A Family of Four

Since arriving home, we have slowly been unpacking and enjoying our newest family member immensely. Much of our family has been over to spend some time getting to know Taye. This has been so much fun. Taye is doing remarkably well in his first weeks with us and since arriving to Michigan. I can only imagine what must have been going through his little mind, as we take him on this long airplane trip to come home to this house where this little kid who looks like him only bigger and faster is running a terror. Yes, Mikias acknowledges that he has a little brother and can be very sweet with him. However, at points, it appears to be in the form of running a matchbox car across his body.

While Mikias views Taye as a mountainous terrain for his trucks, we are viewing Taye as already climbing mountains. When we first met him, we noticed right away that his development appeared to be a little "behind". Clearly, he had little strength in his lower body and his head often would flip backward to investigate the ceiling. He did have the ability to roll over right away and would pop his head right up. In a very short time, he is already holding his head a bit firmer and seems to understand how to place a little support on his legs. We have created a plan for his eating as well. After talking with our pediatrician, we feel confident that Taye will continue to grow and develop into his own version of that toddler running around our living room.

At some point, we would live to revisit a few photos and stories from our trip abroad, but in the meantime are settling into being a family of four.

Here are few pictures from Taye's time with us so far...

What is snow?

Silly faces with cousins...


While Mom and Dad took my new brother to the doctor, Uncle Steve let me eat snow!

I love my cereal!

More cousins...

Happy Easter!

Great-Grandpa

A few months ago, when it came time for Joanna and I to choose a date in September to be Sintayehu's birthday, we chose the 17th. The number 17 was significant to us because Joanna's grandma died on this past July 17th (it was also her birthday).

Before leaving for Ethiopia a couple weeks ago, Joanna's grandpa became increasingly ill. As we arrived at the airport in Detroit this past Saturday, we learned from our family that grandpa had passed away just moments before. Maybe he was waiting for us to be safely home before passing.

We hope that Taye will have a special connection to these fantastic great-grandparents that he never met. And we know that grandma and grandpa love our new little boy and our entire family very much. We'll miss you grandpa.


Grandpa and Mikias - July 2008

We're home

We arrived home safely yesterday afternoon. What a whirlwind of activity starting with our Friday in Ethiopia...

Friday morning we all (with the exception of the boys and Mom Karwan) went to the Merkato to do some shopping, but mostly just to experience the atmosphere of the largest market in Africa. Joanna and I had spent quite a long time here with Alemu in '07, and we were anxious to show our parents what it was all about. This time we had two guards escort us through the market because of safety concerns...makes you wonder how unsafe we were in '07...oh well. Overall it was a good trip. We only stopped at one vendor to purchase baskets, but we took advantage of it.



Following lunch we had to concentrate on packing our things. We had stuff strewn all over our room and needed to get it all under control. In the afternoon, we had a traditional coffee ceremony at the lodge that Alemu had arranged. Luckily, he brought along Gizesh who we had met in '07. She was able to see Mikias and we were able to visit a little bit despite the language barrier. We also were able to see Getachew, the man who does much of the court and embassy work on behalf of AAI in Ethiopia. We got to know him quite well in '07 and we were glad that we had a few minutes to catch up. Again, it was great that we were able to make these connections with people we had met before. It makes us feel more connected with Ethiopia that we have people there that remember us and whom we consider friends.



After dinner, the entire group loaded up and made our way to the airport. I'm sure we were quite a sight with all of our luggage and kids navigating our way through the ticket counters and baggage screenings. Our flight was delayed leaving Addis, so we had a little more time than we would have liked sitting in the airport. We finally took off around 11:30pm to begin the long, long trip home. The plane ride was brutal and seemed to take much longer than our trip there. There wasn't a great opportunity to get any significant amount of sleep since we were now dealing with both Mikias and Taye. Taye started eating much more than we planned for and we got worried that we'd run out of formula before we got home. It turned out all right. He was also agitated and had some trouble sleeping. There was a certain spot on the airplane by the doors where he would fall asleep. So, Joanna and I spent a long time standing up there with him trying to get him to sleep. After 17 hours in the air we finally arrived in DC completely exhausted. But the fun had just begun.

Since we were late arriving, we had even less time to go through customs, collect our baggage, go through immigration, re-check our bags, get our boarding passes, go through security, and get to our gate. The baggage took forever. I think they must have had one guy unloading the whole plane because it was so slow. By the time we hit immigration, we were getting a little worried that we wouldn't make it. We tried to send Mikias with our parents ahead to get through the gates but that didn't work since he wasn't on their itinerary. So that left Joanna and I with the two boys and a ton of luggage. By the time we hit security we were literally running through the airport. But, we made it!!

