Ethiopian Basics 102 and Misc...

Well, we have definitely been spoiled by all the movement on the waiting list the past 7 weeks, because this past week was a disappointment when there was no activity at all!  It's funny how quickly your expectations can change when you start out on such a high.
On another note,  I just want to remind you all again that we will be placing our T-shirt order on Wednesday the 1st.  So if you still want to donate to our Adoption fund and have a cool T-shirt as a reminder of your donation, act now!  Secondly, if you have any other great ideas of fundraisers that we could do, please pass them along.  We are looking for creative ways to make this adoption a debt free one!

Now for Ethiopian Basics 102:

Common Meetings and Greetings:

Hello                                 Halo

Good morning                   Endemn adderu

Good afternoon                 Endemin walu

Good evening                    Endemin ameshu

Good-bye                         Dehna hunu

How are you?                   Tenayistillign

I am well                           Dehna negn

Thank you (very much)      (Betam) ameseghinallehu

Ethiopian Time
Ethiopia is three hours ahead of Greenwich mean time. Time remains constant throughout the year. The Ethiopian day is calculated in a manner similar to that in many equatorial countries, where day and night are always the same length: counting starts at Western 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Western 7:00 a.m. is therefore one o'clock, noon is six, 6:00 p.m. is twelve o'clock, and so on.

Ethiopian month:                Gregorian calendar:

Meskerem (New Year)        11 September - 10 October
Tikimt                                  11 October - 9 November
Hidar                                    10 November - 9 December
Tahsas                                 10 December - 8 January
Tir                                        9 January - 7 February
Yakatit                                 8 February - 9 March
Maggabit                             10 March - 8 April
Miyazya                               9 April - 8 May
Ginbot                                 9 May - 7 June
Sene                                    8 June - 7 July
Hamle                                  8 July - 6 August
Nehasa                                7 August - 6 September
Pagume                               6 - 10 September

(information from www.tourismethiopia.org)

T-shirt Order (finally!)...

Hi everyone,

We just wanted to let you know that we are finally going to order your T-shirts this upcoming week!  Once we have placed the order we are expecting to have the shirts about 7-10 days later.  And then, if you live in San Antonio we will find you out and pass yours onto you or if you don't then we will get them in the mail A.S.A.P.  If you know anyone else who would like to "purchase" a shirt, please let them know this is the last call!  Thank you again for your patience as we have been getting this order together.

Ordering on the 1st of September!

Ethiopian orphans

This is a video that another friend adopting from Ethiopia shared with us. If you have a minute, take a look!  You will see sweet little faces and get a sense of the need that these orphans have. 

http://vimeo.com/3565906

The next step...

Since we have been climbing so steadily up the waiting list, we finally get to move on to the next step of International adoption.  Immigration!  We have filled out our Orphan Petition, made copies of all relevant documents and need only to include a nice "fat" cashier's check. Ha, ha.  Thankfully, all this information we already had accessible because of our Home Study and Dossier.  This step is really not that complicated, but is intimidating when you consider that these people have the ability to deny your child entrance into the States!
After this we get to wait some more, lots of waiting, but all good things are worth waiting for. At least we are one step closer to this being final. 

It's Moving fast...

So please to announce that the waiting list has moved again!  This has been going along much faster than we ever expected.  We have only been on the waiting list since the beginning of July and have moved roughly 14 times.  That is an average of 2 times a week, amazing! With all that said we are currently...

Baby Girl - #47
Baby Boy- #25
Toddler Girl - #11
Sibling Group - #15

Just in...

Another family has accepted a referral for an infant boy, so we have moved up on a couple of the waiting lists! We are as follows...

Baby Girl - #49
Baby Boy- #27
Toddler Girl - #13
Sibling Group - #17

3 is a Magic Number...

Wow, we sure do love the end of the week now! Two more families accepted referrals and one family decided to pursue adoption with in the States, so we have moved up three more times. I can't believe how much the list has changed this week! I guess we need to start working on our USCIS (immigration) paperwork...

Baby Girl - #49
Baby Boy- #29
Toddler Girl - #13
Sibling Group - #19

Up, Up and away...

Well, just as I was lamenting the fact that we had not moved at all this week on the waiting list, which was especially depressing because we jumped up so much last week, then we get the following subject line via email...

3 referrals today!

