They're here, they're here!

Wesley was keeping a close eye up the hill, waiting for the Hutchinsons to arrive.  I heard a car door slam, and Wesley froze, listening intently, and then his excitement overwhelmed him and he threw himself off the end of the dock yelling, "They're here, they're here!"

When we travelled to Ethiopia 2 1/2 years ago to bring our sons home, there was only one other family in our travel group, and they just happened to live a 30 minutes away!  What an amazing coincidence and such a blessing. 

We started out with quite a large group of adoptive families scheduled to travel together.  But one by one, those other families passed court, while we failed court date after court date for one technicality or another.  Finally, the annual court closure in Ethiopia loomed, and we faced another 4 months of waiting.  We had first seen the faces of our sons in June - and we would not be able to bring them home until almost December.  The Hutchinson family travelled that same difficult road with us as they waited to bring home their 2 daughters.

We try to get together a few times each year, but busy schedules have made that more difficult lately.  Finally we had a firm date on the calendar, and the kids excitedly counted down the days.

Excited to try knee-boarding! 

 The boys - Jayden, Will and John.  (Wesly was busy fishing.)

Ella 

The girls - Lila, Grace, Ella, Emme, Maea.

Since the older kids are skiing, Wesley has been wanting to learn, but the skis are just to big for him.  We had just gotten a knee-board, which is challenging enough for the older kids as they jump the wake and do 360s, and it's manageable enough that even little Wesley can do it.  So it was perfect timing for the Hutchinsons, as all of their kids (except for little Ella) tried and succeeded with the knee-board.

Lila

Bob Hutchinson demonstrated his prowess with
the knee-board while the boys cheered! :)

I love looking back on the photos of our kids over the past 2.5 years and marvelling at the providence that brought 4 kids from the same orphanage in Ethiopia, home to their families in Minnesota.