Today is Christmas Eve. We got home yesterday.

Ethiopia is a beautiful country. The people are friendly and nice. Their way of life is very “live and let live” and they care about each other. They don’t sweat the small stuff like we do. Family is a way of life, not just something you have or do. The adults treat the children as if they’re each an amazing person, not a small annoyance that’s running around making noise. And the children are very well-behaved. In these ways, Ethiopia is far superior to the USA.

Sadly, there is huge amounts of poverty. Driving around you can see tiny little huts on the side of roads; families live in these. Some are about the size of your bathroom. They provide shelter and nothing else. These people cook right outside their huts. They clean their clothes in mud puddles. Their small children walk around half naked so they don’t soil their clothes. There are fences and tall gates around homes, some churches, and many semi-private areas (like guest houses and businesses).

The orphanages are many. They, too, are surrounded by tall fences. At the top of the fences (which were cinder block or metal), there would be broken glass or barbed wire to keep people out. Each of them has a guard or two to protect the children. The smallest orphanage we visited had about 20 children, 5 or 6 of which were infants. The oldest was a mid-teen. The largest had about 45 kids, 12 were babies. The children are allowed to play. They are taken care of and loved and protected by nannies and “sisters” (nuns). In the baby room in one orphanage, it was obvious when a particular baby would spot their main caretaker. The child would smile and light up. So there is definitely love between the children and caretakers. This made it less heartbreaking. But it was still very sad that all these children didn’t have a true family.

The children were healthy (many had colds and runny noses, but that’s expected where there’s a lot of kids). Of about 100 kids, I saw only one with special needs. We were allowed to go where we wanted to go, but not allowed to take pictures. It’s against the child trafficking laws, so we were more than happy to follow the rules to protect the kids.

We were able to complete the adoption. We now have 4 children. Milinium Grace is going to be called Mili for short. She’s supposed to be 14 months old, but judging from size and development and orphanage, I’m guessing she’s 10 months, 11 months at most. She’s got the chubbiest cheeks I’ve ever seen, curly hair and loves to stick out her tongue.

We go back in the end of February or beginning of March to bring her home. As jet lag wears off, I’ll put pictures up. But I have her pic as my Facebook profile if you’d like to see her

Today is Tuesday; we leave for Ethiopia on Friday morning. It’s hard to imagine we’ll be leaving in just a few days. Very surreal; I can’t picture something I’ve never experienced.

I’m so excited to meet our new baby! Paul’s excited for the whole trip; he’s very adventurous as far as going to a country and just being at home and walking around. So he’s gonna take the lead for the touristy stuff.

I don’t know what to say…My mind is kinda numb because I’ve been doing paperwork and waiting so long. Plus there’s a few other things going on right now that I can’t quite say yet.  And Christmas on top of it all!

That and we can’t bring her home yet, so it’s just a trip and then more waiting. It’s just very surreal.

Oh, the dreaded potty-training. Visions of wet beds, poopy underwear and soggy bum prints in the car seat.

When we were training Pierce, it was a few months before Dean was born (he was a little over 2 1/2 yrs).  And when Dean made his appearance and so much time and attention went to him instead of Pierce, Pierce’s potty habits regressed. Noticeably.

Dean will be 2 1/2 next month. And we’ll be gone for a week in December and again in January or February. So rather than deal with digression, we decided to wait until after we bring our new baby home. Logical right?

Dean disagrees.

He decided yesterday, he wanted to wear underwear.

I thought, Oh, how cute! Especially after he had them on 30 seconds and immediately took them off and insisted he have his diaper back.

But a few hours later, he wanted his undies back. So, being cynical (since I obviously know everything having trained 2 kids already) I knew it would last, at most, an hour.

He went 5 hours with no accidents. Frequently he’d run over to his little plastic Pooh bear potty and say “Pee!” and go pee. Or not. But he’d try.

Ok, Paul & I thought, this kid is just training himself! He watches his big brother and knows what to do.

This morning, I asked Dean if he wanted new undies from the store. YEAH! he shouted and said, “Blue!” So off we went and bought Toy Story and Cars undies.

He’s had them on all day so far (but since he took a nap in my bed, I did use a diaper then) with no accidents. He didn’t even pee in the diaper during nap time (though he did during the store trip).

He woke up from his nap and walked to me, undies in hand, grinning.

Amazing…I actually have a kid that is training himself.

