We would like to wish everyone who reads these words a very Merry Christmas and my Jesus Christ Bless you as He has Blessed our family this year.
This year has been one blessing after another. The very unexpected referal of Selamnesh. A wonderful summer of enjoying my two older children in a season of lasts, just the 3 of us. Our eye opening trip to Ethiopia to visit the birth country of my 3rd child Selamnesh. Tristan would like to remind everyone that this was not a vacation. This was a mission trip. The mission was getting to know the people of Ethiopia. Picture taking was not like taking pictures at Disney World, but remembering for Selamnesh for the rest of her life. Meeting Bizunesh, Selamnesh's birth mother. I respect this woman so much. In our country most women who deside to make a plan for their unborn child, including adoption for reasons such as.....I can't afford a child, wanting to go to college, having too many children, I want to finish high school, or just don't want the responsibility. Bizunesh never went to school, gave her first born child to me, would have loved the responsibility, and couldn't afford a child.......Look at what we have and we say we can't afford things. Bizunesh didn't have cable, a tv, electricity, a cellphone, a home phone, a house, an apartment, eating out, hanging out with friends....... For Bizunesh it was a very different life.(Don't misunderstand me. I think that every young woman that finds herself in an unexpected pregnacy, her best choice is to place that child up for adoption. You don't realize how long some people wait wanting to have a child. How they would care for that child as if they gave birth to it themselves. How much BETTER of a life that child would have.) I'm only making the comparison between lives. Bizunesh and Mary, Jesus's mother had a much closer comparison than any of us in the states can imagine. Being an un-wed pregnant woman could have gotten Mary killed or disowned. So is the story with Bizunesh. We think nothing of an un-wed pregnant woman. That isn't the case in Southern Ethiopia. We have a poster size picture of our family with Bizunesh in the middle hanging above our couch in our family room. We remind Selamnesh every day who Bizunesh is and how much she loves her. When I look at Bizunesh I feel I am looking at Jesus's mother. When Mary had baby Jesus, she didn't know how He would Save the world. When Bizunesh had Selamnesh she didn't know how she would change the world. Soon after getting our baby girl home she had complete liver shut down. We didn't know if she was going to make it. But God Blessed us, by listening to the plee's of so many of you. He healed her completely. And friends who sat with me in the hospital for a whole week!! I am Blessed!! As an update, they still don't know what caused it, or how she got better. But we know!! Since going back to work after being off for a few weeks after our homecoming. Business has been WAY down. This last year hasn't been real good in my territory. And since going back to work the media keeps reminding people of how broke we are!!!!! I work in sales. I don't sell, I don't make money. Bottom line!! I can drive 3 hours to go to 3 appointments and not make a dollar. And I have to pay my gas to get there!! I have had weeks I owed the company money, and weeks I had a deposit of $58. But God continues to Bless us in other ways. Our angel Jill who made sure that our family had a wonderful Christmas. The children were very suprised!!!! I can not thank you enough!! We are so Blessed!! God has never forgotten us and His Word says He NEVER will!!
May the Love of Jesus Bless your families as He has Blessed Ours.
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