Are you Radical??

TEMESGEN UPDATE!

We do not have a travel date, which is really frustrating. We traveled to get Sabrina just under a month after she passed court. Temesgen passed court May 20th and we are still waiting for our US Embassy date to be approved. They used the term "investigating" today. We are unsure what that means. I asked if there was any way the courts could be reversed and our agency representative gave me a very reassuring, "I don't think so." OUCH! They are shooting for an embassy date of August 25th. This gives us time to get Jake to Iowa State, where he will begin his freshman year, majoring in Biochemistry. It also gives us time to support Noelle as she begins her first year in high school. Unfortunately, it also means that neither of them can travel with us. I so wanted Jake to travel since he did not travel to get Sabrina. Pray that even though he can't travel that he and Temesgen will have an opportunity to "bond" in a unique and awesome way!! I keep trying to remember that God's timing is perfect and that His plan is much better than my plan. Please pray for us as we try to make preparations to bring our son home. I really have no idea how to pursue issues of language, education and even medical issues with Temesgen's leg. Pray that God would guide us and give us peace and patience. Pray for the unbelievably hard transition that Temesgen will have to make as he leaves Ethiopia!

This is a great book recommended to me by many of my blogger buddies. I am waiting for Scott to read it to fully process what it is saying to me. But, as Scott's dad would say, it resonates with how I am feeling about the American Dream right now and how I think God wants us to live and deal with our wealth as Americans. Pick it up and see if it challenges your thinking!

Family reunion!

Many thanks to Riley and Kathy Tonkin and Steve and Nancy Tonkin for hosting the first, hopefully annual Tonkin reunion in Lincoln, Nebraska. Thirty-six of us gathered from Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa. My grandma is 96, her three sons and their wives, their nine kids and their spouses, and their thirteen kids (not including the three expecting mommies!)

Highlights included a video montage of the lives of the Tonkins!

Snuggling after the brunch!

Working it, in our picture clothes and some shoes
apparently high-jacked from someone else!


I love to take my kids to places that I went as a kid!
This is the Lincoln Children's Zoo, an awesome place!
Sabrina, cousin Christian and Aunt Karen

Cousin Emilee, Noelle, and cousin Elizabeth.
Noelle was such a great help and entertainer over the weekend!

One of the cute moments!

Spider cousins!

Beautiful sisters!

More birthdays!

On the way home from our vacation we spent a night in Minneapolis. To celebrate my birthday we attended an Ethiopian Culture Fest and hung out at the mall of America. Somehow I didn't get any good pictures from the culture fest. The event is sponsored by Ethiopian kids in the twin cities and it is called Mehebar. It had lots of fun activities and we met some nice families,

even some from Iowa!

My niece, Naomi, and I celebrated our birthdays at the Rainforest Cafe!

It was lots of fun to see them.

We hit Legoland while we waited for our seat at dinner.

Apparently this is a high concentration event:)


We love rides!! But mommy missed going on the big girl rides.

This is about all daddy can handle. Silly daddy.

Shopping isn't really that fun, but the hat was cool!!

(We only made it to two stores.)

Vacation in Minnesota

I'm so glad that we booked our vacation last year. With waiting for a travel date, we probably would have skipped it this year, but it was sooo fun! Jake was even able to go this year! We were at Island View Resort in northern Minnesota. http://www.islandview-resort.com/ I have gone there since I was a kid. It makes you feel like a kid again. We had great weather this year.

The bugs were pretty bad at night so we didn't have too many campfires.
But they sure are fun!



Sabrina and Anna chillin' in the lake.

I love this picture.

Can't you see it 24x36 at a high school graduation?

This was too much fun. We buried Sabrina first and I can't believe she stayed still while we buried Jake, it took a little while considering he's not that little any more:)

My fourth of July princesses! Aren't they beautiful!!

Sabrina is a BIG 3!

Sabrina loves the water so we had to have a pool party! Joining us were my sister, Karen and her family, my parents, Scott's dad and our good friends, the Gerdes'.

Their daughter, Anna, is almost 3 as well.

Sabrina and Anna hitting the baby pool!

Yummy cupcakes!


I was way crafty and made butterfly treats to take to story time at the library. They were really cute. http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/butterfly-bounty-841052/ Guess what? Sabrina is almost 3 feet tall! 353/4" and 28 pounds! We are on the charts!! 15% for height and 18% for weight!!! Much better than 8# at 9 months. Thank you , Lord!

Good times at the cabin

In June we spent a couple of weekends at our cabin. We hosted Scott's family for a memorial service for his mom. We had up to 16 people at our cabin! Which, though very cool, has no running water or indoor bathroom facilities! I think everyone had fun!

We love to have fireworks at the cabin.

The good ones aren't legal in Iowa but we bring them in as often as we can.

The neighboring cows love them!

Riding in the Gator while papa does projects is very tiring!


We love to kayak! These pics are from Backbone State Park which is near our cabin.

Noelle's 14 (for 2 months!)

Okay, so I know it's been forever. I've probably forgotten how to do this:) We had Noelle's party at a bowling alley. So these aren't in very good order.

Much easier to watch the ball while laying down.

The girls! Noelle is second from the left.

Too cute! Hard to believe how quickly my babies are growing up! I told Noelle today that it is a good thing that she and Jake are four years apart since I couldn't handle them going off to college too close together!! She sure wished her brother was still going to be around as she heads off to high school in a couple of weeks! Noelle, you'll do great!! I LOVE YOU!!