Well, this day has arrived: I am finally posting my last post before travel.
The bags are packed. The house is cleaned. Kidus' room is ready. And we are calm, cool, and collected... Well, for the most part, anyway :)
Thank you everyone for all the well-wishes and prayers that we have been receiving this last week. We are truly blessed by wonderful friends and family.
Beth: If you are reading this, I hope you are packed by now! We will be in the same city as our children in just two days and eight hours! Woo Hoo :)
Well, I might post from Washington DC, but if not, the next post you will see will be straight from Ethiopia!
Wow! Can you believe that there are only three more days before we leave? Not only that, but we don't even get a partial day on Thursday, our flight leaves Detroit at 6:10am! I have a continuous nervous/excited stomach. It is difficult to sit down and type, but I felt that I should at least get one more good update in before we leave.
I had some forced down time recently - as I am sure many of you in my area did as well. The day I brought Taylor home from her final Driver's Training (YIKES! She passed!) we walked into to our house to find that we had lost power. From Thursday to Saturday evening there is pretty much nothing to do but read. I know it sounds like fun, but when you have laundry to do and no end in sight on the power outage, it was kind of stressful.
Saturday we drove over to see the McKinney family and their new addition, Mikias. Ben and Joanna went to pick up their son from Ethiopia in June. They also met Kidus while in Ethiopia because he was in the same orphanage. They got us the great videos and pictures of Kidus. It was so exciting to see them again and know that the next time we get together with them our sons will be reunited. As you can see, their son Mikias is adorable. He is such a good natured little guy!
They made us a great lunch and filled us in on all the little tips they could to make our trip more comfortable. It was so much fun and I feel so much more informed! For instance, Ben and Joanna filled us in on the fact that Kidus is actually in Addis Ababa (the town we are staying). We thought he was still in Debre Zeit (about an hour south of Addis). We are so excited about this because it means that we may be able to meet him on Saturday since we get into Addis early in the morning.
The fact that Kidus was moved after he was referred to us also makes me a little said for him. This means that he spent six months at one orphanage, bonding with them. Then he spent the last four months at the new orphanage, bonding with them. I truly started to mourn for his losses these last few days. These people that have been taking care of him are so important to him right now... I know that he will be bonded with us in no time, but that doesn't change the fact that he is not even a year old and will have experienced two major losses already. Adoption is certainly a bitter-sweet endeavor.
Well, time is a-wasting while I sit here typing. Here is our flight schedule, for those interested:
Thursday, August 30, 6:10am - Leave Detroit Metro Thursday, August 30, 7:38am - Arrive in Washington-Dulles Friday, August 31, 9:45am - Leave Washington-Dulles Saturday, September 1, 8:15am - Arrive Addis Ababa **** Friday, September 7, 10:15pm - Leave Addis Ababa Saturday, September 8, 8:10am - Arrive Washington-Dulles Saturday, September 8, 12:10pm - Leave Washington-Dulles Saturday, September 8, 1:55pm - Arrive Detroit Metro
I will try and post one more time before we leave. Thank you everyone for your prayers! We have certainly been feeling them!
Well, I hate going for too long without updating, so I am here...updating. I really do no t have a lot to share. Still suffering from AIP with PPA. My anxiety increases with each passing day, but I am still able to appear calm on the outside. For now, anyway.
Yesterday, James and I had the pleasure of looking through some of his Grandma's things who passed away a little over a year ago. She had eight children, so they went through everything first, then the grandkids were able to come pick some things out. Grandma was a pack-rat, so there was quite a bit to look through. My favorite thing I found was a prayer tucked inside an old bible. I am convinced she cut it out for me (not really, LOL) because it fits me to a tee! :) Maybe someone else out there can relate:
Lord, keep me from the habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion.
Release me from craving to straighten out everybody's affairs.
Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details--give me wings to get to the point.
I ask for grace enough to listen to the tales of others' pains. Help me to endure them with patience. But seal my lips on my own aches and pains--they are increasing and my love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by.
Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally it is possible that I may be mistaken.
Keep me reasonably sweet; I do not want to be a saint--some of them are so hard to live with--but a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the devil.
Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places, and talents in unexpected people. And, give me, O Lord, the grace to tell them so.
Make me thoughtful, but not moody; helpful, but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom, it seems a pity not to use it all--but Thou knowest, Lord, that I want a few friends in the end.
-Author unknown (but it very well could have been me!)
Wow, so I am officially starting to flip out. The first word I could think of to describe my brain right now was "tweaking." However, I looked that word up and probably not the best term to use in relation to "pre-travel jitters relating to meeting your son for the first time." Instead, I thought it was appropriate to create my own term, or better yet, I will define my newly discovered mental illness. (Newly discovered by me, but experienced by adopting parents everywhere for years past and many years to come). So, let me introduce you to my mental disorder (this particular one, not the other ones that we do not mention on this blog):
Anticipation Induced Psychosis with Pre-Parental Anxiety: -Also referred to as AIP with PPA.
Defined as any anxiety that is specifically induced by the shortening of time span before an adoptive parent meets his or her child. This disorder becomes progressively worse as the days go on, often clearing up without intervention after the all-important "gotcha day." Symptoms include, but are not limited to:
1. Lack of sleep. Nights are usually spent staring at the ceiling wondering if the child will like his or her new parents, whether all the items that need to be brought will fit into a suitcase, whether there is enough time to clean the house before the house sitter arrives, etc. If sleep is attained, dreams will usually surround the very same questions that were being pondered before falling asleep, but may also include dreams of: leaving baby places, plane crashes, plane delays, laundry, weird clowns, etc.
