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Wednesday, June 27, 2007

little miss tired-cranky pants



Mmmm...I could totally go for a GIANT cup of coffee right about now.

If it wasn't a trillion degrees in my house I would go downstairs and make one myself.

I worked a 15 hour shift last night (yep, 5pm yesterday til 8am today) Not gonna be able to do crazy stuff like that anymore once Nora is here...I'll already be sleep deprived enough I'm sure.

I get really whiny and needy when I'm tired....I'm sure Ryan is absolutely thrilled at the prospect of having 2 tired, whiny, needy girls in the house ;)

I slept from 9:30ish until only 11:00 because we signed up for the conference call today with CHSFS about the trip to Hossana which, might I add, was totally worth it because whatever reservations Ryan had about going down south are now gone...YAY! I thought for a moment there that I would be taking the trip to Hossana by myself...

Okee-dokee, I'm done rambling now.

Monday, June 25, 2007

lazy days

Ryan took Smokey & Peanut with him to work today.....
Maeby and I spent some quality time lounging around the house.....

This is all we have to show for our day.

Friday, June 22, 2007

anxiety anyone?

Just had to share!
Ryan had a dream the other night that he was running around the house trying to find a diaper that would fit Nora-they were all either too small or too big. When he went to change Nora he noticed that she had the belly of a puppy!
Hmmmmm......

nursery

Nora's room is slowly coming together.
We got a crib mattress yesterday-still have to put some artwork on the walls and more books on her shelf.

But her closet is filling up quickly-which is attributed to my obsession with online shopping!

Still can't decide what to put on the windows........



Thursday, June 21, 2007

THE DOLL!!!



It came today!!! I first saw this doll in Seattle but didn't buy it cuz, silly me, I thought we would have a baby boy! Anyhoo, I searched high & low and saw it again on Carrie's Blog!! She directed me to an online store which in turn directed me to Blabla-which is where I found her!!

The twist to my story is that my friend Joyce, who I went to Seattle with, actually ordered the doll for Nora as soon as she heard about our referral!

Sooooo, I will be exchanging my Coco doll for something else fabulous from Blabla and Nora will have the doll that Joyce got just for her :)

p.s.

I'm not sure how I feel about the name Coco (I think of David Arquette's kid)

What should we call her until Nora is old enough to pick a name for her?

I'm thinkin' of just calling her Blaba



I made a little care package to send to Nora and I will be popping it in the mail tomorrow morning! I included a blankie that I slept with for 2 nights (Ryan thinks I'm crazy) and a little photo album with pictures of us and our family.

I did my best to label the photos in Amharic-we'll have to see how that worked when we get there.

Traveler's what? Ack!


I've got live Typhoid in my fridge-ick!
$800 and 4 sore arms later we are finally fully vaccinated against pretty much everything. It seems crazy that insurance won't cover these vaccines but if I come home and find out I have Polio or something, then they have to cover my treatment. Ya think they would just fork over the vaccines and be done with it. Oh well.
The travel clinic also made us watch some cheesy, circa 1980's scare the tourists with talk of travelers diarrhea video-it made me not want to eat...anything...ever again.
It feels good (minus the throbbing pain) to get this out of the way plus I feel like we are now 1 step closer to holding our Nora for the 1st time :)

Happy 3 months!


Nora turns 3 months old today.

It's hard to think about all that I am going to miss in the next 11 or so weeks-she's going to be almost 6 months old when we go pick her up.

Ugh! I don't even want to think about it-it will make me cry!


Happy 3 months my tiny lil' sweet pea!!!

Friday, June 15, 2007

break out the credit card!

Oooooh, online shopping......it's a dangerous thing!


I ordered this bib, I first saw the design on another blog and HAD to have it!



I also ordered this cute onesie!

And I ordered Ryan something for Father's day but I can't post what it is...yet (just in case he's reading this!)

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Father's Day


This will be Ryan's 1st official Father's Day and I have NO IDEA what to do.......


What should I get him? A gift? Just a card?? I'm running out of time!!!!



