Making a Difference

It has be crazy year

2011-10-08T05:07:00.000-07:00

With several stays and trips to the hospital, problems with the IRS over the adoption, changes in our jobs and moving of our vacation cottages business, and adjusting our new family family dynamic, I can say it has been a really crazy year. So I thought I was one of those people who would keep up on the blog even after our daughter was home. All I can say is sorry and all is well. We are finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and life is finding a "new normal". Tarikua is thriving and now two years old. Yes her curls are real and about 8-10" long when pulled straight. The morning hair ritual can take around a half hour for a simple style and I am happy to share tricks with other moms & dads. When Tara finally decided to speak, it came out like a flood. She is now talking and singing non stop. She continues to progress physically at an amazing rate. She has not stopped jumping off the back of the couch or chasing her sister for the last year. Her flexibility is amazing. She can put her leg behind her head if she wants to. She is all over the place and never sits still even for a moment. When we are out in public the first comments always directed at Tara and her unique beauty and then after a minute the admirer always turns to me with the reminder that we have our hands full with her activity and strong will. She has a stubborn streak and knows what she wants. We have to be firm as it is a challenge to change her mind. Tara is intentional about her actions. When she wants you to know she loves you, it is serious and deliberate. She cares for everyone and everything. Don't put something in the wrong spot or Tarikua will correct you. So we think she is going to be a nurse (or a NFL cheerleader if she continues to be as active as she is now). She continues to be a smiley little girl who warms the hearts of about everyone she meets. Try not to love her!

Tarikua Vianne Vos

2010-04-24T13:36:00.000-07:00

Well it is official. We have named this little sweetie, bought her a few dresses and gave her a given her a little American Bling. I would say that she is as cute as ever, but judge for yourself.

We have decided to keep her Ethiopian name "Tarikua". We think it is fitting because names are very powerful in Ethiopia. She was given a name by her mother and it means "I have a story". She was born in the small town in the south. This town only 11% of the people have access to electricity. She was born at home (not in a hospital) and most likely with out any running water or power. Her mother spent some time with her before she relinquished her. She was placed in an orphanage in Dilla and moved to Awassa. There she lived at EVADO for several months until we adopted her. EVADO is not a luxury spa, they do not have running water, diapers or any of the items you would think to have while raising a baby. We visited there and it is a very poor orphanage, but know the people running are doing things for the right reasons...to save lives. We then adopted little Tarikua and she moved to Enat Alem. This orphanage was in the capital and was just a transition home for Tarikua. We then put her on a plane and she traveled 31 hours through Sudan, Holland and finally into the USA where she met her new sister, friends and extended family. Here she has started an entire new story in her life.

Now some of you are now wondering how in the world am I going to say the name Tarikua? We are going to make it easy. You can just call her Tara (pronounced Tarr-ruh). We will say it as they say it in most of the world, not Terra like some Americans say it. Any easy way to remember is that it it is "tar" like we "are" family! Not tera, like terrible, terracotta, terrorist, tear a paper, and definitely not full of air.

For those who want to call her by her official Ethiopian name, go ahead. You pronounce it TaRR-Rea-kwa and roll the r on the Rea part. I had to practice this, so I am sure you will too.

When we look back at the conditions that Tara was born in and what might had happen to her if it was not for adoption, we are overwhelmed with joy that she is in our arms and flurishing. For this reason, we have given her the middle name Vianne, which means "Alive". We are grateful that she is able to have a life and that we will be blessed by her sharing it with us!

You pronounce Vianne, Vee-enne. Just like the heroine in the movie released in 2000 called Chocolat. A great fun romance flick. If you have not seen it, you should. Don't forget to buy a few dark chocolate truffles prior to playing it!

Tara is definitely full of life! She is constantly smiling, singing and touching you when ever she can. She is just beautiful! We have some minor health issues to clear up, but all easily solved with proper diet, a healthy environment and lots of tender care. We promise to give her all these plus some!

Praise God We are home!

2010-04-22T14:00:00.001-07:00

Some may wonder if our plane has crashed do to the volcanic ash in Iceland, but that is not the case. We have actually arrived home safely and have been adjusting for the last few weeks.

Our trip home was eventful. The girls screamed pretty much the entire flight. The ear infections did not help a bit. Getting though customs and transfers through out the night were hectic. Ruhama (now Emiri) was having breathing issues. We ended up giving Rachel and Travis our bassinet seats in hope she would feel better and would take a snooze. We got to the airport in Addis around 7pm and our flight took off just before midnight. We flew to Khartoum, Sudan and then to Amsterdam, Holland. From Amsterdam to Detroit. Then Grand Rapids and finally home. The whole trip took just under 32 hours. We thought it might go faster if the girls screamed just a little be louder, but we found out that did not work. It was a toss up, which baby was the loudest, but they seemed to time it out so that at least one was screaming most of the time. By this point, we were like a big family and it did not matter which girl was unhappy, we still all felt bad.

There was a big scare in Detroit because Ruhama (now Emiri) was unresponsive. The paramedics piled over her in the main terminal. Our names were being paged over the loud speaker and our plane was already boarding. Slightly stressful would be an understatement. She seemed to have recovered and we jumped on the plane with only one word on our minds…home.

When we arrived in GR Travis and Rachel made it out of the gate first to meet up with Travis’s son and extended family. We did our best to get a quick “freshie” on Tara, because boy did her diaper stink. Then we made it down to our ride at the luggage area. We knew for sure that Jen, Frank and Ellen would be there to greet us. We also knew that my Aunt and Uncle would be there with our truck too. However we had no idea that there would be a big crowd.

Gobs of our friends cheered us in at our gate. Liviann ran full blast up the runway (yes past the legal security point). She said mommy-daddy-mommy-daddy over and over. I scooped her up and she just touched my face over and over (probably to make sure I was real). She was so happy to see us! From the corner of my eye I saw a big black curl. One I would know anywhere. I said, “Is that Tonie”? And it was. She had flown all the way from China to meet Tara on her got-cha day. Wow. And it just got even better. Tina too. Yes, all the way from Seattle. Both sisters were here in Grand Rapids at once, celebrating Tara’s arrival. I was so happy to see everyone in the crowd. Everyone looked so happy and most had one thing in common: A clenched tissue in one hand, a smile on their face and the other hand touching their chest as if they were checking that their hearts did not skip a beat. What a touching moment! Praise God we made it!

Heading for home

2010-03-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

We will be sure to post more when we get home. But for now wish us safe travels and low turbulence. Kristie HATES to fly. We hope to see everyone next week. For now we are going to be thinking of you while we are in the air.

Getting ready to leave

2010-03-27T03:44:00.001-07:00

We are doing our final packing and getting ready to leave. I might not blog again for a few days as it takes at least two days to get home. Please pray for safe travels and a smooth flight.

Hopefully before we leave we will have a chance to see Tesefaye's family one more time!

Kristie, Rich and now baby Tara!

Friday- Day something or other ; )

2010-03-27T03:31:00.001-07:00

Today we all slept in after a big day on Thursday. Thursday was not such a hot day. We also found out that our friend, Tanya's father had taken a turn for the worse. Jen and Ellen said they would step in and take care of little love.

Friday morning was a great time bonding with little Tara. She is so loving and smilie. She loves to touch your face and rub your arm. All the families had big breakfast. Todd had gotten his wallet picked. I felt really bad for him since it was a lot of money, but it also made me feel less incompetent when I got mine taken. He filed a police report. Ethiopia seems really safe. It is just very poor and this results in crime. They don't seem to want to hurt anyone, just take stuff. I still like it here and would not hesitate to come back again. However, I would not allow the safe "feeling" you get to effect making dumb choices (like carrying too much cash at once).

We all piled into Alemu's vans and went to his house for dinner. It really is possible to get 17 people into a 10 passenger van, we have proved it. It was a feast. All tradiontional foods and bananas. We were all together. Plus all our kidos. It was noisy and the kids were happy to all be together again. Tarikua remains among the favorite of the older kids. They all go to her and kiss her. They stroke her face and sing to her. Another funny thing is they always say Tarikua-Ruhammah when they talk with Tara and then they say the opposite (Ruhammah-Tarikua). For this reason you know they have always been thought of as one.

The food was wonderful and we had a traditional coffee ceremony with his house girl gizaya and Alemu's sister. They made this gigantic loaf of bread and all the men took turns cutting it. It was as big as a tire. They all had us dress in traditional coffee ceremony robes and they guys sometimes had a head wrap. We were all sweating to death! Alemu had a couple of bed mattresses spread out under a canopy for all the babies to lay on. There was grass cut and decorated and laid on the ground. Incents was burning in the background. The village that Alemu lived in was very nice and also very authentic Ethiopia style. A large thunderstorm came rolling in and we all huddled under the canopy. Water rushed through the cracks and everything got damp or completely wet.

We said good bye to several of the families and headed up to our room to pack. Rachael and Travis stopped in and we ate some small Thai dinners I had brought from home and we wrapped formula bags for the plane. Tarikua crashed out and slept well during the night only getting up a few times.

Finally…An uneventful non-stressful day.

Our last full day

2010-03-26T05:51:00.000-07:00

Today Rich and Kristie pick up the travel visa from the American Embassy to bring Tara into the states. Then we pack up to fly out. Most people say the flight home is pretty hard with a baby who is obviously confused and has pushed around from orphanage to orphanage. And now they are on a plane where everyone talks and smells funny. Pray for a safe and pleasant journey home for Tara. The travel takes two days home and they will not actually land in GR till Sunday night. They Tara will go to the Doctor on Monday.

Fun fact: Tara’s name in Ethiopia means: I have as story

Embassy Day

2010-03-25T10:24:00.001-07:00

After a night that started a little rough, we decided to give Tara a little something to allow her to sleep through the night. We had a prescription congestion medicine for small babies and wow did it make a difference. Before the medication she could not sleep more than 40 minutes with out waking herself up choking. Then after she slept for 5 straight hours.

After a breakfast that was livelier now that all the kids were here, we hung out in our room. It was nice to play with Tara and get organized. The finely dress couples all poured into the vans all looking much nicer than the previous day. The kids were all dressed like in the latest baby gap ads.

We headed off to the American Embassy that looked like a military fort. We went through high security, x-ray and scanners. Then Ethiopian guards corralled us into rooms that looked like the DMV. We waited to what we thought was about an hour and we seen our assistant running around looking for our director. We knew instantly that something was wrong, but we did not with whom. Josh came running down the stairs and said "does anyone know where the director is?"At first we thought the problem might be with him and Keely, which we thought was a shame as they seemed to be showing the most signs worry of all the parents.

But then I knew. Rachael came walking down the stairs. Her eyes were bloodshot and transparent. I stood up and she brushed by me and said in an almost mournful tone with her New Zeeland accent…It arent going ta-happen

I was frozen and knew not to look back at her or we would both bust into tears. I had never heard of this happening before. Travis directed her to follow the director and several of the couples could here the director discussing the unacceptability of the situation with the Embassy staff. They were then all whisked away in a car as if they knew they were loosing time at the embassy and it was useless to stay there any longer. We were hoping what ever the problem, they went to work on it but we had no idea.

We waited till they finally called are name and went to the window #4 on the second floor. Through several layers of bullet proof glass you could see American UICIS women in her mid forties. Everyone around us was talking in many different languages. She spoke into a small microphone and we could barely hear her from the speaker on our end. Several questions under oath were asked of us. Tricky question like custom agent style questions. We can not talk about this on our blog, but we had some concerns with our paperwork and with the Rachael and Travis incident we now were very worried.

The agent approved our paperwork. Made us swear under oath that we knew the adoption was final and everlasting. I replied to that "Thank God". She smiled. She said the documents would be prepared and sealed for Friday pick up. We take the sealed documents to the USA customs agent. They would open them and it would be pretty much my potty pass to bring her into the states with us as a non-us resident alien. We then would need to apply for citizenship once we got in the states. More paperwork, goodie!

Back down stairs we all shared information and figure out that Ruhammah was considered to be too ill for Rachel and Travis as their home study had been written for a healthy child. Somehow the Embassy had documents claiming that Ruhammah was very ill (possibly even worse off than she truly was). Don't get me wrong, none of our children are "healthy" by American standards, but ours and soon to be on the mend. Even in the 24 hours we have had them most children have shown considerable improvement.

I guess the flood gates had been open for me at that point and I could no longer hold it back. I stared to ball. I would have never done this in front of Ruhammah parents, but know I could actually visualize Tara leaving with out her best friend Ruhammah. And the mom and dad had been through so much already this week. It just was not fair. It may have been a touch and relief on my part that we were finally through the last big paperwork approval. I will never forget the ka-chunk sound of the official stamp on the bottom of our paperwork.

We returned to our hotel to find the director on the front step with two phones in his hand. Rachael and Travis were in their room with Baby Ruhammah. He called for them to come urgently as he had made arrangement for them to meet with the director of the medical board.

Hours had passed. We all spread blankets on the floor of the empty breakfast room and ate take out pizza from the place up the road named yummy pizza. We got some for Ruhammah parents too and had it placed in their room. The pizza was actually yummy. I think I have come to Ethiopia and have actually gained wait. It is not that the food is bad, actually it is really good. It is just that for many people in the country they can not afford to buy it. They have actually talked about a stimulus plan (like the Americans have for cash for clunkers) where families would get rebates on food purchases. Ethiopia is a land of Extremes. Very high mountains to very low savannahs. Very hot areas to cool pleasant temps. Rich people and poor people. The poor are very poor. You see them lying in the ditches and on the sides of the road. In America if something is wrong with you it is fixed, here they often just live with it. You see people dragging themselves by their hands and missing an arm or leg. Some times large scars on their skin. They come to your window holding starving children and kiss it while motioning the plea for something to eat. It is really hard. If you were to give them something, you would only cause more to arrive. The problem with this is that they put themselves in danger trying to get at the vehicle. Sometimes they almost are run down and we have seen this almost happen a few times. Because of this we can not do a thing but ignore them or say no.

Hours passed with no word from Rachael or Travis. Rich and Todd went to the internet café to print numbers of Vern Alders office in hopes they could do something form the US homeland. This issue had nothing to do with Ethiopia. It was the US Visa that was not going through. These kids were already legally ours before we arrived. Rachael and Travis could remain in Ethiopia but not with Ruhammah or they could remain in ET with her.

Finally at sunset we finally got a knock on our door. It was Rachael and she was smiling. Simply "were through" came from her lips and we became exhausted with relief. I think I could have curled up and slept for 30 hours! We sat with her and heard the whole long story. Nothing they did wrong or the embassy. The board that reviews the adoption cases made and error and declared Ruhammah more sick than she really was. For confidentiality reasons I will not say more. The director of the medical board re-checked her and actually drove to the embassy with them to hand in the official amended report.