Woo-hoo!  What a wonderful surprise at the end of the week.  But then there is always tomorrow if we dare hope for more great news this week...

Baby Girl - #52
Baby Boy- #31
Toddler Girl - #16
Sibling Group - #20

Thoughts...

Where to start...hmmmmm....
Over the past couple of weeks we have been made aware of some other families and the realism of their adoption process.  What I mean is that things don't/haven't gone as planned.  I am thankful that God has made us aware of these "complications" because in the midst of our excitement and expectations, we need to be aware of what reality is likely to be.
We hope and pray for a healthy child that would adjust easily into our family, but in all likelihood this is not going to be the case.  The child will have already experienced loss and grief greater than most of us will ever know.  And of course the way a child handles those things may not be so graceful!  (The way I handle things that are hard is not that graceful!)  But our desire is to continue forward in this process knowing the reality of what is to come, but also fully trusting that this child/children is meant to be in our home because we know that "all things work for good, for those that love Him and are called to His purpose."(Jer. 29:11) 
I am thankful for one lesson, in particular, that we learned with Addie in the NICU - God does not promise us a healthy child, or even a child at all, and are we to only "accept good from God and not trouble?" (Job 2:10)  No, God is sovereign regardless of the circumstances and we can be "confident the He who has begun a good work in us will carry it to completion." (Phil. 1:6)  Sadly, I know that this lesson will probably have to be learned over and over in our lifetime!  It is easy to become complacent and comfortable with the many blessings that God has given us.  Prayerfully, we would not do so with this adoption, but will rest fully on Him and His word.
We would ask that you would all be in prayer for our soon to be daughter or son, that they would be receiving food, shelter, care and love right now, where ever they are.  That God would be, even now, knitting their little hearts to ours.  And that our hearts would be knitted to theirs, so whatever challenges we are to face with them, we would face with the same love and courage that we would give to Addie and Ian.

News flash...

What a day!  Another family accepted a referral today so, we have moved up a couple more spots.  The list is as follows...

Baby Girl - #53
Baby Boy- #33
Toddler Girl - #17
Sibling Group - #20

We sure would love it if this continued! 

Moving on up!

Well, I should definitely learn to pay closer attention to our Agency's blog spot!  We have moved up three times this past week and I did not realize it until today.  It is kind of a bummer to have missed the excitement of moving three times in a week, but then again it is exciting to see our numbers change more drastically by not realizing that we have moved! ha ha. So our current place in line is as follows...
Baby Girl - #54
Baby Boy- #33
Toddler Girl - #18
Sibling Group - #20
And I would just like to say that it is very exciting to see that we have finally hit the teens on at least one list!  YEAH!

T-shirt Fundraiser Update...

We just wanted to update those of you who have donated to our adoption by participating in our T-shirt fundraiser.  We were really hoping to get our T-shirt order placed by the end of July, but due to traveling we are going to push it back a little further.  In addition, we need to "sell" about 25 more shirts to comfortably meet our minimum order.  The company who is providing the shirts is a Christian business that provides adopting families a wonderful discount so  75% of our sales goes directly into our adoption fund!  With that said they do ask that we order a minimum quantity of shirts.  Once we have met that we will place your T-shirt order.  Thank you for your patience as we raise money and we will keep you all updated on your shirts!  We can't wait to see you all wearing them and knowing that we are so supported by all of your prayers and love.
THANK YOU!

Thank you!

A huge Thank You to all of you who have donated a T-shirt or money towards our adoption! We are hopeful that we will have met our minimum by the end of the month and can have your shirts out to you sometime in August. Please be sure to check the blog for updates.
THANK YOU!

More Referrals have been accepted!

This is always great news to get!  Not only for the family that will be welcoming another child into their home and the orphan that has no home, but for us as well, because we get to move up on the waiting list.  Our new "positions" in line are...
Baby Girl - #57
Baby Boy- #36
Toddler Girl - #20
Sibling Group - #23

More movement!

We are very excited to say that we have had movement on the waiting list for the past three days!  So we are now...
Baby Girl - #58
Baby Boy- #36
Toddler Girl - #21
Sibling Group - #24
Wow, if only we could get movement like this every week we could have our new son or daughter by the end of the year! 

Ethiopian Basics 101...

