Introducing Our Son Zinaw!

I've really been trying to find my groove lately and it hasn't included updating this blog.... unfortunately. I  think I've lost the drive that I used to have to keep this thing going... but... I am planning on trying to update more frequently.....really.  Yeah, I know you probably will believe it when you see it!  LOL

Anyway.....

The reason for this post is to introduce our son Zinaw, who we just learned, will be turning 12 this month!  At this point we are waiting for word from the U.S. embassy in Ethiopia that our case is approved so that we can travel back over to get Zinaw and bring him home!  We are hoping to be able to travel sometime during the first two weeks of June.  This will be our third trip to Ethiopia since last November.....boy do I love that country!  We have been home with Amayah for over 3 months now, but it seems like so much longer than that.  I am missing Ethiopia, Addis, Layla house and my kids SO much, I'm so glad that we will be going back very soon!

Here is the reason for our next trip and the boy we miss more than words......

Zinaw wearing the Michigan shirt we sent him

Zinaw and Amayah just before we left Addis to come home with Amayah

Our daughter Haylie and Zinaw.  Haylie came with us on our last trip to Ethiopia.

Hang on Z....it won't be long now!!

Dreaming sweet dreams cuz I'm trip planning again!  Motherland.....here we come!  =)  

Home and Doing Wonderful!

I have been feeling like a major failure at blogging lately.....guess it's because I've only posted once in the last 3 months!!  Yipes!  Well, much has been going on over here and the break from blogging was much needed for me.  I'm glad to be back and I'm hoping that I will be able to continue to post at least semi-regularly!!

The Luggage

We left on January 26th and, wow, what a trip it was!  When we got to our home airport we already had a really good idea of what we were up for.  Bad weather was heading toward the East and that's exactly where we needed to end up that day.  By the time we got to Chicago we knew we were in for some troubles!  Ultimately, our flight got cancelled, like most of everyone else's flights heading east that night. At first we were put on standby but the more rumors we heard and after talking to a couple flight attendants......side note: When you want to know what's going on in a situation like this...grab a wandering flight attendant!! .......anyway, we realized that no matter what plane they were finally able to put us on, we would never make our flight out of DC to Addis the next day.  So I went to a United customer service counter again hoping for some information but ended up getting a wonderful lady who specialized in International flights!  She was great!  She was able to re-route us to London that night and then on to Addis from there.....arriving in Addis one hour EARLIER than what we were originally scheduled to arrive!!  This is GREAT....we thought......until.....

What we saw when we got to the Grand Rapids airport

This is O'hare airport in Chicago....we were on our way to our gate when we 

found out that our flight was cancelled

Here is our confirmation that we were cleared for the flight to London!!

Here is Haylie right after landing in London...

We all felt the same way....ugh.....tired and not ready to 

be stuck in London for 8 hours!

Yep, we got to London alright and then had a 8 hour or so layover there.  We were tired and hungry and already wishing for a shower.  We managed to survive our six hours, even though the food wasn't all that great and we didn't get a shower.  We thought we were in the clear and were so glad that we were just about ready to take our seats on the plane that would deliver us to Addis.  Yeah....well, nothing's ever that easy when you are already in a big mess.....and it turned out NOT to be a piece of cake for us that night either.  I went up to the Ethiopian Air desk to get our boarding passes and she wanted our luggage tags......ummmm.....ok.  So I gave her the tags and she looked at them and typed a bunch of stuff into the computer..... I could tell she was getting more and more frustrated......she really wasn't in that good of a mood to begin with and I quickly realized that we were heading down hill fast on a bumpy road!  She told us....in not such a nice way....that there was NO WAY that she could give us our boarding passes without the proper luggage tags.....AND.....that we were going to have to go all the way back to the baggage claim area and find out WHERE our bags were.  I'm like, "Say What??!!"  Our bags should be on THAT plane, right now.  She didn't care and so we had to get all of our things, including 3 carry-ons and 3 backpacks and RUN backwards through the airport.....go down several flights of stairs......jump on a bus....run through another terminal of the airport and make our way to the baggage claim to find our bags....it kind of felt like we were on the reality TV show "The Great Race"!!  We had a limited amount of time because our plane was scheduled to leave in about an hour!  We got to the baggage claim and not one person was there.....and to make matters worse, the United desk would be closed until the next morning!!  Yeah.....I told you this wasn't good.  Can you imagine the range of emotions we were going through at this point??!  The lady in Chicago TOLD me that they would pull our bags and get them on the flight to London!  WHY were we having this issue?!

