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Adoption

Lilypie Waiting to adopt Ticker
 

Lilypie Date is set Ticker

 

 

After a year of prayer Brent and I decided we wanted to expand our family through adoption.  So in the beginning of June 2007 we started researching adoption agencies. We were able to pick out an adoption agency with the help of our church adoption staff.  We also decided to go with the country of Ethiopia, located in the continent of Africa.

Here is a financial breakdown of the adoption and how the money is spent.

If you see a total that is not in RED, it is because those are totals that will still need to be paid.

  •  Registration fee to adoption agency WHFC $200 has already been paid

  •  Agency fee  Part I to WHFC $1400 has already been paid

  •  Agency Fee Part II paid to WHFC $1200 has already been paid

  • USCIS Fee(immigration)  $670 has already been paid

  • Fingerprinting  $80 per adult x 2 has already been paid

  • Home study Fee  $1500 has already been paid

  • Pre Adoption education $200 has already been paid

  • Dossier notary and Authentication fees $450 has already been paid 

  • Passports $115 has already been paid

  • WHFC Program Administration Fee and Program Fee for Ethiopia $8500

  • Travel expenses including airfare, lodging, food, and expenses for traveling to visit any birth        relatives. Approximately $6500

  • Ethiopian orphanage and outreach donation $1000

  • Travel shots and preventative medicine before travel $790

  • US visa application, issuing and medical exam fee per child $435

  • Post placement fee $100 per visit

Why Adopt From Ethiopia?

• One in six children die before their fifth birthday
• 44% of the population of Ethiopia is under 15 years old
• 60% of children in Ethiopia are stunted because of malnutrition
• The median age in Ethiopia is 17.8 years
• 1.5 million people are infected with AIDS (6th highest in the world)
• 720,000 children have been orphaned by AIDS alone, and there are 4.6 million orphans in Ethiopia.
• Per capita, Ethiopia receives less aid than any country in Africa
• In the 90s the population (3%) grew faster than food production (2.2%)• Drought struck the country from 2000-2002 (first year no crops, second year no seeds, third year no animals)
• Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school. 88% will never attend secondary school.
• Coffee prices (Ethiopia’s only major export) fell 40-60% from 1998-2002.
• Ethiopia’s doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000.
• In 1993, after 30 long years of war, Eritrea broke from Ethiopia and became an independent nation leaving Ethiopia landlocked without any major seafaring ports.

 

August 30th: We received our application papers from Wide Horizons for Kids to fill out and officially get the adoption started.

September 21st: The family and I mailed out our application papers for Opie’s adoption.  Hopefully we will not have to wait too long to find more info out.  We have nicknamed him Opie, short for Ethiopia.  We wanted to be able to call him by a name until we found out his real name.

October 1st:  We received some more paper work and have been assigned our case worker who will be handling things for us now.  We are still waiting to find out from the Ethiopian government if we will be accepted into the program.

October 13th: We had a huge yard sale. Our Pastor was kind enough to let us hold it in the front church parking lot.  Our very supportive church family, family and friends donated truck loads of items to help us in raising money for the yard sale.  It was a huge success!  We were unable to get a picture of how much we really had out because so much was sold before we even started officially setting up.  Thanks everyone!

November 17th: Today we sent out letters to customer churches from our Company to make them aware of our mission and to get their help in reaching our goal. As of now we have the all clear on everything for the adoption.  We are just about finished with all our paperwork, it has been much easier than we had thought but is still a lot of paperwork.  We are now waiting to schedule our appointment with Immigration and fingerprinting downtown and for our first Home study appointment at the Adoption Assistance Office.

January 13th: Brent and I went to Kosmosdale Baptist, our home church where Brent grew up. We were there to present their Mission moments that they have every Sunday. Brent spoke on the orphans and our adoption and this being our way of giving to missions. Kosmosdale took up a love offering and will do it again on Jan. 20 to donate towards our adoption.

January 16th: Another round of letters to family, friends and SWS customers asking for their support through donations. We had a good amount of donations last round and pray for more this time around!

