9/12/10
Happy New Year!
No, I haven't completely lost my mind with all of the waiting -- yesterday really was New Year's Day in Ethiopia! Ethiopia follows a completely different calendar than we do. Its called the Ethiopian Ge'ez calendar, and the new year begins on September 11th (except in leap years when its celebrated on September 12th). My favorite thing about the Ethiopian calendar....it has thirteen months as opposed to our twelve, so yesterday in Ethiopia they celebrated the beginning of 2003! That means I'm seven years younger in Ethiopia!
8/24/10
Two Months
We've been waiting for a referral for two months today!
In the past two months we have painted four rooms, taken twenty hours of parenting training, tiled our kitchen floor, celebrated birthdays (I know, I'm finally admitting that I'm thirty), celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary, spent weekends in Louisville, Lexington and Cincinnati, recovered from a significant illness (all organs in tact!), joined a gym.....AND ITS STILL GONE SLOW!!
Two months down, and we're hoping to be at least half-way through with the wait!!
8/22/10
Emanu
We had a very Ethiopian weekend!! I can't wait to post about it all, but I'll start with our dinner on Friday night. Ever since we submitted our dossier, we have planned to have dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant to celebrate. Unfortunately, I haven't been feeling well since the day we submitted, and doctor's advised against Ethiopian food (apparently not so "gallbladder friendly"). Now that I'm almost fully recovered, we decided to finally have our first Ethiopian dinner.
We ate at Emanu in Cincinnati, which was opened by an Ethiopian woman who came to the US in 1992. She was also our waitress and we enjoyed talking with her about Ethiopian culture and the Amharic language. Ethiopian meals are not just about the food -- its all about the process.
The first thing they serve is Injera bread. Its a gluten-free bread made from Teff (a grain that grows in the mountains of Ethiopia). Its really spongy and a little sour tasting. This is the first thing they serve you because its the only eating utensil you use in Ethiopia (no knife, fork, or spoon). Then the food comes on a giant plate that the entire table shares. You scoop the food up in the Injera using your right hand only -- we were told that this symbolizes blessing for the group you're eating with. The food can be VERY spicy, but it was all delicious! Here are some pictures of our first Ethiopian meal:
Our plate of food:
Here you can see the Injera rolled up in the background:
This is how you should eat the food (using the injera):
Mike, however, took eating with no utensils to a new level:
We ate at Emanu in Cincinnati, which was opened by an Ethiopian woman who came to the US in 1992. She was also our waitress and we enjoyed talking with her about Ethiopian culture and the Amharic language. Ethiopian meals are not just about the food -- its all about the process.
The first thing they serve is Injera bread. Its a gluten-free bread made from Teff (a grain that grows in the mountains of Ethiopia). Its really spongy and a little sour tasting. This is the first thing they serve you because its the only eating utensil you use in Ethiopia (no knife, fork, or spoon). Then the food comes on a giant plate that the entire table shares. You scoop the food up in the Injera using your right hand only -- we were told that this symbolizes blessing for the group you're eating with. The food can be VERY spicy, but it was all delicious! Here are some pictures of our first Ethiopian meal:
Our plate of food:
Here you can see the Injera rolled up in the background:
This is how you should eat the food (using the injera):
Mike, however, took eating with no utensils to a new level:
8/15/10
Christmas
Here I am again, sitting in front of the computer thinking about what to possibly post to communicate how Mike and I are feeling at this stage of "the wait". Instead of giving up and posting nothing (which I've obviously done every day for about a month now), I thought I would just tell you all what's on my mind right now -- nothing profound or amazing, just my thoughts this morning.
We have been waiting almost two months for our referral, which I realize does not seem so long. But, when you know that you have a child who is alive, breathing, sleeping, crying....on the other side of the world and you can't be there to witness every minute, dry every tear and rock them to sleep, its really hard. Now, pair that with the fact that we don't even know if our child is healthy or if they have food tonight or if they even have a bed to sleep in....that's when hard turns to emotional.
One thing we do know without a doubt, is that our child is not alone. God has been with this child every second, drying every tear and soothing them to sleep. That thought alone gives us unexplainable peace.
God knows our heart, and He knows that we would LOVE to be holding our child by Christmas.In order for that to happen, we are going to need to get our referral by mid-October. The way referrals have been coming in to our agency, and the number of families waiting ahead of us, it seems very unlikely that we would meet that date. But, we serve a God of miracles, and that fact has been evident all through our adoption journey so far. We have completely surrendered the timing of this adoption to Him, and we know that we are going to meet our child at exactly the right time whether that's this year or next.
Speaking of Christmas, a friend sent me this video and I thought I would share. Enjoy this little bit of Christmas in August.
We have been waiting almost two months for our referral, which I realize does not seem so long. But, when you know that you have a child who is alive, breathing, sleeping, crying....on the other side of the world and you can't be there to witness every minute, dry every tear and rock them to sleep, its really hard. Now, pair that with the fact that we don't even know if our child is healthy or if they have food tonight or if they even have a bed to sleep in....that's when hard turns to emotional.
One thing we do know without a doubt, is that our child is not alone. God has been with this child every second, drying every tear and soothing them to sleep. That thought alone gives us unexplainable peace.
God knows our heart, and He knows that we would LOVE to be holding our child by Christmas.In order for that to happen, we are going to need to get our referral by mid-October. The way referrals have been coming in to our agency, and the number of families waiting ahead of us, it seems very unlikely that we would meet that date. But, we serve a God of miracles, and that fact has been evident all through our adoption journey so far. We have completely surrendered the timing of this adoption to Him, and we know that we are going to meet our child at exactly the right time whether that's this year or next.
Speaking of Christmas, a friend sent me this video and I thought I would share. Enjoy this little bit of Christmas in August.
7/24/10
One Month
We have been officially waiting for our referral for one month today! We knew that waiting would be really hard for us, but we've been managing to keep ourselves busy this month. The hardest part is knowing that (most likely) our child is born and living on the other side of the world without us. We can't wait to get our referral and see our child's little face, find out their name and age, and learn the beginning of their life's story.
One month down and hopefully not too many more to go!!
7/13/10
Uganda
This weekend, Uganda was shook by two mass bombings that took the lives of nearly (80) people, including (1) American. A radical extremist group in Somalia has claimed responsibility, and I can't begin to tell you how devastating this is to the tiny country that we love so much. Our prayers are with the people of Uganda as they deal with this tragedy. We were in Uganda exactly one year ago, and thought this was a good opportunity to share a few pictures that show the true beauty of Uganda:
A bit of Africa trivia...what two African countries border Somalia??
A bit of Africa trivia...what two African countries border Somalia??
What have we been up to??
Its been a few weeks since we've posted, so I thought I would let you know what life has been like "post-paperwork". It definitely feels strange not to be carrying around a binder full of documents! We found out that our dossier was officially registered in Ethiopia on July 9th, so we're VERY relieved to know that all of our information made it overseas in one piece. Meanwhile, we've completed all of our required parenting training (which was wonderful)!! I'll post more about that in a few days. We've also been working hard to get our house unpacked and put together. The moving process took a backseat to our paperwork, so we're finally getting rooms painted and decorated. We're looking for suggestions on other things we can do to distract us while we're waiting...any suggestions??
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