In despair, we were pointed to the Ethiopian Air front desk.  That lady had no idea what was coming her way that night!  Very long story, in a much shorter version, I had to call Susan Parr Travel a couple of times and the E. A. agent had to try and handle things on the London end for us.  The one thing that Kathy, our agent at Susan Parr stressed to us was that we HAD to be on that flight no matter what!  We finally told the E.A. agent that we couldn't worry about our luggage anymore and that we just needed to get on that plane.  By the time that we were finally able to get our boarding passes we had barely any time to make it back to the other airport terminal to check in for our flight!

We sat there exhausted after all of that running around and adrenaline pumping through us.....wondering if we would EVER see our luggage again.....and thinking about all of the stuff that was in our 6 large suitcases... all of our clothes and all of the supplies for our agency's care center.....AND all of the things that we were carrying for other families, "precious cargo" they were sending for their children who were waiting.  UGH....my heart sank.....deeper.....and deeper.....and deeper......

As I was sitting there in extreme and total depression.....not believing what we had been through during that previous 24 hours or so.......Todd told me to call Kathy back to let her know that we were getting ready to get on the plane and to make arrangements for her to get a hold of us to let us know if she found out anything about our luggage situation.  Kathy got on the phone and proceeded to tell me that she had good news...... she found our luggage!!!  The bad news was...... that it was in WASHINGTON DC!!!!  OY!  But she assured us that she was able to arrange for our bags to be on the next E.A. flight to Addis and that HOPEFULLY they would be at the Bole Int. Airport in Addis the next morning!  There was still a major fear that something else would go wrong and our bags would NEVER make it to us.... but at least they found them....that was SO encouraging!

Turns out, after another VERY long ordeal in Addis at the luggage "Bags Unclaimed" counter....we were able to get things all straightened out......we had no luggage but at least we arrived safely....and we had a very strong chance that our luggage would be in Addis the next morning!  It was...and Todd was able to go back to the airport and claim it the next day.......

WOW!  What a trip.....NOT for the faint of heart!  =(

Next post will be about our time in Addis......

Have a wonderful day....

I'm Back....and I have news!

I took a break from posting for a while.....decided to set the blog aside through the busy holiday season, but I'm back and I have good news!

Tihun passed court way back in November but then we had to wait for all of her documents to be processed and issued to AAI.  After that, AAI takes about 3 weeks to do what they need to do with the file and we finally found out at the beginning of January that her file was submitted to the embassy on the 5th!  After a slight delay, because of one needed document, we were informed that we would be able to travel back to Ethiopia to attend the February 2nd court date.  We were originally supposed to go to the January 26th embassy date but because of that document that Tihun's Mom needed to sign, we had to wait until the next embassy appointment.  We were so thankful that just around this time, we found out that due to the embassy having such a backlog of cases, they would allow agencies to have one embassy date every week instead of every other week.  If this change wouldn't have occured, we would have had to wait until February 9th to go and get Tihun.

We also found out that "Z" has a court date!  It is farther away than we originally thought/hoped it would be, we had really hoped that he would have passed court by the time we went back to get Tihun so that he could stay with us at the guest house.  Because he hasn't passed court yet and isn't legally our child, he will have to stay at Layla.  We also learned that he wasn't submitted to court until the first week of December, instead of November 17th like we thought.   It's now taking around 3-4 months to get a court date AFTER being submitted to court.....so that's how we ended up with a March court date.  We are probably looking at a late April or March embassy appointment for him, if everything goes well and he passes court the first time.

We have been very busy since getting the word that we can come get our little sweetie.  We've been making flight arrangements and travel plans and packing everything up into the 9 suitcases that we are allowed to bring. Because our daughter Haylie is coming with us this time, we have a little more room to bring supplies for our agency's care center.  We will be bringing 6 bags to check in and 3 carry ons.

We have a wonderful trip planned with a pretty full schedule!  We are leaving this Wednesday and returning on February 5th.  We will spend time with our kids at Layla and also go shopping the first two days, visit Korah and our sponsored child and his family on the 3rd day and also spend time with our kids at Layla.  If Tihun seems comfortable enough with us by this time, we will bring her back with us to the guest house and keep her with us for the rest of the time that we are in Addis.  We will take Tihun's and "Z"s groups on a couple of field trips on Monday and Tuesday and also meet with Hana's birth family.....they are from Addis and can easily make time to come to see us.  On Wednesday we will go to our embassy appointment and then start our 3-4 hour journey to Tihun's Mother's home.  I'm not sure if we will come back that same day or if we will be coming back on Thursday?  We will all probably need a rest by this time so we will lay low on Thursday and probably go and spend some time at Layla with "Z".  Friday we will spend most of the day at Layla with "Z" and attend the going away party for all of the kids that will be leaving with their new families. By 4:00 we will have to say our good-byes to "Z" and leave for the guest house to pack up and get ready to head to the airport.  We will arrive home on Saturday afternoon.....exhausted and very happy to see all of our family waiting for us as we get off the plane!