January 17th: HOMESTUDY IS HERE…we have our first Homestudy here at the house with our case worker today. She has told us that things will proceed fairly quickly after the Homestudy!  The Home Study went well and we are even more excited.  We have our next Home Study February 21st.

Adoption Map: This is Highview's Adoption Ministry Map.  We have these displayed at our church campuses and they show the families who have adopted and from where they have adopted as well as those waiting, like us!

February 21st: We have had to reschedule our last Home Study before the adoption due to an ice storm but have rescheduled it for Tuesday February 26th.

February 26th:  We had our last pre-adoption home study tonight.  We just tied up some loose ends and went over some parent/adoption training.  We are now on a mission to get our Dossier paperwork complete and have it ready so that it can be sent to the Ethiopian Embassy with our immigration approval papers and then we wait for the referral of our new son!

February 29th:  We have our appointment with immigration at the downtown federal building.  There we we file our immigration papers and be fingerprinted. Immigration has been filed and we have been fingerprinted!  Brent and I went downtown to the Gene Snyder building today and turned in our immigration forms and we were fingerprinted.  It was really neat, because they do the finger printing by scanning your prints electronically instead of an ink pad like we thought they would do.  It was a different experience.  Now we are one more step closer to receiving our referral which will be the child we are matched with and then we will finally get to see what our son looks like.

March 14th:  We got word today from our Social Worker that our home study is complete and has been accepted by our Adoption Agency WHFC!  Now we are pulling the last bits of paper work together and will then head to downtown Frankfort to get everything state notarized and then our dossier goes to the Ethiopian embassy so that we can be matched with the little boy God has been preparing for us!

April 2nd:  We are now gathering all needed paper work together to complete our dossier.  We are still waiting for immigration to complete their paperwork now that they have received our home study.  We are planning our trip to Frankfort to have needed documents state notarized after our oldest daughter gets back from her mission trip next week.  So we are looking at having the trip and paperwork completed the week of April 14th.

May 9th:  We went to Frankfort today and had our Documents State Notarized.  We will be sending in our Dossier this week and this is pretty much the end of the of paperwork atleast the biggest portion of it.  Our immigration should be complete on May 15th.  As soon as our adoption agency receives our CIS papers and our dossier we just wait for them to okay all our paperwork and documents and to check for any errors and to make sure we have not forgotten to sign anything.  We took a little time to take a tour of the capitol while we were there, the kids really enjoyed it.  With four kiddos any trip seems like an extended road trip.  Potty training a 3 year old requires lots of potty breaks so there are no accidents and that adds to any road trip. 

May 14th:  Got home from taking Kristen to the Orthodontist today and checked the mail.  There were two great letters in the mail.  First, Kristen got her acceptance papers for Beth Haven Christian School. Second, we got our immigration papers in the mail today confirming that we have been accepted and that USCIS has already forwarded a copy of our immigration papers to Addis Ababa ,the capital in Ethiopia!  We are SOOOO close now, we cant wait to get our little boy home! Keep praying for us as we now wait to send in our Dossier papers this week and will then be ready to be matched with our little boy in hopefully a matter of weeks!

May 15th:  Brent went today and got his passport paperworke filed and we should have it back in about 4 to 6 weeks.

May 17th:  We had another yardsale for the adoption today.  We had the privilege of setting up at our home church that Brent grew up in.  We were able to raise more money to go towards our adoption and to share the gospel with those who took the time to listen as they stopped by.  It was a great time of fellowship with family and friends that we miss.

May 18th:  With all the paperwork it is no surprise that some of our paperwork has to be redone.  Some documents were not done correctly so we are having those redone and then we will be back on track.  A small set back but nothing God does not already know about.  Our patience are definitely being tested.  We have to remember all things in Gods time.  Facing the unknown, like not knowing who are son is yet, what he looks like, how old he is or when we can go and get him has been weighing heavy on all of us.  We have to remind ourselves daily that God already knows who our son is and everything there will ever be to know about him.  God, please give us patience as a family as we wait for your will to be done, help us to grow closer to you as a family in everything we face and may face during the adoption. 

