On July 1st, 2009 we finally passed court in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to bring home Mirak Olivia and Mistire Hope Murphy! What an incredible year it has been! I remember the day we passed court.....we just jumped and cheered, screamed and then started hyper-ventilating! Oh my, this was it.......they were REALLY ours!!! After all the prayer, all the heartache and tears....it was finally going to happen. Then we went about making preparations to travel. We didn't have near the wait or problems that some adoptions had but considering all of our years of infertility and secondary infertility, we were SO happy to have this part of our journey coming to an end!
We have seen them change SO much. Everything has grown! Their height, hair, several clothing sizes, shoe sizes, and them some things that are unseen but heard like language, dialect and their desire to know more about Jesus. About two months after they were here in America, I heard Misrak speaking to Misti in the backseat of our car. She just kept talking and talking to her in Amharic..... and by her tone, I could tell she was asking Misti questions......and Misti was NOT responding. She had lost her language and I was sad. Misrak kept speaking it for another few months but by six months or so, I didn't hear any more. As a matter of fact, there is a boy (13 years old) that is in her school that is fluent in Amharic and kept trying to talk to her but she admitted one day that she didn't think she even WANTED to speak it anymore! Ugh, I had hoped it wouldn't happen.
Enjoy these shots of the days before we knew them!
I can't believe it's been a year!
Too much to cover!
Well, blogging has been last on my list these days. I'll have a few minutes to work on it and realize, there is WAY TOO MUCH to cover in the amount of time I have, so I give up before I start.
Summer is here and the days of sleeping in and staying up late are upon us - BIG smile :) Riley did great in his first year of middle school with a 3.47 GPA and is now, unbelievably.......a 7th grader!! How did I get this old? Seriously, I am SO proud to be his Mom, even if he is officially now too old to hold my hand in public. He decided to give up swimming this summer in order to work on his new favorite sport, Lacrosse! Which he is quite good at I might add. After we signed him up I realized it was a full contact sport. DUH! Thankfully, the contact is not quite as brutal as football. Maybe it will be good for some of his pre-teen angst!
Misrak also did excellent in her first year of school here in America. She really did great especially for someone who began the year not knowing a lick of English! She loves math and is really good at it and her love for reading is growing now that her comprehension is growing. We recently instituted a "chore chart" and her reaction was "FINALLY! Now I know what I'm supposed to do!" She is such a worker bee! Little does she know that due to her reaction, she will be getting a much bigger list in the very near future! ;)
Misti....Oh, Misti! We cannot go anywhere without someone commenting on HOW adorable she is. And boy is she working it! She finished up 3 year old preschool with a bang and already misses her teachers and classmates whom she prays for every night to have a good summer. She truly has all of us wrapped around her little finger.
Here are some pics of our recent family outings! Strawberry Picking, Chimney Rock, Riley and Dad Backpacking in Mt Rogers, The Zoo with Grandma and Easter!! 
Chapel rocked!
Recently, Misrak's class performed for her school's chapel service which is held once a month. The kids really look forward to chapel because it is geared special towards them! There were rehearsals and special music to be learned. Each of them even had lines to learn. Misrak's line was "Jesus wants YOU to go fishing for people, too!"
When I thought of Misrak getting up on stage and performing in front of hundreds of people, I didn't even blink an eye because I knew she was born to perform! She prayed (SO CUTE) intensely every night before the big performance that she (and her class) would not be scared and really sing good for God. All went great, everyone remembered their lines and at the very end, the principal asked Misrak to read John 3:16 and 17. She was very proud and felt honored to be chosen for this! Her family was very, very proud of her, too!
Before and After :D
So we've had major dental surgery in our house. Misti was an absolute trooper! She went under general anesthesia for a 2 hour process to remove 5 teeth (2 of them were abscessed) get 4 crowns, 3 replacements and 3 fillings....whew! Poor thing. She really did great though and loved the popsicles afterwards. Check her out, man her smile is so pretty now!
Sledding!! and snow, snOW, SNOW!!
