May 29th

Woke up at 0700. Not the greatest sleep last night due to noisy neighbors. Actually falling asleep ok but if I get woken up it is difficult to go back to sleep. That is really the only jet lag I am suffering from. We met the rackaways for breakfast and then at 0915 we head to the care center. On arrival there are no kids to be found because all the little ones are being bathed. We meet Siter Almaz and she sends someone to get BOTH boys out of school. We thought only Ajura was in school but Ahmi goes too I guess. Aura was very shy towards me yesterday but when they came through the gate both boys had big smiles on their faces and came straight to us for hugs. Ajura even reached out for my hand. I was snuggling Ahmi and the nannies told him it was bath time so it was. Great opportunity to spend time alone with Ajura. Karl pointed to Ajura's shirt and Ajura said "tiger"!! This shocked us both because we didn't think he knew any English as of yesterday. After Ajura's bath he had a different shirt on that had dolphins on it, when we pointed he said "fish." Such proud parents!! While waiting for Ahmi, Ajura was pulling Karl's leg hair and cracking his and Karl's knuckles. Then he noticed Karl's ring and my ring and grabbed both our hands and touched our rings together. I welled up with tears. What a touching moment provided by two little hands. We played with bubbles and Karl played soccer N basketball. While I was taking a family photo of the rackaways another little boy was trying to get into the photo. Karl pointed at the boy and asked Ajura in Amharic what the boy's name was and Ajura thought he was pointing at me and said "Mimi." That was the first time my son called me "Mimi." What a feeling. We played some more and for about 5 minutes Ahmi let me rock him and he shut his eyes and just relaxed. We need to get a rocking chair at home. When our two hours was up we went to Yared's office briefly to discuss court and have our visas copied. We made arrangements for a trip up to Entoto mountain today at 1500. Our drive back to the guest house was kinda icky because it was extremely smoggy downtown today. When we got to the Addis View Karl's buddy Abraham showed up so I went to take a nap while he is out exploring. 2135. At 1500 we met up with the rackaways and our driver drove us to Entoto mountain which elevation is 10850 feet. O top of the mountain is a museum, palace, and orthodox catholic church. The women were all dressed in long skirts and head scarves. We paid 50 burr to get into the museum. Our driver accompanied us the whole time and insisted the tour guide to restart the tour in english for us. Very nice gesture but it made me feel like a pushy American and I hate that. All of the items in the museum were catholic religious icons, ceremonial dress and books along with items of the former kings and queens of Ethiopia. After the museum tour our guide then showed us the former palace and overlook of the city. The air is so polluted here that you just see a hazy view of the city. The palace is very interesting because although the crowns and attire of the royal family have diamonds and rubies the palace was very small and humble. Eucalyptus trees are planted everywhere because they grow fast and provide good lumbar, however they need a lot of water so they dig trenches around the trees to collect water. Very interesting. On the drive back we pass through the market where we will go tomorrow. We then go to Top View restaurant. Er nice place but we arrived too early. People eat late here. So the menu was pretty slim so we all had cheeseburgers and fries and coke. It was very good though. Our driver picked us up and we headed to the guest house early to get some good sleep. Tomorrow will be a long day!