May 23rd:  PASSPORTS ARE HERE!  Brent has received his passport! It got here in less than 2 weeks!   All paper work is complete and being sent overnight to the adoption agency.  After they receive it, they will go over it with a fine tooth comb and check it for any errors and then the dossier will be sent to Ethiopia and then they will review it and we will be officially on the waiting list to be matched with our little boy!

June 2nd:  DOSSIER HAS BEEN SENT TO THE ADOPTION AGENCY!!!  Brent and I went to UPS today and sent our Ethiopia Dossier with overnight shipping to our adoption agency.  We are done with the paperwork!  We now wait for them to look it over for any mistakes and then they will approve it and send it to Ethiopia and then we will (non)patiently await to be matched with our NEW SON!

June 22nd:  All paperwork is completed and has been accepted.  We are just waiting to be matched. They are estimating the wait on a referral (being matched with a child) to be anywhere from one week to 6 months.  We are now praying for the much needed money that we will need to provide once we are matched with our child.  It is a very large chunk of money but nothing too much for our God to handle.

July 8th:  We received our official "waiting list" email today from the ET coordinator. 

August 13th 2008:  Today we spoke with our social worker and were told we have been given the approval to adopt out of birth order.  The adoption agency has these two policies, one being they do not like to match you with a child that is out of birth order and the second being they do not like to create "artificial twinning" which is when you adopt a child that is 9 months or less younger or older than the youngest child living at home with you.  It makes them a lot like twins.  So good news is that we have been allowed to do both :)  We have now put in a request to be matched with a specific child and should know first part of next week if we are the family that has been matched with this child.  We will keep praying because we already feel emotionally attached to this little boy.

August 13th 2008:  Today we spoke with our social worker and were told we have been given the approval to adopt out of birth order.  The adoption agency has these two policies, one being they do not like to match you with a child that is out of birth order and the second being they do not like to create "artificial twinning" which is when you adopt a child that is 9 months or less younger or older than the youngest child living at home with you.  It makes them a lot like twins. 

 August 26, 2008:  Today we put in for a match request for an adorable 4 year old little boy.  Hopefully we will hear something in the next few days and we can post some good news!

 August 26, 2008:  As I was researching Ethiopian names on the world wide web I came across this article.  It answered some questions Brent and I had concerning the way some of these children were named.

Heritage and Naming Ethiopian Children

Heritage is very important and traditionally a child grows up to know at least 7 generations of his / her ancestors.  For example a child named Abraham Alemayehu Zerihun carries 3 generations of names, his own (Abraham), his father's (Alemayehu) and his grandfather's (Zerihun).

 Why are children named like this?

 One reason is that many people have the same first name so the father's name identifies them like the English "Robert - son" = Robertson.

The grandfather's name adds to this and also shows heritage which is important in determining status - the more names you know the higher your status in the community.

 Another reason for naming children this way is that when Ethiopian men plan to marry, traditionally they send a delegation of 6 elders to the girl's family to negotiate the marriage.  This negotiation includes determining if the bride and groom are related.  Both families must provide the male lines of both sets of parents back 7 generations.  Therefore, it is the names that are handed down through the generations that are the evidence of their family line.

August 27, 2008:  We have officially been matched!!!!!!!!!!  Brent left around 10:00 this morning for a business trip and at 10:21a.m. this morning I received a call from the adoption agency.  They had matched us with the little boy we had hoped for!  He is 4 years old and his name is Eyasu, which means Joshua.  We cant wait to find out when we will be able to travel.  What a wonderful Christmas present it would be if we had him here before Christmas!  I will post pictures once we have a successful court date set.

September 3, 2008:  I am sitting here for another good portion of the day trying to collect and fill out all the needed paperwork to send in for our acceptance of our adoption to our son, Eyasu.  I thought most of the paperwork was complete, boy was I wrong :)

The Ethiopian courts are still closed but expected to reopen the first week in October.  They are closed to observe numerous   ET holidays including Ethiopian New Year.  So once this court reopens and reviews our case we will be given a travel date.  YAY!!!!

