Reminder: I've moved

I'm no longer blogging at this address! I've moved to www.bexmann.net and would love for you to join me over there. Thanks for reading along. See you at the new site. 

Hot off the press: I've moved!

Happy Monday! Hope you all had a meaningful and enjoyable Thanksgiving!

I wanted to let you know that I'm now blogging at www.bexmann.net.

I'd hate to lose you, so don't forget to update your Google Reader or Bloglovin' settings to reflect this change.

My blog is in the process of getting a little face-lift, so thanks for your patience as she changes both slightly and significantly in these next few weeks.

Speaking of blog addresses, which blogs do you absolutely love to read? Do share! I'm looking for some fun new subscriptions.

Snapshots: First Month

November tenth marked one month in our new Washington home. Like I've mentioned before, things are surprisingly smooth and we are settling into good rhythms at work and at home, individually and as a family. Here is a quick snapshot of our first month:

First, we had to say some very painful good-byes. Over a dozen friends pitched in on October 10th to help us load up the U-haul. The drive out of Salem was filled with lots of tears.

Then, came this welcome sign! Josh nearly drove his car off the road as he pulled into the church office for the first time.

Poor Mercy Girl had been sick for two weeks and the virus only seemed to worsen. With no Primary Care doctor established in our new city, we ended up taking two trips to the Children's Urgent Care.

The beautiful view on the bridge connecting where we live to the island where the church is located. Not a bad commute, eh?

A week into our new life in a new place, I was feeling the blues in a big way. To beat the blues, or at least distract ourselves from them, we decided to take a day trip to Seattle and visit some of our favorite places. Green Lake is like Heaven on earth in my book. It was Mercy's very first time in my favorite city. And look, the sun was out!

After a beautiful, long walk we made our way to the pier for fish and chips at Ivar's.

Mercy was really digging the chowder. This girl can put food away. Just like her Mama.

Right down the street from our place is a huge farm stand open every single day! Besides corn, apples, potatoes and squash, it was filled with caramel apples, pumpkins, apple cider... all the fall goodies. It re-opens today with Christmas trees, holly and mistletoe, wreaths and the like.

'Tis the season!

This family photo was captured on Josh's Installation Sunday. A meaningful, sacred service to sort of pass the mantle of leadership, authority and responsibility to Josh as the new Lead Pastor. It had a very palpable, very spiritual Rite of Passage feel and it is something we will always remember. This photo was taken after the service, reception, lunch, nap, dinner, tour of our city and dessert... We are horrible at taking family photos on special days (like on Mercy's first birthday, her dedication, etc.), so while isn't the best at least it's in the books!

Another Monday, another sunny day in Seattle! We spent this trip on Queen Anne Hill near Seattle Pacific University. We enjoyed pumpkin bagels from Noah's, vanilla lattes from Cafe Ladro, and a lovely stroll all around the quaint, cozy neighborhood.

Happy Halloween! Mercy was the most adorable Zebra. We took a trip to the Harbor where thousands of families gathered to trick-or-treat from local, small businesses.

Our forest-like backyard; home to toads, owls and deer. The guy pictured above was literally peering through our sliding glass doors one afternoon, kind of wondering who the new kids in town were, like he'd been here before and was just checking things out.

Though Mercy is the happiest baby toddler around, she is also one of the busiest, constantly in motion. This makes it hard to capture her smile in pictures. Got one here, sort of. I also love her curls in this photo.

In our first month, we celebrated Mercy's first Referralversary and her 15-month birthday. 

Time is flying by. We are especially enjoying this time with Mercy before her bro or sis arrives this spring. Please also note her cute, Felicity the Fox T-shirt in honor of her new church (courtesy of B. Childrenswear).

Even with all the good times and friendly folks, we still miss our friends and family. Mercy studies this picture of her best friends, Nyah and Haakon Williams, every single day. We get it, Boo! We miss them, too!

Just for kicks, this is the face Mercy makes when you ask her to how blow out a candle or cool down hot food. Adorable.

We are now well into our second month in Washington (and into the second trimester as well). We're excited to experience all this month holds. I'll be back to share it with you in mid-December!

First Referralversary

I woke up this morning brimming with pure joy remembering November 9, 2010.

One year ago today Josh and I finally received the phone call we had been waiting for, bringing us good news of our first baby. At this time last year, we had been on the waiting list for six months, three weeks and four days. We hadn't listed a gender preference, only that we desired a baby.

The day of The Call, Josh was in Seattle at a preaching conference and I was at work, home for lunch when our Adoption Program Director called first. What ensued for the next nearly two hours was a lot of phone calls, dropped calls, missed calls and waiting...waiting...waiting to see our baby's face for the first time. Josh promptly left his conference after receiving the call from Dove that we had a three month old daughter, borrowing someone's car to head to Starbucks to use the wi-fi to open her pictures. It was a whirlwind afternoon. And then I had to go about the next day pretending my whole life hadn't changed as I waited for Josh to get home late that night. Brutal!

Above is a raw, unedited video of Josh and I sharing a screen and reading through our referral email,  before finally seeing her photo for the very first time. It gets good at around 2:15, so please feel free to skip the random, scattered beginning. Disclaimer: the audio is wonky and we weren't at all in a "Let's make an epic video" mindset, we simply knew we would want to re-live this experience again and again, and eventually show Mercy what it was like for old Mom and Dad when we heard the news we'd been matched with her.

Below is the very first picture of our daughter that I ever saw. I fell in love instantly. Click on the following links to see my blog post announcing our referral and the video I made while I was waiting for Josh to get to his computer.

