sweet and sad

I saw this note on another family's blog.  They adopted a boy, who was about 12 I think, from Ethiopia.  He wrote this note to our program director after hearing the news that he had a family.

It made me cry.
It made me admire the strength of this boy, who has had a difficult life but chose to praise God, be thankful, and look out for his friends.
It made me thankful that I've never been without my family.
It makes me think Lucy needs an older brother.

You can see this awesome family's blog and this post at:
http://6downand2-2go.blogspot.com/2011/07/picture-is-worth-thousand-words.html

Lucy's room

Lucy, it was time for you to move into your own room.  It sounds crazy, it seems we both highly value our sleep, so it seemed like a necessary step.  So we (with help from Angel and Jeremiah!) worked on your room, and I think you LOVE it! 

I love the dolls in the top middle--Olga, my favorite doll as a child, and a little doll from Ethiopia for Lucy are sharing space :)

You weren't nervous at all about sleeping there, but somehow I was nervous... so I just slept in there with you the first night. Neither of us even made a peep, so I think we're good to go!

And, because no blog post is complete without a little Lucy adorable-ness...

little cutie and the cute one

 Lucy, you LOVE your uncle John and he's crazy about you.  I snuck in and caught you two hanging out the other day, and it made me so happy to see two of my favorites enjoying each other!

You had to check out his glasses...

and his beard....

and his cool hat.

You love him!  He gets more kisses than I do! (I try not to be jealous.)

In fact, you think he's AMAZING! 

(Join the club :)  He's my hero, I guess he can be yours, too!)

9 months old



This sweet girl is 9 months old!  She's been home for 3 months.  She's SUCH a big girl :)

She's pushing up and thinking REALLY hard about crawling.  Unfortunately, many of her best and most enthusiastic attempts have her arms and legs raised off the ground and her stomach touching.  Just a few logistical errors :)

I found her like this the other day.  She had been given a toy or two, but little miss curious tipped the whole basket over and then went exploring for treasures.

She found a little shark, one of her favorites, so it was a successful mission!  (PS  Is it weird that my sweet little girl loves her shark, mouse, and donkey toys so very much?  And ducks.  Lots of ducks.)

It just seemed like such a "big girl" thing to do to go exploring.  She's definitely growing up!

AND, she's laughing!  You know that she was slow to laugh, so I was so pleased with the little haha's we were getting.  But I wanted a CHUCKLE, you know?  Well, it's like someone flipped a switch this last week, and my sweet Lucy is laughing, chuckling, and squealing with delight.  Oh, it's SO nice to hear!  Below is one of her first ones... it's been outdone many times over, but it's really hard to catch on video!  Tadaa....

Lucy brings SO much joy to my life! 

And my Mama's middle name is Joy, and I added it to Lucy's name while I was finishing up all her paperwork.

I love my Lucy Joy Tesfanish Northcutt!!

more fun...

Susan, guest photographer

I have this adorable child, but I get so caught up in her sweetness that I often forget to take pictures.  This weekend, my best friend from Texas came to visit.  We lived together for 2 years in Bangkok several years ago, and before that at seminary.  She is quite the photographer, so I have LOTS of lovely pics of our time. 

Susan and Lucy

Susan, me, Lucy, Jana, and Micheal

We were joined by Jana and Michael--Jana, Susan and I lived in a "lovely" roach-infested house and worked with refugee neighbors in Texas.  (Funny side-note:  Bonnie Freeman (now Myers) lived there before us, battling roaches and befriending new citizens... She and her husband are adopting two beautiful Ethiopian babies and they stopped by last week.  We took a similar bookshelf pic... you can see it at http://teammyersathome.blogspot.com/2011/07/cincy.html.  Bonnie:  Jana says HI!  :)


I don't think all the cute-ness can be contained by one post, but I'll give you a sneak peak... We went swimming one day....