My orange boy

Greetings ~
Last week I introduced you to Yuri if you didn't read that post here it is for your (Yuri) and I also told you I had so many stories and feelings but I promised I was gonna get them up here to share.  So today I want to share with you about the boy I lovingly refer to as my sweet orange boy.

On our 1st full day in Rwanda we headed outside of Kigali to a city called Bugasera.  We were going to love on a group of school children and also do some home visits with the pastor from the local church.  As the bus pulled up the kids and their parents awaited our descent off the stairs.  Little brown hands grabbed for big white hands all the while saying mazunga mazunga mazunga (white person) as we scattered across the grass with coloring sheets, crayons, stickers and sharpies for nail polish I saw a sweet little boy in orange.  Now you may know that for the past 4 months my left foot has been in a boot from a car accident.  That boot was going to make it a wee bit tricky to sit on the grass and color so I did the next best thing - I took Emily's camera and started shooting.

Mama of the sweet boy in orange made sure at least a dozen times that her son got in front of my lens.  And while I knew he was not a school age child I obliged and shot photo after photo after photo.  When I put the camera down all the sweet orange boy wanted was for me to hold him and again I obliged.  He loves to laugh and to kiss and he sure LOVES to be snuggled.

As our time was coming to a close and as we gathered with all the children and parents to sing and rejoice in all HIS glory - that is when a much bigger than me part of the story came to life.
 
You see my sweet orange boy is Deaf - yes the boy I had snuggled on and kissed, and giggled with - who also loved to lick the inside of your nose if you were not quick enough was in so many ways just like Teddy.  Now when his mama brought him to me and placed him before the camera she had no way of knowing I understood her journey.  You see I had no idea why God had called me to Rwanda this summer and yet within 24hrs on the ground I sat with and laughed with talked with a mama who in some ways shared a common story.  This mama and my sweet orange boy with stay in my heart for the rest of my life.  

May you take a moment today and pray for this warrior mama as she continues to advocate and give her son the best possible life.  May you also pray for my sweet orange boy that he continues to know he is loved and cherished.

Yes my sweet sweet boy you are LOVED

My sweet orange boy - may you always know you are HIS chosen son

Even Brooklyn got in on the love and nose licking

Precious precious mama you are a warrior

What is Courtney up to this summer?

Greetings Family and Friends,
 I am overjoyed to let you know that The Lord has called me to return to Africa this summer to learn from whom I consider a dear dear friend the job that is short term mission work.  You see I am in the process of moving forward on some dreams that are so close to my heart and so personal to my family (I promise more information on that soon) that I need to understand 1st hand the work that is short term missions and I truly thought there was no one better to guide me on this course than my dear friend Gina.
To that end, my trip in July of this year will be to serve alongside the pastors of a local church in Kigali Rwanda. During our visit we will be delivering care packages to families who need to know The Lord, visiting and praying over the sick in the community the church serves, and assisting with worship, children's programs, and whatever else the church members can find use for us to do! It is my hearts desire to serve The Lord and I believe the best way to do that for the hurting people of Rwanda is to connect them to the local body of Christ that can minister to them long after I've returned to my home.

 Additionally, I am over the moon excited to be visiting a local school for the deaf. Several of our team members are fluent in American Sign Language, and the nation of Rwanda is in the early stages of creating a unified Rwandan Sign language which is very similar in dialect to ASL. You have no idea how much this means to me and our dear Marilyn who will be traveling with me!! I am excited that The Lord has called me to partner with him in reaching people in the communities around Kigali. If you feel led to serve The Lord by contributing financially to my mission trip I would be thrilled. I will be collecting help for my expenses as well as for donations to purchase goods while in country.

I'll be leaving American soil on July 13th and will return to the states Aug 1st.  It is truly a blessing and an honor to take this trip this summer alongside our sweet Marilyn!  Donations can be made to me via paypal - courtney@amagicalaffair.com or via check to Courtney Hammons

As always prayers appreciated as I prepare my heart and mind for this journey.