2. Quickening of the heart beat when thinking about luggage and packing.
3. Scrubbing the floors with a brush, on your knees, at 3am.
4. Rewashing, re-drying, refolding, all the clothes in baby's new nursery.
5. Obsessively counting the days and hours until take-off.
6. Approaching parents with children and starting the conversation with, "He looks like he might weight around 19 lbs..." Then taking that child and "taking him for trial run."
7. Making list, after list, after list, after list.
8. Going to a baby shower and picturing every baby outfit that is opened on your child.
9. Not finishing sentences because your mind is .............................
So, as you can see, I suffer from AIP with PPA.
I do have a pretty cool video to share with you. We had a local parade this weekend and I do not want to brag or anything, but I personally think one of the color guard girls in the local band are pretty awesome (front one, closest to the camera). Sorry about the quality, it was recorded on my digital camera.
By the way, I think I am just going to pretend it is midnight (it is around 11:25pm) and tell you that WE ONLY HAVE 16 MORE DAYS!!!!!
Boy, the blogging world has been a little quiet lately...
Some decisions have been made around our house: One, we have decided to stay at the Adoption Associates' guest house. It will be a lot more convenient for us and our guide since we will not be the only family there. And apparently, the guest house we were hoping to stay at had construction going on around it and is difficult to get to by car. Accessing it by car is an important feature for us. We are picky like that...
The second decision is one I personally made: I am not going back to school until January. This was hard for me to decide because I love school. I have really missed it this summer. However, I am sure that after I am home for a week or two with Kidus I will not miss it at all. I was planning on taking only two online classes, but both started while we were in Ethiopia so I would start out the gate a week behind everyone else. Add in jet-lag, post-adoption transisitioning, teenager with a new lease on life (i.e learner's permit) and you got me, crazy as an old wet hen! This is the best decision for everyone, it was just a hard one to make. I am sure Kidus and I can find mind stimulationg things to do during the day :)
And finally, we also received updated measurements for Kidus. He has gained 5.5 lbs bringing him to 19.8lbs. He has also grown 3.5 inches, making him 28 inches long. Pretty healthy gain since April, I think! I checked him out on the CDC growth charts and he is in the 25th percentile. This means that the clothes and diapers we have for him will fit. Praise the Lord!
So, I have been getting between 20 - 25 emails a day telling me that I have won some sort of out of country lottery, inherited money from a widow in Nigeria, or some sort of similar scam for weeks now. At first, I thought it was because of some emails I had sent to out-of-country business, but I am starting to change my idea...
According to my stat counter, I have had almost a continuous presence from Nigeria over the past few weeks. Coincidence?
I am wondering if any other bloggers out there have been experiencing similar issues?
Yes, I know, the title of my post ends with a preposition. It's a blog, not a college paper, I can do that. :-)
Well, it has been 150 degrees with 110% humidity around the Great Lakes. So, have I decided to spend it lounging around the pool? No... I am in the kitchen, canning, freezing, and storing our harvest. It is a Martha Stewart kind of day. I don't have air conditioning... Do you feel sorry for me? Don't. I am always saying that I hate air conditioning, so I deserve to be this hot. As a matter of fact, I feel like this right now:
This weekend was fun. We went to James' company picnic. Most of the activities were geared towards little ones, but we still had a nice time. I finally got a decent picture of the three of us (decent meaning my husbands tongue is not hanging out).
I just found out today that another family from our agency will be traveling the same time as us. As a matter of fact, they will even be on the same flight to Ethiopia. The cool thing is that they have two teenage sons about the same age as Taylor. Wait, maybe that isn't cool :) No, it will be nice that they will have someone to talk to other than their boring old parents. We still have not sorted out the accommodation issue, but hopefully we will not be sleeping in a car!
My emotions are still on a roller coaster. A good roller coaster, but none-the-less... My heart swells whenever I think about how grateful I am that Kidus' familyunselfishlygave him a better life. That could not have been easy for them. I am praying that we will be able to meet some of his relatives, and I hope that we will be able to keep in touch with them. I am also so grateful to the country of Ethiopia. So many countries refuse to adopt their children out due to pride. I know it must be difficult to see such a large portion of your children leaving your country. How wonderful is it that countries like Ethiopia have stepped up to make sure these children get homes, without even getting anything in return? That is truly refreshing that a government agency is capable of working for the people. A rarity, in my oh-so-cynical opinion.
Here is that photo I was talking about. I think I will switch my profile picture now.
And really, I only have this to say about it: Duh! Did we really need research to tell us this? Isn't this something that junk food pushers have know all along? I swear, the news is dumming me down. I lost 23 IQ points just reading that article. (Believe me, I do not have that many to spare!)
On an entirely unrelated subject, Stacy at My Little Man from Vietnam introduced her readers (I am one of them) to a very cool type of diaper: gDiapers. You can compost them! How cool is that?
Well, our tickets are booked: we fly out of Detroit in the wee hours on Thursday, August 30th. We are praying that this month FLIES by quickly, because the suspense is killing us :)
Our travel dates present a problem with our new church directory. The photographers will be at the church August 7th - 11th getting family photos for the directory, and of course, all of our family won't be there. So, since it is important that all FOUR members of our family be in the family photo, I was thinking maybe we should just give them this one to publish. :-)
Oh, and I thought maybe I would share a quick video of Kidus trying to crawl back in June. I am sure he is probably zipping all over the place now!
We just got THE CALL! Everything went through today and we officially have a new member in our family!!! Thank all so much for your prayers and support these last few days. They meant so much to us. Now, I would like to introduce you to Kidus:
At 6 months (referral pictures):
Taken by Ben and Joanna when they went over in June:
And taken by our caseworker at Adoption Associates, also in June. They woke him up for this picture, and he is not happy. Just like his mommy! :-)
I am a 30 something year old wife and mother in West Michigan. My husband and I have one daughter (16 years old) and a son (18 months old - from Ethiopia).