Ruhammah is actually doing better and better each day, but Tara is declining. She has not had a wet diaper in 24 hours since we got her. She has pooped fortunately but not pee. She has an upper repertory issue and definitely has some type of bugs. I think she was attached at the orphanage with scabies, lice, or mosquitoes. Ruhammah has them too, but Tara's seem to be spreading faster than Ruhammah. She is sleeping right now. She and I have both gone through 4 outfits each today from throw up. Thankfully she did not do it at the embassy! She is zonked out and I will soon be too. Let's hope Friday is a better day!

Best friends

2010-03-25T07:11:00.001-07:00

Last night we had a great time playing in our room with Tara. She gigled and laughed as Rich clapped and I sang to her completely out of key. Rich and I ended up playing some noises from our video camera to Tara because she looked as if it was way to quiet in the hotel. Racheal and Travis stopped in. Ruhammah was totally sacked out on Racheals shoulder and they both sat down on the couch next to us to discuss formula. Tara looked around the room checking everything out. She saw sleeping Ruhammah and smiled then with out any prompting, she reached over and wrapped her tiny fingers around the hand of sleeping Ruhammah. Nothing more needed to be said except the words best friends… This was not the first time I held back a tear. I am so happy they will be able to see each other again.

Meeting Tara

2010-03-25T07:10:00.001-07:00

We all nervously drove down bumpy uneven gravel allays in our van. Everyone was anxious to see their children. Through the big gates of Enet Alam we entered the orphanage. The brightly colored laundry strung back and forth on stings across the courtyard like decorative flags at festival. We were asked to sit and participate in a coffee ceremony but all our focus was on all the little children surrounding us. Some of the families brought small toys and the children were giggling with amazement.

As quickly as we came in, the nannies were bringing out children and onioning the their names. I was first struck by the beauty of Dan and Sus's little girl (about 2) and her brother that followed. These children all seemed so beautiful in contrast to their American families. You could see the parents all attempting to bond with their kids and fishing their bags for toys and trinkets to entertain them. The smaller children started to come out in the arms of the nannies. First Ruhammah (Tara's best friend). You could see her bold eyes and identify her unique features as soon as she walked out the door. No one will ever look "like" Ruhammah. She is very exotic looking and fine. Immediately as soon as Rachael received her she went into inquiries about her health. Rachael was able to meet her daughter last Friday due to her health. I hope it is ok to tell you that she has Rickets in an effort to gain prayer for Ruhammah. You could tell by Travis's juicy eyes that he was very concerned for is daughter. If there is any way to keep this little girl in your prayer we would appreciate it.

Last Tara came out. The called her by her full Ethiopian name Tarikua. She was so cute and you could tell by the coo of the crowd that she admired. They poured her into Riches arms and she busted out in a smile from ear to ear. We took turns holding her and talking to her (yes it is on video) for about 30 minutes. During that entire time she was laughing and giggling.

All the children had been specially groomed and dressed in the finest clothes for our arrival. Little Tarikua had big tight curls and her hair was greased in a design. Rachel and I tried our best to do quick and unnoticed medical of our daughters. There was no need for privacy among the two of us as our goal was to both look at the "girls" and evaluate. Both girls were covered in mosquito bites from head to toe. Rumahah slightly worse than Tara. Both had a very bad respiratory issues, cough, issues breathing from congestion and a slight fever. We have concern of scabies, malaria and also parasites as well. All those will need to be checked in the states on both Tara and us as well.

There was a nurse on staff. We asked about treat meant options as we had access to medicines. We were told by the nurse were viral and could just be treated with steaming the room with garlic. We told her that we had access to medicines and she suggested cough syrup. We would never give babies that young cough syrup in America. Looks like we are on our own : )

We did a lot more at the orphanage. We visited the babies room. Played with her little girl and video taped her. Amy if you are reading this she is doing great and crawling. Alert, happy and no issues that we could see. She slept one bed away from Tara and has her own mosquito net. No sign of a cold or any issues.

We gave gifts to the nannies and the director. They took our email addresses and passed out a nicely written thank you letter explaining the need. This was not necessary as it was obvious to us that they were thankful and the orphanages all were in great need. We gave an article of clothing to the orphanage director that was given to us by a friend at Display Pack. We used this to "pay" to take Tara away fully dressed. I think they would have allowed us anyway, but that is not the case with all orphanages.

All the parents took a big exhale as the van pulled away and one of the fathers whispered "finally". We brought her back to the hotel and she could barely keep her eyes open in the car. She is alert and playful. Very smile and happy. She explores everything and seems very bright. She got a kick out seeing a photo of herself and looking in a mirror. Rich claps for her and she trys to clap back. She can sit up with a little support and will be crawling soon. I would rate her progress as advanced. She is cutting two little teeth in the bottom on the front. We are in love!

Embassy day part 1

2010-03-25T05:57:00.000-07:00

This is where we go to the American Embassy to try to get a visa for Tara to fly back home. We are all set with the paperwork so everything should be all set. Many people are nervous about this day, but I don't think we will be. This is the first day we will be in public with Tara. We need to keep her covered at all times.

If we get time we will be also getting some books from a friend of ours in Ethiopia...Tesfaye. He is in the US right now going to school, but his family (wife and kids) are still back in ET. We plan to bring some books home for his studies in the suit cases we have from the donations.

Tara DAY

2010-03-24T05:40:00.000-07:00

Today is the day we get Tara. Do we need to say more? This is a photo of Enat Alem where she is staying right now.

Day 7 - In the big city capital

2010-03-23T07:30:00.001-07:00

Today we woke up and went to the breakfast at our guest house. I had eggs and coffee, rich also had toast. Very good by my standards. We met a new couple that were just now joining our group. They flew in and the airline lost their bags. That would be not so great. It sort of took the edge off how mad I was this morning when I came up with my wallet missing. Either someone picked me, or I dropped it. Either way it made me very mad because I am better at this travel stuff than that. My expectation for myself was let down. There was just some Birr (ET money) and a credit card. In five years I will not even miss it. I skped Tonie who canceled the card.

We scrambled into the vans and went to the largest open air market in all of Africa. It was enormous! We were escorted by guards (several of them). They showed us all the cool stuff. Rachel and I barter for some baskets and I think we did a fine job. My goal is to get them at ¼ of the asking price (which we did). Everyone else paid near full price. I have my sister Tonie to thank for that. I have bartered a lot, but she challenged me in China to beat her and that got my skills up a bit.

We ran into some trouble in the Market. I am not sure what it was. The guards rushed us out of the market and into the van. I think we were getting halked by thieves. We traveled then to some traditional stores that sold hand made items and antiques. We loaded up an dresses for Tara and something special for my sister.

After shopping, 2 of the family's then went to Kunket to meet with the family of there children. Getting away from the group, Travis, Rachael, Rich and I went out for lunch and then to nearby café. We had pizza and fanta. Rachel had Indian. Our current location is Addis Ababa which is the capital of Ethiopia. All the embassies are located around our hotel so we are seeing people from all over the word. At lunch we had a german on one side of us and a beautiful Indian women on the other. It is very international were we are and the ritziest place to be in Ethiopia.

Near by was a super market (no- not like D&W at all) that we stopped by on the way back to the hotel. We needed to be checked by guards before entering the upscale market that looked like a save-a-lot located in Kentucky. We hauled a lot of items we could have purchased there (wet wipes and toilet paper for example). This is a good tip for future parents adopting from ET. Stay at the Sadula and you will be close to things. There were several shops also surrounding the store. We loaded up on a few trinkets to put in storage for our girls. We are hoping to give them an item from ET every year on their got-cha day.

It is funny how things work out. We have somehow got pulled together with this couple through our daughters adoption. I have to say they are pretty cool and if I was dongled to another adoptive couple this is a pretty good one to be tied to. They are a lot of fun, have similar drive, and are pretty insightful on most topics. Here are some of the crazy ties:

· Our daughters both were turned in to the same orphanage

· Both at the dilla office

· Both slept side by side at EVADO

· They were both moved to Enet Alem on the same day

· They both were placed in side by side beds at Enet Alem (yes again!)

· They were both adopted to families in west Michigan (not the Netherlands, Italy or any other of the million places that they could have went).

· Rachel and Kristie are both managers who work with printing

· Both couples signed up with AAI in July 2008

· We both got a referral on the same day

· We both got the same exact court date & both passed court on the first try

· We both booked the same airline and were seated by each other on every flight to ET

· We both ended up in the same hotel and travel vehicle in Ethiopia

· When it was time to meet with the birth families they asked us to please meet the families together at the same time – I think we may have been to speed up the time? Never seen that happen before! It was odd. The information in these interviews is highly personal and now we know everything about their kid and they know everything about ours.

This is just a small list of things that keep happening to us. When Rachael went to visit Ruhamma at Enet, she said that Tara cried when Ruhamma left the nannie because she was holding the two girls together. I think it is going to be important to keep these girls friends. This is why I decided to buy the Tara some similar gifts as Ruhammah as I do not want the girls to be jealous of each other! There is some very distinct difference between the girls! Tara has super curly hair and Rummah is straight, T is very dark skinned and R is extremely light. T is chunky and small and R is slim and tall, T has very round face and R is more square. I do not think anyone will mix these girls up! Oh by the way, we both land in GR at the same day and time. So if you see a white couple get off the plane with a dark skinned child, don't assume it is us!

Now I am back at the guest house. Drinking a cold coke in a glass bottle. The power just went out. It frequently does. Rich is taking a snooze. I think I will down load some photos for redundancy and then dress for supper. We are going out tonight to a traditional Ethiopian Restaurant. I am craving the Doro watt already!!! I am sure there will be music and dancing. I bet that Travis and Rich have one too many honey beers. I personally will not be partaking in the honey beer or any raw meets because I think both are gross. I might have a local beer called St George, or some wine. If time later tonight I will tell you more about the restaurant. This is our last night to whoop it up because Wednesday is the big day and we all need to be responsible!

If your reading our blog right now, thank you. Just knowing that someone is thinking of us right now is a blessing. We think of everyone back home often. Especially Liviann. We miss her a lot and keep emailing and begging for more updates on her, but I am sure the people watching her are being kept very busy. I just can't wait to see her and neezle nose with her. I know all of you might call them eskimo kisses, but Livi likes to call them neezle noses. Then give her a big sniff right in the middle of her belly. I love her Livi-smell. I mostly miss her smell...and her hugs, the funny things she says, the moooommmmmeeeeeyyy when she wants something and the low snicker laugh she has when she get caught doing something wrong, oh yeah, that big tow rubbing on my leg while reading a book and not last but least her twirling and dancing and singing and 5 thousand other things!

And in 15 hours we will have her sister!

Market day

2010-03-23T05:36:00.000-07:00

Today we hope to go to the largest open air market in Ethiopia. We will have arm guards with us the whole time. We do not plan on buying souvenirs for anyone, but we do want to buy some things for Tara as she grows to remember her heritage.

Breaks!

2010-03-22T13:38:00.001-07:00

We are taking lots of long breaks in Ethiopia, but it is not the kind I am used to!

City life

2010-03-22T13:35:00.001-07:00

We drove through several large towns in the south. This is what city life looks like in south Ethiopia.

Sunset on the savannah

2010-03-22T13:29:00.001-07:00

There are always kids chasing our van! It is as if they have spotted the rare white freckled endangered elephant. They can not believe it and they shout to all the neighbors "Look a white skinned person". Of course that is only what we think they are saying!

Life in the country...again

2010-03-22T13:26:00.001-07:00

I thought it was cool when the rain clouds came in. Below is a typical country home. There are thousands and thousands of these type of homes in the country. I thought the land was extremely beautiful in the country! It reminded me of New Zeeland or Whistler area in British Columbia. Lush and mountainous. Extreme beauty, Extreme poverty.

Life in the country

2010-03-22T13:23:00.001-07:00

The big city

2010-03-22T13:20:00.001-07:00

We drove through several large towns in the south. This is what city life looks like in south Ethiopia

I got in trouble

2010-03-22T13:17:00.001-07:00

We were at a city in the far south. I can't even say the name. I got in trouble with Rich for giving this little girl a small 6 inch beach ball. She was so sad and lonely. I don't think she knew what it was. Soon there were about thirty kids looking up at us with big eyes. Everyone in the car wanted to kill me! I guess she was not able to keep our little secret very long. Other kids were all looking at the bag with the ball in it and touching it. I wonder if they will ever figure to blow it up?

Treated like it was our birthday

2010-03-22T13:08:00.001-07:00

We visited Tesfayes wife and she made us dinner. Here is one of the dishes. It was served on a tray as big as a garbage can lid.

Typical kids

2010-03-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

This is what a typical kid looks like in Ethiopia. This was taken in Dilla, the city tara was brought to and turned over to the EVADO director at the Dilla office. These kids were on the road outside the office.

day 6

2010-03-22T12:20:00.001-07:00

Woke up early and had a breakfast at the hotel. The hotel was nice and clean. We drank coffee and then piled into the van and headed for a local resort just being built. It was an attraction to tour this because it was right on the lake and similar to a luxury resort in the Caribbean. Some of the parents were impressed but I felt like if you come to Ethiopia you should not hide out in a resort!

Then Alemu knew I wanted fresh coffee so we went to a crowded open air market and I purchased some fresh unroasted coffee beans. It was very muddy and there were many people and animals in the market. I am not sure how many people have seen what an open air market looks like, but just for fun google “Ethiopia market” and see what comes up. I am sure it will not look like the local Meijers!
We headed now to the lake. One of the Ethiopian men riding in the van with us (he was not a staff member, but just someone that needed a ride) spoke pretty good English. He read the Amharic translation of the letter we wrote to the mother of Tara. I wanted to see if once the letter had been translated if it still had the same meaning. It did. I was happy that nothing got lost in translation.

We stopped at another lake along the way back to Addis. This one has very large cliffs that plummeted in to the water like you might see along the lake shore of Lake Superior. Except 10 times higher. Here I picked up some pods off a tree that were along the ground. They were really cool. Rich and Rachel discover an old paddle boat left along the shore. They were excited and surprised that they have both worked on the design of that old boat. Rich at custom profile and Rachel for leisure life.

We had lunch at a restaurant and rich got a Hamburg. I got a traditional bean dish with Ingra bread. It was spicy and filled with hot peppers. It was wonderful. Along the side walk I spotted brightly colored bird with a long curly skinny beak. He was sticking his beak in long necked lilies. There were also weaver birds weaving these large nests that looked like big baskets shaped like a massive bee hive. Then I noticed that the leaves on the side walk were really dead roaches. Ick!

