1st Trip to Ethiopia

A side note before I begin, we've been asked by our agency to not post any pictures of our kids faces or publish their names until we have returned from our second trip. 

So within less than 3 weeks from getting "the call" we found ourselves on a plane to meet the twins.  During the travel there we kept thinking of what it would be like to meet them ... would they be shy, would they let us hold them or hug them, would they cry and run away.  It was about a 26 hour trip to Ethiopia and we got there late at night.  Last time we were in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia our ride met us in the airport but we went through customs and collected our bags and found no one waiting.  We had a few wonderful Ethiopians approach us and ask if we needed to borrow their phone.  I'm ashamed to say I thought that they were taking advantage of me and it took us about 20 minutes of waiting and wondering to final realize that they were right and we borrowed a phone and called our AGCI ride.  D answered the phone and told us to come on out to the parking lot to the van.

We rode to the guest house which sits on the property of the transition home and it was wide to walk in and find our room knowing that just feet away our little boy and girl laid sleeping (or we hoped they are good sleepers!)  There was another couple who had waited up for us - actually they had already slept for 6 or 7 hours and they were up about 1030pm.  They should us around and told us about their day.  They had just met their sweet little and I MEAN little 3 mos old boy.

Hannah's Hope Compound where we spent our week in Ethiopia.

The next morning we woke did some meetings with A and T of the ET staff and then headed out to meet our kids.  We first went over to the baby room not knowing where are kids were.  The babies were soooooo small and so cute!  Lots of big eyes looking at us.  They we asked where we might find our kids and were told to go look in the bigger kids play room.  They saw us  coming and we knocked on the closed set of doors and the special mothers had brought the twins to the door.  With only one door open it was hard to see them both well.  The special mothers told them to hug and kiss us and our son "M" stepped up and obediently kissed us both on the check.  When the special mother asked our daughter "G"to do the same she backed up a step.  This was our first clue that G and M have different personalities and will react to us differently.  We asked to enter the play room and we were greeted by not only our twins but about 5 other children as well.  We got out some stickers and the fun began.  We were putting stickers all over each other G especially enjoyed this.  M wanted some more action so Brad got out a small football and played with him.  He had an amazing kick!  G got over stimulated and needed some comfort so after about 10-15 minutes of playing with me and the other 5 kids who were playing with the stickers.  She went back over to the special mother in the room.  I got out their albums and both G and M enjoyed looking at the pictures of our family.  We had many pictures of us and the kids individually, our home and the local school and playground.  We feed them some banana gerber snacks and M did a wonderful job and sharing them with G and making sure that she had some too.  We could tell off the bat he was a sweet caring brother.

The big kids play room.  The kids were found there every morning that they were outside playing.  Many days we woke up to rain so this is where they played.

Brother sharing banana gerber snack with his sis!  Notice the stickers that cover me.  

They loved it and I kept finding them even one in my hair at about 8pm that night!

We were moved over to visit in the guest house living room with our kids to try and get some one on one with them.  That was great for M but G wasn't ready to be with just us and Brad went back to the play room with G and the HH staff member and M and I explored the living room.  He was so curious and had fun playing with cars, balls and turning on and off the TV.  We spent 2 periods each day playing with our kids and most of them were in the living room of the guest house to have some one on one time.  G finally warmed up to us and I started each visit by painting her toe nails to earn some trust and start by touching in a non threatening way.  We couldn't really communicate as they don't speak Amharic the national language and no one at HH speak their regional language. We were able to understand when to take them to the bathroom and we are soooo thankful that they are potty trained. We were only there for 4 days and by the last day we were rocking with both kids, singing and doing "everybody hugs" in which the kids would belly laugh.  We just loved our time with them!  It was so hard to say goodbye and they truly didn't understand what was happening.  They don't speak amharic and no one at HH speak there language so I'm certain they didn't know we were leaving them and this is my prayer that God can tell them we are coming back soon!

We've been submitted to the Embassy which just means that have all of our paper work.  We are now just waiting for another meeting with Ethiopian side of things at the embassy and then they will schedule our Embassy appointment and we will get to travel to pick up the twins!

So later on in the day July 16, 2012 ...

We got "the CALL"  that we've been waiting for 2 YEARS!!!  Around 4:30pm we received a call from our caseworker Melissa and she had me thinking it was a routine check in call that happens every 3 mos when she told me she had new paper work to talk about and that it was referral paper work.  I said "What?"  She asked if I wanted to call Brad and add him to our call which of course I DID!!!!  She also told me before hanging up that it was twins - of the boy/girl type.  I was SHOCKED to say the least!  I just didn't think that would be God's plan for our family.  We were open to twins if it was God's will and I just had my mind thinking that would never happen.  We kept telling people that God would have a great sense of humor to give us twins and I was beginning to hear him laughing!

