The Cappsters

Adopting Again

2012-01-03T13:21:00.000-05:00

So we are adopting again!! This time we decided to adopt from Uganda and are hoping to get a girl. We are working with a local agency to help us and they work together with the Sanyu Babies home . We get to use the same social worker that we had for Solomon's adoption to complete our homestudy. We had our first homestudy visit last week and will have our last visit on Saturday. Then it is on to working on our dossier.

Christmas Time

2011-12-30T14:55:00.000-05:00

Christmas was a lot of fun this year with Solomon. He is understanding a little bit more about what it is all about.

Picking out our Christmas Tree

Solomon played toddler Jesus in our church's Christmas play.

My Two Year Old

2011-12-10T18:47:00.000-05:00

Solomon turned 2 on November 22. He loves Elmo so we had a Sesame Street themed party and invited some of his friends and family. Can't believe he is two. We also celebrated being home for one year on November 25.

At two years old he loves Elmo and Spider Man who he affectionately calls Milk Man. He got a tricycle for his birthday and frequently asks to ride his bike. He loves to dance and tries to sing the alphabet song, happy birthday and Jesus loves me. He puts lots of phrases together such as I want __ or where ___ go. We are starting to hear more and more yes instead of always no. When asking a question he tilts his head to the side. He always lets you know what belongs to who.."that's daddy's bike". If you ask him his name he says Solly. Almost daily he tells us about how a doll fell on his cousin Emma on Halloween by saying doll fall emma ok. He tells us when he is scared of something...like the gark (dark). He loves to steal my phone and chap stick. Knows how to operate an iphone and find his games on it. Loves bubble baths. He sleeps like a champ 11 hours at night and usually a 2-3 hour nap during the day. He currently has two of his two year molars in. He worries about other's booboos. He prefers to read books on his own instead of having you read it to him. Loves his milk. Sometimes he pretends that he has a baby in his hands and will rock it or kiss it. He also likes to pretend he is a dog. He has some temper tantrums now but they aren't too bad. Still working on his hitting. I can't believe he is 2....it has flown by.

Halloween

2011-11-01T19:59:00.000-04:00

My little puppy with his cousin.

Our gotcha day anniversary

2011-10-25T12:59:00.000-04:00

Last week we celebrated Solomon's gotcha day. I couldn't write this any better so I copied it from my husband's blog..

One year ago today Laura and I pulled up to our adoption agency’s foster home on the side of a hill in Ethiopia. We had come to receive a baby boy named Selamu into our family. I will never forget it. We stood outside the gate of the home while a worker for our agency went inside to bring him out.

So, we just stood there and waited in the street.

I can still hear the sounds of the children playing and talking on the other side of the wall. I can still hear the sound of the women saying goodbye to Selamu. These were the women who had cared for him since he arrived.

When the gate opened our worker stepped out holding Selamu, walked over and handed us our son.

Solomon had nothing with him but the clothing he was wearing. But that was all he needed.

When we got back into the van to leave the orphanage Solomon started crying. He was scared. He did not know where we were going. He did not know who we were. But in his fear, he did one of the most moving things I have ever witnessed.

He reached his little arms around his forever mommy’s neck, placed his head on her chest, stopped crying and held on.

In that moment he experienced the love and assurance of adoption. He was our son, and we became his mommy and daddy. We are so thankful for what God has done. Solly is truly a gift of God. A blessing.

- Happy Gotcha Day

Busy, Busy, Busy

2011-10-11T16:32:00.000-04:00

Things have been busy around here..hence not posting in awhile. Back in August I quit my part time job of working as a social worker for early intervention and began watching some children in my home. I feel that we are just now getting into a good routine and Solomon is doing well sharing his mommy. (The kids aren't here today and Solomon is napping so I finally had some free time to write in this here blog.)

In August/September, we also went on our annual family beach trip with my side of the family and Matt's side of the family...all staying in one house. For the most part Solomon had a great time, but he easily got worn out by the hot sun.

Solomon also went to the fair for the first time and loved feeding and seeing all of the animals.

We are about to have lots of celebrations soon. It has almost been one year since Solomon has been with us. I can not believe how fast it has gone by. He also will turn 2 next month!!

I will leave you with some recent pictures.

My little dancer

2011-08-11T13:19:00.000-04:00

3 of Solomon's favorite things right now.

1. Dancing
2. The alphabet song
3. Watching himself in the video camera

Love him!

An Aunt Again

2011-07-19T22:14:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I became an aunt again. Matt's sister had a baby boy - my first nephew. I am so excited that Solomon will have a boy cousin close in age. Solomon gets to meet him on Thursday, but Matt and I got to see him late last night. While we were in Ethiopia, Katie called to let us know she was pregnant...crazy how time flies by. Welcome to the world Brody Baker!

While in Ethiopia

2011-07-07T16:07:00.000-04:00

I loved my time in Ethiopia and really do miss it and the wonderful people that I met. I thought I would write some helpful tips or recommendations for those people traveling soon. Come prepared with a list of things to do or see as you will have lots of free time before you get placement of your child. Fair warning: I am sure I misspelled a lot of places.

Immunizations: Matt and I got Yellow Fever, Typhoid and the Twinrix shots. We were already current with our Tetnus. I would highly recommend getting the Malaria medicine as I have heard of two different families who got Malaria while staying in Addis around the time we were there. I was eaten alive by mosquitos when we stayed in our first guesthouse but didn't get a bite once we moved inside of the city. So bring some bug spray/repellant. You can get some in Ethiopia. So glad I had Ambien to help with my sleep before taking placement of Solomon. It is so noisy at night time and I am a very light sleeper.

Flights/Travel Agency: We flew Lufthansa. On the way to Germany our planes were nice and had movie screens on the back of the seats. On the way back the plane was much older looking and we did not have individual TVs to watch movies but it didn't really matter because I had Solomon with me so watching a movie was not really an option :) He did amazingly well on the flights home. Since we missed one of our flights going to Ethiopia we were put on Ethiopian Airlines. The plane was much older and I slept the entire way. We didn't lose any luggage which I consider a miracle since we missed planes going and coming back. I do not have anything pleasant to say about our travel agency besides the fact that they offered cheaper flights than other agencies. Their customer service when I needed them was nonexistent.

Guesthouse: We stayed at the B and B guesthouse owned by a Gladney driver. We also stayed at the New Flower Guesthouse which is in the city a bit more. Both were nice places. We stayed at the Lewi Resort in Awassa.

Food/Sickness: I brought a lot of food. Canned vegetables, spaghettios, easy mac, tuna fish kits, protein bars. (If you plan on taking a day trip you should bring protein bars/snacks/meals as there is really no where to eat along the way.) I started off thinking I would not eat meat and would be careful about produce as well while in ET. Well throughout my time there I ended up eating pretty much anything and everything. Even eating the best strawberries ever from a farm along the road on the way to Awassa..just rinsed off with some bottled water. My husband even ate raw meat at the encouragement of our driver Solomon. There was only one time when I needed to take some pepto due to some stomach pains as the food can be greasy. I did have a sore throat/cough towards the end of my stay but think it was mainly due to the fact that I was not getting much sleep and the fumes from the cars are really bad. Bring lots of tissue as it seems to stay in your nose. I tried to take a multivitamin everyday.

Restaurants: Favorites: Island Breeze. Antigua (good chicken kabob). Top View. Blue Tops (good ice cream). Lucy's. LimeTree (I enjoyed their lime juice). Sheraton restaurant by the pool. Yod Abbysinia for cultural dinner. Khaldi's and Bilo's had really good desserts, coffees, and juices. Serenade was by far the best restaurant....it has late hours and only open on certain days. They like for you to make a reservation. The prices there are more like American prices but still reasonable for the food. We also went to Hill Bottom which is near the Gladney Foster Care Centers with some other families and their kids and took Solomon. It is out of the "city" and has a playground area. Most places had nice areas to eat outside. The menus are in English.You do have to ask for the bill or else it seems they won't bring it. You can have your food boxed up and have your driver give it to the homeless. The grocery stores have a lot of things to choose from as well. So unless you are extremely picky I wouldn't worry about food. Our driver was able to bring us food as well.

Weather: I was there in October and November and it was HOT!! In the mornings and evenings I needed a light jacket. I think there were 2 days that it rained while we were there.

Bathroom: Don't put toilet paper in the commode! Some public places just have a hole in the ground as their toilet.

Internet: I thought the internet was pretty good considering we were in Ethiopia. Most days I was able to skype and never had a problem with facebook. I couldn't get on blogger.

Things to do in Addis: I tried to see as much as I could because I have no idea when we will go back and I wanted to document and take in everything that I could so that Solomon could have it. We went up part of Entoto mountain to see the scenery but didn't go up all the way (I wish we had). We visited the government orphanages several times and even went to AHope orphanage. We went to church at the IEC. We went to the Leprosy Hospital. Got massages and pedicures while at Boston Day Spa :) We went to the pool at the Sheraton...the lavishness of this place is incredible. We went to the zoo (Nothing impressive to see, but our driver was very excited to take us there and show off his skills with the monkeys). Shopping. We did all of Gladney's scheduled tours. You and your children will have lots of appointments as well. Went to other guesthouses for playdates. I wish we had visited Korah and the Fistula Hospital.

Shopping: The post office area has souvenir shops. Bring a calculator to help with conversion rates. The Leprosy Hospital. Sabahar Silk factory has scarves and other gifts and is a neat place to see. There is a ministry of maps buildings where you can get a map of pretty much anything in Ethiopia but they are pretty stingy with how many maps they will give you. Makush art gallery. There are basket shops and all kinds of other places along the street where you can stop and shop. By far my favorite shopping experiences were at the IEC bazaar (only available the last Saturday of the month) and the Tropical Garden Bazaar (not sure when it is available) The Gladney staff let us know about it. The Bazaars had hand crafted gifts..much better quality and uniqueness than the souvenir shops. Grocery stores really do have a lot of "American" things so if you forgot something don't stress too much.

Get out of Addis: Please do get out of the city. There are several nice day trips that you can take and some are only an hour away. With Gladney we went to eat at a resort called Kurifto. The countryside is breathtaking and just a nice change from the city life. We went to visit an old church in Addadi Miriam. Saw a monestary/museum at the Gorge. I would also recommend visiting the area where your child is from if at all possible. Awassa was beautiful and it was such an incredible experience to see Solomon's first orphanage and the area where his birth family lives.

Driver: I loved our driver..he was amazing!! He helped us bargain shop at some of the shops, was our translator, helped us come up with ideas of places to eat and see, comforted me when I was upset, and showed us the wonderful Ethiopian spirit. He became a great friend and I don't know what we would have done without our Solomon. I miss him.

Although it has been about 8 months since I was in Ethiopia..if anyone has any questions about things I left out feel free to ask.

Beach Trip

2011-06-29T21:46:00.001-04:00

Last week we celebrated a year since we got our referral...June 23, 2010. He was 7 months and 1 day old!

The first picture we saw..all we could see were those big eyes!

Boy is he growing up...now 19 months old. We decided to celebrate by spending a couple of days at the beach. Solomon's first beach trip and our first vacation as a family of 3. He had a great time and loved being in the water holding our hand and just walking in the sand. Cannot believe we have seen this adorable face for over a year...

First Father's Day!!!

2011-06-19T16:18:00.000-04:00

An early morning picture to remember Matt's first father's day. I made them matching ties. So incredibly blessed to have these two in my life. Matt I am honored to share this journey of parenthood with you...what an amazing father you are!!

November 23-25 (Day 40-42)

2011-06-11T19:44:00.000-04:00

November 23

Embassy appointment. We were joined by two other families. Right when we got there the Gladney staff told me that the embassy had recently requested more paperwork for Solomon's birthfather and that they might ask me some questions about it..this made me a little nervous. We waited a short time and then the Gladney families were called. I was so nervous because this really is the last major thing to do before we could leave and oh how I wanted to get home. Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed my time in Ethiopia but I was ready to be with Matt and to be in my own home. So when they finally called my name a Gladney staff member went up with me, as is typical. He asked me some questions behind his glass screen and I had to sign some forms. They did mention the paperwork and how they were not happy with the fact that it was late getting to them and how they could have delayed/denied Solomon's visa..what???!!! But he went on and said that he was going to give us his Visa. shew. We were going home!!!!! We then went back to the guesthouse to pack up and relax. There was a Gladney cultural dinner planned but it was canceled as we were the only family who could go and I had already been to a cultural dinner.

November 24

Our last day in Ethiopia...I remember having mixed feelings about leaving.. how sad I was to leave and that I wasn't ready to go..but at the same time I was so ready to get home. This country that I had lived in for 6 weeks was incredible. The day started out with no power which meant no hot water for showers. We left around 9 to finally get to tour the Gladney foster care center. (We had been discouraged to come back after our initial visits when Solomon was living there as it was too confusing for the kids and staff.) We had a coffee ceremony and saw the different foster homes. Solomon received his traditional outfit from his special mother (apparently he had two of them). He had lived in 2 different guesthouses during his 9 month stay with Gladney. His last home was foster care 2. We went to see his old room and someone had already taken over his crib :) and was wearing one of the shirts that he was always wearing when we got pictures. While at the foster care center I ran into Dr. Mykias and had him recheck Solomon's ears to make sure they were healed and that he wouldn't be in pain on the airplane. So glad that Gladney has him and we were able to take advantage of him.

