Happy Birthday 5th Judah Gezehegn!

Judah turned 5 years old last Sunday. And yes his birthday is the day after Jonathan's. Kinda cool and like a kiss from heaven when we were given the birth day his birth mom gave when he was left at the orphanage when he was nine months old. Below is the photo that was the first time we ever saw his face. Mike and I took a visit trip/2nd honeymoon to Ethiopia in October 2008. The morning before we left I got this photo from a friend at Gladney Adoption Agency about this little Down Syndrome toddler that was in their orphanage in Addis. We visited "Gezi" several times during our time in Ethiopia. We fell madly in love with him and vowed to bring him home to become a "Feser". We are so thankful that AAI and Gladney worked together to make it possible for us to adopt Judah Gezehegn and baby Job Assefa together.

I was super blessed to be able to make several visit trips to Ethiopia during the adoption "wait" for Judah and Job. This photo was taken on one of the trips is AAI's "Wanna" the baby toddler section of their home in Addis. It was so hard to leave Judah each visit. Job was so very loved and adored at AHOPE that he really didn't ever seem to care when or if I came or when I left. Judah was MUCH harder to leave. He was sickly and always seem t0 grieve when I had to leave. It was agonizing.

This photo was on the trip that I got to bring Judah home in October 2009! He passed court before Job so I had to wait until February to go back to get Job. But here is first time Judah and Job met at AHOPE where Job lived.

When Judah came home unbeknown to everyone Judah was very ill with active TB. It was good thing no one knew before he came home! If he had tested TB + in Ethiopia we would not have been able to get his visa for a long time. And he may have not lived to make it home. Once home and diagnosed he was put on four very awful drugs to treat the TB. It was a long 10-11 mos dealing with the side effects of medicine used to cure his TB. He finally was done with the meds the last day of July this summer. Since then he has thrived and is super happy and healthy. Here is is in August playing with the Tonka trucks that are the most favorite of little boy toys at our house.


Taken last Sunday October 24th, 2009...turning 5 was a great day!
Happy, Happy Birthday big guy. We love and adore you and are sooooo blessed to have you in our family!