Maybe Monday… May 29, 2009

We have no news of our court date. Communication between Canada and Ethiopia is not always reliable and our agency was not able to get through to our representative in Ethiopia today to find out about court. So we are hoping that they can get through on Monday.  The good news is that our knowing or not knowing doesn’t really affect the process at all. Things will be set in motion no matter what the outcome was. I’m not too stressed. There is nothing for us to do. But I do really want this particular stage to be over – because I’m already so in love with the girls. I think there will be a deep sigh of relief when we are told we are legally their parents. 

I’m starting the weekend by going out to plant more things. It’s very therapeutic.

Court tomorrow… May 28, 2009

Tomorrow marks the date of our first court appearance in Ethiopia. We have a representative who will go to court on our behalf – so we don’t have to be there. But I am going to be there in spirit! I’m honestly not worried – I believe that we will bring our girls home at some point – but I am very distracted. I badly want it to be sooner rather than later – but what adoptive parent doesn’t?

I planted some new plants tonight. Specifically four beautiful hydrangea in my front flower bed. They represent my four children and are planted in honor  of my grandma – who is watching my court date from a seat in heaven. I miss her so much today. I can still close my eyes and smell her beautiful fragrance and feel her soft cheek on mine. She always knew I would adopt  my girls and told me so before she passed on. Planting was therapeutic for me tonight.

More waiting ahead… May 23, 2009

We just heard that the wait times after court (to travel) are now 2-4 months… instead of 8 weeks. My emotions are flip flopping all over the place. 

On one hand I am feeling so terribly lucky. We got our referral at 13 months (still 5 months longer than we thought) while some couples are still waiting at 19 months and haven’t heard anything. We also have a court date this Friday, which is unbelievable! We have nothing to complain about!! We have two beautiful girls.

But now I feel the pressure to pass on Friday even more. I’m feeling so sorry for my girls and our family that we might have to wait until October to pick them up. (and that’s if we pass!) We have two beautiful girls -who are half way across the world and I want so badly to hold them and love them.

This journey is not for the weak of spirit.

Please pray that we pass court on Friday – and selfishly, that we hear about it before the weekend. Lord, please bring my sweet girls home soon…

The count down has started! May 18, 2009

We’re really still in a tiny bit of shock that we have a court date! 11 days until court. 

So what does a crazy mother do? Re-paint the girl’s room! Yeah… that’s right – I DID paint it just a few weeks ago!!  It wasn’t working for me at all. So back to the drawing board. I now LOVE the colour …hmmmm maybe that’s because it’s so similar to our room.. our bathroom… Peanut’s room…. For a fine arts teacher I sure do have issues with color….

Just came back from a dear friend’s birthday party. Unfortunately there were a lot of people who were wearing very strong perfume or cologne and I got sick. So we had to come home very early much to the kids disappointment. They had two other families’ children over while we were all at the party. I told them to keep on with their fun and they’ve settled in for a movie – good choice! Now I’m off to try to recover so that I can make it to work tomorrow.

Did I mention names can be tricky? May 15, 2009

My amazing friend Jody, who had the opportunity to visit with my precious girls informed me (ever so kindly and with a touch of humor because she had also been pronouncing her daughters name wrong!) that we are pronouncing our daughters name wrong. (at least just one of them!) We were told “in the beginning” that Abebech was A be bech. (accent on the A) It’s really  a BE bech with the accent on the be which is pronounced a cross between be (like beth) and bey (bay). It totally changes the way it sounds and I’m trying to wrap my tongue around it! I get it right about a quarter of the time now. Silly mom. Lucky for me, Jody is sending me a video where the kids are talking to her and they are saying the names! Thanks Jody!!

Names… May 12, 2009

I realized today that I haven’t said too much about names for our girls. Mostly because it is such a personal process and we have put a lot of thought into what is best for our girls in the short term and the long term. We’ve read articles and spoken to other adoptive families. While we were researching we came to realize  that this topic has the potential to stir emotions in many people. It wasn’t an easy decision. Some feel that the children need to be called by their given names only – after all, it’s all they are bringing with them. Others argue that the act of giving them a name from their new parents is part of attachment – we are claiming them as our own. We think they are both right! (yes, trying to please everyone again!) 