We arrived in Detroit on time and were greeted by many family and friends. How good it felt to be home after that travel experience. There were several families at the airport that we've gotten to know through the Ethiopian adoption process. It was great to see all the Ethiopian kids there to greet their newest friend.





Check out this video of our arrival at the airport. At the beginning, you'll see some of the other families that we traveled with arriving too. Thanks so much to the Kubiks for putting this together so quickly!



Last night, Joanna's sister, Caroline, helped us out a ton. She stayed with us and helped with the boys through the night and did a zillion loads of laundry. It helped tremendously to have her here. Thanks Caroline! Other than that, since we've been home we've just been trying to settle into a routine with sleeping, eating, etc. I'm sure it will take a while to get readjusted.

Embassy Day

Last night, Sintayehu was very, very easy. He slept great. We fed him before we went to bed and then only once in the middle of the night. I woke up at 7:30 and looked over to his crib to find him just lying there contently. I told him that he could make some noise to let us know he's awake. Actually, we were a little concerned that we hadn't heard him cry yet, but he has cried a few times today so we're feeling better. Sintayehu has been a pretty easy baby so far. We're making an effort to get him in a sitting position to build some strength he's lacking, but overall he's good. He's been eating like crazy and has easily finished off 8oz bottles every time we feed him. We've also given him cereal a couple times.
 
Today was much more laid back than yesterday, but we were still able to fit a good amount of activites in. This morning we gave Sintayehu his first bath in our sink here. He didn't mind it too much, but it wasn't the easiest process even with the additional hands we had to help out. Following the bath, Joanna, Mom Karwan, & Dad McKinney went to do some additional shopping near the same location we shopped a few days ago. Joanna was able to pick up quite a lot of great items that we'll be stuffing in to our suitcases. Meanwhile, Mom McKinney, Dad Karwan, and I spent the morning running a daycare out of our room here at the Sadula Lodge. Actually, two of the three children here were mine, but we also took care of Jim and Dawn's new son as they went out to grab some last minute souvenirs. Actually, everything went really well. Joanna returned just in time to handle an extremely messy diaper…perfect timing!
 
After all the shoppers returned, we all gathered with our new children to make the trip to the US Embassy here in Addis to submit paperwork for the children's entrance visas. This was a pretty boring, long process. It was kind of like sitting in a Secretary of State's office for two hours…not a lot to do. There were many, many families with adopted children at the embassy and they were all there for the same purpose. Finally, after two hours our name was called and we were able to pass through the interview quickly. This was the last step in getting the adoption finalized so that Sintayehu can enter the US on Saturday when we land in DC. Tomorrrow, Alemu will go and pick up Sintayehu's packet and passport from the embassy and we should be good to go.
 
This evening, our friend Hiwot stopped by the lodge to pay us a visit. Hiwot was the cook that worked at Alemu's house when we were here in '07. Joanna has stayed in contact with her and she agreed to visit us. So, we had a nice conversation with her and her aunt in the dark (the power was temporarily out). We're hoping to make a few more connections like this tomorrow before we leave. Hopefully, we can swing it.
 
Tomorrow should be a good last day in Ethiopia. In the morning some of us will head to the Mercato to do some shopping/sightseeing. Also, there is a traditional coffee ceremony planned for us in the afternoon. Other than that, we'll be busy packing and prepping for the long flight home. It's hard to believe that we've been here nearly a week.
 
One last thing…Joanna and I will be spelling Sintayehu's new first name Taye. The pronunciation will still be "taa-yeh" or "tie-yeh" but the spelling is different than I originally posted. The spelling without the h seems to be the Ethiopian way, so that's how we're doing it. We're a little concerned that in the US it will be pronounced "tay", but we'll deal with it as it comes. Of course we don't have to do any official name change until after we're in the US…so we could change our minds and go with something like George…but he really doesn't look like a George to us.

What a Day

Today has definitely been one of the most full, emotional days we've ever had. What an experience it was. The day began with Alemu picking us up around 8am for our trip to Debre Zeit. An hour later, we arrived at the orphanage for a meeting with Mikias' birthmother. Right when she saw us she showered us with hugs and kisses and was genuinely happy to see all of us…especially Mikias. We spent quite a while at the orphanage talking, playing, and looking at a picture album we gave. We were able to take tons of pictures and video of the meeting that will definitely be valuable in the years to come. Then we learned that all of us were going to get a drink at a local café/juice bar so we all piled in the car together. It was a surreal experience looking in the back seat and seeing Joanna, Mikias, and his birthmother sitting side by side. At the café, there was a small playground that Mikias loved. We all played for a while, had some mango juice, and were able to have a few more small conversations. We dropped Mikias' birthmother off on our way back to Addis and part 1 of our day was complete. We are so thankful to have had this experience and consider ourselves very lucky to be able to share this with Mikias someday. This 1.5 hours this morning made it worth bringing Mikias all the way back to Ethiopia. We're so glad that all the details worked out.
 