Here is one of our latest pictures of Tihun, she's wearing her Ethiopian Christmas outfit.

Have a great week......I know I will  =)
Ethiopia....here we come!

How Accurate Was Our Packing List Anyway??

I decided to re-cap our packing list for those of you who are soon to travel and may want to know if I went overboard or not!  lol  Everything highlighted in blue are things we didn't use this time around.  I did make notes as necessary to explain my thoughts on some of the items......So here goes:

Clothing

*Clothing for Todd and I for 6-7 days...short sleeve shirts and long sleeve shirts to wear over them, 3-4 pairs of pants/jeans....I also included extras of everything

*2-3 pairs of shoes, flip flops for shower, dress shoes and hiking shoes

*sunglasses

*belts

*larger size bag/purse--packing it in suitcase--to use while in Ethiopia to carry our "daily" things

This was a good amount of clothes for the amount of days we were there, I would pack this much again.

Basic Things

*Driver's license, flight tickets and itinerary, credit card

*passports....cash...immunization records  Didn't need our immunization records but ya never know...

*adaptor to convert Ethiopia's electric to our voltage..need to charge batteries and for hair dryer etc. 

*detergent and fabric softner...actually, I cheated and mixed them together!

*clothes line to hang things to dry in our room

*Amharic phrase book/printed out "most used words" translation

*Amharic learning audio on Mp3

*Camera/video camera...chargers and extra batteries...extra camera cards  Only used an 8GB camera card and didn't need more...we took about 700-800 pics on that camera and 150 on our smaller camera

*Sharpie marker

*duct tape....cut a small section of paper towel roll and wrapped some DT around it  I would still bring this

*ALL KINDS of info printed out....from our agency, travel agency and things we wanted to remember

*list of phone numbers and email addresses  

*laptop computer  Didn't use, but if we stayed somewhere different we may have used it at the internet cafe

*small notebook...to record thoughts, info, and sizes/observations about other AAI family's children as requested by them...a pen...list of children to take pics of for their soon to be new parents!

*books/magazines to read  Kind of like that Disney commercial.....I was too excited to read!!  =)

*Ipods

*bubble wrap, in case we buy fragile things to bring back home

*flashlight...incase the power goes out  No power outages at Kings while we were there....but it could happen

*extra garbage bags..dirty clothes etc.

*"Flite Mate" ear plugs....helps to reduce air pressure and prevent air travel nausea. These actually work pretty good  =)

*two 35 gal. tubs filled with stuff for our agency's care center...clothing, crafts and sports equipment. My hubby says no more tubs!  This is because they can easily get caught in customs and get delayed.  The only one we brought back with us got delayed in Chicago and the GR airport had to deliver it to our house in the middle of the night......thankfully, it only had our dirty laundry....hope the inspectors had fun inspecting that!  lol

*various things to take to the care center when we go every day to do with the kids....nail polish, slime, tattoos, silly bands etc.  All were great ideas

*things to do with our little one....special art notebook and paint pens, photo album/video of kids back home   She loved to color/draw and loved the photo album...wasn't too interested in the video but she had to watch it on that little video camera screen and you can't really see or hear it very well, especially with all the toddler chaos going on around you!

Meds/Toiletries

*allergy meds/asthma meds  Needed every day!

*Ginko...helps with altitude and travel  Took it every day!

*Pepto Bismol  Didn't need but would take again anyway.

*Immodium AD  

*Melatonin...to take the first couple of nights to help us sleep  Wonderful!

*Airborne...powder and tablets...to ward off sickness

*Tums  Didn't need

*Elderberry Syrup...immunity booster  Yep...took it every day!

*Advil

*Hydrocortisone cream  Didn't need

*Benedryl cream  Didn't need.

*antibacterial cream  Gave to the Mother with the little boy that had a bad sore on his leg

*Bandaids  Didn't need but would take again

*"Cell Power"...from the health food store....to help with altitude sickness  LOVED this...took it twice every day and actually gave some to a friend that wasn't doing so well and it helped her so I'm sold!  =)  It was recommended to me by a mountain climber....and they should know!  ;)

*Listerine....to swish with a couple times/day and swallow a bit to kill harmful bacteria  Used this twice a day and especially after eating if we went back to the room afterwards!

*vitamins

*No-Jet-Lag....Homeopathic med  Loved this too!  We didn't get jet lag in either direction.....amazing!  

*Acidophilus...healthy digestion, protects against germs  Yep...twice a day and we started taking it a week before we left to go to Ethiopia.

*Dramamine.....for motion sickness  Didn't need.

*T.P....many places in Ethiopia do not have it in their restrooms!  Where we went, we didn't need it but I would still bring it especially if we were traveling out of the city.

*travel size kleenex

*tweezers  Didn't need.