We have decided to give each girl a name from us as their first name, but use their given name on a daily basis. We feel it connects them to us, honors their parents and their homeland, and allows them freedom to use whichever name they want once they have adjusted to our culture and language. 

We have chosen Sophia Abebu and Danica Abebet. Our decision was cemented when we saw the new photos of the girls. The names suit them and us just perfectly. Peanut is already calling them “Sophie and Dani” for short. -Although I can just imagine “boo and bets”…. my poor girls….

Girls and Hair May 10, 2009

I’m super excited. I just ordered all the girl’s hair care products! It may seem like a little thing, but I’ve been waiting to do this for a long time. I started looking again on the Shuruba site and was talking out loud about all the fun stuff I could buy the girls. 

While I’m talking hair, I should mention that hours of research has gone into what we will need to take care of their hair. Black hair is very dry compared to ours and needs much different products. Our girls hair is very long! So I’ve been asking around and slowly finding out what we really need. Our new pictures of the girls gives us a great idea of what their hair looks like! I’m torn between being daunted by all that hair and getting so excited about the prospect of the hours spent doing hair together as we bond. I LOVE braiding hair -even more than I love weeding (yes, I really LOVE weeding!) . 

To my surprise, Dave was asking a whole bunch of questions and giving his opinion on beads and snaps today! I love that man! (He voted for the cute little jelly star beads) Seeing all the great photos that Jody sent us has given us a wonderful glimpse into our girl’s personalities and has bonded us to them even more. We can imagine them in our home, running and playing – we are thrilled to have more giggles and squeals in our home!

Welcome Home Mirtalem! May 10, 2009

We are very excited that friends of ours – Jody and David, have just arrived home with their daughter Mirtalem. Jody and David have three children at home who were anxiously awaiting the arrival of their sister. I can’t wait to hear all about their trip and hear how the first meeting with their children went. Their daughter  shared a room with Abebu and Abebet. 

Jody was kind enough to take the time out of her schedule in Addis to play with my girls and get lots of fabulous pictures for us. What a great Mother’s Day present for me and the whole family. We are enjoying pictures right now!

News of the girls! May 1, 2009

We got an amazing e-mail from Jody this morning (from Addis)!! She was letting us know that she was able to visit with our girls for 1 1/2 hours yesterday!! The e-mail was brief, but it sounds like we have two very distinct personalities by the sounds of it! 

Taken from Jody’s e-mail:

Your girls are sooooo beautiful.

Abebu – What a sweetheart.  She knows what she wants and will ask for it. Not shy at all, and very cute.

Abebech – A sweetie too, a little shy.

Dave and I both laughed so hard when we read this. We are definitely reading between the lines and will confirm with Jody when she is back on Canadian soil, but it sounds like we are in for some fun times with these two precious pumpkins! We can’t wait to see them for ourselves and are praying that we hear of a court date soon.  

We are so grateful to David and Jody who took the time (they are picking up their beautiful daughter) to see our girls, play with them, take pictures, get foot tracings (for shoe sizes) and even some video footage! It will be treasured so much in the months ahead. We were already blessed with four great pictures with our referral (and some not so great, but we still love the shots), but it’s already been two months. We wonder how they are adjusting to life in Addis, and living in a larger facility with many more children. We wonder what they know about us. How are they coping? Are they excited about a new family or scared? What questions do they have? It’s so hard to be here and know that they are there… all of us waiting. 

Today especially, with news of the girls, I am aching to see them and hold them. How can you “miss” someone so desperately that you haven’t met yet? I long to start our lives together. 

Tomorrow Peanut, Budder and I are going to Winnipeg to the Western Canada Cup for trampoline, tumbling and gymnastics. It should be amazing! After that – off to buy sheets for the girl’s beds (that are hopefully being assembled this weekend!) I’d also love to buy clothing for them, but until we’ve passed court I’m holding off – I don’t want to buy summer clothes and then not be able to use them – it would be too sad to have them hanging in the closet if we end up waiting longer. 

So in a nutshell – very happy, very excited, and a touch of sad longing.