After arriving back in Addis and decompressing a bit from the full morning, our group met at 2pm in front of the hotel to get our rides to the orphanage. It was obvious that everyone was a bit nervous and tense as we loaded into the cars. This was entirely different experience than before since there were seven other families with us and we weren't alone. It was actually very comforting (and exciting) to be able to share this experience with all of these other people. We arrived at Enat Alem orphanage and we were all waiting in the courtyard taking pictures and prepping ourselves. We were then told that we could come in to the room and get our children. So we all headed in scanning all the cribs looking for our children. I was worried we wouldn't be able to spot Sintayehu from the pictures we had seen, but when we found him sound asleep in the third crib we looked in, there was no doubt it was him. We hesitated a moment since he was sleeping, but after waiting about 5 seconds we scooped him up. What a cute little guy! It was so awesome because all around the room you could see other families finding their children and lifting them up. It was suddenly very noisy with all the talking and laughing and crying. Everyone was taking pictures of everyone else and we were all so happy for one another. Sintayehu didn't really fuss at all and we even got him to smile a few times within those first moments.
 
Afterwards we spent some time talking to the nurse and caretakers about Sintayehu's schedule. We then all gathered in the courtyard for a traditional coffee ceremony. Meanwhile, a lot of the other children in the orphanage came out and a lot of people in our group were playing with them. Sintayehu took this time to spit up on me a few times. It seemed like everytime I held him he spit up but Joanna always came away clean. Oh well, I certainly didn't mind. We also fed him his first bottle as we were waiting for the coffee to finish. The experience at the orphanage was simply amazing.
 
After a quick trip back to the hotel, we were reunited with Mikias and our parents on the front steps. The entire group waited for us so we could have our reunion with our family before they came in to the hotel. I can imagine that it was quite a sight with all of these families returning with new children at the same time. For the next few hours we all hung out in our room getting to know Sintayehu. Sintayehu kept surprising us. We had him on the floor playing and then he suddenly rolled over and stuck his head up and started grabbing for things. We really didn't know what to expect since we're not exactly sure what he can do yet…I'm sure we'll find out soon enough! Mikias has been pretty good around him so far. He hasn't gotten too close to him, but they've been playing near each other and I think that's a good thing. Joanna got Sintayehu to laugh out load and then stick out his tongue which we all thought was hilarious.
 
Tonight we had dinner with all of the other families here in the lodge. Sintayehu had a bottle while we were eating dinner and has now been sleeping for 4 hours. That's pretty good. I'm sure he'll wake up starving soon. We finalized the paperwork we need for Sintayehu's embassy appointment tomorrow afternoon. That should go pretty smoothly. Other than that, we're just basking in the excitement of the day. I don't think we'll ever have many days better than this.

Introducing Tayeh

We wanted to post a quick picture for those back home.  What an unbelievable day!!  We'll post later and hope to include some more pics.

Trip North Day 3 and 4

Yesterday morning, after breakfast, the group (including Mikias) left the lodge for an overnight trip to the North. Fortunately, Benjamin, Mikias and I were able to drive with Alemu in his car. This was much easier for us as the rest of the group were in mini-buses. There are no car seats, so Mikias just sat on the backseat of the car and relied on the outside "animals" to try and keep him in his seat. Although not always successful, the majority of this ride went smooth. The highlight of these drives were related to the various villages we would happen upon where again we could pay witness to the day to day lives of Ethiopians. Today was a major contrast than what goes on in the city. The agrarian lifestyle is prominent. The houses are traditional. We saw many people walking to get water, attending school, plowing their fields, sifting the teff (grain used for making injera) or simply just sitting around.

After traveling about 100 km to the north, we stopped at the hotel we would be staying at to eat lunch. The rooms were small, didn't have electricity until after 9pm and the meat had to be brought in from Addis, as a butcher was not available during the fasting portion of Lent. Nonetheless, it was place to stay and we are in Ethiopia! I thought it was pretty amazing this place existed after a few of the villages we drove through.

The beginning of outing began with a trip to a monastery. Now, we did this 2 years ago but we had a completely different experience this time. First of all, as we were pulling on to the dirt road that leads to our destination, we stopped to watch the baboons. Mikias found the "monkeys" entertaining. I found my Dad entertaining as he decided to follow them, with my Mom quickly calling "Tim!" The other reason for this stop, was a very scenic panoramic gorge. Our group tends to draw a pretty big crowd, as we are 21 deep with 17 of us being white. Beggars tend to gravitate towards us and this stop was no exception.

