Ethiopian Food and No one ever told us......

Cooper and I headed to Memphis today to meet up with my brother Craig, his son Eli and our new little guys Ross and Winter.. They had gone to Memphis to do some fun "touristy" things, while Coop and I got some serious homeschooling done. We went to the Children's Museum-it sure has changed since I was there like 10 yrs. ago. And the highlight for our little guys was going to eat some Ethiopian food at The Abyssinian in Memphis-some of the best ET food west of Africa!! We ate all the typical ET foods and Ross and Winter loved hugging the "auntie" that owns the restaurant and loved speaking Amharic with them. What a ton of fun.
Now, we've gone down this adoption road a time or two....okay, say six times. And, we always felt well prepared, by our social worker, for what to expect with each adoption......however, she never told us that a 2 y/o that had never been outside of her orphanage would find such incredible joy in feeling the wind in her hair and the rain on her face. We laughed so loud that people heard us across the parking lot. Nobody ever told us, that we would be so excited and grateful, to a hear, a previously, non-communicative autism affected 5 y/o girl speak in 3-4 word sentences, and respond to conversation with appropriate replies. Now, we can't get her to quit talking! And who knew that her secret language, we call it "Leahnese", (that only she seems to understand) could still make us laugh? Nobody told us that a 6 y/o boy from China would be so proud to have a forever family, that when we left the adoption office, he would "RADIATE" with the excitement that he felt-and not let go of our hands or quit looking at us. No one told us that 2 little boys that spent their first 3-6 yrs. in a remote village in Ethiopia and knew the love of a birth family, only to lose that same family at such tender ages, could desperately desire the love of a family on the other side of the world. Who knew that 6 y/o who had previously been the caretaker for the 3 y/o could so easily relinquish that job of caretaker and become the "little boy" that he should be-and give over the responsibility of the 3 y/o to his new mommy and daddy. No one ever told us that our older children could become so compassionate for others simply by being loved and adored by their new siblings. No one ever told us, that in such a short amount of time of knowing these children that we would learn more about love from them than we had in a whole lifetime. No one ever told us that our "special needs" kids were really just ordinary children disguised as special needs due to their age or a few minor scars. But, most of all, no one ever told us, that we were really the ones with the "special needs". You see, we NEEDED them to make our family complete! These kiddos have blessed our lives beyond measure! If you will consider the possibility of adoption, no one may ever prepare you enough.....there will be all sorts of unexpected pleasure and blessings! And to our social worker, Debby, we forgive you for NOT preparing us for all these hidden blessings and surprises! God, we give you the glory!