Author: Lyndsay Taylor

*Today is Selah’s 4th birthday! Wow! What a precious, crazy, unbelievable 4 years. She has brought so much joy and wonder into my life.

Tonight I was reading to Selah the “Sweet Dreams Princess” version of Galatians 5:22, the passage about the Fruit of the Spirit. It was completely going over her head, and after I tried to explain how the Lord helps us to be kind, gentle, and patient, I said to her, “Okay. If the Lord plants love like a seed in your heart, what do you think will grow in your heart and then in your life?” She paused and looked down for a second to think about it, then looked up at me with her hands turned up and said, “Yogurt??”

While we were worshipping on Sunday morning, we were singing about our desire for God to come like the sunrise, finally bringing His justice and mercy for us all, asking Him to rise in the darkness and bring us peace…I loved this imagery (major props to God and Jamie Foster, who wrote the song), and I was just thanking God that this is WHO HE IS!! He IS justice and mercy and light, and He will bring these things to earth in His time (read Isaiah for more!!) I can’t wait. For those around the world in desperate need, I know He is at work through His Church, but I know that true deliverance and freedom is waiting in the wings with the return of Jesus. 

Hope everyone enjoys the new pictures! I thought Selah’s sidewalk chalk drawings were so great; and seeing our family with Yemi has been wonderful! Everyone is doing really well here although it is louder and busier than ever before; Yemi (9 1/2 months old) is starting to crawl (she’s really good at the army crawl all of a sudden), and is sitting up by herself! Selah (almost 4)  is being an awesome big sis, and we’re all just thrilled that it is spring!!! 

Please pray for this situation with us: The Ethiopian government is concerned because there are so many babies being abandoned and brought into orphanages in the past few months. Apparently, there has been a sharp increase. They have halted all court dates/cases of abandoned babies until further notice in order to look into these concerns. Whatever searching the police have done for parents of abandoned babies must be re-done from what I understand. There are so many families who have already received referrals and were waiting on their court date, and now they are left with the unknown of “until further notice”.  Please intercede! We know what unknowns feel like, and these families just want to know that it IS going to work out. Pray for the peace of the Lord for these families, and that God will give them grace to handle this. Pray for the judges, police, and others involved in Ethiopian government who are doing what they think is best; pray for justice and mercy and for not a day to be lost for these children. Pray for the investigations to go quickly and be resolved in wisdom. Pray for the Lord to move. He is in control and He sets the boundaries; may His will be done. Thank you for praying.

Wow. What a day! Does anyone else ever feel like their kids and babies are yelling at them all day? Yemi and Selah took turns harassing me today since I woke up. I’m joking, but good grief, it is always something! Everyone is fine, it’s just “Harass Mommy Day” here… You know, the “I didn’t want my apple sauce in this blue bowl” and “whah, whah, whah” but with real tears for no reason (that I can figure out anyway). A new tactic I’m trying (since my natural reaction would be to say things I should not) is to be quiet and make crazy faces. So far, I’ve humored myself, and that’s really all I was going for.

I am so thankful for seasons, both literally and figuratively, and WHOA did we just come out of a long winter! I know it’s irrational, but there were times during the winter months, with the horror-film-looking-trees, enveloping grey skies, and icy rainy days that I wondered if spring really was going to ever come back. This year it seemed to especially drag on…all the while, in the same months, our adoption turned from a happy autumn kind of feeling to the dead of winter.

When we traveled to Ethiopia, there were several other families also adopting from there, and one of these families had a second miracle added to their miracle of adoption that week.  In Addis Ababa, there are many beggars on the streets. Some are children leading blind grandmothers; some are mothers holding small babies in rags. Some are men with deformities or mental illness. All are heartbreaking. All make my mind go to Isaiah, and God’s promises of a new Kingdom and a new King. I mean, I just see who they will be in a matter of seconds when He returns.

We had a great day today! I worked out in the yard with Yemi in the front carrier–she loved it, and it was wonderful to be outside, getting things looking nice for the summer ahead of us. Yemi is doing better; we’re figuring out a few things, like that she wants her bottle first, and then maybe half an hour later will eat her other foods.  She’s been happy so much of the time, but when she is tired or hungry (and I’m trying to keep a schedule so I know what is going on, but still she surprises me) she is really, really unhappy all of a sudden! She has a lot to get used to, and we are taking it slow. I learned with Selah that it is ALL about expectations. If I expect to have to stay calm and be patient as I let their emotions ride out, or if I expect from the start I may not get to do something I planned that day, things just work out a lot better! (And I don’t get as aggravated.) So thankful that we have such a wonderful life that we can be laid back and adjust to whatever happens. For now anyway!