NGOs and mission agencies, trying to figure out where our training and experience best fit with the current needs. We narrowed our choices down to a few very promising possibilities, but it wasn't until we discovered Mercy Ships (http://www.mercyships.org/) that we instantly knew it was the organization for us. Mercy Ships operates The Africa Mercy, the largest non-governmental hospital ship in the world. They dock in different ports around the African coast (they typicall stay in a country for about 1 year) and provide free medical care to all who need it. The ship houses up to 450 volunteers and includes a state-of-art hospital, with an ICU and OR. They operate dental and outpatient clinics off the ship and are involved with mental health, medical, and agricultural trainings in the community. Since they only stay in a country for 6-12 months, they are 100% focused on training and mobilizing the local medical professionsals and the church so that they can continue to offer these services after the ship has moved on.

The Africa Mercy is in need of a Mental Health Local Church Educator, so in August we applied and indicated that we were willing to join the ship as soon as they needed us (provided that we had enough time to raise our financial support). We waited a long time for a response (the majority of the ship's crew is short term volunteers, so their HR department processes over 1,000 applications a year), but were eventually told that while they wanted us to join them, there was no current family housing available. The ship only has 25 family cabins and the mental health team is only alloted one of those cabins, which is currently occupied.

We were very disapointed, since we were 100% convinced that God had called us to this ministry. After a few days of more prayer and deliberation, we realized that God was still calling us to join the Africa Mercy, but in His time, not ours! So we are stepping out in faith and beginning the required training and raising our support so that we will be ready to go when housing become available.

We had a humongous yard sale last Friday and made almost $1,000 in about 6 hours! It was pretty amazing, since it is so late in the year. And as of yesterday, our house is officially for sale (check it out here). We are praying that it will sell fast! The longest a house has been on the market in our neighborhood over the last 4 months has been 21 days! It is awful trying to keep the house spotless with three grubby little kids!

As soon as the house sells, we will be moving the rest of stuff to New York, close to Josh's family, where we will stay until we are ready to join the ship. We plan on heading to Texas for the first part of the Mercy Ship training in January and then Josh will probably join the mental health team in Togo for a few weeks at some point in the spring. We will likely finish the training next summer and then hopefully we won't have much longer to wait! We are stepping out in faith, knowing that God provides for those He has called and that He is faithful!

Your prayers and support would mean so much to us as we begin this new journey with our three little kiddos in tow. We are full of anticipation and excitement but are also more than a little terrified! You can follow along with us on this blog...we will provide more details as we know them!

For more information about Mercy Ships, visit www.mercyships.org. There you can watch videos and read articles on their recent work in Benin. In 2010, they will be working in Togo and South Africa.

Fly Away Children

Last night I watched this short video on unethical/illegal adoptions in Ethiopia. It was sobering, to say the least, and caused Josh and I to think back over our adoption experience and the information we were given very carefully. Thankfully, our children don't fall into the category of being falsely "advertised" or taken from mothers who wanted them and would have kept them with a little financial assistance (such as job training, school fees, etc.). It is heartbreaking to see how much harm can be done by people/organizations who aren't truly focused on the good of the children.

I think the message of this video goes beyond choosing an agency carefully. While that is incredibly important, it is also important to think long and hard about why you are adopting what type of child you want to bring home (truly orphaned, abandoned, and/or relinquished and why). Adoption is not simply about providing a home for a child in need...its ramifications go far beyond that one child and have a lasting effect on his/her community and country.

If you are considering adoption or are in the process, WATCH THIS!

http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/

(Select "Fly Away Children" from the menu on the right.)

Going Back Home...An Adopted Boy Returns To Ethiopia

I saw this post (read it here) on another adoptive mom's blog and I thought that it was such a beautiful and touching story. How wonderful that a boy adopted from Ethiopia would have a desire to return and minister to other orphans. I pray that my children will share this same desire to impact their birth country when they are older.