We headed back on the long road to Addis. Rachel and talked about gojos (small round huts made of stick and mud with a grass roof. It was odd that they were being built so close to the road. I did not imagine them being in the thousands and Rachael was surprised they were not more grouped in a “village” style. It is very shocking to see how young the people working here are. I would say that 4 to 5 year olds were working in the fields and carrying supplies. Watching young siblings and combing the landscape for items. They would often be shepherding a group of animals or waling the street with a cow or donkey on a leash. The farmers and venders along the road were often in suit coats or nicer wardrobe and the women in long skirts with a t-shirt style shirt. Often it was accented by a head scarf or body wrap. We occasionally played the “what is it game” with Alemu’s brother translating for us the answers. I won once when I identified antifreeze style plastic bottles covered in twine. I said it was an Ethiopian coolie cup and I was right. They dip the container in water and the grassy twine keeps the contents (normally river water) cool for drinking.

The poor children in Ethiopia seem to share a common wardrobe style. This would consist of a long adult t-shirt acting as a dress. The color was all the same…mud brown. We believe they started white at some point but were washed in the river with minerals so many times that they had a permanent dye color to them. Often they had American writing on them (like pistons 1980 finals). A few holes reveal the latte colored skin. They would commonly walk arm in arm or with a sibling bound to their back. Always smiling, when they spot us they always call out, wave and run to catch a glimpse of the rare spotting of a white person. You so badly wanted to hand them a pencil, toy or a bite to eat. The dilemma quickly was apparent when I pass a small ball out the window early in the trip. The children would come flooding out of the landscape and of the put themselves in danger by diving into traffic for anything they could get. So sadly we passed by many need children with a van full of toys and food and could do nothing.

We arrived in Addis, checked into our guest house and unpacked. We walked to the lime tree café for some lasagna and dessert. It was in the dark. Addis has a whole different feel at night. I think in the future we will stick to the daylight walks. We also found that the beggars were thicker at night. Small babies lay in papers on the street edge with mothers crying for money. Hard to see. Made me think of my kids.

More on Tuesday! Any comments on the Tara photo we emailed? Yes I know I missed blogging day 4 but I need to sort out what to say about that day. It was a hard day meeting the birth mother of Tara.
Kristie

Heading back to Addis

2010-03-22T08:33:00.000-07:00

Today Rich and Kristie are heading back to Addis Ababa. It will be another full day of travel but they are looking forward to seeing some of the sites in Ethiopia and Addis. Addis has the largest open air market in all of Africa. They will be going there to buy a few items but will take armed guards with them. They are trying to learn as much about the history and culture as possible so if they get a chance to visit a museum or some historic sites they will.

Possibly we will get to see some hippos today too

Day 5 Update

2010-03-21T17:18:00.001-07:00

Today we woke up at our hotel in Awassa. It was the first night I actually slept. I got a good six hours in. We skyped with Tina, but there was about a ½ minute delay with all the sentences so it took her and I a while to figure that out and work with the system. I know now that we could not skype Liviann, but could skype with other adults.

I was hoping to skip breakfast, but alemu insisted that we go the restaurant and eat. We both had French toast and a maciono coffee. One of the birth mothers had been waiting at the hotel for their family. She had traveled 8 hours to spend just a few minutes with the adoptive family to tell them about the history of her family and express her gratitude. They have such dedication and are stronger than I could ever be if I were giving away the child I loved just so that child could survive. She then waited for 6 more hours for her appointment to meet the family.

After that we all piled in the car to see the orphanage where Tarikua lived for 3-4 months of her life. There was a small gate where van could barely squeeze in the door. The court yard had some sparse grass and clothes lines with linens hanging. The kitchen was room the size of my bedroom closet with a small cooking station. It looked like a Webber grill close to the ground. It was filled with wood sticks and a few coals with a pan over the top. On the side was a small shelf with a few canned items and little refrigerator to store some food. Off of that room was an outside “stall” with a hole in the bottom. There was no “seat” just a hole going into the ground. This was the bathroom for the orphanage. We saw the office where the records were kept. There was a photo on the wall of Ruhammah. Ruhammah is one of the babies our friends had adopted. The secretary had a special spot in her heart for that baby and had a photo of her taken. How special is that?

The room with the babies was about 10 by 10. Very clean. A small shelf held all the clothes for the children. I am sure if I checked at home, rich’s dirty clothes hamper has more clothes in it than the orphanage has all together.

Each baby has their own crib. More luxury than most orphages here in Ethiopia. Nothing but the best for our Tara! They keep very detailed records of each baby, the health and food so the next nanny will know what to do. They would not let me hold the babies (which is a good thing). The nannies were very protective. The kids were so cute and I photographed each as I know they will soon be adopted by AAI families. A few small toys (maybe enough to fill a shoe box) lined up on the ledge. Everything was very clean and organized in the orphanage.

Got a tour of the orphanage and saw the children’s room (bigger kids) and where they plan on helping desperate mothers with teaching a skill (hopefully sewing – the room is empty right now). Touring the orphanage is like touring a small dentist office. It did not take long to get through everything. We had a traditional coffee ceremony and some of the parents met with the mothers. There was a small kitten running around the orphanage with a string tied to his leg. I am sure he gets pulled around a bit.

During that time I spoke privately with the directors of the orphanage. I had a chance to ask the personal questions about Tarikua and her mother and even more became clear. The orphanage director is a really good guy. I had given him a few decorations for the orphanage walls. Nothing big money and he thanked me profusely for what I would consider dollar store change. Travis joined me and we asked him directly what things the orphanage was in need of. He said that he does not like to ask people for things. He has just a little English and used the word pulling instead of asking and we knew what he meant. He said he would only take things if the they came upon the idea them self. He trusted the lord would care for the children. Travis pressed him and said that the family wanted us to ask him for ideas on what to bring. The first thing he said was medicines. Then he said a few toys for the children as they have nothing to play with except this field of grass (to us was like a few parking spaces over grown with weedy grass, not a field). Then he said a table and I realized the orphanage did not have a table anywhere. He then showed a rickety old bike and said it was the only means of transportation for all the orphanages branches. Can you imagine going to get an abandon baby on a bike 80 miles away through the mountains? Now you can. Travis encouraged him further and he said all the branches share one desktop computer and it sure would be nice to have a portable laptop (I think it would be nice to have several). He was so kind and committed and kept going back to the children. He was genuine. At that point I figured out that we told to bring 6 gifts for the orphanage workers but there really was a staff of about 20 or more. Rachael and I both wish we had brought more.

The secretary helped me discuss Tara with the nannies. I asked what they liked about her or what she was like and they said smilely and like to eat. I asked them how often she ate and they said “all the time”. Then I asked about how many bottles a day? They said “when ever she cried… All the time”. They said “she is big”. They giggled.

Back on the road we consoled a family who was very sad. They had met the mother of their child and were not prepared for what they were told. Sometimes the information in these meetings is unexpected, ours certainly was too.

We landed at an upscale restaurant and had a very good meal. I had fish and rich had beef stir-fry. Some had traditional ET or Italian. All was fantastic and coffee at the end was grand.

Dropped off the bags at the hotel and went to Lake Awassa. We took a small boat to look at hippos in the wild. Some people were scared. It was classic that our boat had a small boy with a sponge and pail bailing the water from the boat as we traveled. The hippos were gigantic and weighed about one ton each. There were about 50 in the lake and mostly photographed a small heard of 14.

Then we headed into Sedoma area where Tara’s tribe is from. We met a local farmer who showed us how coffee grows. He showed us also sugar cane and false banana trees. They are giants. It was like walking among mini redwoods. Local children hid behind they trees and followed us. They dared a small girl about 4 years old to see me. I took their photo and showed it to them. The all busted out in giggles and bliss. Now all kinds of kids surfaced and wanted us to take their photos. It was really fun. The children were obviously poor. No shoes and torn shirts with holes and wear. Just like you see on those commercials for sponsoring a child. Later the children did a dance for us and sang a local song. The cow in the background moo’d loudly in protest. We toured the home of the farmer. A large stick and mud circular hut with a grass roof. Inside there was a woman and two small children. One the age of Livi and one about one year old. The children had only a shirt on, no pants. There was a small fire in the corner of the dark hut. The smoke was so thick you could not see to walk. The small baby coughed loudly. Several of the girls could not stay in the building be a few seconds. The smoke you could cut with a knife. We gave the owner of the farm some birr to help the children. By now neighbors had arrive to see the spectacular rare white people with blond hair. About 50 people now are watching us and of course most are children. Some small girls around seven or eight with babies strapped to their backs. The obviously were child run households. They followed us down the road for miles where the speed of the van out ran them.

We had a big dinner back at the hotel. We had white wine and lots of conversation. After that we met with Alemu to get our paperwork in order individually. We were last. Then we went to Rachel and Travis’s room and worked on documentation till about 2am. Now it is even later and I have to go because I have some bugs crawling on me. Yuck. Again. There is chanting out side and drums. It has to be close to three am.

sneak peak

2010-03-21T16:55:00.001-07:00

I do not know it this will post, but is a sneak peak of Tara. Rachel had to visit the orphanage because her daughter is ill and Travis her hubby held tara and took this photo. His exact words were " you guys do not even know how cool your daughter is, she is really great and so beautiful"

Family

2010-03-21T05:29:00.000-07:00

We hope if we are lucky to meet someone from Tara’s tribe and talk to orphanage workers about Tara’s health history. This area is one of the most beautiful areas on the planet and some claim it is where the dawn of humanity started. It is known to be a combination of both extreme beauty and extreme poverty. Only about 11% of the people have access to electricity and only about 40% to a clean water source.

Day three Ethiopia

2010-03-20T23:00:00.001-07:00

After two days of travel we woke up in our suit at the sadula lodge. Rich had gotten a few hours of sleep, but I really only got two or three hours. There is something about the altitude that makes some people unable to sleep at such a high level and I am lucky to be one of those people who can’t fall asleep. The sounds of rosters and guard dogs fill the air through out the night. There is also two other people in our group that have the same problem. We are now 6 of 8 couples, with one couple in Dubi and another couple still in route.

Our room is lovely by Ethiopian Standards. In america it would be very much like a honey moon in Howard City. I requested a suit which means there is a large sitting area, a bedroom and a bath. We have lots of space which we need because we have so many items to sort out for the different orphanages.

We skipped breakfast to get the donations and gifts ready for the staff of AAI. It was big wrap job because we wanted them to look nice, but could not pre-wrap them or we would not be able to get through security. Rich had a slice of cold pizza that was left in our room along with brown bannas from Alemu.

With a hand full of peanuts and back packs we were the last to arrive down at the gates of the courtyard. We pile into two vans with our drivers. Rich and I seem to gravitate to a driver by the name of Sami. He is about 55 and very well dressed. A few key words like toilet and help me are clear to him and he is very much like a protector of sorts.

We head to the bank for smaller bills. We exchanged some money at the airport the night before. For a 1,000 American dollars (which Racheal and I guessed would be our budget), we received 13,000.00 in Bir. That looks like 130 bills in a big brick. Not many people can take a 100.00 bill so we changed 1000 bir into 10 dollar bills. Now we have another “brick” of tens to hid and stash among our items.

We headed of next to a tour of the city. For some they were emothionally moved by the poverty level and the beggers. With my experience in some other areas, this was something I could handle. Many of the men in our group were focused on thoughts of safety and the women were finding hard to overlook the starving mothers carring babies and the children with missing arms or other issues begging for change.

We headed off to the university museum. A student there took us through the historical information and other highlights of Ethiopia. History, crafts, homes, toys, tribes, cuture, art, music and other topics. The guide was good, but the crowds were showing major signs of jet lag. He did not think we were very bright.

Then we moved on to the national museum. We saw Lucy. She is a 3.2 million but not ape or chimp. We were shocked at the size of her. Very tiny. Look her up on line for more details. We also saw a young child who was recently futured on time magazine. Did you know that are brains were bigger at one time? Our tour guide was showing everyone how the Ethiopian finds prove out that the bible is right about creation and the therory that we came from Apes was wrong. They explained in detail how they believe that Ethiopia was the beginning of mankind and backed it up with a lot of facts and data.

The group of 6 couples then went out to lunch. The resturant had an english menu and everyone mostly got pizza and a few got fish or chicken. We got chicken. The waiter did not take Rich’s order for some reason so he had half of mine.

We then went back to our hotel and met Tesefaye’s wife. We took a taxi about ½ hour to their home. Rich’s first internation taxi : ) It was our pleasure. We both were overwhelmed with the hospitality and kindness you all have shown us. Now I can see why Tesaye is so proud of his family and friends. We had such a wonderful time and both feel forever connected with all of them. We had such a good time that I kept thinking over and over what a wonderful day it had been and how much fun it was that I could not even sleep when I went to bed that night

Tesefeye’s wife is Samrawite and thye have raised two very beautiful, smart and loving childern. Both her mother and Tesefeye’s mother were there and the kids too. They also have an IE of their own and she was there too. Also a frend of Tesfayes was there too. He is a single guy and he speaks English very well. Samrawite’s mother also speaks some English and Samrawite can understand it but say small phrases. Her sons can also understand and speak a little. Tesfayes’ mother not so much.

After meeting both mothers I see she has many people looking out for her!

Tesefeye’s wife is very pretty and smiles a lot. She has good fashion sense and is a good mother to her boys (keeping them in check). She welcomed us in to her home with open arms. I was amazed at how wise and insightful that Samrawit's mother was. A true women of faith and knowlege. If I lived in Addis we would surely be friends. And Tesfaye's mother has a heart of gold. Always looking to make sure everyone feels welcome and happy. I can not wait to describe the feast that was prepared for us to Tesfaye. The only thing I can compare it to is a wedding. During the entire night, Tesfayes friend Afework was the main translator. I have to say that the time really passed quickly and we had a great time. There was a lot of laughing and deep conversations. We had a traditional coffee cerimony and Rich is IN LOVE with Ethiopian coffe!!!! Later I learned how to roast beans and make it too. We made a video of the family for Tesfaye.

I hope they will be able to join us Saturday in the hotel and we will bring back to Tesfaye a full bag with some of his books and give Samrawite some items left over from the trip that she could donate locally.

Now it is a mad rush to get everything wrapped and packed for our trip to the south. This will take a few hours of time working and figuring out what we need and don’t need. Our un-needed items will be packed and stored. Tommarrow we meet the birth mother of Tara, so a lot of planning will be needed. It ended up being a very emotionally charged event. We hope to tell you more about day 4 later today. We are a day behind on our posts. We are just now waking up to day 5 and I have not blogged day four let.