*razors

*deodorant

*hair dryer

*barrette/hair ties etc.

*dental floss

*toothpaste

*extra toothbrushes...incase we forget to brush with bottled water and we need to throw our TBr away Didn't need, we remembered to brush with only bottled water!

*travel toothbrushes...for airplane, the kind with TPaste already on them  These came in very handy but it's not like using your real brush....I might would just carry my own toothbrush in my bag, not use toothpaste but brush really good and then chew a stick of gum.

*make-up

*disposable face washing cloths

*clorox wipes to wipe EVERYTHING down, airline seats, hotel rooms, hands...

*hand sanitizer 

*shampoo/conditioner

*lotion

*brush

*feminine supplies

*Chapstick

*nail clippers  Used these for the girls that were painting their fingernails  =)

*Q-tips

We didn't get around to getting a prescription for Cipro this time around but we would definitely get one for our next trip!  There were too many people getting THAT kind of sickness when we were there, it was scary to NOT have the meds for it!  Better to be prepared!

Snacks

*lots of protein bars

*fruit trail mix

*fruit and nut trail mix

*life savor peppermints

*chewing gum

**We didn't pack a lot of snacks because we figured that food would pretty much be available wherever we may be

**We also didn't pack a lot of extra food like instant oatmeal, mac n cheese etc. like a lot of other families do because we are staying at a hotel and we don't feel that we will have a problem getting food to eat....we love Ethiopian food and there are also American type restaurants over there.

If we were going to stay at a guest house where you can prepare some of your own meals/snacks I might have brought the things directly above, but truthfully, Ethiopia has lots of different types of food to eat, not just Ethiopian, and it's pretty cheap to get a great meal.  Plus most guest houses will cook you certain meals either for free or for a minimal charge.  We had no problem finding something to eat when we were hungry.


Another thought.  Two days after we got there, we noticed that others from our agency were getting sick.  This was the "knock you off your feet for a day to a day and a half type, stay real close to the bathroom, if you know what I mean" sickness!  =(  Probably from the water or something they ate.  Todd and I didn't get sick but we were very careful not to let any water even near our face in the shower!  It's not just your mouth you need to worry about, it's any body opening...like your eyes etc.....  Remember, bacteria are VERY small!  I believe that between keeping the water away from our face and using the Listerine and other precautions, this helped us to avoid the evil "bathroom" sickness.

Where We Are in the Adoption Process

Now that I have recorded all of our trip details and made our long awaited announcement I have decided to give you a run down of where we are now.  One of the families that we became friends with called the AAI office just before we left for Ethiopia and found out all of this wonderful information!  It's really great to be able to get a handle on what's going on pertaining to your process.  So here it is in a nutshell:


1) After passing court, the clerk’s office will release the hard copy of the adoption decree.  This could take anywhere from  5 -20 days.
2) Once our agency has the decree, they will translate it and get it legalized.
3) Our agency will then issue a new birth certificate listing Todd and I as the adoptive parents.
4) Next, the immigration process will be completed for Amayah's passport and a letter of support is obtained from MOWA--Ministry of Women's Affairs.
5) All of these documents must be submitted to the U.S. Embassy two weeks in advance of an embassy interview.  This is what we are now waiting for as far as Amayah's case goes. We were told that our embassy appointment would be either on January 12th or January 26th.  There is a chance that things could get pushed back to February but we are hoping that won't be the case.  I just spoke to Gail, the director in Ethiopia, about Z's case and she said something about "when we come to get Amayah in January"....  so I'm pretty sure that we are pretty safe planning for a January date.

Before we traveled over to Ethiopia we learned that each agency is given a day of the week for embassy appointments (AAI's  appointments are on Wednesdays).  Depending on how the days of the month fall, our agency could have 2 or 3 embassy dates....also, other things could effect this, such as holidays or other Ethiopia type disruptions...power problems etc.  I also learned from a family that traveled a while back....I believe that our agency only takes up to 10 families at a time on each given embassy day.


We were hoping for a December embassy date because a family that had just gotten back from Ethiopia was told they would have either a December 1st or December 15th embassy appt.  We were so hopeful that we too would be told December.....but we weren't that fortunate.  We decided later that it was probably better this way because we wouldn't have to travel in December when the flights were so expensive and also we wouldn't be bringing T home to the crazy holiday season!  Everything will be overwhelming to her so Christmas would most likely send her over the top.  


Amayah is only used to being in the Layla compound, she doesn't even really know what's outside the gates of AAI.  Riding in cars is also going to be a big ordeal and there is a possibility that she may get car sick easily.  We will need to keep things pretty low key for quite a while after we get home to help her with her adjustment process.  So taking her out and about, going shopping, or attending various events will have to wait until she will be able to handle it better.


