Daniel & David received a very special letter, direct from the Magic Kingdom. Cinderella sent an invitation to dine with her and some of her friends for breakfast when we are at Disneyland this summer. Enjoy the video of Sary-Jo helping the boys read and process this.
Monthly Archives: January 2011
Christmas at Julie’s
On December 26, we all gathered for the Averill family Christmas get together. Food was great and so was the company. The kids all played a bunch of games and had a generally wild time (imagine that!). Click on the picture to see more.
Christmas Day 2010
Well, we’re a little slow posting, but here are pictures from Christmas Day. The boys were up early (not surprising) and they waited patiently until the rest of the family was ready. As you look at the pictures, you might detect a Disney theme. Click the picture to see more.
You can see on the video that they just didn’t “get it” as they opened the gift revealing we’re going to Disneyland. We had them read, repeatedly, the shirt that says, “I’m going to the Disneyland Resort” but they just didn’t catch on that it means THEY are going to Disneyland! We’ve talked about Disneyland for more than a year, so they know what it is. You can also hear Kyle – Sarah’s laptop was in the room with us and Kyle was on Skype.
And here is the video:
Christmas Eve 2010
We're all here!
We went to Margie’s and Ruli’s for Christmas Eve. Ken and Betty were visiting from Arizona; Sarah and Diana were here from South Carolina. And of course, there was much more good food than necessary!
Ethiopian Church in Seattle
Finally, our schedule allowed us to try a service at Medhane-Alem church in Seattle. We had known about it for a while, but never seemed to have the time to drive up there, experience a three hour service, and then the requisite Ethiopian meal. On the 9th of January, we finally made it happen. We had no idea what to expect as we couldn’t tell, from the church’s website, whether the service would be in English or Amharic (we assumed Amharic, which was correct).
The website said the service would be from 10:00 to 1:00, so we arrived at about 9:50. At that time, we basically had the sanctuary to ourselves, except for the worship band, which was rehearsing. They finished rehearsal at about 10:05 and others started arriving shortlay after that. We were warmly received and everyone spoke English to us. During the service, the pastor invited all newcomers to introduce themselves (I think). The man sitting next to me provided sufficient translation so we stood and introduced ourselves (in English). There was one other adoptive family in attendance, with a 7th-grade girl who has been in America a little over a year.
After the service, we were invited to join the congregation for coffee, bread and fellowship. It was so encouraging to see a large number of people stay for fellowship. We met the pastor and other leaders in the church, who offered us love and support. We will try to go back soon. Daniel and David told us that it was very much like churh in Ethiopia and they followed the service quite well.
While there, we bought some new Ethiopian music – CD’s and DVD’s – for the boys. They were temporarily out of Amharic Bibles so we’ll have to get one on our next visit. We would encourage other families in the area to experience worship with this warm, loving, group of believers.
Dad’s Christmas Gift
When the girls were young, they memorized the Christmas story as told in the second chapter of Luke. They would recite it every Christmas and it was a fitting part of our tradition that always helped to keep us grounded as we celebrated the birth of our Savior. This year, Sary-Jo started working with the boys around Thanksgiving and they memorized the whole thing! Randy had no idea they were working on this, and it was their gift to him (as well as others). Here is the video taken on Christmas morning.