I will post more as I learn more myself.  Right now we are just playing the waiting game.

September 5, 2008:  We mailed out our "acceptance of referral papers" today!

September 11, 2008: Happy Enkutatash!  Or Ethiopian New Year!  Today begins the year 2001 in Ethiopia!  Ethiopia still retains the Julian calendar, in which the year is divided into 12 months of 30 days each and a 13th month of 5 days and 6 days in leap year. The Ethiopian calendar is 8 years behind the Gregorian calendar from January to September and 7 years behind between September 11 and January 8.

1 KINGS 10:1-13: The Queen of Sheba visits Solomon

1. When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame, which brought honor to the name of the Lord,[a] she came to test him with hard questions. 2. She arrived in Jerusalem with a large group of attendants and a great caravan of camels loaded with spices, large quantities of gold, and precious jewels. When she met with Solomon, she talked with him about everything she had on her mind. 3. Solomon had answers for all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. 4. When the queen of Sheba realized how very wise Solomon was, and when she saw the palace he had built, 5. she was overwhelmed. She was also amazed at the food on his tables, the organization of his officials and their splendid clothing, the cup-bearers, and the burnt offerings Solomon made at the Temple of the Lord. 6. She exclaimed to the king, “Everything I heard in my country about your achievements[b] and wisdom is true! 7. I didn’t believe what was said until I arrived here and saw it with my own eyes. In fact, I had not heard the half of it! Your wisdom and prosperity are far beyond what I was told. 8. How happy your people[c] must be! What a privilege for your officials to stand here day after day, listening to your wisdom! 9. Praise the Lord your God, who delights in you and has placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king so you can rule with justice and righteousness.” 10. Then she gave the king a gift of 9,000 pounds[d] of gold, great quantities of spices, and precious jewels. Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. 11. (In addition, Hiram’s ships brought gold from Ophir, and they also brought rich cargoes of red sandalwood[e] and precious jewels. 12. The king used the sandalwood to make railings for the Temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and to construct lyres and harps for the musicians. Never before or since has there been such a supply of sandalwood.) 13. King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba whatever she asked for, besides all the customary gifts he had so generously given. Then she and all her attendants returned to their own land.

September 21, 2008:  Question:  Does the bible specifically mention "black" or "white"?

The Bible does not specifically identify any person as being black-skinned. The Bible also does not specifically identify any person as being white-skinned. The vast majority of the Bible took place in the Middle East, in and around Israel. Neither "black" nor "white" people are common in these regions. The vast majority of the people in the Bible were "Semitic," light to dark brown in complexion. Ultimately, it does not matter what skin color the people in the Bible were. Skin color is meaningless in the message of the Bible. We all need to take our eyes off of the skin and focus on the soul.

FYI:  Ethiopia is mentioned approximately 40 times in the scripture

October 3rd 2008:  Just to update anyone reading this, we are still playing the waiting for the ET courts to re-open and hear adoption cases.  HOPEFULLY in the next couple weeks we will have a court date and once we have that we can post pictures of our precious little boy.  Be sure to check back often! 

Okay, I thought of something!  We mailed out a photo album and our first letter to our son Eyasu yesterday.  This is a huge milestone because this will actually be the first contact our son has with his new family, US!  We included pictures of all his new siblings with who they were and pictures of his new mom and dad as well as pictures of the inside and outside of his new home.  We want him to become familiar with our faces and be able to recognize us and feel some what like he knows us.  We are all so excited for him to get to see these pictures.

October 6th, 2008:  Court Closures: Update

** As of Monday October 6th 2008, we have heard that the courts are open, but are not yet hearing adoption cases.  As is the case every year, the courts have re-opened, but due to the backlog of work after being closed for 6 weeks, they are not yet hearing adoption cases. In previous years we have not received any further information about family’s specific cases until they have been approved. As we hear about cases coming through the process, we will share that information with the families.

October 15th, 2008:  Ok here is what we have so far, talked with the adoption agency today and they said they can estimate that we will most likely be traveling sometime between mid-November and mid-January.