After Brad and I talked to Melissa for and hour and a half my girls approached me as I hung up and they said, we know we are now sharing a room and we are ok with that!  Everyone was so excited and I think I saw the same face on my husband and my dad must have had 44 years ago when the doctor surprised him and told him his wife had just delivered unexpected twins.  Its a smile from ear to ear and Eyes so wide that the scream oh, my!  What do we do with 2!  We were referred a boy and girl set of twins that are 3 years old and they will turn 4 years in September.  We got many pictures (like 8) but they were not happy looking.  The pictures were taken on a day they had their physicals and they went to a place where the staff didn't speak their language.  I'm not surprised we didn't see smiles.  They looked so sweet and precious.  Three of the pictures have the boy putting his arm around his sister!

After only 1 week of letting the news of have two precious kids join our family (july 23rd) we got a call that we had a court date already and we were to leave on Aug 3 and get back on August 9th.  We were floored and over the moon excited with our heads spinning on all we had to do before going.  We were gearing up for the school year and yes we had just demoed our kids bathroom to the point that it was all studs and the only thing in it was a new tub - no fixtures, no toilet, no floor and no sink.  Yikes!  Also, I was to help lead in a Ethiopian Culture Camp that weekend.  Our committee was expecting 200 people to come together for a all day Cultural Event and a Ethiopian Dinner in the evening.  We were a little overwhelmed to say the least but about day 3 of our new news God gave us a peace like no other!  He has worked and provided so much in this last month and I will try to do it justice as we go.

That same night of our call about the court date we realized we have to work hard on our bathroom.  We had some help and Brad and I worked on finishing tiling the floor and we got a call in the middle of our work.  We were overwhelmed and decided to call that person back.  We climbed into bed at 1am that night and began to pray that God would be our provider.  We were exhausted and overwhelmed and knew that God was able to handle things and we WEREN'T!  After saying "Amen" Brad decided to check his phone for the message.  It was a friend of ours that knew about our referral but didn't know we were soon leaving for Ethiopia.  He is also a plumber and wanted to offer a tile guy that he would pay for his time if we could use him to tile our bathroom.  We listened and just broke down crying!  God in the very minute was providing for our needs in ways we could NEVER  come up with on our own.  That week God had spoken to many people who provided financially for the extra needs we had on adopting twins.  He were so blown away at how God was walking this road with us and he will continue to do so.

We unfortunately had just a brief shopping during this trip but this is the shop we bought our goodies.

This is a poor quality shot of a group of runners training in the athletic center of Addis Abeba.  Ethiopian runners are the best and after losing my breath climbing stairs proved to me that training in the altitude makes all the difference!

Eucalyptus Trees are harvested for fuel and building materials.
These were lined up to be used for a building site next door.

This is the site the trees were used.  This man is amazingly balancing while cutting the tree trunk
to the right length and lay it in place to be tied to another one.  This is just an amazing process.
 Ethiopians have so much ingenuity and use their resources amazingly.

Enjoying a cultural dinner with our travel group.  

We ate lunch on top of a 8 story building near Hannah's Hope on our last day in Ethiopia.
It was a great view and lots of building going on around that part of Addis.  

Gotcha Day 6 years Home

To celebrate Asher Gotcha Day Asher's sweet sister, Abby made him breakfast in bed - his favorite chocolate chip pancakes and strawberries.   All of our children are such a blessing and I love seeing them celebrate each other!  Even though that day we landed in Cincinnati 6 years ago is almost a blur with all the jet lag we had, it will remain an important memory for all of us and I'm thankful for pictures and video to remind me of that special day.  Asher wants to celebrate by looking at video of that day and Ethiopia which I love.

So sorry for not updating...

... but I've been busy doing life with my family.  I'd love to fill you in on all the goings on but I think we will just try some summer photos to catch up on what we've been doing.

We had a surprise party for Caroline's 17th birthday!

It was a cupcake wars theme with two teams decorating cupcakes.

The girls made 8 dozen cupcakes for the nursing home where grandma lives.

Chris and her Mom on Mother's day!

Asher and his teacher on the last day of school. 

She was the best!!!

Ice cream celebration for all the hard work of a great school year!

 

Spent an overnight in West Virginia while Dad was there for work.

My swimmers in the awesome endless pool!

Abby and I after riding the Diamondback.  First time for both of us.

Caleb in his first baseball season

The kings kangaroos had a rough season but came back strong

for the tournament and finished runner up!  Caleb stealing third!

Caroline has spent this first month of summer as an intern in Mexico and Caleb spent a long weekend in Jackson Kentucky serving with the Happy Church so we've had a different experience of just having 2 or 3 children at home.  A glimpse of things to come I'm afraid.

We are still in the waiting season of our adoption but there has been some long awaited referrals and  movement on the wait list.  We are now #26 for girls and #3 for twins.  We've updated our home study and raised our age parameters for a girl 1-5 years or twins.

School

This is a very short post written by yours truly, Caleb Ewing.






        Why IN THE WORLD do teachers give out hours of home work on days that you feel tired,  lethargic, lazy, and all you want to do is sleep, eat, and relax?