Any ideas out there?

pink, pink, pink


Ok, I had to do it.
I had to go out and buy something pink.
Oh, how I love Target.

post-referral ramblings


Okay, in all of my crazed excitement yesterday I calculated her weight wrong...she is actually a smidge under 10 lbs and is 21.7 inches long,

She has the chubbiest cheeks and a little double chin-I am ABSOLUTELY in love with her and wish I could post her photo right this very minute! She doesn't look scared of the camera, just a little sad, like she just finished with a good cry. I can't wait to get my arms around her!!


Of course, I didn't sleep at all last night...I tossed and turned...thinking about her and wondering what she is like and thinking about her family. It's so weird to go from sheer joy all day yesterday to laying in my bed last night and just feeling so, so sad. I am sad for her family, I am sad for her Mom and most of all I am so sad for Nora. No one should have to start life the way our adopted children do, with such a great loss. Even though I am happy beyond belief, I feel that I need to grieve for her loss and her family's loss. We are her family now too, but we will share that title with her Ethiopian family. We will never, ever forget her Ethiopian family and we vow that she will be raised to be proud of her country and culture and proud of her family.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

IT'S A GIRL!!!!

YAY!!!

I'm still totally in shock-we just got the call this afternoon!!!

Nora Tigist is 2 1/2 months old and is a chubby lil' peanut weighing in at just over 8 lbs!!!!

Check out this blog post

Great post relating to birthparents over at Heart, Mind and Seoul

Go on! Read it!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

No news yet but......

I'm baaaack!

I love Seattle.

I totally could see myself living there.

We had a great time eating & drinking our way around the city. The restaurants were absolutely wonderful! I don't think we had a bad meal the entire time.
Every morning we would walk to Le Panier and have lattes & croissants...I seriously think I gained at least 5 pounds on this trip. My jeans were very tight by the last day.....but maybe it's all muscle from walking up & down those dang hills!

Pike's Place Market was my favorite!
The fresh flowers and produce and seafood......

Of course, no trip to Seattle would be complete without a trip to the 1st Starbucks!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot! The conference was good too.

But it is nice to be home to my husband and dogs :)

































Monday, June 4, 2007

Leavin' on a jet plane

I'm heading out to Seattle tomorrow for the annual ACVIM conference. I've never been to Seattle OR ACVIM-I usually attend VECCS but since it is held in September and I am hoping I will either be in Addis or home with our new baby in September (wishful thinking!)-I thought it would be best to hit ACVIM this year. I'm very excited-I hope we have some time to do some good sightseeing!
So, hopefully I will have some good news when I return next Tuesday!!!

New York Times article about adoption from Ethiopia

NYT ARTICLE ABOUT ADOPTION FROM ETHIOPIA

In Ethiopia, Open Doors for Foreign Adoptions By JANE GROSS and WILL CONNORSPublished: June 4, 2007ST. PAUL —