Love,

Richard and Kristie

Misquotes, siders, giant bugs and more Misquotes

2010-03-20T21:20:00.000-07:00

One thing that we were well warned about were the bugs. Lots of the following Misquotes with malaria. Rich and I are on heavy duty malaria meds to try to avoid it. We are using spray with 100% deet and picacardin. Below is a photo of my friend wendy from the last trip hanging out under the bug net. Some people sleep with full clothes even though it is super hot just to keep from getting ate alive by the bugs!

Visiting EVADO

2010-03-20T17:13:00.000-07:00

If we are lucky, tonight we will be visiting EVADO orphanage. This is the orphanage where Tara stayed for some time. We will be interviewing the nannies and getting as much detail as we can about her habits. EVADO is clean and nice for Ethiopia standards. As an American we might find it lacking some of the basics like diapers, wall decor, good formula and medications. We all stuffed our suitcases with many donations to help the orphanages as much as we could. Here are some photos of EVADO

Heading south

2010-03-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

Today we should be leaving the capital of Addis and heading south to Awassa. This will be our new but temporary home base where we will branch out from and see Dilla, Evado orphanage and even some of the nearby sites. It is a full travel day to get there by car. The road we will mostly be on is paved, but it is a narrow road and is the main road between Addis and Kenya. There is a ton of traffic, animals and people walking on this road. It is known accross Africa as one of the most dangerous roads. I am not looking forward to it. Here are some of the sites we hope to see...

Our first day in Ethiopia

2010-03-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

Our first day in Ethiopia is today. Our goal is to get to know a little bit about he culture and the people. A few interesting facts about Ethiopia...Did you know this is the birthplace of coffee? Yup it is where coffee was founded and became the popular drink of America today

Ethiopia is a landlocked state in the Horn of Africa, is one of the most ancient countries in the world. it is the second most populous nation in Africa with over 79.2 million people. 5 million are said to be orphans.

There is tons of history in Ethiopia. Besides being an ancient country, Ethiopia is one of the oldest sites of human existence known to scientists today—here has been found some of humanity's oldest traces, they claim it might be the place where Homo sapiens first set out for the Middle East and points beyond. Lucy, discovered in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar region, is considered the world’s second oldest, but most complete, and best preserved adult Australopithecine fossil. Lucy's species is named Australopithecus afarensis, which means 'southern ape of Afar', after the Ethiopian region where the discovery was made. Lucy is estimated to have lived in Ethiopia 3.2 million years ago. There have been other fossil findings including early hominin Ardipithicus ramidus, Ardi.

It is the only country in Africa that claims it has never been colonized. What this means is that Ethiopia (formerly Abbysinia) was never concured and the people were not turned to slaves. It would be very unlikely that an African American that had roots going back to the times of the slaves could ever say they were Ethiopian.

Ethiopia has some of Africa's highest mountains as well as some of the world's lowest points below sea level. There are altogether around 80 different ethnic groups (tribes) in Ethiopia today. They speak Amharic and a few people know English. Also the blue Nile runs into Ethiopia from the North. This is part of the waters so famous in Egypt which is north west of Ethiopia.

Today we arrive at our hotel

2010-03-18T15:55:00.000-07:00

But not till almost midnight!

By now we will have been traveling for over 24 hours and we still have about 12 more hours to go of air travel and then car travel. The hotel we are staying at is really more like a lodge. It is very nice for Ethiopia standards. They advertise having your very own bathroom and the following written exactly this way on their website:

Granite floor
Luxurious complimentary bath amenities
All rooms include a sink
Shaving mirrors and shavers including but not limited to aftershaves
Hair dryer machines are available up on request
All rooms comes with new slippers, teeth brush, comb, swing kit and shower cup

When we finally arrive in Addis Ababa it is supposed to be raining. This is a large city with two classes. Wealthy and poor. We will be staying in the nicest part of two among the embassy. It is also where the African Union resides.

Day 1 – Travel Day

2010-03-18T14:17:00.000-07:00

Uncle David picked us up promptly this morning. We said our good bye's to Liviann and explained to her that this was a "big"goodbye and not a little goodbye. But will all goodbyes we planned to return. She put on her pout face just long enough to let us know that she would miss us and then before you knew it she was running to the babysitter with open arms.

Day one has been a lesson in flexibility and trust already. We boarded the plane in Grand Rapids, got on the runway and received the news that we would not be taking off anytime soon due to air traffic issues in Detroit. We worried about missing our connection to Amsterdam, but luckily made it just in time. A little luck of the irish on St. Patricks day. Upon arrival in Detroit we saw many people wooping it up and celebrating in green.

Then we boarded our next flight to Amsterdam, began to take off and had to turn around due to a problem with the plan. The captian waited for a special gate where a team of mechanics worked quikly to repair the issue and refuel the plane. We took of almost two hours late and again wondered if we would make our connection in Amsterdam.

We are traveling with another couple from West Michigan named Rachel and Travis. They turned out to be really cool and zero drama. Exactly what we needed on our first day. Rachel Is from New Zeland orignally and I could listen to her voice for hours. Travis is super friendly and very laid back. Both of them are on very good spirits considering the news they received a few days ago. Their baby Ruhamma (amary) is not doing well. At first the nurse though she had signs of downs syndrom, but a local Ethipian doctor is saying that is not the case and they believe she has rickets. This means she is badly lacking vitamin D and calcium. She can't lift her head or control her tounge. Her head and rists are showing deformities to support Rickets. The are getting special privleges to see their daughter early on Friday so keep them in your prayers.

When we deboarded the plan I felt like we were in the amazing race. Of course Racheal and Travis were way ahead of us with my still swollen ancle from the recent sprain in China. Rich was moving slower even then me, I think out of amazement at the Amsterdam airport which is really cool. Again we made it just in time, but placing bets on if our bags made it our not. Rachel and I think they probably made it, Rich and Travis think it is less likely.

Smooth flight to Sudan and we both actually got to take a little cat nap and watch a movie. Rich loved seeing the swiss Alps from the air. We went over the meditrainin and Venice. I was in disbelief over the size of the serria desert. It is like an ocean of sand. There are beautiful textures everywhere from the air. One can only think of Gods glory when you see it from up high. From the distance I thought I could see a great fog cover the horizon. It ended up that there was a terrible sand storm and our plan was unable to land in Sudan. You should have seen the smile on Rachel's face. I know all of us were thinking woo-ha, now lets believe our bags are in Addis and it will be a perfect day. If they are not, the next flight does not come into Ethiopia till late Saturday night.

As we look out the window of the plane, we see the sun setting in the distance. This truly makes it feel like two days of pure travel. Addis Ababa is the capital of Ethipia and also where the airport is. It is located high in the mountains and is cool compaired to the rest of Ethipia which actually has some of the hottest areas on the planet. Getting into Ethiopia is very interesting. We have to apply for a visa to get into the country, go through customs, and then go through a scanning security before we are able to leave the airport. The exchange rate seems to be the best at the airport. Birr is the local currency. You get about 13.50 in birr for every us dollar.

We had a smooth landing and made it through the visa process and the customs process to find yes...yippie...yahoo... our bags! They made it too. We made our way through a see of people to find our driver waiting for us. They loaded the van with everyones luggage (we waited for all to arrive) and he took it to the hotel. Rich and I stayed at the airport and we he came back to get us on the second trip because there were too many people and bags. Rich had a lesson from one of the locals on how to say thankyou.

We checked into our hotel and got the room we wanted. Rich and I are wipped. It is a little after midnight and we unpacked everything and nothing major was missing or taken. Now Rich is getting really crabby and so am I. We were good sports all day and just so tired after two days with no real sleep. Tommarro we go to see the lions and then to a museum. We are hoping to meet Tesfayes wife and family for dinner.

We are off

2010-03-17T15:30:00.000-07:00

By now we are well on the way. We fly out KLM/Delta along with our six suitcases of supplies for the orphanage and Tara. It was hard leaving Liviann after she was so sick. A fever for 11 days straight with only a few breaks here and there. Monday and Tuesday we spent extra time dancing, exchanging tickles and snuggling on the couch with books and movies. She will be the one thing we miss the most!

Email updates

2010-03-14T21:38:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to everyone that I plan to post email updates to my blog
from Ethiopia. Hopefully they go through, otherwise Tina said she would help
me post.

They found it!!!

2010-03-13T05:39:00.000-08:00

I don't nee arobics to keep my heart beat up. The USCIS fixed our paperwork and then sent it to the NVC for a travel visa and wire to the Embassy in Ethiopia. Then it got lost. The USCIS said they sent it and the NVC said they never got it. I envisioned it lost in the piles of red tape.

But now they found it!! Finally we are all set.

Other ways to help the orphans of Ethiopia

2010-03-13T05:19:00.000-08:00

Adoption is not for everyone. Here is a great story about the outreach programs at all god childeren. They by far have the nicest orphanage in Ethiopia.

http://www.allgodschildren.org/em_updates/

Below is some photos of the orpanage that Tara spent most of her time. EVADO. She now has been moved again to another orphanage in Addis where we will finally meet her.

A little better news

2010-03-03T18:05:00.000-08:00

We did get some semi-good news yesterday. The USCIS has reviewed our case (they did not wait the 90 days) and have identified it as “an error” and will fix the paperwork in 10 days. That means we will have the new form on 3/16. This is the day before we leave...yikes ; 0. We will then need to make sure that the US National Visa Agency and the American Embassy in ET have the correct updated copies too. Needless to say that will be a busy day. I am praying for all the paperwork to return corrected (the right way the first time) and that it even gets done a day or two early. I know that is not likely, but God can and does do amazing things. Tina reminded me that there are real people sitting behind the desks and Jen said almost the same thing. Who knows, maybe one of them will walk into work with their double skinny latte mocha macchiato and say “ hey lets just bust out this Vos I171H early!”... That is what I think is going to happen ; ).

We also got a good update on Tarikua (aka TARA). It is funny that all my focus should have been wrapped around the paperwork, but all I could do is be filled with joy over her great report. I could see her pressing her little feet on the side of her Plexiglas crib. I just want to scoop her up and give her a neezle nozzel with my nose!

> Weight = 8kg (increased 1.4kg in 3 months) = 17.6 pounds;
> Length = 70cm (increased 7cm in 3 months)70 cm = 27.6 in;
> Head circumference = 44cm (increased 2cm in 3 months) 44 cm = 17.3 in.
> Open anterior fontanel.
> Generally in a good state of health.
> Playful.

Major Snag - We are now In gods hands

2010-03-01T16:25:00.000-08:00

Well we did get a travel date, bought tickets, arranged for care for our Little-Love, doubled all the security at our house, packed 6 suitcases of supplies and even got a ride to and from the airport. BUT...now a major snag has happened. Basically the United States Department of homeland security made a typo on one of our documents. The US government creates and issues us a special document called an I-171 H. This document is our "proof" that the US government has okay'd us to adopt a baby. We use it like a "security pass" for us to get through the US embassy (located in Ethiopia) with our baby, issue her a visa, and be able to get on a plane to the USA. With out it, we can leave Ethiopia, but not with Tara.

Well they typo is so silly. In several places it says that we are approved to adopt a child born after 10-23-2008. The reason we are approved on this date is that our baby needs to be 9 moths younger than our biological child. Yet in one spot on the form instead of the age being listed as "after 10-23-2008" like everything else, it just says 10-23-2008 and is missing the word "after". It is quite obvious what that is a typo and is missing a word. Our agency did not think it would be a big deal, but thought it was best just to check it out.

They contacted the American Embassy (in Ethiopia) which is the same US government that gave the typo'd document. We asked them if they would have any issues and they said YES...we will not the Vos family take Tara out of Ethiopia with the typo. Yes I said NOT. They say we must have the Detroit branch of the exact same US agency correct it. Lovely government red tape at it's best ; )

Our adoption agency has contacted the Detroit office with a desperate plea to correct the error that they made and they said "We will review our records and amend the approval as necessary". So what does that mean? Well it could mean that they will review tomorrow and expedite a new form to Ethiopia or it could mean that they will review it at their leisure. They are not required by law to look at it for 90 days. YIKES!So we could have an answer in the next few days or we could have an answer a 1/4 of a year later. It is not in our hands. I said to my sister that normally a mother would be crying in the bathroom with news of this. I have just resigned to it being in Gods hands. I am a believer that he is showing us time and time again the power of prayer this is just one more reason to put our faith in him. We would love any additional prayers that anyone would like to give up in this matter. Later this week we will be also asking our congressman for help, but know that God has the best chance of making this happen...so our faith is with him.

Oh yes, our tickets are not refundable and non transferable, so you will not be able to get any great bargain tickets on EBAY!

No travel date

2010-02-19T09:07:00.000-08:00

We have been waiting to hear when we travel to Africa and still no travel date to speak of from our agency. Believe us we want to know when we will go as much as all of you. Now that Tara is ours, we think about her even more. Good thing I have great friends who have sent me photos of her as they have returned from Africa. Wendy is the blond holding Tara. What a great thing to have these clips and video link too!

I think Wendy might have been a

bit emotional while holding Tara

Well I did want a daughter with Curls!

Tara has one of the nicer beds.
She does make eye contact which is a good thing

The nannies love the kids
and hold them...A LOT!

I think she is saying
please come and get me?

Big eyes!!!!

Here is my favorite photo

Here is a link to a video
http://sharing.theflip.com/session/bc747cde39493173b75298460d06575b/video/10298203

Reflecting on our day

2010-02-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

I know that I had asked many of you to pray for our court date. As you know that our request was just for God's timing and we would be Ok with either result.

Trust is a hard thing for me! Amazingly I did not feel rushed for this to pass, nor worried that it wouldn't happen because honestly we completely trusted that it would happen and the only thing we were unsure about was "when".

Yesterday afternoon we got the call from our agency that we passed court. What a weight off our shoulders...she is ours. Ok, I have to say that one more time...Tara is ours. Last night I sat back and wondered, how did we get so lucky? So many families go to court multiple times before passing. Some family have been known to go five times. I know that this week there were families who did not pass and we did.

We attended a funeral yesterday. Yes sad. As we left the chapel, we got the call. Normally I would be at work and so would Rich. But this day we were together as a couple and actually surrounded by family. We got the news at 2:10 from our case worker Chandra (who has been our rock through the last 2 years). It was wonderful to get the call from her personally and to be with our family during the call. It is a moment I will never forget.

