HELLO! HELLO! HELLO!

We ARE alive and well.....it's been so long since I updated you all that I thought you might wondering!!! HAHA! It's been a very eventful few weeks for us and I'm thankful that we are beginning to "settle" and things around our house are beginning to "settle" also!!! If any of you out there have ever adopted and then also moved to another state around the exact same time frame, it's not easy but my testimony remains the same.....my God moves mountains, and with God, ALL things are possible!! We are sooooo blessed and even though things have been hectic and a little crazy here for Team Newsom--- we are STILL in the game and we're hanging in there and we are crazy happy.

For starters, I'll share a few pictures of Joshua Nahome......


We've been home from Ethiopia for 8 days now and we're transitioning to life with 5 kiddos!! It's been very interesting to watch the dynamics of our family change and it has definitely a matter of prayer as well!! Nahome is doing really great. He is a very sweet, smart, and loving little boy. Of course, he has had many moments of frustration, grief, rebellion and emotional meltdowns but after a time-out (his time-out chair is always in MY LAP in the rocking chair, BTW) he eventually comes around and becomes loving and happy again. If I were in the mental health profession, I would say that he is dealing with all the changes in a very healthy emotional way and for that, even though it is painful for me to witness, I am thankful. I have cried many tears for him while he has cried.....most of my tears were tears of compassion but a few times, they have been the result of exhaustion. Rest and time outs are also good for mommies too!!

The rest of The Team is transitioning well also. Joel Daniel has probably struggled the most but mainly because he and Joshua Nahome are so close in age that there is some serious competition for toys going on!! They are learning to share with one another--- today was a breakthrough day with each of them taking turns much more easily and without such a high decibel level! :) Madilyn, Jackson and Hannah have all handled the addition of an additional sibling with amazing grace. They are super compassionate and understanding and have had many moments of kindness that have made me a proud Momma over the past few weeks. :) Daddy Joel is doing well also and he was BLESSED BIG this week as he was supposed to start his new Army job today but when he went to visit his new boss on Friday, he was instructed to be sure to take the 10 extra days of transition/move allowance leave so that he could make sure we, his family, were taken care of and settled before he begins his new job. AMAZING. We had both assumed that since we just took 3 weeks of adoption leave that he would not be allowed to have the additional leave.....God is so good. Really, "CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT GOD HAS DONE?" --We are so thankful because the extra few days to get settled will be wonderful and really is another amazing provision by our Lord. We really needed the days and God provided them.

Here is a photo of me, Joshua Nahome, and Tigist- Nahome's birth mother. Many of you know that I prayed for an "open" international adoption to some degree. I really think open adoption is amazing and God did it. Tigist is a beautiful young lady (now age 17) and we were so honored to get to meet her, ask her lots of questions and spend time with her. We were also privileged to meet her entire,very large family! Nahome is one lucky little boy to have a huge loving Ethiopian family and a huge loving American family!!! They were really wonderful to us and after seeing and being there-- God gave me such a peace and understanding about the WHY of Nahome's adoption. I am so thankful for the experience and for the relationships that were developed during such a short but profoundly moving visit. I am already cooking up plans of our family returning to Ethiopia and trying to spend a week or two with Nahome's Ethiopian family in the next year or two. There are so many needs there and we are praying that God will continue to open doors for us to possibly go back there and do medical missions and share the gospel to the children and families in his village. I say "continue" to open doors because he has already opened some amazing doors here! We're praying God will make His plans clear to us. Anyway- that's another story for another day.......here is the photo of Nahome and his mothers!! :)


Please do continue to lift us all up in prayer as we continue to settle in. Here are some scriptures I've been pondering today.....

Deuteronomy 5:33 "You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God hath commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess."

Philippians4:9 "Those things, which you have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you."

Proverbs 13:7 "There is that maketh himself rich, yet has nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet has great riches."

Psalm 73:26 " My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever."

Truly Blessed,
AMY