beep beep

Well, 2 out of 3 kids are currently sleeping, so it seems like a good time to blog. (It would also be a good time to sleep!)

Picking up where I left off before. . .

We finished up our afternoon of injera-ing and coffee-ing and went on a quick tour of the city with Ephraim, our driver. Ephraim was fabulous and the kids absolutely love him. We had to stop and get gas (I noticed that they didn't post the prices like we do here, so I have no idea how much it cost) and we noticed that the men at the gas station seemed to be talking about us and chuckling a bit. All kinds of possibilities went through my head, but I was pretty off base. As we pulled out of the station, Ephraim explained that they when they found out who we were and why we were there, they were joking that we could take them with us too. Kind of like, hey, do they want more? They can adopt us to America, too! It made me smile.

My smiling ended as our drive continued. Driving in Addis Ababa is nothing like driving in the U.S. Don't have a lane to drive in? No problem! Just make one. Going through an intersection with no traffic light? No problem! Just look both ways and try to get through without getting hit. Pedestrian? Oh, just honk your horn. You know that feeling you get when you are almost in an accident? Imagine feeling it constantly (from the backseat while holding a child) and you have an idea of driving in Addis. It was hard to know what to focus on: the chaotic traffic seemingly endangering your life or the random sighting of pack mules and other livestock that may be walking the city streets. How about the woman getting off the bus with a dead chicken clutched in her hand? Or the bare-butt little boy standing on the sidewalk? It was so much to take in. Ephraim did a wonderful job of showing us the highlights, and he is obviously very proud of his city. However, I had to fess up and admit that I was getting car sick. I never get car sick, but my gills were turning green and had to request our return to HoH. I think other things contributed, like jet lag, the air quality, the stress and excitement of the day, but I knew that driving in Addis was something that would take some getting used to.

so happy together. well, for most of us.

Before I begin the telling of today's episode, I want to share a bit of our first adventure here at home. We've basically been holed up at home, adjusting and getting comfortable. I decided that we were finally ready to venture out today for a short excursion -- a trip to Target and a drive thru the bank. Woo hoo! I think the cold wind was a bit of a surprise to them, but they thought riding in the cart at Target was such a thrill! Once that excitement passed, they just stared at everything like it was a different world. Go figure. Then, when we left, I thought it almost funny that the song on the radio was that "Feed the World" Christmas song -- seemed strange to hear that and have 2 Ethiopian children in my backseat. I guess it would have been even more appropriate if J had been in the car, too.

(Oh, and before I forget, yes, Christy K, we did have an Ermias sighting. What a cutie!)

So, on to the scoop. . .

Monday, November 19, 2007:

After a restless night, we get up and get ready for the day. Not really knowing what we were supposed to do, we left our room to head down to the main dining area. As we walk outside toward the steps, we can see directly into a classroom where a little girl is sitting on a chair. Our little girl. She stares at us and starts walking out the door to us with her little brother following. She seems shy and unsure but still willing to meet us. Little brother starts by giving us a cute smile only to change his mind about that. His reservation kicks in as hers fades away. Just then, Tsegay comes up and takes us all back to our living quarters so that we can have a chance to get to know our kids. For S, this is great! We knew that she had been waiting for us -- even wanting to stay up all night. E, on the other hand, really wanted nothing to do with us. Balloons helped a bit, but he preferred to keep his distance. In a short amount of time we became accustomed to his high pitched expression of discontent and his serious look of disinterest. Stay away from me. I know who you are and I know why you are here, and I'm having none of it. S, on the other hand, couldn't have been happier or more excited if we had come with an extensive wardrobe from Macy's. (She looooves trying on clothes.)

Eventually, we were left alone with our two new kiddos. E warmed up to M but balked at having his diaper changed. Ok, he more than balked; he flat out refused. My attempt was not met with any more acceptance, but he was ready for a nap and was willing to let me hold him for that. (Note this because it will be days before he lets me hold him again.)

