Marvelly lost her FIRST tooth!

And I do mean lost it!

She bumped her chin on the bathtub a few weeks ago while in Burkina Faso and knocked her tooth loose. It's been wiggly and wiggly but not wanting to come out, and while here in Virginia one night while she was throwing up sick, she woke up in the middle of the night and it was gone! She either lost it in the throw up, or swallowed it while she was sleeping!

Mommy still left her $1.00 under her pillow the next night anyways, even without her tooth!

My little Marvi girl lost her first tooth! So happy for her!

Our first week back in Virginia

It has been a good week back in the U.S. 

We just got back from taking a tour of Justin's lab and having lunch with Jordan, Becca, Joel and Justin before Jordan and Becca get on the road and drive back to Delaware. 

They arrived into town Friday evening and we've spent this weekend visiting with them and soaking up as much time together as we can.

It's been a good week. 

A very good week. Restful. Full of peace and ease and loads of laughter. It's nice coming back. We didn't realize how much we would miss the U.S. until we were gone and it's great to be able to come back and enjoy all that our country has to offer, even if just for a month. 

So far we have gotten reacquainted with Walmart, Target, a mall, and I have come to discover that as nice as those retail options are to have....they don't hold the appeal that they used to. I found myself walking through Target and thinking, I don't need any of this. I don't want any of this stuff. We'd go in, get exactly what we needed and not feel this compulsive need to buy buy buy because we'd been without it for so long. I feel that in our time away it has made us much more practical and disinterested in shopping the way we used to.

I needed a new pair of jeans so I went to American Eagle, and walked out with a new pair of jeans.....that was it.

I kinda surprised myself. That's so unlike the me of the past! 

I had big plans to go to the movies A LOT while we were here. I had a list all ready of all the movies that were coming out that I wanted to see. But once we got here, me and Isaak were like, meh, lets just wait six months until they come out on Itunes and watch it at home.

We are so used to living without all of these wonderful stores and luxuries that we don't really care whether we partake of them or not. The appeal is no longer there. It's a lot easier and cost effective and cozy to just download a new movie from Itunes and watch it from home. Yes, we are watching it months after it's release, but who cares? 

I will say, however; that the food here has NOT lost its appeal. We have been taking full advantage of the delicious food available. The day we landed we went straight to Mcdonald's for some happy meals, hit up the grocery store the following day for some strawberries, grapes, and fish. 

The accessibility of food here just leaves me shaking my head, I can't get over it. I mean, everything, everything is just right at your fingertips. A plethora of cheeses, oh my gosh, the cheese. The fruits and fish and yogurt and desserts. The restaurants that are open all the time. The ease of pre-made food that you can just pop in the oven and not even have to cook. For dinner on Saturday we popped two aluminum pans of yeast rolls into the oven and 25 minutes later they were ready to go. The tortillas we used for our Mexican night to roll up the burritos we just pulled out of a bag. Tortillas in Burkina are a two hour process. Beans take all day to make in the crockpot. But here, food is just so easy and accessible. I love it. Dinners here can actually take 30 minutes to cook! From start to finish! I don't know the last time I made dinner in thirty minutes. Somedays I have to start cooking at noon for it to be ready by 6pm. 

I feel a lot healthier. Being able to eat a lot of good food definitely helps. But I am moving around a lot more. I was outside with the kids this week (despite the cold) and just walking around the property, pushing Steve in the little tykes car, playing on the swings, walking through parking lots, up and down stairs...just regular life moving feels good. I don't move around that much in Burkina. Yes, I exercise, but that is intentional moving. I'm talking about the moving that comes just from living life and doing regular stuff. The climate there is so extreme and just the living conditions and culture being so vastly different I don't move as much. Burkina doesn't have these huge parking lots to walk through to get to stores. Burkina doesn't have big yards or sidewalks, our house doesn't have stairs, and it's a lot harder to move your body around their naturally. Well, for me and most other expats living in the country...not the Burkinabés. I have a car and indoor plumbing. I don't spend my days walking on foot to a nearby well and lugging jugs of water back on my head. Burkinabés move all the time. They are strong and get a lot of exercise just by living life. Me on the other hand, I could probably benefit from lugging around some water on a daily basis. Just walking up to Jaclyn's third floor makes me winded! 

But we are so so happy to be back.

In addition to the eating and the little bit of retail shopping we have done, we were also able to knock out some appointments this week as well. The girls both had dental visits, me and Sydaleigh both had eye exams, and I got a much needed hair cut. Hallelujah.  