In his special Ethiopian Outfit

We got packed up and our flight left at 11pm that night. We had difficulty on our flight home and got stuck in Germany again....egh. We had to buy new flights home as our travel agency was not helpful at all!! It was very stressful being in Germany and trying to figure out how to get home.

We found a flight to DC and let Matt know through facebook that we would not be arriving in Charlotte and that our plan was to rent a car to drive home. :( After going through customs we found our luggage, it had been placed in the wrong place and took a long time before we collected all of it. As we were heading out to find a place to rent a car, I saw the the most amazing sight. Matt and my dad drove up to DC to meet us and bring us home. I have never been more happy in my life to see these two.

Our first family picture in America in the DC airport on November 25, 2010 ....Thanksgiving Day!!!

November 22

2011-05-09T05:40:00.001-04:00

November 22,
I have a one year old!!! Yep today was Solomon's birthday. He spent the whole first year of his life (plus a couple of days) in Ethiopia. We spent our usual time cuddling in bed..he normally woke up around 6:30 :)

Then it was time to cuddle with the grandmas

Solomon really needed a hair cut and I knew that once we got home in America that we were going to be staying at home a lot and the last thing I would want to do is find somewhere to get his hair cut. So we made a reservation at Boston Day Spa. It was close enough that we could walk from our guesthouse. Solomon did great as long as he had his bottle.

Handsome birthday boy with his new haircut!! He looked like such a big boy.

We decided to go upstairs and eat some lunch at Lime Tree. It was our first time eating out in public in the city of Addis with him.

John got a haircut too.

In Lime Tree there is a small bookstore with some English books and we saw these books written by Dr Chapman (my husband works with him at our church...pretty neat to see them all the way in Ethiopia). Then it was playtime back at the guesthouse with some balloons.

Playtime before the party started!!

Watching Elmo for the first time.

Birthday boy was not to happy waiting for everyone to arrive for his party.

Solomon (our driver) brought this cake for Solomon...it is from Bilos... they have amazing desserts.

The guesthouse even did a coffee ceremony for him...very sweet.

Amy, Joanna and John

Solomon and Jonathan

Even Matt was able to celebrate with us :)

Check out those "candles"

Some of the guesthouse staff..

Mom, Venita and John

Enjoying some birthday cake

John enjoying the party

Sharing some cake

Checking out his presents.

So thankful for this boy and glad we got to celebrate his first birthday with him.

November 19-21 (Day 36-38)

2011-05-08T17:37:00.000-04:00

November 19
We stopped by the Lufthansa office to verify our return tickets home (as was advised) and to see if we could get the bassinet seats. It was a long wait. We then stopped for lunch at Blue Tops and headed out to the Gladney government orphange tours so that my mom and MIL could see them. Such an emotional sight no matter how many times you see it.

Ethiopian Coke

my lunch of tomatoes and mozzarella

A common sight to see in the middle of the road

The boys orphanage sleeping area

When we got back to the guesthouse the staff was putting on a coffee ceremony for a family that was leaving.

my mom

November 20

We went to the Boston Day spa to get a massage :) We then headed over to the Tropical Gardens area for a craft bazaar. (Travis gladney staff member let us know about it...only open certain times). There were soo many white people there that it didn't feel like you were in Ethiopia. They even had some Christmas music playing. There were amazing crafts..one of the best shopping experiences. I got some blankets, pillows, t-shirts...We then had lunch at Antiqua and stayed in that night playing cards

Tropical Gardens Shopping

November 21

We went to the Sheraton for a day of relaxation :) Spent most of the day laying by the pool and soaking in the rays. Poor Venita was sick and stayed in.

Our Ethiopian swimsuits :)

Solomon and John enjoying some time in their "pool"

November 18 (Day 35)

2011-04-19T14:20:00.000-04:00

November 18

I wanted my moms and MIL to see the countryside while in Ethiopia since it is so pretty. We had heard another couple talk about the gorge and decided to go. The five of us went along with Jonathan our guesthouse manager and Solomon our driver.

We stopped to eat sambosas and get bananas before heading out as there wouldn't be anywhere to eat.

Carving in the side of the mountain

View of the beautiful countryside

The kids were so young who were in charge of herding these animals.

My mom, Mother-in-law, Joanna, Venita, and me

Tons of people/kids trying to sell us stuff

Monkeys!! They were huge.

Monastery we went to

The rules of the monastery :)

The women's side

We went to visit a museum that was right beside the church to learn more about the church and history..my one and only museum visit while in Ethiopia. We had to use the bathroom really really bad and were sent to this place that had holes in the ground...I decided to hold it. We then went on a hike up the mountain to see where they got their holy water

This man was our guide up the mountain ...we tried to figure out why he had a rifle and whip with him...were there dangerous animals up there but never got an answer.

We finished the hike!!

You go inside this cave (warning you have to take your shoes off). The holy water is dripping from the mountain into these containers. Our driver Solomon tried to convince me to drink the holy water..but I decided not to.

After the hike to the holy water we went to a "resort" that had a trail to a portuguese bridge. It had amazing views and clean bathrooms!!

The Portuguese Bridge. You had to pay a small fee to cross over onto the bridge.

One of our tour guides decided to dive into that waterfall.

Taking a break in this dung hut as it was so incredibly hot.

We finished up the day with a drive up to a spot on Entoto mountain and then ate at Serenade (amazing food but open weird hours)

November 17 (Day 34)

2011-04-03T22:15:00.000-04:00

Our day started off pretty easy just hanging out with Sol. My moms (mom and mother in law) needed some birr so we headed to the souvenir shops so that they could exchange money and decided to do some shopping while we were there. There are tons of little shops along two streets (they almost all have the same stuff) but you have to do a lot of haggling...by this point I had gotten pretty good at it since our driver Solomon was such a good teacher.

(souvenir shops near post office area..my moms trying their hand at haggling)

(Some views of the city while riding in the car)

We then had lunch at Top View...my moms first taste of food in ET

my mom Judy, me, mother in law Amy

me and Joanna

We then drove through the market. Our driver wouldn't let us get out as he said we would get pick pocketed. There are people everywhere!!

Then we went to Tomoca so that we could get some coffee to take home and got some baskets at a shop near by.

We were driving back to our guesthouse and saw this truck going by with loads of bubble wrap. We said how we wished we had some and our driver asked the people in the truck. They pulled over and gave us a huge roll of it so we could pack up our souvenirs. Just an example of how generous the people of Ethiopia are.

Then back to play with Solly!

November 15 and 16 (Day 32 and 33)

2011-03-28T21:57:00.001-04:00

November 15
This was an exciting day in our journey. Joanna's Aunt Venita was arriving late that night...it meant that our journey was coming to an end as my mom and mother in law were coming the next day. (I don't really remember what we did this day) Here are some pictures that Amy and Jeremy took (couple from our guesthouse adopting a little boy).

These two sisters were getting ready to go to America.

November 16
We walked around with Aunt Venita to show her some of the city. We started off by going to Khaldi's were I had the best strawberry juice... kind of like a smoothie. Then we walked up the street a bit taking in the city. The streets of Addis are full of people everywhere. People walking, people sitting, people trying to sell you stuff, people begging, people shinning shoes, people are everywhere. After walking a bit we went to eat at Lime Tree. Here are some pictures from that day.

Joanna's Aunt Venita

Late that night Driver Solomon and I went to the airport to pick up my mom and mother-in-law. Never in my life have I been so happy to see them, so happy in fact that I started crying. Just a wave of emotions...knowing I was going home soon, happy to see some familiar people, excited for them to meet Solomon and see Ethiopia. After getting back to the guesthouse (it was only 5 minutes away at most), I went to go to sleep but Solomon woke up so I introduced him to his grandmas.

November 12-14, (Days 29-31)

2011-03-04T15:36:00.002-05:00

November 12,
Solomon and John had appointments that morning to see the doctor for their embassy appointments. So I organized all of our stuff from moving guesthouses and just relaxed.

Now I didn't write down what I did from days 13-14 but I know I did these things during that time.

We said goodbye to the Plumbs as they were getting to go home! We met them at the Lime tree for one last lunch. Sad to see them go, but excited for them to start their journey as a family at home.

Giving an 11 month old eye drops by yourself is not easy!! His eyes and nose were so crusty..I felt so bad for him. I was supposed to meet with Dr. Mykias that Saturday so he could recheck Solomon, but he never showed. Apparently he forgot about our appointment :) So another doctor saw him and continued to see him over the next week. Solomon continued to have diarrhea so the doctor felt that he needed to switch medication and be given injections so I had to go to the pharmacy to purchase needles..kind of crazy. You would think that the hospital would just have needles to use and charge me. We went back for three days to the hospital so that Solomon could get his injections. He slowly got better. While at the hospital we kept seeing this boy who had his face bandaged and look like he was missing part of it. We asked what happened to him and apparently he lived out in the countryside and went to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night outside, and a hyaena attacked him. He was living at the hospital waiting to go to America for a surgery to fix his face. I tried to find out where but they just said America.

Joanna and I's Ethiopian visas were about to expire so we went and had them extended. I had asked at the airport when we first arrived if they would extend it for me but was told no. It was a very easy process..although quite nerve racking. There are TONS of people waiting outside of the office selling stuff or trying to get a visa themselves. Our driver took us to the front of the line and we didn't have to wait :) You go through a women's security and are patted down and are not allowed to take in any electronics. The hardest part about the whole thing was finding where you needed to go to fill out the paperwork. There is a very small sign out of the way that tells you but we didn't see it until we asked several people. You fill out paperwork and the people there can help you. Then you are sent to another place and they ask some questions and take your picture for your new visa. You leave your passport and pick it up in a few days. It was very easy, but the nerve racking thing is that they can deny you a visa and you have to go home. Make sure you go before your 30 day visa runs out! We went back when we were told...a couple of days later, and they go through a stack of passports until they find yours and ask you if it is yours.

Joanna and I went and saw a movie...Due Date. We bought some boot-leg movies and watched them on my computer as the guesthouse did not have a dvd player. We went to the mall and I bought some Ethiopian t-shirts for Solomon as he gets older. We bought some chocolate chip cookie mix to make cookies at the guesthouse. The whole staff was watching us as they didn't seem to understand what we were trying to make. We tasted the batter before cooking and they were disgusting. Not sure if it was because of the eggs or just the mix..I would not recommend it!

We had 2 families stay with us at the guesthouse - not through Gladney. One family was a husband and wife there for their first court date and to meet their son. The second family was there to pick up their 2 daughters. The New Flower guesthouse was nice. Somewhat older, but it was clean and had a nice area outside for the boys to crawl around. The staff love, LOVE, LOVE the kids and always tried to cheer them up when they were crying or play with them. They offer free babysitting if someone is available so you can take a shower or run out to get something to eat.

John and Solomon

November 11 (Day 28)

2011-03-03T20:01:00.000-05:00

November 11 (Day 28) Last day in Awassa

Poor Solomon had another bad night and didn't sleep so it was a rough day as I was sooo tired. His eyes were watering, nose running, and wouldn't really eat anything. We had plans that day to visit the area where Solomon was from. We drove through the area with the Gladney social worker who works in Awassa. Word of advise..he does not like tardiness :) The area he was from was more countryside with houses that actually have yards..you don't really see that in Addis.

If you look closely at the house above you will see a drawing of a man shooting a lion. We asked what that was about and were told that it represented courage. We saw drawings similar to this on most of the houses. People were curious about us and would run up to our van. We stopped a few times to look at fresh fruit that was growing and khat. Lots of kids tried to sell us some khat. We then went back to the orphanage and said goodbye to the kids and workers. I thanked them for taking such good care of Solomon while he was there. I asked if there was anyway that we could go visit the hospital where Solomon was born to see if they could tell me anything about him. So off we went. There were tons of people sitting outside waiting to be seen.

Labor and Delivery room

Prices

We got to walk inside the room where he was born and all I could think about was what his birthmom went through. Solomon's birth name is Selamu which means peaceful. His birthmom named him this because she had such as peaceful delivery. (Solomon means peace - a name we had picked out before seeing him when we were just dreaming of our child...I love that they mean the same thing). So when we got to the hospital we asked if they had any information on him. The hospital staff was able to give me a birth notification card with his time of birth 7:10am and how much he weighed 4.4kg (9.7 pounds). Such a big boy!! So glad I got to find out this information.

My poor baby smiling even though he was so sick.

After getting some lunch..as there is really no where to eat on the way back to Addis, we headed out. Solomon seemed to get worse on the drive he had diarrhea in the van..egh.. and felt like he had a fever, but my thermometer was packed up in my bags somewhere. I asked my driver Solomon if he would call the Gladney doctor. The doctor agreed to meet us at the hospital once we returned. After what seemed like forever, we arrived in Addis and checked into the New Flower guesthouse late that night, dropping Joanna and John off. On the way to the hospital, Matt called, and I just burst into tears in the van on the way to the hospital. I was sooo tired and poor Solomon seemed so sick, and I just felt all alone. I was ready to get home. Driver Solomon was so wonderful and helped me so much with Solomon at the hospital. Dr. Mykias (sp?) met us at the hospital and diagnosed Solomon with a double eye infection, double ear infection, throat infection and wheezing. He gave us a prescription for his ear infection, wheezing/cough, and eye infection. We agreed to see the doctor on Saturday back at the hospital to check on how he was doing. After getting the prescriptions we went back to the New Flower and went to sleep.

