Our house has been a flurry of activity and adjustments this year! As Christmas quickly approaches we are taking some extra time to quiet our home and hearts in order to prepare for Christ's birthday, what a special day for all of us! We hope you are able to find some quiet time with your family and friends as well.
January was a wonderful start to our year, as we saw the faces of our new sons for the first time on January 19th! After praying for our new children for 6 months, we were finally matched with two beautiful boys and started the process to bring them home! They are six years old, making them five months older than Hunter. What a joy to have "non-traditional triplets"!!!
February was a rather calm month which brought Lincoln and I's sixth wedding anniversary.
March was a month mixed with all kinds of emotions. My Grandma went home to be with Jesus. She was admitted to the hospital on her birthday, March 1st, had open heart surgery, and stayed there until March 19th when she met Jesus face to face! We also passed court in Ethiopia, and Blake and Silas legally became our sons on Lincoln's birthday, exactly one week later, on March 26th. God has had His hand all over this adoption process, and as yet another reminder, we passed court exactly one year from the night that we made the commitment to say Yes to God and pursue international adoption.
April was filled with Hunter playing soccer again, and Lincoln and I preparing to leave for Ethiopia. We gathered lots of donations to take to the orphanage where our boys had been staying.
May was a huge month for our family, as Lincoln and I traveled to Ethiopia to meet and bring home our new sons, Blake Bizayehu and Silas Sintayehu. The travel was 24 hours and we were away from Hunter and Graysen for 10 days. It was a huge trip, but so worth it! Ethiopia is a beautiful country, full of a rich culture and very warm people (not to mention the food is great!). Becoming instant parents to six year old boys who speak no English was very interesting to say the least, but such a fun experience! There was lots of charades for the first several weeks, and anyone who saw us got a good laugh I'm sure! Graysen also had her very first dance recital on May 15th! Mommy and Daddy missed it, as we were in Germany on our way to Ethiopia...ironic that a dance teacher misses her daughter's first recital, isn't it?!
June was a month of cocooning in our home learning all about our new family members and learning to become one family again. We also started the process to readopt the boys in the US.
In July we traveled to Branson for Lincoln's annual family reunion over the 4th. We also appeared in court on July 14th and Blake and Silas became American citizens!
August was a fun month. Hunter turned six on August 5th. We celebrated with a birthday party at a mini-golf course! All three boys started kindergarten August 12th. They are in three different classes, which has kept me busy!
September brought another soccer season, this time with all three of our boys playing! Lincoln helped coach their team this year, his first time coaching a little kids team. I think they all enjoyed the time together. We spent another fairly quiet month, as the boys were adjusting to starting school.
October was fun starting all the fall activities again. Fall is one of our most favorite times of the year, and we had a blast going to pumpkin patches, carving pumpkins, and preparing our Halloween costumes (Hunter was Woody, Blake was a Toy Solider, Silas was Buzz Lightyear, and Graysen was Jessie...all characters from Toy Story!) Lincoln took his fifth annual Disc Golf Road Trip with his brothers. They went to Michigan this year and had a wonderful time!
In November Lincoln started coaching basketball again. This is his seventh year coaching at the local High School. We also were extra thankful for our family all being together over Thanksgiving.
In December Ashley was able to take a girls weekend trip to Chicago with two long time girlfriends. We had a great time shopping, going to the spa, and seeing The Nutcracker. We are loving experiencing Christmas with the kids, as it is Silas and Blake's first experience with Christmas!
Much love from our home to yours,
Lincoln, Ashley, Blake, Silas, Hunter, and Graysen Redburn
1 comment:
I just posted my letter for the year too! :) It's amazing how I feel like the past year has flown by, yet with all the changes, challenges, and new joys from the Lord, it feels like it should have been so much longer than a year! I enjoyed seeing all He has done in and through your family this year too...Merry Christmas, and I pray you'll have a wonderfully blessed new year full of even more growth in Him! :)
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