Last night we all gathered at Joel's house and we all got to see Uncle Chris, Aunt Jane, Justin, Lisa, Emma and their five day old new baby Olivia. She is precious! As well as Jacob, Heather and all their little boys, plus Raymond and Kelsey and Jaclyn and Keith came over in addition to Jordan, Becca, Abby and Victoria. It was a full house over there! I thought my heart was going to burst from joy getting to see and spend time with so much family. Gosh I love my people. Steve was just beside himself with joy as well. He kept saying, "they're all mine!" Yes little man, this crazy family is all yours. 

It has been a good week. We drove around and looked at Christmas lights, introduced the family to Ticket to Ride, the kids have played outside non-stop for hours on end not caring that it is only 30 degrees outside some days. Isaak has gotten to shoot guns in the back yard with Keith, I have enjoyed the simple pleasures of helping Jaclyn clean the house, and we all accompanied Keith and Jaclyn to pick out their Christmas tree and decorate it together.

Marvelly's the only one who has gotten sick so far with a quick 12 hour throw up bug but everyone else has been feeling good. Very good. We are rested. Everyone is over the jet lag and no longer waking up at 5am and we have throughly enjoyed our first week back. 

It's been good. 

I am thankful for the opportunity to be back and am relishing every single grape and strawberry that I eat! 

Three hours left.....

Our plane for the U.S. leaves in exactly three hours! Our first flight to Belgium is five hours, then we have a six hour layover in Brussels, then we have an eight hour flight to Dulles, VA.

The kids have been talking non. stop all day asking when we are leaving, absolutely giddy with excitement. Since our plane doesn't leave until almost 11pm tonight, they are currently chilling on the couch catching a little bit of rest before we leave for the airport. It's gonna be a loooooong time getting there, but we're excited to chill out on board and watch some movies...and hopefully sleep!

Bon voyage to us!

Cold season in Burkina

When the girl's left for school this morning at 7:30 the temperature was in the mid 60's. They were shivering as they got onto the bus in their shorts and flip flops.

Cold season in Burkina has officially arrived.

By this afternoon though temperatures will climb back up to the mid 90's (it's wonderful)...hence sending the girls to school in shorts. No matter how cold it gets in Burkina at times, it's always summer. It's been nice living in a climate that only experiences brief hours during the entire year where temperatures dip down to the sixties. We like it. Well, I like it, because I dislike the cold. Everyone else misses the winter weather....although for the life of me I can't fathom why!

Steve was especially cold this morning. As we got into the car to drive Isaak to work, Steve was shivering and saying, "me cold, me cold!". I know buddy, me too!

By 8:30am it was 70 degrees and as we sat at the doctors office on their terrace we shivered as the wind blew in through the screens.

I have determined that 70 degrees is as cold as I like it to get outside.



I also have a feeling that if 70 degrees causes us to be shivering cold now....we may die when we land in the U.S. tomorrow where the high in Virginia this weekend and onward is 51 degrees....and that's the high. Like, the absolute highest it will get all day. And before it can get that high, first it must get down to 32 degrees and then climb it's way back up. God help me, my blood may freeze before I ever make it through the parking lot of the airport!

I think I like Burkina's idea of winter way better than cold weathered countries. I'm just not cut out for prolonged cold temperatures anymore...I would much rather sweat than shiver!

Venez avec moi.

Come with me....

A woman walking next to her bike alongside a busy street with one of her babies wrapped on her back and the other sleeping on the bicycle seat.

A young man carefully peddles his way forward with twenty four water containers strapped to his bicycle.

A woman peddles her bike towards the market while her daughter sits on the rear in the early morning after a fresh rain fall.

Scenes from Burkina.

Our last Christmas in Burkina

The day after Thanksgiving Isaak and the kids could wait no more, so we pulled out our one small box of Christmas decor and got to work decorating the house. It took like fifteen minutes. The lego building took the longest. I love love love how we've simplified Christmas.

Isaak and Sydaleigh hard at work putting together our Christmas lego villages.

Part of the completed village being played with by Marvelly. She doesn't have much patience for following the directions to build Legos as the booklets dictate, but the girl does love to build them with nothing but her imagination to tell her how it should look. And she loves to play with them!

Our little tree. It has served us well for the second year now and will make a great addition to our church's decorations next year. But for this year, I let the kids have at it one last time and decorate as they saw fit. It is really the perfect height for my kiddos. We may never go back to a big tree again, this is just so convenient for them.