November 10 (Day 27)

2011-02-21T23:13:00.000-05:00

Awassa day 2! boat ride, visiting Initiative Ethiopia

November 10, (Day 27)

So we had a bad night. Solomon was up most of the night and so was I. A heads up, the Lewi did not have cribs. He had a horrible runny nose and his eyes were watering the next morning. We went to breakfast and waited for our driver Solomon to come get us as we were going to visit Solomon and John's first orphanage Initiative Ethiopia.

While waiting for Solomon to arrive one of the managers of the resort offered us a complimentary boat ride so we took them up on their offer. It was a 15 minute ride around part of the lake. We were hoping to go on a boat ride to see the hippos and asked about that but it was rather pricey for just us and no one else staying at the resort was interested in splitting the fare with us so we didn't get to see the hippos.

We had to cross over this crate in order to get on the dock to board the boat.

After the boat ride we headed over to Initiative Ethiopia, Solomon's first orphanage. He was there for about a month before being taken to the Gladney foster homes on February 15, 2010. The staff was so welcoming and claim that they remembered Solomon and loved all over him. They showed such amazing hospitality towards us by performing a coffee ceremony and offering us the best chairs that they had so we could sit in the shade as Awassa was very very hot. The orphanage has 3 buildings in a U shape that have different rooms for the kids. The children were so sweet and the staff really loved on them.

This is a guard and he wanted his picture taken in front of Solomon's van.

One of the baby rooms where Solomon could have been

We stayed at Initiative for several hours playing with kids, drinking coffee, eating popcorn. But it was so hot and we were hungry, so we decided to head out and come back the next day. While we were driving we saw these wild monkeys...so our driver pulled over and started feeding them and then gave us some food for the monkeys. I was pretty nervous..after all they were wild but they were really cute. Luckily they were nice :)

A view of the city streets. Awassa was very pretty and didn't appear as busy as the big city of Addis. It seemed to have more of a laid back feel.

We stopped to get some pictures of the sunset over the lake and hundreds of people began to surround us to watch...I don't think they see many Americans.

November 9 (Day 26)

2011-02-18T23:54:00.000-05:00

Awassa!!!

November 9,

That morning we finished packing everything up and loaded it up in our van to head out to Awassa. It took us around 6 hours to get there in a hot un-air conditioned van holding an 11 month old in my lap. We made lots of stops - coffee, farms to get fresh produce, to look at animals, to admire the view.

Finally we arrived at the Lewi Resort. It was still under construction, but the resort was nice. We were one of the few people staying there.

We ordered dinner to our rooms and went to bed early as it had been a long day...however Solomon did not sleep very well that night.

November 4-8 (Day 21-25)

2011-02-18T16:41:00.001-05:00

Solomon has an appointment, Hill Bottom, Sheraton, staying in

November 4,

Solomon had an appointment this morning to go get his picture taken and I think to visit the doctor to prepare him to get his visa. Gladney usually texts you or gives you a call the night before/sometimes the morning of to let you know that your child has an appointment as they let you know once they are told. His special mother (I later found out that he had 2 special mothers) was the one who held him in the car and took care of him while at the appointment. He didn't appear to remember her and preferred to be held by me so that made me happy to see the attachment continuing to happen. It was also nice to meet the woman who had been taking such wonderful care of him. So while he was at his appointment. Solomon our driver took me around to some guesthouses so that I could find a place for my mom, mother-in law and I for when they arrived in a couple of weeks. Our current place was only 2 bedrooms and Joanna Lovin was already in the other room and her aunt was coming so I needed a bigger space. We went back to the Ayat Houses to check them out and I later found out that they were booked so it would not work out for us.

We got the call that Solomon was finished with his appointment, we picked him up, and then headed over to Hill bottom restaurant to meet up with the Plumbs and Joanna. The children were able to go with us as it was "out of the city". Hill bottom is located within walking distance to the Gladney care centers and has a little playground. Solomon had his first (I think) time on a swing and he really enjoyed it.

Joanna and I decided that we wanted to get some sun and lay out by the beautiful pool at the Sheraton, but neither of us had brought a bathing suit. So we went bathing suit shopping in Ethiopia. Now normally bathing suit shopping is not my idea of fun and usually takes several bathing suits to try on and several stores before actually finding a suit that "will do". So we asked our driver if he would take us bathing suit shopping :) We saw some lovely suits hanging outside of an open storefront and went to check them out. These bathing suits were all one pieces with skirts and came in s, m, l. There was no where to try them on at. And the best part about the whole experience was that a (probably) 10 year old boy was selling them to us. Well for some reason Joanna and I could not stop laughing at the fact that we were buying these bathing suits from this young boy and he couldn't stop laughing at us either. I wish I had a picture of the whole thing. We ended the day by getting some dinner at Blue Tops restaurant.

November 5, (Day 22)

Joanna and I went to the Sheraton to lay by the pool for a little R and R. The Gladney social worker had said that we needed to take some time for ourselves since we were being single moms just to rejuvenate so we took her advice. The Sheraton is a wonderful resort and has tons of lounge chairs to lay out on by the pool and have people who come by and bring you drinks and food. It is wonderful! I relaxed, read a book, and Joanna and I made a list of places/things we wanted our family members to do once they arrived during our last week in Ethiopia. It was so nice just to soak in the sun and be....

November 6, (Day 23)

We stayed in all day.

(John and Solomon showing off their crawling skills)

(Such big boys standing all by themselves)

November 7, (Day 24)

Stayed in

November 8, (Day 25)

Before going to Ethiopia, Matt and I decided that we wanted to explore Awassa where Solomon is from. Joanna and Travis also wanted to go down there since John is from that area. We had planned on going together before taking placement of the boys, but once in Ethiopia we decided that we would rather have more time with them and took placement of the boys right away and decided not to go to Awassa as it is about 6 hours away.

Well Joanna and I realized that we had a long time until our family arrived and what were we going to do. Why not go down to Awassa, because we would probably regret it if we didn't. So we were planning on leaving on Monday (the next day). We decided to check out of the BnB so we wouldn't have to pay for it while we were gone and then just move into a new place once we returned from Awassa that would accommodate my mom, mother-in-law, Joanna's aunt and us. So we went on a hunt to find such as place...turned out not to be so easy. Just an FYI we were told by our driver that what distinguishes a guesthouse from a hotel is that guesthouses don't have elevators.

We first checked the Bejoe as we had previously met Genet and knew how sweet she was, plus other Gladney families seem to love staying there. Well she didn't have room for all of us and neither did either of the Ayat Houses (we knew we wanted to continue to stay together). So we were told that there was a guesthouse behind the Bejoe and went to check it out. It was old and wasn't going to work for us. Our driver knew of some more so off we went. We then went to Weygoss guesthouse to check it out. It was ok (had a hotel feel) and had a suite that could have worked but they were booked. We went to the Yebsasbi guesthouse. It was really nice (more of a hotel feel) but they didn't have enough space to accommodate all of us. We went to the New Flower and apparently they had enough space but had to call us back about prices. We then checked out another one, don't remember that name..but it didn't look very clean. We knew we didn't want to stay at the Ethiopian guesthouse as it was so far away and the people who were staying there didn't seem that thrilled with it. So after a long day of searching the New Flower finally called us back and we agreed on prices and they had 5 rooms available!!! FYI always negotiate prices...it doesn't hurt to ask. We were able to come down $20 per room per night since we were going to be staying for 3 weeks and booking 5 rooms. So once we got our room situation settled we went back to pack up and prepare to leave the next day to visit our children's homeland and first orphanage.

November 2-November 3 (Days 19-20)

2011-02-15T20:38:00.000-05:00

Sheraton, Addadi Mariam Church

November 2, (Day 19)

Before I even left for Ethiopia, people told me I should visit the Sheraton Hotel and I wasn't exactly sure why. Then while in Ethiopia the staff asked if we had visited the Sheraton and we said no so we decided to go- the Plumbs, Joanna Lovin and I for lunch. Let me just say that it is beautiful - the furnishings, the flowers, the pools - beautiful... a vacation resort. The lunch was good as well. It s crazy to me to think how much money people spend to stay there, it is ridiculous, but it is also gorgeous.

(Joanna, me, Shannon)

See this painted wall..it is there to obscure your vision from the shacks that are below.

Ok so enough about that. After lunch the girls headed over to the Boston Day Spa to get a pedicure..the prices are so good...and so was the pedicure. Then it was back to the guesthouse to play with my little man.

November 3, (Day 20)

At this point I remember thinking how will I ever make it till when my mom and MIL arrive...it seemed like forever away. So a little day trip was in order. The Plumbs, Joanna and I decided to take a trip out of the city to see the Addadi Mariam (sp?) rock church. Ok I may not be remembering this correctly but I believe it is over 600 years old. The drive there was beautiful and that alone is reason to go visit the church. If in Ethiopia, you must get out of the city and go to the countryside. Once there we had a tour guide and he sang a song for us. You have to take your shoes off so remember to wear socks and the drive is a little bumpy as part of it is on a gravel road.

(ok see that hill with grass on it..the church is underneath all of that. Solomon our driver)

Joanna, me, Shannon and Brian going down the steps to the church

(Joanna and I with our boys)

our driver Solomon

Our tour guide

standing outside of the church

(me/Solomon, John/Joanna, Tate/Shannon)

Kids loved to wave at us as we drove by

Apparently this is where this little town has a market on the weekends

Solomon enjoying the ride

Playtime back at the guesthouse...isn't he beautiful

October 31-November 1 (Day 17-18)

2011-02-12T22:28:00.000-05:00

Halloween in Ethiopia, Church at the IEC, massage, doctor, play dates,

October 31, (Day 17)

The morning started off by attending a church service at the International Evangelical Church. We (The Plumbs, Joanna and I) attended the service in english and it was wonderful to see the racially diverse congregation...the service and music was similar to how our church at home worships. It was packed so if you go you might want to get there early to get a seat. After church we headed back to the Lime Tree for lunch as we had an appointment to get a massage at the Boston Spa which is downstairs from Lime Tree. The massage was nice, but be aware that they massage the front (stomach)...it was a little surprising. We all walked out and wished that we had made a hair appointment as well because our hair was full of oil as they also do a scalp massage. The massages are less than $10 US for an hour. Then it was time to play with the boys.

(John dressed in his Halloween gear)

John, Solomon, Tate

(Trying to get them to smile)

Cute Tate!!

Happy Boy!!

(Hard at work playing)

November 1 (Day 18)

The day started off by going to the Gladney doctor. He didn't work on the weekends so we asked to go first thing in the morning as Solomon was still fussy and not sleeping well...I thought maybe he was teething and just wanted to get him checked out. So glad Gladney has a doctor that you can use while you are in ET!!! We saw Dr. Makias (not sure how to spell) at the Gladney foster home...he was a nice man along with another woman (maybe his assistant???) She had pictures of Solomon on her phone from when he was a bit younger that she showed me. Always heartwarming to see pictures of your baby. Turns out Solomon had a double ear infection and throat infection!! I felt horrible that he had been sick and I really had no idea except for the fact that he was cranky. Glad that I took him.

(Hanging outside of the Gladney foster home waiting to see the doctor)

We then went to the pharmacy to get Solomon's medicine. Our driver Solomon was so helpful with everything and I don't know what I would have done without him. After the pharmacy our driver Solomon let us know that the Ayat House was close by and did we want to see it...sure why not. Ok Gladney families the Ayat House is seriously 3 houses down from the Gladney Foster homes. Ayat 1 and 2 are across the street from each other. We saw this sweet family who was staying there (can't remember which Ayat is 1 and which is 2) and met their beautiful girls while playing in their front yard. I really enjoyed the Ayat House and think it would be a nice place to stay for your second trip while bonding. Nice outside area and out of the city. We then headed over to the Ethiopian guesthouse to see 2 Gladney families: this family and the Friedrich family who had a 5 year old girl and baby boy. The Ethiopian guesthouse is way out there!

October 28-30 (Days 14-16)

2011-02-10T21:06:00.000-05:00

Lunch with Gladney people, IEC church bazaar, Sabahar

October 28, (Day 14)

My first day "alone" with Solomon. Joanna and I got a phone call from Travis letting us know that other Gladney families (some who we had not met yet) were getting together for lunch at Island Breeze so we decided to go. It is always interesting meeting people from all over the US :) When we got back from lunch Solomon was pretty fussy and clingy. That night he didn't sleep very well.

October 29, (Day 15)

The next day was spent at the guesthouse hanging out with Solomon. He continued to be fussy and wanting to held anytime he saw me standing up. Below is a picture of our driver Solomon. He was wonderful and loved the boys. He would bring us lunch and dinner if we needed it on days we stayed in.

