Sunday, July 21, 2013

After a great nights sleep (thank God), we woke up to a delicious breakfast of pancakes, smoothies, and tea. The pancakes were huge and very dense. Dr Ron gave us some acupressure thing to do on the plane to get our internal clocks set to the time here in Ethiopia. I think it worked as we felt great after getting only 8hrs of sleep after not sleeping for 28hrs. We then watched the rest of The Sandlot which we all started the night before and took a walk around the local area on the hunt for mangoes. We were blessed to be able to spend the whole day with our new friends, Nate and Andrea. We went to the International Evangelical Church, which started at 11:15. The church was beautiful and the format was very similar to that of the Vineyard. The sanctuary was large and included a balcony. It was almost completely full with a variety of ethnic background, with the majority being Ethiopians. Worship was very nice with a large group of singers, a drummer, one guitar, and keyboard. There were young kids singing as part of the worship band, with one teenage boy that was very energetic and filled with The Spirit. It was great. We were both pretty emotional as we sang How Great Is Our God as just the voices, realizing the diversity that existed in the room but all worshipping the one true god. The pastor was American and gave a nice message which resonated with our trip and the adoption process. Offering was between songs (including singing while the offering was taking place which we liked) and there was no communion. The service ended in worship. After church we went to lunch at Island Breeze. It was predominantly American food but Brian had Ethiopian chikena tipe. It was very spicy but delicious. We also had Cocoa Cola, onion rings, and Amy had a burger. After lunch we went to the market area next to the post office. We never do well at places where you have to barter. Especially when you are in a 3rd world country and you know it's their livelihood, I feel terrible asking them to lower their price. Either way we got some souvenirs for the kids and ourselves. Someone here at the guesthouse suggested getting some things for Rediet to give her every year on her birthday which we thought was a cool idea. So we haven't gotten anything for her yet but hope to do some more shopping on wed before we leave. After the shopping we hit a coffee place that looks just like Starbucks but is called Kaldy's. Brian ordered a chai latte and instead of being like hot chocolate but with tea, it was like warm frothy milk with a tea bag added. Brian looked quite ridiculous drinking it. Then went to a Tamoca and bought two big bags of coffee beans for people back home. Had a nice dinner of traditional Ethiopian food, injera and wot (stew) at the guesthouse. It was good but very filling. We've enjoyed lots of time connecting with other families here and just sitting around talking and getting to know each other. We even played some foursquare with the kids who live here. Today was a very relaxed day and I don't think we looked at a clock once. Tomorrow one of the families here go to pick up their son and bring him back to the orphanage and he is theirs! They are first time parents and it has been really sweet to hang out with them, give them parenting insight and we got to pray blessings over them for their special day tomorrow. Craziest thing is they have our favorite board game here, Ticket to Ride, and we had the opportunity to teach everyone how to play tonight, it was lots of fun. After another full day, time to sleep!