Meetcha Day!! May 28th

Alarm rings at 0700 and we get up and get ready and go to breakfast. It is Memorial Day here as well and Ajura's 7th birthday!! We meet the rackaways at breakfast as planned and wait for a phone call from yared. We were told if he doesn't call before 0900 we were to call him...so we did. Waited for a ride together very anxiously. Thought we held thing together pretty well. 1000. The driver picks us up and we start driving through Addis. Still a beautiful city. Air is hazy with pollution. Mre traffic as we get closer into downtown. In about 20 minutes we suddenly turn left down a gravel alleyway and then we stop in front of the gate we have heard about and seen on pictures. The driver honks and the gates open to a courtyard with playground equipment. Around the courtyard in a complete circle are rooms and an office. When the vehicle stops we look to the right and there is a crowd of children. The children pour out and Andrea yells, "That one is mine!" What an awesome moment. Wile this is happening, yared greets Karl and myself as I search for those familiar faces. The children come up one by one to greet us by shacking our hands and saying "hello!" then Yared asks one of the other boys to get Ajura and Obama/Ahmi. I watch as the boy walks to one of the rooms and then our boys emerge. I was in shock! I hugged Ajura first. He is shy and tentative. Yared warned me that Ahmi had tripped this morning so he has a piece of white athletic tape next to his right eye. Ahmi greets me and lets me hold him. Neither boys know that we are their parents at this point I don't think. We start playing with balloons the rackaways brought and then another 7 year old boy who speaks English pretty well told each of our boys in turn "Obama (points to me), Mimi!" "Ajura (points to me), Mimi!" At this point my heart explodes with joy as I see the comprehension on Ajura's face and watch Ahmi mouth the word "Mimi" as if he is trying them out for the first time. Ajura is still shy and more interested in playing basketball but acknowledges us with special looks or try to sit close (especially with Karl). I can't imagine how me feels an dhow scary and exciting and overwhelming it is for all of us. At least we knew this was going to happen today. We played balloons, sunglasses were a hit, and watched them eat lunch and say their prayer together. Those children follow such a tight schedule and behave so well. There is no yelling from the nannies. After they eat, each child goes independently to wash their hands (they do this before dinner too). All except our Ahmi who practically has to be hosed down because he has food on his shirt, pants and even in his pink crocs! So cute! Ahmi loves to snuggle with both Karl and me and even seeks us out and gets jealous when other kids try to get our attention. He even kissed me on the cheek! Ajura Is quick to smile and is really warming up to Karl by the end of our visit. Ahmi seems a little sad when we say "ciao" but Ajura lingers with a smile on his face, understanding that we will be back tomorrow. We leave in almost utter silence in the car. We are all wonderfully overwhelmed. Our wonderful driver Benjamin engages us zombies in conversation. E decide to meet at 1600 to discuss dinner plans. Upon getting back to our room we Skype our families and friends. They are all so excited! At 1600 we meet up with the Rackaways at the cafe. We decide to eat at Lucy's tonight. Benjamin drives us there for $6 a couple round trip. I ordered the chicken tikka and Karl had lamb curry. Both were very good. Our total including two beers for 5 people was $35.00. It has been so nice having the Rackaways traveling with us. We have a lot in common. S i noticed when we were at Lucy's that the emblem of the restaurant was a skeleton that looked familiar and then (DUH!) I realized the restaurant was named after the "missing link" skeleton Lucy. The restaurant is right nex to to Natural History Museum so on the way back I asked Benjamin if Lucy was in there and he said "yes! She is very famous!" We have to add that onto the to do list which currently includes Entoto mountain and shopping. Still love it here and now have fallen in love with two little boys. Can't wait to see them tomorrow! Looking forward to some good sleep tonight after the emotional day!

The rest of the story for May 27th that is

1743. Nce afternoon! While I napped Karl decided to walk down the main road from our guest house and he met a 10 year old boy named Abraham. The first thing he asked Karl was if he was American and the second thing is if we were adopting. Abraham told Karl a little about the gambella region (where Ajura and Ahmi are from) and he said "They are smart, they come here as teachers." he took Karl to a market to try to find ibuprofen. No luck, here you have to by ibuprofen at the pharmacy (which are everywhere). Karl tried to buy him a soda and he declined. After more persistence on Karl's behalf he allowed Karl to buy some cooking oil for his mother and Karl threw in a soda. Karl says thankful for the company. He then met another group of kids ranging from 2.5-16 (estimates) who hang out by the hotel. He knows all their names. He layer soccer with them behind the hotel all afternoon until he came to get me. We then together went out back and I took photos (well I took a few, you know how kids with cameras are) and Karl played more soccer. The 2.5 year old girl was named Beyonce. Haha! She love d to just touch things and my skin. They all had to touch my tattoo. I really enjoyed a 7th grade girl named Geri. She wants to be a pilot. And loves physics. She loved looking at the photos of Haiti on the camera. There was a very nice 16 year old boy who wants to be a doctor. He loved the pictures of the operating room in Haiti. Stayed with the kids for about 45minutes then sat at the cafe in front of our guest house and had 2 bottles of water and tiramisu for $1.50 (30 birr). 2200. Had a nice dinner at the restaurant upstairs. Karl had this awesome beef kabob. The beef is really lean and more venison like. It was yummy! I had a pasta dish that was ok. After dinnerwe just hung out in our room. Oh, I forgot! Karl tasted two of the local beers and they were tasty! We Skyped with my parents and Bill. Went to bed at 2300.

