PRAISING!!!!!!!

I'm am so unbelievably happy for my wonderful friends, the Mihnoviches! They have been faithfully praying for and pursuing four beautiful children, Nate, Mercy, Isaiah, and James from Ethiopia for adoption for a year now and passed court today! Their oldest daughter Elle goes to school with me and went to Ethiopia and Uganda this past summer with me as well. I love them so much and couldn't be happier--- I can't wait to meet the newest members fo their family! For some reason my little link thing won't work, but if you type in http://ourunveiledfaces.blogspot.com it will take you right there! Happy Happy Tuesday!

Imagination is...

...wearing a homemade Lord of the Rings cloak and a scarf in the snow just because you can.

.... being absolutely convinced that Beaver's Dam and Tumnus's cave are just beyond the lampost. ... tucking your bathrobe tassel in your baby sister's pants.....

...because she asked you for a tail

Yup-we're havin' fun down in the snowy south!

Have I ever mentioned....

Have I ever mentioned that I happen to be obsessed with baby names? I'm surprised at myself for not saying something sooner. Really. OBSESSED. I hardly converse on any topic with more delight than names. Few, very very few people will talk with me about it long enough for me to voluntarily change the subject.

Oh, and I don't just love random names floating around--- I like categorizing them and thinking about how they go with other names.

Did someone say names? Funny- I love names! While we're on the subject, d'you want to discuss a few? GREAT!

So, there are those names which I like, but not enough to name my child, there are those names which I think are so much fun but I'm not quite sure my child would still love me if I named them that, and there are those names which I can see myself having a child with that name.

How do you feel about:
Ivy --- been planning on naming my daughter this since I was eight. It means 'ivy' duhhh. But it always makes me think of Life- of things that are green and growing

Bethlehem --- as in "oh little town of"--- its actually a common name in Ethiopia. "But, you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days." ~Micah 5:2~

Joseph ---- its my little brother's name and Joseph father of Jesus is one of my VERY VERY FAVORITE characters in the Bible. It means, 'He shall add" and it is usually taken to mean "God shall add another son". The meaning doesn't really do a ton for me, but I'd name my son after my brother and the biblical hero, not for what it means, on this one.

alright, so those are just a few of my all-time-favorites-I-might -name-my-child-this kind of names.

ALSO:

Sparrow- I'm afraid that I won't have the courage to do this to my own little girl, but if some Mommy out there does, go her!

Please tell me what you think!!! Extensively! :)

I take it back!!!!!

For us, this is one SERIOUS snowday! Whoo Hoo!

Snow Day?

well.... sort of....... at least school is closed!

Beauty

The other day, my mom and my dad made stairs. They lead down to the basement where I live. Since we moved in a couple years ago, it has been a long, steep, absolutely hideous staircase. But when my parents decide that they were going to fix it, just "a little better" wasn't good enough for them. I've been taught that the more beautiful that we can make the most ordinary of things, the more we are showing forth the beauty and the glory of the Lord. My parents believe it. They don't even just believe it, they act on it.


Aren't they pretty? Crafted and designed entirely by hand. This picture doesn't really do it justice. Every time I open the door to go downstairs my heart jumps a little.

In our world of fast, easy, momentary practicality and machines, how often do we stop and praise God for the beauty around us? How often do we praise Him for calling us to be sub-creators?




How often do we acknowledge the overwhelming beauty of what He has made? And praise Him?

Amharic (and Happy New Year!)

Happy 2010, folks! If I were the reporters on T.V. I would say something like: "Well, a lot of people had a really tough 2009, and we are all looking forward to 2010 being a very promising year for the economy" because they say that every year, and it's usually true. But, since I'm not on T.V. I'd rather say something like: "God is faithful last year, and God is faithful this year. Praise Him." Because that is sure to be true.

So, I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but this year (or last year, I guess) I began studying Amharic--- the official language of Ethiopia. I felt very convicted that the Lord was calling me to learn this language, because let me tell you, otherwise I would have quit months ago. I'm still just barely beginning, but it is certainly getting easier now. The biggest problem is that they have a different alphabet, which makes translating take two steps: translating it into English letters and then translating the actual word. Oh, and this isn't just any old different alphabet, no, it has 251 letters. Yeahhhhh. I about cried when I found that out. To give you an idea, here is a picture of the traditional Amharic Fidel (alphabet).

The other thing is, there isn't a very consistent way to translate from Amharic to English, and not many learning tools for it. I'm homeschooling myself in this course, but I'm sure it would be far easier to just live there for a while and pick it up.

Frustrating? YES.

But when I think about this face:

And this one:

And this one:

I know its worth it. :)