Last night we got an email from our agency. Our case worker Chandra resigned. Yes, just hours after we passed court. What if we had not passed? What a mess that would be! I was also heartbroken to hear the news. Reflecting back that she probably knew at the 2:10 call that she was leaving, but did not cloud our moment of joy with her news. She put Tara first.

So many people have unselfishly supported Tara during this process. Many told us yesterday that they had been praying for Tara and "just knew" that we would pass. Many prayed in the middle of the night and early morning (probably as the court case was actually happening in Ethiopia). I can only imagine how many prayers were going her way!!! Love it!

Then I sat down last night and reflected back on the day. And clarity happened for me.
I realized that it was all God’s doing. Gods perfect timing...

Amazing that Liviann was born at 2:10pm, we got the call for our referral at 2:10pm and now we get the news that we passed court also at 2:10pm. I truly believe from the bottom of my heart that this is the work of the the Lord and that I need to give him the credit. He was trying to show me a confirmation that he had his hand in things. For some it could be subtle, but for me it had to be blaringly obvious or I would miss it. It was like he was stamping his 2:10 approval on things and saying "I want you to know that this is my timing and your children are in my grip.". Anyway, I think that is what he is saying : ) Isn’t funny how Trust and Gods timing have to go hand in hand? As if he is saying to trust in him as he has a plan for Tara and her future.

“What’s next?” is the biggest question asked. Now we wait for a travel date and Embassy appointment. We should hear this next week what dates were chosen for us. We have two choices. The first one gets Tara home quicker and the second is better for Liviann. So which one are we hoping and praying for? Not to sound redundant, but Gods perfect timing once again.

Kristie

Tara is Officially part of our Family!!!

2010-02-11T12:33:00.001-08:00

We have been waiting 567 days to say that we are now officially a family of four:
Rich, Kristie, Liviann, Tara (plus two cats)!
We passed court today and received the call at 2:10 this afternoon. I think there must be something magical about that time because that was the time Liviann was born, that was the time we got our referral call and now we hear today at 2:10 that we pass court. This means that Tara is officially ours and that we travel soon to get her.

Travel dates will be nailed down next week, but we will be leaving sometime in the second half of March. And what an adventure that will be!

If you want to see what little baby Tara looks like, copy and past this link in your browser:
http://sharing.theflip.com/session/bc747cde39493173b75298460d06575b/video/10298203

She is so sweet and we can't wait to bring her home!
Kristie

Today was our court hearing in Ethiopia

2010-02-11T09:16:00.000-08:00

Well what is done is done. It is after 5pm in Ethiopia so the court case is over. Now it is just sitting back and waiting for the results. As of noon, AAI still has not hear how things have went. I will post to the blog as soon as I know.

One day till court

2010-02-10T04:18:00.000-08:00

We just have hours left to wait till we go to court. This is all in Gods hands! We are in his grip.

Two days till Court

2010-02-09T04:20:00.000-08:00

It is hard to believe that there is a chance that we could pass court in just 48 hours, I really have the nesting bug going on. Just need to get all ready for this little sweety to come into our lives.

That is what friends are for!

2010-02-08T19:22:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I went to a wine tasting party with some of my closest friends. I held my glass up at the toast and said "Not many women can toast and enjoy a glass of merlot just 4 days prior to having a baby: That is the beauty of adoption". It was a wonderful event.

I am not sure if it was the wine mix with too much chocolate, the late hour or a case of the sillies, but one of my closest friends said something that still has me rolling with laughter. I was telling her that I was packing and getting donations together and though she might be able to help me hunt for some donations for the orphanage. She then began to tell me that she had the perfect gift in mind for little T...designer luggage tags. I said "what for?"... she then preceeded to tell me, "well of course when the staff goes to pack up all of T's things, she will need something really cool to tage all the bags with. I instantly began rolling in the giggles! I said "what things""... It is sad to thing that these little ones in the orphanage do not have one thing of their one. As a matter of fact, you can't even keep the outfit they are wearing unless you ask to swap it with a new outfit. I have thoughts of them hauling loads of fashions in trunks with designer labels to our car with Little T...NOT!

Three days till court

2010-02-08T04:22:00.000-08:00

Many people ask us what we will do once we get to Ethiopia. Here is a glimpse at our schedule:

Travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: (4-6 weeks after we pass court)

Fly (Wed): Fly to Europe and then to Ethiopia. This is a two or three leg flight.
Arrive: in the capital and and travel to hotel, acclimate to new time zone.
Travel South (Friday): An escort will help us travel to the south. See wild life and other sites along the way.
Awassa: Go to the orphanage in Awassa where little T lived
Dilla: Then travel to visit Gedeo region and Dilla her city.
Relation: Experience her people group and possibly meet a relative it they are available and willing.
Return to Addis (Mon): She will have got moved to Addis the capital we will need travel back to Addis to meet her
Take custody (Wed): Meet her and claim her. She will live with us after that in our hotel room
Embassy appointment (Thurs): in the capital and and check into hotel, acclimate to new time zone.
Leave (Friday or Saturday): Pack up and travel to airport.
Fly Fly to Europe and then to USA and then to GR. This is a two or three leg flight.

Welcome Home!!!!!

Four days till we pass court

2010-02-07T04:28:00.000-08:00

Can I really be that optimistic? Well we sort of have to plan as if we are passing because we have to get so much ready. For example, paperwork, collect donations of supplies for the orphanage and pack all our stuff. Plus there is the whole logistics of finding care for our bio daughter.

So many people are asking what happens when we pass court. The first thing is that we jump up and down and hug everyone in site. Then after that, we wipe away the tears and wait for an embassy appointment. Once we get this, we scramble to make travel arrangements. Everything pends on that embassy appointment. Normally we leave 3-6 weeks after passing court.

Five days till court for little T

2010-02-06T16:22:00.000-08:00

Today is a big day because I get to pack and plan. Yes it is the best Saturday I ever hoped for. I just need to get organized and be a better planner. Today I begin work on a photo album for the family our our daughter to be. We want those surviving family members and neighbors to be able to see what little T's live will be like back here in the states. Another thing I am working on is trying to get a nice letter put together that would help communicate our feelings of thankfulness on the adoption, our promises for the the baby and our hopes/dreams for her future.

People surprise me with their generosity

2010-02-05T16:29:00.000-08:00

Today my friend Wendy will make her way down to Dilla City to see our little sweety. What a friend. If I had to pick anyone who would hug and kiss our daughter to be, Wendy would definitely be on my top ten list. She emailed me today "This is amazing and overwhelming". I can't wait to hear all about it. She has a big bag of goodies to give little T. One is a blankie that I kept 2 weeks in our dirty clothes. It talks a real friend to hand carry a cloth with my BO thousands of miles half way around the world!

I was very touched today by several people who offered one of the most important gifts of all to little T...Prayer. When asked what I would like pray for, I consistently say God's perfect timing in this whole process. We have been in his grip so far, and I am overwhelmed with trust that he will carry us the rest of the journey.

Brookhouse family leaves for Africa

2010-02-05T03:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my friend Wendy and her husband should have landed in Africa. She is traveling to pick up her daughter Blen who is staying at the same orphanage as our soon to be daughter little T. Wendy is just one of those people that is so full of life and love and I can't wait to see her spread all of that love and uniqueness all over her new daughter! John of course is just going to be a pillar of fatherly support in Addi's life. My plan is to meet them at the air port on Sunday. Let me know if you would like to join me. How cool is it that Addison Blen will arrive home on valentines day!

Court date: In Ethiopia is Feb 11

2010-02-04T03:48:00.000-08:00

We expected to have a court date sometime in March. Think again! We found out that our court date is February 11. Yes, in less than one week! What a cool thing, but the responsibily of it all hit us like a load of bricks. We have about a 50/50 shot at passing court the first try. We are prepared to go a few times as it is pretty likely for this to happen. Why? People ask this all the time. Well it is not because of us. We are actually pre-approved by MOWA to adopt (Ministry of woman's (and children) Affairs in Ethiopia). It is that the paperwork has to be perfect! No translation errors, nothing missing, nothing unsigned or unstamped and no confusion with the facts stated on the records. This is actually a good thing that all spend so much time making sure that everything is authentic and there is no fowl play going on. There are many parts of the world where child trafficking is taking place and it is great to be sure this is not one of them! Plus all the players need to be present at the court case. Mowa, the judge, someone from the baby's family (tribe), the orphanage, and our power of attorney all have to be there from what I heard through the grape vine. The good news is that we can hire a power of attorney and not have six grand extra in flights!

Big News!!!!

2010-01-30T12:28:00.000-08:00

We got "the call"

2010-01-16T03:34:00.000-08:00

I was kind of taken off guard when we a from Sally at our agency called. I thought at first they were calling to say they made a mistake and we really had not moved up to number 3 on the list, but then She said something completely different! A referral. She is approximately 4-1/2 to 5 months old. She is an orphanage in the south region of Ethiopia. This is a very green and fertile area close to mountains and big lakes were lots of unique fruits grow and starbucks buys their coffee beans from. It is beautiful, but much poverty.
We then after everything was reviewed we said Yes, we want her! Due to confidentially of information, we can't share much about her on line until the adoption is finalize.

When we saw her photo, she has lots of baby-puff... especially in her cheeks. We have telling our two year old daughter for the last year that she grew in my belly, but her sister was growing in our hearts. When we got her referral photo, little T's shirt had a big heart on it. Then after looking at it, it made us smile, warmed our hearts and then sorta melted us a little. We are both really excited and can't sleep. emaill me if you want to talk about adoption because I think Rich is getting sick of me talking about it non stop!

Blog block

2010-01-11T03:29:00.000-08:00

I see this in almost every adoptive mom. Great blogging while they wait, a big posting about a referral and then......nothing. Can't say that I am going to be much different, but I am going to try. For all those adoption blog stalkers out there, this is the part your all waiting for, the baby!

Sisterhood

2010-01-09T13:59:00.000-08:00

When I started this journey, i had one idea of what sisterhood meant. I could envision little L running and playing with her new sister when she arrived. Hopefully this will someday be true.

As the days roll by and we walk the road to adoption with it's confusing twists, turns (and even some major road wash outs), I have found the company of other traveling moms on the same journey. We have connected through email, phone and even in person. We have worried, supported and allowed a safe place to unload our frustrations. They have the abiltity to take what I think is a big blow and show a differnt way to look at things.

I know it is hard to believe, but I am truly finding them to be like sisters on this journey. When things go bad for them, I worry, I pray and I tear. When we hear good news, I feel as if I am celebrating with them. They are fabulous courageous women seeking to make a difference in their world and families. I guess that is why I like them so much. When you hear good news from about another person your happy for them, but when you hear good news about your sister, your elated. It is like a support buddy.

Right now I am celebrating inside with so much good news among the "sisters". They have all made such a positive leap in this hole process. All of the girls that I have corresponded with, have received a referral in the last 60 days. Because this is a public blog, I will give them nick names for privacy.

Sunshine is waiting for paperwork, she has found two wonderful children and is changing agencies to be able to adopt and get the kids home sooner. Both a cute little girl and her sweet younger brother. They both seemed to have suffered from some nutritional issues, but especially the boy needs prayers. He is so small. If she passes court and travels on schedule she will arrive on her sons birthday. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Wave is reviewing medicals background on a very young baby girl. I love her faith in God's perfect timing and his ability to create their perfect family. She is trusting him to lead her to the right decision. Because of her health, this little girl needs lots of prayers and she certainly getting them right now by all of Wave's family & friends. I know how hard it must be for them as they patiently wait for all the right information to be sure the decision is right. I hope very soon they will be able to say yes!

Wind just pasted court on Jan 1st, and now a proud parent to a beautiful 17 month old little gem who is now officially and leagly one of their family. From this little girl's photo, you can tell this adorable child is full of emotion and softness. It will be wonderful to see her strive in a loving family. I think Wind will be the first of us to get her little girl home. For me, it will be like having a sister doing a dry run for us. She is using the same agency and will be like my own personal trainer if we get to go to Ethiopia someday. I am living vicariously through her! I can't wait to set my teary eyes on her and her new baby as I am waving the biggest welcome home sign in the airport!

Our family is just enjoying the moments we have together as a party of three. Even though the wait has been much, much longer than planed, are not at all anxious for a referral. I would say that worries with our agency extra fees are the only thing making us want to rush the process. Just another lesson in trust!

Sometimes you just need a break

2009-10-17T14:46:00.001-07:00

There has been so much going on in Vos world of adoption that I think it is time to just sit back and take a deep breath, stick your toes in the lake and enjoy our current surroundings.

The referrals have be slow. Well maybe the word non-existent is a better term. Due to the police not referring any abandon children in the capital city (instead putting them in a government facility), double triple checking everything to avoid possilble issue with child harvesting and just slowdowns within our agency, we have not seen any referrals since summer.

Good news is that our agency was cleared of any issues within the investigation by the Michigan department of child services. I am sure it was a battle that went on for months. The media coverage did not help with new sign ups, thus putting the agency seriously behind with new revenue. Hopefully now they can rebuild their name and get on top of the contriversary.

Bad news is that our coordinator Kim parted ways with our agency. The details of this are shrowded in secretcy. We don't know if she left, was fired, downsized or just mutually decided to part? It doesn't matter as it is none of our business, but this does put many people in the blues and the news does not do anything to raise spirits.

The single moms are still waiting to hear if they can still adopt. The laws in Ethiopia say yes, but MOWA is still not approving any of the moms. My heart crys for these gals. So much they have had to do to pull off the adoption finacially. Now this. Hopefully good news will come soon. If not, I think we will need to move our expectations up a bit as I am sure we will jump ahead drastically on the list. Nothing we could ever feel good about.

Read a good called "orphaned". Totally recommend it to anyone in the process.

Lastly, feeling good about the savings for our final adoption fees. I was able to put these all aside in a special bank account just waiting for "the call". The international aid fund is just a few hundred dollars away from being all set. I know that this will just finish on it's own with our family and friends. That only leaves the travel, which could easily go on a credit card or come out of our savings. It is really a gift not to have this stress to deal with of money!

This weekend is our annual adoptive moms dinner. I plan to blog about this seperately. It will be a blast!

Our favorite adoption Video

2009-10-06T16:57:00.000-07:00

This is Little Luv's favorite adoption video. Well actually favorite in general. She wants to see it every time I get out my computer. Most kids say Barney or Elmo. LL wants the "babies". I would have to say we have watched it several hundred times. Good thing the music is awesome!

I recently received an email from the proud parents and the adopted kids are doing great. This makes watching the video even better.