When we decided to add Z to our adoption process, we were hoping that he wouldn't be very much farther behind Amayah's process but we found out yesterday that Z will be about two months behind Amayah.  So we are faced with the decision to either leave her there for two months longer than she would need to be there or pay for two more trips to Ethiopia......one for Amayah and then one last trip to bring Z home....which would most likely be in March sometime.  There's good and bad to this news. 


Take one trip
*Amayah has to stay there longer, this will not be the best thing for her, and I'm wondering if  it would be fair to her.
*It will be so much harder for us to continue to wait and to watch her get even older.  She is already 3 months older than when we accepted her referral and she will be five months older at the end of January.  We would have to wait at least two more months after that.
but...
*We would save money.
*We get to bring the kids home together and Z could translate to Amayah for us if we needed him to.
*Z won't  feel left behind when we leave with Amayah only.


Take two Trips
*We get to have Amayah home sooner, she needs this because she has been there for about 15 months and it is better for her, especially at this young age to be in a home, not in an orphanage setting.
*We get to spend more time in Ethiopia
*We can visit with Z one more time while he is waiting for his process to be completed which will break up his waiting time and help to get the bonding started....we can most likely take him out of Layla and let him stay with us at the guest house while we are in Ethiopia.  This would be a wonderful experience.
*Amayah will have time to be the "new" child here and we can give her the attention and help she needs on an individual level to get settled and adjusted to her new life with us.
*We will be able to give Z the same attention because he will also have the chance to be the "new" child.  I think this will be good for both of them.
but....
*It will cost more money
*Todd will have to take more time off of work...unless he decides to stay home for the last trip.
*After spending time with Z we will have to leave him in Ethiopia and that could be harder on him than if we were to just hold of traveling until the end.


This is a hard decision to make, but my gut says to travel twice.  It may cost more and Z may be sad that he has to stay there longer but I think in the long run, it will be the best thing for both of them.  The money will be replaced in our 2011 tax refund.....we will just have to do without it for a while.  =(


What would you do if you were in our shoes?

Introducing.....Amayah Tihun Pastoor!!!

Now that I have our whole trip documented I get the incredible pleasure of making this announcement:

On Friday November 26, 2010, Todd and I became the proud parents of Amayah Tihun Pastoor!  Yep...we passed court and she is legally ours, forever and always!  After two long years of waiting to be able to make this announcement we welcome Amayah Tihun into our family with open arms, hearts full of love and eager anticipation for her embassy date so that we can travel back to Ethiopia to bring her home!

This is the first picture we saw of her:....

......and this is her now.

Welcome to the family sweetie girl.....we can't wait to have you home with us!!

Our Trip to Ethiopia--Part 6, Our Ethiopia Experience....Our Last Day...and a surprise!

This was our last day in Ethiopia.  I can honestly say that I wasn't ready to go home yet.  I was loving Ethiopia....I was loving being with Tihun.....I was loving being at Layla and I was loving spending time with all of the wonderful people I finally got to meet in person!  Susan, Chris and Ivy...Shelly and Melissa and their hubbies.....miss ya lots!  I knew I was going to miss all of the adoptive families that we met on this trip and also the volunteers/families that were a part of Susan and Chris's group.....and I would miss our awesome driver and friend Jamal.  What it comes down to is that we met a lot of really great people and it's sad that everyone eventually has to go their own way.

I was sad because I knew how hard it was going to be to leave our girl and I was also realizing how much I had become attached to Debritu...T's favorite nanny.  Debritu has the biggest heart for these kids, you can just see the love she has for them in her face when she is caring for them.....I LOVE watching that.  Just thinking about it makes me smile.  If I could have packed her up in my suitcase, I would have!  =)  Funny....I think there were a few adults I said that about!

We went down to breakfast and by this day we had pretty much given up on breakfast all together and just went for the macchiatos.  I'm not really going to write about our trip home so I will just announce it here.  We got into Chicago and IT hit me....and hit me hard!  As we were walking from the gate where we landed to the gate that we were going to fly out of, I saw the Golden Arches.....whaaaa.....can you hear the sound of heaven?! I mean.....I do not frequent Micky D's but I walked up to that counter, looked up in complete awe and within an instant decided that I wanted at least one of EVERYTHING!  Ummm...yeah....I refrained from that impulse order, but this feeling lasted for a good week after we got home.  FOOD!  Good 'ol American type food....even if it was Mexican or Italian....you know what I mean.  I just wanted to eat everything.  Not good.  I have since recovered....thank goodness. Whew!

