Dear Friends and Family, After a year of unemployment, and

applying for almost 500 jobs, Eric finally

God a job offer from the only job he didn’t

apply for. The same day we decided to

take the job, someone from facebook con-

tacted us saying they knew someone who

would be interested in renting our house if

we were going to rent it. Two days later,

they signed the lease. One week later, Eric

was in Fort Collins, Colorado renting us a

house. It was the only house that wasn’t

leased out by the time he flew here to

check it out. One week after that, we were

in a U-haul moving all 8 of us and our dog

across country. When God’s timing

comes, everything moves fast and the de-

tails fall into place. Our emotions about

moving to a place where we knew no one

have been slower to fall into place. Every-

one keeps asking if we’re “settled”. To be

honest, I don’t think we’ll ever be “settled”

or are built to be “settled”. Our real home

is in Heaven and so everywhere we move

on Earth is just a temporary dwelling

place. In a sense, we have our tent stakes in

place and bags packed as we make our

temporary home here in preparation for

what is next for us, an eternal home.

The Change The Change

December 2010

It’s been two years since we’ve sent out

a letter detailing our crazy lives! In July,

Eric was laid off from his Engineering job.

In August 2009, Heather graduated with

her Master’s in Multicultural Education and

two weeks later they were flying to Ethiopia

to meet their new children for the first time.

In September, we were told that our

Ethiopian daughter Kiya had a positive chest

X-ray for Tuberculosis and that we would not

be able to bring her back in October as

planned. They told us she would have to stay

in Ethiopia for 6 months under directly ob-

served treatment until she could be released

for travel. We began our prayers for a mira-

cle!

Two days before we were set to travel,

the Center for Disease Control changed their

guidelines regarding children under 10 who

are immigrating with Tuberculosis, allowing

them to travel. The miracle we had prayed

for happened and on October 9th, 2010 we

flew to Ethiopia again, this time to bring

back our two new children.

We were so happy to have our new big

family. The kids have embraced the two new

children as if they had always been a part of

our family.

In February 2010, Eric was asked to go

to Haiti in response to the Earthquake as

part of a disaster relief team. He spent 2

weeks designing Internally Displaced Peo-

ple’s camps, installing water treatment

pumps and passing out food and tarps to

those who had lost their homes. It was dev-

astating to witness the level of destruction to

the country and the events Eric witnessed on

that trip have forever changed him. (see

more in Eric’s section).

March, April , May and June seemed to

fly by. Kaiyin turned 1, Eric and I celebrated

our 13th wedding anniversary and Anzo

turned 9. Then in July, Eric got a job in Fort

Collins, Colorado and we moved into our

new house on July 19th.

We’ve jumped right into our new com-

munity, taking lots of bike rides on the amaz-

ing bike trails and plugging into a new

church. Heather started homeschooling the

kids again in August and soccer season stated

right after that. Eric’s new company is full of

great people to work with and the main

bosses are Christians.

In November, our 18 year old nephew

Nic decided to move out to Colorado and live

with us. He found a great job and his addi-

tion to our family has made it a joyous 9 peo-

ple!

Even for us, this has been a major year

of change, two new kids, 1 new job, new

state, new house, new car (4 x 4 for snow),

new roommate (Nic), new church and new

friends, but we serve the same God who is

the same, yesterday, today and forever.

Fort Collins, CO

Faithful Adventure

Pillow heads

Ice skating

Our new Address is: 2230 Apache Ct. Fort Collins, CO 80525

Eli turns 11 in January 2010 and

is very proud he’s in pre-algebra,

he wants to be a rocket scientist or a

pilot!

Heather was alarmed when Kaiyin took

a huge bite of watermelon, but Eli

calmed her nerves when he said, "don't

worry mom, Kaiyin's got enough slob-

ber to choke anything down"

Anzo turned 9 in June and is an amazing

artist. He says he wants to be an illustra-

tor when he’s grown!

While talking about daddy not having a

job, Anzo said, “we just have to remem-

ber that God is in control even if it does-

n’t seem like it”

Abi turned 9 in September and is quite the

hilarious story teller, she wants to be a

teacher and missionary when she grows up!

Abi said to daddy when he was saying

goodnight to her, "you're breath's so stinky I

can smell it through my ears"

Zoe turned 9 in September and is an

amazing athlete, she wants to be an architect

when she grows up!

Zoe told Abi today that she was "whining and

bining" to which Abi replied, "bining's not a

word" to which Zoe responded, "yes, bining

means whining in French"... Touché

Kiya turned 3 in July is super

outgoing and not afraid of

anything! She’ll give anyone

a smile and a hug, she may even sing or

dance for you if you ask!

While quizzing the kids tonight at dinner

about which presidents are on which dol-

lar bills and coins, we said, "who's on the

nickel" Kiya promptly yelled, "me!"

Kaiyin turned 1 in April and

his nickname is brutamous!

He loves to pick things up,

move them around and knock them over,

he’s amazingly strong, and his smile will

melt your heart! He’s not saying anything

yet except for “dada”.

Ericland Heather Ventures 2009 brought under-employment which led to unemployment. I

was able to transfer to the Fort Collins office of Telesto to con-

tinue working as a senior engineer in the environmental depart-

ment. I have been learning lots of new tasks particularly with

water treatment.

I returned to Haiti in 2010 just a few days after the earthquake

and remained there a few weeks working with the Haitian gov-

ernment and several organizations from the UN designing gov-

ernment camps for peo-

ple to relocate to where

humane conditions

could be maintained.

The new work in Fort

Collins has brought

with it work and travel

in multiple states. I

should soon have my

P.E. stamp in 8 states.

I did end up graduating in August 2009 with my Masters

in Multicultural Education after writing my Thesis on Somali

refugee girls immigrating to the United States. It ended up

being 139 pages and it all got done in 4 weeks!

I spent the first half of 2010 home schooling, teaching

Spanish preschool, tutoring at a bilingual school 4 days a

week, coaching my girls’ soccer team and trying to come up

with new comebacks for “do you have a daycare” or “man

you have your hands full”! Anyone who knows me even a

little knows I thrive on having my plate full!

July was spent packing and unpacking, and for those who

know me well, yes, almost whole house was packed and un-

packed by day 3 of the process!

Since July, it has been a whirlwind of activity trying to

coordinate homeschooling Eli (who’s doing 5/6th grade

work,) Abi and Zoe (4th grade), Anzo (who’s doing 3rd/4th

grade work), Kiya (preschool stuff) and Kaiyin (who’s into

everything!!!) I also was the assistant coach for my girls soc-

cer team. I just started teaching home school PE and it’s so

much fun to run around with all the kids. I love having a big

family and spending time with my amazing kids and husband!

My new comeback for when people ask if I miss having

adult conversation is to say, “nah, I take a supplement for

that”. I look forward to what changes 2011 have for us!

Adventures in Ericland Heather Ventures

Kids Corner Inside their minds….

Be sure to check out our websites teamhaddox.blogspot.com and haddoxthoughts.blogspot.com

Laying out a government “tent City”