My favorite part is where the father (Dave) reminds his wife (Rae) to remove her shoes just before she excepts the children. What a overwhelming moment in their lives and yet the both still want to be respectful. What great character! LL's favorite parts are the lady praying, the babies in the bath and the mommy (Rae) waving at the airport. Let me know what your favorite part is! comment below.

Results of the sale

2009-09-23T16:52:00.000-07:00

I am sure you all are wondering how the sale went and I am so sorry it took so long to update you. I have been busy catching up on all the things we let go while preparing for the sale. Sunday we unloaded and cleaned up the big mess we made prep’n for the sale. I did not even get to sleep till late Sunday night and I was actually a little less awake than a zombie.

The sale went wonderful!!!!

All week long amazing things happened and out of the blue surprises. I think it was a blessing from God, for sure. Let me tell you about a few...Lots of donations showed up from family, friends and coworkers. Several people from my company pitched in to design signs, handouts and borrow tables for us to use during the sale. My boss David, Lynn, Lisa, Tom and Monique were probably the most involved, but everyone seemed to be very supportive. My two friends, Debbie and Tanya came to my home to help price hundreds of items. Yes hundreds. Some of the stuff was junk and had to be sorted cleaned and grouped by category. It was grubby work. We priced or pitched, then boxed. It was great catching up with them. Time flew by! Things were progressing but slowly. So later in the week, my mom and Krista took turns helping play with the baby and price so we had a hope of finishing on time. Then all the boxes and clothes were loaded into 4 trucks and one 23 foot trailer. The boxes were stacked two high on the trailer and packed to the brim of the trucks. It looked like we were moving a small city. Little-love stayed with Grandma so to stay clear of the chaos.

We had sale day volunteers withdraw on us early in the week. I was in complete panic that I was not going to be able to pull it off working alone. Then, for no reason what so ever I have new volunteers (Jeannette, my dad, Sango and Joe) contacted us last minute and agree to help in whatever way they could. They were so full of positive spirit that they ended up being twice the enthusiasm of the people who could not come. Like we got an upgrade- hahaha.

We all woke up at 4am on Saturday morning, loaded up with coffee and then headed to the ball park. We unloaded in the dark. My Dad added to the convoy with his truck filled with donations too. Unloading was amazing with Sango and Joe (we realized later that Rich could have never done it alone). They were right there handing us boxes and product and made it possible for Ellen, Krista and I to put things on the table in a appealing fashion. Sango’s positive attitude was like the sunshine before the sun rose giving everyone a boost of energy and Joe was super helpful, kind and hardworking. I was still a little tense with anticipation before the sale. Maybe bossy would be another word to describe it! I was terrified that we would not be ready to sell when the clock hit 8am...but we made it. Then the sunshine came out. The people started flooding in the booth and the fun began.

Can you believe the weather on Saturday? It was absolutely perfect! Everyone working the booth was having a blast. Ellen had a sensitivity about her that just made people feel good about the purchase they made. She is the queen of yard sales and the one everyone turned to her for advice. Jeanette was the big money girl, landing all the big sales and donations in the shortest amount of time. I think people are drawn to her style and smile. Jen was like everyone’s personal shopper finding just the right items and matching them with shoppers so we did not have much left in the end. And then there was Krista; Krista was the work horse of the group and probably worked harder on the sale than anyone (including me)! She was the first to arrive and the last to leave. So flexible and open to serving wherever the sale needed her the most. Our friend Stephanie showed up to help sell latex balloons that were donated by creative events. We blew them up with helium. When Alpine rent-all found out what we were doing, they gave us 20% off (they are good guys there). It started to get hot as the day went on and our friend Monique surprised us with cold drinks! Everyone was really having fun and I know this because they did not want to leave when their time slot was over. All these things just happened perfectly and that is why I think that we were being looked after that day by someone from above!

During the sale I was absolutely “touched” by people’s kindness and attitude towards the cause of the orphan. People really cared! We could not believe some people would haggle 10 minutes to get an item for a quarter and then hand us a dollar and say “keep the change”. The bulk of the money raised was from selling the stuff at the booth, but the icing on the cake was the extra donations.

I felt it was a win, win, win, win. Not only were we able to raise lots of aid money (wow-za!) for 5 orphanages in Ethiopia, but we had the chance to really share and create awareness of the situation the orphan children are in. Plus the donated items got sold at a significant discount to many people who were so appreciative to get the bargain. Many single moms and older folks commented on how thankful they were to get the item they were buying and commented that they were able to get it because of the great price at the sale. Then on top of it all, the leftovers were donated to a mission in downtown GR. It could not have gone any better in my book. Everyone benefited!

When we first decided to do the sale, I was really worried we would not raise enough to cover the entry fee of $80.00 plus supplies. When all the money was counted and I emptied all my pockets, I had to recount the money in disbelief. The grand totals of the sale were a thousand dollars almost to the dime. That is half the money we agreed to raise for the orphans! That large sum will support 50 children for a whole year!! I added to the money we have been collecting and it pushed us nearly three quarters of the way to our goal. Only $560.00 to go!

We can’t thank everyone enough for their help. I am truly grateful and in awe of the amazing sale.

Kristie

Finally an update

2009-09-11T19:26:00.000-07:00

A lot of time has passed and stuff has happened, so I thought it was time to finally update the blog. The good news is that Rich & I are still on track to adopt an orphaned girl from Africa.

The process has been a little delayed for two reasons.

First, due to an inquiry in Ethiopia regarding the plethora this spring of abandon children. From what I understand, they just found so many children abandoned in the streets that the government was compelled to look into the situation in an official way. In the end, the Ethiopian law enforcement found no evidence of misconduct but rather substantiation of the great impoverishment and destitution of the children in Ethiopia. This hurdle did not defeat Rich and I in any way, it actually made us more passionate to make a difference.

Even now, after the police have been cleared of any wrongdoing they are reluctant to bring abandon children to the orphanages. Instead they are being routed to a government facility. Rumor has it, that the facility may not be equipped to handle children.

In July MOWA (Ministry of women and children’s affairs) decided to move offices. this really made it difficult for any adoptions to take place during the move.

Now we embark upon the rainy season when the courts shut down. We will certainly see a adjournment on all adoptions during this time. We think they will open back up sometime in Oct.

Many anxious parents are struggling with all the continuous setbacks, impediments and instability of international adoption. Rich and I find this as “ordinary” for any international adoption and continue to be focused on the end goal.

The second reason the process is so long for us is that the rules say we need to adopt a child 9 months younger than our youngest child and we need the child to the same gender to share a room. Right now, the child found could at the most be 0-8 months old. This means lots of people who have adopted older children or boys, already have their children home. There are currently 7 families ahead of us in the same situation. We could get a call in the next few weeks or it could be many months. We really have no idea. We are content with the timing that is meant to be and feel unhurried. We believe this is our time to exclusively live life through our biological daughter's (Little V-Love) eyes and treasure the special moments we experience together in her first years.

During the wait we are just preparing for the call and journey. We have gone through a series of shots, done piles of paperwork, worked on creative ways to save money for the adoption, investigated travel arrangements and educated ourselves on how to care for the special needs that this child may have. I am even trying to learn how to manage out of control Ethiopian curls.

In addition to our adoption journey, Rich and I are trying to raise 2,000.00 of international aid for Ethiopian orphans. The added International Aid money will go to helping the many children who probably will never be adopted for a variety of reasons. This aid is separate from our adoption and travel costs that we personally will be funding.

To help facilitate this, we have cleaned out our basement and garage and are going to participate in the fifth-third ballpark. All of the money raised will go to aid the orphans left behind. If you want to help out, here are a few ways you can…

1.Donate your Clutter- If you have any items you have wanted to be rid of, we are taking good condition items valued over a dollar. Call me to arrange for an exchange before next Thursday 9-17-09.

2. Help at the sale- If you don’t have plans on Saturday, you could help work the sale and spend some time shopping too. I need a few good volunteers to take money and bag up sold items.

3. Put us in your thoughts and prayers- Praise God for all our supportive family and friends, ask for great weather and traffic for the sale, and his protection on those children needing our help.

Rich and I continue to be appreciative to be surrounded by such great people. Thanks to everyone for your continued support and excitement about our Adoption journey.

Good News...Bad News

2009-07-12T11:28:00.001-07:00

We received good news, the court has decided to start accepting cases of children abandoned in Addis! Ethiopian staff will be working to submit new cases to the court ASAP, beginning with those families who accepted referrals prior to the investigation. We are thrilled to hear of such progress!!  

While our family rejoices in this news, I also learned that MOWA (the Ministry of Women's Affairs) has decided to unexpectedly close their offices for a two-week period, beginning today and re-opening on July 23. It *could* potentially affect the outcomes of any court dates that may be scheduled from now until the day they reopen, because a court case cannot be approved without a letter of support written by MOWA. I have heard rumors that the courts may stay open in August. THAT WOULD BE GREAT!

Rollercoster bumpy wait of Adoption

2009-06-20T10:13:00.000-07:00

For my few loyal blog followers, you may wonder why I have not posted in the last month? There just has not been any good news to share : ( As of early my the Ethiopian court is now no longer accepting the adoption case of any child abandoned in Addis Ababa until a report is issued by the police department. We do not know how long it will take for the police to issue their report, and for this temporary halt to be lifted. It does not matter where the child is currently residing--it now affects any child abandoned in Addis Ababa. The Department of State has issued a statement, which can be found at: http://adoption. state.gov/ news/Ethiopia% 20alert.html

Again, the reason for this hold is that a large number of cases of abandoned children were put into court within a short period of time from four orphanages. A judge took note of this, felt the number was too high, and has asked the police commission officials (who previously cleared the children, indicating they were abandoned) to further investigate this matter and report back to the court their findings. They were also not permitting agencies to put the cases of children who were abandoned into court. It continues to be unknown how long this investigation will take. Rich and I appreciate the court ordering an investigation when they have any concerns, as we want Ethiopian adoptions to be ethical.

Our hearts go out to you and everyone else in the midst of this news. It is certainly most hard for those with referrals who have fallen in love and yearn to get their child in the safety of their homes. It is also hard for those still waiting and wondering if this will cause additional delays and longer wait times. Frightened that Ethiopia could evolve into another Guatemala. And for those who have families home they can be laden with doubt or uncertainty, wondering of possible behind the scenes confiscation. This can all taint the pureness of their beautiful journey as adoptive parents.

I know it is hard for all of us to hear about the abandonment cases being put on hold. No one is untouched by this issue. However, if corruption is suspected, it must be dealt with immediately. The news media salivates over this kind of juice and takes now pause in sensationalizing adoption corruption. If you Google adoption corruption you will see that there are millions of postings saying how bad adoption is. Here is a recent article recently posted on MSNBC. http://www.slate. com/id/2217608/ ?Gt1=38001

My sister and her husband have beautiful daughter who is adopted. Before adopting her daughter, she adopted a little boy from Guatemala named Ben. On week of her travel to get her son, she received a registered letter in the mail from the Guatemalan government. It had said that Ben's DNA and the person claiming to be Ben's mother did not match. Ben would be moved to a government run home and could not be adopted out. The original women claiming to be the mother had fled. It was impossible with out her to find his true mother. After nine years, Ben became lost in the system and we do not know his destiny. This was a terrible horror for both my sister and the innocent baby.

No one wants this to happen to a child. We all really need to know that the children and the process are as safe and ethical as possible. As much as I hate to see any delays to getting children in the loving arms of their families, we hate even more to allow unethical corruption and abduction of children. The whole thing is scary for everyone, but we need to trust and pray that everything will be good. This whole process constantly teaches us that we really have no control and need to TRUST.

In the mean time, we can pray for the children affected. Ask God to help those who have to assure good ethics, that the process done quickly. Pray for patience and strength for the families. Help us all remind each other that most of us are on this journey protect and enhance the lives of the children and to make a difference for these children in a positive way. For this to be possible the system must also be honorable and upstanding.

Kristie

Happy Mothers day

2009-05-10T09:56:00.000-07:00

Today is mothers day! Congrats to all those new moms. At this point I am officially still the mom of one crazy baby. I was wondering if It would be two? But no referral yet. And I don't really say that with regret.

We almost had a referral when we seen a waiting child posted. A little girl who had suffered some sever malnutrition. It breaks my heart than any child should ever land on a waiting children list. We saw her photo and asked our agency about her feeling desperate to find he a home quickly. Although I was not drawn to her photo, her story seemed to be a fit for us. I was nervous all weekend, could this be the one? It seem as if our referral was to be really far away and then BOOM! We were actually looking at a photo and wondering...do we almost have one? Are we really adopting? What was I thinking!

You know we constantly anticipate the referral and the journey seems so long and never ending. Or at least that is what I like to blog about! I know it is hard to understand, but when I though we had a referral, I honestly was in panic. No, could it be? Already. Am I ready for my summer to flop upside down? Are we ready for another baby? How will little V feel about a new baby? Feelings of joy were suddenly held hostage by desire to keep that one on one special time with our first daughter. It was odd and almost creepy that I was not a bit excited about a referral.

Well all for a good reason. Something good to blog about. Another family with our agency requested her information too. They had been waiting longer than us and took the referral. I was actually overjoyed. That is what we wanted most, the little girl to find a loving home. She was quite weak from starvation and had been hospitalized for her weight. At four months she was able to just now lift her head after the care at the orphanage, but still had a long way to go. I do not know all the details, but must have had a rough life up to this point. I will continue to pray for little "K" that she is able to find her way home quickly and safely.

Now on Mothers day, I am going to kick back and spend 100% of the time with hugs and giggles from little V. She just loves these days where we can be together from morning to night! I will take the lessons from this month and cherish this special time that we have together...just her and I. When her little sister arrives, we will have lots of new joy, but we need to count this special moments of her and I together as sacred memories in the making. If she was not napping, I would give her a big squeeze this very moment!

Spring is blooming

2009-04-18T09:57:00.000-07:00

Spring is here both flowers and babies are blooming everywhere! Several families are back in town with their new family members. The wait for a little girl continues to be long. We spoke with a family today who sent their dossier over to Ethiopia in January of 2009 and they already have a referral of an infant boy. Wow! Two months is quick so good things do happen in the adoption world. On the flip side we are continuing to pray for a family who has a little on who was referred back this fall. They have gone to court 5 times and still have not passed. Every time it is some little thing go wrong. A missing paper, a word wrong on a document, a frustrated person, and the list goes on and on. We will continue to keep their family in our thoughts and prayers.

We were hoping to have a moms get together today. I am really bummed out that it did not work out. Many of the moms were just not up to it after the long trip home. Plus our first 70 degree day did not help the attendance either. I was so hoping to see some of my mom friends again and meet some new ones too. Maybe another day will be better for everyone.