So we spent the morning with the toddlers as usual and took tons more pictures and video of them.  We loved on Tihun as much as she would let us and then we left the same way as we always did saying our "Ciaos" and blowing kisses.  We were scheduled to go shopping one last time with our trusty Jamal at the wheel.  But before doing that we ran into Ivy and decided to jump into her car really quick and ride to her house with her.  I had the privilege of sitting in the back with Alazar....just about the cutest kid in the world.  They were actually planning on heading to the Hilton to catch some sun and fun in the pool so that's pretty much all A had on his mind.  We pulled into Ivy's compound and she jumped out to go unlock the front door and Todd got out behind her.  I started to open my door and Alazar pounced on me!  "NO"!  He screamed, and he locked me in.  Ummm.....guess he didn't know that all I had to do was lift the door handle??  It took me a minute to figure out why he so desperately did not want me to get out of the car.....apparently he knew if I got out, his trip to the pool would be delayed once again!  I somehow managed to get him and I out of the car and we walked into Ivy's house to get the tour.  Beautiful is all I can say.  Simple but elegant.....but that's Ivy, with a lotta sass thrown in for good measure!  ;)

We headed back to Layla to meet up with Jamal....we hopped out of one car and right into the other.  We went over to a place called Churchill street.  This was my favorite place to shop by far!  The first store I walked into, the store owner offered me a cup of coffee.....now THAT's what I'm talking about!  =)  I bought an armload of stuff from her and then we went down to the next store.  OH MY WORD....I was in heaven.  This store had every single thing I wanted/needed.  This is now my favorite store ever in Ethiopia.  I told Jamal that he'd better remember it so that I can go back there next time.  You should have been there, it was quite funny.  Here's me shopping like there's no tomorrow and three men just watching in amazement.  Ok...so maybe two men....Todd probably wasn't as surprised as Jamal and the store owner were!  I saw Jamal eyeing up one of the scarves that I was going to bring back for the boys and I asked him if he like it and he was so cute.....he looked just like a little boy at Christmas with that embarrassed smile.  I said do you want one, we'll get you one?  "No"....he said.  I said come on...which one do you like?  "Nooo.........the black one".......I thought I would die laughing....so cute.  So I had the store owner get a black one down and I handed it to Jamal.  He said "thank you" and put it right on....with a big smile on his face.

We had Jamal drop us off at our hotel so we could unload all of our things before heading back to Layla one last time.

It was hard to go back this time because I knew it would be the last time.  We spent time with T and also spent time with some of the older kids.  It really wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be to say goodbye to Tihun.....I think this is because she's not a baby.  With babies, you can cling on to them for dear life and they wouldn't care if you were wiping your tears on their pj's.  She's also not an older child. With an older child, they would start the attachment process and would understand that you wouldn't be back for quite a while....and they would visibly show you how much their heart is getting ripped out by your leaving....that would be hard.

She is a toddler, they are a breed of their own.  Very self absorbed and preoccupied.  She didn't understand how much we loved her, she just thought we were one of the many "Moms and Dads" that come and go....and for some reason she got to be the lucky kid who got to have US assigned to HER!  Some day I will be able to wrap my arms around her and she will love me back.....until then, I just stare at her picture....

We also said good-bye to a few other kids and staff before we left that day.  It was a harder walk back to the hotel and this time it wasn't the altitude.  =(

We got to the hotel thinking that we would have time to take a shower before we had to load up our suitcases on the Kings bus that was headed back to the airport ....but our driver got there an hour early so we had no time at all to even freshen up before we had to start out on our 30 hour journey back home.  Yuck!  So we went approximately 50 hours without a shower because we had one at 6:30 a.m. and it was now 6:30 p.m. and we still had 35 hours to go!  I shudder just typing this.  Needless to say, by the time we got to Chicago I was pretty darn grumpy.....and then they announced that our plane was broken.  So we had at least an hour delay, if not longer.


But as you can see, we lived to tell about our incredible 8 day journey that took us to the other side of the world and to our kids......oops!  I think I just let the cat out of the bag!  Yep, you heard it right....we couldn't stand to leave a certain 9 year old boy behind so we called up our agency when we got home and asked permission to be able to add him to our family along with Tihun.  We are SUPER excited and can't wait to get them both home!  For those of you who would like to see him....here he is:

Yep...I'm a tease.....sorry, we can't share until we pass court for him.  =)

More news to come.....stay tuned!

Our Trip to Ethiopia--Part 5, Our Ethiopia Experience.....Mount Entoto

We got up this morning and quickly got ready to go.  This was our 4th day in Ethiopia and I didn't even want to think about the breakfast downstairs.  We each ate a protein bar and some trail mix and called it breakfast.  We went downstairs and asked to use the internet that is stationed in the lobby.  This was our only source of communication to our family back home.  It was very convenient but not very fast.  You ask them to use it and they will log you on and start the timer.  To give you an example of how slow it was, it took anywhere from 20-40 minutes to get on there, compose a couple paragraph email, skim through the rest of my emails---do not be confused with that meaning I actually opened them!!---and occasionally sending out one other VERY short email.  I ended up with over 350 emails in my inbox by the time we got home....that was real fun straightening out that mess.  =(   Some of the AAI people have actually gone down the street a bit to where Kaldi's is and used the internet cafe that is there.  For us, it just seemed like we didn't have any time to do that, our days were full and usually after we ate dinner, we were dead tired!

