Category Archives: Day in the Life Oh how I love Christmas…and today we are celebrating it in our hearts knowing that guess what??? It’s CHRISTMAS DAY in Ethiopia! Here’s a fun little informative article excerpt I found this morning to share written by About columnist Tanya Davis: Christmas is a major holiday in Ethiopia. More than half of the population of […]  For the body OK. I wish I could say I’m a health nut. I’m not a health nut. I wish I cooked like my husband. I’m not a Bon Appetite reader. But give this girl a hotdog or hamburger–and I’m a happy camper. I’m also a shameless Adam Sandler fan. Sorry, I like his humor. […]  Today’s reading – Genesis 7:1-Genesis 10:31-32 and 1 Chronicles 1:5-1:23 Just some thoughts on today’s reading… v.7:2 – I honestly never knew that Noah was asked to bring 7 of every clean animal and 2 of every unclean animal. Did you know that? All this 2 by 2 stuff—I had it all wrong. It says […] I am really impressed you are getting up so early and then getting to your blog! Oh,I remember in East Asia when you were petrified by hiking up that mountain, I think you held onto me the whole time! And I remember when you made that magnetic board for parker, I am impressed that the kids still really like it! It really is a great idea! I think when I finish all my paper work for the adoption, maybe getting to make this would be a reward! I love creating things! You truly are blessed with such great in-laws! Have a great Sunday! I do remember that Melissa!!! Still as just afraid of heights! And don’t let the post time fool you;)…I wrote that the night before and put it on a scheduled post time:) I am NOT a morning person either!!! But I know some people do their reading in the morning so with our scripture reading I wanted to post early. My brain actually doesn’t begin functioning normally until at least 11am;) My husband and I are reading the bible readings at night when the kids are in bed, so my comments might be a bit delayed in relation to the reading for the day. I love what you did with the magnet board…so cute. The pics of Frank in the chair are so cute. Ryann thinks she is as big as her siblings too. Guess that’s what happens when you are the baby. It won’t be long though and she will be trying to love on Elijah like Taylor and Cade love on her 🙂 Hey! I’m not doing the exact same reading plan, but Scott and I are doing our own together. But, like most reading plans it started out just the same as yours. 🙂 Something that stuck out to me (us) is that when Eve ate the apple from the tree…she wasn’t alone. Adam was right there beside her. So many times women get the bad rap about “causing sin in the world” – but we really can’t take all the credit. 🙂 I’m enjoying reading your blog, and even though we’re not doing the same reading plan, I still feel some accountability. Oh, my fantasy is to go in a hot air balloon ride. If I ever get to, I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures for you! The readings were good this morning. Everyday will be though! That would stink to live on the boat for 6 months! There are a couple of questions I thought of. Do you think the animals while on the boat had offspring because it says when Noah got off the boat, he immediately made an animal sacrifice/offering to God. I guess there were 7 of the clean animals, so they may not have had offspring. It would have gotten a little crowded. Also, do you guys think that fish and sea creatures died as well? They were already in water, so……? Just a thought. There may be something I missed in the reading. Thanks for your thoughts! I never would have put the Nimrod name together! That’s cute! Hey gal…kids are making a movie (rather loudly I might add) and hubby is watching a game on the tv..and I’m sitting here drinking tea and doing Bible Study with ladies who I really don’t even know where they are…kinda sweet! (Also..I am going to post the readings on my blog too and link back to yours if that’s okay) Kinda neat to see how many people God can move through this! Alrighty, Here are my thoughts! I love thinking of all those animals walking up into the ark! I am an animal lover and that just excites me so! Can you imagine..all those animals–BIG ones at that too with the tiny ones…I would have LOVED to have been there for that part..(the everyone dying..not so much) Neat thing to do is measure that out for your kids..(ark size) I did that for children’s church one time and they were blown away..it so hard to just imagine a size..but seeing it is so more real. I would love to see that one in the Netherlands. ch. 8 vs 1 . I did a bible study once on the God ‘remembering’. From what I ‘remember’–it’s not that God forgets. But it is when He acts. Like when we do something in remembrance of someone. We never forgot that them but we acted and did something because we have them on our minds. I kinda like that thought of God ‘remembering’ me. Ch 8 vs.10 Noah waiting 7 days to let the dove back out…I think I would have tried every morning and been frustrated! God is still working on my patience! Chapter 9 re-iterates to me how precious life is to God. I can’t fathom how bad it must have really been that Noah and his family were the only ones that were able to be in the ark. That ALL the people were that corrupt. I can’t imagine how that must have grieved God and even Noah. Ch 10 vs. 8–Nimrod, mighty