Mercy's referral picture (actually taken Sept. 28 2010).

Mercy on Thanksgiving Day 2010. It just so happened our dear friends were headed to Ethiopia to bring home their twin girls right after we received our referral. They had the joy of visiting Mercy, praying for her, holding her and getting her hand prints for us. Such a gift!

Only days after our friends sent us their photos of Mercy, we received another update from our agency. Although we were sent two new pictures each month (December, January and February), this one is our absolute favorite. Mercy is nearly four months old in this photo.

Mercy Michael Fikir Mann sweet as can be at fifteen months.

Three months after receiving our referral we were packing the last of our bags, bound for Ethiopia to meet Mercy, attend our court appointment, bring Mercy into our arms forever, and finalize the adoption through the U.S. Embassy in Addis Aabba. Five months after receiving our referral we were home at last with our first baby girl. It's been nine months since Mercy became a Mann. But today we celebrate our Referral. What a gift this year has been to us. We are thankful. Our family will celebrate always November 9.

Our Family is Growing

I'm twelve weeks pregnant, incredibly thankful and completely overjoyed.

This news came as a big surprise in mid-September as we were fully engrossed in our upcoming move. The day after we announced our resignation and transition to the church staff, I took a test. Positive. We were both in shock. I was cautiously hopeful.

The morning of my very last day of work at the church, at seven and a half weeks pregnant, I had an ultrasound and we experienced the gift of seeing the baby's beating heart. In early 2009 I wrote a post about my ultrasound history, one that made this particular visit especially meaningful.  Last Friday, at eleven weeks, we heard his heartbeat loud and clear. Today at twelve weeks I finally feel able to enter into the celebration of this news and ready to receive this gift from God.

Josh and I are thankful for God's presence with us four years ago as we ached and waited and wondered after a painful miscarriage. We are thankful for His gentleness as he prompted us to release the pursuit of a biological baby when it became an idol. We are thankful for His voice two and a half years ago as he spoke prophetic promise over us in the midst of a healing season marked by movement from fear to faith. We are thankful for God's goodness as He revealed His plan for our family meant adopting our first baby, not our last as originally planned. We are thankful for God's merciful sovereignty, matching us with and giving us the joy of being Mercy Michael Fikir Mann's mom and dad (or her "De-De", as she calls both of us). There are no words to articulate how profoundly significant and overwhelmingly sacred it was to have our beloved first-born daughter with us at the ultrasound.

By God's grace, we will welcome Mercy's little brother or sister to the world in the middle of May, about two and a half months shy of her second birthday.

We know many of you have prayed for us continuously; from miscarriage to infertility, from grief to healing, and then to hope and the gift of adoption, from paperwork to referral, and from homecoming to moving away. Lots of you have prayed not just for favorable outcomes, but that we would grow and be transformed along the way. Thank you.

I am also aware that many of you are longing, praying, trusting, waiting, hoping and wondering how your family story will be written. You are on my mind and in my prayers every day. Truly.

Alive and Well

I said I would post regularly and I have not posted once since moving nearly three weeks ago. We have enjoyed so many new experiences and met so many new friendly people.... I don't even know where to begin, but I know that I've got to start somewhere. The main thing is this: we are alive and well.

Two weeks ago, before heading to our new church for the first time, I wrote a long post reflecting on our first week in town. I got about ninety percent done and then got stuck, unable to finish it, unable to wrap it up neatly enough to leave it alone. I've looked back on it and although it was a true reflection of that day, it's not where I am today. I hope to finish it and post it at some point. For now it sits and waits.

Life in our new city has gone better than I expected. Truly. I actually like it here! It's not at all the same as life back home but I've felt free from comparisons and able to simply enjoy this season in this specific location for what it is. And what it is is beginning to sound good. We've always known it was right. But now it's starting to feel right, too. Feelings aren't everything, but I guess what I'm saying is God has given us the blessing of clear confirmation (in big, sweeping ways and in small, meaningful ways) that we are where he wants us to be. What more can we ask for?

We've enjoyed two day trips to Seattle, endured two long visits to Urgent care, and encountered the warmth of our new church body welcoming our little family. Mercy and I have embarked on BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) and MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers), library story-time and long walks on new trails. We've explored new restaurants, coffee shops and grocery stores. We've eaten in lots of new homes, around tables filled with delicious food and rich stories.

Exploring, enjoying, experiencing, embarking, encountering and even enduring are all parts of this new season to our story. I anticipate a meaningful season here in Washington, both for our family and for me personally. Certainly we will be different people because of this place. Our choice is to lean-in, to listen well, to respond with humility and trust, allowing God's story in our lives to unfold with Him at the helm and without our resistance or reluctance.

We're off to a good start, but we are well aware of our constant dependence on Him. We are also increasingly thankful for the significant relationships we made in Oregon and how those friendships were used by God to shape and prepare us, grow and challenge us. So to those of you back home, thank you.

Mercy is down for a nap, Josh is at the church and I hear college football and the newest issue of Real Simple calling my name. Happy weekend!

P.S. Pictures next time!

Growing Bear

It's been a while since I've posted pictures of Mercy Bear. She is growing up so fast; 14 months yesterday! Enjoy these snapshots:

Enjoying a Starbucks treat after visiting Fox Island

Practicing walking (which she has now mastered!) Cute bum, too.

From the hair, to the facial expression, to the onesie from her Aunt and Uncle Junior Mann, I love everything about this photo.

When I see this pictures, I see more "toddler" and less "baby".