"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has imagined what the Lord has prepared for those who love Him." 1 Corinthians 2:9

Last Wednesday I posted a blog that was a letter to our beloved Addie.  It was an emotional day for us, as we watched pictures of our sweet girl flash before our eyes.  As always though, the Lord reminded us of His love and presence in our lives.  I teach the sweet Kindergarteners, first, and second graders at our church on Wednesday nights, and last week the lesson was on the angel Gabriel visiting Zechariah to announce that Elizabeth was with child.  When I first started going through the lesson, I was thinking, “Oops… they missed the timing on this a bit.  Don’t we normally cover this before Christmas?  Oh well…”  So I plugged ahead and began preparing the material.  The main point for the night was “Sometimes God surprises us.”  The verse for the week was “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has imagined what the Lord has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9.)  I taught the lesson with a slight waver in my voice as I fought tears, but I was fully convicted that what the Word says is true.  I obviously was pretty surprised by the way things had turned out, and was clinging to the verse as I worked with the kiddos to memorize it. 

The next day, I posted the verse on Facebook, and I commented on how I loved that in working with the children, the Lord was also teaching me and shaping my heart.  The timing of the story seemed off at first, but the amazing thing is, the timing was actually just right for my heart.  Little did I know that another HUGE surprise was coming our way…

Friday afternoon at about four o’clock, my phone rang and it was Billy, who was downstairs, working in the basement, and hanging out with Payton for a couple minutes.  He said I needed to come down for a minute, and I begrudgingly climbed the two flights of stairs from our second floor to our basement.  I was trying to get ready to leave to go meet my sister for coffee.  “This better be good…” I smugly thought.

As I rounded the corner into our basement I heard a familiar voice on the speaker phone.  Why was Lesley from Lifeline calling this afternoon?  The next words she spoke about knocked me over- “Hey, are you ready to see a picture of the sweet baby girl I have for you?”

!!!!!!!!! All I could do was sob out, “WHAT?!?!” 

Then, as a beautiful little brown face framed with adorable little curls appeared on our computer screen, we fell in love all over again.

We are so thrilled to tell you that the Lord has blessed us with a third daughter!!!!  She is three and a half months old and waits for us in Ethiopia.  She was born just about a week before we traveled in October to meet Addie.

The emotions are really indescribable right now.  We are, without a doubt, still deeply grieving the loss of our precious Addie, but we are overwhelmed by the Lord’s goodness, faithfulness, sovereignty, love, and provision.  This sweet baby doesn’t replace our Addie, but we are nonetheless overjoyed that the Lord saw fit to bless us so quickly with another child, and that He has opened our hearts to love her and rejoice over her.

Her Ethiopian name is Yetnayet.  I looked it up on the internet Friday night, and only found it on one site, so we are not totally sure of what it means, but really like what that site said- “Yetnayet means ‘as far as the horizon.’”  Now, by itself that doesn’t mean much, but Payton’s middle name is Grace, and Addie’s middle name is Mihret, meaning “mercy.”  Our girl’s names will forever remind us that He gives “grace and mercy as far as the horizon.”  Our circumstances and pain have not changed the greatness of our God.  He is I AM.  He remains full of “grace and mercy as far as the horizon.”  We are so thankful.  His surprises sometimes bring happiness, and sometimes bring sorrow, but His promises always bring joy and peace and hope.

……………………...................................................................................................................................

Please pray for our family as we continue to work through a mess of every emotion seemingly possible.  Please pray for our sweet Yetnayet as she waits for us in an orphanage.  Yetnayet is definitely hard to say, so when you pray, you can call her by the name we are giving her- Elloree Claire Yetnayet Baker- she will be called Ellie Claire.  Pray she is well cared for and loved.  Please specifically pray that she receives good nutrition- not that she doesn’t go hungry, because the children in this orphanage are fed plenty.  That may seem random, but she has a health concern related to such.  Pray that this process moves quickly and smoothly.  We will have to travel two more times, once for Ethiopian court and then for US Embassy clearance.

Lastly, please don’t stop praying for our Addie.  We found out Friday that she is indeed with her biological father, and while in most cases, that is ideal for a child, we are fearful of what that could mean for her.  We are trusting, as always, in our Father who loves her far more than we ever could. 

The Lord is good.  We have seen and known that all through this process.  How wonderful it is to have the blessing of more tangible evidence of His goodness in our lives! We can’t wait to show you pictures of our sweet Ellie Claire, but can’t post them online until she is legally ours in Ethiopia.  Next time you see Billy or I, or anyone in our family, for that matter, ask to see a picture- She is just beautiful and we love to show her off J.

Blessings!