warrior and hunter..I loved that too! Made my heart smile when I read it. I always wonder how God would describe me in His Word. Humbling thought! Also..for question whether fish/sea creatures died. I always understand that they didn’t. Re-reading it, it says the ‘face of the earth’ so I am taking that to mean land. But I haven’t researched it for the root meaning. Thanks Andrea for starting this! Oh, Heather, that’s a good thought on the animal sacrifice. My husband is in semianry, and I love to pepper him with questions! On an adoption note, some of you have sent me the most ENCOURAGING notes over the past week….. I have printed them all off and am saving them in my “adoption journal”. I received a lot of orders this week, and am so thankful! Also, a fundraising opportunity just “fell out of the sky” (hum, wonder who made it fall?:) I am kindof a coupon nut, and have spent months learning how to regularly walk out the grocery store with $200 or so worth of food for under $50. I love getting “paid” to take things from CVS. I mentioned this on face book a couple weeks ago, and there are masses of ladies wanting a couponing class!!!! I am setting a few up and am going to charge a $10 donation to our fund! I am THRILLED about this! I think we could come up with about half the agencies fees through these classes…a church is even thinking about hosting it with a nursey for a “ladis retreat” type thing!!! Yea!!! Praising the Lord…and so ready to sign that AGCI contract and start with the process! 3 for 3 so far… whew! Thanks so much for your insight… I, too, was surprised to read about the numbers of “clean” animals brought aboard the ark, and I’ve read Genesis how many times in my life? 🙂 These first few readings especially brought to mind the book “Many Waters” by Madeline L’Engle. So many unanswered questions re the Nephilim, the “Sons of God” intermarrying with humankind, etc. I’ll just add those questions to the long list I already have, all of which I hope will be answered in Eternity… when we will see not just in part but in the whole. One thing I noticed for the first time was that the waters gushed from underground as well as from the sky. I suppose I just always pictured it as a heavy rainfall. But God is more creative than I am! =) After all…He created my creativeness! But how depressing to see nothing but rain for 40 days!!! Yuck! And I thought Seattle was bad! I am just in awe of how much water it took to cover the earth…and twenty-something feet above even the highest mountain…and for 150 days! 10 and a half months is a LOOONG time to be cooped up on a boat – talk about cabin fever!!! This story really is just incredible. I came across your blog from another blogger friend. I recognized Rebecca in your photo and showed my mom who recognized all the girls! Such a small world…my mom and Rebecca were best childhood friends. We adopted our son from Ethiopia in April and came upon your blog looking through adoption blogs, which i still love to follow! Love your blog! SUCH great thougths and insights!!! Loving reading these comments throughout the day. It’s so great to read different perspective! Yes—I’m with Charisa–I always understood it as the sea creatures didn’t die. Good stuff girls:) This is going to be a great year! I always enjoy reading your blog Andrea. I need just an ounce of your creativity. 🙂 So I’m in love with your small chairs that Frank is sitting on in the pictures. Can you share where you found those treasures? I’m searching for some play chairs and nothing has made me happy so far. Way to go on the auction by the way. I can’t get on ebay because I get so determined to win if someone else is bidding. I go nuts! Today’s Reading January 2nd – Genesis 4:1-5:32, 1 Chronicles 1:1-4, Genesis 6:1-22 – It didn’t take man very long to fall into even deeper sin did it? Sin is sin I know…but gosh–you have Adam and Eve…and they have 2 kids—and before you know it one murdered the other. WOW. Over what? Jealousy. This is […] Okay, seriously your family is too cute 🙂 Also, I honestly think you will have a referral by the end of March but maybe I am just being to optimistic about things moving quickly. I am still hoping we have our referral by the end of February but am prepared for it to take longer. We shall see! I am so excited to start seeing referrals again!!! Love the pictures! I will get back yo you on the readings. Happy New Year Andrea. Love the pictures, love the reading. I prayed this morning I would find my Bible as I stuck it somewhere in the mad dash to “clean up” for our Home Study interview. Found it! So very excited about 2010! Hi Andrea, first of all, your pictures are amazing…and your kids are so cute!! On to commentary…I love to read lineage passages. Weird, maybe,but I have a good reason. I’m not the type of person who is really going to remember who was born to whom at what age, but I am always fascinated by the verses that are slightly different than the rest. In this case, vs. 21-24 – Enoch. Everyone else lived, had kids, and died. Enoch lived, walked with God, had kids, and then was taken to be with God. I hope my life stands out as one who “walked with God”. As I’m reading chapter 4, Cain is talking about when “they” see me they will kill me, and he gets married…where are all these people suddenly coming from, I wonder? Did God create more people but