Three Months of Waiting

Three Months Down

It certainly has been a crazy month in Ethiopian Adoption. Earlier this month Ethiopia’s MOWA (Ministry of Women’s Affairs) announced they were be downsizing from 50 cases a day to five cases a day. This was not exactly what we were hoping to hear but it we are going with it.

This is the latest release we have from Dove.

According to information provided to Dove's attorney at the March 16, 2011 Network meeting, the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) plans to process the approximately eight hundred (800) files that they currently have in their offices. All families who were assigned a court date prior to March 10, 2011 are expected to be included in this group.

MOWA anticipates completing the review of the approximately eight hundred (800) files in their offices within ten (10) to fifteen (15) days. Dove cautions families to expect delays and a possible revision to this timeline. While we are all hopeful for a quick resolution, an ethical review may take longer than anticipated. As a reminder, MOWA must complete the review of the file and issue the required letter to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) prior to the courts granting custody of a child. Prospective parents who have been assigned a court date should still plan on traveling to Ethiopia to give their testimony on their assigned date.

After completion of the eight hundred (800) files, Ethiopian officials will determine what course of action to take; this may include increasing the number of files processed on a daily basis. For now, families who are adjourned (assigned a court date) on or after March 10, 2011, will likely be processed according to the new, five (5) file per day rule. As this new regulation may cause delays, we also believe that it could result in an even stronger, more ethical process.

We have also been told that a Code of Ethics is being implemented by the Network and several government agencies. On March 16, 2011 all adoption agencies working in Ethiopia approved this code and submitted their revisions to the Ethiopian government. This code will provide additional support to adoption agencies who are working to provide ethical services in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia remains open for adoptions. Dove is continuing to receive referrals for children and adoption files are continuing to be processed in Ethiopia. We do not know, nor can we predict the impact this will ultimately have on adoption cases. This requirement could result in a temporary delay for some files, a minimal delay in future adoptions or a more significant delay. As we continue to obtain information and wait for MOWA to processes current files, we ask that you join us in praying for Ethiopia, the adoption process and everyone involved.

Dan and I agree it may take much longer but our hearts and our child are still in Ethiopia. We are so appreciative of our family and friends that have showed us so much support and love. I can not express how much this has meant to Dan and I. The cards and calls have meant so much. I have saved them all for Miss Grace to read later.

Grace now has a homecoming blanket even if we don’t know when that will be. Terry surprised us by making Grace the most beautiful blanket I have ever seen!!!

Back to tradition – For Three Months my true love and I have decided on a THREE wheel stroller.

Finally, I was half reading and half watching on of our favorite shows How I met your Mother and a scene I have probably watched 100 times when I heard this.

Stella: You know I once talked my way out of a speeding ticket?

Ted: Really?

Stella: I was heading upstate with my parents, I was doing 90 on the country roads. I got pulled over. So this cop, gets out of his car, swaggers over and he says, 'Lady, I've been waiting for you all day.' And I said, 'Sorry Officer, I got here as fast as I could.'

Ted: For real?

Stella: No, it's just a joke. I know that you're tired of waiting. And you may have to wait a little while more but, she's on her way, Ted. And she's getting here as fast as she can.

Great words to live by – I tried to put the clip on the web but my tech skills are not there yet.Everyone is welcome to come watch my favorite episode with me anytime.

It has been a crazy month but just another chapter of our fun road to Grace.

Day 10

Last day in Ethiopia!! Today we went to another orphanage and I sincerely hope Grace gets to live here. It is beautiful, the nannies are amazing and fast and so comforting to so many children. Honestly, this is a mother dream for her child's orphanage. I spent my day in the infant room holding sweet beautiful children. I stayed in one corner so I could be holding one baby and playing with another. This baby was so sweet, he would track me with his eyes where ever I moved.

Love this sweet face
This baby was super tiny.
These boys are twins and when I would pick up one brother the other would cry so I finally ended up with both.

Day 9

Today we are back at Korah, and my sweet friends again. Busy day of painting with Solomon (Great man who was helping me paint) He would yell conjo for Beautiful after every wall. Then playing with little kids and then talking with older girls and I even got my hair did.

Braiding my head only took her 20 minutes.
Such a sweet face
Mary had given me her wellies to use then donate to someone. This beautiful woman had seen my shoes and asked me for them. Of course I said yes, I also ended up with what I would consider paint covered clothes but I asked her if she would like these as well and she could not stop thanking me. I will definitely be bring more wellies next time.
This is one of the boarding rooms for students. Hayden did a great job!

