Lori Florida

Fairy tales make us think of princesses and castles and happily ever afters.  We ooh and ahh over the idea but secretly sigh with regret as the grown-up knowledge that fairy tales aren't the stuff of real life overtakes us.  We even start to use the term "fairy tale" to be a euphemism for things that can't possibly be true.  But we're wrong! We've been so blinded by that single, shining end moment that we completely forget everything that came before! The meatiest part of fairy tales, the part that's satisfying and keep us coming back for more is the part that's the most like real life.  Even in it's disney-fied form, the tale of Sleeping Beauty is full of darkness and struggle.  The happy celebration at the beginning quickly takes a dreadful turn as Maleficent appears.  Just hearing her name is enough to clue us into what's coming, but to make sure we understand, the castle is filled with darkness and the music turns minor.  Evil has ente...

A lot can happen in a year...a lot can stand still too.  Many years ago my mom gave me a 10 year journal.  Each page is dated with the month and day and has a spot for a small paragraph for each of 10 years.  I opened to February 11th today and couldn't resist the pull to read my thoughts from 2013.  So much has changed since that moment, but reading last year's words put a spotlight on the bedrock that hasn't changed and never will.  There is an anchor that holds my soul, a purpose bigger than my days, a reason, a plan, a God who is doing things and can be trusted.  I have a feeling I'm not the only one who needs this reminder of who are are and who's you are  to put some iron in your spine. February 11, 2013 - journal excerpt "Yesterday was a really great day at church.  Pastor Ashok from India spoke powerfully from the Word.  Pastor Ashok started with a story.... The  Story of the Bamboo There once was a small shoot of ba...

I can't really remember what our plan was, but I'm quite sure that it wasn't 2 babies in 16 months.....Trevor Dean Florida was our first experience with " God's plan for our family's children is soooo much better than our own!"   We were given the gift of a second man child, sturdy and strong with a tender heart and a will of iron on May 19, 1996.  This past weekend has been a sweet celebration of the baby grown up. Since Trevor himself isn't too keen on hearing the details surrounding his birth (he wouldn't even let me play his birth video while his friends were here....sheesh, boys!!)  I've decided to chronicle the story here for the day his future wife or daughters want to hear his story......and maybe because it was such a precious time for his Momma! There was a part of me that was hoping Trevor would be a girl, mainly just because I already had a boy and conventional wisdom said variety is the spice of life.  There was a bigger part o...

We met the girls on Wednesday and slept very well that night.  We woke Thursday to the sounds of Addis Ababa....new construction, children laughing and running, the rumble of cars and trucks, animals of all kinds and the occasional call to prayer over the tinny loudspeakers. The view from our guesthouse window. One of the (many) different and cool things about adopting older children instead of babies is that we were able to be a family on this first trip.  Usually, adoptive parents get to meet their children on the sly, pretending to be nothing more than everyday visitors to the orphanage.  Until the court date and a declaration from the judge anything can happen....and the tender hearts of the children must be protected from the potential, however small it may be, of yet another loss.  But the word "usually" hasn't figured much into our story!  Right from the first day we began talking about our girls, our adoption workers would tell us ...

There are days that are a glaring fork in the road because they contain the moment upon which everything hinges.  Days that have the potential to be either looked back on with the fondness  of great opportunities that were birthed or with the regret of unfulfilled wishes and dreams.  Today is one of those days.   The first time April 23rd stood out on the calendar for me was because it carried the weight of a deadline... a deadline that prompted my introduction to my daughter, Asnaku (who went by "Ashley" on the waiting child list.)   Connected to the picture of a big-eyed girl with a serious face were these words, " Ashley, age 15 years -Ashley will turn 16 in April 2013; an adoptive family must file an I-600 (which occurs at the end of the adoption process) before she turns 16 years old, or she will not be able to be adopted . If you know of anyone interested in Ashley’s adoption, please contact us." Today could have been the day that she knew her fate ...

There is a buzz forming right now about a book that investigates the link between the recent wave of Christian adoptions and adoption corruption, calling it "Orphan Fever:  The Evangelical Movement's Adoption Obsession."  I read an article summary yesterday written by the author.   You can read it for yourself here.   We should all read this article because accountability is always good and wrongs, wherever they are discovered, should be righted.  But I hope we will also consider my story, and the thousands of others just like mine that weren't reported. As you read, I want you to think about me.  Not because I'm eager for attention, but because I'm the case study that's not mentioned in this article.  Most of the motivations the author lists for these horrible adoption cases are things that you could have heard coming out of my mouth....with tears....word for word.  Our words may sound the same but result in actions as different as ni...

I realized as I was typing the title that my fingers fly over the keys for Ethiopia these days.....it rolls right off my fingertips....I've formed a new muscle memory....and I like it!  It's a fun word to type fast.  Ethiopia , ethiopia , ethiopia , ethiopia !!  That word makes me smile....even more now that what I can tell you about the place is what I've seen, not just what I've read. It seemed like we had been waiting forever for travel dates.  We officially accepted our girls' referral on December 4th but it took until mid February for the wheels to turn and the email to arrive with our court date of March 1st.  Then, all of a sudden, wait wait wait turned into hurry hurry hurry!!  We flew out Monday afternoon, hardly believing that it was real and we would fall asleep on the plane and wake up in Africa ! Our overnight flight dropped us into Addis Ababa as the city was waking up.  We did the usual things, money exchange and pa...