I know this is just their estimate and I should not get my hopes up just yet but I am really, really excited to have an idea of when it may happen.  For right now we will keep praying.

October 30th, 2008:  Still waiting.................

October 31st 2008:  Got a call and an email today.  Our son, Eyasu during playing fell and hit his head this week and had to go get stitches.  Trust me he is fine and playing as though nothing has happened.  He is such a ham!  They emailed us a picture of him with his bandage on his forehead and he has this really big mischievous grin on his face.  Out of all 4 children we have at home not a one has had stitches or a broken bone.....until now and he is not even home yet, let the F-U-N begin!

November 7th, 2008:  GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME.  After getting off my knees from praying about the adoption and the financial aspect of it all, which can be very scary, I received a phone call from LifeSong for Orphans.  They have approved us for a matching grant of $2500 and the ability to allow those wanting to donate the opportunity to make a tax deductible donation towards our adoption. All monies donated to our adoption account through LifeSong goes directly towards OUR adoption, this non profit group collects none of the money for themselves.  So as of this weekend we will be sending out hundreds of letters to family and friends.  ALL PRAISE AND GLORY BE TO GOD FOREVER AND EVER, AMEN

November 24, 2008:  Still waiting for word on travel........

December 2, 2008:  WE GOT THE EMAIL.  WE PASSED COURT EYASU IS OFFICIALLY OURS.  BRENT AND HIS DAD TRAVEL THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS!!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT, THE DAY AFTER.  WHAT A WONDERFUL WAY TO SPEND CHRISTMAS DAY THEN PREPARING FOR HIM TO LEAVE TO BRING OUR LITTLE BOY HOME

December 22nd:  Ok, there was a small change in plans.  Brent and his dad will leave on the 27th instead of the 26th as planned.  They will be flying Ethiopian airlines, which is wonderful news since the flight attendants and staff speak both English and Amharic so they will be able to communicate to Eyasu what is going on and help bridge the language barrier between Brent and Eyasu.  Internet access is very slow to NONE in Ethiopia where they will be staying.  It is on slow dial up with regular power outages daily.  I will be communicating to everyone via this website.  I will update daily or as I get information from Brent as well as any pictures.  Check back for more as we get closer to the DAY!!!!!

BLOGGING BRENT AND RONNIE'S TRIP

December 27th:  Brent's mom and I took the guys to the airport this morning around 7:00 am.  I have spoken with Brent several times through out the day and all seems to be going well except he is a little air sick.  If you know Brent then you know he gets car sick so he usually needs the front seat, but I doubt that would have helped on the plane or if the pilots would have let him in the front seats with them : )  I did pack him motion sickness pills in his carry on, hope he took them.

He called when they were in the customs line and said they were the only white people in the line for the Ethiopian Flight.  He was loving it, said they struck up a conversation with a guy who spoke both English and Amharic so they were given a crash course in Amharic.  Ronnie, Brent's dad, got pulled out of the customs line because he had Gold Bond medicated cream in his carry on bag and it exceeded limits allowed on  your carry-on.  Brent said it was very funny.  Anyway they are behind of schedule so I am not sure what that means or what they do, but apparently weather was delaying things.  He called me as they were boarding the ET flight and said he was heading out of the US and did not know when he would be able to get a hold of me again.  He was a little anxious as to what to do when they get to Ethiopia, but I told him to be ready to expect the unexpected and for things to maybe go wrong and always be ready for something to not go quite according to plans.  They will be fine, God is with them.  They are bringing our little boy home and we will all be together as a family soon.

I have already begun some preparations for the boys new room.  Conner and I went out today and picked up their new comforter sets and decals for the walls, Monday painting begins, as long as I can shake my stress migraine that I have given myself since Friday when we shopped and packed and prepped for the ENTIRE DAY for the trip out the next day.  I seriously have the worse migraine, I know I should not have stressed so much and that it is a lack of faith and trust in God so I just pray I can hand it all over to God.  There is just this lost feeling of knowing I am not there to help with our son but there is still much needed to be finished in preparation for our newest addition.

