Christmas 2014

Dear Friends & Family,

Warm Christmas greetings to you from the Orth clan residing in Suncrest!  As I sit typing this letter, our three boys are tackling each other in a friendly football game, reminding each other which Seahawk player they are… Ben is the designated quarterback, Russell Wilson, Amanuel is an incredible running back, Marshawn Lynch, and Abreham is the kicker, Steven Hauschka!

But what a great year it’s been! Though we want to be real, it is true life is full of seasons, some of which are very difficult, some that are full or joy… and there are moments in all seasons that present challenges, we want to focus this letter on the many things we are so grateful to God for His generosity, kindness, and patience to us as we do our best to figure it out.

Bart is doing well, he is still serving the Lord at Suncrest Family Worship Center as the Lead Pastor. Although the Pastorate is a great blessing, it comes with it’s difficulties as well. On an average day, when Bart’s not working, he’s typically found in our back yard helping the boys become future NFL players (I think he might be counting on that for our retirement)…but he has also had some rare and adventurous opportunities this year. In July, he had the opportunity to climb and summit Mount Rainier with some good friends. And two months later, he joined with 10 other pastors and travelled to South America for a trip to see what God’s doing in and through the South American Church.

Heather continues to enjoy the life of mom, part time homeschooling, raising three boys, and owning “Sweet Cream Golden’s”, breeding English Cream Golden Retrievers. I would classify this year in a word… okay two words, “learning curve”. Going from one to three boys overnight has been a lot of adjusting and readjusting. Life is busy and loud, full of family football games, cooking a lot of meals for growing boys, and sometimes, early bedtimes. J My favorite parenting advice I have heard this year is from Focus on the Family is about sibling fighting, he said “Stick them in the bathroom together until they work it out.” Wow, has that been effective! I stick them in there when they are furious at each other, think I have at least 20 minutes to do a quick workout on the elliptical. But no, 20 seconds later they are in my room laughing and hugging each other. What in the world? Well, it saves my emotions, and for that I am grateful! 

Amanuel has been a complete joy to our family, he is loud and enthusiastic, we call him “passionate”. He has no limits in life. When he came to America last summer, he learned how to ride a bike the very first day he was here. In all areas of life he is so driven to excel, whether it’s soccer, school, or swimming, if he wants to do it, he will not stop until he gets it. Amanuel has changed his professional dreams several times already this year, but currently plans on playing for the Seattle Seahawks when he grows up. Even though we’ve tried to explain that is a wonderful dream, but only one in a million that get the opportunity to play for the NFL (and even less when you narrow it down to exclusively one team in the NFL), he rejects the impossibility.

Abreham is thriving this year in Kindergarten. He and Amanuel are as opposite as they come with brothers. Although Abreham is quieter and more cautious, it doesn’t stop him from getting out there and trying. This little guy has blessed me so many times by his sweet comments and helpful hands. More than once, he has cleaned my bathroom (I say my, really it’s “our” – Bart and my bathroom, but its possible that I take it over and apparently it’s messy enough that our 7 year old son is feeling sorry for us!). Or today, we were getting ready for a family photo shoot, and he looked at me all dressed up and said, “You are so pretty.” It was all of three minutes later when Amanuel looked at my teeth, I said “Do I have something in my teeth?” and he said “No, they are just so close together…I don’t want mine to look like that.” Haha, you never know with boys. Little does he know braces might just be in his future (I might ask them to cinch them up nice and tight). Anyhow, Abreham is a sweet boy with lots of spunk, most of the time he spends his time tagging along with his brothers and instigating some healthy emotions for them to work through. We have seen great improvement in his social behaviors and learning this year and are excited to see what God has in store for our special son. 

Benjamin is now in first grade, and is flourishing in life. He is a lot of fun and we are enjoying his growing sense of humor, and also his love for God. We were recently at the Woodland park zoo, and we were making our rounds when we arrived at the Porcupines. The porcupine was doing this little dance standing on his two back feet from side to side, and Ben turned around and hollered “Oh my wiggle!” The boys and I still get a good laugh out of that today.  Ben has a very big heart and is a definite leader in our family; in fact, he is a big instigator for little sisters…another adoption (next news). He and Amanuel and Abreham are very close friends and are usually into the same things at the same time; whether it’s football, Spiderman, power rangers, or anything else.

Switching gears…

As we type this letter we’d like to announce one of the great happenings currently taking place in our family life…WE ARE EXPECTING TWINS!!! Okay, not the twins you are thinking of from my womb, but they are from some special mom’s womb.  As of a month ago, we have officially begun our next ADOPTION PROCESS!  As the Lord enables, we are looking to adopt a young sibling group of SISTERS from HAITI!  While our boys long for more brothers so they can have a football team, we have decided it would be in their best interest (and their future wives) that we should adopt girls. We have chosen Haiti for various reasons, and although we looked into domestic adoption and even Foster to Adopt, both of which are greatly important and needed, we sensed the Lord calling us again to a country abroad, one that is greatly affected by poverty. Just a few facts about Haiti: it’s slightly smaller than the state of Maryland with a population of around 10 million. There are currently estimated to be over ½ million orphans. In the capital city of Port-au-Prince alone, there are currently 650 orphanages… it’s like one on every corner.  Haiti ranks among the poorest nations in the world.  Currently, 60 % of Haitians live in extreme poverty, unable to access sufficient food to eat. There is so much poverty right now that few Haitians elect to adopt. We feel blessed that God has called and entrusted us to this great task of raising more children… this time from Haiti. You can follow us on our blog: orthadoption.blogspot.com.

We would greatly appreciate your prayers that God will give us His wisdom and guide us into His perfect will as we continue in this process.

In closing… (sorry if this is the longest Christmas letter on your fridge), we wish you a blessed Christmas filled with God’s joy and His favor upon your life!  May celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ fill your home with a deep sense of gratitude towards God and an excitable anticipation, as you consider all that He is yet longing to do in and through your life to the glory of God!

Hugs, kisses, high fives, & 2014 blessings to you and yours,

Bart, Heather, and Amanuel, Abreham, Benjamin & two special and long-awaited sisters