Tentative Travel!

We are told to plan for tentative travel for June 14-18th. Why tentative? Because the CDC has changed the law and now the kids must be tested for TB there in ET. If the results are negative, we travel. If positive, we wait..for a long time..until they are healed. That could prolong for up to 6 months.

I am NOT claiming that!! We hope to hear this week that they don't have TB.

So the flights I have found this far are:

option 1: 2800.00 each for us round trip/girls 20oo.oo long lay over

option 2: 1800.00 each for us round trip/girls 1500.00 long lay over in Amsterdam

option 3: 1300.00 each for us round trip/girls 1400.00 NO lay over

I put option 2 and 3 on hold.

I keep thinking, we will be travelling 15-18 hours with 2 girls we have never met. What snacks do they like? Can I keep them out of the snacks while at the hotel? How do they stay entertained? Especially M, she looks like a pistol! :0)

Time Out~ Fun Pic Break ~ This is how our boys have fun!!

Here is an email from my dear friend about some of my MANY questions.

We booked our flights with Sue Parr travel. I think they're all the same. Ask for the mission rate - you're on a mission. We thought the prices were high, but they are what they are. I think we paid near 5500 total for flights. It was painful. The part thats hard to swallow is that your not in country for very long and very restricted. Then we remember that it's an adoption mission. We can't wait to go back when the kids are older and can handle it. The hotel, food, shopping is all very inexpensive!We had a huge layover in DC on our way out, 12 hours. Are you taking a laptop? That gave us something to do. We just hung out and walked around, window shopped, ate, walked, hung around, window shopped etc. It was harder on the way back b/c suddenly we had these 2 children who didn't eat any thing we offered them, they were exhausted and Mulugeta was shutting down. Selam was winding up. She took off on us and I had to run and grab her. It was a bit embarrassing esp when everyone looked at me and figured out that I was .... inexperienced with her and she looked a bit 'wild'. That stage went by fast.... My suggestion is coloring books, crayons, stickers, small toys. I found a 'flatsy patsy' (?) doll. Hand sized, with a tiny comb and hair bows. Selam loved that. I also found a few activity books, they didn't LOVE them, but colored them a little. buy a couple of sets of crayons or coloring pencils. The kids share and lose their things at the hotel. This way you can keep stuff for the flight home.The kids like fresh foods. Canned tomatoes aren't appealing to them, yet fresh ones are. And like our own kids, their likes and dislikes are as varied from one to the next. Mulugeta and Selam have totally different tastes.We did pack 6 bottles of water in our check in luggage to have when we got to the hotel. We were told that we might not get anything until the morning and we arrived around 11pm. There were people on staff when we got there. The water was good to have back at the room before we figured out the whole system. Keep your tooth brushes out of the bathroom. There is a little desk/mirror/shelves just outside the bathroom in your room. That's a good place to keep them so you're not tempted to brush with water. OH BY THE WAY - it's ok for the kids to use the water. You may double check with Almaz, but our kids did and they did ok. All the kiddos have parasites that are regional and they'll rid their bodies of them within 6 months of eating in America without medication. Get ready for their.... stink.... when they go to the bathroom... they're still quite potent.....(sorry - too much information?) :-)A women on our trip had altitude sickness, dizzy, light headed, nauseous. I had those blue wrist bands from Walmart that use pressure points for treatment. They're about $5. YOu might want to get a pair. I didn't have any issues. I'm a water drinker and don't know if that helped. I also operated in survival mode....I cried a lot when I was there. I'm not a public crier - but that didn't stop me. It's a very emotionally quick brutal visit to the third world. I cried a lot for the loss of our birth family and the need for us to even be a part of this whole unreal experience. I cried at night a lot. We didn't sleep from about midnight til 3o4 so. We were just awake. It was a good prayer, talk time. We didn't realize we were both awake at first. I also cried b/c I had doubt that I could do all of this, and I was very scared. It's such an experience. The whole hair thing was pretty foreign to me... The kids wet their hair daily and my new hairdresser said that would dry it out, but we just started doing that. It's pretty dry, and unmanagable. We wash once a week. I rub her head a lot. There were a lot of dry crusties in it, now there are very few. She itches her scalp at times and this tells me the shampoo is drying. I like Caroline's Daughter products, but they are expensive. They use coconut oil or olive oil on the babies hair, I think olive oil will get on every thing, and I just started using the coconut oil before bed. A women told me to comb it out each morning and night, and apply lotion. She even suggested vaseline, she used it when money was tight. Doing your girls hair is such a wonderful bonding time. I had that with my daughter and felt guilty b/c my son didn't need me to do his hair. (20 yrs ago -oh that makes me feel ....old-er) So now when I'm doing Selam's hair I feel that same feeling with Mulugeta. I let him in my personal space - lean on me etc. The Special Mom's will do your girls hair during your shopping trip. They'll do what you want... if they can understand you. I didn't request anything but some of the moms did.