(Solomon, Solomon, and John)

(Showing off those pretty teeth)

October 30, (Day 16)

The day started off at Lime Tree for breakfast with Joanna. We then headed over to the IEC church for a bazaar. They had tons of rooms and outside space full of Ethiopian crafts. This shopping is something that you don't want to miss. I got coffee bean necklaces, bowls, ornaments, a pillow for Solomon's room, and some handmade cards...stuff that you couldn't find at the souvenir shops. I think it is the last Saturday of the month. After shopping we headed to the Lion zoo again as Solomon our driver wanted Joanna to see it. We then went to the silk factory Sabahar. They have an area where you can see people actually weaving the silk..but they weren't there when we were. You can also see the caterpillars...kind of neat. The day ended with getting dinner at Lucy's.

(Solomon practicing with his sippy cup and John playing with a favorite toy of both boys an empty puffs container)

October 26-27 (Days 12-13)

2011-01-20T13:17:00.000-05:00

AHOPE, Kechene, Mercato, Matt leaves

October 26th - The morning started off by going to Khaldis. Yum Yum!

Joanna and I

Matt and Travis-making fun of sugar that is everywhere!

We had arranged to go to AHOPE- an organization that cares for orphans who are HIV positive. The home was well cared for and the children were very sweet. They have a website that includes their list of needs which I wish I had known about.

When we got back to the guesthouse this was in our "backyard". We took the boys to see the cows.

Later that night we went to Yod Abyssinia for a traditional dinner and dancing with the Lovins and Plumbs. The dinner and show start around 7pm, but we were so tired being new parents that at about 8:30 we were ready to go home.

Joanna and Travis Lovin

Me and Matt

Brain and Shannon Plumb

October 27th - The morning started off by going to the Gladney office for what we thought was an appointment for the boys - unfortunately there was a mix up and after an hour we were told we actually did not have an appointment. Remember to always be flexible while in Ethiopia:) We decided to go back to Kechene government orphanage and visit with the children. Matt and Travis both connected with some of the children and wanted to go back to see them before they left. While we were there, a preschool was letting out and there were hundreds of little kids who all wanted to shake our hands..it was so cute. We then drove through the mercado..our driver told us that we were not allowed to get out and walk around as he didn't think it was safe for us. There were people everywhere!

We then headed back to our guesthouse. It was time for Matt to pack up and leave. I tried not to really think about Matt leaving because I wasn't sure how I was going to be a "single mom" and be without him. For the last 3 hours or so that Matt was there the power was off..something that happened frequently we were told due to the BNB being more outside of the city. Luckily he was on the same flight with Travis to Germany so they got to be together.

October 25 (day 11)

2011-01-16T22:17:00.001-05:00

met birthmother, shopping

I am so glad that we were able to meet with Solomon's birthmother. She traveled about 6 hours and spent the night in order to meet us. She came in the room and I knew it must be his mom because she had similar big wide set eyes like him. She shook Matt's hand and gave me the biggest hug...I will always remember that hug. I was very grateful that Solomon let her hold him and love on him. Throughout our time with her she let us video tape and take lots of pictures for Solomon to have. Here are a few questions that we asked her that I can remember off the top of my head.

Where she lived and what it was like, what kind of work she did, did she like it, family history, medical information, favorite meal, favorite color, why she gave Solomon up for adoption, about his father, asked who Solomon looked like, what was Solomon like as a baby, what did she want for Solomon, her favorite holiday, favorite time of year, we heard she loved to sing and asked her what her favorite song and she began to sing a song for us..such a treasure to have

Now I think of tons of things I should have asked her..such as about her childhood..did she go to school, what did she like to do as a child, I wish I had asked more questions about Solomon's birthfather and how they met.

The most important part for Matt and I throughout the whole morning with Solomon's birthmother was finding out that she was a Christian and how important her faith is to her.

After that emotional morning, we all went to eat with the Plumb family at Island Breeze. This restaurant has the most americanized food (I thought they had the best pizza). SIncethe hubby's were leaving soon, we decided to do some more shopping...we went to Tomoca for coffee, got some baskets, went to a map store. Our driver-Solomon- is the best haggler there is.

October 24 (Day 10)

2011-01-11T14:23:00.001-05:00

October 24- We went to the Kuriftu resort with the Lovins, Travis, and another Gladney family Lisa and Andy. We got to take Solomon with us and it was nice to have him out of the guesthouse...and get our first look at what it is like out of the city of Addis. The resort had a lake, beautiful gardens and the dinner was good. I would recommend going.

(traveling in the van)

(Love this face)

(some of the buffet food)

October 21-23 (Days 7-9)

2011-01-11T14:19:00.001-05:00

playing with Solomon, Holy Trinity Tour, government orphanage tours

On October 21,we stayed in that morning with Solomon getting to know him better. He loved playing with some nesting cups-banging them together and any stray water bottles he could find. He got around by army crawling. He was pretty easy and didn't cry too much, only woke up once that first night.

Later that afternoon we went to lunch at Family Restaurant (this place had everything from italian, mexican, american, etc. -it was ok) and then took a Gladney led tour of the Holy Trinity Church with Travis (in country staff member, unfortunately Belay was leaving for the US the next day for a month). It was interesting to learn more about the Ethiopian Orthodox religion and learning more about Belay's history. The church was beautiful.

(King Solomon)

While on the tour Solomon had an amazing babysitter (provided by our agency) who was with us the entire time we were in Ethiopia whenever we needed her. She watched both Solomon and John and actually brought both boys (at different times) from Awassa to the Gladney care center in Addis.

October 22, we went to eat lunch at Blue Tops (very good...good ice cream) and then headed out for a tour of 3 government orphanges in Addis. The first one was the boys orphange - Kolfe. We watched them play soccer and then went on a tour of their facility. The younger boys enjoyed having their pictures taken.

We then went to the baby orphange -Kebebe Tsehai Government Orphanage. The day before we had arrived new workers had started all because of Janet Belleme . It was an overwhelming experience and one I will not forget.

We then toured another government orphanage-Kechene. The children there love to hold your hand, have their picture taken, have you play with them and follow you around everywhere. The older girls performed our first coffee ceremony. And there was lots of dancing--even from Belay and driver Solomon.

It is hard to describe what we saw this day, but after visiting these 3 government orphanages and seeing ALL that Gladney has done for them I had such huge pride in our agency and was so glad that we decided to go with them. I was also ready to get back to the guesthouse to see Solomon! He was so excited to see us it made our day.

October 23-we stayed in all day.

October 20th (Day 6)

2010-12-30T13:50:00.002-05:00

Our gotcha day!!!!!

Around midmorning Matt and I headed to the Gladney Foster care to pick up Solomon along with the Lovin family to pick up their son. (Now I can't remember why we went there instead of having him come to us....maybe because Travis had an appointment and couldn't bring him?) So we went first. We met Michael (in country staff member) outside of the care center and decided that we wanted him to bring Solomon out to us instead of us having to take him out of the care center. So we nervously waited outside the gate as he went upstairs to go get him. I started tearing up listening to all of the care givers say good bye to him and thinking about all he was losing. This almost 11 month old had been living here at Gladney for 8 months. This life was all he knew and he was losing it all to go be with two strangers. He had no idea what was in store with these people he was about to leave with. I just couldn't imagine what he was thinking.

Finally Michael walked through the gates with him. After talking to him for awhile I reached out to hold him. He looked terrified. Matt and I continued to talk to him and try our best to comfort him as he looked pretty scared. I walked around with him as the Lovins met their son.

We got in the car and that is when the tears started coming from Solomon. He clung to me and was terrified of the car...luckily our guesthouse was pretty close. When we got to the guesthouse he just crashed and slept for about 2 hours with his daddy. I just stayed awake and watched his sleep.

Then it was time for his first bottle from daddy.

Then later that day Solomon played with his cribmate Tate Plumb and guesthouse roommate John Lovin.

We're a family!

October 19th (Day 5)

2010-12-29T11:50:00.001-05:00

court date, visited Solomon, lunch, sight seeing, process group

I remember waking up this morning being so nervous, even though the Lovin family had briefed us on their experience from the day before. (Of course this was when there were two separate court dates on different days, our MOWA date had happened two weeks earlier) I couldn't eat breakfast and I just remember being very emotional thinking about everything that had led us up to this point. We went first to meet the Gladney lawyer, a woman, who reviewed some of the common questions that the judge might ask. She was very straight forward/ matter of fact. We then went to the court room and waited in a room being one of the first families there. Then other families starting coming in including parents who were there to relinquish their rights with their children. I remember trying to hold back tears thinking about it and thinking that Solomon's mom had been here just a few weeks ago. The lawyer sat across the room and seemed as if she was trying to get us in quickly. We waited awhile and were the second family called in. The judge sat behind a desk and was very soft spoken. She asked us a few questions while filling out paperwork, all yes/no such as :

Is this child referred to you, have you met him, do you plan to incorporate ethiopian culture, do you have biological children, does your family know about the adoption, are they supportive, and maybe a few more.

Then she said "she is yours" (even though Solomon is a boy). Matt and I looked at each other and just smiled and left the room. Matt said he had turned around and thanked the judge and she smiled at him. We were parents it was such an exciting, overwhelming moment.

After our court date we were able to go visit Solomon. This visit was amazing! The caregivers were different this time. When we walked in Solomon was sleeping in his crib, they woke him up and handed him right over to us. The whole time they were trying to make him smile, showing us his skills, and encouraging us to be with him.

(Our first family picture)

We stayed and played with him and some of the other children in his room. It was a great visit. (At this point we had decided to go to Awassa, where Solomon is from, over the weekend and take placement as soon as we got back).

After our visit we went to Top View restaurant (another good place to eat) with the Lovins, Plumbs and in country staff Travis, Joanna, and Belay.

(View from Top View)

It was at this meeting that we learned that our embassy date was going to be Thanksgiving week...woah. We had been hoping we would be home before then but here is why. Apparently it takes a mandatory 3 weeks for the birth certificate and other paperwork to be completed. Gladney gets 10 appointment slots every other Thursday with the US embassy and since 10 families had just had court dates the week before us it moved us to Thanksgiving week. (of course this may have changed...since things are always changing).

After talking with the in country staff we (us and the Lovin family) decided that we were not going to go to Awassa and that we wanted to take placement of the boys ASAP. So we decided that tomorrow we would go to the care center and Michael (in country staff) would bring us the boys. AHHH!!

We then went to the Alert Hospital gift shop and watched the men and women make their beautiful crafts. They had lots of pot holders, napkins, table cloths, pillow covers, blankets, clothes, and other items for sell.

We then went and got some coffee before we had a processing group held at the Gladney office just to talk about our process and things to think about in future with adopting Ethiopian children. The woman leading the group had some nice insight and helped us think more about future issues that might arise. We were once again with the Lovin family and felt comfortable enough talking about our children's stories when asked by the counselor.

October 18th (Day 4)

2010-12-28T12:45:00.002-05:00

eating, shopping, sightseeing

On October 18th the Lovins had their court date and Matt and I stayed in at our guesthouse and just relaxed for awhile. We were told that we might get to visit Solomon if the Lovins got back in time but unfortunately we were not able to. Our guesthouse was located pretty far from the court building. Gladney only allowed us to visit around 9-10am. Well we decided to celebrate the Lovin family passing court and went to have lunch at the Lime Tree. This place became one of our favorites to eat at. They have an amazing Lime juice that I got every single time we ate there...they had lots of desserts that looked amazing but I never got any. We were all still pretty jet lagged but decided to go shopping.

We went to the souvenir shops near the post office area. You can negotiate your prices here, but Matt and I were not very good at this....plus we were still figuring out price conversion. I would suggest taking a calculator. We ended up getting some wooden animals, a ball for Solomon, a tea set and a few other things. There are lots of beggars around this area...it was pretty heart breaking.

We then drove up to Entoto mountain area and stopped along the side of the road to take a few pictures. These pictures were taken with our video camera as our camera battery was dead. There are woman who carry eucalyptus branches down the mountain...don't know how they do it.

The Lovins decided to go back and rest at the guesthouse. Matt and I wanted to do some more sightseeing so we asked our driver what he recommended doing and he suggested the Lion Zoo. I had heard that it was pretty sad and not much to see, but our driver was so excited about taking us that we decided to go. The animals are kept in small concrete cages.

Our wonderful driver, Solomon, knew how to make this baboon do some tricks such as opening his mouth and had the crowd of people laughing. Watching him do this was the best part. We also had some people from Asia who wanted to take a picture with us..kind of strange this happened several more times throughout our time in Ethiopia.

We then went to Lucy's for dinner for our last night as a couple of two. Lucy's was also another restaurant I would recommend. We had so much excitement/nervousness to think that tomorrow we would hopefully be granted the right to parent our little man.

