Summer Fun

Libby has been a busy girl this summer. Learning to swim, going to ballet classes, attending Vacation Bible School, enjoying Chattanooga Lookouts games, reading 100 books in our library's summer reading program, and organizing a yard sale to raise funds for the orphanage where she once lived. But the highlight of the summer was winning a very special award!

Libby wrote a story entitled, "I Come From Ethiopia" which she entered in our local PBS station's kids writing contest. And she won 1st place in her grade level!! Libby worked so hard writing and illustrating this story. She tells about the village she first lived in with her family and moving to the orphanage in Mekelle. She then vividly describes the time she saw her teacher stepped on by a camel and the time a hyena chased one of her friends on the walk to school. Libby wraps up her story by telling about the three "aeroplanes" she rode in to get to America and how she loves this country "because in America there are no hyenas and camels." We're just so proud of our girl!

Libby has also grown over an inch and has gained 14 lbs since we arrived home in February! This is fantastic and definitely on the right track. But, we still have quite a bit of catch up growth to do.

When I'm looking back over our pictures from this summer, I can't help but think of Libby's friends still living in the orphanage in Ethiopia. Beautiful, smart, precious children. Waiting children. Children who are being cared for and loved but not by their families. Children being raised in an institution as opposed to a FAMILY. These children need and deserve a mom and dad and all the priviliges that come with that. But yet, they wait. They wait not because there's a shortage of adoptive families, but because there is a shortage of adoptive families that are willing to take a chance on an older child. We were once one of those families. We waited for many, many, months to get the call for a baby girl. Then something happened when we least expected it. God simply opened our hearts. If God is speaking to you now, will you let your heart be opened? A child is waiting.