Instead I will be taking sweet V out to get some fresh air and see her grandma sweetheart today. That will be a bonus.

Waiting

2009-03-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

This week waiting has been hard. There has been many referrals, court dates, traveling families and activities. Many of the people who put their dossier in at about the same time as us have received good news. Even my sister has finally got word on her travel dates to Colima for her young lovelies. Nothing for us...nothing. I know there is a child out there waiting for our family, but I can not see her face. It is just this nagging pain in my side of a wrong that needs to be made right. The feeling of urgency overwhelms me as I sit here and do nothing.

Before this, I guess all the activities of dossier preparation kept me very busy. Now nothing. The only activity is really watching our bank account go down as we pay fees. The invoices are a constant reminder of the non activity with our adoption. The only thing we can really do instead of sitting here all blue and waiting is focus our efforts on the 2,000.00 in international aid we just found out that we need to raise in January. Hmmm, neither one (waiting or the money thing) sound that fun right now.

Africa’s Teresa ─ Haregewoin Teferra Dies

2009-03-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

It is reported that Haregewoin Teferra has died yesterday of natural causes at her home in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The following story about Haregewoin is taken from Mellisa Fay Greene's book, "There is No Me Without You."

Haregewoin Teferra was happily m

arried to Worku Kebede, a biology teacher and high school principal. She worked in the accounting office of Addis Ababa University and of Burroughs Computer Corporation. The middle-class couple lived in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, and doted upon their daughters, Atetegeb, born in 1967, and Suzie, born in 1969. Then a pair of tragedies altered Haregewoin’s life. In 1990, at the age of 54, Worku collapsed and died from a heart attack. Bereft, Haregewoin raised her daughters alone. Atetegeb married, had a baby boy, then fell ill. Her sickness seemed untreatable. Haregewoin spent eight months at her daughter’s side, seeking every cure, consulting every clinic and physician, until, at the age of 24, Atetegeb died.

Haregewoin’s life ended. She spent all day every day draped in black, seated beside her daughter’s grave. A year passed in this way. She felt unable to return to work, unable to accept visits from her friends. “But my daughter,” she protested when they sought her out. “I liked her very much.”

She typed out a line from a song she remembered – “There is no me without you” – and placed it over an old photograph of teenage Atetegeb and Suzie laughing together. After 18 months of profound mourning, Haregewoin asked the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to take her into seclusion. She would leave the world, she would inhabit a hut in the cemetery near her daughter’s grave.

Instead, a Catholic organization approached Waizero [Mrs.] Haregewoin and asked her to shelter a homeless teenage girl. “My life is over,” she replied. “It doesn’t matter what I do. If you think God wants me to take her, then I will take her.” Two weeks later, the Catholic group phoned again to ask if she could shelter a homeless 17-year-old boy. Again she replied, “My life is over,” and she took the boy. Two weeks later, the agency phoned again, this time with two orphaned little girls. They’d lost their parents to AIDS; no one, in that moment of the dawning pandemic, wanted to risk contacting the disease by sheltering the children. But Haregewoin, who felt her life had ended anyway, accepted them into her compound, into her heart.

All that occurred roughly 400 children ago. Today Mrs. Haregewoin provides two houses to about 40 orphaned children, half of them HIV positive.

She has named her two compounds after her late beloved daughter, Atetegeb Worku. Thus: Atetegeb Worku Metasebiya Woleji Alba Hitsanet Merja Mahiber AWMWAHM (Atetegeb Worku Memorial Orphans Support Association) Mrs. Haregewoin gets no government help to care for these children; she relies on the generosity of friends, neighbors, and outsiders.

Why so complicated?

2009-03-07T08:42:00.001-08:00

Well this is not exactly the formula that was needed. I am sure everyone who knows me has head about the formula shortage in Ethiopia? If not, basically the children in the orphanage have been suffering because no it is really hard to buy formula in Ethiopia right now. They just can't get it to buy. You can only imagine that the results of infant orphans with out formula for weeks can be... not good. I am shocked in this world that we can actually have starving babies in 2009, I still do not understand why it is so complicated to make sure the children of our planet are fed.

This week an adoptive father (S) and one of the people on our Ethiopian team (Ch) at our agency left on a plane to Ethiopia for the single purpose to carry totes of formula. One of the adoptive mothers started up a fund at a local bank (Bless your heart J) and the money just started coming in. She raised enough to by 200 cans of formula. That is thousands.

Sweet V goes through about a can+ a week right now. So the above amount will feed 4 babies for a year or 200 babies just this week. It seems like a lot, but not really. She is leaving the fund open and we have people traveling almost every week for the next six weeks. If you want to get you the address to mail a check, just let me know. The money will be 100% used to get food in the mouth of the orphans!

Please keep these folks in your thoughts and prayers as they make the journey to Ethiopia and back this week. We hope they will have safe travels, ease transporting the formula and the ability to make a difference in the lives of these children.

Eight teen children home soon!

2009-02-28T08:14:00.000-08:00

Good news! In the past 2 weeks 14 families have passed court and coming home in March are 18 children from Ethiopia. This is just from our agency alone and there are more from other agencies. This movement is somewhat refreshing as there has been some long spans of inactivity for everyone in the adoption community. Many of these parents I know from local events. I am thrilled to be part of their good news.

I am sure they are anxious to get them home. Due to the big shortage of formula in Ethiopia, many parents are concerned about the health of the children. The reason for the shortage is not fully clear. Some say it is do to the falling value of the burr (Ethiopian dollar) other say it is due to issues in China with Contamination, and some believe it is due to theft and black market sales. Who really knows?

Friday, March 6 one of the adoptive fathers and one of the members of the Ethiopian team at our agency will be traveling for Ethiopia with suitcases of formula, arriving on Sunday, March
8. If your interested in making a donation of powdered formula, more high nutrition formulas, or even some cash to buy some bulk formula, let me know. This will surely make it straight in the hands of the orphans!

Fund raiser for Adoption Associates

2009-02-21T15:10:00.001-08:00

Join Adoption Associates, Inc. for a fundraiser on March 19 at the Culver's Restaurant in Jenison, Michigan.

West Michigan area families are encouraged to join Adoption Associates, Inc. on March 19, 2009 from 4-9pm at Culver's restaurant in Jenison, Michigan. Culver's restaurant of Jenison will give a generous donation to Adoption Associates, Inc. of 10% of the sales made during that time. Adoption Associates, Inc. staff will be present at the restaurant throughout the evening.

Please consider attending and helping us spread the word by inviting your friends, families, churches, and neighbors to join us! Culver's restaurant is located near the corner of Chicago Drive and Cottonwood in Jenison, near Meijer.

Some like it hot

2009-02-07T17:03:00.000-08:00

Well the cooking class was fantastic! I would go again in a heart beat even if we made the same thing. Everyone who attended had all good things to say about it. Big thanks to a girl named Cindy for planning the whole thing and Sam the Chef for teaching us. He had his wife and daughter helping and they were wonderful! It was fabulous seeing all the ladies again who are adopting. What a great group of vivacious and inspired women. We even had one curious hubby join in too. The chatter was non-stop of adoption updates and photos floated constantly around the room. Everyone sharing tips and experiences with out reservation. We all helped prepare the basics, chop onions, crush garlic, seed jalapeno peppers and skin chickens. I am sure most of the girls went home and gave their loved one's a big spicy kiss! Mmmm, nothing like garlic onion breath with a burning hot jalapeno fingers! My favorite spice was Berbere. Sam got his from his sister in Ethiopia and says there is a big difference between true Ethiopian Berbere and American counterfeit. For Ethiopian cooking the Berbere is like red gold. Here is the recipe for the impostor just so you can see what it would be similar too.

Berbere is a hot pepper seasoning essential for most Ethiopian dishes.
You can buy it at some African and Middle Eastern Stores

2 tsp cumin seeds
4 whole cloves
6 cardamon pods
1/2 tsp. whole black pepper
1/4 tsp. whole allspice
1 tsp. whole fenugreek seeds
1/2 cup dried shallots
3 oz. long red dried chilies
3-6 small, dried hot chili peppers
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. turmeric
2 tsp. salt

In a small frying pan, combine cumin seeds, cloves, cardammon pods, black
pepper, allspice and fenugreek. Cook for about 1 minute over medium heat,
until lighted toasted. Put mixture in a blender and add shallots. Grind
finely. Discard the stems and seeds from the chilies. Break up the pods
and process until ground. combine with the toasted mixture and the rest
of the spices.

Ethiopian Cooking class

2009-02-01T08:47:00.000-08:00

This week I have the luxury of attending an Ethiopian cooking calls. The class will have several other parents from the West Michigan area of Ethiopian children. The instructor owns an Ethiopian restaurant called GoJos. The owner and his staff has offered to host the class for us. We are going to learn how to make Tibbs Wat and Dora Wat. He will demonstrate how to make mesir. He will also bring injera and tea so we can sample our cooking as we go. We will also be able to take home injera, Tibbs and Dora Wat for our family to sample.Well at first these foods sounded like gibersish, so I had to look them up to know exactly what they are.

Ethiopian cuisine (Ethiopian Food) characteristically consists of spicy vegetable and meat dishes, usually in the form of wat, a thick stew, served atop injera, a large sourdough flatbread, which is about 50 centimeters (20 inches) in diameter and made out of fermented teff flour.

Ethiopians eat with their right hands, using pieces of injera to pick up bites of entrées and side dishes. No utensils are used.

Wat

A meal, consisting of injera and several kinds of wat (stew), is typical of Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine.Wat stews all begin with a large amount of chopped red onions, which the cook simmers in a pot.

Tibs

Alternatively, rather than being prepared as a stew, meat or vegetables may be sautéed to make tibs (also tebs, t’ibs, tibbs, etc., Ge’ez ṭibs). Tibs is served normal or special, “special tibs” is served on a hot dish with vegetables (salad) mixed in.

The mid-18th century European visitor to Ethiopia, Remedius Prutky, describes tibs as a portion of grilled meat served “to pay a particular compliment or show especial respect to someone.”

Injera

Injera (Ge'ez , pronounced [ɨndʒǝra], sometimes transliterated enjera) or taita is a pancake-like bread made out of teff flour.It is traditionally eaten in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia (where it is also called laxoox and canjeero), Yemen, Northern Kenya and by the Nuer people of Sudan.

In making injera, flour is mixed with water and allowed to ferment for several days, as with sourdough starter. Because of this process, injera has a slight sour taste. The injera is then ready to bake into large flat pancakes, done either on a specialized electric stove or more commonly, on a clay plate (mogogo) placed over a fire. In terms of shape, Injera compares to the French crepe and the South Indian dosa as a flatbread cooked in a circle and used as a base for other foods. The taste and texture however, are quite unique and unlike the crepe and dosa.

Doro Wat (dora wat)

Doro wat (Ethiopian chicken in red pepper paste) is perhaps the best known food from Ethiopia and is often referred to as the Ethiopian national dish. It has a deep, rich flavor and tender chicken pieces. Doro wat is traditionally very spicy, but you can adjust the amount of cayenne pepper to your liking.

Mesir

Mesir, or lentil, (Ethiopian red lentil puree) wat is one of several types of bean or lentil stews that are served with Ethiopian meals. They are especially popular during fasting days and the meatless period of Lent.

Waiting Families meeting

2009-01-22T10:49:00.000-08:00

Our agency recently hosted a meeting for all the waiting families to hear stories from those families just back with their new ones. This was a lot more helpful than the meeting about raising fees and additional supplemental fees! The family that just got back from Ethiopia was a familiar face and I got to ask lots of questions.

One of the most interesting topics was that of the airlines. It looks as if it will be best for us to take a direct flight into the US from Ethiopia. Our plan would need to land and fuel in Italy, but that does count a layover as we probably will not get off the plane. The benifit of this is that your just avoiding the need for a transit visa from what ever country you stop at. This can be confusing because technically the new little one is still considered an Ethiopian Citizen until they reach US soil.

Another great tips covered what to bring, how much to bring, Airline regulations on size and weight and much more. I thought the whole thing was well done and helpful!

Touched

2009-01-10T09:42:00.000-08:00

Mr R and I are very grateful for the recent invite from a local couple who recently adopted a baby girl. The invite was not totally out of the blue as we had a common friend (AJ from up north). He introduced us by sharing our numbers and email and strongly encouraged us to call each other. I have to admit that we were a little nervous going to the door of perfect strangers home sight unseen. But as soon as we met them it was like we had known them all along.

The night was fantastic. We got to meet their children (one bio daughter and one Ethiopian daughter). We shared dessert and got to here all their stories from their journey to Ethiopia. They gave us tips and tricks for our travels. We wished we had more time to look at the photos and hear more, but the night was over too quickly.

Little V was so cute when she met their little daughter. I wondered how she would react with the differences in their looks. It was very humorous when she crawled over to the little girl and patted the top her head. I am sure she could not resist the spongy looking ringlets and how they might feel. After she gave a few quick pats, she smiled and was off to investigate all the new toys.

I guess in a way we were all really touched!

Keeping track in 2009

2009-01-07T16:01:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be fun to keep track of all the proud parent in 2009. How many referals of boys and girls. Here is the list so far. Last updated on 1-7-2009. Please know that this is NOT the list of my agency, but only the referrals of people I have met through my blog and yahoo groups. It is still fun to see so many children getting good homes!

Killin time- 4 month girl 1/5/2009
Kitta22 - 3month old girl 1/7/2009

Missed Out!!!

2009-01-04T12:52:00.000-08:00

I completely missed out on the homecoming of new Ethiopian babies to West Michigan. They arrived at the GGR airport on Friday night. Super duper bummed out is the mild form of my dissapointment! There was a big group to welcome them all home. I really wanted to make it, but Mr R was on trip and I could not find anyone who would help me with a drop off (since I would have little sweet V along). You can check out photos on the blogs and read more at http://www.siftingthroughthegrey.blogspot.com

Hopefully the load of supplies we sent to Ethiopia were helpful to the orphange.

Ethiopia Baby?

2008-12-30T20:42:00.000-08:00

Could it be that an Ethiopia Baby graces cover of Adoptive Families magazine? It sure is! Does this baby's face looks familiar? Well it is Kia a West Michigan baby! She was the one we were voting for. I am not sure if she won the contest, but to me getting the cover shot is even better. Now if worlds are not small enough, but little things happen daily that are just meant to be. Our neighbor AJ was really excited about our adoption and said that he knew a great young family that adopted from Ethiopia that he would like us to meet. Just by chance it ended up being Kia's parents. What an absolutly small world.

