Friday, August 27, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tickets for Trip One are Booked!
After receiving our official court date, I spent the last 2 days calling around to a couple of recommended travel agents who specialize in adoption travel, as well as perusing Orbitz to check on airfare. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that air fare is significantly cheaper in November than it was in August. Side note - if you ever want to travel to Ethiopia, you DO NOT want to pay for airfare in the rainy season! I guess that's one plus for us having to wait so long for our court date!
Anyway, our tickets are booked. We will be flying out of Pittsburgh on a Friday morning and arriving in Ethiopia on Saturday night after traveling through Toronto Canada and then Frankfort Germany. We will then be leaving Ethiopia on Monday night and arriving back in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. How's that for a little weekend get-away?! ;-) We will spend more time traveling to and fro, than we will get to spend in Ethiopia for this first trip. But, if all goes as planned, when we leave to come home after this weekend away, we will legally be the parents to our sweet boy, M.
Oh, and another little tidbit of good news, I heard from another adoptive mom today whom I had asked to look for M. when she traveled to bring her son home a few weeks ago. She hadn't been able to find him when they were there, but she had his picture with her and when she was unpacking after they got home, her son saw the picture, picked it up, smiled really big, and kept saying M's name over and over and then kissed the picture. How sweet is that?! Another Ethiopian friend of his here in the states! Yay! I take a tiny bit of comfort in knowing that we won't have to completely take him away from everything that he knows and cares about when we bring him home with us - even if it is just a few friends, it's something!
Monday, August 23, 2010
We Have a DATE!!!
November 22, 2010
Thankfully, the rumors were true! Turns out that although the courts are closed from Aug. 6 through Sept. 27th, the administrative offices are remaining open so they are still assigning court dates. We received our travel email from Holt today, notifying us of our court date where we will appear before the High Courts in Ethiopia to legally adopt our son.
I am grateful to finally KNOW when we're going. I am grateful to have months to plan ahead for our trip. I am grateful that we will return just before Thanksgiving and not only have time to reflect on hopefully being the new legal parents to M., but also time to recover from our whirlwind trip to Ethiopia and back!
Holt is requesting that we arrive in Addis Ababa, ET on Saturday, Nov. 20th - which means we will have to leave Pittsburgh on Friday. On Sunday morning, we will attend an orientation, then get to meet M.. That afternoon, we will be briefed for court and then will spend time with M.'s pediatrician. Monday morning, we will go to court. Monday afternoon, we will again spend some time with M., but then Monday night, we will have to leave ET to fly home (without M. - boo hoo, sad face, many tears...
Seriously though, we are thrilled. We are grateful. We are overjoyed. We are excited.
We don't yet know when we will be able to bring M. home. Embassy appointments are generally anywhere from 4 - 12 weeks after court. Another adoptive mom who has a court date on the Friday before ours was told today that she would most likely not travel for their Embassy appointment until January - which means that we most likely will not travel until January either - but we're still hoping for Christmas miracles!
Psalm 118:1
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Friends, Food & other random good stuff
It's been a while since I posted anything. It's not that there wasn't anything to report. It's just that there wasn't anything BIG to report. I kept waiting for the next big thing, but here's what I realized - in the adoption process, there are only a few big things but many, many small things that are all equally important in the long run. Lots of small things have occurred in the past few weeks, so I figured I should probably share them because although they aren't BIG, they are important to us.
First, Eric and I went out a few weeks ago for our first Ethiopian meal. We expected to enjoy it, and we did. In fact, we loved it. We both like spicy - which is a good thing when eating a lot of Ethiopian food. Another thing that we loved about it is the "community" feel of the meal. Ethiopians don't typically use utensils. A lot of their dishes are "wats" - basically like thick stews - which are served on another staple of their diet - "injera" which is a flat bread made from Teff. The food is eaten by ripping a piece of injera from the side, covering the bite that you want and (gracefully) pinching & scooping the morsel into your mouth with the injera. The meals are served family style so Eric and I shared a giant platter.