As soon as I hear more I will post it.  Hopefully I will not have to wait until they are checked into their rooms tomorrow evening, I think I will go crazy waiting that long.

December 28th:

2:00pm:  Ok, I spoke with Brent at 6:30 am and they were in Rome to refuel the plane.  Brent said that Ronnie was really sick so I am anxious to hear back from them and see how they are feeling.  When Brent called he said they have about 5 hours left so they should actually be there by now.  Ethiopia is 7 hours ahead of our time so there it is around 8:00 pm.  They should have been picked up from the Airport and taken to the Guest house which is in the same compound as the transition home where Eyasu is.  He will more than likely not get to see Eyasu until morning and then after that they have their US Embassy appointment to get Eyasu's Visa and Passport.  So they will have an interesting Monday.  I cant wait to hear how the appointment goes.

As soon as I get another phone call I will update everyone.

4:00 pm:  Talked with Brent!  Finally!  They made it to Addis safely and are at their room.  Brent said it was the longest and worse flight of his life. Ronnie, his dad, is feeling better BUT the airline lost his luggage.  Not sure what that means, but he may never forgive us after this trip.....yea, he will, he's getting a new grandson, thats worth it!  It was after 10:00 pm in Ethiopia and they were getting ready to get some much needed sleep.  He meets Eyasu in the morning and then has his US Embassy appointment after lunch and gets to take Eyasu with him, I hope that goes well.  Please pray that Eyasu bonds with Brent quickly. 

Brent leaves very early Tuesday morning to meet Eyasu's birth mother.  Since it is a 6 hour van ride they will have to stay the night in Awassa because there will not be enough time after their meeting to get home before dark.  SO he will take the long 6 hour drive back to Addis on Wednesday and get to spend more time with Eyasu.  I hope Eyasu likes all the gifts his brother packed for him.  Brent took some candy to give all the kids at the transition house when he meets Eyasu for the first time.  Brent also took some cool little gifts to give to Eyasu in hopes they will butter him up and break the ice and let his new daddy love all over him.  He took this cool bubble whistle that you pour the bubbles in and then blow the whistle and all the bubbles come flowing out, they should like.  He also took one of those pin wheels, you know the ones we loved as a kid that would  spin when you ran with it or blew it.  I know he will love that : )

I will post more after I talk to Brent tomorrow.

8:15 pm:  Ok, I am tired and really missing my hubby.  The kids really miss him too.  They have pouted and cried all day, Conner just does not understand and has cried off and on all day.  After my bout with a severe migraine last night I took a pain pill and slept great and woke up migraine free.  On the down side, I could hardly stay awake for church service.  We had a couple extra kids at the house last night which meant extra kiddos to get ready but I managed to get everyone to church early.  I did not realize how much I depend on Brent's help until he was not here.  Conner is a monster to get up in the morning and demanded a lot of my time and patience, a chore his daddy usually has on Sunday mornings.  During the last past of Sunday School and all through service I could hardly stay awake.  My meds really hung with me today.  Pastor it was nothing personal, Brent and I love your messages and teachings.  It has been the most physical, mental and emotional draining couple of days that I believe I have ever had and this morning and afternoon it all came crashing down on me. I am feeling better knowing Brent made it there safely, not comfortably but safely.

Just in case anyone wants to know......

Distance from Addis Ababa to Louisville

Distance is 12,246 kilometers or 7610 miles or 6613 nautical miles

:

December 29th 8:30 am:  Talked with Brent this morning at 8:30 our time.  It was 2:30 pm their time, we thought they were 7 hours ahead of us but it is just 6 hours.  He said he met Eyasu for the first time this morning and that it could not have gone any better, it was better than he had imagined.  He said that after they ate and filled out their additional paperwork that they all loaded in the van and headed to the kids house and Brent said when they got there it sounded like a stampede.  He said all the kids came running out and attacking the van.  He said he saw Eyasu jump in the van, he looked around and saw Brent and just ran and jumped in his lap and gave him a big hug!  Brent said he is so good, loving and affectionate!  Brent said he held his hand every where they went.