October 17th (Day 3)

2010-12-16T15:03:00.001-05:00

Our Guesthouse, Meeting the Lovins, Meeting our driver -Solomon, MEETING SOLOMON!!! and seeing Ethiopia

So after leaving the airport we drove to our guesthouse to drop off our luggage and pick up the Lovins to go meet our boys. We stayed at the BnB guesthouse It was basically a two bedroom apartment that we split with the Lovin family. It is new and owned by a Gladney driver - Hennock. The guesthouse had a kitchen with an oven and fridge, a dinning area, and a living area with lots of couches. The bathroom had a shower tub combo. In the living room there was a wall of windows that would get tons of sunlight and become quite warm in the mornings. There was a balcony with a beautiful view of the mountains and all the construction that is going on.

(Matt out on the balcony)

The Bnb is located close to the Gladney care centers and out of the city area. The power went out frequently at 6pm. So bring a flashlight. There were two sweet girls who we lovingly referred to as the "ishi girls", because that is all they seemed to say, who cooked us breakfast and cleaned for us. The breakfast of eggs, pancakes, cereal and bread was the same every single day for the 3 weeks we stayed here :) Right next door to our apartment was a one bedroom apartment where the sweet Plumb family stayed!

So before traveling, Joanna Lovin and I had arranged to stay together and share a driver as we figured we would have the same embassy dates and be there together. Never did we think we would be there 6 weeks together but we were and I would not have made it without her. God totally looked out for me and provided me with just the right person I needed. It could have been really bad sharing an apartment and driver with someone who I had never "met" but it worked out sooo well. Even the husbands got along and liked each other.

(Travis and Joanna)

So after meeting the Lovins we changed out of the clothes we had been wearing for three days quickly freshened up as much as we could and headed out to the care center to meet Selamu aka Solomon. Our amazing driver - Solomon - picked us up. Driver Solomon was THE BEST and I highly recommend him if you could pick your driver. I just can't say enough wonderful things about this man. He took such good care of us and made our stay that much better.

So on our way to meet our son so many feelings were going on through my head..would he come to us, would he let us hold him, would we recognize him, what would his personality be like??

(on our way to meet Solomon)

So we arrived at Solomon's care center with the Lovins so they could meet their son for the first time as well. We went in their child's room and then went upstairs to see Solomon. As soon as we turned to go up the last flight of stairs I saw him playing on the play mat in his room!! We walked right in and sat on the floor to play with him and his roommates. Cautiously we picked him up and he seemed ok with us holding him. We were told we had an hour with him.

(Don't you love those big eyes and chubby cheeks??)

Nobody introduced us as his "parents" but I guess the caregivers figured it out. After about 10 minutes one of them came and took him to feed him away from us. His room was pretty small and crowded with us in there. The other caregivers were encouraging her to let us feed him but she wouldn't so it got kind of awkward. We played for a bit more with the other children in the room and then left :( It was a strange visit. I was really expecting them to be more encouraging of us to be with him and do things for him but that didn't happen on this visit. I understand that he has been there for 8 months and these caregivers grow very attached but at the same time all I wanted to do was love on my baby. I was happy he let us hold him and interacted with us the 10 minutes we got.

After our visit we went to the Hilton to use the internet (as our guesthouse didn't have it hooked up at this point) to let others know we had arrived and met our son. We then went and had our first taste of ethiopian coffee, saw some sights of the city and went to the grocery store to buy a few items. Then it was time to shower and sleep!!

October 15th-the morning of the 17th (Days 1-3)

2010-12-11T21:03:00.002-05:00

Travel

On October 15th we began the trip that led us to Solomon. We drove down to Charlotte, NC and had lunch with the Capps family before heading to the airport.

Our flight left around 5:30pm and was headed for Munich, Germany. We flew Lufthansa. I don't know how many times I asked Matt if it was real, were we really doing this, were we going to Africa, were we getting to meet and get our son? AHH!! I was so excited that first flight full of nervous energy that I couldn't sleep (of course Matt did because he can sleep anywhere). Boy did that end up backfiring on me.

Once landing in Munich we had a 40 minute layover to catch our next flight to Frankfurt, Germany. Matt and I knew that we had to hurry to make our next flight so we ran, I mean ran. We were those people you see running wildly through the airport carrying our backpacks and carry on bags. We ran up flights of stairs, through the hallways, up more flights of stairs, did I mention the flights of stairs, all the way to the security check point. At the check point, the security person made us take out and turn on every single piece of our 4 electronics that we had one at a time. This slowed us down. After putting back our stuff in our suitcases and running to the gate, sweat dripping down us and hyperventilating from being out of breath from running and carrying our probably 50 pound carry ons, we were told that they closed the plane and were no longer loading passengers, even though the plane was still sitting there. What are you kidding me?? Didn't they understand we were headed to Frankfurt to meet up with the Lovin family and then go to Africa to meet our baby???

We headed to the Lufthansa counter with our heads hung low out of breath and sweaty to find out what we could do to make it to our next flight. The woman at the counter was talking to us but neither Matt nor I spoke due to being out of breath and in shock that we actually missed our flight. I realized we weren't answering her questions when she asked if we spoke English. After searching several options some which took us to Turkey, some which had us landing in Ethiopia at 2:30am....we settled on a flight to Frankfurt in 2 hours (causing us to miss our flight to Ethiopia with the Lovin family) having a 12 hour, yes 12 hour layover in Frankfurt and then flying Ethiopian air to Ethiopia arriving a whole day later than expected. The staff at the ticket counter for Lufthansa was so nice and really felt for our situation. The only problem was no one in Ethiopia knew what happened and when we would be arriving so they could pick us up. Luckily we had our in country staff's phone number with us and the Lufthansa staff let us use their phone for free to call and let them know our situation, but unluckily they didn't answer and there is no way to leave a message. AHHH! The thought of landing in Ethiopia with no one to get us was a little daunting.

So we boarded our tiny plane to Frankfurt which was only about 30 minutes long and we didn't even get to sit together. Once we arrived in Frankfurt we set out to find our gate and set up camp since we would be there for 12 hours! The only problem was no one seemed to know what gate Ethiopian air would fly from and why in the world were we at the airport so early to catch our flight. While waiting we bought minutes to the internet and I messaged everyone I knew who was in ET to let them know what had happened and if they could let someone know what time to pick us up. Luckily I was able to get in touch with a staff member and she assured me that someone would be there to pick us up..what a relief. So now that that was settled what would we do for the next 11 hours...we walked around, ate a few times, went through the duty free shops, went to the bathroom, checked the flight screen and asked people where our flight was leaving from every hour (which no one seemed to know), and Matt did a little of this...

But I couldn't sleep. Lets just say we had the B terminal memorized at the end of the 12 hours. We were tired and dirty and all I wanted to do was sleep and take a shower. About an hour before our flight was to leave we found out our gate number and began to watch Ethiopians arrive...making this trip seem more real. So after being awake for 2 days straight I took an ambien and slept until we arrived in Ethiopia on October 17th at 7 something in the morning. We were in the back of the plane and so that meant we were last in line to wait and get our visas. But we were in Ethiopia we had made it. Nervously, I requested a 60 day visa but was told that I would have to come back to the immigration office if I really needed it and was only given a 30 day visa. Matt and I found our bags and had no difficulty with the porters or with anyone wanting us to open up our suitcases. After getting your bags you have to have them x-rayed and then you can enter the main part of the airport. Lots of people were standing around with signs but none had our name so we found the Hilton sign and then saw Travis right away. I was so glad that someone was there to pick us up; such a relief. We headed out to the car to go to our guesthouse the BnB and finally meet up with the Lovin family. I was immediately taken in with the beautiful mountains surrounding us and just soaking up the sights when I hear Travis ask us if we would like to meet Selamu??? (we weren't scheduled to meet him until the 18th) Umm yes please forget the sleep I had been longing for or the fact that I hadn't showered in 3 days. Take us to Selamu!!!

All about Solomon

2010-12-04T20:56:00.000-05:00

Can I just say I love, love, love this baby boy! He is doing so well at home. It is hard to believe that he is actually here with us.

(watching snow fall)

We recently took him to the doctor for a one year check up and here are his stats:

Height 31 3/4 (95th%)
Weight 23 - 7.0 (50-75th%)
Head 18 3/4 (75-90th%)

He currently is taking a few steps and LOVES to walk around with one or two hands held. He also loves to stand up on his own from the floor. Still crawls to get around.
His favorite toys are a baby einstein musical toy that lights up and stacking cups
He loves dancing to a good beat and tends to stop dancing when others start dancing with him.
He enjoys a good game of peek-a-boo and covers up his head instead of his eyes most times
He waves bye when he wants to
He tries to say up but it sounds more like mmmbah
He is starting to put things up to his ear as if it was a phone
He drinks from a sippy cup but loves his bottle and cries whenever he sees it.
He is eating more and more table foods. Loves puffs.
He reaches toward a light when asked where the light is, and he finds the dog when asked as well.
He loves his mommy and daddy.
He can snap his fingers.
He typically sleeps through the night from 7:30pm to 6:30am. He usually takes two naps during the day around 9:30am and then again around 3:00pm
He likes to make a squinty eye face

I promise to start blogging about Ethiopia next week...

We are home!!!

2010-11-26T13:11:00.000-05:00

We left October 15th and arrived home November 25th. It was a wonderful, hard time, and I am glad I did it. More to come on our trip but here is our handsome little man!!

Solomon Zachary Selamu Capps!

Leaving!!!!

2010-10-15T10:52:00.000-04:00

We are really doing this!! We leave in about an hour for the airport in Charlotte. We fly to Munich then Frankfurt (where we meet up with the Lovin family) and then to Ethiopia!! AHHH!! So happy. We meet Solomon for the first time on Monday. Tuesday is our court date. After that we head to Awassa Solomon's birthplace to see where he is from. Then we take placement of him on October 25th. Matt leaves the 27th :( Then we wait to find out when we get our Embassy appointment so we can come home.

We Passed

2010-10-13T21:40:00.000-04:00

It's official!!! We found out today around 4:20ish that we passed and are set to leave on Friday!! Lots to do...I can't wait.

And the waiting continues..

2010-10-12T17:05:00.000-04:00

So our caseworker was not able to get in touch with our in country worker (Belay) to find out if anything happened with our case today or not. Hopefully we will find out tomorrow....I feel like I keep saying this. I am so ready to celebrate that we are leaving FRIDAY.

Bummed

2010-10-08T17:04:00.000-04:00

So we found out today that the person who needed to make our case official did not show up. So our case has been postponed until Tuesday. Not the news I wanted to hear. Apparently there are no issues with our case they just have not made it official that we passed.

Our court date

2010-10-07T17:22:00.000-04:00

So today was our first court date. I received the call around 12 EST from our caseworker. Solomon's mother did show up and relinquish her rights. The judge did not officially rule in our case but that is supposed to happen tomorrow. Our caseworker said that he is being a little slow about making things official and she seemed to think that everything would work out and that we would be able to travel as planned next Friday. NEXT FRIDAY!! AHHHH!! I can't believe that our time is now here! We should get placement of him on October 25th!!!!!!!

Anyone who wants me to take pictures I would be happy to. Just send me an email at lmt3195 at yahoo dot com

2010-10-05T23:48:00.000-04:00

Last week Matt and I spent a whole week at Emerald Isle Beach with our families (my in-laws, brother (not pictured), sister, niece, brother-in-law, my parents and brother-in laws parents).

We had a great time even though it rained for 80% of our time there due to some tropical storm. So I had lots of time to relax. I read two books and got lots of sleep (things I know that will be hard to come by in a couple of weeks).

While we were on vacation we got our CIS appointment letter in the mail. So yesterday we went down to Charlotte and were able to get our fingerprints taken!! Such a huge weight is lifted off of my shoulders. I contacted a senator to see if they could expedite our fingerprints to make sure they are in Ethiopia when they need to be. The updated fingerprints have to be in Ethiopia in order for us to bring Solomon home. They usually take 4-6 weeks to arrive once they are taken, so hopefully they will be there in time.

Next up is our first court date. It is scheduled for 10/7/10. As it is scheduled in Ethiopia, a ruling will be made while we are sleeping (hopefully). MOWA (ministry of women's affairs) has to declare that Solomon is legally up for adoption and that all of our paperwork is in order so that we can adopt him. Please keep us in your prayers

1. Pray that MOWA will actually meet and give us a positive ruling so that we can travel over as planned on 10/15
2. Pray for Solomon's mom. She has to relinquish her parental rights and I can't imagine the emotions that she will be going through. Pray that God will give her peace and comfort her.

We probably will not find out how MOWA ruled on our case until late afternoon at the earliest. I will keep you posted.

Breathing a sigh of relief

2010-09-23T10:29:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we found out from the nice lady at the NBC that our re-fingerprint appointment with CIS would be 10-20-10....No!!! We leave for Ethiopia on 10-15 and have our court date on 10-18 so no way we could make that appointment or want to come back from Ethiopia just to be fingerprinted. I asked the nice CIS lady if there was anything she could do to change our appointment...she said no and said that we could try talking to our local CIS (Charlotte, NC office). Devastating. I then recontacted our local senator, contacted another senator and contacted a NC representative to see if they could help. All this time I had been playing phone tag with Kristin our caseworker with Gladney. We finally connected yesterday and she told me that we had done everything she could think of to do. She encouraged us to go to our local office and plead our case. She said that it can take 4-6 weeks for our fingerprints to get to the right place in Ethiopia, but that they could help expedite things if needed. Then Matt and I asked for everyone to pray that somehow someone would help!

