We've Made It Through Another Week

Wow. This new life is demanding. Hats off to people with more than one child! One seems SO easy now. And life pre-kids seems like such a foggy memory. Are we really the parents of two kids? How did all of this grown-up stuff happen? Aren't we still 25?

Ella is settling into a groove and gettig less jealous this week, so that is good, but Addison has had a fever for the last 2-3 days, so our house has been a wreck! He isn't sleeping through the night anymore, so that is messing up Radames and me big time. Yesterday was not a good day at the Tyree-Rodriguez hosehold, to say the least. Ella went on a very long playdate after school, just so that we could catch our breath and not make her have to have a miserable day, too. (Thank you, Polly, for taking care of Ella on Thurs! You have no idea!) Radames ad I took naps in shifts after being up all night, and I pretty much barked at everyone who came within my path. Poor Addison cried almost all day long and couldn't sleep, so Radames took him to the doctor while I took my fat ass to bed...for the good of all mankind. Today we found out he has a urinary tract infection. :( We feel SO bad for him. He got some Septra this afternoon, so hopefully he'll be able to get some more sleep tonight. I don't know if poor Radames could make it if he doesn't, since he volunteered to do last night b/c I did the night before.

Tonight we all got dressed and went to dinner with friends. It was a big deal for us, since we are homebound these days like we are on house arrest. We decided to call friends and ask them to join us, since it was one of the first times we'd all been showered and out on the same day. :) We had a great time. Lots of food and funny stories while the kids entertained one another. It was just so nice to veg out for a little while, let Radames drink and beer and let me gossip with a grown up. We stuffed ourselves silly, then piled in the car to come home and raved about how we had so much fun as we drove home. Then we looked down at the clock and realized it was 7:58!! And our night was over! Gosh, how times have changed! Did we really just have a rockin' night that ended before the time we would even left the house in old days!?

We ARE alive

Sorry it's been so long since we've posted. We are alive. :) But we are in over our heads over here. This two kids things is a whole hell of a lot of work, so we've just been hibernating, doing what's necessary, bonding, satisfying (what feels like 20) kids who want attention and just enjoying the time off of work.

Addison is doing great. He sleeps 11 hours a night, then takes two naps a day... and is completely on Eastern time. He eats like a champion and is just such a smiley, happy-go-lucky kid. He's TOTALLY hooked on Radames, which is just so amazing to see. He grabs Radames' neck when anyone comes around, and he even looks to Radames for approval when he comes to me. It's just so beautiful to see these two adorable guys so connected so soon. Radames walks around with him on his hip all day long like a girl from around the way (insert LL Cool J lyrical flashback). And then at night time, Addison wants nothing to do with me. He just wants Radames to put him down. The other night when I sat and rocked him in the dark like I used to do for Ella, it was so hard to watch him wiggle and worm around twisting his neck to the door, just waiting for Radames to come in...so completely disinterested in me and so in need of his daddy to shhh shhh shhh him to sleep. It's taken me a few days to realize that in this process I can't have an ego. If that's what Addison wants and needs; then that's what Addison is going to get. It would be pretty unfair to make him the slightest bit uncomfortable after everything he's been through so that we could go half-sies on the childrearing so that I don't feel left out. And knowing that I'll be going back to work soon anyway, it probably is best that he's latched onto Radames if he needed to pick one of us to bond with more quickly.

The opposite is going on with Ella. She is in full-on give me my mommy every minute of the day! Overall, she's doing a great job of being sweet and helpful and playful, but she is clearly adjusting and trying to deal with the fact that daddy and (mostly) mommy are giving their attention to someone else, too. She now wants me to wake her up, put her to bed, snuggle with her in bed, read her more stories, take her to karate, come to her snacktime at school, pack her lunch, etc. But, again, if that's what she needs right now, then so be it. It's meant that we are settling (at least for the next week or so) into a Radames-is-primarily-in-charge-of-Addison- while-Wynne-is-primarily-in-charge-of-Ella groove. According to our new family spreadsheet (insert laughter), we try to flip it each day, but by the end of the day, the two little ones end up defaulting back to whom they are digging most right now.

