The big day is approaching soon. August 5th is our court date, and we are feeling optimistic about it. Ella's school is out that day for a teacher in-service, so we are taking that as a sign tha it will be our designated celebration day. :)
If all go as planned we'll leave the last weekend of August and our embassy/exit appointment is Sept. 3rd. So it looks like we'll be spending our anniversary in Ethiopia. Who would have guessed that eight years ago when we got married!? Life sure is full of crazy twists and turns.
This weekend was my birthday. Yikes! Am I really 37!!? How did that happen? It was nice and low-key, but a great opportunity to reflect. Radames got me a hot stone massage at the local spa, and then we went swimming with Ella and went out to a great dinner, and then washed it down with cookie cake from the Great Americn Cookie Co. My fav! :) And for my presents, the Smarty Pants girls bought me a Flip Video! So exciting! It's exactly what I wanted to take to Ethiopia for all of the video-worthy moments. And Radames and Ella got me an amazing, best-in-class Nikon camera like I'm a photojournalist for National Geographic! Again, totally for Ethiopia and the great moments in our lives that are already here and will be more to come. I can't wait to lug that giant zoom lens around the planet. :)
Net, net: my life rocks! I'm so very fortunate to have an amazing hubby and daughter...and at the end of the day, we have everything we could ever want. We REALLY want to add little Addison to our lives, though. We REALLY hope he gets to make it here. He's the perfect final piece to our funny family puzzle. Wish us luck on the 5th!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
STILL Waiting
Earlier this week when I was out in LA, we got yet another email from our agency that said that: "I spoke with our Ethiopia rep today regarding your adoption case and the judge has issued a new court date for your case to be heard and approved. The new court date is August 5th. That would give you a visa appointment date of September 3rd. I know that this is very discouraging but since the MOWA is out, all adoption cases had to be rescheduled until after their return, if documentation was still needed from the MOWA in order for an adoption to be approved."
My immediate thought was to reply with a "WHATEVER! Just give us our baby already!"...accompanied by some sort of electronic middle finger. Needless to say, I didn't do that. But I sure wanted to. I know it has nothing to do with our agency, but the on-going delays, drama, emails re: futher postponements, etc. is just so beyond frustrating and ridiculous. Our hearts have become so bitter about the whole process that, honestly, nothing is going to make that go away until we have landed in Addis Ababa and have him in our arms. Or better yet, when we are airborn on the return flight. It just feels so hopeless and like a cruel trick at this point.
On a happier note, b/c we can't dwell on what we can't control...I discovered Little Ethiopia while in LA. I ate a huge Ethiopian lunch by myself in the nicest restaurant there and got to ham it up with the owners about making the trek. The food was AMAZING! I was so surprised. I wasn't expecting to like it, but I couldn't stop eating. I had the vegetarian lunch buffet AND the meat sampler entree. All of was delicious. It was kind of like great Indian food - spicy and so full of flavor, minus the curry. I got "reprimanded" for eating with a fork and told to get ready to just eat with my hands. I loved the injera (like Indian nan - a sourdough flatbread with little bubbles in it like a sponge - almost looks like when a crepe started to bubble on one side while you cook it). The injera serves at the "bowl" for almost everything, so it was hard to not keep eating. Bread is my friend. :) I also bought a little Amharic phrasebook in a gift shop, along with a kiddy DVD that is Amharic with English sub-titles.
So, today was learn Amharic day in our house. We had such a fun time letting Ella teach us Amharic, b/c of course SHE had to be in charge of all translations (even though she can't even read English!). Radames enjoyed laughing at my Southern botchery of unfamiliar vowel sounds. And we all listened along as two giraffe taught each other life lessons in a completely unintelligible language on our new DVD. Ella kept saying, "Tonight for my bedtime story, let me read you a book in Addison's language...I'll teach you." Then she forced me to listen to her say, "Okay, mommy, now how do you say shirt?" Then I'd say, "i don't know." She'd make up a word and say, "It's na-wah!" (like I wasn't supposed to know that and like that was really the word for shirt). Then she'd say, "now how do you say pillow?"...don't know..."it's pa-wah!" then cat was sha-wah. (Lather. Rinse. Repeat until you want to put a bullet in your head and/or can't stop laughing at her. :)
She's heading back for her second week of kindergarten this week. She loves it, and all she can talk about is the cafeteria. She's completely obsessed with the cafeteria. It's all she think about. She keeps begging us to let her have breakfast there like all the other "lucky" kids who get to eat a biscuit and jelly before the bell rings. I shit you not. No matter what question we ask her about school, the answer is always related to the cafeteria and how they have chicken nuggets AND chocolate milk AND applesource there... AND you get to pick your own food. She just can't wrap her head around it. So adorable. :)
Hopefully we'll have some adoption news soon. Thanks for all of your continued support and sweet wishes for us. This kid better get here already! :)
My immediate thought was to reply with a "WHATEVER! Just give us our baby already!"...accompanied by some sort of electronic middle finger. Needless to say, I didn't do that. But I sure wanted to. I know it has nothing to do with our agency, but the on-going delays, drama, emails re: futher postponements, etc. is just so beyond frustrating and ridiculous. Our hearts have become so bitter about the whole process that, honestly, nothing is going to make that go away until we have landed in Addis Ababa and have him in our arms. Or better yet, when we are airborn on the return flight. It just feels so hopeless and like a cruel trick at this point.