Honestly, the food doesn't look very appetizing. Here's a picture. You can draw you own comparisons as to what it looks like. I'll spare you my opinion. :-)
But, trust me. It was GOOD!!! Very good! And, it was fun. We talked a lot during the meal and we look forward to going back to share the experience with friends, family, and especially with Markos when he comes home.
Our wonderful friends have planned an Adoption Celebration/Birthday party for M./fundraiser picnic for us. We will be getting together next Saturday - M.'s 4th birthday - to celebrate, visit, and eat. I have ordered some injera and some Ethiopian spices so I can (hopefully) make some Ethiopian dishes to share on this special day.
Speaking of friends, another "little" event that has occurred recently is that we have made contact with a family who just happened to recently adopt and bring home one of M.'s good buddies from the care center. They recently traveled to Ethiopia and met M. while they were there to get their son. They said that he is precious, that the children are VERY, VERY loved and well cared for, that they're learning some English, and that their transition thus far has been amazing! That makes me so happy. Additionally, they also would love for their son to be able to maintain his friendship from Ethiopia so we plan to stay in touch and to possibly allow the boys to Skype once we bring M. home. What a blessing that he will be able to keep one of the relationships that he had in Ethiopia!! God is so good!
Other news - we received M.'s lab results from when he was first moved to Addis (the capital of Ethiopia). Additionally, we received 3 updated pictures of him. Oh how I wish I could post them on here. He is SO CUTE! And he looks so good. So much healthier. So much happier. While it thrilled me to see them, it also hurt a little because he's changed so much already and we're missing it. But, he'll be home soon and then we won't miss the changes & growth for the rest of his precious life.
The reports and pictures were, of course, forwarded to our International Adoption Pediatrician for review. Her report was great. Aside from noticing a possible fungal scalp infection (which we already knew from the other families that a lot of the kids were coming home with scalp ringworm so this was no surprise), she thinks he looks great. His lab results and blood work were great.
Speaking of paperwork, we received our corrected I-171 form from USCIS with our updated age range. This was the last piece of paperwork that needed to be completed before we can travel to bring M. home. We love America, but seriously, dealing with the U.S. government agencies has been the WORST & most difficult part of this entire process thus far. This is the last thing that we needed from them at this point, so we are relieved to be finished with it.
Lastly, we took another trip to the recycling center this morning. We added another $64 to our travel fundraising efforts from your aluminum cans. Thanks for dropping them off for us. We appreciate your support!
OK, that's the update. Lots of little bits of good news, fun times, and things to come.
First, Eric and I went out a few weeks ago for our first Ethiopian meal. We expected to enjoy it, and we did. In fact, we loved it. We both like spicy - which is a good thing when eating a lot of Ethiopian food. Another thing that we loved about it is the "community" feel of the meal. Ethiopians don't typically use utensils. A lot of their dishes are "wats" - basically like thick stews - which are served on another staple of their diet - "injera" which is a flat bread made from Teff. The food is eaten by ripping a piece of injera from the side, covering the bite that you want and (gracefully) pinching & scooping the morsel into your mouth with the injera. The meals are served family style so Eric and I shared a giant platter.
Honestly, the food doesn't look very appetizing. Here's a picture. You can draw you own comparisons as to what it looks like. I'll spare you my opinion. :-)
But, trust me. It was GOOD!!! Very good! And, it was fun. We talked a lot during the meal and we look forward to going back to share the experience with friends, family, and especially with Markos when he comes home.
Our wonderful friends have planned an Adoption Celebration/Birthday party for M./fundraiser picnic for us. We will be getting together next Saturday - M.'s 4th birthday - to celebrate, visit, and eat. I have ordered some injera and some Ethiopian spices so I can (hopefully) make some Ethiopian dishes to share on this special day.
Speaking of friends, another "little" event that has occurred recently is that we have made contact with a family who just happened to recently adopt and bring home one of M.'s good buddies from the care center. They recently traveled to Ethiopia and met M. while they were there to get their son. They said that he is precious, that the children are VERY, VERY loved and well cared for, that they're learning some English, and that their transition thus far has been amazing! That makes me so happy. Additionally, they also would love for their son to be able to maintain his friendship from Ethiopia so we plan to stay in touch and to possibly allow the boys to Skype once we bring M. home. What a blessing that he will be able to keep one of the relationships that he had in Ethiopia!! God is so good!