Hard at work making the tree beautiful with all the special ornaments we've made since moving here.

Steve's first time decorating a tree. He just followed the girl's lead and got right to work. After they finished I left it on the floor for a while because Steve was having the best time taking all the ornaments on and off again and again, putting them in new spots each time.

Our simple little tree that I love. And my handmade stockings. I made one for Steve this week out of some extra Air Force fabric I had.

Late Friday night me and Isaak stayed up till near 1:30am watching the new Planet of the Apes movie, which was so bad in my opinion. My gosh, after the first thirty minutes of hearing nothing but grunts and sign language and your occasional "huumans. gooo." I was over it. But, it made for good background noise (not really) while we wrapped presents.

I started a new buying tradition this year to keep our gift giving simple and prevent the tendency of going overboard. And I LOVED it. The kids get one toy, one puzzle, a book, and a movie. And that's it. Something to play with, something to read, something to watch, and something to put together. And it was perfect. They didn't ask for more presents (except for Steve-who actually got three toys, but it was his first Christmas. ) It was all very intentional to their interests and they were so completely satisfied and it made buying easier, less to wrap, less to clean up....it was just good. I am sticking with this for as long as I can.

Before we went to bed Friday night (Saturday morning) I put the girl's suitcases filled with their clothes by the tree and put their plane tickets in their stockings. We couldn't wait to surprise them with an early Christmas and news that we were heading to the U.S.!

We were certain that they would wake up before us Saturday morning and run into the room after seeing the tree, but they were dead tired and me and Isaak eventually had to go in and wake them up ourselves.

We told them that it was time to open presents and they did not even bat an eye, they didn't ask a single question or find it odd in any way! They just ran to the tree READY!! Ha ha! I loved it. They were just like, "yeah, lets do this!" No questions asked. I was really hoping that they actually would ask, "hey Mom, why are we opening presents early?" to give me a segue into us going on vacation. But they didn't. =)

So we had them sit in front of the tree, by their bags, which they were not at all perplexed about why they were sitting by their presents. I had each girl open up their bag, and when they did their little brain wheels finally started spinning and they wondered why there was clothes in their suitcases. I then handed them their stockings and they pulled out their tickets and we finally told them we were going on vacation to the States in six days! They gave a little squeal, shook their arms in delight, and then were ready to get down to business of opening their gifts-ha ha!!

It wasn't the over the top I'm so excited I'm crying response we anticipated them having....but it was still awesome.

Steve has been asking, like, every single hour when we are going bye-bye on the airplane. That's been fun trying to explain to him who has no concept of time. =)

So happy.

I am gonna be rockin' out on my new Zumba for the Wii. There is no better way to exercise than by dancing, or something that promotes fierce competition.

Steve was hilarious. He would open a present and then immediately say, "me want more Mommy". Ha ha! I know buddy. Christmas is a special time. The girls were so excited for him. They loved watching him open his gifts and share in his excitement. They were excited for themselves, but they were equally excited for him and shared his enthusiasm and joy for celebrating his first Christmas with us. 

It was such a good morning. We loved getting to surprise them like this. It was such a fun way to celebrate our last Christmas in Burkina.

Next up....Christmas in Virginia!!

We're going to the U.S. in FOUR days!

In other big news we are finally able to leave the country and return home for a brief visit to the States!

And we leave in FOUR days!! GLORY!!

Thanks to Steven's finalized adoption we were able to schedule his visa appointment for Wednesday of this week, and his Burkinabé passport should be stamped with a non-immigrant visa by Friday morning before we leave that night.

It's cutting it close, but that's how we roll!

We actually bought tickets over a month ago to leave on the 15th of this month, praying and believing in faith that God would move mountains to get this show on the road and wrap up his adoption in time for us to return to the States for Christmas.

We've been sitting on pins and needles since October, praying that everything would work out for us to go. We passed court in October (on the very first time! That rarely happens!) Passing court, very simply put, gave us the last official green light by the Burkina government to be able to adopt Steven. They reviewed all of our paperwork from the beginning and gave us their official stamp of approval to complete this process. From the time you pass court we were told it would take ~ one to two months to finalize the adoption. The first thirty days following court is a time when any family members can come forward and contest the adoption. And if no one comes forward (which they didn't), they can proceed with the remaining paperwork, which is big things like his new birth certificate and passport.

