Africa

I could write a book. Forever and ever long. God simply gave us our hope back through this kid.

Amon’s name means ‘faithful’ and God truly, truly has been faithful to Amon and our family. It was a long, hard, beautiful road to Amon. One that was long and winding and we got lost some along the way. We did not come off the path unscarred. But we serve a God who heals and renews and when I walked into Amon’s transition home that day with Ashley by my side and they placed him in my arms for the second time, but this time for forever, I took the deepest breath ever. A breath of release. One of true joy. I looked him over so carefully and took in how much he had changed in a month or so’s time. I cried overwhelmingly grateful tears.

Then we journeyed home on what were the most stressful plane rides ever. Ashley and I were crazy nervous, Amon was sick and we were toting all our gear plus a big, portable oxygen machine. And the next 18 hours were insanely hard, but I knew we were being prayed for. That Amon and his heart were being lifted directly to God. And we made it. As we descended into Nashville’s airport I brought out my video camera and taped Amon sleeping in the seat beside me. We had made it. God had made a way. He had gone before us and led us each step of the way.

At that moment I felt God’s love just absolutely pour over us and I sobbed with strangers looking on around me. I wanted to tell them of Amon’s story…of his special heart…of the legacy God was creating in him even before birth. I wanted them to know, but I just sat there and soaked it in. We had made it. God had finished what He had started in our family 2 years before. He had renewed and fixed and healed and restored and I could not get off the plane and into Josh’s arms…the wee Kelleys arms…fast enough.

We were finally a family of 6.

God has done a mighty work in our family over the past year. He has done a mighty work in Amon as well. He fixed his heart. He gave him life all over again. He is truly a God of wonders who deserves every ounce of praise. I feel so inadequate to be His child…to be so incredibly loved by Him.

So we celebrated Amon on Saturday…we celebrated our family of 6…we celebrated how amazing God is and what great works He truly does and has done. Oh God, we are grateful and honored to parent this kiddo…this crazy sweet, amazingly awesome kiddo. You have renewed our hope like we never imagined.

Happy Gotcha Day Amon. We kind of totally adore you!

“They give us strength to hold on to the hope we have been given.¹⁹ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, sure and strong.” Hebrews 6:18-19

There’s no hiding it…we like to celebrate any occasion with yummy treats. Totally how we roll. Most recently we rocked out Sol’s 4th Gotcha Day. We started the morning off with donuts…per Sol’s request.

He also asked for…wait for it…Africa shaped brownies with ice cream. Later he asked if I could make them like an ice cream sandwich. On their special days, I’m game for any celebratory sweet challenge. I want to make their day waaaaaay special, so as long as the request is feasible I’m good to take it on.

After searching Pinterest…God’s gift to the human race…I found THIS PIN for Ice Cream Starwiches.

I used the same concept from the recipe, but made a few changes. I used my Africa cookie cutter and I also used two containers of ice cream and smushed the ice cream into a 9×13 dish and cut the ice cream out using the same cookie cutter. I really thought these might be kind of difficult, but turns out, they weren’t that bad at all.

They were yummy and the absolute best thing of all, was Solomon was thrilled. He beamed. He thought I was the best momma in the whole wide world. Everyone devoured them right up…an extremely sweet, sticky Gotcha Day mess.