Other news - we received M.'s lab results from when he was first moved to Addis (the capital of Ethiopia). Additionally, we received 3 updated pictures of him. Oh how I wish I could post them on here. He is SO CUTE! And he looks so good. So much healthier. So much happier. While it thrilled me to see them, it also hurt a little because he's changed so much already and we're missing it. But, he'll be home soon and then we won't miss the changes & growth for the rest of his precious life.
The reports and pictures were, of course, forwarded to our International Adoption Pediatrician for review. Her report was great. Aside from noticing a possible fungal scalp infection (which we already knew from the other families that a lot of the kids were coming home with scalp ringworm so this was no surprise), she thinks he looks great. His lab results and blood work were great.
Speaking of paperwork, we received our corrected I-171 form from USCIS with our updated age range. This was the last piece of paperwork that needed to be completed before we can travel to bring M. home. We love America, but seriously, dealing with the U.S. government agencies has been the WORST & most difficult part of this entire process thus far. This is the last thing that we needed from them at this point, so we are relieved to be finished with it.
Lastly, we took another trip to the recycling center this morning. We added another $64 to our travel fundraising efforts from your aluminum cans. Thanks for dropping them off for us. We appreciate your support!
OK, that's the update. Lots of little bits of good news, fun times, and things to come.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Court Case Submission!
Today is August 6th -- the day that the Ethiopian High Courts close until September 27th. Today is also the day that we finally received word from Ethiopia that our court case has been submitted. Shooooo!!!! Nothing like getting things done at the last possible moment.
I have been going crazy waiting for word that we had been submitted. Already knowing that the next 2 months were going to be hard - waiting, knowing that nothing was being done to move us closer to our son - so I was really, really hoping that we would be submitted before the closures. Therefore, we are relieved, happy, and ready to go on with our lives until October -- as if we had any choice, really! ;-)
I'm sure the months will fly by. We are going to the lake for a weekend in August. We will be celebrating our new son's birthday and our adoption with great friends at a picnic on August 28th. Eric's work has a picnic at the end of August. School starts on the 24th. Daniel's beloved ice hockey starts back up mid-September. I need to plan some sort of birthday party for Daniel's 7th birthday (yikes!) in September. Eric has to go to California for work sometime in September. And, I am planning to paint & redecorate the boys' room once the kids start back to school. Yep, I'm hoping to stay VERY busy, knowing that all the while a little piece of my heart will be in Ethiopia.
Please continue to pray for M. He will turn 4 on August 28th. We sent him a talking card and a picture of our family. And we pray that he knows that he is loved and that he has a family waiting to bring him home!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Trash for Cash - Venturing into Fundraising
From the moment when I first felt called to adopt, there has always been a peace that passes understanding regarding the financial aspect of it. As you all know, international adoption isn't cheap. In fact, it costs a LOT. A lot of money that we didn't, don't, wouldn't probably have. And yet, I have always known that if we were willing to heed His call, that He would provide for it. [Please know that this is NOT like me at all. I am a high anxiety, detailed,(neurotic) planner, and control-freak. Yet, I have known from day 1 that I didn't need to worry, and I haven't. Neither has Eric.
Thus far, God has provided. In amazing ways. First, when we started this adoption, we were thrilled to discover that Eric's employer, at the time, offered adoption benefits. $3K before the child came home, and an additional $3K afterwards. Second, the federal government made some changes to the Federal Adoption Tax Credit -- raising it to a little over $13K and making it such that they will actually pay you the reimbursement as a credit when you file your taxes at the end of the year. Then, when we were mid-process, Eric changed jobs somewhat unexpectedly, or at least not really planned too much in advance. We had felt blessed with the adoption benefits at his previous employer, so imagine how thrilled we were to learn that the new employer had benefits which were almost 3X the previous employers' benefits. Plus, his previous employer was generous enough to go ahead and allow us to submit the first half of his benefits there before he left.