VOTE...this time with less media coverage

2008-12-21T13:51:00.000-08:00

One of the talented photographers in our group got the great news that her daughter is in a photo contest for Adoptive families magazine. I would love it if you guys would check it out and vote for your favorite (hopefully Kia!!)
http://adoptivefamilies.mycapture.com/mycapture/photos/Album.aspx?EventID=615189&CategoryID=43839

Holiday Blessing Everywhere!

2008-12-21T13:27:00.000-08:00

After the great lunch at the Olive garden there has been good luck all around me. The two girls on my left both got referrals!

Julie received a referral call from Chandra telling her that it was the big day that she would be the mother of an approximately 8 - 10 weeks old baby boy (and he is very tiny). He is at Enat Alem orphange. Check out her full story at http://leapafaith.blogspot.com/

Then Rebecca posted the news of a beautiful 7 month old boy. She told me that she really wanted a boy and that is so great! Another awsome thing is that she only waited two months! Rebecca and were almost exactly on the same paperwork schedule and have our dossiers arrive in Ethiopia almost the same time. Obviously we will be waiting much longer because we are waiting for a girl born after 10/08.

Then we got word that Rob and Mary's court date has gone through. They will be traveling to pick up there beautiful daughter Lucia Mihret, 19 months old over Christmas. And she IS beautiful, I saw the photos. We are wishing them a trip of a lifetime, comfort for thier child staying behind and Gods pertection on their little Lucia until they get her safely home in the care of her doctor. Hopefully I can get Mary some supplies for the orphange before she leaves!

I joked around with the girls in my adoption group that the key is to sit by me at parties because I am lucky : ) I wish this was true, but we also got a lot of other good news from parents excepting refferals, at least three families traveling, and many more making good progress!

Fun and fabulous females!

2008-11-30T20:10:00.000-08:00

Tonight I had the privilege to meet about 20 women who are also in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. They were the nicest group of gals that anyone could meet. They were so open and self expressed about their experiences, no matter where they were in the process. Some were home with their adopted kids, others going through the court process and lastly some waiting just like us. I had the opportunity to see photos of thier beautiful childern (both bio and from Ethiopia) and hear tips from those who made the journey. My favorite was the one to bring several sets of clothes in your carry on just to stay dry after your new sweetie experiences air travel for the first time. You get the point!

The passion for orphans of Ethiopia were truely present and the strong commitment to preserving and promoting the Ethiopian heritage was evident. I could only hope to be among such an outstanding group of women. Hopefully we will stay in contact often and support each other. I hope to post links to some of their blogs soon.

Our adoption steps

2008-11-25T10:05:00.000-08:00

We got an email from Kim saying "Alemu did receive your dossier in good condition". I know this because I had tracked the UPS to Africa and seen that it arrived safely in Ethiopia on 11/21/08.

Our next step is to wait....
Honestly I am not even in a "hurry" for a referral. We are hopeful for one, but not pushing for it to happen unnaturally. If we have to wait a while and smother Liviann with 100% love and all our parenting efforts, I can’t think of a single problem with that. Plus we have to still have to write checks for the second half of the moo-la. We are both ok with Gods timing. I find the whole process very interesting so I outlined it for fun for you. Here are the next steps in order...

Our dossier arrives in Africa & gets Translated by a service (in progress).
Translated Dossier goes to Mowa for a pre-approval (Mowa is the Ethiopian government ministry in charge of women and children’s affairs)
Then We Wait.......
When a Child is found, they go to an orphanage. This can be very traumatic because the child could be found by a deceased parent or worse.
Orphanage determines Child is declared a true orphan. They declare them a true orphan and write a report on the child. (not some orphanages are not Ethiopian Gov run - maybe Christian churches or Us aid sponsored. These do not have authority transfer legal rights to an American parent.)
Orphanage transfers child to an orphanage that has authority to adopt out children. Traumatic again. I am told there are only 3 homes that can adopt out by Ethiopian law so they get carted to one of these “gates” to be adopted out.
AAI -Adoption consultant in Ethiopia calls home branch in Jenison to let them know about an available child.
AAI hires doctor to do a full physical and create a medical report on the child(s).
AAI matches child(s) with appropriate US parents based on medical report, orphanage report and a whole list of criteria. If all things are equal it is up to where you fall on the wait list.
AAI sends information to potential Adoptive parent(s). They call this offer a referral. Parents look at photos and documents to decide if they want the child.
Parents say “Yes” and except the referral. This is a big deal day.
Parents Pay country fees.
The case goes back to Mowa to approval and write a Mowa recommendation for court that says they approve a particular child to be adopted by a particular couple. This is an intense report that needs to go to court.
First court date is set to legally transfer the child to the new parents custody and sir name. The courts are only open certain times of the year, they are closed during the rainy season too. Many people get a referral, but have to wait for the courts to “open” to get a court date.
Adoptive parents give power of attorney to a liaison to represent them in court otherwise they would have to appear personally in court.
All parties travel to court. All parties that MUST appear in court for the case to happen. This means that the Judge, Mowa, an orphanage representative, a living relative of child or last care giver, and the adoptive parents representative). All parties must be present for the court or it gets canceled. Now remember we are in remote Africa. This doesn’t always happen the first time, or second or third.
The Court rules that the adoption is valid. This means every piece of paperwork is 100% correct and the judge is feeling good. Sometimes court approvals are delayed because one line on one piece of paperwork is wrong or maybe the judge just does not want to approve it. This often happens. If they rule in favor, the child is now legally yours
They will obtain the final adoption decree, approval from MOWA, new birth certificate, child's Ethiopian passport, get another HIV test for the US Embassy, then submit the documents into the Embassy at least a week before we intend to have your Embassy appt.
The Parents (us) travel to Ethiopia.
The parents stay in home and then travel to meet the child(s) in Ethiopia (sometimes this can take days If child is located in south). Parents meet caregivers in orphanage and learn as much as they can about child(s).
You travel to meet living parent (may be very ill), extended family still alive, or people who found child. This can be difficult as the conditions are very poor and people can be very ill.
Parents bring child to second court hearing at Eithipian/Us Embassy to complete process. Parents apply for a travel visa for the child and wait for this to arrive normally the next day.
Family flies to US with the child(s)
Child is seen by a doctor in the us -US medical clearance happens
Family arrives home. Now the real journey begins

Fast - Are documents are in Ethiopia!

2008-11-21T08:54:00.000-08:00

Wow- the last few weeks have gone by so fast!
Here is what we did in just a few weeks

We finished our adoption training
We received our I171-H approval - This is the final document that you need to complete a dossier.
All our paper work was notarized
We sealed our documents at the office of the great seal in Michigan. This was to say that the notary was authentice
We sent them to the Assistant Stork. This is courier service near the US Capital that helps get US and Ethiopian authentication.
The US department of State in Washington DC authenticated and bundled our documents. They basically did this to prove the great seal was real.
The Ethiopian Embassy in Washington DC then authenticated that the US department of State was real and true
Then the paperwork went to our agency who then put the papers in a special folder in special order.
Our paperwork then traveled to Germany and then on to Ethiopia. I tracked the progress of the package online! It made it : )
Lastly our paperwork now is being translated. Amharic is the national language of Ethiopia.

I then called my coordinator at the Agency and said that we added another stipulation to our adoption. I told her that our new child must we weigh as much or more than the paperwork we sent! She thought that was pretty funny too. That would make the child nearly 5 pounds. I think I spent almost 100.00 just to ship the documents to the Assistant Stork and back. We spent nearly 5,000.00 in paperwork and fees last week. This is just a fraction of our overall expenses. Not only can we say that our bio daughter is older, we can also say she was cheaper!

About Ethiopia

2008-11-09T12:11:00.000-08:00

Ethiopia is located in East Africa just north of Kenya and west of Somalia and only a few hundred miles north of the equator. Interestingly, it is the only African country never colonized by Europe (with the exception of an Italian occupation in the 1930s). It is slightly less than twice the size of Texas.

Roughly 75 million people live in Ethiopia, and thus there is much diversity in food, languages, people groups, and customs. The landscape is breathtaking, from mountainous areas to parts of the Great Rift Valley and Nile River.

Ethiopia is traditionally a Christian nation and one of the oldest on the planet. About half of the population today is Muslim, 40 percent Christian, and 10 percent animistic. Ethiopia traces its history and ruling lineage back to King Solomon and the Ethiopian Queen of Sheba. It is believed that the Queen of Sheba went to visit King Solomon and had a child with him. That son became the next Ethiopian king, so every Ethiopian monarch since then can trace their lineage to the throne of David.

During the 1980s, Ethiopia was stricken with crises of war and famine, leading to the still-lingering image the starving children of Ethiopia. Today, Ethiopia faces an orphan crisis, millions of children have no family, primarily due to poverty and AIDS. Many orphans live on the streets, while others live in public and private orphanages.

From those who have visited, they say it is really a beautiful place and above all, a country filled with beautiful people. We look forward to soon visit Ethiopia and hope to learn all we can to to promot the proud history of Ethiopian culture in our family.

Golden Ticket

2008-11-09T09:10:00.000-08:00

The golden ticket just arrived Saturday... Our I-171H . The approval from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for our adoption. The approval is a form, the I-171H. I had imagined that it would be a very official document, possibly with a watermark and a seal or something along those lines. It is just a piece of paper with a check-mark next to our approval and the expiration dates for our fingerprints and paperwork. It took us several internet searches and reading the form a few times to actually realize it was the real thing. The only place on the form that actually says I-171H is in small text in the very bottom left hand corner. Then it sunk in... This is really the form! Can you hear the whooo-ha's and hiphip horay's? Now I really have to think some higher power is working magic here. This form normally takes months to get and we just got ours in a few short weeks. This through us totally in a tail spin. I thought we had weeks to complete our paperwork for our dossier. Now this week we need to go into high gear to get all the final pieces completed.

The arrival of the form also creates some butterflies. Similar to the butterflies we felt prior to our first child. Wow we could soon be with another family member. Is our little baby going to like her new parents? Are we going to be able to juggle it all? What unknowns are there? How will flying and living our daughter behind be? Oh and then there is the money? Oh and the list goes on and on.

So it is here. Now we just have hope that we get our daughter home before it expires. We know of several people who have had to redo this 2 or 3 times. There is actual a campain going on right now to create reform around this short expiration. The current the fingerprinting only lasts 15 months and the form 18 months. As if our finger prints are going to suddenly change at month 16 - hahaha. I am pretty sure they will be good for a lifetime ; ). If you feel inspired to help change this, check out this website:
http://forums.adoption.com/activism-legislation/251426-i-171h-campaign-everyone-please-help.html

At a minimum, please be help us in giving thanks that the approvals has been so smooth thus far. And special thanks to everyone who is tracking our journey.

Born on Date

2008-10-23T07:49:00.000-07:00

The agency that we signed on with has strict policies on birth order. We believe in these policies too. This is why we agreed to adopt nine months younger than our youngest child. The magic date is Oct 23, 2008. That happened this week.

So this means that our new daughter could have actually been born this week. Or at least she is probably in in the tummy of her birth mother. We have begun to pray for her safety and health. This little life is already alive and connecting with her surroundings!

Foot in the mouth or finger in the ink?

2008-10-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

Wow, I just posted how long we would probably be waiting for our finger print appointment and the very next day we got our appointment notices. So tomorrow we are off to dip our fingers in the ink or would that be scan these days? We have been instructed to lotion up to help the prints. Did you ever wonder what the major parts of a print are? check out this image.

My agency says that submission of documents to USCIS to receipt of I-171H--that varies, but is generally between 2 - 3 months (has been known to go a bit beyond 3 months at times). So we can plan to still wait a little longer for our approval. Next step is to get that dossier finished!

Could it be true...didn't think so

2008-10-16T17:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we received a letter from the Department of homeland security. Could it possibly be our fingerprint date? Would we set the record for fast turn around? That would be an amazing 3 week turn!

Nope

It was just a letter saying they would get to our application in the next three months and not to inquire on the status until that time had passed. These things always make me laugh. They have time to write the letter, but not process the form. We are still going to hope for better turn time than they are currently experiencing.

The big decision

2008-10-04T19:48:00.000-07:00

Rich and I have always been passionate about helping children in poverty stricken areas. Prior to our daughter entering our lives, I have been able to volunteer abroad. I have witnessed first hand terrible living conditions and many orphans out there not getting loved. Now that I know what a strong love between a child and parents is like, it broke my heart even more imaging all the orphans in this world living their lives with out being loved by a parent. The fact that some Americans spend more money on a ring-tone for our phone than a child dying of starvation is allotted to save his life, just about makes me ill. Being angry about this still does nothing. We have made a decision to act on the orphan issues in a small way.

The issue is so big and we can't save the entire world, but we are going to try to save just one child. One rain drop in the flood. We feel called by God to do this regardless of general opinion. We have begun working on all the piles of paperwork to make the whole process legal and allow a child who’s current longevity is uncertain to become part of our family. We have no idea how we will pull it off logistically, but trust God that these things will work themselves out if it is meant to be. I know that it is hard to believe the success or failure is out of my control...not normally my comfort zone!

We want to adopt from a place where the need is among the greatest. The UN is saying by next year AIDS, drought, and extreme poverty will sky rocket the orphan crisis to 44 million orphans in Africa. So Africa is where we will be working with an orphanage bring home a child to the US. The process takes a long time.

Last month we had to attend a risk meeting and have a summery document notarized. The documents we had to sign said that the likely hood of the child dying of malnutrition between the time we adopt and the time we pick them up is more than just possible. We know of more than one family who had this happen just this summer. It is sad, but it is not the reason for Rich and I to give up. We figure that even in a short time and a photo on the fridge, a child will be loved and prayed for by many and we would have supported them and made their last days more pleasant if they were to pass.

Here are the top ten things we do know:

The child will be from Ethiopia, Africa.
They will be at least 9 months younger than Liviann to retain the birth order of our family.
We will be adopting one little girl (or possibly twins or young siblings).
We will be worn out with an enormous amount of paperwork to be completed and frustrated with the ridiculous things we have to do.
The child will have been abandoned due to aids, parental death or poverty (or a combination).
We will not actually be matched until all the paperwork is complete and our dossier approved in Ethiopia. This way there will not be a child waiting on red tape.
Constantly going crazy waiting (possibly a year or two).
We will spend most of our cash reserves (and then some) through the process.
We will travel to pick them up.
We will be obnoxiously in love with our new child!

Our wish would be that the process will be expeditious and their will be a higher power looking over the child until they arrive safely home to us.