A Family Forged ~

Greetings ~
Thank you Nashville Public Radio for sharing the story of the Hammons House!  We are blessed to be the family that we are because the plans God placed for us long before we even knew!  Here is a link to the story

Hammons House

We tested OUT OF INTERVENTION

Greetings ~
Since coming home with Teddy 2.5 years ago one of the hardest things I have struggled with was how to educate him.  I have scoured and read EVERYTHING I can get my hands on.  I have joined every facebook group I can find and I have badgered the 3 friends with deaf experience (I am probably lucky they are still talking to me!!)  But I made a promise to Teddy's birth mom that I was going to do everything I could to help him succeed in school.  At the end of last year we made the decision to remain in 1st grade for an additional year - truth be told I had made that decision at the start of last school year but alas it would not be until the end of the year when everyone would agree.

You see ASL (American Sign Language) and English are 2 VERY DIFFERENT languages and I just couldn't wrap my mind around how he was going to learn both while knowing his brain still thinks some in Amharic.  At school he works with his teacher, his interpreter, his deaf educator, and his OT.  We also work with an outside speech language pathologist and countless other professionals.  But in my mind we are ALWAYS way behind.  His expressive language skills are that of about a 3 year old while I know he knows so much more the language just is not there YET to see him share it.  So as I prepared for our IEP meeting last week I wondered what this year was gonna hold.  How would we proceed to get him where he needs to be.  And as is ALWAYS the case I should not have worried - you see GOD had it taken care of.  He had placed all of these amazing professionals in our lives and they were working to get him caught up.  And his teacher was so excited to tell us that on the state standard test that he had just taken for reading and comprehension - HE TESTED OUT OF INTERVENTION and at entry level 1st grade!!   

So this post is to thank every single person that has helped us get to this 1st milestone!  I know each and everyone of you were placed on this path with us for a very special reason and please know not a day goes by that I don't pray and thank God that he has placed you on this journey with us.  And to use the words of Meredith (his deaf educator) as she reminded me today - STOP looking at the big picture and ENJOY where he is today - because this my friends is a huge accomplishment.

Way to go sweet boy!  Keep on reading

Home ~ Creating a new normal ~

Greetings ~
The bags are unpacked (well almost), the gifts for friends and family have been shipped or given, the airport hello's have long since faded and life is back to status quo at the Hammons House.  But let's be honest ~ it's a new normal because 5 weeks in East Africa changes a person.

I am not the person I was when I left Tampa back in July ~ sure I look the same and maybe to some even sound the same but inside well inside things are not settled and are not okay.  NO it's not that I want to adopt more children (although I wouldn't rule that out) it's the realization that had there been tools and resources and a support system in place in Addis my sweet Teddy never needed to be adopted.  And that my friends wrestles heavy with my soul.  A dear friend pointed out to me last night that yes Teddy did need to be adopted so that someone (i.e. me) would see the needs and would speak of those and for those that cannot voice them.  And I guess that is true.  So now I sit here in the states prepared to step out on a complete journey of faith so that the other Teddy's of the world have a voice and if by chance they can remain with their birth families than all the better.

Prayers appreciated as this journey begins to unfold and know that I will let you know along the way how you can be a part.  But for now here is a photo of Tariku and his Ethiopian requests!

1st day of school

Greetings ~
Well this year the first day of school looked a little different at the Hammons house!  There is no cute pinterest worthy photo of the boys.  There were no tears shed as the boys headed to the bus to start 1st and 2nd grade.  Nope not this year ~ GOD had different plans for this mama and boy did he stretch me this year!  You see I am still working in Addis Ababa Ethiopia some 7,300 miles away from the 1st day of school.  And yet I wouldn't change a moment of it for anything - not for me or for the boys.  So alright the outfits they wore were surely chosen by them, and no I didn't pack their lunch (but I did take them to buy lunch boxes before I left!!!) Instead their dad and their papa had this moment with them and for that I am eternally grateful.  The boys ADORE their papa to the ends of the earth and had I not been away he would not have been there for their 1st day of school.  And thanks to modern technology I am blessed to follow their day via email, facebook and twitter.  Their most amazing nanny (who leaves for college this Friday) posts photos and videos of them after school.  Their teachers email me and I facetime with the boys ~ so no the 1st day of school was not a traditional one but it was also not one to soon be forgotten!  Hello 2013/2014 we are soooo excited to see you and cannot wait for all that is in store with Ms. Clark and Ms. Gatlin this year!