These benefits are all fantastic, however, for the most part, they are all reimbursement-based such that we have to pay the costs up front, then get the money back once we have our new little one home. Because we were so blessed with the benefits we were receiving, we made a decision not to apply for any adoption grants because there are a lot of other families out there adopting who aren't fortunate enough to have employers with adoption benefits. We decided to take out a home equity loan for a short time to pay some of the costs up front, then use the reimbursements at the end of the year to pay off the loan. Meanwhile, we would save for our travel so we'd be ready to pay those costs when they occurred.
But, as many know, the world of adoption is a constantly changing place, and several things have happened since we started this process:
1) The Ethiopian government has changed it's requirements and now requires the adoptive parents to make 2 trips to Ethiopia.
2) With that change in requirements, a slow-down and bottle-neck has occurred within our agency with the submitting & processing of court dates as well as the time to travel to bring the children home.
So, while at one time, we were certain that we'd have our little one home before the end of the year, now we're not so sure. If we don't have him home by the end of the year, then we will have to wait on that tax credit for another year. Additionally, our travel expenses have now doubled with the additional trip. Families that are currently traveling are reporting airfares in the ranges of $1500 - $2500 a ticket. Additionally, Ethiopia has a cash-based economy so while we were in Ethiopia, everything must be paid in cash so there will be no credit card usage to help fund the travel.
Therefore, while we initially had hoped not to have to do any sort of fundraising for our adoption, we have now decided that it probably wouldn't hurt -- mostly just to help out with the travel expenses. We have read about a lot of different fundraisers that other families are doing -- community garage sales, awesome t-shirt sales, etc. -- but none felt right for us. We both hate to ask friends to buy anything or give us money. I don't know why (probably pride), but we just do. But then I was driving Daniel to Vacation Bible School 2 weeks ago and heard a story on K-Love about a couple who needed to raise money for their wedding so they decided to collect & recycle aluminum cans. Over a period of a few months, they raised a few thousand dollars.
Because Eric and I drink a lot of Diet Coke and therefore have a lot of recycling anyway, I thought - that sounds perfect for us! ;-) So, we talked about it and decided to go for it. We figured that we aren't asking people for their cash, we're asking for their trash! What could it hurt?! And so, we sent out emails and walked around the neighborhood passing out fliers and have begun collecting aluminum from our neighbors and friends. And, we're glad that we are. In one week, we collected an entire truck full of aluminum!
Some friends have gone out of their way to help out. When we returned from vacation (before we even officially started collecting), we found a garbage can marked "recycle" with a hole cut out of the top, completely filled with crushed cans in our driveway behind our house. A friend decided to help us get started. Some people have been really, truly thrilled to help - telling others about it and collecting from their families and friends. Others have told us about places where they thought we could collect & have spoken to managers at these locations requesting that they give their cans to us. One neighbor collected and delivered aluminum scrap (siding, gutters, etc) from her son who is a contractor. And, after sending out the email about the can collection fundraiser, other wonderful friends called and asked us to figure out a date when they could hold a "fundraiser picnic" for our adoption.
I believe that we are ALL called by God to care for the orphan and the widow and the poor. I do not, however, believe that all are called to adopt themselves, so maybe we're giving people a chance to help in a way that works for them. Around here, we're fond of the phrase, "you can't out-give God". It's true. If you give, you will be blessed. If you're called to adopt, adopt. If you're called to support someone else who is adopting, then do that. Sponsor a child through Compassion or World Vision. Give to some other organization that cares for "the least of these". But do it. YOU will be blessed. And in the process, you will be blessing others as well. We are blessed to call many of you friends! Thank you for supporting us!
Your trash for Week 1 = $76.06 towards bringing our sweet boy home
Thus far, God has provided. In amazing ways. First, when we started this adoption, we were thrilled to discover that Eric's employer, at the time, offered adoption benefits. $3K before the child came home, and an additional $3K afterwards. Second, the federal government made some changes to the Federal Adoption Tax Credit -- raising it to a little over $13K and making it such that they will actually pay you the reimbursement as a credit when you file your taxes at the end of the year. Then, when we were mid-process, Eric changed jobs somewhat unexpectedly, or at least not really planned too much in advance. We had felt blessed with the adoption benefits at his previous employer, so imagine how thrilled we were to learn that the new employer had benefits which were almost 3X the previous employers' benefits. Plus, his previous employer was generous enough to go ahead and allow us to submit the first half of his benefits there before he left.
