favorites

my mom brought back over 1,500 pictures from ethiopia and some of the cutest videos (like the one of a group of my kids saying, "hi looreeesa and eeeven. we love you." i died dead when i saw that one. and then died again when rozaa starts bawling at the end of it. that girl seriously holds my heart in her hands.) and you better believe that i stole every single picture and have gone through them every single day.

anyway. these are my favorite pictures that my mom's camera took. probably not my mom because probably the kids stole her camera the second she stepped off the bus. and they are little photographers and these are my favorites.

 this is little aragu. i was on my 2nd trip when her and her little brother were brought to new hope and she has seriously grown like a little weed! you can't really see them here but she has these little curly bangs and i swear she couldn't be any cuter if she tried.

okay, those bangs? get out here with that cute! my favorite is her little model pose. who is teaching them these grown-up things? because STOP. also: slow it down, time!

bestillmyheart. these two. i love them and i can't even handle this cuteness. left is my zelalum and right is my decho (aragu's brother). zelalum has grown like 5 feet since last year and he looks SO good (he's HIV+ and that just breaks my heart into a million tiny pieces. but he's getting medicine and so many prayers.). and decho is such a little trouble maker but i know that zelalum is the best big brother anyone could ever have and i know he's going to turn little decho's life around. ugh. heart broken. in the best way.

this is my kid, rozaa. my little baby who isn't so little anymore. this is on the last day and that's why she looks a little sad. she's always one of the saddest when we leave and i seriously want to scoop her up and never let go. and apparently her new thing is smiling with her mouth closed which happened to be my new thing this year. i tell you, we are meant to be together. this is the same little girl who calls herself my son sometimes and wears boys clothes because she is a little tom boy. she's also the most beautiful girl, so. she's winning.

 rozaa may very well be a boy because she never takes that hot wheels shirt off. my friend brian is going to ET in december and i'm now on the hunt for a new hot wheels shirt for her. i should make a blog titled "the stages of rozaa's hot wheels shirt" because it's been around that long. and then my mom and then my other kid. ummm when they start to creep up on being the same height as my mom that's when i have to draw the line.

 i know this picture was probably an accident and she would never ever let me have a picture like this if she knew it existed. but she doesn't. and i'm practicing being that mom. this kid is the most beautiful. she's so perfect.

and the best/worst part of the week. baptizing the kids. guess who got baptized? rozaa, meskerem and zelalum. (plus some others). but i was like COME on!  so excited that they got to do this finally so glad that rozaa is SO happy. this made evan bawl and my heart break that we couldn't be there to celebrate her. because baptism is kind of our favorite. the best part of this deserves its own blog post. coming up soon!

she also probably wouldn't allow this picture because she is SO sad here. whoever took this is a genius and i love them. i love this picture because it is her. and i love this kid more than i'll ever be able to describe. and this picture just kills me.

and this is our other little girl, derartu. my little model who can seriously pick evan up off the ground and gives the best kisses and is really good at giving me dreads. but look at that little fro! my mom has a video of her bouncing around a bus with her fro hair in a pony and it is the cutest thing ever! this girl has had a shaved head and braids and now a fro and she is so beautiful anyway she wears her hair. i just want to squeeze her gorgeous face.

i'm going to put all these pictures side by side with the ones from our very first trip. these kids are doing SO good and i am so incredibly thankful i've been able to come along for this ride. god is SO good.