I tried very hard to post this morning, but the Internet went down. We are back home tonight after a long, long day in Nazaret where Bella is from. We visited the orphanage that has been her home the last two years; it turns out that she was turned in at the age of about one month! 


We also visited a school that is run by the adoption agency. I have had plenty of encounters with poverty the last week, but nothing broke my heart more than the 200 orphans, many HIV, that attend this school each day with no food! They can't afford to feed them at the moment, so most just are hungry. They also have ZERO school supplies. 


I'd love to keep going, but they are staring at me to go to dinner. I will try another update in about two hours.

Update from Ethiopia

The Internet works, but it's really too slow to attempt any pictures. I actually updated on FB last night, but was distracted before I got to the blog, so I'm going to try to sum up the last three days as efficiently as possible. The flight was uneventful and we arrived to our host just as the agency promised. After flying all night, they brought us to the guest house, but set us down to eat breakfast before we saw the girls. It was killing me, but I didn't want to appear like a crazy woman and run...plus you never are sure what traditions you may be violating. After eating, we met our new little girls. They were dressed up and completely understood that we were new momma and daddy. They both came to us and kissed us upon instruction from the nanny. Isabella is the most easy going child I have ever encountered. She always has a smile, is happy to see anyone that walks through the court-yard and is thrilled with the items we produced to play with, especially bubbles.


Selah cannot be five; she is barely taller than Bella and appears to interact as about three. She was even wearing a diaper the first day, but not the second. When I asked the agency director, he told me that "that  is only orphanage paperwork" and she is about 3.5. We will be getting a bone scan done, but I'm pretty sure I am the mother of three children three and under at the moment. Selah was thrilled with us, but was having some melt-downs about sharing with the other kids. She is pretty jealous of her mommy and daddy and isn't even sure about sharing them with Bella. The second morning we brought our girls up to the front porch and played ball and bubbles with just them, (until several other kids made their way around) she handled that much better! 


I'm anxious to get Selah American medical care. We are here with a nurse and we both think that her big belly is terrible parasites. She also has some skin issues and a mouth full of cavities. It's hard to imagine that so many children here live their entire lives with these conditions. 


Yesterday was court, we were among the first to arrive and were called pretty quickly for Selah's case. Our agency director brought up our need to be pre-approved for Bella's and it didn't appear to be going very well as the judge was speaking quickly and shaking her head no. Not understanding the language, we went on with Selah's case and came out of the court room with her as our legal 10th child. The agency director then explained that he would draft a letter and we will go back in about Bella. We waited until the very end, after many adopting couples from America, France, Germany and Israel until we were called again. We repeated the process and she pre-approved us as parents when Isabella's case come back to her. Since the birth mom's death certificate is already turned in to the court, we are hoping that it is only a few weeks. 


Legally, I am going to be able to show pictures of Selah in just a few days, but Bella's (God willing) will be in a few weeks. After court, we had a great time shopping. I have a very difficult time with the obviously sick begging children in the streets. I wasn't allowed to give them money (they turn it over to a "master" and don't get to keep it). Today I have my bag packed with Slim Jims and granola bars that I'm going to hand out and hope that we don't have the mobbing experience that I created in Liberia when I decided to hand out candy.


There is so much more I can say, but we are loving our time here. I am very excited to show Alyssa all we've seen and more since we are saving the trip to the wild hippos to go on with her. Today we are heading over to the orphanage that Selah was in, in town. I found out that she was turned into a Dire Dawa orphanage (where her mother still lives) and was moved to Addis when the orphanage got too full. We are also hoping to make the four hour round trip to the area that Isabella's mom lived and visit the orphanage that she was turned into. 


I will hope to update more tonight and maybe wait through one picture to upload. If you are a member of my family, can you please FB me a message about everything at home!

Leaving

Last Post from America...I sure hope to have Internet enough to post from Ethiopia. It's hard to believe that we're 15 hours away from African soil! So far things have been smooth. My backpack was snagged in security to be searched, but the most dangerous thing I had packed was chocolate. JD is currently in line trying to get seats next to each other instead of across the aisles. Due to the time change, it will be Sunday morning when we land (although it will only feel like 2:00a.m.) so we need to get some sleep on the flight, and I would rather fall over on JD than some stranger next to me. 


Thank you, everyone, who has supported us on this journey - it's one of the high-lights of our lives!

Packing

I'm packing!

Waiting Children

This short video gives an example of the perimeters of children waiting adoption in orphanages all over the world. The label "special needs" often sounds far more alarming than the reality of many special needs.  These are the children that wait for parents while parents are often waiting themselves for a healthy infant. (Remember to pause the music at the bottom first).

Thoughts on Leaving

 I've had many, many people tell me, over the last six years of our international adoptions, that they won't consider international adoption because they can't go that far away from their kids. (Please if you have said something along these lines to me, don't think I'm talking just about you - honestly, I've heard it at least from a dozen people and don't have anyone specifically in mind). My thought is REALLY? I am a pretty Mommy-oriented person. JD and my first big fight was due to the fact that I refused to let Gabriel cry himself to sleep as a baby. I breast-fed all my children, a few for two years. I never, never left my infants. I flew my cousin (and part of her children) here to babysit my foster kids when I went to Hawaii so that I didn't have to leave them in the care of people I didn't know or trust. If lines were drawn, I would have to say that I would be on the side of sacrificing myself, and sometimes even my marriage, to put the children first. 


