Adoption

I have a funny story from Mother's day (yes, I know. I'm running behind!). On Mother's day the whole family drove to Atlanta to see Grandpa George who was here briefly for a visit.  We were all thrilled to see him even though it was only a day.
For lunch we went in to a chicken place to get some chicken for a picnic lunch since we were trying to avoid the crowds. It worked because we were the only family there when we walked in. The manager and one of the other workers were talking at the front counter and greeted us as we walked up. After the a moment the manager looked at me holding Katie with Miriam and Evan at my side and the following conversation ensued.

Manager: "Happy Mother's Day!"
Me: "Thank you"
Manager: "I always wanted three, but after one I could never push another one out!"
Me: laugh "Well, it's not like I had to push them out."
Manager: "Oh, did they cut them out?"
Me: "Uh.... no."
Manager: confused look
Me: "They were all adopted."
Manager: "Oh."

Either she didn't notice that I am mother to a Black child, a Hispanic child, and an Asian child (in which case I commend her) or she thought I'm one "busy" woman!! LOL

I have a few links to some other blogs I've been wanting to post for awhile. First there is my friend Jen over at The Road to Ethiopia and Back. She is doing a series of posts on first family contact in adoption. I think she has some good things to say especially since she is on two sides of the adoption triad.

Then there is my newest fav charity, Drawn From Water. This is a new organization devoted to helping the children of a tribe in southwestern Ethiopia. The Karo tribe is bond by superstitions which require parents to kill children who are considered cursed or imperfect for such things as the circumstances of their birth or the order their teeth erupt in. Drawn From Water is working to provide the parents an alternative and to save the lives of these children. They presently have 10 of these children in their care and are looking to expand their orphanage. They need support. Check them out.

And lastly, I wanted to link to an incredible story and a family who is taking on a huge task. This family adopted a 13 year old girl from China giving them 5 children at home. They thought they were done. However when they arrived in China they learned that their new daughter had TWO biological brothers!! They are now on a crazy ride trying to get these two boys adopted as well. Go read their story.

WOW. That's all I can say about this powerful poem writen by Dorothy of Urban Servant.

What can I teach you about being Black?
Not much,
Because I'm not.
But a I can teach you about pain,
And how to forgive peoples foolish words.
I can show you how to endure suffering,
So that through it Truth will be proclaimed.
I can love you and cry with you,
I can be the she-bear when you are threatened.
We can live where there is a rainbow of people,
and we can learn to love them together.
We can seek out the truth of history,
And not be afraid of the ugliness.
I can open your heart and your eyes
To the painful reality that comes
clinging to the back of sin.

And in the end,
I can release you into your destiny,
And wait for you to come home,
With a fuller understanding of who you are
and what you are to be in your life.
Then I can listen as you teach me,
What it means to be Black.

I am a nurse. I have been a labor & delivery nurse... I have seen hundreds (thousands?) of births. They are all different, all special, all moving on a certain level. But I find that I struggle to "get into" the births hidden inside the whirling medical world of elective c-sections, epidurals, and doctor-focused care. The births that move me, inspire me, fill me with awe are those where the woman knows she has wrestled with God and, walking on the very edge of the abyss, she has won another life to join the ranks of the human race.

Miriam is finally officially a US citizen!!  Well, she has been one technically since Dec 2005 when we re-adopted her here in the US, but the US Government requires that you fill all kinds of crazy paperwork and pay them hundreds of dollars in order to be able to prove that!  I sent off all the paperwork last May...  It just took them all of a year, but today we finally got her Certificate of Citizenship!!  Yea!  All the paperwork for Miriam is FINALLY done.

After the whole insensitive mess with Teleflora and NBC, I can not give Pearle Vision enough credit for this WONDERFUL commercial. Check it out!

I have seen

Well the voices of a few thousand moms were heard. Teleflora and the America's Favorite Mom sent the following apology.

I'm angry. I'm hurt. I'm outraged. I'm not sure there is a word out there to describe how it feels to be told that I (and all mothers who adopted their children) am not, in fact, a mother. No, I'm a "Non-Mom" mom according to NBC The Today Show. They are running a contest called America's Favorite Mom. How nice. The problem? They have five categories; The Working Mom, The Single Mom, The CEO "Chairman Of Everything" Mom, The Military Mom, and last (and apparently least) The Non-mom Mom.

Just wanted to quickly talk about a great website and discussion forum called Informed Adoption Advocates that I'm a part of.

Yea!! I have FINALLY gotten the Adoption Info section of this site up and running.  I have a lot more to add to the site over the next few days/weeks, but it's a start!