I didn’t know there was a month dedicated to adoption, but there is. If you google it, there’s great information out there.

I must admit, I’m a little nervous about what people’s questions will be when we bring our little girl home, but I’m doing my best to find snarky appropriate answers to rude curious strangers and associates.

“Is she yours?”  me: No, I just like to pick up random children to take to the grocery store (park, mall, etc.).

“What happened to her real parents?” me: They were too busy being president and first lady, so I said I’d take over.

“Didn’t that cost a lot of money?” me: No, thankfully we have medical insurance like we did with our others. (that should confuse them a bit.)

I did find a couple interesting links HERE and HERE if you’re interested.

I have been amazed and humbled by the orphanage donations we’ve been given by our friends.

We have a big stack of clothes, books, toothpaste, toothbrushes and toys.  We have a nice chunk of money.

I can’t wait to take it to those little kids!!

Today after church, I picked up a bunch of stuff from the Relief Society room and took it to my car. (Relief Society is the women’s organization….primary for kids, young men and young women for teens.) Pierce was very excited to play with the toys, but I explained they were for the orphanage in Ethiopia that his sister is coming from. I told him how the kids don’t have much there and how excited they would be for new toys.

He listened and then said, “Maybe I can give them one of my cars to play with so some little boy can have a  car.”

I am so thankful for all of you that have so generously given. I’m thankful for the kindness in people’s hearts to help children they have never (or will never) see. I’m thankful that you’re setting the loving example for my little 5-year-old boy.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Well, not right away…but sooner than we thought! Can I just scream “YAY!!” right now?

We got our call today…I was a little confused, because I was told, “We got your date for court. You can travel on December 17th, arriving on the 18th. And court is on the 21st, so you can catch a flight out on the 22nd and be home before Christmas.”

I was speechless. Because first, there is a court date (that we don’t have to be present for). When we pass that, THEN we get a travel date.  So I was a little confused.

“So we passed the first court already?”

“No, they combined them to be on the same day.”

Wow…

Yep…expecting one thing but getting something way better and sooner. I get to see my baby girl right before Christmas. Best. Gift. EVER.

I have decided to ask everyone to please take this opportunity to help out an orphanage in Ethiopia.

I’m going to take a suitcase (or more) of things for the orphanage our soon-to-be daughter is coming from. I asked our agency what they need and she gave me a list. I’m planning on taking over some clothes, but I’m sure they wouldn’t mind more.

So PLEASE…if you can help, please do so. You can give me the items or, if you prefer, cash. Everything will go directly from my hand to the director of the orphanage.  One great benefit of cash is the dollar is stretched further there; they’d be able to buy more than we would here.

But here are the items I’d like to take:

• children’s blankets
• children’s books (yes, in English)
• diapers
• wipes
• crocs or flip-flops
• games
• toys (without batteries)
• children’s medicines (tylenol, cold & flu, etc)
• toothbrushes & paste

If I use up my quota of check-on weight for suitcases, I can always take more the second time! So please don’t ever feel it’s too late if you want to help. TIA

I emailed our agency today with a few questions, one of which was a possible time line.

She promptly wrote back (as she always does…love her!) and said the wait time is about 2 months! Then another couple months to the first travel dates and another 2 to the final/pick up date.

Of course, all this is approximate and subject to change…either sooner (if we’re lucky) or later (if there’s delays). It’s the end of July now; so her dates are September for referral, November for the first travel (when we meet her) and January for the second travel (to pick her up).

Exciting news

But for now, I’ve got back-to-school shopping and getting ready within the next few weeks, then soccer right after that for Gab & Pierce. And there’s always the church stuff to keep me busy. I’m definitely looking forward to the referral and meeting her, but I think when people look too far ahead, they rush or miss what’s going on now. And for now, I have a busy 2-year-old, a soon-to-be Kindergartner, and a 2nd-year-middle-schooler! I’m sure the time will fly by, as it always does when I blink.

Today, our dossier is on its way to D.C. & the Ethiopian Embassy!!

In 2 weeks, it should be in Ethiopia!!!

YAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!

This basically means in 2 weeks, the official “wait” will begin. Wow…

I actually finished a book with chapters!! I’m embarrassed to say it’s the first one since Dean was born. Yep, 2 years…I used to be an avid reader, but other things and fatigue usually change my time I once spent for reading.

Anyway, it was a good book. Upbeat, positive yet keeping a real perspective. I recommend it to anyone that knows us