It's been a Winter wonderland for a change here in Charlotte! Nothing like snow in the south! The girls thought it was pretty and loved the IDEA of playing in it buttttttt enjoyed being in it for about 20 minutes. ha!
Birshday Celebration!
A first American "Birshday" celebration was had on January 13th for Misrak Olivia who was turning 7! The girls say "birshday" and so, it has kinda stuck. We had yummy Ethiopian food the night before the big day. Misrak was concerned as to WHEN we would celebrate her birshday. She had seen many children celebrate their birshday at school with cupcakes. (What she didn't know was that those same children probably had a family or family and friends celebration also.) She really wanted to celebrate with her family. She thought it was EITHER OR! She was quite pleased to hear we could do both! So, Mom brought cupcakes to class and the whole class sang to her and treated her like Queen for the day! After school we took a fun detour to Monkey Joe's where the kids jumped and bounced their heads off and then stopped home to open gifts before heading out to small group where we indulged in chocolate cake (albeit a bit too late in the evening) and ice cream with our family and friends.
Happy New Year!
After Christmas at home, we celebrated round 2 of Christmas at Grandma Sandy's in the ATL. Lots of fun was had with the Aunts, Uncles and cousins too! Riley got to stay up and watch the ball drop, a first I think! He's growing up way too fast! Many games of Wii Resort Sports were played, sparklers were lit and playing "dress up" was a new hit with the kids since the girls have come!
These are the "good 'ole days"
Our first Christmas together as a family of five was fantastic. Oh sure, we have had our ups and downs over these last few months, but overall, I know we'll look back on this as a SWEET, SWEET time! These are the good 'ole days, right?
Here are a few highlights of our first Christmas together:
Obviously the American symbol for Christmas is the Christmas tree so EVERY time we saw a Christmas tree ANYWHERE, the girls would point and say "look, Christmas!" Even now, nearly four weeks post Christmas, the girls see regular trees that are shaped like Christmas trees and say "look, Christmas!"
We didn't go with the whole Santa routine with them because, one) Misrak is just too old to start it. Two) we really wanted to instill the TRUE meaning of Christmas and Three) the girls are really relying on us to tell them TRUTH about everything and we are building trust with them. Even though we TOLD her the truth she still kept asking questions.... how he was going to get in "though the fireplace?" "Do the reindeer really fly?" Poor thing didn't know what to believe.
We are really trying hard to keep "America" and "the world" at bay but man, it is really tough. I think we did great at having a modest Christmas and making sure to give to Christ at Christmas. It is, after all, His birthday! And since He isn't here in the flesh to give to, we give to the least of these. We gave Him a portion of a well for clean drinking water in Ethiopia. This is one of Druarto's children (benefitting from the well) that we met while we were there in August. See our giving blog at www.lifeforlangano.blogspot.com I think between our family a few other families we raised enough for an entire well!
Our Christmas eve service at church was cute. All of the children were given costumes as part of the Christmas story. The girls were angels of course. When they got to the part of the story where the angels appeared to the shepherds, the girls had to go up on the stage. They weren't nervous though because they were only 2 of about 20 angels.
We asked the girls what their favorite part of Christmas was. They both answered they loved being all together on Christmas morning and opening gifts together.
Christmas day was spent just the five of us playing with gifts and toys and cooking! whew! Todd cooked a turkey and I made all the sides. We make a pretty good team. I (Emily) cannot IMAGINE doing any of this without him!
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O Christmas Tree.......
Each year, I know it's coming. Todd starts talking about it......the DAY that we need to set aside to go choose and cut our Christmas tree in the mountains.
Now, this year I knew would be special because it would be the girls first tree (EVER) and our first year as a family of FIVE! But I don't want to spend an ENTIRE DAY just traveling to Boone, NC to get the tree that looks the SAME as the tree at Lowes Home Improvement that takes one hour to pick out, strap to the car, get in the tree stand and at least get the lights on! I mean, we have stuff to do people!