Well, shortly after we passed court the revolution happened and the government was dissolved so we were wondering just how exactly this was going to affect our end process.

I knew God had this, I just wondered how this was going to play out and how close He was going to cut it! Sometimes God likes to take His time and pull out a miracle at the very last minute!

Thankfully the Lord placed incredibly people in our life here like Ruth, and our lawyer Bado, and our social worker Adiara who were such big big big advocates for our case and pressured the powers at be to really push our paperwork through.

We ran into some delays, and of course, some more last minute drama...like Social Action losing our paperwork. Like, really really mega important paperwork from Steven's dossier. They lost it (lost papers that they themselves generated) and then never informed us, and without that paperwork they were not able to release the papers needed for our lawyer to create some more papers in order to have a passport made which we need in order to get a visa, which we need in order to leave the country.

This thing....it's quite the process! And the headache!

Thankfully, Adiara uncovered their blunder (more like got them to admit to it), informed Ruth who thankfully had a copy of this paperwork that Social Action lost, things started moving again, and voila, in less than three days time we were done. Ruth told us on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving that it would be over a week (in perfect timing) for them to finish everything. But, again, by God's divine hand He managed to motivate them to accomplish it in three. After this process moving along at a snails pace, to have these papers completed in three days time is a huge achievement for Burkina!

Then we found out on Thursday of last week that Brussel's airline is going on strike on the 15th...the day we were set to leave the country, but thankfully we were rebooked for an earlier flight on Friday the 12th.

And with our visa interview set for Wednesday of this week, Thursday is a national holiday so everything is closed, we were told that we would receive his visa on Friday.

Praying that everything goes well and that there is not a single reason under the sun that they can't issue Steve his visa in time for us to leave that night. It's gonna be close!

During all of this, the last two months, we've kept our impending trip to the States a secret from the girls. We didn't want to tell them that we bought tickets, just for something to happen (and of course things happened) that could derail our trip. We wanted to wait and make it a really special surprise once everything was completed and we were on track to actually be able to leave. So we had plans to surprise them with an early Christmas on the Sunday before we left, so that we could tell them we were leaving for the U.S. the next day. But, with the airline striking and our leave date being pushed up, we decided to surprise them with an early Christmas this past Saturday.

And now, since the big reveal, all we can talk about is our trip! It's been 14 months since we've left Burkina's rich red soil and we are ready for a little break.

The girls are giddy with enthusiasm to go back and see family and enjoy the extra goodness that is Happy Meals, Red Robin, strawberries and, lets face it, most of our talk is about the food that awaits us! Oh my gosh, we can't wait to eat our favorite foods again. It's gonna be good.

So, we're down to four days until we leave.

We have a ton of stuff to finish before we go- but God willing it will all get done. Most importantly Steve's visa!

SO EXCITED!!!!!!!

C'est fini! Our adoption is finished!!

In November of 2009 we began the process to adopt a son.

That was over five years ago.

Five years.

Five years of meetings, classes, paperwork, background checks, home studies, home study renewals, moves, new continent, new agencies, new case workers, countless checks paid, tears, unimaginable grief and setbacks and challenges, unimaginable joy in small triumphs and baby steps forward, applications, interviews, and every major and minor detail in between.

We have experienced so much. More than what we bargained for. More than we thought we could handle. This process has been very long, and very complicated. And started long before our feet landed on Burkina soil.

The Lord, in His divine wisdom planted the desire to adopt in our hearts over five years ago, while we lived in the United States. That desire led us to sign up for a domestic adoption with an agency in Nebraska.

I remember those years in Nebraska, going through the adoption process, wondering year after year whenever the phone rang if it would be our case worker calling with news that a birth mother picked our profile. Wondering when we would be selected. If we would be selected. We were told to be patient. We were told the number of prospective adoptive parents wanting children far outweighed the number of children available for adoption.

So we waited. And waited.

I remember praying during those years of waiting. Praying for our son. Praying, specifically, that no matter where he was in the world that the Lord would bring us together, somehow.

In my limited narrow focused view of life, however; I thought that the Lord would bring our son and his birth mother from wherever they were....to Nebraska, where we lived.

But in a turn of events that only the Lord could foresee, He didn't bring our long prayed for child to us. He brought us to him. 

He presented us with an opportunity to move to Burkina Faso, a place where the number of children in need of a family far outweighed the number of families lined up to adopt them.

And in doing so he led us straight to the boy who would become our son.

Three years later and five thousand miles away from where we started, he moved us to him. He brought us together. In the most unexpected and unconventional way that I ever would have expected.