Anyhow, upon entering the monastery area, we learned that the road leading up to it was being worked on. Therefore we had to walk from that point on. This walk turned out to be a pivotal part of our day. First of all, the village leading up to this area is extremely poor and there are people everywhere. We certainly stood out. More than that, Benjamin and Mikias stood out the most. Mikias was strapped to Benjamin's back in a hiking pack. Now, I am not sure what the exact stares and laughs were about, but I am sure we will continue to think about this. Was it this crazy contraption on his back…whereas local women just use cloth? Was it the fact that a male was carrying a child? Or, was it because Mikias is Ethiopian? Nonetheless, it was pretty obvious that we attracted much attention.

Upon entering the monastery, the most beautiful thing happened. As our group was walking towards the entrance, the service was letting out and a sea of "white" exploded upon us. There had to be at least 100 people coming out, dressed in traditional garb. It painted quite a picture. I know many of the group was awestruck and felt very privileged to see something so powerful.

Anyhow, after the brief tour inside, one very interesting story to share at some point, the same walk back to our cars and then a quick drink inside a local house, we were back in our vehicles to stop for juice and back to the hotel for dinner. At this point, Mikias was very tired and we turned in early for a good night sleep. How do I know this? Well, the light when ON at 9pm and we were in bed.

Today began early with about another 100km drive to the Blue Nile Gorge. This was absolutely amazing and was the highlight of our day. Some of our group who had been to the Grand Canyon, said this was much bigger. It was pretty cool. We drove as far north as the Blue Nile Bridge, which had been completed recently. Then, we did a 180 and headed back the other direction for Addis Ababa. However, along the way we stopped to plow a field with cows (seriously, good story to insert here…), had a drink in a traditional farmer's house and stopped in an orphanage. Pretty full, yet another wonderful day.

However, I heard Benjamin ask Mikias if he knew what tomorrow was. Mikias answered "tumblebus"! While his answer is correct as the tumblebus does in fact come to daycare on Wednesdays, I don't think even the tumblebus in his world can compare to what our day will look like in our world tomorrow. Perhaps, this is why I am still awake typing this at close to 2 in the morning…

In the morning, we are going to Debre Zeit, to see Mikias' village and more importantly, visit with his birthmother. We met her 2 years ago and are very excited to see her again. We made a photo album for her of Mikias' 2 years with us. However, even greater than that, we were informed today that Mikias is able to travel with us and in fact will be able to see her. I am so excited for him, for her…for us. While we recognize that this will be difficult and emotional, we are so thankful and excited for what this will mean to him as he grows up.

AND….as if all this is not enough……the biggest excitement is at 2pm (that is 6am US time - and only 12 short hours away) tomorrow we meet Sintayehu! I can't believe that this day has finally arrived. Tonight is the last night for Mikias to be an only child and the last night that our new sweet son will be sleeping in an orphanage! We hope to be able to post some pictures tomorrow, so everyone can get a look at the newest McKinney! Isn't life great?

Cathedrals, Museum, Shopping and Dancing

Our day started at 2:30am when all 3 of us were up and were apparently very hungry…so we had a family snack.  :)  As it turns out, many of the group was up at the same hour. Evidently, our internal clock is in process of being reset. We were able to go back to sleep until 8am, though.
 
We had a full day of bumming around the city. This morning Mom K, Dad K, Ben and I went with the group to visit 2 cathedrals and a museum. On our trip 2 years ago, we saw the museum, but this guide was really informative. So, most of today's activities were new for us as well. It was neat being with my parents as they were able to learn some history of Ethiopia. At one point, a deacon began to sing and move using this very large drum. It brought tears to my eyes as he spoke so passionately about his country and relayed heavily the message of "when we bring our children back to visit their home country, it is important to expose them to…" and he would cite a variety of things. It reinforced some deeply held beliefs that we already have about our sons and their country.
 
After, we went to lunch where I was able to eat my first authentic Ethiopian meal. The injera was delicious and it made me quite excited to recognize a number of dishes on the menu. Soon after lunch, we had a shift change in which Mom and Dad K went back to the Lodge so that Mom and Dad M could spend some time out in the city. Mikias had a full day of grandparents!
 
The afternoon's activities included some shopping. Caroline, you will be happy to know that your girls now have Ethiopian outfits as requested. It was quite fun seeing all the little African things to buy. We were able to purchase Sintayehu's baptism outfit and have started the collection of small 18 gifts for his first 18 years of Gotcha days. We are finding this a bit challenging as we are trying not to duplicate the things we bought for Mikias. Mom and Dad M. seemed to enjoy this time out and certainly liked the shopping as Scott noted, he hadn't taken very many pictures.
 