WE PASSED COURT!

At 1:35 the boys and I were listening to our Amhariac language cd and book. My phone rang and Christy's name showed up! I ran outside and sat in the sunshine to take this in. Could this be IT or what?! She said she tried to call and the number said it couldn't connected. So, thank the Lord, she tried again. I sat there smiling and said yes, uh-huh, yep. I said "How are you?" She said, "Well, I have some good news!". "Oh really, that is awesome".
She said we passed our court date. I asked if the birth mom made it ok. She said that she obviously had. She said that if she were to pass away due to sickness, Almaz usually finds out if there is a death just from word of mouth of the people in the area. Sometimes she will try to attend the funeral. Please Lord, give me one day with her. Let our hands hold each others and let just one prayer be prayed to you together. If You will let me ask of one more thing through this process, that is it.

Our girls dear mother is in my heart forever. I have her name along with the other listed family members names written in the back of my Bible. I will pray for them always.

She said to call our travel agencies and get our travel tickets put on hold. Tentative travel dates are June 14th - June 18th. She said that tickets are getting snatched up quickly so we really need to do this.

We are so thankful. The boys. Justin and I. How can this be and yet we knew it in our hearts all along.

Jersey Bethlehem and Jerusa Mahder are ours! Welcome to our family!

Tonight is Our Court Night

How do we feel? We feel a strong peace and intense joy. We feel the prayers of those that love and concern themselves with thinking of us. We feel that God has it all in His hands. We feel sure and secure.

Monday night we met with Richard, a guy from Ethiopia and I would like to take notes about our meeting.

Greeting-The common thing is to kiss on the right cheek, kiss on the left, and kiss again on the right. Women to women and men to women do this. It's instead of shaking hands.

First Impression-When you get off of the airplane at the beginning, you may find many sick, crippled, poor people begging. Even some leppers. He asks that we remember that often times this is an act and looks can be decieving. The ones who are really in need are not able to even make it to the busy streets or able to beg due to health and poor situations.

Safety-He wears shorts inside his pants and keeps his valuables in those interior pockets. He wouldn't recommend going outside Ethiopia. However Kenya isn't so bad. He also said that the media, BBC usually, exaggerates the current wars and rumors of violence from what he has seen. Just like he watched movies of America and was afraid to wander in the large cities for fear of violence. The media may not always be so trusting.

Food-Injera is the basis of nearly every meal. People can make it homemade or buy it at the store. He compares it more to a pancake than anything else. This is eaten with lunch and supper. Left overs(which I forgot the name) is eaten for breakfast. He also said that when we hear of a food shortage in Ethiopia it means that the main ingredient to make injera is lacking in supply. That causes the food shortage since it is such a staple. Soda is served in bottles, glass mostly but plastic is becoming more popular.

Travel-The large 15 passenger vans are cheaper then the smaller cars. They each are called taxi's and the price can be negotiated. Sometimes the driver will really try to over charge you. Travel light when sight seeing.

Clothing-The women wear a shawl around their shoulders and sometimes over their heads. Many of them also have a green ink tattoo going down the side of their face. A line with dashes. Not sure what it stands for.

Children-The street children are many and they have great needs. Often times they are orphans.

Adoption-
I feel like this is a valuable insight that my husband and I neither one thought of. This is only one story but a point of view I have never heard and I hope it doesn't offend any of you adopting families. I only hope this brings a new light to our thoughts here. This is his familys story.
His mother is over a ministry in their church IEA called "people in need". They deliver packages of needs to those less fortunate in the surrounding areas. She brought one to a very sick mother with HIV. Sitting beside her was her 10 month old little girl. Richards mom continued visiting, bringing goods and sharing Jesus with this women. The women asked her to adopt her baby as her own as she knew she was going to die. The village people heard about this and one day, they kidnapped the baby. They sold the baby to an orphange and Richard's family was left heart broken. As we would be. I believe this is why the government has stopped all abandoned cases for the moment. This was an abandoned case, as the mother never got to sign the baby over to anyone.

I know it is hard to think about, especially for those of you who are in love with that little joy. But maybe this will help us see the other side. That the government is looking out for it's people. Not just pulling our hearts around at it's will and abilities.

Crafting It Forward-------->

Here is what happens when you give your child the camera for a second! close-up of himself.

crazy face for daddy.

his brother becoming a wind-up toy! haha

and blurry mommy. (I like it this way!)