Ponder my question. (And make sure you come up with the right answer; That they deprive you of your free time.)


Thank you for wasting enjoying your time pondering my question.



           -Caleb Ewing

May the Force Be with You on Your Birthday!

Asher had his first friend party and as you can tell from the pictures the theme was Star Wars. We had jedi training in which the boys got a Jedi Robe upon completion. They fought Darth Vadar and destroyed the death star (pinata). They had galatic pizza and yoda sodas and ate light saber cupcakes. It was a great time and the boys were worn out at the end (and so was I).

The Jedi's upon receiving their robes and defeating Darth Vadar!

Happy 6th Asher!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

The pause button

Asher's 1st day of Kindergarten

Caleb (7th), Abby (4th) Caroline (11th)

Asher's Kindergarten class - it's a full one!

Have you ever experienced life where most everything you are doing is clipping along at a fast past, while one thing is your life is on pause?? This is how I feel our adoption journey feels like, like someone pressed the pause button. Life with four kids is very busy in the fall. We just finished two soccer seasons and the first quarter of school is over. Everyone is doing great in school and we are sooooo blessed with amazing teachers! I'm so thankful.

The courts in Ethiopia have reopened and we are waiting to hear the news of more referrals. Our October #s are 42 on the girls list and 11 on the siblings list. This second number seems so low but I still think the two should catch up to each other and we are around #5 for a four year old girl. So the wait continues but we are moving right along with being active with our current family members. I have to tell you that at times I need to remind myself that we are in this process. So much time has past that it doesn't seem real at times. I'm going to make myself and praying calendar so we can start praying regularly for "Rose" and keep her lifted up. Not sure what is going on in her life right now but God does and prayer is something I can be doing RIGHT NOW.

Life is good and we are living the current moment with prayer for the future of our family! Please join us!

Adoption Update!

You may or may not remember that we are in the adoption process. There are many days that this just doesn't seem real. The wait is long and seems to be getting longer but God is in control and His timing is ALWAYS good! We started the paper process early August 2010 so it's been over a year. We had all our paperwork turned in on November 29, 2010 and have been on the wait list for almost 9 months. We entered the wait list with #100 on the girls list and # 36 ( I think, can't quite remember - it's been so long) on the Siblings list.

We got our monthly updated numbers today in our email box and we are currently 51 for girls and 18 for Siblings so we are at the half way mark! Yikes! I hope we aren't waiting for 9 more months, but only God knows! Our parameters are for a 1-4 yr old Girl so with the older parameter it could be quicker but I've been saying that for 9mos. LOL.

We are praying we can bring our child home by next April, 2012 since that is when our finger prints expire but we can redo them without a fee and I'm preparing myself to do that and the first of the year.

We are staying busy with our current four so the time does seem to be going by pretty well. This school year we have a junior, a 7th grader, a 4th grader and a Kindergartener. Yes, I did say Kindergarten! Time has gone by FAST for that! Asher has been home for 5 years and we love to see how God is growing a wonderful young boy who is ready for school! I'll be keeping busy watching a few preschoolers so I won't be home alone as of yet.

So if you don't read an adoption update, it's only because we are waiting and really don't have too much to report but I'll try and keep you updated on our numbers but what is a number anyway?? Just some to distract you that's for sure!

Blessings!

Ethiopia Culture Camp wedding at OneTrueMedia.com

This is a few pictures and video from the wedding from our Ethiopia Culture Camp this last weekend. A rural wedding last around a week and the whole village is involved. The men accompany the groom to the brides house where her party is waiting. The women meet the groom outside and tell him that he can't come in. The men try to woo the women by squirting perfume and they have a brief encounter until the groom enters the house to take the bride to the ceremony. It was a wonderful time! Our family enjoyed it much!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Summer Zoo Day!

Abby and Asher feeding the birds!

Asher's favorite animal is the Cheetah!

The new baby giraffe (my favorite) has a broken leg. Her name is Zuri!

Abby was able to feed the giraffe but I wasn't quick enough to get it on film!

It was a fun day with my two youngest as the older ones are on missions trips.

I'm passing my time waiting by making sure I'm living the present and logging in fun memories with them now. Time is flying even though the wait seems to be creaping along.

Sorry for the lack of posting. I actually have been keeping busy so far this summer. Hope to capture more of it on film so I can blog about it.

So we are STILL waiting and I think our number is now in the 50s. We will get an official update in a few weeks. So to pass the time we are enjoying our summer days. Abby, Asher and I spent a great day at the zoo!

Happy Sweet 16 Sweet Caroline! at OneTrueMedia.com

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Perspective

Isn't it true that we have NOTHING to complain about. I do often and mostly I just need a good perspective. Wow, if you need a good perspective on life read this. Thanks Amy!

Easter

He is RISEN! He is risen indeed!

Our Easter four on the back porch.

So green from ALL the rain we've gotten.

The family meal with Grandpa Shipley and Grandma Ewing

and Uncle Gary (taking the pic)


The Easter Couple

The Brothers

The sisters