These benefits are all fantastic, however, for the most part, they are all reimbursement-based such that we have to pay the costs up front, then get the money back once we have our new little one home. Because we were so blessed with the benefits we were receiving, we made a decision not to apply for any adoption grants because there are a lot of other families out there adopting who aren't fortunate enough to have employers with adoption benefits. We decided to take out a home equity loan for a short time to pay some of the costs up front, then use the reimbursements at the end of the year to pay off the loan. Meanwhile, we would save for our travel so we'd be ready to pay those costs when they occurred.
But, as many know, the world of adoption is a constantly changing place, and several things have happened since we started this process:
1) The Ethiopian government has changed it's requirements and now requires the adoptive parents to make 2 trips to Ethiopia.
2) With that change in requirements, a slow-down and bottle-neck has occurred within our agency with the submitting & processing of court dates as well as the time to travel to bring the children home.
So, while at one time, we were certain that we'd have our little one home before the end of the year, now we're not so sure. If we don't have him home by the end of the year, then we will have to wait on that tax credit for another year. Additionally, our travel expenses have now doubled with the additional trip. Families that are currently traveling are reporting airfares in the ranges of $1500 - $2500 a ticket. Additionally, Ethiopia has a cash-based economy so while we were in Ethiopia, everything must be paid in cash so there will be no credit card usage to help fund the travel.
Therefore, while we initially had hoped not to have to do any sort of fundraising for our adoption, we have now decided that it probably wouldn't hurt -- mostly just to help out with the travel expenses. We have read about a lot of different fundraisers that other families are doing -- community garage sales, awesome t-shirt sales, etc. -- but none felt right for us. We both hate to ask friends to buy anything or give us money. I don't know why (probably pride), but we just do. But then I was driving Daniel to Vacation Bible School 2 weeks ago and heard a story on K-Love about a couple who needed to raise money for their wedding so they decided to collect & recycle aluminum cans. Over a period of a few months, they raised a few thousand dollars.
Because Eric and I drink a lot of Diet Coke and therefore have a lot of recycling anyway, I thought - that sounds perfect for us! ;-) So, we talked about it and decided to go for it. We figured that we aren't asking people for their cash, we're asking for their trash! What could it hurt?! And so, we sent out emails and walked around the neighborhood passing out fliers and have begun collecting aluminum from our neighbors and friends. And, we're glad that we are. In one week, we collected an entire truck full of aluminum!
Some friends have gone out of their way to help out. When we returned from vacation (before we even officially started collecting), we found a garbage can marked "recycle" with a hole cut out of the top, completely filled with crushed cans in our driveway behind our house. A friend decided to help us get started. Some people have been really, truly thrilled to help - telling others about it and collecting from their families and friends. Others have told us about places where they thought we could collect & have spoken to managers at these locations requesting that they give their cans to us. One neighbor collected and delivered aluminum scrap (siding, gutters, etc) from her son who is a contractor. And, after sending out the email about the can collection fundraiser, other wonderful friends called and asked us to figure out a date when they could hold a "fundraiser picnic" for our adoption.
I believe that we are ALL called by God to care for the orphan and the widow and the poor. I do not, however, believe that all are called to adopt themselves, so maybe we're giving people a chance to help in a way that works for them. Around here, we're fond of the phrase, "you can't out-give God". It's true. If you give, you will be blessed. If you're called to adopt, adopt. If you're called to support someone else who is adopting, then do that. Sponsor a child through Compassion or World Vision. Give to some other organization that cares for "the least of these". But do it. YOU will be blessed. And in the process, you will be blessing others as well. We are blessed to call many of you friends! Thank you for supporting us!
Your trash for Week 1 = $76.06 towards bringing our sweet boy home
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
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