On Friday we got our 171 approval from the USCIS stating we are capable of adopting! Well thank the Lord for that. It is a big relief to know.

Tomorrow night we are meeting with Richard Ndbembe(sp). He is the guy we met at Agapefest who is from Ethiopia. His parents are pastors of a church there and we would love to attend it and meet them too. Richard is going to work with us on our Ahmaharic speaking and talk with us over dinner about the lifestyle there. He leaves next week to go back home and he's very excited to go back.

Now, on to the title of this post...

Here's the deal:

I am joining the fabulous Rachel in the "Crafting it Forward" experiment!

The first three people to comment on this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you! The catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and give the same offer to the first three commenters who will also craft it forward.This offer has some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantee that you will like what I make.

2. What I create will be just for you.

3. It will be done this year.

4. You have no clue what it's going to be.

5. I reserve the right to make something extremely strange.

6. You must post a picture of what you win when you get it. (if you so desire).

Court is in One Week~

In one week our family can permanently change forever. This young man could be the big brother to two twin brothers and two little sisters. I know that God has already put a deep love in his heart for both of them. It is going to be awesome to see them together with him.

This boy, who is a pure momma's boy will have two more girls to loven and that he will. He has always been the one to follow the girls around;) He can play anything a girl wants him too and he can be very cuddly and gentle for a boy anyway!

This guy is one in a million. He loves to cook so maybe they will have that in common ( I think it has been said that M likes to eat!). He will have a great time with these girls and it's going to be just a sure joy to find out that these girls are ours legally. Even though they already are in our hearts.

Updates about B..poor M ;0)

This is the outside of the girls bedroom. They are upstairs. The main floor is the guest room and then a basement.This is a birds eye view of the spiral stair case connecting the three levels. The nooks where B and M's beds will be!

This is the frame of their room. To the left is the closet, the bed nooks, the windo, the spiral staircase walled up with a locking door and a space for toys or a dresser. Still thinking about colors but I'd love to do white washed barn wood with some bright colors..

These are the goodies I bought at TJMaxx with the Ethiopian lady that works there! The girls have a friend Ella who bought them their sunglasses:) She thinks they are here already and asks for them everytime she comes over! haha ___B UPDATES___

I have lots of pictures of B! She LOVED my husband! She absolutely loves posing for the camera. I would maybe bring a little camera for her to take pictures with because she couldn't get enough of the camera. She really liked playing volleyball with my husband. They hit the ball back and forth for quite some time. She is very sweet and outgoing. I think some of the other girls kinda looked up to her too because they would always listen to her and she would help out with some of the younger kids. She also loved touching our hair - she was very fascinated with it. She is very affectionate too, she would kiss my husband's cheek and hand and just wanted to be loved. We have too many pics to email, so I'll get the pictures onto a photo site and send you a link. You have a LOVELY daughter and she definitely stole my husband's heart!! We would love to get updates on her as well - so please keep us posted on how she's doing. :)

---thank Dawn

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It sounds like your B is the one I spent time with she is a precious beautiful little girl,very loving. One of the days we were at Hannah's Hope we were sitting outside with Tamirat and she came over to us and was looking at him. I started to talk to her and she told me her name. B__. She hugged me and climbed up on my lap for a little bit. There were always other girls around her. some of them seemed very shy and one would take a few steps closer to me when i wasn't looking but your little girl is awesome. I was so hoping that she had a family waiting. Can't wait until you can bring her home.

---thanks Renee

2 weeks until court!!

I have so much to tell. I'll use bullets to make it short and sweet:

• last week I shopped at a T.J. Maxx. The manager there was a beautiful young Ethiopian woman who has lived there for 15 years. She was lovely to talk to and was so excited for us to adopt. She checked me out as I bought these items
• this past weekend we went to Agapefest. It's a small scale Christian woodstock with popular artists such as Decemeberadio, Toby Mac, Skillet, etc. Good time! A local college student from ET came to meet us and sat and talked to us for a long time. He told us about his parents church, how he loves it there, and he thinks injera tastes more like a pancake than anything else. Thank you Richard!
• Monday we got our shots! Ouch ..5 a piece. Yesterday I was very flu like but it will be worth it. They kept telling us..you should travel more and use these up. I agree. I hope we get to make a normal thing out of this.
• Today I got an email from someone on the listserv with an update on B!!! with so many photos she has to upload them to a site. She sounds so great. We can't wait.
• Lastly, tomorrow marks our 2 weeks until mark. It is also the National Day of Prayer. Ironic, I think not! Believing on Him.

hope all is well with everyone else!!

Ready to see our girls face to face. We love you beauties!