In the afternoon, we are treated to a traditional Ethiopian meal and coffee ceremony. It was so much food! Fortunately, our 3 y.o. is well-versed in how to correctly eat Ethiopian food. It was amazing to watch her. I was a little worried when we moved on to the coffee because I'm not much of a coffee drinker -- put lots of chocolate in it and I might be fine. They roasted the coffee beans right in our room and served the coffee in these pretty little cups that might be a quarter of the size of the typical American coffee cup. Maybe. I couldn't finish the first cup. It was delicious but strong, and I knew if I finished my cup that they would give me a second. So, I let M handle the coffee drinking duties for us.

I'll finish out the day later. I have two little stinkers running around.
:)

arriving in addis

Day 2: November 18, 2007

Like the cattle that commonly cross the country roads of Ethiopia, the passengers of flight 501 headed off the plane and into the line for visas. With a simple form and 20 bucks each, we obtained temporary visas and were allowed to enter the country. We quickly changed $100 to birr, found our luggage and headed out to the waiting crowd. Since you are only allowed into the airport if you are traveling, the House of Hope director (Tsegay) and the driver were waiting for us outside the doors of the airport. After a traditional 3-kiss greeting, we headed to the mini-bus that would take us to the transition home. It was dark out, so there wasn't much to see on the 20-25 minute trip. What we did see threw us into instant culture shock: child beggars, people walking in the streets, cars seemingly driving in a haphazard way, whole carcasses hanging in small street-side meat shops, a bumpy dirt road taking us to our children. What would we see in the daylight?

When we arrived at the House of Hope, the children were already asleep. Still, Tsegay and his wife took us to see our new son and daughter and also to see all of the other kiddos. They were all so beautiful!! One baby girl, Jill's daughter, woke up and gave us a smile. Oh, how she made my heart melt! It was hard to go back to our room and turn in for the night, and we didn't find sleeping any easier. Not only were our internal clocks all screwed up, but we also knew we would be meeting our children the next day. Who could sleep??

So now we come to today's cliffhanger. Will the first meeting be a fairy tale? Drama? Nightmare? Will we accidently drink the water? You will have to check back for the next installment -- whenever that may be.
:)

home again home again

Hi all!

Weee'rrre baaaaack!! I'm sitting here with S on my lap at 6:47 a.m. so not sure how long this post will last. I will try to eventually get our whole adventure posted, but I think it will take several attempts and several days to do it.

I'll start with the day we left. (The beginning is always a good place to start, dontcha think?)

Day 1: Saturday, November 17th.

We left Columbus at 2:30 in the afternoon and arrived in Addis Ababa on Sunday around 7:30 pm. Only issue: having to wait until we got to D.C. to find out the outcome of the OSU/Michigan game. Let's just say that it was a good start to a good trip. I won't bore you with any other travel details. Not much to tell here.

For those of you with upcoming travel: We flew Ethiopian and were pleased. It was a comfortable flight despite flying economy both ways. I know Lufthansa is nicer, but we didn't feel like paying the extra $1300 for whatever was nicer or making a stop in Sudan. But that's just us.

Tune in later for more tales and adventures coming to a computer near you . . . as long as a computer is near me.

:)

We're here!

The kids are WONDERFUL. Our daughter M is a total ham and keeps jibber jabbering to us in Amharic. So cute but we don't understand a word she is saying (except that she does say the name of her big brother!). Our son E is having a tough time with the adjustment but I think we are making progress. Hopefully by Friday he will be more accepting. It will also be easier when we are his only caregivers.

Ethiopia is a totally different world. Went on a tour of the city today and I am amazed we were not in an accident or didn't run someone over. I was feeling a bit ill by the time we made it back. Not looking forward to more driving here.

Communication is sketchy. I don't think we will be able to call/email as often as I would like, but we'll do our best to keep you posted.

hang on sloopy, sloopy hang on. . .one more day

Yes, I have a list of things to do, but I still wanted to put another post out there. Hey, I'm multitasking as we speak: blogging, eating and doing laudry!