A Letter To Our Marilyn

To our sweet sweet Marilyn ~

We knew the time was coming ~ we knew we would only have you for a year ~ and what a most AMAZING year it has been.  There will never be enough words that this mama could say that would thank you enough for all you did.  You came into our lives and poured your love into the boys every single day. From soccer practice, to basketball, to speech and beyond you were there every step of the way.

Your grace and patience with both of them taught them to be patient

Your smile was something the boys ran to at the end of each school day

Your sign language skills helped me understand my sweet deaf son a bit more every day

Your knowledge as a sibling of a deaf sister helped Tariku understand his place in the world a bit better

Your passion for the LORD gave them a passion to follow

But above all things was and is your LOVE for them and their LOVE for you.  We are so proud of you and your heart for Ethiopia.  We could not of made this past year had you not been a part of it and while my mama heart is sad I know this journey with you does not end just because you move on to UT.  The boys and I will visit often and I am sure we will find a Ethiopian restaurant in Knoxville to share your love of tibs fir fir with Tariku and Teddy.

So as I prepare to fly off to Addis know that I love you and that I cannot wait to see you soon!  I love you to Ethiopia and back sweet girl and remember this quote ~

Joshua 1:9 - “…Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Injera and Missionaries - Otherwise known as July 5th 2013

Greetings -
Well one thing is for sure the 4th of July was a wash out for middle tn!!!  The 5th of July was not looking much better ~ unless you were one of 2 little ethiopians who knew that at 5pm there were gonna be 7 camp counselors knockin on your front door to go for tibs fir fir!!

Every year Tariku begs me to take the missionaries who work as camp counselors for Camp Summer Sign to an Ethiopian dinner.  And every year it doesn't work out.  This year (praise the LORD) July 5th was an open and an available evening and the camp counselors were game enough to give it a try!!  So at 5pm on the dot they all showed up to our house ready to load into cars and head on over to the boys favorite Ethiopian restaurant in town!  2 car loads packed and ready to go we were off to GOJO's

                  Tariku and Teddy in their new Ethiopian Futbol jerseys from Marilyn ready for injera!

Now we have loved this restaurant ever since we were introduced to in by another adoptive family about 4 years ago (WOW hard to believe it was that long ago) and Tariku could not wait to get inside and show his friends his native food!  I will leave the rest of the story to photos!

Many many thanks to the amazing missionaries who gave of their free evening to come and hang with two little boys who think the world of you and wanted so much for you to see a part of who they are.  Thank you for creating a night they will not soon forget!!

We are an ASL family

Greetings -

Teddy has been home 2.5 years and whenever we tell someone he is deaf they naturally say - oh so you guys sign.  I LAUGH at that comment - (cause let me be real here for a minute just like you and I  didn't learn how to speak fully in the first 2.5 years of our lives there is NO WAY NO HOW we sign)  Sure Kenneth, Tariku and I know some signs and possibly to the outside world we may even look like we know what we are doing but deep down we are 2 year olds learning a new language just like Teddy.

But yesterday something happened - something that makes me have to step out of the 2 year old babble and acknowledge we are a family that signs (and dear lord it is sooooo scary for me to say this) - Tariku has a friend that unfortunately broke her foot earlier this week and he really wanted to go check on her and take her something to cheer her up.  I checked with her mom and that was great!  When I asked what we could bring her mom said gum - so off to Publix we went for gum!!  When we were checking out Tariku noticed the cashier was hard of hearing (huge difference between that and Teddy who is deaf but that is for another post on another day!) and that she could probably sign.  So he asked if he could sign to her.  Ummmm heart now stops beating - see we have NEVER signed with anyone we don't know and who doesn't know our story - I'm scared to still sign with the people I know and here he wants to sign with a complete stranger?????

