Love Notes & Little Boys

A few days ago while I was taking a nap (more like passed out face down on the bed hoping to get a good 15 minutes of shut eye before someone needed something) my almost four-year-old "surprised" me with my favorite child bestowed love note ever. It was a handwritten note accompanied by a picture. I know you can not see the image very well but the picture is of a dung beetle eating well, dung of course. Just what every mother wants.

Here he is, my favorite almost four-year-old in the whole world!

The Whole Bunch

Gotcha Day, 20 February 2010

The first three pictures are taken in the first hour we had Sitota with us.

Sitota's bed was second from the right. Hannah's Hope is a beautiful orphanage.

Sitota was named by her birth mother and grandmother. Her name means gift of God. She is truly one of the greatest gifts God has given to us. One of the things that I have been reminded of through this whole adoption process is that God is good and that He loves his little ones.

Beautiful Southern Ethiopia

We traveled to Southern Ethiopia because that is where our daughter was born and we wanted to experience what life is like for her birth family.

Women getting water from the lake for their families.

A typical store.

Fisherman on his homemade boat.

This is what almost all of the homes look like in Southern Ethiopia.

This is the inside of the home. This family's home is about 20 feet in diameter (typical size). Half of the home is used for the cattle and chickens. The other half is for the parents and their 6 children. The home is very clean and the family was very nice to us. Ethiopian people are sincere, humble, gracious, and kind.

The Countdown

The kids were so excited to have a new baby. When I say kids, I mean all the kids but Laura--the 18 month old, she had no idea what was coming; if she knew, she would not have been smiling in this picture.

Our Ethiopian Girl

Adoption from China was not a good fit for our family and so we started to look in other places. A couple of agencies recommend Ethiopia to us and thus started our journey. We started the process in March of 2009 (by starting the process I mean paperwork, paperwork, paperwork). In December of 2009 we got this referral picture. We took one look and knew we were looking at the newest member of the Gundersen family.

Adoption?

A lot of people have asked why a couple with five biological children would want to adopt. Here's our answer in under 100 words (yes, I counted). When Bret and I were first married we talked about adopting. Then life "happened" and we forgot about these conversations. In May of 2008 there was an earthquake in China that left thousands of children orphaned. We wanted to help and were reminded then that adoption was something we were interested in--besides, what's one more? I was six months pregnant with our fifth child at the time. Little did we know that adoption would be one of the greatest miracles we would ever experience.