So, anyone out there ever have a minor freak out moment in a bank?? Please don't let me be the only one who has had to do breathing exercises while standing at the counter. You see, I called our bank a couple of weeks ago to order nice, newer clean bills for our trip. Ethiopia isn't quite on the plastic system like we are here in the states, and they require that our money is 2001 or newer. Oh, and it's best to take 50s and 100s because the exchange rate is better and you have fewer bills to carry. So, no problem -- bank said they would order it for me and told me when to go and pick it up. I went yesterday (2 days before traveling, mind you) and found our bank in the middle of a "temporary emergency." Whaaa???? So, I went back later when the "temporary emergency" was apparently over and found the woman that I had spoken with on the phone. I then learned that they hadn't ordered me any 50s or 100s -- only 20s. So, while I stood there trying not to hyperventilate, she and another worker went digging in the money to find me the bills that I needed. All seemed well when I left the bank money in hand. All was not so well when I looked the bills over when I got home -- 1999, 1996, etc. Oh. No. Panic attack starts to return. Hubby comes home and takes over. He calls a different bank, tells them the situation, leaves, returns, we have new money. bing bang boom. Crises over.
(Do you ever feel sometimes like someone somewhere is just playing with ya?)

Good news: B&N came through for us! We have the 2 books we ordered, so I now have something to read on the plane. Hallelujah!!

Special thanks going out to our friend, Mary. (I know she is just thrilled that we are naming her here. Yeah, not so much, right, Mary?) She is not only transporting us and all of our luggage to the airport tomorrow, but she is going to be in charge of J until Jen can get up here from Cincy. Then, to top it all off, she's organizing some meals for us when we return home. This is vital to our survival as Mark will be returning to work and I can't cook. And also thanks to Jill for reminding me that I should ask for help with food. Hey, I could live on cereal, but the kids need more than that.

Well, I better get busy. Lots to do before J comes home -- tonight is family dinner/movie/snuggle night. A very important one.

Oh, and one more thought: GO BUCKEYES!! O-H!! I-O!! (yes, I will still wear my scarlet and gray tomorrow.)
:)
ciao for now.

T minus, um, not much

Good thing my to-do list is getting shorter because we are running out of time!!
Let's see, this is Thursday, right??

Here's the update:

* So far, all is well. We are packed, the important paperwork is ready, and nerves seem to be in check.

* One screw up: We ordered the Lonely Planet Amharic Phrasebook online from B&N, as well as a book for me to read on the plane. Supposed to ship within 24 hours. Nope. They've had some sort of glitch and won't get it here until after we leave. I keep picturing someone in a warehouse trying to remember where they put the Amharic phrasebooks. As one who used to work for a book wholesaler and had the pleasure of spending days in a large warehouse full of books (pure heaven for me) I can totally see Amharic phrasebooks being misplaced. I want to call them and say, "Go check where you shelved the Lonely Planet Arabic books." Oy. What's worse is that my friend Jen got me started on a new book series, and I'm dying for book 2! (It's the Stephanie Meyer "Twilight" books -- young adult, vampires, surprisingly captivating.)

* House is a mess. Gotta clean it today. Driving me nuts.

* J has been practicing his good-byes. He comes up to me, gives a big hug, and says, "Bye-Bye, Mommy." He tries to sound all sad and pathetic -- he's pretty good at that. More than once I have caught him cracking a smile, so I know he's just trying to get to me. Smart kid.

* Speaking of J, I have to do a bit of bragging and a bit of embarrassing. On Tuesday, they had this thing at his school called a Town Meeting. Basically a group of about 13 second graders were chosen to get up in front of other 2nd graders and parents to read something that they had written. J was chosen for this. So, I went to his school and crammed into the library with the rest of the proud parents, and two of the 2nd grade classes came and sat on the floor to listen to the presentations. There is nothing like being in the presence of a bunch of 8-year-olds to remind you how normal (and great!) your own kid is. Oh my. Some of the kids seemed to a tad spaced out on their meds, other kids appeared to need some meds, and then most of them were fairly well-behaved 2nd graders. J did an awesome job of waiting his turn and then getting up in front of the crowd and reading about his Favorite Fall Day into the microphone. I was very proud of him. (One kid got up there, said his name, and then ran off.) Whenever I wonder if my son is too crazy, wild, ill-mannered, etc., it helps to hang out with his peers. Makes him look like the model of maturity -- and if you know J, that really says something about the other kids!