On a happier note, b/c we can't dwell on what we can't control...I discovered Little Ethiopia while in LA. I ate a huge Ethiopian lunch by myself in the nicest restaurant there and got to ham it up with the owners about making the trek. The food was AMAZING! I was so surprised. I wasn't expecting to like it, but I couldn't stop eating. I had the vegetarian lunch buffet AND the meat sampler entree. All of was delicious. It was kind of like great Indian food - spicy and so full of flavor, minus the curry. I got "reprimanded" for eating with a fork and told to get ready to just eat with my hands. I loved the injera (like Indian nan - a sourdough flatbread with little bubbles in it like a sponge - almost looks like when a crepe started to bubble on one side while you cook it). The injera serves at the "bowl" for almost everything, so it was hard to not keep eating. Bread is my friend. :) I also bought a little Amharic phrasebook in a gift shop, along with a kiddy DVD that is Amharic with English sub-titles.
So, today was learn Amharic day in our house. We had such a fun time letting Ella teach us Amharic, b/c of course SHE had to be in charge of all translations (even though she can't even read English!). Radames enjoyed laughing at my Southern botchery of unfamiliar vowel sounds. And we all listened along as two giraffe taught each other life lessons in a completely unintelligible language on our new DVD. Ella kept saying, "Tonight for my bedtime story, let me read you a book in Addison's language...I'll teach you." Then she forced me to listen to her say, "Okay, mommy, now how do you say shirt?" Then I'd say, "i don't know." She'd make up a word and say, "It's na-wah!" (like I wasn't supposed to know that and like that was really the word for shirt). Then she'd say, "now how do you say pillow?"...don't know..."it's pa-wah!" then cat was sha-wah. (Lather. Rinse. Repeat until you want to put a bullet in your head and/or can't stop laughing at her. :)
She's heading back for her second week of kindergarten this week. She loves it, and all she can talk about is the cafeteria. She's completely obsessed with the cafeteria. It's all she think about. She keeps begging us to let her have breakfast there like all the other "lucky" kids who get to eat a biscuit and jelly before the bell rings. I shit you not. No matter what question we ask her about school, the answer is always related to the cafeteria and how they have chicken nuggets AND chocolate milk AND applesource there... AND you get to pick your own food. She just can't wrap her head around it. So adorable. :)
Hopefully we'll have some adoption news soon. Thanks for all of your continued support and sweet wishes for us. This kid better get here already! :)
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Some Great News!
So today we got a call from our agency that included the following info (and some reminders of things we already knew):
- The investigation is over
- Everything was found to be free and clear
- The courts are agressively putting all of our cases back on the docket as soon as possible
- WE WERE GIVEN A NEW COURT DATE OF JULY 20TH!! Yes, 2009. :)
The Ministry of Women's Affairs that has to prep a letter for the courts, but is unfortunately on a post-investigation training break until the 24th of July. The courts have asked them to get the letter done anyway so that we can complete our case on the 20th!
If our case is heard on the 20th as planned, we can have an Embassy appointment date of either August 6th or more likely August 20th, which means we'd leave around the 15th of August! Woo hoo!
Just let this all be true...and let it all come together. It would be great to bring Addison home before his 16th birthday already! :)
- The investigation is over
- Everything was found to be free and clear
- The courts are agressively putting all of our cases back on the docket as soon as possible
- WE WERE GIVEN A NEW COURT DATE OF JULY 20TH!! Yes, 2009. :)
The Ministry of Women's Affairs that has to prep a letter for the courts, but is unfortunately on a post-investigation training break until the 24th of July. The courts have asked them to get the letter done anyway so that we can complete our case on the 20th!