We have arrived

Hello everyone from Addis!! We have some free time this morning and I have been journalling so I am going to catch you up on our travels so far. Depending how busy we are and the Internet connection we will have to see how day to day online journalling will work. May 25 1330 (Bismarck time) Well all the packing and preparation is done (I hope) and we are sitting in the airport in Bismarck. Check in and security was thankfully uneventuful. My mom dropped us off at after saying good bye to Teha and my dad at our house. Bill and Janie came to see us off at the airport which made my day. We received a phone call while checking in from Aneata (our coordinator) informing us that our court date was switched from Tuesday to Thursday. Yeah, kinda last night but doesn't really change much of our plans thankfully. Just trying not to panic. Feeling a little overwhelmed today. We get to meet our boys!! May 25th (who ok owns what time, 2 hours into the 8 hour flight between Chicago and Frankfurt) Flight from BIS to CHI was smooth and uneventful. Arrived in Chicago found our gate, ate pizza and a salad and made some phone calls. Flight from Chicago to Frankfurt is packed and by far the largest plane I have ever been on. It's a 747. Nice guy sitting next to Karl. We are in the middle seats in the middle row. At least we can sit together. Just watched "one for the money". It was ok. Little boy a few rows up is in the middle of a meltdown. Fight attendants not impressed. Makes me worried about flying home with our boys. I am sharing my seat with the lady next to me unfortunately. May 26th (4 hours in) Just watched "the vow" pretty sure Karl almost died twitching it. Had an ok meal. Flight attendants are horrible!! Tried unsuccessfully to sleep. May 26th (0955, Frankfurt time) Arrival in Frankfurt. Land, get on bus, go through security (don't have to take shoes off here), hurry through airport (don't even get a chance to send off an email), onto another bus (pretty sure you need to board via bus here, ha), onto Lufthansa plane. Sit next to a really nice woman from CO, her first teaching job was in Brookings, SD. Once she found out Karl was on the. Plane she practically forced us to sit together. Nce lady, preferred Karl's company but she would have been a decent seat-mate, far better than the encroacher. Flight attendants are much better (Karl points out that our standard has been set pretty low from the last flight though). He is right, as long as they don't swear at the passengers they are already better. Seats are better and we have our own tvs. Boo yeah! Happy birthday mom and grandma Ruth!! One. More flight and we will be in the same city as out boys!! (1830, Khartoum Sudan time) Let me tell you, Lufthansa is the way to fly. Good entertainment and food, more comfortable seats and great flight attendants. We just flew over the Nile! We have landed in Khartoum Sudan to drop off some passengers, we don't get off the plane. Khartoum is in the middle of the desert. It is currently 41 degrees C, surrounded by red sand, palm trees in the city, and wide expanses of nothingness outside the city. Hve never seen such a barren land. You can see the haze of the heat in the air. This part of the journey has been the best. It may eke excited to get to Ethiopia because the other people on the plane have such a pleasant demeanor compared to all the other flights. People are happy and friendly. Can't wait for this last leg to get to our hotel. I haven't brushed my teeth or washed my face since leaving Bismarck yesterday. Gross. May 27th (midnight Addis time, afternoon is Bismarck) Well Khartoum was cool until we had to sit in the plan for 2 hours to let a