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Today we arrived in Addis Ababa after a long journey filled with no sleep. It took about 2 hours to get thru the airport after obtaining visas, exchanging money, and going through customs. Nesibu picked us up at the airport and we got our first experience of the city. Nesibu described the city as a developing city. There is construction going on EVERYWHERE you look. It's amazing. The traffic is so different from the us, no stop lights, people and animals walking in the streets and lots of horn honking. It's amazing there aren't more accidents but its a system that works. After arriving at the guesthouse, we got the privilege to go meet and serve the children of the yzm at the Saturday feeding program. We got to hear about all of the programs yzm runs and what sponsorship money goes towards. We then went over to the feeding center/school and it was an eye opening and amazing time. We met many children, many who came up to us shaking hands and introducing themselves. All with smiling faces. We got a tour of the preschool and kindergarten rooms, and then went and helped serve food to the children. They received a main dish of rice, beans, and a vegetable served with a roll and banana. The rice was in a very large vat that was very heavy. The children kept asking for makayla.....which means spoon. Birtukan said it costs roughly 3000 birr each Saturday to serve all three locations. We estimated about 75 kids at our site. After serving the food we hung out and played with the children. They were a true joy and loved the simple things. They enjoyed taking and being in pictures, wearing my sunglasses, listening to funny noises, faces, and hand gestures. They found my bracelet and our tattoos interesting. They also loved thumb wars. After yzm we went back to the guest house and had spaghetti for lunch with yummy rolls and an Ethiopian spice sauce. That was followed by a coffee ceremony in the guest house in which they roast the beans and crush them by hand. Water is added and then cooked over a charcoal fire inside. Incense was burned while the coffee was cooking. Amy and I had our first taste of coffee in the form of machiado. It was bitter even with added milk and sugar; however, we both drank some and now can say we have had coffee in our lives. At 2:30 we were picked up by AAI driver and social worker to go to Hilawe (orphanage) and meet Rediet. It was about a 30 minute drive thru a lot of different scenery and scenarios. When we arrived at the orphanage and the gates opened our daughter was waiting with a huge smile on her face and her arms out to embrace us. We can't describe the amazing feeling it was. Rediet instantly gathered all of her friends one by one to meet us, took our hands, and gave us a tour of Hilawe. It was a nice facility with about 40-50 children we are guessing. We talked with rediet for a while and listened to her tell us about Jesus, her bible, and her church teaching. Rediet and the kids enjoyed the cameras and sunglasses as well. We played ball with the children and asked questions thru Mitin. We connected with three siblings that we heard were going to be adopted via a connection with Tiel. It was hard to leave Rediet but she understood the schedule and when we would be back. At one point we asked her if she was okay with us adopting her and she replied with a big smile and a Yes. We returned back to Morning Coffee, chatted with Jerome and family, took a short nap finally, and had dinner with our friends. At this point we had gone approximately 30 hours without sleep prior to the short nap. Dinner was a vegetable pie with salad. It was delicious. That was followed by tea and watching The Sandlot with everyone. Halfway thru the movie the power went out which is common. We headed upstairs to get ready for bed. The power was not off too long this time. We have plans to go to church and spend time with Nate and Andrea tomorrow.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Up at 3:00 a.m. In Chicago to get shuttle at 3:30 to take us to airport. Plane departed on time and flight went well. We met Helen, and two families from Chicago. One was adopting a baby in Ethiopia, they were named Jason and Linley. The other couple was headed to Rhuwanda to visit their daughter in the Peace Corp. Made it to DC on time and had a little difficulty finding terminal for next flight but made it with time to spare. Traveled with new friends in which Helen invited us to her sisters Ethiopian wedding. Looks like the Ethiopian people are already living up to their friendly reputation. Flight left DC around 9:45 and all went well. It was LONG! We met the family behind us who is from NW Iowa and also heading to Ethiopia to adopt. Turns out they are staying in same guest house, Morning Coffee. Crazy! We can't wait to get to know them more in the next week. Jerome and Tami are traveling with their biological children - Caleb (21), Kaley (17), and Elijah (9).

Friends and Family,

2012 has started off as an exciting year for the Boelk household! During the Christmas Season in 2011, Brian and I started thinking about adoption. We had always felt we had room for another child in our family but just weren’t sure of the timing. For a long time life felt chaotic enough with three kids, two of them being crazy twin boys! But just before the end of 2011, I felt God pointing out to me (crazy as this sounds to all of you who know us) that life, while busy, felt pretty routine. So I broached the subject with Brian and we decided to each take some time and pray about it.

Our prayers were answered with a resounding, Go For It! We attended a Christian concert in January called Winter Jam. The main band who organizes the concert is partnered with an adoption agency and they showed a video from one of their trips to China. During this trip they were followed around by a 12 year old girl. Her parents had died and her aunt had adopted her, but recently her aunt fell ill and had passed away. She was nearing her 13th birthday (in which children age out of the system in China) and was pleading with them to help her find a family before she turned 13. Right then I looked at Brian and said “If that was us, I’d take her home in a minute.” He nodded and said, “Me too.” At that moment, our journey began.

We have partnered with an agency that has worked extensively in Africa. Many of you may wonder why we aren’t pursuing adoption in the US. We feel that God has put Africa on our hearts and we feel a strong desire to be a multi-cultural family. We want to embrace this child’s culture and meld our cultures together to create our new family unit.