So, all in all, things are going really well. We're trying to get a system down pat and trying to keep our heads above water. Every minute is a bottle, cereal, making baby food, doing dishes, doing laundry, take a work call, Ella's lunch needing to be packed, going to the store for random things, dropping Ella off, picking her up, reading stories, changing diapers, practicing words of the day, going to karate, more laundry, helping Ella perfect her post-#2 wiping skills, and on and on and on. How single women (or men) do this, I have NO idea. It's taking every hour for both Radames and me to do it.

But we wouldn't change it for the world. This is exactly what we wanted, and we would definitely deserve to burn in hell if we even began to complain about anything in our lives at this point. We are so truly blessed in so many ways. I love Radames and Ella and Addison so much, and I just couldn't ask for a sweeter, more comfortable life.

One week and counting

Addison is doing such a great job. He's been with us in TN for a week now, and it feels like he's always been here. He sleeps and eats like a champ, and we're all starting to get into a groove. Sorry we've been quiet, but no news is good news these days. :) Just enjoying our new family and learning to juggle like never before. We did get our photo montage done, though. Enjoy!

Getting Acclimated

Hey, friends and family. Sorry we've been so remiss in posting, but this "new job" is no joke! Boy, do we have a whole new respect for anyone with more than one kid! Our lives have been nothing but wake-ups, bedtimes, feedings, changings, nap times, laundry, bottles, cereal, babyfood, jet lag, and sneaking a shower with regard to Addison and cooking, packing lunches, wake-ups, bedtimes, stories, "homework", karate, participating in the school fund raisers, fending off jealousy urges, and making playdates with regard to Ella. This makes having one child seem like a cake walk! Jeez. This life is no joke!

Yesterday, Radames had a meltdown because I wanted to drive Ella to school and he thought he was driving her and it "threw off his whole morning", to use his words. We ended up having to sit down and create a giant spreadsheet that has every 30 minute interval of the day planned out with who is doing what! We realized that we either need to run this place like a ship or we're gonna sink! There's just so much to do!! How do people do this!?? We're just "learning" basic things like okay-we-must-have-the-diaper-bag-prepacked-at-all-times-because-it's-taking-us-two-hours-to-leave-the-house and the we-must-have-a-bedtime-rotation-schedule-because-we-can't-have-simultaneous-wake-ups-or-put downs. Our whole lives have been flipped upside down. But in an amazingly cute, bit if-I-weren't-married-to-Radames-I'd-have-no-idea-what-I'd-do kind of way. Our body clocks have completed shifted. We accomplish more before 8am than we used to before 8pm! You guys know me...I used to be in bed at 3am and up at 9am. Now i'm in bed by 9pm and awake at 5 or 6am. Ah, what a whole other world. I am one domestic diva these days.

Most importantly, Addison is doing SO well. He's so chipper and easy going. He's completely adjusted to the time difference and is now (like in Ethiopia) down by 8pm and up at 6am. Then he naps from 9-11am and again at around 3:30pm and does it all over again. He really doesn't even cry. He knows the system and just so chill about everything. He's definitely attached to us. When we put him down or give him to someone else, he freaks out, so that's a wonderful thing! He just smiles and babbles and crawls all around the house. He LOVES Brownie and the cats and basically keeps trying to eat them! He's definitely one of the gang. :)

Ella's being a great big sis. She loves with the feeding and diapering and is enjoying with his teacher on any and all matters. She's having a blast at kindergarten and is enjoying telling all of her teachers about her new baby brother from Africa.

More to come. But for now, we're a-okay. :) Thanks for all of your love and support! :)

The Eagles Have Landed

We made it home! All in one piece...well, in three pieces. :) We landed on Saturday morning at 8:30ish. It was the longest 17 hour flight of our lives, but Addison was a true champ. He didn't cry one time on the plane! He's so easy-going and happy. He just giggles, squeaks like a dog's chew toy, smiles, eats, dumps and sleeps. :) Now that's a life.