Now for the embarrassing part:
J is a snuggler. Don't know when he will give this up, but for now it is a must for him. He LOVES LOVES LOVES to snuggle up with mom and dad. So, he's telling me the necessary steps for snuggling. Step 1: First, you find a tender woman. (WHAT?! How old are you? 30?)
Step 2: Then, you fart in her ear. (Oh yeah, you're an 8-year-old boy. How could I forget.)
His favorite word of the moment has been tender. Mommy are you tender? Mom, you're tender. Mom, what does tender mean?

* We'll attempt to blog and email while we are away. I apologize in advance if it doesn't happen as often as I would like. We'll see what happens. And to all of you who have children in the House of Hope, we will be sure to give them lots of hugs and kisses for you.

That's all for now. I'll try to post at least one more time before we head out on Saturday. Everybody enjoy The Game for us!
:)

the countdown is on. . .

Only 5 days to go. Here are the highlights:

1. Pink coat! As noted previously, our daughter has a particular pink coat that she is wearing in just about every picture we have of her. We've been a little worried about whether she might be attached to this coat and dealing with the probability of having to leave it behind. Well, thanks to my super-most-wonderful-est friend, Suzanne, it is less of a worry now. Upon seeing the pics and hearing that we have yet to get a new pink coat, Suzanne leaped into action and recently informed me that a pink coat is on the way! How cool is that? Thanks, Suzanne!

2. Packing is a pain. I'm usually pretty good at packing myself, M, and J, but this has been a whole new experience for me. My stuff has been easy. It's been all the things for 2 kids (whom I have yet to meet) who need things for a week in a warmish third world country before arriving in the U.S. midwest in late November. We also have to include small gifts for the workers in the transition home. (What do you possibly give to people who have been caring for your children for the past several months???) Of course, there are also the small backpacks and diaper bag for the trip home -- not to mention all the diapers! I somehow managed to get the donations into one large bag instead of two smaller ones. Fortunately, I am almost done with it all. Can't say it's pretty, but at this point I don't really care.

3. I have almost wrapped up my classwork. Have a few more papers to read and some copies to make, but I should be ready to turn it all over to the sub. Hallelujah.

4. Plans seem to be in place for the care of J and Willoughby kitty.

5. Made the realization this weekend that this is my last week left of being a mom to just J. What an odd mixture of emotions that created. Mainly just weird to think about. After all, he has been it for the past 7+ years now.

6. We're leaving in 5 days!! AAAAAGGGGHHHHH!

can't wait!
:)

In the words of the prophet...

In the words of the prophet, Dave Matthews, "Open up my head and let me out..."

So we're 8 days from travel, and our carefree lifestyle isn't changing much. Lots of little projects to accomplish (cat flap on the basement door so the kiddos don't experiment with gravity there), packing still to be done, and lists to be made. Okay, so I generally leave it to C to make the lists. It's always been my way to keep the to-do list in the place where I have the most room -- my big, mostly empty head. But lately the empty spaces seem to be filling up.

Let's face it, we're about to undergo a radical, life-changing transition, and we find ourselves as worried about helping others cope with that change as with dealing with it in our own hearts. Friends and family are counting down with us, and trying to gauge our emotional barometers as t(ravel)-day approaches. My bosses are clearly a lot more concerned about whether brownie baking will go as well without me for a short week than what two new children in a new house with a new family will do to my lifestyle short- and long-term (as wonderful as they've been to me over the years, they haven't asked me once about how any of this actually feels). We're panicked about our new daughter's ever-present pink coat (she's wearing it in all the pictures) and whether she'll have to leave it behind. J wondered aloud last night about whether we'll pay attention to him any more once the newbies come home. And it seems like suddenly all our alma maters (we have 5 between us) are calling and asking if we can spare some cash for capital campaigns. Maybe when we come back will send them some birr. Think they'd give us a good conversion rate?