We got to Layla around 9:00.  We were invited to go with Susan and Chris's group to take a half day trip to the Entoto Mountains.  But first we wanted to pop into the social workers office to see what we could find out about our 13 year old daughter Hana's birth family.  We walked in and asked them if there was any documentation that her family had ever contacted AAI to find out about her or if they knew if any of her family was still around.  She asked what Hana's last name was and when I told her she looked stunned and said "I have a note on my desk right here, someone called to find out information and they aren't very happy at all"!  I was kind of in shock at what she said and I really wasn't sure WHO it was that was wanting info.  I received a mini lecture on how important it is to do your post placement reports and "Do I understand how hard it's going to be now to console this family and to get them to not be angry anymore"??  Come to find out, Hana's family contacted AAI wanting to know how she was doing and when the social worker went to the files to find all of Hana's post placement reports....there were none!  I explained to the social worker that Hana has only been with us for about 11 months now and that our adoption of her is almost final.  We were planning on doing her 1 year post placement at that time.  The problem was that Hana's first adoptive Mother never did ANY post-placement reports during the 5 years that she had her!  NONE.  When you adopt a child you promise to do at least 3 reports during that first year and then 1 each year after that until the child is 18.  It is VERY important to follow through with this promise because it could mean the difference between Ethiopia continuing to allow foreign adoptions....or NOT!  Please people....get those reports done, it's not that difficult and your children's families desperately want to know how their child is doing......is that so much to ask?  Wouldn't you want to know how your child is doing if you had to endure the pain of giving him/her away to someone else to raise?  I know I would.

I told the social workers that I would gladly write up a letter stating basically why she was now with us and how she is doing etc. and that we would also add some photos with it.  Thank goodness we had the pictures from T's album that we could leave for Hana's family.  These pictures were very nice, all laminated pictures of us, our children and Hana.  They were pictures that I took while we were on vacation last summer for the purpose of hanging them on our dining room wall, so they were very nice individuals, one of Todd and I and then the kids all together.  Plus we had an awesome action shot of Hana playing soccer that I had taken during the last soccer season.  We really wanted to get together with Hana's family because we felt that, more than the letter and pictures, they would be able to ask questions, speak to us and hopefully feel comfortable about where Hana was now.  But the social workers couldn't get a hold of Hana's family in time to arrange a meeting so we will have to wait until our next trip over there.  If we would have thought to ask the first day we were there, chances are, we would have had a better chance at scheduling a meeting.

After we talked to the social workers we hopped into the van with the others and headed to the mountains!  The drive through the city took longer than I thought, Addis is a huge city.  But soon you could tell that we weren't in the city any more.  The scenery outside the van started to change and we started going up. As we were diving up the mountain you could see women carrying huge loads of eucalyptus wood on their backs.  I read somewhere that the Ethiopian government has guards stationed to protect the scarce forests and these ladies are only supposed to be gathering the fallen branches, not chopping them off the trees.  These ladies make their way up the steep roads at dawn, gather wood all day and then make their way down the mountain when they have a full load or at dusk, whichever comes first.....and a lot of them do this barefoot and they could be carrying a child on their front side!
These bundles of wood have to weigh at least 40-60 lbs.  I just don't know how they do it, day after day.  I also read that it is those same guards that are there to protect the forests that can sometimes harass and rape these poor women that are just trying to earn a living.  =(  *Much of Ethiopia still relies on fuel sources like wood, charcoal and dung for cooking.

I didn't take these two pictures.  It was very difficult to get a good picture of the fuelwood carrying ladies while we were driving in the van so I found them on line so I could demonstrate what I was saying about them.

**Something I haven't mentioned yet is the fact that I can't even go up a flight of stairs there without huffing and puffing!  Addis is anywhere between 2200-2500 meters above sea level.....we're talking high altitude here.  That was one of the first things I noticed after arriving was how much thinner the air felt and that first walk up our hotel stairs was brutal!  I felt like a great big couch potato.....I don't think I wrote about our arrival at the hotel that first night..... After a 30 hour journey with almost no sleep and arriving with two large suitcases, two 35 gallon rubbermaid tubs full of donations and two carry-ons, the hotel bellman decided to change our room location 3 times!!  I was SO glad to fall into bed that night!  =)

Back to the mountain........  Mount Entoto is the highest peak overlooking Addis Ababa, which means Beautiful Flower.  Mount Entoto is a sacred place that holds many monasteries.