Genesis just focused on the FIRST people he created? Did Eve give birth many times over and Cain married his sister? I don’t think I ever really thought about this before, because it’s hard to imagine the world before it was populated. Or like I said yesterday, nothingness before the world was created! Then it says that Cain founded a city? Was it populated, what defines a city at that time? These are GREAT thoughts!!! I had many of the same thoughts—I, too, thought it was interesting how Enoch died…said the Lord took him…I wonder what that looked like. If it was an Elijah thing or what. Very thought provoking questions too Megan…hmmm…a city. I totally didn’t even think of that one. I guess it just looked different than how we would think. Great thoughts. Munching on these thoughts for the rest of the day. This is going to be a great year digging in the word with you all!!! And on a side note—Amy (babydash) I would love to think of a referral coming by March…but they said to think May…so I like to “plan for the worst and hope for the best”…and for me…May is the best–that way, if it’s earlier I will be super excited instead of a wee bit disappointed:). But I could see it being earlier too when things really start moving again:) I was wondering the same as you this morning when I read the verses. Did Cain & the others marry their sisters or nieces? It does seem strange in our culture today, but I didn’t know what you said about the race still being “genetically pure.” That makes sense I guess! I also noticed (even though we haven’t gotten there yet) that people before the flood lived a lot longer than people after. Since God regretted making man, I wonder if that’s is a consequence…a shorter lifespan? I was also amazed that Enoch walked with God. He’s the only one that He really talks about having a relationship with Him, except Noah having favor in His eyes. God took Enoch to be with Him, he didn’t really die a death like we would think. Can you imagine? Well, it’s all good stuff & I’m so excited to be able to share with all of you & learn from you! Looking forward to lots more! Oh, & your family is precious! Where did you find the dolls? I have been doing some online searching for a nice one. (: Betsy—sadly, brown baby dolls are harder to find! I had the same problem finding a brown Santa. The doll Frank got and the one they are playing with in these pictures is a Molly P. Original. I bought mine on Overstock for $35. They are out now, but check back. I found the same one online for $70. I am not an American Girl fan–but I bought the Bitty Baby from a friend who bought one not knowing her mom had also bought one for her little girl. It is really cute and her eyes open and close. I think the bitty baby is probably a much better size for your little ones to play with. Just my 2 cents Betsy:) -Andrea love the pics…ok, so where did you get those car things…I’ve never seen them before…too fun..my kids would love them…Our mini vacation is so nice…it’s good to get away..oh, i forgot one more weird thing that happened this week…i can’t believe i haven’t told you this one yet..i’ll call ya on my way home tomorrow while in the car…happy new year, kj Oh, and I got my son a black cabbage patch doll off of amazon.com for $17 this last summer…I haven’t checked to see if they are still available though! Wow! I got so excited commenting on yesterday’s blog that I just realized that I didn’t even comment on the reading, per se. As mentioned in yesterday’s comments, I am just joining in. Today is the 9th and I just started reading last night. Thankfully I stopped on Jan 3rd reading because I didn’t want to breeze through it. I let it marinate for a while 🙂 Yes, Andrea, I also thought to myself, “wow, it didn’t take long for all this drama to occur!” The sin, jealousy, murder. Wow, and I’m just in the first few chapters. This reading is shaping up to redefine my definition of action, drama, comedy & mystery. I’m sooo excited! But back to the reading commentary 🙂 I immediately wondered what the mark was that God put on Cain. Was this a physical mark or a spiritual mark. Does that make sense? Then as you mentioned, where did Cain’s wife come from? Thanks for the “genetically pure” note, as I never even thought about that. Wow, this is WAY better than trying to understand it on my own. It really IS a Bible “study”. I felt worn out by the time I finished with the men and their sons and their sons, whew! I did remember that Enoch walked with God and lived 365 years until God took him. I wondered why but couldn’t help but notice that Enoch’s son was Methuselah. Might I mention that I smiled when I read that he lived 969 yrs?!?!? Now I know where the term “old as Methuselah” comes from 🙂 So I thought…maybe God took years from Enoch to give to Methuselah who in return gave him Noah. I know it wasn’t THAT many years, since Enoch only lived somewhere between 1/2 to 1/3 less than the others. Is this a stretch? I tried to just read and not try to over-think it but I just couldn’t help but wonder about Enoch. What made God TAKE him? I long to be “taken” by Him as opposed to just “dying”. Shouldn’t we all?  