Today my special Brave Hearted Chick pick is dear to my heart.  We would not have Zoie Senait in our family without her hard work, diligence and passion for orphans!  Duni Zenaye is an extraordinary hero!  She was our coordinator during our adoption jourey with America World and was dedicated to forever families with a spirit and spunk that was contagious!  When things went really wrong for us in Ethiopia due to paperwork crisis, she jumped on a plane and rescued us!  Zoie & Duni met again three months later at a fundraiser for our Transitional Home.  Duni showed great courage to trust the Lord when He called her to move back to Ethiopia and serve families directly in Addis Ababa!

Keep sharing your BHC nominations… this weekend I’ll announce the winner!

I wanted to share my Brave Hearted Chick pick today that I am honored to call my friend!  Becca Nimrod and her family just returned home from spending 3 months in Ruhengeri, a small town in the northern mountains of Rwanda with views of the volcanoes!!  She and her hubby are paving the way for a Christian camp in Rwanda, changing one life at a time in a country that has been through tremendous pain!  Becca’s incredible adventure in Africa is beautifully expressed in her blog posts… please take the time to visit!  Her heart for Rwanda, orphans and friendships are inspiring.

Don’t forget to enter your BHC pick.. one per day!!  It’s the easiest contest in the bloggy world…. who & why they inspire you!!

It’s so cool for me to read about the awesome BHchicks out there in bloggy world!  I think I need to expand the number of nominations to one chick per day so you can add a few more.  (Ok you can go back and add chicks for the days you missed:)  It really is hard to just pick one!  I will draw the winning chicks name on October 1st for a super Brave Hearted Prize!

Keep those nominations coming…

One of the things I loved about Haiti was all the colorful bows!  Haitian mommies lovingly tie bows all over their daughter’s head!  It’s very traditional and beautiful.  Hannah and I were inspired this weekend to copy the look for Zoie.  We didn’t have any “pretty” bows, so we cut up a bandana.  We couldn’t believe Zoie allowed us to do it!!  Of course I had to take a few photos…

Do you know what it means to be a Brave Hearted Chick?  I know a few “chicks” that fit the definition to the tee!  I wanted to dedicated my new CONTEST to all the Brave Hearted Chicks out there in bloggy world.  You can nominate someone who shows the character of loyalty, faithfulness, bravery, courage, strength in adversity, perseverance, super-hero chick….the list goes on and on.  You can even nominate and share why YOU deserve the title of Brave Hearted Chick!! Life is crazy and painful and wonderful and hard and challenging and miraculous!  Brave Hearted Chicks never give up, they never stop praying, they never stop believing that God will overcome and move mountains.  Extraordinary Heroes!

BHC Contest starts today.  All you need to do is share briefly who is your special “chick” and “why” you want to nominate her.  It’s that simple.  Don’t forget to add her first and last name in the comments. Also, please only one nomination per day. I hope husbands and brothers and sons and dads join in on the fun, too.  There are a lot of BHC’s out there!!

On October 1st, I will vote on the top 10 Brave Hearted Chick nominations and draw a winner for a super cool prize.

Hannah has begged for a purity ring for the past year.  I wanted to share what we did for her “ring” ceremony for her 13th birthday.  Her friends sat on bean bags and I shared with the girls that turning 13 was a big deal!  Hannah has been blessed with wonderful friends, so there was an anticipation in the air.  I explained that purity means many things.  A choice to stay pure spiritually in how we dress and how we talk and how we behave around our friends, as well as in dating.  When I presented the tiny box, I told my daughter that wearing this very special gift was a choice, just like her salvation.  She could open it up and choose to wear it as a symbol for all to see.  It’s a public statement and commitment that Hannah is a follower of Jesus Christ! The best part, her friends also made a commitment to keep her accountable and watch her back.   I shared that Hannah will make mistakes and fall, but we all need to be there to support, encourage and pick her up… always pointing her back to the cross!  When she put the ring on her tiny finger, it was emotional for me; I have a teenage daughter making a personal decision to keep her relationship with her Savior #1 priority.  The photo was the last part of the ring ceremony. (ring ordered from James Avery-True Love Waits in silver)

We had so much fun at Silver Dollar City for Hannah’s 13th b-day bash.  The crazy girls dressed up in their silly costumes and ran through the park for 6 hours.  It rained and it poured and the old man even snored.  We still have no idea how Zoie made it, but she had a blast, too!  Roger and I enjoyed the many snack pit stops with hot coffee and homemade treats!  We are so happy to celebrate new teen’s happy day with the coolest craziest girlies!

Bloggy friends, some of you have been here from the beginning and have followed us faithfully on our adoption journey and supporting all 3 blogs we’ve created through the years.  I’m still learning how to make our new blog a one-stop-shop for learning more about adoption.  Thanks for your cheers & support.  Your comments are like little presents to me!  As a special thank you, we have collected a few of “my favorite things” and the visitor that makes the 99,999th bloggy hit WINS!  All you need to do is keep peeking at the top right side of blog for the counter ticker.  If you are the big winner, just take a pic and leave me a comment announcing who you are.  I love contests!

What a special day to celebrate our daughter turning 13!  We can’t believe we can finally and officially call Hannah a teenager!  She is our walking miracle, a beautiful micro preemie and our gift from God.  Hannah was born at 26 weeks old and weighed only 2 pounds at birth.  You could hold her in one hand.  All odds were against her staying alive, but God did mighty miracles for our tiny girl.  Making her birthday video today brought me to tears.  The memories flooded back how precious and fragile life is and how every day has been a gift having her in our family.  Hannah, you never gave up the fight and you kept climbing high!  You are stunning and hilarious and loving and kind and thoughtful and above all, a child of the King.  You inspired us to adopt and our lives will never be the same.  We love you.  Happy Birthday!  Please leave her tons of b-day wishes & we’ll have her read them tonight!

Later today, I will share a personal journal entry that I wrote when she was born.  Come back soon…

We have 2 winners for the bloggy hit contest!  80,000 + 80,001 = cool prize!  AWAA’s very own Pete Juvinall was the big hit and new friend Gin! Thank you for being such cool bloggy friends!

My awesome tween wanted a big change to start off the school year.  Brand new school + Jr. High = bangs!!  She cut out hundreds of “bang” pictures before settling on the perfect bang cut.  She has the longest, thickest… I’ll say it again, the thickest hair in our entire family!  She wears the Kanakuk bun everyday, a do that all the cool college counselors wear during the summer.  We were shocked that after years of long bangs she wanted to cut them off.  Bang Bang!

Meteku Becomes Benaiah

Our friend Kari met our Meteku last summer in the transition home and took LOTS of photos and video! It was such a gift to receive those from her -especially since we had such a long wait before we could bring him home!

This weekend, Kari and Meteku were reunited. He has grown so much! He looked like a sickly little doll in last year’s photo! Kari looks great in both!

It was an honor to celebrate KristiAnna’s Quinceanera 15th birthday celebration!  An amazing family celebrating their beautiful daughter, God, friends and fun! Michael was really excited to be a part of the 13 Chamberlains!

Hannah ran in her very first cross country meet!  We were so proud!  It was a huge meet and our Awesome H never lost her smile.