When we touched down in DC we were totally elated. And then when we passed through immigration and then customs and walked through the exit doors, we just cried and held each other and couldn't have been more grateful. We took a cab to the Sheraton where our car was parked, took a long-overdue shower, fed Addison and made the 6.5 hr drive home. We almost drove off the road 5 times, bc neither one of us could keep our eyes open, but we did make it home alive. It was the longest 30-hr trip ever! (I don't want to see a plane again for a LONG time!)

We're all crazy jetlagged, but Addison made it all the way until 4am this morning, which is great considering that his biological bedtime is our 1pm until 11pm! Ella is thrilled to have him here and we're just having a relaxing first day together as a new family. The family is coming over today for a welcome home get-together that we were too exhausted to host yesterday, so that should be fun.

We'll update with pics and more details. Ella's waiting for me to send Polly Pocket down her waterslide now...

We're On Our Way Home!

We made it! We passed through all of the embassy appointments yesterday and are now the proud holders of an adorable Ethiopian passport with the cutest mug shot ever! :) And we have his birth certificate that shows that WE are the parents of Eyob Radames Rodriguez aka Addison Miles Tyree-Rodriguez. We couldn't be happier!

We're headed out tonight at 10:15pm Ethiopian time (3pm eastern) and will land in DC at 7am tomorrow. Woo Hoo!

Everything is great!

It's Thursday morning the 3rd, and today is our big appointment day at the embassy. At around 2:30, we'll go there with Addison and all of our paperwork and give an oath that yes, we are Radames and Wynne and that this is little Eyob Radames Rodriguez, and that we promise to take care of him forever. They'll examine all of our crazy paperwork (tax returns, immigration stuff from the US, adoption decree, etc.) and then, hopefully, say, "Congratulations." In some ways it's just a formality, because he's already legally ours, but this is the part where they finalize his passport, travel visa, birth certificates, etc. that allow us to leave the country. If all goes perfectly, they have all the final docs ready for us to pick-up at 4:00pm tomorrow...and our flight back home is at 10:00pm tomorrow night Needless to say, our stomachs are in knots. Bright side is that there is nothing they can do to take him away or stop the process. But they can delay us and make us have to stay here longer and redo things or jump through more hoops. Wish us luck today as we head to the embassy today and ideally spend 5 uneventful minutes giving them what they need so that we are just one day away from heading home!

Our time so far here has been pretty relaxing. After we caught up on sleep, we've felt pretty good. Unfortunately, our sleep pattern is now lights out at 10pm and up and at em at 6am. Which would be nice if we weren't 7 hours ahead! Our bedtimes in the US are now going to be 3pm! And Addison's is at 8pm, which will now be 1pm! Oh, good times. :) But we haven't gotten sick, the altitude isn't bothering us, no stomach "bugs", no dehydration, etc. And, most importantly, Addison is healthy as a horse and eating like a champion.

He's SO cute! He would eat anything you put in front of him, and then he just smiles and coos and shows his 7 teeth from ear to ear. Yes, he has 7 teeth! He's so funny, because he kind of looks like an old man, with a mustache and receding hairline, but then again he looks like a newborn. Radames thinks he kind of looks like Webster. Ha! Developmentally, it's kind of like he's 1 year old and a newborn at the same time. Physically, he's big (about 21 lbs.) and he has lots of hair and teeth, but he doesn't do a lot of the things that a 10.5 month old would do in the US. It's not comparable, of course, because he's been in an orphanage and then in the transition home, and pretty much hanging out in a crib his whole life, but just basic things that you'd expect a kid his size to do, he doesn't do. He doesn't even make an attempt to hold his own bottle, he doesn't really crawl, he doesn't reach his arms up for you to grab him, etc. He just kind of sits there and waits for us to do to him what ever we are going to do. And then he just clings onto our necks with the most amazing death grip. He sort of "climbs" up our chests, almost clawing into us with a very primal baby attaching to mommy way. And he doesn't want to let go. He just wants us to hold him and have his face buried in our chests. It's so sweet, and it's also so sad at the same time, bc it's clearly the first time he's truly attaching. We'll take it though. :) There are WAY worse "issues" to have. He just couldn't be more sweet. We have a lot of developmental stuff to catch up on, but who cares. We are just totally focused on the bonding process at this point, and letting him know that we'll never leave him.