OK, I tried to be a good sport this year and not argue too much, because after all, it was supposed to SNOW that day in Boone. God blessed us with a beautiful snow, another FIRST for the girls and we had a blast. Misrak was convinced that she would carry the tree back in her lap on the way home. We finally talked her out of it when she realized how COLD and WET the snow coating the tree was. The day of fun began at the tree farm, complete with hot apple cider, a hay ride and Todd nearly killing Riley over their attempt at cutting down the tree with a hand saw. After working up an intense hunger, we had a shepherds pie for lunch at Six Pence Pub in downtown Blowing Rock and then a walk through town complete with a snowball fight! It was c-c-c-cold but f-f-fun.
Memories were made and I guess there will still be time to "get our stuff done!"
Thanksgiving and our first trip to the Beach!
Wow, how time is flying. The holidays are upon us and we are just swimming to catch up. In November, we got to visit with Todd's family on Ft. Meyers beach in Florida. It was a great time of hanging with the family and enjoying the BEACH for the first time with the girls. They really loved playing in the pool, building sand castles and collecting shells (just like their Grandma)! They LOVED the feeling of the sand in their toes (don't we ALL) but had a hard time standing in the surf because the ground looked like it was moving out from underneath them!
Thanksgiving was a fantastic time of reflection over the past incredibly hard nine months! We have learned to lean a little (ok....a LOT) harder on Him when we didn't know when or IF the girls would ever come to us. There were times when we thought it might all go south and we may never, ever meet them. Today, I can say most assuredly that I cannot imagine our lives without them and that every ounce of prayer, fasting, heartache, heartbreak, growing closer to Him and to each other was WORTH IT! Thank you, God, for bringing these sweet little girls into our lives. We are SO blessed to have them and will try to never take for granted what YOU have done!
Atlanta Bound!
We had a great weekend in Atlanta visiting our family! It was the girl's first trip away. A long drive, five hours to be exact but that is nothing compared to the marathon car ride we'll take next week to Florida! NOT looking forward to that drive!
They did great in the car and only had to make 2 bathroom stops! Here are some fun pics from our weekend away! You know they had a great time when they cried because they didn't want to leave Grandma!
Pajama Dance Party
It was a rainy Halloween weekend, five people in a small house and small car, together the whole time, having a lot of fun, yet driving each other just a little bit crazy...bedtime on Sunday night...and a Pajama Dance Party breaks out in the office.
Corn Maze, Pumpkin Patch and Fall Parties, Oh My!
Grandma and Grandpa Murphy
We had a great weekend in the cooooool weather this past weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Murphy! They had come up from Florida for the weekend to enjoy some fall festivities and to spend some time with their grandchildren! The girls were so excited to sing
Happy Birthday to Grandpa and to have cake! We traveled on Saturday to Blowing Rock. While we were there it was SO cold that it even spitted some snow on us! Wasn't enough for the girls to even notice but it still came down!
It's all about the hair........YAY! We did it!
Well, after a month of thinking about it and preparing myself, I finally took the plunge into the huge unknown world of hair! My friend Carmen gave me some tips and sent me on my way. Oh boy! My first attempt was with Mist's hair which is interestingly very soft and much like my own but very curly. I couldn't believe it, but she sat very still for about 45 minutes! It turned out okay and looked pretty cute (She loved it!) but in about 8 hours it was coming out all over the place. I had to take it out the next morning so I'm not sure 45 minutes was worth it if I couldn't leave it in for at least a day or so!
Finding my way....
It is interesting being a new Mom of three. In some ways, I think this is really easy and in some ways it is REALLY hard. The girls are not infants and don't need me for every thing they do but this is the very thing I have the complaint about! They do not NEED ME for every thing they do! I really enjoy the alone time that I get with Misti. She isn't in school as long or as many days as Riley and Misrak. She still NEEDs me for a lot of things and it makes me reminisce about the early days with Riley. I think I am grieving that lost time with Misrak. I didn't get to bond with her in her early years and it makes it harder for me to bond with her now. I know, I know....it has only been a month! It just comes easier with Misti because she needs me.
Take a Hike