A view from on top of the mountain....Addis Ababa below

A view of the road we traveled on....notice the eucalyptus trees

We got up to the top and we entered onto the site of King Menelik II's memorial museum. 

This is a view of the gates from the inside looking out

We first bought tickets to enter the part of the museum that charged an admittance fee.  It was a smallish building that held all of the King Menelik's and Empress Taitu's treasures......furniture, photos, Bibles, crowns, robes, and other belongings and gifts that were given to them by heads of other countries for various occasions.  We waited for about 10 minutes or so for the guide to finish up with another tour but we got to look around while we were waiting.  You weren't allowed to take any photographs in here but I suppose that's a good thing because we wouldn't want to publicize the millions...billions?? of dollars worth of treasure that is housed there.  We took our tour and learned quite a bit about Ethiopian history.

We left this part of the museum and started toward what was the oldest church in Addis.  This is the church that King Menelik and his wife Taitu built and dedicated to the Virgin Mary.  

The church is called Maryam Church.

Ethiopians come here and kneel, kiss the ground and start praying or wailing.  A woman was wailing and moaning for about 20 minutes or so while we were there.  One of the ladies that we were with told us that they come here to this church to pray to be healed of diseases like AIDS or other.

This is another alter where you will see people kneeling, kissing the ground and praying.

This is King Menelik and Empress Tiatu's palace....impressive, right?  ;)

Upstairs is their sleeping quarters and down below is their closet.

This is our travel group....these are some great people....miss them a lot!

We continued on up the road so that we could see the 9/11 memorial, called the Ethiopia-U.S. Friendship park.  Addis Ababa's, then mayor Arkebe Oqubay, and then U.S. ambassador Aurelia Brazeal erected this park to show their commitment to fostering over 100 years of foreign relations.

Just incase you didn't know, September 11th is when Ethiopia celebrates their New Year.  So this date is actually a celebration for them....I'm pretty sure that's one of the reasons that they decided to construct this park, so they could pay tribute to those that lost their lives on their day of celebration.

If you click on this picture, it will enlarge so you can read the inscription

This shot was taken as we were coming back down from the top of the mountain

We stopped at the Former Fuelwood Carrying Ladies Association on the way back down.  It is an organization that has taken some of the women out of the brutal life of carrying wood up and down the mountain every day.

This is the scarf shop and boy did they have a lot of scarves!  I think I bought around 11 or so of them at a whopping 5 bucks a piece!  They are beautiful....just wish I would have gotten a few more.  There's always trip #2 though, right?  ;)

We also stopped at the mercato down the street but only for about a half hour.  We were all getting pretty hungry by now and just about all we could think of was food!  We stopped at the Lucy restaurant and had a great meal....although, it took about 2 hours from start to finish!  TIA!

After lunch we headed back to our hotel to drop off all of our purchases and then we walked back to Layla to spend time with T and the other kids.  It was fingernail polish day  =)  We brought tattoo's and fingernail polish, including fingernail stickers, for the older kids to have fun with.  I wish I could post pics of that but we're not allowed to put pics of the kids that don't have families yet so you will just have to imagine it  =)  Even the boys wanted their nails painted!  A good time was had by all and they managed to use up all 6 bottles of nail polish!  

We left to go back to the hotel to get ready for dinner....this was the something special I talked about in my last post.  We were going to go to Dr. Rick Hodes home!  Every friday night for over twenty years he has been celebrating Shabbat with his children and who ever else may show up.  He never knows how many guests he will have or sometimes who those guests may be until he arrives home from work.  Shabbat the Dr. Hodes way is basically welcoming in the Sabbath.  I'm not going to go into the details of what he does because that info belongs to Dr. Rick to share if he chooses.  We had a wonderful time meeting him and all of the children that currently call his house their home.  Dr. Rick currently has 3 houses....one for boys, one for girls and his own house where he and his adopted children live and also temporary guests that are there for various reasons...usually for medical treatment of some kind, but not always.  All of Dr. Rick's children were so sweet and gracious.  One boy that was currently staying there, "M", brought around some tapestries that their gardner made and was trying to sell them to all of us.  He's quite a good salesman....and very cute, I might add...which helps in the selling process tremendously!  We bought two of them.....one for the wall and one is actually a pillow.  We enjoyed a wonderful dinner that Dr. Rick's cook made for us and had a wonderful time talking with him and the other guests that were there!  An unbelievable experience, for sure!  If you haven't read the book that Marilyn Berger wrote about him called "This is a Soul"....you should.  It's a wonderful book.  Although, Doc Rick hasn't even read it.  He told me that he doesn't like to read things about himself, and you can tell while talking with him that he's a very humble man, even after all of the wonderful things he has done in his life to make a difference for so many people.  

We will never forget the time we spent at his house....such a wonderful experience...