I say all that to show that I don't take lightly to the idea of my husband and I boarding a plane and heading overseas while we leave all our children here. In fact, I'd have to say that orphaning my children is probably my greatest fear in life. Here's how I evaluate that "risk" (which isn't really a risk because life and death is only in the hands of God) - My children live a completely privileged life. They have literally never gone to bed hungry (unless they chose it because they were being too picky). They have never had to sleep on the streets because they didn't have a home. They have never slept in fear of being kidnapped by child traffickers or being set on fire by the police that are "cleaning up the streets." My children are being required to stay one to two weeks with grandparents or friends, that may not be Mom and Dad, but are 100% capable of adequately caring for them, so that we can bring home a child that has lived for a long stretch without any of the comforts my children have, including a family! The children I am bringing home could literally have died of starvation or been  trafficked by the lowest of humanity for ill gain. 


When we look at the balance of our children vs. the international orphan and chose our children...we are saying that them living at 90% of their comfort level for TWO weeks is more important that the other children living at a 0% comfort level for their entire lives! Our children's sacrifice is so small in comparison to the gain of the orphan! How can we consider the children in our home to be so enormously more important than the children waiting for a family? How could we ever justify our reasoning to the God that placed the responsibility of caring for the orphan clearly on us?


Evaluating it like that just makes me realize how absurd the argument or reasoning really is. This is the reason I will kiss my children good-bye and board my flight on Saturday - it's Selah and Bella's turn to have a momma love them for the week!


I'll leave you with a few pictures of our Memorial Day lake pictures - 

We took Magnum. He had a blast but isn't convinced that he's a water dog. 

My baby boy - 

Gabriel, Alayna (Gabriel's girl-friend), Tori and Alyssa - 

Julia and Magnum - 

Alayna brought crabs - you can just tell how impressed Gabriel was with the process of cracking them!

Ben has never met a sea creature that he didn't love to eat!

Elijah liked them too, he just made his mommy crack them - 

Another Julia Revelation and My Favorite Verse

Right now, I do Tori's hair one week, Julia's the next and have the third week off. I have been contemplating my schedule when I have four girls' hair to keep up with. I had a revelation the other day about Julia, much as my school one a few weeks back which resulted in her attending the rest of this year at "real" school. Why, oh why, would I continue to torture her and I with these hair sessions?


 As some back-ground, I pay Ben to take Tori's hair out (while they watch a movie), then I spend two to 2 1/2 hours putting it back in while she plays with her Game Boy thingy. When it comes to Julia's, I have to take it out myself, averaging about two hours (and her crying much of it). The next day, I put it back in for about three to four hours (with her again crying much of it). She is miserable and I'm grouchy and it's overall quite the negative experience for both of us. 


I considered putting little locs in her hair about two years ago and was really swayed not to for some legitimate reasons, but none of those reasons can stand up to the reality of how difficult it is to do her hair. (For the record, she has a ton of thick, gorgeous curls, but they knot so quickly and so badly that we can not leave it undone)! So, I've made the decision to start putting in locs the minute that school ends for the year. I guess it's going to be a really long few days while we get them in (any volunteer helpers?), but it sure will help with the next several years! 

For those who don't have a clue what I'm talking about, there's a adoptive Momma on YouTube under the name Katelynlyn that taught me how to corn-row. Now I'll be following her "locing" series. So, soon enough, Julia and I can do something a bit more fun on Saturdays!

On a different note, I have wanted this verse up since I painted the walls about two years ago. I put it over the front door. Something about adopting makes me start getting some things done that have been lingering on my mental list. 

The Work Continues

JD and I have continued our never-ending work outside this last week. He finished the stairs from the deck -

He is also screening the last sections of the screened-in porch. It is going to be so wonderful to eat without bugs.

My helpers and I planted my Mother's Day rose buses. 

I have also finished (as much as I'm going to) planting the garden. Today I am going to put the tomato cages on and spray the apple trees. The apple trees appear to be dying from some fungus and my organic, all-natural stuff isn't beating it. I'm going to try the hard-core stuff before I just let them die. 

I planted two pallets of strawberries and then James and Ben wanted to plant their own little gardens. They have a cute assortment of veggies growing.

This was our last Sunday before we leave so the church prayed for us. It's so exciting to think we will be with Selah and Bella next Sunday. 

Happy Birthday Baby Girl

While we are scheduled for court on June 4th for Selah, yesterday was the preliminary hearing. Thankfully we got word today that all went well and we don't have any delays. It is also Selah's 5th birthday today, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY baby girl and this is your last birthday without cake! 


I'll get to meet my sweet birthday girl in 10 days!

The Week Before

 My list for this week, before we leave for Ethiopia, is long and filled with all the things that I want done but don't need in the last minute category. Fortunately, my parents are coming to stay for the week while we are gone, enabling Aunt Deb to go to work during the day. Unfortunately, next week we begin swim team practices as well as I will need to pack for travel along with my normal demanding life. This week I am attempting to accomplish a major task a day - today after school is carpet cleaning and corn planting! 


I have been anxious for a summer school break, but the reality of me traveling now and again in the fall is that we are going to have to accomplish several weeks of school this summer. As for now, I'm pushing them to finish this year's books. Some subjects will start wrapping up this week; others have several weeks to go. 

Julia is doing very, very well at school. I am almost surprised at what a positive difference it makes for her. As long as she gets to bed on time, so she doesn't get too tired, she is having very few "melt-downs." I wish I had sent her at the beginning of the year! Here's the mob of Kindergartners  singing cute songs for the moms.

We attended Alyssa's end of the year violin recital - she has gotten remarkably good in two years of lessons. 

James, Ben and Tori had the last basketball camp last Saturday and Moriah is down to about three soccer games - all in time for swimming to start.

Aunt Deb decided that we don't have enough fun and injuries  around here so she bought supplies to help the kids build a bike ramp. Dad got in on the action and now I have even smaller chance of ever growing any decent grass in the backyard. 

Lastly of importance, Tori helped Elijah acquire the mustache he has always wanted. He told us that he was never taking it off, but it really restricted his dinner, so it came off after a few hours.