Well alright child sign away.  And sure enough he did - Hello my name Tariku - what your name?  Nice meet you (please note I did not type this incorrectly that is ASL grammar - see I told you a whole different language!!) The cashier did not miss a step and signed right back to him - my name Corrinne what your name and without missing a beat Tariku spelled his name and introduced me.  She asked me if he was deaf and I said no this is my hearing son but my deaf son was in the car with friends. (Yep I did it - not sure how correct I was) but for the first time Tariku and I both used our new language without Teddy.  I cannot tell you how proud I am of Tariku for feeling comfortable enough to step out and talk to her in that line.  Because at the end of the day we are an ASL family and it's not just to talk to Teddy! AND we are getting better every day!

Marilyn is Home from Ethiopia (Insert wild crazy screams)

Greetings -
If we are friends on facebook or if you were anywhere near me or the boys in the last 7 days than you know our most amazing and incredible nanny Marilyn has been in Ethiopia on a mission trip with the most an organization close to our hearts called Ordinary Hero.  Well RAISE THE ROOF my friends as this evening at 6:30pm our sweet Marilyn came home to Nashville. Honestly you would of thought it was an Ethiopian adoption homecoming at the airport - the boys in their shirts (their choosing!!) and their precious signs made ready to greet their sweet sweet Marilyn.

Here are a few photos from the boys homecoming of their sweet sweet Marilyn!

                                      WELCOME HOME MARILYN WELCOME HOME!

Did he know it was his birthday?

Yesterday was Teddy's 7th birthday.  He spent it at my parents house on Spring Break - playing in the snow and playing golf and basketball.  But did he know it was his birthday?  Sometimes parenting a deaf child with little language is rough.  Yes I KNOW Tariku told him 10,000 times it was his birthday and yes I KNOW my parents told him 1,000,000 times he was 7 but does he know?  Does he understand?  Does he get that he is a year older? Does he understand that Tariku is now 8 and not 7?  Unlike Tariku where we talk and talk about upcoming things we are not there with Teddy yet (I know we will be eventually)  We can't talk to him about the changes of the past year.  I know the time will come when all of these topics will be possible but today as a mom of a brand new 7 year old I wonder what did he like best about being 6, is he excited to be 7 and does he really know what a birthday is?

The Audacity to Exist

Greetings -
I came across this today and I am sure it is not by accident!  I share it with you today in the hopes it will change your heart just a tinge.  For months we have been praying for people to see Teddy the way we see him and to see sign language the way we do.  It seem that this movie may be the beginning of this prayer for us!  Take a look and help us spread the word!

http://audacitytoexist.com/

Wishing  you a MAGICAL day ~

Courtney

Santa Signs!!

Greetings -
While Kylee (the boys cousin) was in town this week we decided it would be a great time to see Santa! You know all 3 cousins on Santa's lap for the holiday photo.  So off to Gaylord Opryland we went.  And of course the kiddos were thrilled to see the jolly old man himself.  And there were requests for water for my sisters, large transformers and pretty dolls.  But yet there sat Teddy he didn't understand the questions being asked.  He doesn't know the names of the toys he loves.  He has yet to really understand what Christmas is.  But when Santa signed to him his world changed!  His face lit up - this man understands me!!!  Santa can talk to me!!!  And so Teddy told him in his own way about bay blades and transformers and cars!  So I want to thank you Santa for that moment of happiness in my little boys eyes!  That moment that there was no difference in Tariku, Kylee or Teddy.  The moment that allowed ALL 3 of them to be kiddos and believe in your wonderment!

Merry Christmas To ALL!