Ethiopia was not on Mark and Vera Westrum-Ostrom’s list when they first visited Children’s Home Society & Family Services here to explore an international adoption.From Ethiopia to Minnesota Ukraine was first, because of their family heritage, until the couple discovered that the adoption system there was chaotic, with inaccurate information about orphans’ health and availability. Vietnam was second, after they saw videos of well-run orphanages. But the wait would be at least a year and a half.
Then they learned about Ethiopia’s model centers for orphans, run by American agencies, with an efficient adoption system that made it possible for them to file paperwork on Labor Day and claim 2-year-old Tariku, a boy with almond eyes and a halo of ringlets, at Christmas. From Addis Ababa, the capital city, they traveled to the countryside to meet the boy’s birth mother, an opportunity rare in international adoption. And at roughly $20,000, the process was affordable compared with other foreign adoptions, and free of the bribes that are common in some countries. It is no wonder, given these advantages, that Ethiopia, a country more often associated by Americans with drought, famine and conflict, has become a hot spot for international adoption.
Even before the actress Angelina Jolie put adoption in Ethiopia on the cover of People magazine in 2005, the number of adoptions there by Americans was growing. The total is still small — 732 children in 2006, out of a total of 20,632 foreign adoptions, but it is a steep increase, up from 82 children adopted in 1997.Ethiopia now ranks 5th among countries for adoption by Americans, up from 16th in 2000. In the same period, the number of American agencies licensed to operate there has grown from one to 22. The increasing interest in Ethiopia comes at a time when the leading countries for international adoption, China, Guatemala and Russia are, respectively, tightening eligibility requirements, under scrutiny for adoption corruption and closing borders to American agencies. Ethiopia’s sudden popularity also comes with risks, say government officials there and in America.“I don’t think we’ll be able to handle it,” said Haddush Halefom, an official at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, which oversees adoption. “We don’t have the capacity to handle all these new agencies, and we have to monitor the quality, not just the quantity.” Capping the number of agencies is one solution. And that is what some international adoption officials in the United States are now urging the Ethiopian government to do. Of concern is the ability of agencies to handle the rising demand, which may have contributed to a recent mix-up involving two families sent home with the wrong children by Christian World Adoption, an established agency, although relatively new to Ethiopia. That case prompted inquiries by the State Department and the nonprofit Joint Council on International Children’s Services in Virginia, a child welfare and advocacy organization, and the adoption agency itself, said Thomas DiFilipo, president of the joint council. Officials at Christian World Adoption did not reply to e-mail messages or telephone calls. But Mr. DiFilipo said the agency was reviewing its procedures and has hired immigration lawyers to resolve the mix-up.The consensus, Mr. DiFilipo said, is that the mix-up was “an honest mistake.” But, he added, “This could be the byproduct of a staff handling 35 placements when they’re used to handling 20.
”Children’s Home Society & Family Services, founded in 1889, began working in Ethiopia in 2004. The agency completed about 300 adoptions in its first three years in Ethiopia, and expects to complete that many in 2007 alone. Along with Wide Horizons For Children in Waltham, Mass., the society is credited with helping Ethiopia create a model for international adoption. Ethiopia, with a population of 76 million, has an estimated 5 million children who have lost one or both parents, according to aid organizations. Many African nations have outlawed or impeded the adoption of their children by foreigners. Ethiopia has welcomed American and European families who are willing to provide homes for children who have lost both parents to AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis or starvation, or who come from families too destitute to feed and clothe them. (The adoption process includes routine screening for HIV infection.) Two elements distinguish Ethiopia’s adoption system, according to dozens of experts. One is the existence of transitional homes for orphans, in the countryside and in the capital, with services and staffing that are rare in the developing world — paid for by American agencies.
Not long ago, Sandra Iverson, a nurse practitioner from the University of Minnesota’s international adoption health clinic, the first of its kind in the United States, was invited to visit the Children’s Home Society’s Ethiopian centers. She arrived with a neonatal otoscope, to diagnose ear infections; the Red Book, the bible of pediatrics; and scarce antibiotics. She left confident that Ethiopia’s orphans enjoyed unusual care. “You don’t hear crying babies,” Ms. Iverson said. “They are picked up immediately.” The other signature of the Ethiopian system is that adopting families are encouraged to meet birth families and visit the villages where the children were raised, a cutting-edge practice in adoptions. Some agencies provide DVDs or photographs that document the children’s past.
Russ and Ann Couwenhoven, in Ham Lake, Minn., recently showed one such video to 6-year-old Tariku, one of three children they have adopted from Ethiopia. The boy seemed proud of the beautifully painted house he had lived in, they said, and the uncle who had sheltered him for as long as he could.