If our case is heard on the 20th as planned, we can have an Embassy appointment date of either August 6th or more likely August 20th, which means we'd leave around the 15th of August! Woo hoo!
Just let this all be true...and let it all come together. It would be great to bring Addison home before his 16th birthday already! :)
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The Ridiculous Saga Continues
Well, here we are...two years and almost four months into the process and still no Addison. Just the most ridiculous run-around ever. Today we were told that the ban has been officially lifted and that the courts will now give out new court dates. We are supposed to hear about our new court date tomorrow. That's great news. My brain tells me that we are supposed to be excited, but my heart just can't muster the energy. Mainly because we also got word today that the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Ethiopia (that handles all of the pre- and post-court paperwork related to adoptions) will now be closed for two weeks while they do a post-investigation/new protocol training. So, basically nothing can happen even if there were a new court date. They are supposed to be done with their training on the 24th of July, but the courts close soon after that for the rainy season, so the odds that we'll get a court date any time soon (that actually happens) is slim to none. It's just so frustrating and exhausting, and it's hard to not just become cold-hearted about the whole thing. The process has just been so disheartening and so beyond insane that there's just really nothing to say. Hence the time since we've blogged last. Sorry about that. The details are just so stupid that who cares. Just give us our damn kid already.
When we step back and look at the big picture, it really is beyond insane. There are about 4 million orphans in Ethiopia, most of whom are orphaned because their parents are either dead or dying or there is literally not enough food to feed them. And here we are 7,000+ miles away, amazing, happy people who want nothing more than to bring one of those orphans into our lives and love him to death... and spend our lives trying to fill the void that we can't imagine he must feel and will always know. And then there's a government that is understaffed, disorganized, and not necessarily excited about international adoption as an alternative for their country that first didn't hear our case, then put a ban on our case along with hundreds of others, then conducted an investigation, then completed the investigation, then announced that there was no foul play, then said our agency would hear soon...day after day after day after day!...and then said come back tomorrow once again and maybe we'll tell you what we'll do, and then decided to shut down their paperwork agency for two weeks, then decided to go on rainy season vacation, etc. etc. etc. while thousands of kids sit in orphanages and in transition homes while their prospective parents thousands of miles away cry themselves to sleep every night, night after night, angry and bitter and confused and sad one minute, hopeful the next. It's torture - on both ends. And no matter how much we rationalize it or try not to rationalize it...no matter how optimistic we try to be, it doesn't change the fact that Addison is being held prisoner along with thousands of other babies caught up in this nonsense while families sit and wait for "the call" to come in any minute, week after week after week. It's just too much. Too long. Too incredible. Was it Lord Byron who said the truth is stranger than fiction? So true. No one could even make this up.
When we step back and look at the big picture, it really is beyond insane. There are about 4 million orphans in Ethiopia, most of whom are orphaned because their parents are either dead or dying or there is literally not enough food to feed them. And here we are 7,000+ miles away, amazing, happy people who want nothing more than to bring one of those orphans into our lives and love him to death... and spend our lives trying to fill the void that we can't imagine he must feel and will always know. And then there's a government that is understaffed, disorganized, and not necessarily excited about international adoption as an alternative for their country that first didn't hear our case, then put a ban on our case along with hundreds of others, then conducted an investigation, then completed the investigation, then announced that there was no foul play, then said our agency would hear soon...day after day after day after day!...and then said come back tomorrow once again and maybe we'll tell you what we'll do, and then decided to shut down their paperwork agency for two weeks, then decided to go on rainy season vacation, etc. etc. etc. while thousands of kids sit in orphanages and in transition homes while their prospective parents thousands of miles away cry themselves to sleep every night, night after night, angry and bitter and confused and sad one minute, hopeful the next. It's torture - on both ends. And no matter how much we rationalize it or try not to rationalize it...no matter how optimistic we try to be, it doesn't change the fact that Addison is being held prisoner along with thousands of other babies caught up in this nonsense while families sit and wait for "the call" to come in any minute, week after week after week. It's just too much. Too long. Too incredible. Was it Lord Byron who said the truth is stranger than fiction? So true. No one could even make this up.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
New Pix
Today we got two new pictures of Addison. OMG!!!! He is SO friggin' adorable I can't stand it! We almost didn't recognize him because he is so grown. He's 8 1/2 months old now and 19 1/2 lbs. They're definitely feeding him over there. We can't wait to show the pix! You'll die. He's such a little munchin. I wanna eat him!
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