I'm so glad we chose to say "yes" to God. Yes to adopting. Yes to moving. Yes to doing hard things that led us into the great unknown but turned out to be more satisfying and exciting and hard and gut wrenchingly beautiful than we ever imagined.

His plans are always better. Always.

And this plan, His plan, His path for answering this prayer....far far exceeded my expectations. It was harder. It was longer. And it was more costly in every imaginable way.

It brought us to the brink of despair. Unknown depths of discouragement and frustration. But also overwhelming joy. Unshakable trust in His provisions. A deep assurance in His love for us. And a peace that transcended all understanding. We are more fearless. More faithful. More trusting. And more steadfast in our faith now than when we started. We've toed the line with discouragement and mounting obstacles and watched the Lord bulldoze every single one of them down that stood in His path to place His child in the arms of a family.

What a journey. What an honor it has been to walk this path. Difficulties and all. He saw in us a willing heart, and from that willingness and desire to follow Him and have faith that is authentic He allowed us to face trial after trial after trial....so that in the end we would be stronger. To learn to a greater degree how to lean on Him and draw strength from his unlimited supply. To be more reliant on Him. To be more assured of His presence and care over us. Less afraid to follow Him when He calls again. More willing to leave it all behind for the glory of His name.

He is better than good. His love is unmatched. He is faithful beyond measure. His timing is not our timing. What He allows us to face is for a greater purpose. The path He urges our feet to tread is not going to be walked in vain.

The Lord delights in us. And my soul delights in Him.

And it was an honor being called to walk this walk. Because at the end of it was not only a little boy that I get to call son, but a God I have the intimate pleasure of calling Father.

So after five years of laboring, the wait is finally over. It is with great joy and relief that I can say our adoption journey has finally come to an end. Praise. the . Lord.

On December 2nd, 2015 we were given the last of the paperwork signifying the completion of this process.

Finley Steven Kaboré Brooks is our son.

And to celebrate we had ice cream from Festival de Glace. We took a real life picture with no cute posing, matching clothes (except now that I look at it Syd and Marvi are actually wearing the same shirt-ha ha!), brushed hair or makeup. We set up the timer on the point and shoot and hurried together to quickly commemorate this day before digging back into our ice cream and reveling in the joy of being done. Sydaleigh and Marvelly were so cute, while Isaak and Steve went to pick up the ice cream they washed the table, Sydaleigh swept the floor and cleaned Steve's chair so everything could be nice and clean for when he got back. Sydaleigh recommended that we sing "Your adoption is done" to the tune of Happy Birthday to you. This has been a long process for them too. And they were just as ecstatic as we were to hear that it was finally over. I sure do love these kids of mine.

So, welcome to the family forever, my little Stevie Wonder boy. We're so glad we have you.



*And to every person who ever prayed a prayer on our behalf during this process, my sincerest thanks. Your prayers sustained us during this time and your support and encouragement was life to this weary soul. May the Lord bless you for your faithfulness to carry this burden with us in prayer.

You never know what you'll see here.

I was driving back from the Embassy yesterday morning, and on my route home I drove up next to a couple hundred people wearing white lab coats walking along the road. Hmmm...this is weird, and random, I thought. Wonder what they're doing? 

There were so many of them that they blocked traffic as they made their way around the traffic circle....the exact route I was taking home. We sat at the light for nearly ten minutes waiting for them to move.

And when I say they blocked traffic, I mean one of the lab coat wearing people took the role as traffic monitor and refused to let us pass until all his comrades made it through the intersection. This place cracks me up!

By the time traffic started moving again and I made it through the intersection I barely had enough room to drive around them. I was one of two lone cars that drove on the street with them. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that all the other cars were much smarter and just drove on the wrong side of the street towards oncoming traffic to get out of their path.

I much preferred dodging people with my car as I narrowly navigated myself between the throngs of lab coat wearing protestors while I took pictures with my camera. (Proud to say- I hit no one, man or moto!)

And then wouldn't ya know it, five hours later when I was leaving the grocery store, I passed them again as they were walking back on the other side of the street this time. So weird. And funny. And random!  

I see the most out of the ordinary things while driving. Like the young man at the intersection yesterday wearing a santa hat selling a bag of limes and an inflatable penguin. 

One of the many, many reasons I love Burkina. You NEVER know what you are going to see when you leave the house. It is so unpredictable! 

This is why I never leave home without a camera!