dust storm pass. Watched "big miracle", " we bought a zoo" and "Sherlock Holmes". "zoo" was really good. I was feeling very anxious that we were going to be stuck in Sudan but we eventually got the go ahead. Dark outside with not much to see but scary turbulence at the beginning. Towards Addis, while still above the clouds in the distance we watched a beautiful thunderstorm! Finally land and get through customs and immmigration with no problems. Small confusion with our bags but they did arrive. Phew! We expected our hotel driver to meet us inside the airport but he wasn't there and we weren't thrilled about walking out to the parking lot at night so for three dollars I borrowed a cell phone and called the hotel. He was waiting in the parking lot after all. Nice guy, doesn't speak a lot of English. Hard to tell but from the car ride at night Addis is much better put together than any part of Haiti we have seen. Weather was beautiful. About 65 degrees with a slight breeze. Hotel is nice. $65 per night with free breakfast. Karl was a bit concerned with th water heaer plugged in INSIDE the shower. Hope we don't get electrocuted. Ordered bottled water from room service to drink and brush our teeth. Ate dried fruit and jerky for dinner. Got to Skype with Bill!! Quick but oh so refreshing shower and now, finally a nights rest. Forgot to write about my airport bathroom story: sweet older lady attendant ( I thought she was cleaning not attending the bathroom). Anyway had to pee so bad and didn't bother to check for TP. Bad decision. Thank God I had wet ones in my purse. S then I'm trying to get soap from the dispenser and it is empty but I do notice an used water bottle with pink stuff in it. This is where my attendant stepped in. She shook the goo out onto my hands and I washed and then she handed my TP to dry my hands. Left the bathroom looking like a paper mâché project but she was so sweet I wish I had tipped her. May 27 (1030 addis time, middle of the night Bismarck) Sleep is so wonderful!! Awake this morning to the wonderful smell of addis. Don't really know how to describe it, it smells like spices. It is a hazy sunny day which I think is the normal here. W have a beautiful view overlooking addis. We woke up at 0830 so we had breakfast. The restaurant is at the top of our hotel and we if we thought the view from our room was great than this view blows it away. Vultures are hovering in the sky. Children are playing soccer on a field of dirt. Women wearing beautiful head scarves walk down the street. There is a strange juxtaposition here. It is as if the third world and "first" world are blending into one. I.e. a man is herding his goats down the sidewalk which is made from beautiful pavers. There are no sidewalks in Haiti. Other example are the tin homes compete with satellite dishes on their rooftops. I love it here so far. People are quick to smile and are so friendly. Breakfast consisted of fresh papaya juice (thick, didn't like how it smell but liked the taste), toast with amazing jellies, cheese omelet, and the most fantastic coffee. All the rumors are true, the coffee here is incredible. I ordered a coffee with milk (milk was thick as cream and filled most of the cup with a shot of coffee to too it off). Karl ordered his plain and the lady kinda laughed at him. Although the coffee is creamy and smooth it is really strong so karl ended up using some of my milk. The coffee is the reason I have the wakefulness to write all of this write now. While eating the Rackaways arrived right off their flight. They seem like great people and am looking forward to expereincing Ethiopia with them. Back in our room and I am gonna nap. I feel good here.