Brent taught him his first word...C-A-N-D-Y.  Brent said Eyasu is hilarious.  The staff and some of the other parents who were already there warned Brent that Eyasu was very inquisitive....he will fit in just fine, already sounds like Conner.  Brent said that as soon as he took one picture of Eyasu that he took Brent's camera and started taking all the pictures.  Brent said that Eyasu used the entire memory card taking pictures of all his friends.  He said his dad, Ronnie, was video taping the whole thing..  Then when Eyasu could not take any more pictures he went to the phone, he looked at all Brent's pictures, and changed his calendar and anything else he could get the phone to do.  Brent said the US Embassy appointment went without a hitch.  They were only there for about an hour, we were expecting 3 hours since that is what they told us but with there being only 4 families in the entire traveling group they got done much quicker. 

Internet is very slow there so Brent is still going to try to send some pictures.  He has the rest of the day free to play with Eyasu and then they have dinner tonight at a traditional Ethiopian restaurant...kid free...and then they head out tomorrow morning at 5:30 am for the long drive to Awassa to meet Eyasu's birth mother.

.....more to come.

December 29th 6:50 pm:  I have not talked to Brent anymore since earlier this morning.  I know that they had a traditional Ethiopian dinner to attend tonight and would be late and that they would be getting up very early for travel to Awassa for the birth family meeting.  Please remember to pray for Eyasu's birth mother and for Brent and Ronnie as they prepare to meet her.  This will be an emotional time for all of them.  The amount of love this young mother has for her son,  to give her only child up for adoption.  Please pray for all of them

December 29th 8:30 pm:  Brent was finally able to email me last night.  It was 4:30 am in Ethiopia and they were getting ready to go eat breakfast and then head out for their 6 hour drive to meet Eyasu's birth mother.  He said things were going well and that he missed us.  He said that during his visit with Eyasu that he was able to get him to say "Kristen and Conner" but after that he quit talking.  But once he was around his friends he said they were chattering on non stop and he could not understand a single word they were saying.

December 30th 10:42 am:  Brent and Ronnie should have already made the 6 hour trip to Awassa and had their birth family meeting.  It should be getting pretty close to evening where they are at.  They will spend the night and then head out in the morning.  Still not sure on the time difference there, by some of their emails they give a 6 hour difference and sometimes a 7 or 8 hour difference!  Not sure on all that? 

I am just finishing up on the second coat of paint for the boys room.  Conner went with me and picked out what he wanted their room done in.  So then we went and picked out a paint color for their room.  It is going to look awesome.  I know Eyasu will love it too.  Conner is so excited about having a brother. I will post picks this weekend, Brent took our only digital camera with him, and from his email that camera is not working to well.

December 30th 1:08 pm:  Got another email from Brent today!  He said the birth family meeting went well.  He got to meet Eyasu's birth mom and two sisters...yes you read it right, he has two sisters.  It is amazing what you can learn from a birth family meeting.  That is why it is so important to have the meeting to find out things and ask questions you may never have the chance to ask otherwise. Here are a couple pictures Brent sent me. He will send me some of Eyasu as soon as things are back up and running once they get back to Addis.  Keep checking back for more updates.

 

 

  
             
             
 

Brent did mention in his email that the visit with Eyasu's birth mother was very emotional and worth the 8 hour drive to her village. His dad videoed the entire meeting.  It should be around 4 or 5 pm in Ethiopia right now so hopefully I will receive a call or another email.. Just three more days!

January 1st 2009:  Spoke with Brent at 12:30 am, it was 8:30 their time, they were eating and getting ready to head out as a group and do some shopping.  Things are going great with Eyasu he said they have been playing hot wheels, dinosaurs and ball.  Still don't know if they found Ronnie's luggage yet, forgot to ask him that.  They are to fly out of Addis tomorrow night and be back in the states Saturday evening.  Looks like they should be back at around 7:30.  I will check on all that though to be more sure.  Brent said that Tuesday they had Ethiopians version of a "cheeseburger", said it has hurt their tummies and they have started on their antibiotic for those type of issues : ) more to come...