We are currently in the homestudy phase and will be pursuing the adoption of a girl, approximately 6-8 years old from the country of Ghana. Ghana is a beautiful country about the size of Oregon, situated in the heart of West Africa. Ghana is one of the most stable countries in Africa. Unfortunately, the economy has struggled and, like most African countries, the majority of people live in poverty. UNICEF estimates that there are 1,000,000 orphans in Ghana.

We feel called by God to complete our family through adoption and in answering that call, we know God will help support and provide for us during this process. We were designed by God for community and know we can’t walk this journey alone. As family and friends, there are a few ways you can support us during this journey:

• First and foremost, please pray for us. We have experienced the power of prayer firsthand and know how important it is that we keep God at the center of this. Specific things we’d like prayer for are: A smooth and expected process with no major hiccups, this young girl would know that god loves her and is bringing a family to her, and that our hearts would be soft as we prepare to become a multi-cultural family.

• Financially
1. Paypal your donation to amy_boelk@yahoo.com or mail to 213 Pheasant Run, West Branch, IA 52358.
2. Go to www.icvineyard.org. Scroll down towards the bottom and on the left hand side of the page there is a “Donate” button. Click on that button and you’ll be taken to Paypal. There is a comment box before you confirm your donation where you will need to type “Boelk Adoption”. If you do not type “Boelk Adoption”, your donation will go into the church’s general fund. If you donate through this method, your donation will be tax deductible.
3. We will be organizing a massive garage sale for hopefully May. During spring cleaning if you come across any items you want to get rid of, we will gladly take anything you have. Items that aren’t sold will be donated to Goodwill. Please contact me via email at amy_boelk@yahoo.com and I’ll arrange to pick up the items.

As a family, I can’t tell you the excitement we feel. We are excited to welcome a new sister and a new daughter. We can’t wait to see how our lives and the lives of others will be blessed by this young girl entering our family and we hope your share in our excitement!

With lots of love,
Brian, Amy, Taylor, Carver and Kinnick

The Annual Christmas Letter! - Written by Team Gerbil

Stop chewing on those sticks, I’m trying to focus here. Oh, hey…..hi, I’m Ginger. Apparently it is a tradition in this crazy house for all new pets or people to write the Christmas letter their first year. Who ever came up with that idea?? So, that means you are in store for a wild ride provided by your very own Team Gerbil. Team Gerbil is made up of myself and my crazy sister, Flufferbutt. Yes, her name is Flufferbutt. And if you haven’t figured it out by the name, we are gerbils! A little bit about ourselves, we love to chew, climb thru tubes, sleep, and tease those big fury things in this house. But enough about us, let us tell you what else we have heard has gone on this year with Team Boelk.

Let’s start with “The Boyz”. Kinnick and Carver are enjoying 1st grade and terrorizing West Branch. They both played soccer this spring, baseball this summer, flag football in the fall, and just finished up their first year of basketball. In addition, they are proud Tiger scouts and have enjoyed earning multiple badges, belt loops, and other achievements. I hear they are doing really well in school and continue to stump their friends and teachers as to who is who. I don’t know what the big deal is; Team Gerbil can easily tell the difference. Kinnick really enjoys art projects, drawing, and drumming; while Carver enjoys playing this big thing called a piano (apparently starts lessons soon), and playing kickball any free moment he has. They both love to create and build whatever they can out of whatever they can find. That’s why we are often hiding under our bedding! Who knows where might end up. Hey, that reminds me of the time they put me in the Zu Zu Pet toys and……..Flufferbutt, back on track!

Okay, then there is our girl power companion Taylor. Tay is now in 4th grade and doing fantastic. She played softball this summer, continues her dance (tap, jazz, hip-hop, ballet), is currently playing basketball, and is really thriving on piano. There are also talks of her taking up swimming. Yikes! Hope she is better at hat than me. I fear the toilet. Anyway, she also has joined Girl Scouts and is busy earning badges, loves the color lime green and enjoys reading to us!

