Rays of Sunshine

Two very cool things for today.

An Ethiopian friend gave us the meanings of B's Ethiopian names.  When you put his American name along with those names, his whole name has the coolest meaning!

God heard

with his luck

my prayers were answered

How amazing is that?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?  Even before we knew this, we loved his full name, all his names, and hope they represent something of the different facets of him--where he's come from and who he will become.  We thoughtfully chose his American name (which is also an Ethiopian name) with much prayer (and Ababa and I each had dreams that was his name!) but we are amazed at how his whole name also represents our journey to him and God's incredible faithfulness.

No matter what the future holds, and whatever bumps we may encounter in becoming a family, B is truly an answer to our prayers!  We know that God hears our prayers and believe that God is placing B in our family, but we also grieve for the loss B and his birth family have experienced.  We don't understand how the beauty of B joining our family can come from the ashes of loss and pain surrounding the circumstances that are leading to him joining our family but we are grateful that it does and that God is working a miracle in bringing our family together.

For today, I wanted to show this video.  It blew me away and made me smile:-).  I am going to post more of the story of Vilele and his brothers later this week, but for now...here's Vilele.