Day 7 & 8

Day 7

After a rough night with a migraine and not feeling so hot, I felt it would be better if I stayed home and rest instead of passing out at Korah. After a long nap, I emailed updates, played soccer with Hayden, went for ice cream with the street boys, and feeling much better had a dinner with the team.

Day 8

First Day at Korah for me, maybe because I had been prepared by others but I was almost ready for the devastation, the houses that we would call a bedroom. It it sad to see the children so needy for food they are pushing each other down to get into the room. The good news is because we are there with goats ($35USD) 200 people did not have to go to the dump for food this day. The smiles again just melt my heart. So sweet and so full of joy it makes you smile. This was my buddy for the day -- honestly I did not tell her to smile different in any of the pictures she is just my little doppelgangers.

Dinner was at a traditional Ethiopian restaurant. There were dancers and wonderful music. This was my first Ethiopian dinner. I really enjoyed it. I knew I was flying my freak flag when I got up on stage for a little bit and danced.

Day 6

Today was a beautiful day!! We went back to the same community that we had given out shoes.

These children do not have enough to go to school so an American family is connecting them with sponsors and preparing them for school. Tom (different than the shoes) walked us around showing us the beautiful land. The children would run up to us and hold our hands. The funniest part was they really wanted to wear our backpacks. The bags are as big as them it was too cute.

Soon it was craft time, Baby brought my now well travel suitcase, as I liked to call it the SUITCASE of FUN and we made our work area right in the grass and they got to coloring their own little book packs right away. How funny backpacks were all the rage!!



In the afternoon we went to the Fistoula hospital. Honestly, this was the hardest part of the whole trip for me. When I think of mothers I think of a woman in her late twenties or thirties but these girls were younger than me and some younger than my students. These woman had already been pregnant, lost a child, shunned by their community, forced to travel by foot for several days to come to this hospital to receive surgery. My biggest stress in life was which prom dress to wear. Each woman receives a beautiful blanket when she enters the hospital. The women clung to the blankets like they were gold. But a new lease on life is better than gold. As the woman grow stronger they make amazing baskets and platters for injera and other meals. The money make will help them to start their new life. When we left they were sold out! I was very overwhelmed when we left.

Day 5 TOMS SHOES

A wonderful man named Blake created a company called TOMS shoes for Tomorrow!

We had the honor of being shoe givers for a school in rural Ethiopia. When I think of schools I think of beautiful uniform buildings. Even Addis this true but in the country the "school" consist of ten "buildings" that are really tin sheds. Honestly, looked a lot like farm sheds. But these children are so happy to be going to school and they don't know any different.

In the morning, we played and it continues to amaze me how excited children are just to have me paint their nails. They are so sweet and respectful, as I look back to make sure I will not sit in cow poo a little girl come over with a large flat rock for me to sit on. I am a lucky woman.

My afternoon was spent on the floor helping children into their new shoes. The rubber shoes are made in Ethiopia and are made specifically to last during the rainy season. Children came in with no shoes, or shoes that were way too tight but mostly the shoes had holes where their toes stuck out or had holes in the bottom.

Now you never think, well at least I didn't think about the fact that a shoe giver means you are on the floor for hours with a constant smell of feet and some who do not have the luxury of pedicures or SHOES. But honestly, I never even noticed. It was so amazing to see the pure joy on the faces how thankful they were.

Our translators continued to be amazing. Men of the community were not happy there was not shoes for them. The men tried to pressure our translators but Nate never left my side. As he said, "Bridget, I am your translator / body guard!" How could you not love Nate!

All in all another amazing day capped off by more ice cream at kaldies and meaningful chats with my group.

Day 4

Ambo

Today we had a picnic with children who are sponsored so they can go to school. Every sponsored child also brought their siblings.

At first most of the children just stared at us. We were the first white people they had seen. Soon they were walking up to us making sure to shake your hand and say shalem (hello). A very cute three year old come walking over making a camera motion and wants to take a picture with me. These kids love having their picture taken, taking the picture, basically anything dealing with the camera is awesome.

Esp. these older girls love photos! I have many many photos of these beautiful girls.