So I made an appointment with the Charlotte CIS office to see what they could do. Luckily Matt and I were able to go down this morning at 8am. Both of our jobs have been so encouraging and allowed us time off. We waited our turn and told our story to the woman behind the window at CIS. She said that since the NBC took over adoptions there really was nothing they could do to help. Then she said maybe we could try asking the fingerprint office but that there was probably nothing they could do. Well I lost it and started crying and cried all the way out the building. Matt had to get directions and off we went to the fingerprint office. Once there, we talked with another kind woman and told her our situation. She told us that as soon as we get our appointment letter from CIS we could come anytime to get fingerprinted it shouldn't be a problem!! Yeah!!! So excited!! So now back to stalking our mailbox and hoping that letter comes today so we can go tomorrow and get us one step closer to Solomon.

Thank you so much for everyone who prayed for us...God definitely heard our prayers.

Frustrated...

2010-09-21T20:53:00.000-04:00

I thought I would share what is going on. We have to get fingerprinted for the US Citizen and Immigration Services (CIS) as part of our adoption paperwork. Fingerprints are only "good" for 15 months (don't ask me why) with the CIS. Our fingerprints expire with CIS on 10/7. So why is this a big deal...well we have to have current fingerprints in order to bring Solomon home. We leave on 10/15 for our court date in Ethiopia.

I sent a request to get an appointment to be re-fingerprinted back in August (it was back to the paperchase days of checking the mailbox every day to see if our appointment letter was here). Well we still do not have an appointment. AHHH!!!! Last week I started getting really nervous that this was going to set us back and that we would have to come back from Ethiopia without Solomon (my plan is to stay until we bring him home). So I tried to contact our local CIS office in Charlotte to see if they could help (this is where we go to get fingerprinted)..well let me tell you that this can not be done. Their phone number is disconnected and their email no longer works. It tells you that you need to call the CIS national benefits center (NBC) or email them (having to wait 2 business days for them to respond). So I tried calling them and the person on the line didn't understand what I was talking about and told me that all adoption information needed to be sent by email to the NBC. So I emailed telling them my situation and seeing if someone could help get us an appointment to be re-fingerprinted before we left for Ethiopia. I waited my 2 days for someone to respond and this person was not very helpful...telling me I needed a SIM number for her to access my file. I don't know that I have a SIM number. So I went through all of the millions of adoption paperwork that we have to see if there was a SIM number on something..never found it.

So I remember reading about another families struggles with fingerprints and decided to contact our Senator's office as they suggested. They also told me I needed to email someone with their office (still haven't heard back from them). So I emailed the NBC again hoping for someone else to help me and a nice woman was able to tell me that our file is in the computer system and she should know our appointment time tomorrow and would we like to email her tomorrow to find out our appointment date..YES!!! (not sure why the first lady I emailed couldn't tell me this) I am so nervous. I so want an appointment before we leave for Ethiopia and there is a small chance that it could happen. If for some reason our appointment is set for after we leave I will be calling the senators office non stop to see if they can help give us an earlier time.

So that is a lot of rambling and probably doesn't make much sense. The important thing to remember is to Please Pray that our appointment is before we leave on 10/15 and that the fingerprints make it in time to Ethiopia so that we can bring Solomon home quickly.

Happy three years

2010-09-15T10:24:00.002-04:00

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband! Today we celebrate three years together as mr and mrs. I am so excited to start this next year as a family of three. I love you Matt!

One month from today we will be flying to Ethiopia...crazy!!!

Another update

2010-09-02T21:03:00.002-04:00

We got a new update and one of the cutest pictures yet. Here is what our agency rep. had to say about him.

S. is such a happy little guy. I’ve probably said that before, but it bears repeating. He’s so interactive and playful. The slightest interaction with him brings a huge grin to his face and causes him to laugh loudly. Today, I visited with him while he stood in his crib and kept his perch there above his little corner of Foster Care 2. He likes to know what’s going on, so if he’s in his crib, and not playing on the floor, then most likely, he’s standing up keeping himself up-to-date on the goings on in his room. What a delight he is!

I am loving his little personality....Only 45 more days till we get to meet Solomon!!

Travel plans

2010-08-16T23:14:00.000-04:00

So since finding out about our court date it has been plan, plan, plan. We have tentatively made our travel plans!! In two months, Matt and I will be on a plane to Ethiopia or hopefully in Ethiopia. Ahh I can't believe it. I am ready to hold and love on our baby boy. We will do the scheduled Gladney events and when Gladney is finished hosting us we plan to travel to Awassa where Solomon is from and visit his birthplace. We get to travel with another Gladney family...who I can't wait to meet in person!

Once we get back from Awassa we plan to take placement of Solomon immediately and begin being parents. Matt will stay for another couple of days to be with Solomon and then he will go back to the USA. I will stay in Ethiopia with Solomon until we get our US Embassy appointment in Ethiopia. This appointment will be 3-6 weeks after our court date (once we go to this appointment we may leave Ethiopia with Solomon). But I will not be alone the same family who is going to Awassa with us will also be staying (the mom and her new baby that is)!!! We plan to stay at the same guesthouse as we remain in Ethiopia awaiting our embassy appointments. My mom and mother in law will come over the last week I am in Ethiopia to help me on the plane ride home with Solomon.

I know this will be an emotional and life changing trip on so many levels but I can't wait. The hardest part is that although these are my plans..it doesn't really matter. It all depends on if things go smoothly on our first court date on October 7th. (the one we don't go to) If things go well then we get to travel as planned, if things don't go well then our travel plans could be pushed back to another date. All of this unknown is stressful, but I feel as though I have planned for what I can. I have to keep telling myself that God is in control of all of this.

To get ready for this trip I have been re-reading lots of families blogs who have previously traveled making notes of places to visit and eat at while we have free time. I am still trying to figure out which guesthouse to stay at. I want to stay in the city where we can walk to things and really see what Addis Ababa is all about. I am also trying to figure out airlines and what will be best on the way back home with a one year old...doing several layovers or one really really long flight. I am hoping to get tickets soon. There are so many little questions to figure out such as how many diapers do I bring since I really don't know my return date, what will Solomon be eating, what will I be eating, will he be on a bottle or do I bring sippy cups, etc. I know all of these questions will be figured out and slowly things are coming together as we have gotten more tentative plans. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Update

2010-08-04T21:02:00.000-04:00

Today we received an updated picture and a description of how Solomon is doing:

S. put on quite a show today for all in his room to see! The caregivers were getting him to laugh and squeal with delight over and over. It was really delightful to watch. Other than entertaining, S. enjoyed “talking” to me today. He’s quite the conversationalist—for a toddler, that is. What a joy he is!

I can't wait to meet this baby boy!!

Court Date!!

2010-07-28T21:06:00.001-04:00

Matt and I were at home about to eat dinner. Matt was blessing the food and asking God to give us a court date quickly. No sooner had Matt said Amen then my phone starting ringing. I saw the famous 817 area code and was so excited to hear Kristin on the other line. She was calling to tell us of our court dates!!!

Our MOWA (Ministry of women's affairs) court date is October 7th.(we do not travel for this one) If all goes well then our official court date is October 19th. We will be in country from the 17th-24th. We get to meet Solomon on the 18th...crazy!! I am so excited and so glad that we got our court date before the courts close in August. Now we really need to get on the ball with getting Solomon's room ready. Sooo So Happy we got a court date!!!

Pictures

2010-07-19T18:23:00.000-04:00

So in our referral pictures that we got there was only one picture of Solomon slightly smiling. This week we have received several pictures of Solomon from families who have recently traveled to pick up their children. I am glad to report that Solomon looks so happy and is very smiley in almost all of the pictures. He has the best smile ever! I can't wait to get him and show him to you all! He is now sitting up in most of his pictures. We even got some videos of him laughing! So great to see videos..I just can't explain it. And apparently he loves to bounce while standing.I was also told he was heavy so I really need to start lifting some weights to prepare for him.

We are still waiting for a court date...I hope we hear something soon, this wait is HARD!!

How we are doing..

2010-06-28T22:44:00.000-04:00

We are without words to describe how happy we are right now to be matched with our little Solomon. Well maybe I shouldn't say little...Solomon is a good eater apparently. I went out shopping this weekend to get Solomon some stuff to send for a care package. Our 7 month old guy is in 12 month clothing according to his height and weight measurements from when he was 6 months old. Crazy! I am so glad that he is a healthy growing boy.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone for being so happy for us. Can I also just say how wonderful this Gladney adoption community is. Everyone has been so encouraging. Right now there are families in Ethiopia and getting ready to travel who are going to love on our boy. This family is going to give Solomon a gift from us. It was so hard to narrow down what we wanted to give him. We ended up giving him an outfit and pjs (I hope they fit him) along with a photo album of us.

Referral - the call story!!!!

2010-06-23T23:39:00.002-04:00

Ahhh!! We got our call today!! It still feels like a dream and hasn't really set in yet. Here is how it happened:

So I was at work and it was after 2pm. I was thinking that since Gladney hadn't called yet that we were not going to get our call today because they were having an Ethiopian conference call for families this afternoon. So I figured our caseworker would be busy preparing for that conference call. So I went on with my day. I was across the hall from my office and I heard my phone ring, but I didn't make it in time. Before I could see who it was it started ringing again and I saw the famous 817 area code. I immediately started shaking and my heart was about to beat out of my chest. I answered and Kristin, our caseworker, told me she had our referral ready for us. All I could say was Oh my gosh like a million times. I told her that Matt and I wanted to be together for the call and could call her back in 30 minutes once we met up.

So I called Matt and he did not believe me that Kristin had actually called me. After several seconds of telling him I was not joking and that this really was the call, we agreed to meet at his work to hear about our referral after he went home to pick up the video camera. I left work and went straight to his office. Once we got the camera and computer all set up we called Kristin back. She sent us our email and we saw the cutest, I mean cutest baby boy ever! God has truly blessed us.

He is 7 months old and has the biggest brown eyes and chubby cheeks. He is just amazing! He is described to be very social, smiles easily and loves attention. I can't wait to get my hands on him. We have decided to call him Solomon.

So for all of you who are not in the adoption community, you may be asking what is next. Well now we wait some more. They are busy getting Solomon's papers ready and in order and will then submit them to the Ethiopian court system. In Ethiopia the court system closes down for the rainy season sometime in August and opens back up in October. Once we receive a court date we will travel over to Ethiopia for the court date and then come back to the US. Upon passing court we will then travel back to Ethiopia and bring Solomon home. We hope to have him home around November. Please continue to pray for us as now that we have seen his face it will be hard to be patient and wait for a court date.By the way we are not allowed to post any pictures of him until he is officially ours.

Number 1

2010-06-17T07:51:00.000-04:00

We are number 1!!! I just read all about Shannon's call and then saw that Joanna got her referral yesterday too! So that makes us number one for a boy and a girl. I can hardly contain myself. AHHHH!!!!

8 months down...

2010-06-12T20:15:00.001-04:00

Today marks 8 months on the wait list. I sometimes feel like this picture as all I think about is our baby and when we will get the call, court date, travel..etc. Hopefully our call will come soon. Unofficially we are number 1 for a girl and number 3 for a boy. Yeah!!!! We need to get on the ball with girl names..we don't have any yet that we both agree on. We have about 4 that we are considering for a boy. I am guessing that we will not make it through courts before they close for the rainy season as they have not yet given anyone a court date who has to travel twice as far as I know. So I am coming to grips that sometime in Oct/Nov we will have baby E in our arms.

While we are waiting

2010-06-02T22:10:00.001-04:00

So "the call" really could come any day or it could be months. But just in case it could be any day I am carrying my phone around with me wherever I go and for that one split second when it rings I think this could be it. Although we haven't gotten the call yet, I did get an important phone call today. We found out that our crib had arrived at the store and was ready for pick up :) Luckily my dad was able to help us bring it home because it never would have fit in Matt or I's car. Thanks Dad. Here is Matt putting it together:

Here is the finished crib with my current baby in it! I love how it came it..ordering online can be tricky when you can't see or touch the object so I was a little nervous, but I am so happy with it.I can't wait till there is a real little baby in this room!

Katie and Kevin

2010-05-16T21:36:00.001-04:00

Katie and Kevin

This weekend was my third wedding of the year that I was in :) This one was extra special though because it was Matt's sister and he got to marry them. We are so excited for them and were glad to be apart of their day. And as Nana said: Next time we have a family celebration it will be because of a little one. Here is hoping that that next family celebration is soon!!!

7 months down

2010-05-12T21:32:00.000-04:00

Today marks 7 months down of waiting on the waitlist. Hopefully we have less than 2 months left. Sometimes this process doesn't seem very real, but I know that as soon as I see that face it will become more and more real. Until then I continue to pray for Baby E and stalk the FBI list! It is so exciting to see all the referrals and court dates coming through...can't wait until it is our turn.

I'm an aunt!!

2010-04-28T21:39:00.001-04:00

Very early this morning my sister had her baby girl...Emma Kate. She weighed 6 lbs 3.4 ounces and was 20 inches long. We are so excited to have this sweet little one join the family. It's our first time to be an aunt and uncle!!