Okay…I just have to say this is what the center of my handprint looks like from our most recent craft! What do you think? Is it a stretch??? Or do you see it too??? And since Ethiopia is located in the horn of Africa…of course this is what I made out the blank spot on […] definitely AFRICA 🙂 I so see it 🙂 Rmember my snow cone “africa”..it happened when we passed court…God has a sense of humor 🙂 kj I think it looks like the horn of Africa!!! I too am really looking forward to HH moving and I really hope referrals start moving again soon! I think the wait would be much easier if things were at least moving some! We’ve picked out a name, but we want to wait and hear his name before officially deciding on a name. I see it! I soooo understand! I was biting a chip recently and when I looked at it, all I saw was the shape of India!!! lol:-) Thank you girls for validating my perception there! Yes, Kristi…I LOVED your snow cone Africa story! Oh Jennifer…I would have loved to see your India chip:) I am so sad that I didn’t take a picture!!! I saw it, thought, “I’m nuts”, put it in my mouth and ate it. Took another bite…that one looked nothing like India, and realized I really missed a photo op, cuz it was India my friends…ya’ all Southern gals get it! So glad to know that I am not alone:-) I am with you it definitely looks like Africa! I too am very excited to see the movement that 2010 will bring. |
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by admin
I love thinking about our sons both celebrating their first Ethiopian Christmas. The only better thought is that next year they will be celebrating the Ethiopian Christmas in our homes 🙂
Blessings,
Amy
All right stop collaborate and listen
Ice is back with my brand new invention
Something grabs a hold of me tightly
Flow like a harpoon daily and nightly
Will it ever stop yo I don’t know
Turn off the lights and I’ll glow
To the extreme I rock a mic like a vandal
Light up a stage and wax a chump like a candle
Dance go rush to the speaker that booms
I’m killing your brain like a poisonous mushroom
Deadly when I play a dope melody
Anything less than the best is a felony…
I won’t continue. But I could. I still *heart* that song. 🙂
Merry Ethiopian Christmas!
Amber
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the quote by Lucy on Aslan! I even used it in worship one Sunday!
No, our God isn’t “safe”….but boy, it sure is wonderful, wild, crazy ride!!! I wouldn’t want any other. You just have to hold on tight when you give your whole life to Him!
Chap. 23- well of course this is all part of God’s plan. I believe that when people would die in the Old Testament, they would bury the body back in their hometown. Abraham stayed where God had promised him his land. He asked for a place to bury his wife, paid them (which I think they would’ve given it to him anyways), and buried & mourned for his wife. She was 127 years old! Can you imagine how long they were together!? That had to break Abraham’s heart!
Chap. 24- I love this chapter too! Abraham sent out his oldest servant to find a wife for his son Isaac. The hand under the thigh oath, I believe is meant to be a personal oath. A study Bible that I read says that Abraham sent his servant back to his country to find Isaac a wife because the people of Canaan were pagans & his son was the “seed” & he wanted a godly woman. So here’s the awesome part! Abraham’s servant prays very specifically! He is waiting at the well & asks God to make it clear to him who he should take back to be Isaac’s wife. So he asks that the girl offer to draw water for him & his camels! WOW! The first girl that came up, Rebekah, did just what he asked! Before he even finished asking God!! He goes to stay with her family & he wants to leave soon. They want more time with her & ask her what she wants. She wanted to go with Abraham’s servant! Wow, don’t know that I could’ve done that. & by the way, Rebekah is Isaac’s cousin!!!!! She seemed to be respectful & submissive to her husband. Rebekah comforted Isaac in his grief for his mother.
Later in the next few chapters we’ll see that one of their sons, Jacob marries his cousins (Leah & Rachel) as well. Their father, Laban, is Rebekah’s brother!
All right stop, Collaborate and Listen.
So much good stuff I’m not sure where to start! I guess first by saying “Merry Christmas!” I learned so much from your post about Christmas in Ethiopia-thanks for sharing. Second, both my husband and I were born in the 70’s and grew up in the 80’s…and still love the music from that era…especially my husband. I think he believes it part of his mission as a parent to teach our children to love and appreciate music from the 80’s. Even our 3 year old will occasionally give us an “ice, ice baby” tune. Now to the really good stuff! So much to this reading today, I love what both you and Charisa shared. I found myself once again grieving for Hagar and Ishmael-and for Abraham too. It makes me feel better that Abraham was distressed about the situation. It would be so disappointing if he easily let them go. And I can’t help but feel a little upset toward Sarah. Wasn’t she the matchmaker to begin with. I am so thankful that God came to Hagar. Jump to chapter 22…I can’t even imagine the incredible pain that Abraham must have felt when Isaac asked him “where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Ughhh…it almost takes my breath away. Yes, please let me look crazy in the eyes of the world if it means I’m being obedient to my Savior!
Merry Ethiopian Christmas!
And wow, I’m looking at Hagar’s story in a whole new way thanks to you!!!