The fun part about being out and about is that you get to pay witness to the every day life of Ethiopians. Most people have a notion in their mind of what this may consist of. I find it very intriguing to scan the streets and note the different roles. The shoe shiners, market workers, little kids selling gum or tissue, beggars, women selling vegetables, businessmen, donkeys, stray dogs all seem to play a piece of the puzzle of this country. This is what is going on in their day to day as mine consists of going to work, feeling like I am contributing to something and being with my family. I would dare say we are doing the same things just in a different manner. (well, maybe not the donkeys!)
 
I have really enjoyed talking with my mom and dad since arriving. I know they have had some big moments of "wow", "oh my" and "holy crap". They are doing great for 2 people who have not been out of the country before. I am so proud of them. My mom has made a few comments that have given me chills.
 
Tonight, both sets of parents and Benjamin went to a traditional Ethiopian Dinner and Dancing. Benjamin said they had a great time eating, listening, watching and even Scott dancing. I am anxious to see the video. Mikias and I hung out tonight, watched a movie and laid in bed together. He is doing a great job so far even though he hasn't been able to be out in the city. (We will save that for another post…)
 
Tomorrow we are heading on an overnight visit to the North. I am very excited for this as Mikias is able to go and we are visiting the Blue Nile Gorge, which may parallel, in its own way, the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, we will not be able to post, as we will likely be unable to have access to the Internet. We will be sure to post again as soon as we can. In the meantime, to our families…moms and dads are doing well and we are soaking up every minute!
And…in case you may have forgot we only have 3 days until we meet Sintayehu!!

Ethiopia!

After a lo-o-o-ong flight sequence we finally landed in Addis Ababa this morning. Mikias was fantastic on the flights as we utilized several of the tricks up our sleeves. Papa McKinney and Gia Karwan being two of them. It was funny because at one point Mikias had decorated himself with sticky note tabs. Although challenging to travel with a toddler, we are so far still standing.
 
We also have had the chance to meet the other families who are here from our agency. Our common thread besides the obvious is that all of our children are in the same orphanage and we believe in the same room. This will make Wednesday very exciting for this crew.
Upon arrival, we played a huge game of find your suitcases! As previously mentioned, we brought loads of formula so we certainly looked quite the site as we tried to find and organize our baggage. Fortunately, after only 3-4 stops, we finally walked out the airport doors to a warm air that has not been felt since early fall. We loved the fact that we were in t-shirt weather. Mikias loved the fact that his t-shirt was speckled with lollipop pieces, as this is what occupied his time during the aforementioned chaos.
 
After Getachew, a driver, creatively stacked rows of suitcases 3 high on the top of a "trek type car", we caravaned to the Lodge for which we spent a large portion of the day. I did manage to sneak a peek of our parents eyes as we drove to the lodge all seated side by side (including Mikias). Ben and I did feel it was quite exciting to see the hustle and bustle of Addis Ababa with familiar eyes. It made me very happy to have Mikias right there. It is all so real now!
 
The rest of the day was spent feeling jet-lagged, as sleep did not happen for all very much on the plane. Ben and I were able to fight it all day and at the completion of this post, will be fast asleep. We hope Mikias follows suit. The adopting families did all go out to eat together, so this was a nice opportunity to feel connected to a group. Later, our parents and Mikias joined us for dinner where a plan was laid out for the week. Of all the exciting things to come and see….by far the topper is the excitement of meeting Sintayehu on Wednesday!

On Hold in the D

We woke up at 3am, got ourselves to the airport, and checked in.  We arrived at the gate about 45 minutes ago only to find out that our flight is delayed because of fog in DC and will (hopefully) now leave at 7:30.  This will really make things tight in DC.  We're praying that we're able to leave soon so we can catch our flight to Ethiopia.  Things will really get messed up if we don't get on that flight.

The time has come

Well, here we are at a hotel near the airport.  We take a 6am flight to DC and then off to Ethiopia from there.  We're actually getting very excited...now that all the packing and planning is done.  The past few days have been very, very busy getting last minute stuff done and trying to maximize absolutely every last pound of packing space.  We're happy to report that our group (us + our parents) will be delivering 6 very full suitcases of formula.  Also, we sent an additional suitcase with another family...that's a total of 350 lbs of formula!!!  Thank you to everyone.  We'll also be able to send formula with other families in the future with all the donations and money we have left over.
 
We're a little anxious for tomorrow's flights, mainly because we hope Mikias is able to survive the long flight without too many meltdowns.  That's what the granparents are for...keep that boy entertained!!
 
But, most of all, we're counting down the days (only 6!) until we meet our newest little boy.  That will definitely make the insanity of the last few days well worth it.
 