The big people in the house are always running this way and that. Luckily, they do check our water and food now and then or else I wouldn’t be writing this letter. Amy and Brian continue to be heavily involved in the Vineyard Church community. Brian plays in worship band, sings in the choir, teaches Sunday school, and helps lead Wildfire (youth group). Amy is on the church board, helps set up/clean up Sunday mornings, helps lead Wildfire, also teaches Sunday school. They both are involved in prayer groups, a couples small group, and taking care of the church building. Amy apparently has had a big change with this thing they call a job. (Glad we don’t have to work ). After working 11 years at Knutson Construction Services, Amy decided to take on a different career path and is now a project manager for Shive-Hattery. She truly is grateful for her years at Knutson and leaves with many wonderful friendships, but has really enjoyed the recent change. Brian is still with the City of Iowa City, and has enjoyed coaching the kids again this year in tee ball, softball, football, and basketball. In addition, he is the den leader for these Tiger Scouts. Hmmm…Tigers, don’t think I want any part of that.

Though Hawks aren’t really our friends, if you know what I mean, our owners seem to be in love with them. I’m always hearing about how they are watching the Hawkeyes play football, basketball, wrestling, soccer, field hockey, swimming, and any other sport you can think of. Personally, I prefer tube sliding….weeeeee! Squeeking of tube sliding, they had a blast on their annual family trip to the lake in Minnesota this summer. In addition, Amy enjoyed her family girl trip to Chicago and Brian on his co-worker guy trip to KC. They have recently been busy working in the dungeons of the house. I hear they are finishing off the basement and rumor has it……wait for it……it is going to be all for us! Well, maybe Fluffer made up that last part, but they are busy with wires, drywall, and various other items down there.

Amy and Brian want to make sure that we acknowledge the loss of two wonderful people this year: Uncle Gene and Barb Masengarb. We also give a shout out to those friends and family who are distant: Mikey, the Clark’s, and many other friends and family members. May God bless you over the holiday season as we celebrate with a joyous birthday party for our true savior, Jesus Christ.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY NEW YEAR, GOD BLESS, AND GO HAWKS!!!

Brian, Amy, Taylor, Carver, Kinnick, Holly, Butch, Ringo, Various Fish, and Team Gerbil

In rememberance of.......

The mother of my lifelong best friend passed away Monday morning, unexpectedly in her sleep. Barb Masengarb was not only the mother to Mike Masengarb and his siblings, but also served as a second mom to numerous grandchildren and friends including myself at times. Barb was a truly generous woman, who always gave her time to her family and friends first and foremost. She played a significant role in raising four wonderful children of her own, as well as nine grandchildren. In addition, she was a loving and caring wife to her husband John. Barb was only 63 years old and will be greatly missed by many.

Our prayers go out to the entire Masengarb and Newcomb family. Though as difficult as this time is, I know you will all continue living life with generosity and as a family just like Barb taught you. May the arms of our Lord embrace you Barb in heaven, and give all those suffering down here a great big hug!

Our Story - 10 years of wedded bliss!

10 years ago today, I married the man of my dreams. Most of you know my history, but I was married once before Brian and for reasons beyond my control, it didn't work out. Brian and I had known each other in college as we had all the same classes together. However, Brian had a long term relationship going and I was engaged to be married. The first time we hung out, I thought to myself, maybe if we had met at a different time, we could have gone out on a date. But both of us were committed to someone else, so we were friends. Not like super close tell each other all your secret friends, but there was a connection there. Years later after we were actually together, Brian would tell me he had the same thoughts running through his mind about if we'd met under different circumstances there could have been a relationship there.

In college, we spent many hours in the student union "doing homework". In reality, we spent lots of time with our friends laughing, drinking smoothies, eating cinnamon rolls etc... Brian spent lots of time trying to teach me to succesfully play Archanoid (hopefully I spelled it right) which is very similar to Pong or Brickbreaker. Those that know me well understand the difficulty I have with hand eye coordination with moving objects. So we had tons of laughs focused about my not so mad Archanoid skills.

