A Beautiful Melody

Last Saturday was a big day in our family. At just seven years of age, Cousin Isabelle was having her very own violin recital.  It was a concert to celebrate her entering a higher level of performance and it was being held at Elstad Lutheran Church in rural Lanesboro, the church our family has attended for generations.

Isabelle's two brothers each had a special role in the show..and I'd really been looking forward to seeing everyone in the spotlight!

So it caught me off guard how unsettled I felt on the hour-long drive to the church.  You see, this cold February Saturday was so much like a day two years ago.  It had been so, so very cold on January 22, 2011 as Jason and I drove to Elstad church. Our car was filled with vases of beautiful flowers...for the funeral of our little girl, Terefech.  She died in Ethiopia before we could bring her home, but she was ours all the same.  And she was loved...by so many people who had never met her..especially her cousins.

Daniel was a tender "almost four" and Isabelle was five when Terefech died.   They had waited so, so long for their cousin in Africa. Daniel said when he heard the news, "my heart broke."  Mine too, sweet Daniel.

But Saturday's gathering at Elstad was not a time for tears (o.k., maybe a few happy ones at just how Awesome Isabelle's talents are!) This was a time for celebration!  A celebration of Isabelle..and a celebration of family. A family that now includes sweet Bereket, the daughter we know God always intended to be ours.  And do these little ones know how to have a good time together!

Here are some photos of the party in the church basement after the big performance! So much love and happiness.

O.K., so this shot was not quite all happiness! If there were four bouquets of flowers, I think it would have been!  The next photos are better examples of all that cousinly love!

 

Congratulations Isabelle on a beautiful concert! Thank you for the beauty and joy you and your brothers bring to our lives!

Sweet 16

Bereket lived in Ethiopia for 16 months before she joined our family. On Saturday, October 8, 2011 Bereket spent her first night with us in our home.

Today is February 8, 2013. That means Bereket has now lived in her new life in Minnesota for 16 months, exactly as long as she lived her first life in Ethiopia.

So, so much has happened in our time together, I really don't remember what life was like before Bereket.  But today I am struck with the fact that not only did we have a life before October, 2011, but she did too.

My very favorite purchase in Africa was a beautiful painting we found in a market in Addis.  It sits in on the mantel of our fireplace, the most prominent place in our home. The painting is of a small village in Ethiopia.

In my mind, this picture is Bereket's birth village.  Perhaps the Ethiopian woman and the child in the painting are going into this hut to see Baby Bereket just after she was born!

While Jason and I have done special things to celebrate Bereket's culture, we haven't talked a lot about Ethiopia with her yet. But one day soon, we'll move beyond conversations about milk, puppies, Elmo and the potty.  When that day comes, we'll talk about the Land of 13 Months of Sunshine.  We'll talk about Bereket's first 16 months of life. We'll talk about why she is such a special little girl and we will tell her how very much is she loved...on two different continents.

Happy Sweet Sixteen, my sweet child.