Wow She is 7!

Dear Meron,

To my oldest on your 7th Birthday. You have been home 2 years this week. I hope you have a great Birthday weekend. You deserve only the best in this world. I love you so much. You have turned into such a amazing young girl. You excel in everything you do from school, soccer, acting, swimming, and gymnastics. You are a great daughter, sister, granddaughter, friend, cousin, and niece. You teach me new things everyday.

I watched you on your jumper today with all your friends, opening your Hannah Montana and High School Musical presents, and enjoying a beautiful day at the park. I thought of where two years has taken you. On your 5th Birthday we celebrated at The Hilton Hotel in Ethiopia after you had only known us 4 days. Nana just commented to me the other day as we discussed that you were reading at a grade level ahead, “What would have been if she had stayed in Ethiopia?” I just told her I have to think of what is. I am so grateful for your education, friends, and life you have here, although I also grieve with you the loss of your life in Ethiopia.

Two years ago this week you made the hardest journey one can make in their life. You said goodbye to your first mom, to Ethiopia, and traveled on a plane to America where you knew no one and no English two days after your 5th Birthday. You welcomed Dad and I as your new parents. You learned to trust and love us unconditionally. You helped Estifanos adjust and feel secure in his own transition to America. You offered love to Yordie when you were reunited with her after not being together for several months. You remind her of life in Ethiopia, and of your first family. You also look in anticipation at being a big sister yet again when little brother arrives home next year. Thank you for always being flexible as life changes. I can’t wait to watch you grow over the next year.

Love

Mom

 

My Daddy

Yordie at almost 3 is extremely attached to her daddy.  She wants to be with Brian constantly, and when he is off coaching baseball, soccer, or away from her with other kids or for work it is hard on our  princess.  He was even known to coach Meron’s soccer team last fall, while holding her.  So yesterday I overheard her telling him, “You will not be little brother’s daddy because you are Yordie’s daddy.”  He explained that he is Meron’s, Estifanos’s, Yordie’s, and yes he would be little brother’s daddy.  I think this transition will be quite an adventure next year, but I am sure she will be glad to have a new little brother at the end of the day.  She will at least like to have someone younger to “boss around.”

 

It is Hard to Wait

Yesterday we told the kids that since we had the day off we were going to go get our birth certificates and marriage license for the adoption.  We also discussed with them how Mommy and Yordie needed to go to the doctor this week to get our medical forms filled out.  We are the last of the bunch, and that our social worker would be visiting us again this week.  Estifanos said, “Mommy is little brother coming today?”  I reminded him that it would be when he is in kindergarten, and that we needed to wait and be patient.  My son as always said, “It is alot of papers to fill out.  It is hard to wait.”  Just as it is hard to be 5 for him waiting is really hard.  It is hard on all of us.  As we decorated Easter eggs yesterday, I thought of what life would be like a year from now.  I hoped that we will have the fab 6 together with our littlest toddler boy enjoying his first Easter with us, but for now we must wait for that day.

 

What the Future Holds

I watched my two oldest kids this weekend at an adoption potluck in the park.  They ran and played with other Ethiopian kids.  I thought about how fast the last two years have passed, and how much my three have grown.

I watched as the held two new babies who have only been home from Ethiopia  one month.  I thought about how a year from now we will have our own little toddler at home, and how that will just amaze me again.  They will be holding, playing with him, and teaching him English.  As we all come to know him we will grow as a family.

 

Are They Related?

A common question we get when we say we are adopting again is whether the baby is going to be related to our other three kids.  When we say well he will be when he is adopted people then ask another question.  They ask whether it will be weird that he is not their blood sibling.  I always find this interesting. 

My kids are extremely excited for the adoption of “baby brother,” and it never is discussed that he is different than them.  They know that he will have a different first mommy and daddy then they did in Ethiopia, and he may speak a different dialect then they did, and come from a differnet part of the country, but besides that they just think that he will be their baby brother. 