The next time we're able to write will likely be from Addis.  Signing off from USA, with anticipation of soon signing on in Ethiopia!

New pics!

We received a few new pictures of Sintayehu a couple days ago from our adoption agency.  These pictures make us even more anxious for our trip.  What a cute little guy!
 
We're doing a pretty good job of prepping for the big trip.  Of course, we still have a ton of things to do, but we're slowing crossing things off the list.

Happy 1/2 Birthday Little One

Our youngest son turns 6-months old today. Happy 1/2 Birthday Sintayehu! Mommy and I can't wait to meet you two weeks from today.

Tubes, Suitcases and Chaos

This morning Mikias had a successful surgery in which he had tubes put in his ears. He was a trooper and as it turned out the CRNA on duty was my former student's father. Even though I didn't know him well, there was some comfort with this. He commented something about the fact that we were able to effect each other's children. I am sure glad that his kids did well in my class :)

Anyhow, Mikias and I had a day together as a result. His medicinal routine is quite the sight right now as he is finishing up some antibiotics and eye drops from earlier last week coupled with new ear drops and a malaria script to fill. When it is "go time", he lays down on his bed with his lion (which he calls Bear - no idea why?) drinks his candy out of the dropper, lets us put eyes and ears drop in both his and Bear's eyes/ears and we are all good. Happy Monday! The highlight of his day was for sure yelling "Ice Cream Truck" as we were able to enjoy today's weather.

For those of you who know me well...I would like to think that I am natural, organic and green. However, this week I feel like we are a Rite-Aid pharmacy complete with Sponge Bob Square Pants processed nutrients. Ugh!

Anyhow, over the weekend, we had a meeting with our parents to discuss the upcoming trip. Benjamin had a fairly long "topics for discussion" list. Even though I had lost my voice by Friday night, I found myself getting very excited as we discussed the trip in greater detail. We also have moved further along on the gigantic list and was able to check off getting all the bottles ready, one suitcase loaded with exactly 48.5 lbs of formula and both the boys closets completely ready through summer. Small pause for a victory pat on the back and we are off to the races again...tomorrow.

Time keeps on ticking....

It appears as if our lives have taken on a countdown approach until our travel. As soon as we cross something off our list, 4 more things replace those we just felt momentarily accomplished by. Hence, the perpetual list-making has become a catch-all for all the incidentals and semantics that fly out of our mind at any given moment.

Ironically, the cadence we are experiencing is simply the rhythm of our lives. We have somehow always had these pockets during our married life where we experience a lot of activity and then moments of calm. This morning Mikias woke up with his eyes crusted shut. (How does this sentence appear in this paragraph, you ask?) Well, these crusted eyes turned into a dr. appt where we found out that he has a double eye infection coupled with a double ear infection. You would never know he had these ailments as he runs and screams around our living room. Anyhow, where this discussion leads is the realization that we now have to schedule another "ear tubes surgery" before we leave. Mind you, as the ticker on the side of our blog keeps subtracting by one each dawn, we wonder how in the world are we going to fit this in?

Mikias had tubes put in early 2008. He had had multiple ear infections leading up to the original decision. We were so relieved once the surgery was over and had multiple months with no infections. Since his tubes have fallen out (recently), this is his second go around. Of course, with a long flight, the consideration of tubes is much more urgent. We spent a portion of the day going back and forth...should we not take him with us?...can we squeeze this in?...are we bordering on insane? Ultimately we have an appt scheduled for Thursday with the ENT and then only time will tell.

So, as much as we are anxious about meeting Sintayehu, I have to be honest and say I am just as anxious about the preparation leading up to departure. We have had some small moments of reprieve as we have AAI people in ET now with formula in hand. Mikias is now in his new room and Sintayehu's room is more than starting to take shape. We have a travel meeting with our parents lined up. Our accommodations are set for ET. However, do you think we have a gallon of milk in our fridge? That would take serious coordination.

In any event, time keeps on ticking... and we keep grabbing every minute we can. I can say with most certainty that I can't wait until we grab those first minutes with our next little man!

Plans are set

Just a quick update on all the planning here. Last Thursday, we found out when our Embassy date with Sintayehu will be. It is set for April 2nd. As a result, we were able to (quickly) make our travel arrangements.

We did have some decisions to make about who exactly was traveling. We decided that we will be taking Mikias with us. Once we were able to talk to some people about the accommodations in Addis, we were much more comfortable with taking him. We didn't want him to go stir-crazy for the week we're there...hopefully that won't be the case. Of course, we do still have to survive a very long plane ride ride with Mikias. This is where the grandparents come in! We'll also be joined on our trip by both sets of our parents. We had the idea of them coming with us when we first started the 2nd adoption, so I'm glad that it is going to work out. We think it will be very important for our kids' grandparents to have seen and experienced their home country. This means that 7 of us will be traveling to Ethiopia...and 8 will be traveling back! How exciting!