One class we had together, I'll never forget was called "Soils". We had a teacher named Colby Swan who was one strange guy (and wouldn't you have to be to teach a class called Soils?). We would often sit in the back row and complete the crossword from the DI together. We had lots of running jokes about our teacher and class topic and I just remember spending most of my class time laughing with Brian. Another time we had to complete some project that required computer analysis. After doing the work and looking at the numbers, I said to him, "Those are some small ass numbers!" He thought I said "those are some suave numbers!". It has been something we still joke about to this day.

Right after graduation, I was getting a divorce, and our study group decided to take a trip to Hilton Head to celebrate our graduation. One our friends' parents owned a condo there and we only had to pay the $100 cleaning fee to stay for the whole week. Brian and his girlfriend were breaking up because he was moving to Chicago and she was moving to Kansas City. We had so much fun on this trip and I think it was because we were both free to think of what a relationship together could look like. I have so many memories of that trip: dancing on the beach at night to Prince's greatest hits, getting locked out of our condo because Tom put the key in his swimsuit pocket (that didn't close) and then went swimming in the ocean, having someone yell at us from their condo because we were too loud in the pool at 4 am, having treats at an ice cream shoppe where my favorite sundae (brownie with ice cream on top) was actually called The Amy Sue, crab races, playing golf, KC & Jo Jo, and the dolphin ankle bracelet Brian bought me.

After we came home from the trip we decided to go on a date. We ate dinner at the Wig and Pen (which we still do every year to celebrate our anniversary), played some pool and then went to the movie Hope Floats (not such a great choice when one of the people is getting divorced because her husband left her), but it is still one of our favorite movies. Two days later Brian moved to Chicago. Because of my divorce I had missed the hiring window for new graduates and I didn't have a job or have any idea where I wanted to go. I was thinking St. Louis, Kansas City or Chicago as they were all about the same distance from home. Rationally, I told myself Chicago would be best, I had other friends there and a cousin I could lean on for support. A friend of my parents owned a restaurant in downtown that I could work at until I found a full time job. But in my heart, I knew I was following Brian. Which made absolutely no sense because here I was getting divorced and he was getting out of a 5 year relationship.

So I moved there and we dated for a few months and I knew in my heart that this was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with and have children with (which was huge for me because I previously had not wanted children). We both commented on how easy it was to be together, something neither of us had experienced in previous relationships. After 6 months of dating, we moved in together and the rest is history!

Brian asked me to marry him on Halloween in 1999. We had a picnic at the Morton Aboretum in Lisle, IL and Brian wrote me a poem titled Candy Corn (my favorite halloween candy). He also had a trick or treating plastic pumpkin full of candy corn and amongst all the candy corn was a ring box. So so sweet he is!

Miraculously, it was a beautiful day on November 4, 2000. I had a sleeveless dress so I was worried about being cold, but God took care of us that day and has every day since then. It really was a perfect day, the wedding was great, the reception was awesome and we danced the night away! We honeymooned in Maui and that was wondeful! We vowed to go back on our 5 year anniversary but the boys threw a little wrench in that plan since I was staying home and we didn't have any money. At that time we said we'll go back on our 10 yr anniversary. Here we are at our 10 yr and we're still not in Maui. Just didn't work out schedule wise this year, but we'll get back there someday!

So many memories of the past ten years, although both of us have trouble remembering what we did before we had kids! :-) I could write for hours I think. But certainly the most noteable is the birth of our three children, building our dream home, following the Hawkeyes and most importantly both of us growing in our faith and finding the purpose God put on each of our lives.

Getting divorced sucked, but I believe God does not cause bad things to happen to us. I believe he takes the bad things and turns them into good. If I hadn't lived through that relationship, I would never had been able to appreciate a man like Brian. I believe God used Brian to bring me back to him. Here I was a woman who had little to no faith, didn't want children and had very little direction to my life other than I was following a man. God gave me Brian, then he gave me the desire for children, then the desire to find a church and then the desire to live a life like a woman of God. And that's what I will strive for always, to be the woman God intended me to be.

I love you baby and thank you for supporting me, helping me find myself, being a wondeful father to our children, your committment to our family and to helping others and most importantly for walking out this life with me!