Back from the Dead and Dedication Day

You have not heard anything from me in a week because I have been about as close to death as I think I've ever been. That is a bit of a clinical exaggeration but I certainly felt like I wanted to die this last week. I somehow ended up with some terrible flu virus that basically debilitated me - put me flat on my back - for several days. Compounded with that was the fact that being so sick from the flu triggered the onset of a relapse of mono (something I had the pleasure of enjoying in high school; mono evidently stays in your system forever...yuck). Needless to say, it's been some good times for Mommy around here lately. No blogging. No nothing. Just laying in bed, shivering while wearing a sweater and scarf and being under a huge blanket in the middle of the day. Doing the aforementioned with two toddlers around also worked out nicely - as you can probably imagine. In the last day or so, I appear to have rejoined the land of the living and have finally gotten around to posting about the girls' dedication last week. It was a very meaningful and memorable time.

In honor of the one year anniversary of the Little Ladies being a part of our family, we hosted a special dedication at our home. It was an intimate occasion with all of their best little friends and all of the many "aunties" and "uncles" who adore them. Our friend Dianna, who teaches our home group, began the dedication by sharing about the significance of the girls' names, explaining who Junia was in the early church and what the name "Eden" means in the Bible. My dad then shared a wonderful message about how God calls our girls His daughters and He prayed for them that God would allow them to know their worth in His sight and the power of His Word. It was truly a blessed day and one of our favorites thus far as parents. We followed the dedication with lunch and a fun time of fellowship with dear friends and family. We played with pinwheels and bubbles, ate cupcakes and enjoyed each other's company. It ended up happening that everyone left right around the same time except for the Ethiopians. At the end of all the festivities, there were five little Ethiopians still ready to party. Our friend Ant, who is from Ethiopia, remarked that Ethiopians know how to party. So we did just that. We followed the dedication party with another Ethiopian Afterparty, filling up the blow-up pools and dousing the slip-n-slide for an outrageous water adventure. Luckily it was in the 70's that day. Even so, we kept having to wrap the kids up in towels to warm them up before sending them back out to the water. Eden just kept saying - as her little shivering face peeped out of the towel burrito in which she was swaddled - "More pool. More pool." It was pretty hilarious. We proved that day that Ethiopians do know how to have a great party - especially if water is involved. What a joy for the girls to have two sets of "cousins" - all adopted from Ethiopia - to grow up with!

Other highlights from their special dedication weekend included having both sets of grandparents in town and being given some precious jewelry - ID bracelets with their names on them from Gammy and Poppa (they are SO tiny!) and beautiful handmade charm necklaces with their initials on one side and a tiny picture of our family on the other (an amazing surprise from sweet Auntie Alisa and Uncle Jim). This celebration weekend reminded me once again of how God lavishes His love on us. God could have just given these Little Ladies parents and that alone would have demonstrated that He sees and He cares. But God is generous, He is good and His love knows no bounds. In His generosity and providence, He also gave our girls with an entire community of people who will love, cherish and support them for a lifetime. He didn't have to do that but that is how He loves - extravagantly. I am humbled by that and reminded too that I will never love my girls more than He does.