I thought that in the interim of more exciting news concerning the progress of our adoption, that I would post some information about Ethiopia, the people, language and culture.  Of course all of this information is new to us as well, so you can learn right along side us! The following are a few basics about their alphabet and some translations of common words, all are taken from www.tourismethiopia.org.  My hope is to do several of these posts over the course of our adoption.  So until next time, enjoy the short lesson!

Simple pronunciation guide:

a as the a in father
e as the e in set
i as the i in ship
o as the o in go
u as the oo in boot
gn as the gn in compagne (French)
Amharic spellings that follow are phonetical as per the above guide to aid in pronunciation.

Numbers

One                And Two               Hulet Three             Sost Four              Arat Five              Amist Six                Sidist Seven           Sebat Eight             Semmint Nine             Setegn Ten              Asser

Days of the week

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Ihud Segno Maksegno Erob Hamus Arb Kidame

Moving up...

Today gets us one spot closer to bringing our new child home!  Some other families in the agency accepted a referral today so the rest of us get to move up one place.  YEAH!  This makes our current status:
Baby Girl - #61
Baby Boy- #38
Toddler Girl - #24
Sibling Group - #25
Also, I am sure that some of you are wondering what all these numbers mean in terms of a time frame for bringing home our new kiddo.  The agency has given us the following guidelines for how long we should expect to wait for a referral.  These time frames are from when we were added to the waiting list, which was about a week ago.

1. Infant girls:  12-18 months
2. Infant boys:  12-15 months.
3. Toddler girls:  6-12 months
4. Siblings:  We cannot predict, as there is such a wide variety of what families on this list are approved for.

Waiting List...

We are so pleased to announce that we are finally official...We are on the waiting list!  So exciting to be through the first round of paperwork, background checks and home study meetings and on to the tedious, nail-biting part of waiting.  As of today our official place in line is as listed below...
Baby Girl - #62
Baby Boy- #39
Toddler Girl - #25
Sibling Group - #25
Now I am sure that my day's will begin and end with checking IAN's blogspot to see if there is any movement on the lists! 

The husband of a friend of mine is on his way to pick up their two new children in Ethiopia!  We are so excited and curious to hear how everything goes.  They began their adoption story at the end of last year and are finally at the end and beginning of a new life.  Hearing about their twists and turns and excitement of adopting a new son and daughter, thrills us and makes us yearn to know how our story is going to unfold!  Thankfully we finally feel like we are in the game with our Dossier mailed off for review and the anticipation of going on the wait list, at hand.  Already, I can see that God has been opening our hearts to what His possibilities are for our family.  When we committed to adoption in March we thought for sure we only wanted one infant and here we are in June completely open to a sibling group and a toddler!  Now of course, we have no idea what will happen and it is a little overwhelming to think of our family doubling in the blink of an eye, but to sense how God is relaxing our standards and to know that He will give us the ability to handle what is to come, is comforting and reassuring.  So, as a friends journey is ending in this area it is beginning for us and we can't wait to share with you our story as God writes it!

Some Details

I am sure that you have some questions about where we are in the adoption process, if we know what child we will be adopting, why we chose Africa, ect.  Hopefully, I can answer most of those in this post.
First, there are several reasons we have decided to pursue an International adoption, some of which I can not explain with any better answer than it appealed to us.  We like learning about other cultures and we recognize that there is a great need in Ethiopia for these children to find homes.  With half of the population estimated to be under 20yrs old, you can imagine the challenges the people face!  In addition, they have a relatively quick and easy adoption process compared to some other nations.
As I mentioned earlier, we do not yet know if we will be matched with a boy or girl and what age they will be.  Although, Addie is hoping for a sister to play with, because "she doesn't want just Ian!"  We do know that they will not be older than the age of 4yrs.  There is no "picking" a child which is wonderful, because I could not imagine looking at all those little faces and having to deny any of them.  With that said, we are keeping our hearts open to the possibility of accepting a sibling group (up to 2 children). 
At this point in the process, we have finished our home study and mailed in our Dossier, so we are hopeful to be on the waiting list this upcoming week!  Once on the list, we can expect to wait up to 8-12mo before we are matched with a child.  This could move a little quicker if they match us with a toddler (age 2-4yrs) or sibling group.  So, you probably won't hear us breathing for the next several months!
We recognize that we still have a long wait, more paper work and money due between now and then, so we would welcome your prayers for patience!