Makes you wish the idea of the pensieve from Harry Potter was real, in a way.

But like C said a few weeks ago -- maybe an 18-hour flight is just what we need. Anyone have reading suggestions? I have a library card and a gift certificate for Barnes and Noble, and maybe I'll get a spare few minutes in the next week (between cat flaps, storm doors, brownies, laundry, packing, inventory, training, recipe development, shopping, list-making, and holding J very close as often as possible) to look for literature.

So in the words of the prophet: "Open up my head and let me out...BABY!!"

was it something i ate?

Last year, on the eve of the Ohio State-Michigan game, I woke up in the middle of the night barfing my brains out. And I couldn't stop. Even when nothing was left in me, for some unknown reason, my body felt the need to continue purging. I have never felt that sick before in my life. We ended up taking the most torturous trip to Urgent Care -- a little tip: never drive bumpy, curvy backroads when your passenger is feeling pukey. We left Urgent Care with a prescription for some magic pills: anti-nausea meds. Ok, so I still felt crappy, but at least I wasn't attempting to hurl my intestines anymore. My wonderful hubby set me up on the futon with the game on even though by that point I could care less about it. I remember in my sort-of-conscious state attempting to yell, "Go, Go, Go!" to some Buckeye running down the field, and of course I was happy they won, but in the end I was truly thankful for being able to drink some tea and eat some crackers without seeing it all again a few minutes later.

So why am I reminiscing about that day? Because I realized that this year we will be traveling to pick up our kids on the day of the big game. We will probably already be at the airport when the game starts, and we'll be sitting in D.C. when it is over. I have something much more important in life to be concerned with on that day than whether the Buckeyes get embarrassed at the Big House. (I wasn't planning on them winning this year anyway.) It's kind of nice for life to provide this reality check for me. Sports and other entertainment are nice distractions, but I think it is important to remember that they are just that: entertaining distractions. I'm looking forward to the brand of entertainment our kids are going to provide. Of course, raising kids might also be seen as a sport. Too bad they don't come with a rules manual and a referree!

Ok, need to get back to packing and other trip projects. Only 10 more days!!

our carefree life. . .

So, we're leaving for Ethiopia in 2 weeks. 2 weeks. 15 days, actually. Strangely, it is both not soon enough and way too fast. A very odd feeling.

Let's see. . .travel arrangements have been made, and we have most of the additional paperwork ready (the paperwork NEVER stops! all you people out there who think you are done because you turned in your dossier, HA! keep that friendly notary at the bank on speed dial.) Some donations have been gathered, and I've even started packing some of them! Things are pretty much ready for the kids when they come home -- even car seats, thanks to their Auntie Jill and Uncle Eric. We will be able to drive them home from the airport in a legal and safe manner.

Things still to do: Get packed, get travel money, finish up a couple of remaining documents, put together a photo album and letter for birth relatives, get small gifts to give to orphanage workers, see about a flu shot, go to the eye doctor, contact our pediatrician, create a "how to take care of J while we're gone" manual, and prep my class for the sub taking over when I leave.

To top it all off, I have a cold and a cat who insists on pooping on the floor. (My apologies to those staying in our house while we are gone; there will be, more than likely, some poopy issues to deal with. The vet claims they did not find a physical illness, so we're trying different things. Unfortunately for us, Willoughby, and our carpet, dealing with it has to go on the backburner for now.)

There are, of course, all kinds of other things on the agenda: Getting LegoLand moved from the family room to J's bedroom, helping with homework, grading, teaching, double-header soccer game on Saturday, soccer banquet, department meeting, cleaning, never-ending laundry, J's eye appointment, and who knows what else. Sitting on an airplane for 17 hours straight sounds pretty good to me right now!

2 more weeks, 2 more weeks, 2 more weeks. . .

1+2=3

After an agonizing wait to hear court results, we finally received word on Tuesday afternoon that they are now officially our kids. We leave November 17th to go get them.

More later. Just wanted to finally get a pic up.

:)