My friend told me "You only post on your blog when you are happy." That is pretty true and not that I haven't been happy since January but it has been a long wait with really no news to be shared so I didn't forget about any of you I just really have had nothing to share. . . until yesterday. . .

Definitely one of the best moments in my life so far.  So let me tell you the story. I am at work like any normal Monday. The previous week, I had been in touch with our coordinator, Aneata, and she said we should get a court date any day because we had been waiting longer than ANYONE else that she can remember. So I am in the middle of a case and Bill Cleary (he is pivotal in this story) ends up taking over my room for another anesthesiologist. For those of you who don't know Bill, he is one of my best buddies so this was ideal.  So I was finishing up a case and I get paged to the front desk. Our patient was extubated (the breathing tube was removed) and looking really good, plus Bill was there so I answered the page. Debbie tells me, "Lura, sorry I know you are waking up a patient but an Aneata is on the phone for you." My mouth dropped open because I don't ever get calls at work and I looked at Bill like a deer in the headlights I'm sure and said, "Bill, it's Aneata." He pushes me away from the patient and tells me to take the call. So while Bill is closely monitoring our patient Debbie transfers Aneata to me. She tells me, "Well Lura, it's raining here in Denver (which is our inside joke) and. . . you have a court date!" I threw my head up in the air and BURST into tears. In the middle of the OR. With a patient still in the room. The RN in the room and scrub techs were looking around and Bill was like "I think it is good news, and good tears." I was so excited, but also mortified to be crying in the OR that I told Aneata thank you but I need to call her back when I don't have a patient still in the room. You got it, I didn't even have the brains in that moment to ask her what the court date was.  So I hung up the phone and continue to cry and poor Bill is trying to give me hugs and take care of our patient. He reminded me to call Aneata back immediately to get an exact date so I could tell Karl while he brought our patient to the ICU. For the record, I don't make it a habit of emotionally abandoning my patients like that and wouldn't have even taken the call if Bill hadn't been there. Anyway so I call Aneata back and she tells me our court date is May 29th! So as of Friday we have two more weeks until we leave!!! INSANE.  So I call Karl and ask him if we have any plans on May 29th. His response is, "Ummm, I don't think so.  Isn't that a Tuesday." Then we both celebrated the good news. It feels like it has been such a long wait for us but I can't even imagine how the boys feel seeing families and children come and go and nobody has come for them. Well kiddos, we are COMING!!!!

Thank you for all the love and support you have all shown Karl and myself through this process. We couldn't do this sanely without you!!!
Lura

Baby steps and a LEAP

We sent our referral packet back in record time.  I think we received the packet on Friday the 20th and had it mailed by Monday the 23rd. I was so excited to see on our agency's website that under AO and OO names it says "adoption pending." Strange how that makes things so "official." Also we received new pictures on Friday so we are thrilled. Sorry I can't post pictures yet. We received even more good news on Friday. Our dossier was submitted for court, which means the next step is getting a court date and our coordinator is estimating that it could take as few as 7-10 days. We are praying we get a date before court closes for a holiday (February 6th-26th). So if all goes as planned we should be traveling in March!!!! CRAZY!! Another wonderful piece of information is that our friends, the Gilliss's dossier was also submitted for court on Friday as well so hopefully we may be traveling with them! They have been helping us through this adoption maze from the beginning and that would be so wonderful to have them with us. Last big news: we bought a car seat today.  Ridiculous you may think (first because we bought it already and secondly because this is big news for us). This is the first big purchase we have made for the kids and this is the car seat that my buddy Kelli says we need to get (her husband is a fireman and safety freak and did a bunch of research), plus it was on sale.  So we now have a car seat sitting in our living room.

Okay, now many of you are going to think I am crazy but just hear me out.  I am kinda having a bummer day today (even though we bought this awesome car seat).  I was given the opportunity to go to Haiti in July and had already accepted and was looking forward to the trip immensely. It was with an orthopedic group that was from all over the U.S.  I was really excited for this trip because it would be great to network with other groups.  Needless to say because the boys should be home before the trip I am no longer going.  My family obviously comes first but it was really hard to send that email today because I love spending my time in Haiti as well. I know, welcome to parenthood, first lesson: sacrifice. As Karl said, "I know you want to go right now and think you can do everything but you will not want to go when the boys get here." He is right, of course. I will still have the same opportunity to go in November if the boys are adjusting well.  I have no idea how much my life is going to change with these two beautiful boys but I can't wait.  I just want them to know they have two people who think about them constantly and look at their pictures constantly through the day and every night before bed.  Our world is already revolving around them.

Referral acception!!

We are so excited to share our exciting news with everyone!! Karl and I accepted the referral for two little boys from Ethiopia. "A" is 6.5 years old and is currently going to school and loves football (soccer). "O" is 3 and is sweeT as can be! We can't share any photos on our blog or Facebook until we pass through court. If all goes as planned we should be traveling to Ethiopia in March for court and hopefully be bringing the boys home in May!!! Karl and I have had a permasmile ever sine we saw their faces. Believe me, they are adorable!!