As the kids grow into adulthood I assume we will have more questions about this, but it will also give our family a chance to learn about different walks of life in Ethiopia.  As I prepare for the weeks ahead meeting with social worker, completing my dossier, and other needed documentation I just keep remembering the love at the end of the road. 

It is weird because as I mailed off my I-600 and money to get our homestudy done last Friday I had the same anxious feeling I had three years ago.  I am excited for the future ahead, and to meet our new son. 

 

The Best Present a Girl Could Ask For

Yesterday on Valentine’s Day people kept talking about what they would be doing or receiving.  I hadn’t really thought about it too much.  Between getting the kids cards ready for school, baseball season in full swing, and our construction ending on our house I hadn’t thought much about the day. 

 I remembered back to our first Valentine’s Day 11 years ago when we were still in college and had no money.  Brian bought pizza and wine, and we had a picnic overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.  It was amazing, and that was just a glimpse of how amazing our life journey would be together.

When I got home last night, Brian was our at Costco with our oldest.  On the sink there was an large folder with a crayon drawn picture of the six of us that read “To My Babies’ Mommy.”  In the folder he had completed our I-600 A and gotten all needed documents to be mailed in.  We had been waiting to finish our house before we were fully able to dive into our adoption, but now I knew it had begun.  I was almost in tears.  I have dreamed about bringing our last baby home for months, but with construction and other life issues it had just been that a dream.  Now it is a reality.  My husband the scientist amazes me yet again on this Valentine’s Day as he did 11 years ago with that picnic.

 

Are You Sure?

 I find these are the most common questions we are asked with three young children.   Are you sure you want a fourth?  Are you sure you are ready?  Don’t you have your hands full already?  Well the answer to all  questions is yes.  Yes we want a fourth child, and we want him to be close enough in age to our oldest that they can play growing up.  We are as ready as we can be.  I think children always add an uncertainty and a new adventure to life, but we think we are ready.  We also do have our hands full already.  We both work, and raise three kids, but we know we have the love and resources to care for one more child.  We started the adoption process four years ago to adopt an infant from Panama.  Four years later and two trips to Ethiopia we have 3 kids from Ethiopia ranging in age from 2-6.  After our travels there we realize how much our family truly has to offer to another child, and we are ready.  Ready Set Go!

 

We’re on the Adventure Again

Well it has been awhile, but we are still here.  We are just crazy busy with our almost 7 year old, 5 year old, and almost 3year old.  Life is full of soccer and baseball practices, gymnastics classes, school functions/homework, and church activities.  We have started the adoption adventure again, and we are so excited.  We also question whether we  just like to beat ourselves up because this process is always draining.  So far my fingerprints kept failing at the livescan location, and Yordie whose pediatrician didn’t want to give her a TB test due to her age needs more documentation as to why a two year old doesn’t have a communicable disease.  I just keep looking in Estifanos’s room at night at the empty bed with new sports quilt we recently purchased when we remodeled.  I imagine this time next year our son being home, and our family finally being complete.  I dream about what he will look like, what part of Ethiopia he will be from, and what he will be like.  I know he is out there somewhere awaiting us as much as we await his arrival.  Estifanos keeps thinking he will be the size of a bread box, and I have to remind him he could be up to two years old.  At night as he lays in his bed he asks me, “When will little brother come home?”  I explain that we have to do a lot of paperwork, then we need to wait a long time,  then we will find out who he is, and then Mommy and Daddy will travel to get him and bring him home.  He quietly tells me, “I will take care of him, and bring him to my baseball games next year.”  I quietly think of the joy it will bring me to have our family complete, and chase after him at the baseball field.  I look forward to this journey as I did the last, but this time I actually feel like I have some idea of what I am doing.  Hopefully!

 

Fall is Here Sorry For the Delay

It has been crazy here.     As we watch the Padres play in the pre playoff game this evening I think back on the last couple of months.