Wishing you a MAGICAL Day ~
Courtney
(aka a grateful mama)

Hammons House Holiday Update

Greetings -
Well the turkey has been stuffed and eaten, the pie whipped and fluffed.  The black friday sales are complete and now we settle back to enjoy our weekend!  This Thanksgiving was not what was originally planned.  Typically we travel to New York City to see my brother and sister in law.  Unfortunately do to circumstances beyond control that just was not able to happen this year.  So instead my parents came to Tennessee with my 7 year old niece.  What a great time is being had by all!  From eating, to swimming, to tennis and shopping these kiddos are doing it all.  And isn't that really the reason for this season?  To be thankful for what we do have!  So today I say how thankful I am for family and friends near and far.  I am thankful to have been blessed with an amazing husband and 2 boys who changed our world.  Let's not forget this feeling of thanksgiving as the year continues on!  Here is a small peek into what our week has looked like so far!

Shrek the Halls @ Gaylord Opryland

Merry Christmas from the cousins

Here comes KYLEE

Why you at my house?

Ready to sleep at nana and papa's hotel

Really?  You are worried about us!

Nana and her kiddos 

Cousins

We made it!  Breakfast time with Shrek

Puss in Boots was so nice!

Yes we really did eat with a ogre and his princess

Thank you nana and papa!

Want to be a part of our circus

So from all of us here at the Hammons House we wish you a blessed holiday season!  Stop back soon as you know there is always something going on in this house!

Wishing you a MAGICAL Day ~

Courtney

It's all about PAPA

Greetings -
So growing up I always thought I had a pretty cool dad!  He taught me to downhill snow ski before I could walk!  He was at all my events, he helped me and my brother with math (since he was a math teacher you would have thought his kids would have understood it!!), he walked me down the aisle not once but twice (perfection takes practice!) He held my hand when I told him I couldn't have children, he talked to me on the phone while a hurricane passed over my house as he drove to Utah.  In my eyes he was amazing.  But it wasn't until I had Tariku and Teddy that I realized what a remarkable man he truly was.

You see from day one he never saw a different color, he never saw that they were adopted, all he saw were his grandsons.  When I called him a few weeks ago upset that Teddy was having a hard time not seeing him he called me the next day and said he would be down for the weekend.  When I was struggling with Tariku he called and asked if he needed to come down and talk with him.

For close to 10 years I worked at Walt Disney World and getting my parents into a theme park was worse than a root canal.  Now that there are the boys we have been twice in one year and my dad rides EVERYTHING - which mind you he rode NOTHING with my brother and I EVER!

And so PAPA I want to say thank you!  Thank you for loving my boys like no one else, thank you for teaching them to ride a bike, and soccer, and fish!  Thank you for believing that our family as different as it may be is the right family for you!

Because at the end of the day it is all about PAPA and his boys!

Wishing you a MAGICAL Day~
Courtney

Walt Disney World through the EYES of Teddy!

Greetings -

WHEW!  We did it - 5 days at Walt Disney World!  The boys had an amazing time and of course there are 2 million photos I could share with you (and probably will) but today is about something bigger.  It is about how GOD is with us even in the little moments, even when you wouldn't be thinking GOD - he is there!  As some of you know Kenneth and I both worked for the Walt Disney company for numerous years - and in that time neither Kenneth or I were ever approached or asked about sign language assistance. And believe me we both received numerous requests every day.  So imagine my surprise when we were walking through Liberty Square a little after 3 headed to Splash Mountain (read family on a mission for a ride) and out of the corner of my eye I caught the parade - and as I turned to look what did I see but 2 interpreters signing the parade.  Right there right in front of my family, right in front of my DEAF son on his first trip to Disney.  The tears were flowing from my eyes and my mother's you see we were not stopping for the parade we were on a plan and yet someone bigger then us thought we should stop and enjoy the moment!  A moment the WHOLE family would understand.  Teddy loved the parade and watched the interpreters with great intent! And as the parade came to an end they were gone - I looked up and they were no where to be seen.  There was no opportunity to thank them for what they had given our family, no opportunity to see who they worked for (Kenneth noticed they did not have Disney name tags on), so to those 2 amazing interpreters the Hammons Family says thank you!  Thank you for allowing our family a moment to be inclusive!

Wishing you a MAGICAL Day ~

Courtney