Friday 1st, 2009:  Finally got the boys room done.  Have some little finishing touches but nothing major.  Need to pick up sheets and some new pillows for the shams.  Looks pretty good though, I think the boys will love it.  Oh, I still have to touch up the base boards but that is about it.  This has been the longest week.

Friday 1:00:  I talked with Brent's mom this morning and she talked with Ronnie this morning our time.  To answer everyone's question....YES, they found Ronnie's luggage.  When they arrived home from the birth mother visit they had it there for him...YAY!!!!!  So now Ronnie and Brent wont have to share any more clothing.  However, there is only one bed in their room and they are sharing that.  A little father son bonding time : )They will be arriving back on US Airlines so anyone wanting to attend the HOME COMING that is where we will all be waiting.  I will confirm a time and let everyone know as soon as possible.

....Looks like they are set to arrive in Louisville at 7:20 pm on US Airways on Saturday.

January 1st, 2009:  Brent emailed me last night at around 11:40 our time and it was somewhere around 7:40 am Friday morning Ethiopian time.  He said that Thursday him and his Dad went to Ethiopia's version of the mall and their version of some type of flea market. Brent said it was ok.  After lunch Mulot took them to the local museum and they looked at a lot of bones and paintings, Brent said his dad really got into the stuff

January 2nd, 2009: They have the Coffee celebration and clean up since today (Friday) is their last day there. They have to be in the airport 3 hours earlier so they will be there at 7:15pm and take off at 10:15.  Brent has said that Eyasu responds to Sidamic much better since that is the region he is from.

Got another email from Brent and he said that him and his Dad  packed this morning and then went and picked Eyasu up and gave him a good bath and let me pick out the clothes he wanted to wear for the rest of day. He loves his Leapster we bought for him for the trip and is starting to say more English words. Brent said the the Coffee ceremony was very cute that they had today and his dad recorded it all. He said they all took a nap together and Eyasu snored louder than his dad because he has some cough and congestion going on. I will add more updates as Brent and them head home and call me....

January 3rd 2009:  Got an email from Brent this morning and said they were in Washington and he was SO happy to be back in the states!  He emailed me a cute picture of Eyasu, he was sitting in his grandpa's lap wearing his grandpas hat and shining a little flashlight into the camera, so the picture is somewhat blurry, but very cute.  Brent and Ronnie have been having a blast with Eyasu and he is learning so much English so fast.  Brent put our boy on the phone and I GOT TO TALK TO HIM!!!!!!  He sounds so cute, he kept asking to talk to his emama, that's me.  He would repeat everything Brent said to him perfectly, Brent had him telling me that he missed me, he loved me and he would see me soon, it was perfect....just like a little parrot. Brent did stress to hide and/or put all remotes and flashlights and things of that nature up high out of his reach. He dissects EVERYTHING. 

Funny story, Brent said that the orphanage house nannies speak Amharic only, but all the kiddos who came in with Eyasu came from the Sidama region so Eyasu can speak both languages.  The nannies told Brent that when the kids wanted to sneak and do something and not have the nannies know about it the kids would speak to eachother in Sidamic so the nannies could not understand them and then the nannies would be stuck trying to figure out what they are up to.

Brent said there flight looks to be on time, so still going on the original flight arrival time of 7:20 pm.  He is going to call from Charlotte. Talk with you all soon

January 5th 2009:  I know I am a couple dates late but here we go....Brent and the gang are back.  We picked them up from the airport Saturday evening.  It was the perfect homecoming.  We never expected so many of our family and friends to be there, it could not have been better!  We love you all and can not thank you all enough for your love and support. 

Things are going pretty well.  He is adjusting really well and sleeping great too.  The time change has not affected him at all.  He eats like a horse.  Seriously, this boy loves to eat : )  He loves the house and everything in it.  he is starting to understand things alittle better.  We are all doing very well with our Amharic, he laughs at us alot when we say something, he thinks were funny, and if we say it wrong he is good to correct us.  Things are definitely more busy around here right now so i will add more updates and photos soon.