Linda Zwicky brought 2-year-old Amale home five days before the Memorial Day weekend, with a letter from the child’s grandmother that described holding the motherless infant at her breast even though she had no milk. Sometimes such vividness is too much. Melanie Danke and her husband, of Minneapolis, adopted 6-year-old twins and a 3-year-old, all siblings. One of the twins “would work herself up until she was inconsolable” looking at photos of the aunt and grandmother who raised her, Ms. Danke said. So she has tucked the photos away for now.
David Pilgrim, vice president of adoption services at the Children’s Home Society, said the agency spends $2 million a year on its Ethiopian facilities.At the main transitional home, on the outskirts of Addis Ababa, a staff of 170 care for about 120 children, ensuring that the children have consistent contact with adults, which experts say mitigates the most damaging psychological effects of institutionalization. During a reporter’s recent visit, the two terra-cotta buildings where the children live, usually for no more than a few months, were spotless, with staff members scurrying to pick up toys and food spills as they hit the floor.The transitional home has a primary school, open also to local students, where the children begin learning English. There is a medical clinic with two full-time doctors and 10 nurses. Down the road is a guest house for adoptive parents, who also can stay in a sleek hotel. The children also enjoy the services of a “laugh therapist,” Belachu Girma.“These kids come here and are very depressed at first, all with their heads down and not talking,” Mr. Girma said. “I come in and try to help them relax.” There was laughter also at the nearby guest house, more of the nervous kind, as American parents waited to take their children back to St. Paul from the Horn of Africa.
Araminta and Jason Montague, from Atlanta, who picked up 17-month-old Natan last week, compared their experience in Ethiopia to an earlier adoption of a girl from China (where Americans adopted 6,493 children in 2006). “Our daughter was in an orphanage with about 300 children and she was very dehydrated,” Ms. Montague said. “We were never told her origins. Her sheet just said ‘Status: Abandoned.’ ”
Some parents anguished, as did Karla Suomala of Decorah, Iowa, when she arrived in Addis Ababa to adopt 5-year-old Dawit and his 21-month-old sister Meheret. “It’s hard to know what the right thing is to do,” Ms. Suomala said. “Should we just give all the money we’re spending on this to the children’s mother?” Ms. Suomala and her husband, David Vasquez, had already spent time with her.“It was obvious the birth mother loved her children,” Mr. Vasquez said. “She said to us, ‘Thank you for sharing my burden.’ ”
Alessandro Conticini, the head of child protection at Unicef Ethiopia, is one of many who believe that international adoption is a good thing but must be “part of a larger strategy” that focuses on keeping children in their families or communities, with the help of humanitarian organizations.Indeed, the Ethiopian government has taken the unusual step of requiring foreign agencies to provide social services and document the results. As a result, agencies like Children’s Home Society and Wide Horizons have built schools and medical facilities — including one for HIV-infected children. But Mr. Conticini, of Unicef, worries about the mushrooming number of private adoption companies that “are not properly regulated by the government” because two different ministries are involved and working at cross purposes.At the State Department, visa applications for children adopted from Ethiopia are getting extra attention, said Catherine M. Barry, deputy assistant secretary for overseas citizens services. “We will very quickly see if patterns are emerging,” she said, “and we will intervene in a timely fashion with anyone doing less than quality work.” While the governments collaborate to protect a delicate adoption system from the perils of growth, adoptive families arrive each week in Addis Ababa to ease their children into new lives.
Last week, these included Mr. Vasquez and Ms. Suomala. While she had no trouble escorting Meheret from the orphanage, Dawit refused to budge, so Mr. Vasquez carried him toward the gate. There, the child grabbed the bars and would not let go. Mr. Vasquez considered prying his hands loose and thought better of it. Instead he told Dawit that it was O.K. to cry.
Jane Gross reported from St. Paul, and Will Connors from Addis Ababa.

Friday, June 1, 2007

1 year ago

Exactly 1 year ago today, we filled out and mailed our application to CHSFS. I remember being very excited and terribly nervous about the journey we were about to set foot on. Wow, I can't believe a year has already passed...Gosh, we sure did take our own sweet time with that homestudy!
Anyways, it has been an interesting and eye-opening year. I have learned a lot about myself (and Ryan!) and feel that I have gained so much...not just insight into who I am and the mother I hope to be, but also into a world I really knew nothing about.
I have also met some great people along the way, made some good friends and hope to make some more:)

I can't wait to see what the next year brings out....let the real fun begin!

Tetanus, Hepatitis, Typhoid Oh My!

I had my first round o' vaccines today and survived (granted, my left arm feels dead but I'm OK with that)
I am now protected against Tetanus and partially protected against Hep A/B (need 2 more!) and armed with a Rx for the Typhoid vaccine :)
We plan on hitting the travel clinic in July to get the Yellowfever, Malaria and whatever else we need.
Very exciting, I know.