6 months down...

2010-04-12T21:48:00.000-04:00

That's right folks we have 6 months down! Time has gone by fast and yet slow if that makes since. We need to get on the ball and finish our training videos and get a crib so we can start working on the nursery. Currently the average wait times still remain at 9 months, but the referrals have been coming really fast and we are quickly moving up the unofficial list. 9 months puts us in July. We are #4 for a girl and #7 for a boy in our age range according to the unofficial list!!

Meeting Ginger...

2010-04-07T21:42:00.000-04:00

Tonight I got to meet with a fellow Gladney mom who is ahead of us on the waitlist..and really close to getting her referral. What a blessing it was to talk about everything that we are going through and have already been through. Before I knew it a couple of hours had passed by. Our friends and family have been really supportive throughout this process but it was so nice to talk with someone who really knows what I am going through. Hope our baby E's get here soon!

Our fundraiser..

2010-03-22T21:26:00.001-04:00

This past Saturday my sister and bro-in law (with the help of our families and some friends) put on an adoption fundraiser for us. They did such a great job and I will be forever grateful. We had a spaghetti dinner and silent auction. There was a great turn out and we feel so blessed to have such supportive friends and family. We hope that we got people thinking more about adoption and that God would stir someone's heart to open their home to an orphan. My father-in-law took a lot of pics so once I get them I will post some.

Some Changes...

2010-03-10T21:35:00.001-05:00

Today we received news from our agency that there are some changes. The federal courts in Ethiopia now require families to travel twice (we were only going to have to travel once to bring our baby home). Now we must travel once for us to appear in court and once for us to pick up Baby E to come home to the United States. The first trip will be about 5 days. The next trip 7 days. The time between the court date and embassy date could be 3-6 weeks. At first Matt and I were really bummed I mean this is more expense. Plus we get to see our child and then have to leave-how hard will that be-I just can't imagine. But we are trying to look at the positive this does mean that we get to go to Ethiopia twice. We get to see our child's homeland and experience it twice. Plus we get to see our baby hopefully earlier than we would if we had to wait until after we passed court.Well I am assuming that we would get to see our child the first visit..I don't really know. We always knew that adoption was an ever changing process and never set in stone. We also know that God is in control and knows what is best for us and our baby.

Boy or a Girl

2010-02-22T18:30:00.000-05:00

So Matt and I have put on our requirements that we would be honored to have a boy or a girl. From the very beginning most people from our agency have told us that we would probably get a boy since so many people request girls. Not sure why this is but they just do. So even though we requested either gender I have it in my mind that we will be getting a boy since that is what I have heard. When I refer to baby E I see in my mind a boy and when I look at baby stuff I gravitate more toward the boy side; I have more boy names picked out...etc. Today I decided to count on the unofficial list for our agency and see where we are in regards to waiting for a boy and for a girl. Currently we are at number 11 for a boy and...number 11 for a girl. Not what I was expecting...I thought surely we would be a lot lower on the list waiting for a girl. But there we are equal for both a boy and girl. Matt and I both still feel that it will be a boy, but maybe God has a sweet beautiful girl waiting for us.

4 months down

2010-02-14T21:25:00.000-05:00

We have reached the half way point on our waitlist (average weight time is now 8 months)!! I really feel like the past 4 months have gone by fast, so I hope the next 4 go by just as fast. I just wonder where all the referrals are at?? I can't wait to see my baby's face.

We will miss you PawPaw

2010-02-10T20:45:00.001-05:00

PawPaw, Alan, Matt

Last night PawPaw Capps went home to be with the Lord. We will miss him dearly. He was the sweetest man who loved his family so much. Please keep the Capps in your prayers.

to take a day or not...

2010-02-02T19:02:00.000-05:00

The weather around here has been crazy. First it snowed a ton this past weekend - around 8 inches which is a lot for winston-salem, rained all day today, and now it is supposed to snow this Friday as well. The only bad thing about this is that at my job we never close and I mean never so if I feel like I can't come in to work due to the snow then I have to take a vacation day. I am trying so hard to save my time for when I am out on maternity leave which hopefully will be some time this summer!! So here is hoping the snow holds out till after 5pm on Friday.

Is anyone else excited that tonight is LOST night???

Keeping Busy...

2010-01-19T18:39:00.000-05:00

Over the next couple of months my life will be consumed with wedding showers, weddings, and baby showers. It seems that most of my friends are going through these major life changes all around the same time :) I am glad to stay busy and to help pass the time as we wait for Baby E. So my first event happened this weekend as my dear friend Kelli had her bachelorette party in DC. I realized that I am getting old, because it was really hard to stay up till 3 in the morning hanging out. There were 16 girls total, so it was a lot of fun to catch up with some who I haven't seen in a long time. Here is the beautiful bride to be...her new last name is going to be Queen..very fitting for her.

3 months...

2010-01-12T08:53:00.001-05:00

Today marks 3 months on the waitlist. Currently the average wait time is 7.5 months for an infant. :)

Baby its cold inside...

2009-12-18T17:56:00.001-05:00

Last night I started getting cold, like freezing cold...but I thought maybe it was because I had been just sitting too long on the couch looking at adoption blogs. So I turned the heat up a bit. This morning this is what I saw..

our inside temp was in the 50's ...it was soo cold. All I wanted to do was stay in bed. Even poor Jake was shivering so I had to put his fleece coat on too.

SO we called our home warranty people and about 7 hours later :) they came to fix it

Apparently the previous owner left something on and the motor in our heater rusted and stopped working. . Thank goodness he was able to come out and fix it because it is snowing!!

2 months down...

2009-12-12T08:10:00.002-05:00

Today marks 2 months down of waiting on the waitlist for our baby. WooHoo!!!

My favorite obsession

2009-12-05T09:25:00.000-05:00

So I must confess I have an obsession. There is something called the Gladney FBI. It is an unofficial list of some of the families (and their blogs) who are adopting from Ethiopia through Gladney.It is broken down into categories of who is working on their paper work, waiting for a referral (that is where we are), who has gotten their referral and finally who has passed court. I admit to checking this website several times a day and reading the many blogs for updates. It is so exciting to see families matched with their child and connecting with others who are going through the process. People have been so encouraging.

So Matt and I are in the waiting category and it tells you when the family was placed on the waitlist and what they are requesting (boy, girl, infant, siblings etc.) It is so exciting to see our name move up closer and closer to the top of the list, even though we have a long way to the top. Recently families have been getting infant referrals at 6-7 months AHHH!! Hopefully they will keep coming that quickly and baby E will be here by summer time!

Happy Birthday Love

2009-12-03T08:26:00.011-05:00

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, amazing best friend. I love you so much and am very blessed to call you my husband. I know you will make a great daddy. Happy Birthday!

I see pink...

2009-11-23T17:35:00.000-05:00

Well a month or two ago I mentioned the fact that my sister was pregnant!! Well today Matt and I and the rest of my family got to see our sweet little niece on ultrasound. That's right I am going to have a niece!! So excited. I had a feeling they were going to have a girl. I have a very strong feeling that Matt and I will get a boy. :)

Coffee...

2009-11-21T20:29:00.001-05:00

Anyone in need of some delicious fair trade coffee??? Well stop by our store. Our store has coffee from several different countries including Ethiopia. A portion of the sale goes towards our adoption expenses. Makes great Christmas gifts !!

Orphan Sunday video at our church...

2009-11-18T21:28:00.002-05:00

1 month down...

2009-11-12T13:34:00.001-05:00

That's right we have been on the waitlist for 1 month now. It feels as though this month has flown by, and with the holidays coming hopefully it will go by even faster. I pray we have to wait only 7 more months till we see our precious baby E! At times it stills feels unreal that next year Matt and I are going to be parents.

Check it out...

2009-11-10T18:57:00.000-05:00

http://abbafund.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/hadopting-every-waiting-child-in-the-us/

Passing the time...

2009-11-04T11:42:00.000-05:00

So I have become one of those bloggers who never posts. But I have been busy busy busy, which is good to help pass the time as we wait for "the call". Not really expecting that for another 7-8 months though. So what have I been doing?? Well first Matt and I worked hard to make our Halloween costumes. I saw a picture of two little kids dressed up as this and thought it was so cute so I decided to give it a try. Matt made my costume and I made his. Here we are at my friend Rachel's Halloween party...

I also signed up to take a beginning quilting class with my sister and my free time has been spent working on this...I will post pics of the finished quilt once I get it done. The class is at Karen Gray's shop, which I love.

More exciting news!!!

2009-10-14T18:55:00.000-04:00

So I have some very exciting news that I have recently been given permission to post. Are you ready for it??? I am going to be an aunt!!! My sister and her husband are expecting and are due at the end of April. Like me, my sister struggled with getting pregnant and I praise God that she has this life growing inside her now. I am reminded of one of my favorite verses: For I know the plans I have for you..plans to give you a hope and a future. God’s timing is so perfect and I am so blessed that our baby will have a cousin to grow up with. I pray that these babies will be the best of friends. I am also very excited that we get to go through the baby planning phases together of picking out our nursery. It is a struggle not to spend all my free time at work looking at baby bedding, cribs, toys..etc. When I see my sister it is also a constant reminder to pray for her, and Baby E as I know he/she has been conceived and is growing and developing at this very moment. Crazy to think about.

Waitlist!

2009-10-13T12:35:00.000-04:00

Matt and I found out that as of yesterday we made it onto the waitlist for our adoption!! My heart is just over flowing with excitment. So what does that mean to be on the waitlist? That means that Matt and I will be waiting and waiting until we receive a call saying they have a referral / baby for us. The referral includes pictures, developmental info, and any medical info that they have. Currently the average wait time for an infant is 8 months..but it could be shorter or longer than that. I am so excited!! So after we accept our referral then we get a court date in Ethiopia which will be a couple of weeks later (we do not have to be present for the court date). If we pass court then the baby is ours!!! Sometimes people do not pass court on the first time due to several reasons. So after we pass our court date we make plans to travel over and pick up our baby. Yeah!!

2009-10-07T17:10:00.002-04:00

Did you know that there are 147 million orphans out there today? 147 million. In Ethiopia there are 4.8 million orphans waiting for a family to care and love for them.

Ethiopian Orphans from Simon Scionka on Vimeo.

Our weekend...

2009-10-05T20:55:00.000-04:00

Matt and I had a great time at the Together for Adoption conference in Franklin, TN. It was such an amazing sight to see so many people (over 600) on fire for the Lord and on fire for adoption. We met lots of people in the adoption world such as Gwen Oatsvall who helps run 147million orphans. This organization sells products to help adopting couples fundraise money for their adoption and also their proceeds go to help feed starving kids in Uganda. You should check them out..great organization. I saw lots of babies from Africa and it made me long for my own. What a precious sight to see these multiracial families. I can't wait till we have our baby in our arms!!

It arrived.... the I-171H

2009-09-30T21:39:00.003-04:00

That's right...Matt and I received the last paperwork that we needed for our Dossier!! Our CIS approval - I-171 H. I can not believe it got here so quickly. I was expecting a couple of months at least so yeah!! Tomorrow I will go get it notarized and send it to Kate our dossier paper lady. She is going to have all of our paperwork certified for us and then the next step is getting placed on the waitlist. One step closer to baby E.

Tomorrow Matt and I have a phone appointment with our Gladney case worker to talk about the next steps in our adoption. Her name is Kristin. After our phone appointment, we are headed out to the Together for Adoption conference..very excited! 7 hours in the car together..hope we survive!

Homestudy Status...

2009-09-21T19:52:00.000-04:00

Our Homestudy has been approved!!! That's right we are now Gladney approved!! We received an email letting us know that our homestudy has been shipped to CIS (Citizen and Immigration Services). Now they (CIS) have to approve us by sending us a letter called a I-171H. This can take a couple of months to receive and will be the last piece of our paperwork. So excited!!

2 year Tuesday

2009-09-15T18:10:00.001-04:00

Today Matt and I mark our two year anniversary!! Woohoo! Hard to believe we have been married for 2 whole years!! I am so blessed to be married to this wonderful man, my best friend. I know he will be an incredible father and look forward to us moving into the next chapter of our lives. We celebrated by going to lunch and are gonna grab some dinner tonight. Anyway check out how sweet he was to me:

I love it! If you want to see more look here

I also got this book and look forward to making all kinds of stuff

and I got another book to a series I have been reading by Francine Rivers...I can't put her books down. Anyway I love you Matt!!

What's going on...

2009-09-13T15:54:00.000-04:00

Well I know I haven't posted in a awhile, but there hasn't been much adoption news to report. Two weeks ago we found out that in addition to Matt's apology letter for his speeding ticket, he also needed to send in a police report. After going back and forth between the clerk of courts and police department he found out that in Forsyth county they no longer give people police reports. So then we found out he needed to get a notarized letter saying there was no police report available. Who new a speeding ticket would mean so much. I found out that Gladney received his letter and now they are just reviewing our homestudy in order to approve the homestudy to send to CIS (immigration office). (I thought they had already reviewed it, but I guess not). Once CIS receives it they send us an approval letter and that should be the final thing we need!! This process could take several months. So this is were we are: waiting for our homestudy to be approved and our letter from CIS.

