P.S. In case you are not computer savey, you can click on the smaller pictures, to see them enlarged. :)

Our FINAL blog entry :o)

Thank you all for your amazing support for our family. We treasure each of your prayers as we continue on in this beautiful journey of adoption. This will be our final blog entry, as we were never “real” bloggers, and we set this blog up so that our friends and family could follow our journey to Ethiopia and back and to

know how to be praying.

It has been two sweet, yet hard, months since we have been home with all 6 kids! T__ and E___ have adjusted very well, but still have more adjusting to do. We are forever thankful that God has placed them in our family! Our other 4 have had some hard times with the new adjustments as well, but are doing beautifully. We will continue to pray for A___ and E___ to continue to learn how to love each other more.

Thank you again!!! We’ll always be praying for more successful adoptions for God’s children and for the millions of orphans out there, alone. There is nothing like serving Him, loving Him, and being sanctified by Him through adoption! We very highly recommend praying about it and pursuing it, if you have not already.

John 14:18 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”

James 1:27 27 ‘Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

God Bless You!!!

Love,

The Rutlands….all 8 of us!

End of June update

We are good. Our big news, is that our 8 year old is not really 8. The dentist said that she has to be at least 10 1/2. After talking to E___ about this, she remembers being 8 for a long long time. She said, “Nobody ever told me that I got older, and I didn’t have any birthdays, so I think I am not finished with 8 yet.” So, we are pretty sure she is 10. We might keep her birthday on Nov. 1st, we just have to do some more investigating.

T___ is to smart to be 12mo, but were keeping him there anyway. His
pediatrician says that he has had such a rough start, that having the advantage
of being smarter than his given age will be nice for him. ha ha He is most
likely somewhere between 15 and 18 months, but the size of a 12 month old. He is
growing fast, so it will be interesting to see if he catches up with his brain. He has a cold and an ear infection right now, and E___ still has mysterious
bumps on her scalp and one on her knee. We did 3 tests, so far, and are probably
going to have one biopsied next month. She also has 4 small cavities, but no
other teeth problems. She is adjusting and bonding very well, and we hardly have
any fits (the tantrum kind) now. We are working on whining and pouting, but even
that is a ton better! Her new task in the family is tattling, so that is our
focus now. Justice is important to her, I guess. ha ha

My bio kids are doing well, except for our oldest, A___. She is struggling with
having a sister her age, which she made it very very clear in the beginning,
that she did NOT want that. We assured her that we understood and were planning on a 5-7 year old. At the time of referral, E___ turned out to be 8, we discussed it and accepted her with joyful hearts. Now, of course we are thankful for the Lord’s perfect choice for our family, in E____, but are surprised at how the agencies try to slip older kids into families that are requesting younger ages. We are thankful that God is the one in control of all things! Praying for Abby.

For those that don’t know, my husband is the youth pastor at our church and had a lock-in last Sunday night. Turned out that he didn’t have a female leader to sleep over, so all six of our kids ( 10, 10, 8, 5, 4, and 1 year)and myself joined the party. They all
did very well and loved it! Will try to Not do that very often though. ha ha ha

On to July!!!!

Survived the week

We are thankful, that God’s grace is sufficient, as He assures us in His word. The week did seems especially long, and there was one very long 24 hour period that new issues with E___ came up, but with the help of our adoption family coordinator and some fellow adoptive parents of older children, we made it through with pleasant outcomes. It is not all easy and loving, it is not all selfless and pleasant, but we pleaded with the Lord to be allowed to love an older hurting child who had lost her parents and had no one, and that is what He so graciously gave us. Now, we plead for the grace to parent her in a selfless, loving way, pointing her to the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, without our own sin clouding His beauty. This cannot be achieved on our own. Pray for my own personal time in His word, with Him, so that I may be a clear example of Christ, and so that I could be a useful tool for Him to love all six of our children through me in every detail of our days together.

Thankful to be His servent.

Happy First Birthday little man!!!!!! June 6th 2009

Happy Birthday to ME! I think I can fit the whole thing in! I love you guys!

Just what I always wanted!

June 4th

I am thanking the Lord for the grace that I know He is faithful to give, as I attempt to parent all 6 alone for a week! He is good and gracious, so I am not worried. Ok, maybe just a little. Ha!

T___ is very comfortable in our family, and is now showing more of his personality. Even with biting, scratching, snatching, telling us no, and pinching like a pro, his is still the cutest little guy and we are thankful for every inch of him! One of my girls said, “Mom, do you think any of the other families are sad that we got the cutest baby in the orphanage?” T___ also seems to save his extra sweet kisses for C__, which is so cute! C___ eats it up, of course, and is thankful for the special attention from his brother.

E__ is calming her explosive excitement and rapid pouty moods down. She seems to, for the most part, find a good balance in there. On the days when I am tired of the emotional highs and lows, and the “older adopted child” issues,…I realize that she is no different than my other two girls. They all have the same issues, just in different languages. Example: If E__ sees someone with her doll and says, “MY DOLL!” and snatches it away, my first thought….”what a selfish girl! You can tell she came out of an orphanage. We’ll have to work on that with her.” Then I re-think it…..How may times have my other 5 children done that/said that in the last 5 minutes! Ha Ha! She is actually a very well adjusted Rutland! LOL!! It feels like we have been together forever, a true family, and it has only been a month. Thank you Lord! I feel so blessed and so humble that He has allowed us to love two more children.

JUNE 1ST UPDATE

Our family has been doing well, old members and new members. All lab results have been good and life is beginning to get a little more normal, or should I say we have created a new normal. We have not started back to school yet, but that will come in time. Today, the house looked good, for the first time, so I yelled down the stairs to Brian and told him he should think about who he wanted to invite over for dinner, before it got messed up again. Ha! No one came, and it is already trashed. Hahahaha Oh well. Back to work.

Our doctor thinks our little guy, T., is the right age. They, and we, think that E. is probably closer to 9 years than 8 years, but E. is so sure that she is 8, so we’re letting her be eight until November 1st. When she is older, one year won’t matter anyway. Having her come into our family at an older age has been such a sweet thing to experience. As opposed to a toddler that is struggling with being taken away from all that she knows and not understanding the pain of it all, E. knows exactly what she left and the blessings of what God has given her. All of her firsts are not scary, but exciting and full of blessings and thankfulness! I cannot even imaging not having the blessing of loving an older child. The Lord was incredibly gracious to give us an older girl with a sweet, joyful, and thankful disposition.

Both E.and T. are doing great. E. was an emotional girl at times in ET and is still true to that here at home as well. But what can I say, there are three girls now, all around the same age, and my two biological girls have their emotional times as well. (But not me, never! E. is learning English so fast and loves being a part of our family. I still thank God for them both every day! T. has adjusted well. He is such a sweet little guy, and can be a pistol when he wants to be. Watching him around other babies, you can tell he came out of the orphanage. He fights for whatever looks slightly tempting, and always wins if I am not watching. Turkey! haha

My biological kids are still loving their new brother and sister. The boys love it all and the girls just get a little tired of E’s emotional times, but they understand that she has gone through so much, that they are fine with ALL of it. They are enjoying helping her to learn about our lifestyle and language.

We all sleep through the night, for the most part, and our fatigue just comes from life with six kids. We are greatful to be stretched even more for our Lord and Savior, and for the love of each of our children!

True Thrill Seaker!

[caption id="attachment_269" align="aligncenter" width="468" caption="Writing to a friend in the orphanage"][/caption]

Go Avs!

Braiding Party