So, our plans now have us leaving on March 27th and returning on April 4th. It's a little shorter than our trip to get Mikias, but I think it will work out nicely. We'll have 3-4 days in Ethiopia to sightsee, etc. before we get Sintayehu.

We can't begin to express how great it is to finally have a definite timeline laid out. Now we just have to get ready!

We passed court!

Joanna and I received word this afternoon that Sintayehu's case passed court today! We are so excited! This now means that the adoption is final in Ethiopia and he is officially our son. It's hard to believe we're now the parents of two little boys.

Here's pictures of the new little man that we can now post.

Referral picture from Dec 08

Updated picture from Jan 09

Mikias sporting his "big brother" shirt tonight

It sounds like we'll be travelling in about 4 weeks...we still have to work out all those details. For now, we're extremely grateful that everything fell into place. Thanks to everyone who has been thinking of / praying for us.

The turnaround

Well, just when we had already accepted the fact that court would be indefinitely delayed for us and all AAI families, it seems like some last minute happenings in Ethiopia will allow our case to go to court tomorrow!! We received an email today saying that the issue has been resolved and we will continue with our court date tomorrow as scheduled. Essentially there was a problem with our agency's license (this did affect a few agencies actually), but it's all good now. This problem had the potential of affecting a whole lot of families with court dates this week and in the near future and could have created a mess trying to reschedule everyone. We were thinking that we'd be delayed a couple months. We were actually told last week that it would take a miracle for us to keep our original court date.....I guess that's what we got!

Needless to say our heads are spinning a bit with all of these ups and downs. We're hoping tomorrow is another "up" and that court goes smoothly. If so, we'll officially be the parents of TWO!

A little guy and his friends

This past Friday afternoon we were scheduled to have a "phone meeting" with our consultants about our upcoming court date for Sintayehu. While the intention of the scheduled meeting was to discuss travel arrangements, the tone quickly changed after we were informed that there have been complications that may delay our court date. Unfortunately, the reality is that "may" seems like a far reaching comment. We are not expecting anything on Wednesday. We are so disappointed. We are not sure, at this point, when those complications will be remedied.

However, deeper than that disappointment is fear. We also learned that the formula situation in Ethiopia is becoming "precarious". It appears that the orphanage that Sintayehu is in doesn't have a surplus of formula. While formula being sent over has certainly been attempted, the most full proof way of having the formula arrive is with people handing it off directly. The adoption boards have come alive with plans, for which we are grateful. We hope to connect with a family who is traveling mid-March to be able to hand off the stockpile in our basement. Ironic that there is formula right under me and a child 7337 miles away who needs it. Scratch that....children 7337 miles who need it now!

Our Saturday consisted of us searching the Ethiopian Airlines website looking for flights to have ready should we get the go ahead to hop on a flight with formula in tow. Does it seem irrational that a parent wants his/her child to have food? To say that this is frustrating and sad is an understatement. I hate feeling helpless while we go about our daily happenings. I hate the fact that when Mikias didn't finish something at dinner, I noticed it more. More than anything, I hate the fact that this is our son we are talking about.

Today we received word that a doctor had visited our son. On January 6th, Sintayehu was 5.8kg. Today he is 6.0kg. We are thankful that there are hands to examine him. We were also told that our contact feels as if they have enough resources until our next group arrives. These are all good things....at least enough to stall us from purchasing tickets, for now.

The hardest part of our surreal experience is that hunger is the reality for many people on a daily basis. We only feel deeper now because we are talking about our family member. I wish I knew how to bottle these feelings up so I can remember them when our life returns to "so called" normal. The clarity that is present right now is certainly powerful.

When you have a moment....please send some thoughts across the ocean to a little guy and his friends who could use a little love.

His court date is a comin'

71 days ago we found out that we had a new family member on the way who was about 75 days old. 14 days from today we will have our first, and hopefully only, court date to find out if we are officially his parents. Afterwhich, we cross our fingers and let another 28-42 days pass until we tentatively arrive in Ethiopia, after 19 hours of flying, with 4 grandparents, 2 parents and 1 brother to Sintayehu. Then our new family of 4, will travel approximately 7337 miles from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to our front door. I am so excited! This is, of course, if evertyhing goes as planned...but who's counting? :)

Overdue Pictures

We've been meaning to post pictures of some of the happenings of the last month.