Meron started 1st grade in August.  She is in a 1st second combined class and doing great.  She loves it.  She is playing soccer and growing into herself more and more everyday.  She is starting to ask the tough questions now.    Over the dinner table she asked,  “Do Moms and Dads make babies or does God? ” Then when we explained that babies eat out of the belly button she thought that was just plain gross. 

Estifanos is in pre K and learning more and more everyday.  He is ready to start school next fall.  He is getting more independent, and learning to write and identify letters.  Poor kids name is so long.  Too bad he doesn’t have a name like Joe.  He is also playing soccer and doing gymnastics.  He loves both.  He is so imaginative these days.  He always builds forts all over the house that I trip over when I come in from work.   When my parents recently went away he told them on the phone the night before they left.  “While you are gone I am going to go get a bunch of puppies and put them all in your house.”   He laughed and laughed about how funny this was.   He is out of toddlerhood and becoming a little boy.  It is amazing to watch.

Yordie is learning to use the toilet.  She is talking up a storm.  She loves Diego.  She can watch the same show 100 times in a day.  She will be asleep, and before her eyes open she is calling out to watch Diego.  She can’t tell me why Diego is better than Dora.  She just says, “He’s better because he’s better.”

Brian is now writing and editing for Motley Fool and coaching two soccer teams.  It has been fun to coach.  The kids call him Coach Daddy, and they love the whistle.

I continue at my new job working 32 hours a week is great. 

We start major construction on our house.  Meron loves Extreme Home Makover, so she thinks it will be like that. I don’t think it will be that quick.   I am just hoping it is not like the OC.  Yep that is my guilty pleasure.  So we will be living in a studio sized apartment at one end of our house for the next five months.  We will have plywood around our bathroom.  5 months of chaos, but it will be nice when it is done.  The kids keep saying it will be like camping.

After we finish up we can start the adoption process again for our little boy.  The kids talk about their little baby brother from Ethiopia and all they will teach him.  Like important stuff like who Diego, Dora, Cailou, Scooby Doo, and the cast of  Musical are.  Well sorry we haven’t posted in awhile.  We will try. 

 

We’re Still Here

I dropped the kids off at preschool this moring, and I pointed out a little boy in Yordie’s class to her who was arriving at the same time.  She responded, “He’s my favorite,” and went chasing after him.  She is 2, and no longer a baby.  She is a little person with her own personality.  How fast they grow up.

I know it has been too long since we posted, but we are still here.  It has been an eventful summer.  I can’t believe Meron goes back to school in the middle of next week.  First grade here she comes.  As we buy our new lunch boxes and backpacks for the year ahead I think of the last couple of months and the year ahead.  We had a great summer with gymnastics class, ballet, swimming at my parents’ pool, a visit from Brian’s folks, a trip to Disneyland, trips to Sea World, Wild Animal Park,  the beach, the aquarium, Legoland, the park, and many other fun filled places.  We were always on the go.

We ate at an Ethiopian restaurant a couple of weeks ago.  The kids loved the food, but Meron was a little overwhelmed when the owner talked to her in Amharic, and she couldn’t remember any of the language.  It was sad to watch that loss, but it is so exciting to see how well she is doing in school here after only being here a year and a half. 

Brian and I both are starting new jobs, which we are excited about and will enable us to spend more time with the kids.  We will be starting soccer soon.  Brian is coaching Meron’s team, and Estifanos is playing.  Estifanos will also be starting a gymnastics class with kids older than him because he is doing so good.  We also have church activities starting up again

We will be going on a cruise in October when Meron is off from school.  The kids are excited for their first real vacation on the “big boat.” 

 We are also going to be remodeling our whole house, so we have more room.  Boy will that be crazy. 

We are excited for my sister’s new baby who will be born in the winter.  We are also excited to add a little boy to our own family in 2008.  We will be starting the process for our final adoption of a toddler boy after our house is complete hopefully in winter/spring 2008. 

We also are excited for first grade and for Estifanos’s last year of preschool.  We will post more soon.   Welcome to the end of summer.