The country itself has been quite fascinating. I'm not sure what we were expecting, but, honestly, the country is so unbelievably poor it's just beyond depressing. We've been to a lot of countries where there is poverty, and to plenty of 3rd world places, but this is like nothing we've ever seen. It's not place where there are "the haves" and the "have nots". Everyone is a "have not", and even the few "haves" live by such a different standard. Honestly, the poverty and dispair is just so striking. Literally, there is nothing. An entire city (and this is "the city", the place where life is way better for most) full of starvation. No industry, very little modernity, no signs of progress, no new construction, no western influence (which doesn't mean "progress" necessarily, but there's no foreign money coming in), no clean water, no food, raw sewage running down the street, unpaved roads that have rocks and pot holes about 3 feet deep, thousands of children (and adults) on the streets begging...and on and on. The diesel fuel from all of the dilapidated cars and busses is nauseating. There are cows and goats and dogs and cats walking around all over town. Roosters crowing, dogs howling, kids begging, plastic tarps attached to four sticks as houses, people lying on the streets as if they are dead...face down, covered in dirt and mud, not moving a muscle. I thought that i had seen a dead person on the first day, and i freaked out as we were driving. And then i saw the next one and the next one and the next one. And i realized, they were just sleeping, i guess. But not in a NYC homeless sort of way, in an i have nothing and i'll collapse right here on this rock sort of way. It's so cliche, and nothing i ever thought i'd say, but it's one giant Save the Children commercial. Where you see the poverty and you think, "there's no way," but it's really true. And you can't turn off the tv, bc you're there.

I wanted so badly to come and see an amazing country full of history and culture and to come back and so full of stories and anecdotes that would debunk our western myths about Africa...or at least Ethiopia. I wanted to be able to tell Addison how amazing his country is/was and how he has so much to be proud of. But we aren't there yet. Maybe once we've had time to process it all and get some distance, we'll have a little more perspective, but for now the tales aren't there. The people are AMAZING. So nice and so gracious and so humble, and everyone has taken amazing care of us. And we have seen a few cool things (yesterday we went to the ethnic museum to understand the history of the country and the people a bit more), but the poverty and hopelessness is just so striking that it's hard to notice the positives. We (well, I) just sit around thinking about how i can overhaul the government and the economy (while Rademes drinks beer and hams it up with the other families). :) What do you do where the gov't controls everything and the leaders live in a giant palace when everyone else starves to death around the gates? What do you do when there's no export...no import...no natural resources...no foreign investment...no commerce...nothing... It's just too much to wrap your head around.

Ugh. Now i'm being debbie downer. The most important thing is that we're happy as can be, Addison is ours, and that we'll be home soon. :) Wish us luck today. We'll keep you posted the next time we can log on.

Ciao! (as the locals say, bc they were under Italian occupation for a while in the '30s and 40s)

We're Here!

We made it! They let Radames through, and he's not in Dubai right now after all. We met Addison yesterday and could not stop crying. He's such an adorable little munchkin. Within five minutes of meeting us, he just smushed his face into my chest and feel fast asleep on his new "cushions" for half an hour. He hasn't missed a beat since. He's eating like a champion, happy as can be, and is adjusting so well. He's on a hard core schedule, so as long as we keep him on that schedule, he's good to go. He slept from 8:30 to 6:30 last night, just like they said he would. (Only "problem" is that that's our 1:30pm to 11:30pm eastern! Yikes! We're going to have some serious time adjusting to do.)

Radames and I haven't slept in a few days, but who cares. We missed the night's sleep coming here, bc we arrived at midnight eastern, but it was 8am here, so yesterday was an incredibly hard day. But we made it and he's ours! And today is our anniversary (8 years!) and we couldn't dream of being in a more "glamorous" place. :)

We'll update when we can, but we're on dial up, so no pix yet.

Woo hoo! We made it. He's ours. He's beautiful, happy and has 7 teeth!!!! (but he's clearly a baby, though. We were scared he was going to be like 3 years old :), but he's definitely a little peanut.)