Up North over New Years


A typical 2-year old moment

Celebrating Ethiopian Christmas

Our budding musician

...warming up with the band

Hunger

I had forgotten how much waiting is part of the adoption process. With Mikias, we were so anxious and felt like we were waiting "all the time". When he was finally home, you erase all those frustrating feelings from your memory and dive in to bonding, adjusting...parenting. With Sintayehu, the wait has been longer and harder. Coupled with the fact, that you learn new things which gives you one more thing to worry about.

Recently, we discovered that Ethiopia has a shortage of formula. Yes, you read that right. A shortage of formula. It is often hard for me to wrap my head around the ideals of hunger when everywhere I turn, food is around me. Most groceries stores have aisles of food and stacks of formula at that. So, how is it possible that there is a shortage of formula? And a shortage of formula in a country where my son is at! It makes me want to scream.

I often find myself in a struggle between the reality of how things are and the way things should be. I find myself angry at the thought that orphanages in Ethiopia probably don't rank high on a list of formula "getters". I struggle with my thoughts of how this is being remedied at the moment. My thoughts usually center on less feedings, watered down nourishment and then an overall feeling of dispair. Of course these are speculations and it gets tiring trying to dig around and find out what really is going on. Do I even want to know?

Benjamin and I are well aware that this is part of the choice we made in adopting from a country where resources aren't as plenty. It doesn't make it hurt any less. Although, in many ways, it has been a gift as the perspective gained is priceless.

When I fast forward to the day we will meet Sintayehu and leave the orphanage with him in our arms, I know we will feel relief. However, I anticipate the look back over our shoulders on our way out too. It is those kids that I can't get out of my mind most of all. It is the children who are there right now, who may or may not be HIV+, that might have a lesser chance for a different option. Whether Sintayehu knows it or not, he is already loved deeply. He will be nourished by much more than food. I just feel so much for children that remain who hunger for a family, hunger for love and now have to hunger for food.

As a mother, my daily prayer is that our son feels nourished by hope that we will be there soon...

What I told Mikias

On Tuesday I went to pick up Mikias from daycare (my new routine since Joanna's new job). When we got back in the car NPR was replaying Obama's inaugural address. I really wanted to listen to it again so I told Mikias we were going to listen to this instead of music...he was ok with it.

Then I told Mikias that Obama was our new President. I told him how people all over the country were excited about the change it looks like this man will bring. I told him how Obama is going to try to be someone who first talks and listens to people instead of quickly starting wars. I told Mikias how Obama's election proved that people are considering the content of one's character rather than the color of one's skin. I told Mikias that President Obama's daddy was born in Africa, in the country right next to where Mikias was born...he thought that was pretty cool...I do too.

The past couple days I've picked up Mikias from daycare, loaded him into the car, and asked "Do you want to listen to music?". "No," Mikias says, "Obama!!".

Merry Ethiopian Christmas

I've finally done something I've been meaning to do for a long time. For Christmas I bought Mikias and Sintayehu an Ethiopian flag. My plan is to bring out the flag and display it on all the major Ethiopian holidays. I thought this would be a really cool tradition for the boys. Luckily, we got to use the flag very soon...today! Today is Christmas (Genna) in Ethiopia. We plan on getting some Ethiopian food from a local restaurant and having our parents over for dinner. It should be fun.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas...Happy New Year...and we have a court date!

The holiday season was so much fun this year with Mikias. He really enjoyed being around everyone, especially his cousins. He can't seem to get enough of them. He is old enough to want to be with them, but usually ends up being the third person in a string of three running around whichever house we are at.

For the most part, the break from work was good. We had such high expectations of getting a new room together, cleaning out some much needed files and well, you know, doing all the other things that should be done all along. As fate would have it, we spent a good portion of the break sick and none of the aforementioned happened. Such is life...Ben and I work really well with deadlines, so perhaps getting ready for Sintayehu's arrival will be another example of this.

Speaking of deadlines, we received word that Sintayehu's court date is February
25th! This is the day that all parties involved have to have all the proper paperwork to finalize the adoption. Court dates can go through on the first time, however there is no guarantee. We are cautiously optimistic that all will go as planned and will be able to start to make travel plans in conjunction with the embassy date. Typically, this would happen 4-6 weeks after a successful court date!

Honestly, Feb 25th seems like a long ways a way! Benjamin and I agree that this adoption has been a little harder as the time frame has been extended and as parents already, we have an acute awareness of what we are missing out on right now. Having said that, we do take some comfort in knowing that he is surrounded by his people and is soaking up what Ethiopia has to offer him right now. I know we both think continuously of our little guy and hope he is being loved by those geographically close, yet feels the many thoughts that go out to him from this side of the world too!

I have to admit, that sometimes when I am with Mikias, I think to myself... is it possible to love another child as much as I do him? But, when I stare repeatedly at Sintayehu's picture, I already know that answer.

Here are a few pictures of our holidays!