It's finally official!  Evan is our legal son today!  We just got back from the court house and have the papers in hand.  His name is also now legally Evan.  Yea! Yea!

Happy Adoption Day, SON! :)

Incidentally, tomorrow is the two year anniversary of our finalizing Miriam's adoption and name change here in the US. 

Danielle will be putting all kinds of information about adopting from Ethiopia, Guatemala, China, and internationally in general. Please check back here again soon!

My dear, sweet, baby girl,
Time is a funny thing... On one hand it doesn't seem possible that two years have passed since I first saw your beautiful face as you lay sleeping in your crib at the Care Center. You're growing so quickly. The little baby is all gone and in front of me is this sweet, beautiful little girl full of giggles and mischief and silliness.
On the other hand, how can it only be two years since you entered my life? What did I do before my day was full of your happy songs and flying feet? It feels like you've always been here.

Wow, hard to believe but Evan has been with us for almost six months!!
He is doing so well. Every few days he tries a new word... the word of the week is "climb!" And he does climb quite well. :) He also runs all over and follows his sister into everything.
Poor little guy is having a bit of a rough week however due to cutting four (!) teeth. Consequently Mommy is also having a rough week.

Evan has been home for over 6 weeks now. He is adjusting well. He generally a happy little guy with a great smile and giggle! We are still working on sleep issues but they too are getting better... having four new teeth finally in may have helped that!

I though that I would share an amazing story about Evan's adoption. Before we adopted Evan our family was in the process to adopt from China. We had completed our homestudy which is why we were even contacted about adopting him. Our families knew our plans to adopt from China and I had even talked with my mother, Mimmi, about coming and staying with Miriam when we traveled to get our child. The day after we learned about Evan, the same day we asked to be considered to adopt him, I called my mother to tell her about Evan and that we were being considered to adopt him.

Well, Evan has been with us for three weeks now and is settling in nicely. He still wakes 2-3 times a night but usually goes right back to sleep after a bottle. Boy can this boy eat!! It's so weird to me after having a child that lives on air to have one that can eat 3 (!!) jars of baby food at a sitting.

Yup, that's right... Miss Miriam is a big sister!

We've had Miriam for just over three months now! We have settled into a routine of sorts and Miriam is doing very well. She has finally started to sleep through the night most nights except for waking once or maybe twice. Much better then before!
She is sitting very well these days and plays well with her toys. She still refuses to roll over. She looks at me like I'm nuts when I try to get her to do it.

Wow! How times flies! We've been home for two months as of today.
Miriam has gone from 13 pounds even and 25 inches long on home coming to 16 pounds and 12 ounces and 27 inches long on Wed. She is now wearing her 6-9 month clothes. My little girl is getting so big. :-)

Here are a few tips we learned when we traveled to get Miriam. I'll add to them as I think of more.

Good morning everyone and HAPPY THANKSGIVING! It is a beautiful day here in east Tennessee... sun shining, baby sleeping :-)... what more can you ask for?

It's been awhile since I have had the time to post anything on the blog... I needn't have worried about time flying by until we travel. There is just so much to do. I am leaving most of the travel arangements to Brian and our travel agent to sort out. They seem to be doing a good job! Right now it looks as if our travel dates will be leave for Kenya on Nov 4th and arrive in Ethiopia on Nov 13th. Mira will have just turned 5 months old! Actually today is her 4th month birthday. :-)

Well, now the wait to travel begins!  I'm doing pretty well with it so far but I know it is going to get very difficult to wait.  I keep thinking of my baby growing up without me in Ethiopia.  That makes me sad.  Every day she is doing things and learning things with out me.  She'll be so big by the time we get her.  And yes, I realize that compared to most international adoptions she is very young, but she may very well be the youngest child I ever have and every day missed is hard to think about.

Our referral is here!!! Praise God! at last we got the call! 

I haven't post in a while since there is no new news to report... this is NOT a case of no news is good news. On the other hand, I guess I need the extra days to get stuff done. I'm almost feeling panicky when I think of all I have to do to get ready for a baby and travel! AHHHH... must stop thinking about it and just DO. :-)

Hi, our names are Brian and Danielle. This is our story of how we came to adopt a beautiful Ethiopian princess as our daughter. We have heard a number of questions during this journey to our daughter so I thought I would try to answer them here.

There is a lot of information avalible on the web about International and Ethiopian Adoption. Here is a list of some of my favorite sites.

Lists and Forums

Adoption.com Forums A good general adoption board with a forum for Ethiopia.

CHSFS Ethiopia Forum Our agency's Forum on Ethiopia