HAPPY FASIKA!

Happy Fasika everyone!  Today is Easter in our son’s country. If you remember my Easter prayer blog where I wondered if my son was celebrating Easter now I know it is today. I don’t know if our son has had the opportunity to celebrate this amazing day. I pray today that he knows you God and knows what today is. If he doesn’t get to celebrate this amazing day I just pray that he knows you God. Today (our son’s Easter) was a special day for our family. We have been astray from family for 2 years. Nick and I received a text from this family member on our Easter wishing us a happy Easter. God opened our hearts that day and we were joyous and excited for a brand new start. Nick and I knew it would take some time and effort to mend the hurts. God had made this pretty easy on us though. We began to text and speak on the phone. We wanted to take baby steps and that’s what we did. Today Nick sent them a text asking them over for supper tonight. They live 1hour and a ½ one way from us, so last minute may have been hard for them. Well, they said yes we will be there! Lily waited by the window watching for them to come. She was so excited, all of us were. Lily spotted their truck, down the road they came. I don’t even think they were out of the truck before Lily was standing right there. This night was very emotional in a good way. We had a great time and dinner with them. It was so nice to have them at our house after 2 years. I can’t help but think about how God used Easter to help bring us back together. It blows my mind on how ironic, that we received a text on our Easter from this family member and then get to see them on our son’s Easter. WOW! This is one Easter I’ll never forget. Thank you Father! Father, thank you for blessing me with my family. I ask you to bring us unity through you. Father, please lead us in your ways. Help us to live by your ways, with a compassionate heart. Please fill us with your love, that does not keep records of wrong, and bring joy to our hearts. Please bring your perfect peace and unity to our family. I would like to end this wishing my son a Happy Fasika! I believe God has used my son in Ethiopia to bring our family back together also.

Here is some info we recently received:

Fasika! This year, Easter will be celebrated in Ethiopia on Sunday, May 5th. In Ethiopia, this significant holiday, known as Fasika, is a very important festival in Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, or the Tewahido faith. Many argue that Fasika is the most celebrated holiday in Ethiopia and is considered more significant than Christmas. According to Orthodox theology, Jesus’ crucifixion on Good Friday was for the purpose of fulfilling the word of God. It is believed that the near-sacrifice of Abraham’s son, Isaac, with the interruption from an angel and the sending of a Lamb for sacrifice instead (Genesis 22) was a prophetic foreshadowing of God sending his only beloved Son to be the world’s sacrifice and the fulfilling of Abraham’s promise. Fasika is preceded by Lent (Hudade or Abye Tsome), 56 days of fasting where Ethiopians do not eat any meat or animal products, including dairy. On Easter eve, churches are filled with believers who prostrate themselves, bowing down and rising up 101 times. Candles are lit for the colorful but somber service that includes music and dancing. This service, known as Paschal Vigil, lasts into the early morning hours of Easter Day. Once the service ends, people return home to prepare for a fast-breaking feast, which includes the slaughtering of a chicken at midnight for the symbolic occasion. After resting, a sheep is slaughtered to commence the feasting of Easter Sunday, which includes injera and traditional drinks such as tella or tej. As we prepare for this meaningful holiday, we pray that you find rest and peace in the grace that God has bestowed on those who love Him. Happy Fasika!

 

 

BE THE HOPE-LSM Ethiopia Night

Salem everyone! (Remember Salem means hello in our son’s language) I wanted to update my blog sooner, but Nick and I have been very busy working on our paperwork for this adoption. We are almost finished. It feels so good to be almost done. I would like to share with all of you what my family and I did last Friday. It is rare that my family is all together on a Friday night. The kids always have something going on. We made this last Friday night a priority to be together. We drove to Bluffton, Indiana, where we attended Ethiopia family night. Loving Shepherd Ministries held this fun family Ethiopia night. Loving Shepherd Ministries has helped us so much in our adoption. We summited our application first with them. LSM is not an adoption agency, but a not-for-profit, Christian adoption organization to help families like us who have no clue where to start. They guided us through the early stages of our adoption. They did so much for us. They helped us with what countries we would be eligible to adopt from, and what agencies would suit us best for the country that we chose and much more. They really helped us out and went above and beyond, for absolutely no money. It was all free. All of you that have been following my blog from the beginning probably remember back when I first started this process in January. I tried to summit my application to LSM several times and it just would not summit. Remember how frustrated I was? It was my computer skills, or lack of, that I couldn’t get it to summit. I will never forget the day Jen from LSM sent us an email saying we received your application, and then the email from Jen saying your application was approved. That was like taking a pregnancy test, and it being positive. Well, guess who I got to meet last Friday? Yep, you guessed it. I got to meet Jen.  Jen Schwartz is an amazing woman, truly beautiful on the inside and out. We also got to meet Jen’s father in law Ed Schwartz the founder and president of this wonderful organization.

 
Ethiopian family night was a blast. We learned about Ethiopian culture and we were able to sample Ethiopian food, go to the market, and the kids played games that the kids in Ethiopia play. We were able to see a typical home for a family in Ethiopia. Seeing that home made my heart drop to think about my child living in a home like the one they had set up there. I sometimes take my home and food I eat for granted, and after this family night, I feel very guilty for this. I’m truly blessed and last Friday night just reminded me of that. We bought some things for our children at the market. Kaitlynn wanted a bracelet made in Ethiopia, Gabe and Lily wanted LSM t shirts. They had a place set up where you could try to carry a bowl with some weight in it on your head, and also carry something on your back, like women in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia the women do a lot of the work. They carry a ton of wood on their back and walk miles. They carry around 70 pounds on their head along with carrying something on their back. My family tried to do it. WOW was it hard and the weight in the bowl was nowhere near 70 pounds. The strength and heart of Ethiopian women just amazes me. My entire family and I really had an eye opener that night on how much we really take for granted. They had a bucket of water sitting by the house, and most of the time the kids around 9 or older will walk miles to get water in this bucket. They then have to carry it miles back to their home. Gabe my 11 year old tried to pick it up. He did get it picked up, but struggled trying to hold it. I can’t image him carrying it for miles without spilling it. I am so glad we went to learn about our child’s culture. What a great family night. We learned so much and met so many amazing people. We also got to formally meet Erica’s family. They are such a cute and loving family. I would like to end this post by thanking God. Thank you God for my everyday blessings you give me daily. I am blessed to have a roof over my head, a great job, health, a family that loves and supports me, and thank God for guiding us through this incredible journey to our child in Ethiopia. I know that you have your arms all around this child you have chosen for us. Please give him comfort tonight and a calm and restful sleep. 

 

Ethiopian Home

   

For anyone wanting to learn more about what Loving Shepherd Ministries is all about, and how they help so many women and orphans in Ethiopia and Haiti, I am posting a link to their website.

https://loving-shepherd.org/