We did get trainging videos from our adoption agency..so that is a good sign, right. The topics are: Attachment and Bonding, Facilitating Behavior Change, Institutionalized Child, Grief and Loss in Adoption, and Ethiopia Training. After watching the DVD's we then take a quiz to show how much we have learned. I look forward to learning all I can about adoption.

Adoptive families...

2009-08-30T22:36:00.002-04:00

Matt and I met for the first time with some families adopting from Africa this afternoon. We met at a park in Greensboro for lunch and a time to meet. It was kind of like the first day of school in a new place...where you don't know anyone and have all of this nervous energy. But it turned out great as we got hear everyone's stories. The families are in all different areas of the adoption process. Some already had their kids, one family was traveling to Ethiopia in a couple of weeks, others were on the waitlist and then there was us who are still in the paperwork phase. I thank God for this group of people. Because they truly know what it is like. The stressors, the waiting and the complete awesomeness of adoption. I look forward to getting to know them all and having our baby grow up with others from his country.

Conference call

2009-08-26T17:25:00.002-04:00

Just got off the phone for the monthly Gladney Ethiopia program update. Currently the wait time from Gladney approval to referral is 8 full months for families wanting a child 0-12 months. That's us..except we are still not on the wait list yet!! I still have not heard if the agency received Matt's court report from his speeding ticket that was sent in last week. Once they get that then they can send our homestudy to the Immigration office. Well that is all for now.

2009-08-19T17:07:00.004-04:00

I found out today that our adoption agency, Gladney, received our homestudy. YEAH!! There was one problem though. About a year ago Matt got a speeding ticket and not only did he get a speeding ticket but he didn't have proof of insurance in his car!! Keep in mind that I regularly tell him to slow down, especially in that area because it is down hill at 35 mph. So Matt had to write a letter of remorse for getting his ticket to the adoption agency. I told him he should put that he would listen to his wife from now on because she always tells him to slow down. Of course he didn't. But now I found out that we also need the police report from that incident :( I thought we were done getting papers, but hopefully it will be easy to get and that can be sent in. Once that is in they can send our information to CIS so we can get a letter of approval to adopt!! And then be put on the wait list!

Another very exciting thing happened. I was put in touch, by our home study social worker, with some local families who are adopting from Ethiopia. They are having a get together on the 30th at a park in Greensboro, so Matt and I are going to try and go and meet some of the families. Hopefully there will be some families who already have their beautiful Ethiopian kids!! How exciting!

Being patient

2009-08-10T19:24:00.003-04:00

No adoption update to report. We are still waiting for our social worker to send in our home study report. She also sends a copy to the immigration office and then they have to send us a letter. Then our adoption agency has to approve us. Once we get this we can be put on the waitlist!! It is so hard to be patient as she sent us the draft of the report over a week ago for us to look over. And I immediately sent it back with our ok. So just waiting...

Well...

2009-08-01T21:19:00.001-04:00

So I am super excited. I am pretty sure that Matt and I are done with our paperwork!!! Well I better correct myself, we are done with everything we have to do. On Friday we had the last of our paperwork notarized and I was finally able to get my medical form situated. Actually I made Matt handle it as I have had it up to here with them...and it took him 3 hours to get the form filled out. It is such a relief to know that the medical form is completed, for the third time, hopefully the last time. So anyway I plan on sending all of our remaining forms (my medical, passport copies-we had to redo as we did not sign our full name, FBI results, and two references) to Kate our Dossier service, on Monday to be looked over to make sure that the forms are good to go.

We are only waiting on two things. First, our homestudy report to typed up (I just found out that the woman completing our report had to be with her sick father, so please pray for healing). And second our Immigration letter..but they can't send that until they have our homestudy. So that is it, that is all we are waiting for until we can be placed on the wait list!!! Once on the wait list we will wait for around 9 months until they give us a referral for our child. The referral will include pictures, medical info, and any background information that they know. After we accept the referral we are given a court date in Ethiopia. The court date is usually about 2-3 months out after you accept the referral. Once they approve us on that court date we make plans to travel over and pick up baby E in Ethiopia!

My boys...

2009-07-24T20:41:00.000-04:00

Things are happening...

2009-07-24T19:59:00.001-04:00

Things to do: This week Matt and I received our FBI clearance reports. Basically it is a copy of our fingerprints with a "No arrest" stamp on it. That's right we have never been arrested. So I need to get it notarized, I think, and send it in. I finally think all of our references have sent in their letters. Thanks Alex, Will, Kelli and Amy, that meant so much to us, you have no idea how grateful we are for the kind words! This week I also heard back from our dossier service, and Matt and I both have to redo our passport copies that we sent in apparently our signatures are not very good.

This morning we had a final homevist with our social worker. We talked about how we want to raise our child, our discipline methods, how Matt and I met and our relationship. Then she went around and looked at our house. She thinks she could possibly get our homestudy report done by next week!! I am getting very very excited as I feel this is the last part on our ends to get us on the waitlist for our baby E!!

Once we are on the waitlist we are required to do some reading to help us prepare for our baby (Currently most families are on the waitlist for 9 months before they receive a referral for their child from Ethiopia). Although Matt and I have already been doing some reading, they have certain topics we must cover. We are also going to go to the Together for Adoption Conference in Tennessee the first weekend in October which will be amazing. Check out another great video:

You gotta watch this..

2009-07-16T18:47:00.000-04:00

Check out this sweet, sweet video of a family meeting their little Lucy Lane for the first time!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duyL9UjLrdM

New updates...

2009-07-16T17:49:00.001-04:00

Tuesday was such a stressful day. I was not feeling well so I went home early from work. I decided that I would organize some adoption paperwork as I was at home. I called over to my doctor's office to check up on my medical form. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had to get a physical to include in our adoption paperwork and the doctor did not complete it as it needed to be. Well since the form was completed incorrectly I needed a new one filled out. I had gone up there last week and they said it would be completed this week as their notary was on vacation. The part that was incorrect was that someone had put US in the county line and not Forsyth. They had also faxed the form so the doctors signature was not original. You would think this would be a simple request. So I called on Tuesday to see if the form had been completed for the second time and they tell me they know of no such form! So I had to re-explain my situation and tell them who I had talked to originally as of course this person was not working today. This takes about 30 minutes as they can not find my chart anywhere. So to make a long story short they eventually find my chart with the completed form and tell me it is ready to be picked up at the main office as I go to the doctor at their satellite office. I go to the main office and pick up my form. Low and behold the form was still not correct and when I asked if they could fix it the woman said no. I started crying right there in the doctor's office. I guess my tears must have made a difference, because the receptionist got on the phone to talk to her supervisor. They suggested that I take the form over to the satellite office and see if they could fix it. So I drove over to that office and luckily a doctor came out and wrote the word Forsyth on the form and signed it for me. I hope that this is all I need for this medical to be complete. You wouldn't think it would be so hard. Okay so enough of my complaining.

On Wednesday Matt and I went to Walgreen's to have 2 passport size pictures of us taken as this was needed for the adoption paperwork. Not sure exactly what this is for, maybe for our travel visas?? Then I went to FedEx and mailed off some of our completed forms to our adoption agency and to KBS who is helping us with our dossier. Our sweet friends Lee and Amy gave us a great, great deal on their baby furniture that they no longer needed. So Matt and Lee brought it over on Wednesday night. When I say furniture I mean a really nice chest of drawers and a changing table with a hutch top. Yea! Now all I need furniture wise is a crib and a glider chair of some kind. I still cannot make up my mind about what kind of crib I want, but I still have plenty of time.

This morning Matt and I met with our social worker who is conducting our home study. We had to talk about our upbringing and our families and what all they mean to us. Overall I think it went well even though I don't always enjoy talking about my personal feelings. :) She gave us some suggestions on books to read and things to think about. Another good thing was that she said she could connect us to some families in the area who have adopted from Ethiopia. What a blessing. We made an appointment for her to come out next week to see our home, as we had to meet her at her home today. Hopefully I can keep the house clean until next Friday!

Adoption update

2009-07-10T17:50:00.000-04:00

Matt and I are still working on our paperwork. While we were on vacation my updated passport arrived in the mail with my new last name. Not really crazy about my picture but oh well. I was starting to wonder if it would ever arrive. I have to make a copy of it and get the copy notarized for dossier paperwork. We also got a call to schedule our homevist. We are going July 16th to Greensboro to meet with our social worker and then we will schedule a time for her to come to our home.

On Tuesday Matt and I drove to Charlotte for our 8 am appointment to get fingerprinted by Immigration. The entire appointment took all of 15 minutes and then we drove back home to go to work. The other thing I found out this week is that my doctor who did my physical did not completely fill out the form correctly so I had to go back and see if she could fix it. Well when I went back to the doctor's office I found out that she no longer works there! I am still waiting to find out what I need to do in order to fix the form.

I have a lot of forms completed just need to run by the bank get them notarized and then send them to FedEx.

Vacation

2009-07-05T21:58:00.000-04:00

Matt and I just got back from a wonderful week in Florida. We flew down and I kept thinking that the next time Matt and I fly will be to pick up our baby!! I can't wait. We traveled down with my sister and her husband, and we stayed in a town near Clearwater. While there we went to a Devil Rays game, went to the beach, and went down to Key west for two days. Hard to believe we are back and have to go back to work next week. Here are some pictures from our trip. Enjoy!

Adoption news...

2009-06-22T22:50:00.000-04:00

Matt and I mailed in most of our Gladney application today..still a few things that I need from Matt and then it will be complete...I think. This means that our homestudy can now be requested. This also means that we decided to let the agency decide the gender of our baby. I had been thinking that it would be so much easier to plan if we knew what we were getting and had thought about choosing the gender, but then we decided not to. This way will be so much more exciting once we get our referral. We also got our appointment for CIS finger printing in the mail today. We go down to Charlotte on July 7 at 8am. I also mailed off some things to Kate who is helping us with our Dossier. Matt called to find out where we need to go for our other finger printing to get FBI clearance. So things are moving along!

Adoption paperwork...

2009-06-18T21:14:00.000-04:00

Well I think we have most of the paperwork ready for our Gladney application. Here is pretty much what we had to do and still need to do:

1. Application - completed

2. Adoption risk paperwork - completed

3. Gladney agreement - completed and notarized

4. Service plan - completed and gone over with our program assistant

5. Child preference form - Matt and I are going to let the agency pick the gender, but we did ask for a child under the age of 1 year old

6. Various other agreements - signed

7. Family photo's - we still need to get someone to take a picture of us in front of our house and take some pictures of the rooms in our house. I just cleaned so I should probably take those soon before the house gets messy again

8. Copies of birth certificate and marriage certificate - I just sent off for these (although we have them, we need certified copies from this year)

9. Employer letters - I am getting mine back from my supervisor tomorrow and hopefully Matt will have his completed next week

10. Physician reports - I just got a call today that mine is ready to be picked up so I will do that tomorrow. Hopefully Matt's will be ready next week

11. References - I already heard from one friend that she completed hers, only three more to go!

Then they will set up our home study, and we have to start working on our Dossier documents. I have already started on some of them as many are the same that are needed for the Gladney file. Things seem to be moving quickly and the paperwork doesn't seem so overwhelming anymore.

Last night I started looking at cribs!! There are so many styles to choose from. I can't make up my mind if I want something like this sleigh style or something really simple or even what color to get. What do you all think?

Questions...

2009-06-14T19:46:00.000-04:00

Several people have asked the question of why we are adopting. Matt has already written about his reason here. Well for me that is kind of a hard question to answer as there are so many things that brought me to this decision. But here it goes. Matt and I tried on our own to have children. 13 months to be exact..which isn't exactly that long...but month after month of it not working and seeing others around you get pregnant so quickly was very devastating. All I ever wanted to do was be a mama. So in order to do that we started seeing a specialist and tried his advice and pills for awhile with no luck. Over the months I felt God telling me that this is not how he wanted us to have our children. So I started to become more ok with the idea of adopting and of not having biological children. So much in fact that is was all I could think about. This became my desire. I started talking to Matt about it, telling him that this is what I thought God wanted us to do and he wasn't quite there yet, but I began praying that his eyes and heart would open up to it. Not that he was against adopting. We had always talked about wanting to adopt after we had our biological children first. (As a social worker I see all kinds of horrible conditions and know that there are tons of kids out there who need a good home and who need God's love. So adoption was always in my mind.) Matt wanted to keep trying so we did. Eventually Matt started feeling God telling him that we should start the adoption process. He began doing research behind the theology of adoption and became more and more at peace about moving forward with this process. So this is what brought us to adoption.

The other question people always ask is "Why Ethiopia?" When we both decided to move forward with adoption, I began doing research as to where we could adopt. We both knew we wanted to do international adoption. After looking through many countries Matt and I both decided that Ethiopia was the one we wanted to go for. We loved reading about the culture and thought the people from there were beautiful. Something about this country just felt right for both of us.

Matt and I bought our first gift for the baby this weekend! A book about animals that you can touch and feel their fur. Too cute!