We played games, did some crafts and I got to see lots of smiles. Then it was time for lunch. Now I am not sure whose idea this was but.. every child was presented a hamburger for lunch. Great for american kids but these Ethiopian kids had never seen a hamburger. Eating with two hands was also a new concept. The little boy next to me decided it would be better to spit it out. As I start to freak out that my little friend is getting sick I look around and notice he is not alone. Since they normally eat in rooms with dirt floors it is normal to spit out food that is bad on the floor. So anyways, my pasta is brought over and I have a table of cuties who wont eat their burgers so I start feeding them pasta. That they were ok with! Everyone loves pasta!


On our way home Baby took us to a park with a waterfall and the amazing tree, that I swear the lion king was based off of.

The day finished with ice cream at Kaldies and our meeting with TOMS

Day 3

After processing yesterday, I was left sad for all those sweet children and sad for my child who I could not be there to help her if something was wrong. I was also very apprehensive about our trip to Holeta! After having a wonderful facebook chat with my mom and getting a little more sleep I felt much better and started to relax a great deal. I enjoyed the beautiful drive out to Holeta.

When we arrived at Holeta, I was super excited to learn we would not be doing anything with the chicken coup cleaning or building.!!!

Then we started the tie dye and it was amazing AMAZING!

There had been three pre teen girls Pochi had asked to help me prepare the dyes and the joy started there!! It was so much fun to work with the girls and the shirts look good so far.

The three girls were amazing, so excited, and so helpful. So SWEET.

Later, the girls and I sat down and looked at the pictures of their forever family and at my family. They are so excited to live in TEXAS. They have very lucky parents. We picked out sticker earrings and had a wonderful afternoon.

While I was having fun with tie dye the men were roasting the goat for lunch. I also had my first Ethiopian coffee, I am hooked. We left in the evening and drove off in to the sunset to our beautiful hotel in ambo. I look forward to visiting here soon!

Day 2

Day two was an amazing day no pictures only memories. Government orphanages do not allow photos. I will do my best to describe what I saw. As the vans pulled up we could see the children about preschool age peaking out their door. Slowly the very brave would walk over to one of us and hold out their hands. Soon their friends were walking over too!! We met the director and went on a quick tour. As we spread out I found myself in the play room of one year olds. Again one sweet girl walks up to me holds her arms up so I pick her up. Now another baby boy comes up to me with his hands up. Now I have to sweet children in my arms. I decide it will be easier just to sit on the floor and now I have two more babies in my lap. It is so wonderful to have these sweet children playing all over me. They are so excited to play, but you can tell that they are afraid I will leave so they literally cling to you. Soon it is time for their lunch so the nurses ask us to play somewhere else so they will focus on lunch. I then ended up in the infant room and picked up a beautiful girl. She was so sweet and perfect but if I tried to put her down she would start to fuss. She was so happy to be in my arms. Such amazing eyes. I feed her and burped her (all first for me) and sang to her. I do want to make sure I note how amazing the nannies at the orphanage are. The problem is just the ratio. One nanny to ten babies. What I found most comforting about the whole day, might be selfish but I thought about the fact that when our Grace is waiting for us, other groups will come and hold and love her. She will be loved everyday. It was definitely a perfect first day with faces I will never forget.

Ethiopia Day 1

While I was in Ethiopia I kept a journal of all our events. I want to be able to remember the details to tell Grace all about it. I plan on typing in my entries in as is to get the full Ethiopia effect.

"Day 1"

Is in quotes because day one too several days to accomplish. I left Tuesday night from Syracuse -- highlights include me getting flustered at the check in counter because my bag was over weight and losing my ticket before I got to security. Luckily it is Syracuse and they just walked up behind me and handed it to me. With my new travel buddies Marge and Joe we found our baggage and our shuttle to the hotel. Settled in for a quick sleep and were back up and out by seven am Wednesday.

We headed off our in our huge plane to Ethiopia. Now the flight takes 12 hours so it is close to midnight by the time you make it through customs but in Ethiopia it is eight am. So .... You just stay up!!!
Baby and the other amazing drivers loaded up our luggage!! So thankful for these guys.
We arrived at our beautiful guest house!!! That is our room on the second floor.
I was very ready to go to bed but those who had been before suggested other plans. First, we went to Kaldis Ethiopia's Starbucks!! Then shopping at the Post Office - many cute shops with Ethiopian treasures. Finally, Lucy's for dinner!!! Long day but great day! I slept like a log until the monks started chanting at 5:00 am. I went downstairs and was able to talk to my mom and Dan for the first time since it was only 9pm Thursday!! A great way to start my first full day in Ethiopia.