Days 5-6-7 (Wed-Fri)

Busy around here with Thanksgiving...hope all of your days were wonderful! It was a nice break from work for me and was great to be around the girls! Wow....I'm completely outnumbered!

Wednesday in Ethiopia was a lazy day, and by lazy I mean we didn't go anywhere. What I do NOT mean is it was an easy day. We hung around the hotel all day and she was B U S Y! I had the option to go back to Hannah's Hope, but didn't know if it was time for Juniper to see the special mothers again. We played with soccer balls in the exercise room, took pictures, and hung out on the porch with other families.

That night was the cultural dinner. I was a little hesitant to try the traditional cuisine, but I wanted to be able to tell Juniper (and Jana) about it when I got home. It was actually delicious. I wouldn't enjoy it for every meal, but it was a great taste of traditional food. It's not as spicy as Indian food, but the tastes are equally intense. Oddly enough, I hated Indian food before the trip, but we've had it twice since I've been home and I love it! It reminds me of my time in Ethiopia...

2 of the 3 meats were identifiable: chicken and goat....the 3rd remains unknown!
*UPDATE*: According to Andrew Zimmern, of the show "Bizarre Foods", the 3rd meat was most likely tripe (stomach). Oh wow.

The dinner started after Junie's bedtime, so she was warm and comfy the whole time!

Thursday was our final day in Addis. It was my 2nd favorite day of the trip because another family put us in contact with Ephraim, a local man who used to work for an adoption agency and now is a driver/guide. It was absolutely incredible. He looked at our paperwork (me and two other families, Jay and Chad) and found our kids all came from the same government orphanage! He took us there and we met with the assistant director who pulled all of our files and gave us more info about the birth moms, a complete tour of the facility, and a look at the day to day operation of the place! Incredible. While we were there, a van pulled up with 2 goats tied to the roof that had been donated by Hannah's Hope for the New Years Celebration. They were tied to a tree in a 2 foot by 4 foot patch of grass to graze until that night when they became the celebration meal! The government orphanages get funding from the government, but a lot of the support comes from agency orphanages like ours.

We drove around the city a bit and then back to the hotel to drop the 3 of us off and pick up my father in law. Ephraim took him back to the orphanage for him to see as well, then they went to a few lesser-known shopping areas. It was great. When we go back with the girls, I'll definitely do it again.

Cooking in the Government Orphanage

We said goodbye to some of the families leaving earlier in the day and then packed in the afternoon. We went by Hannah's Hope to say goodbye and get a few more pics of the Special Moms and Junie's room. The same little girl who was screaming because of me on Monday was screaming because she didn't want to leave me to be held by the Special Moms again! So...apparently we had bonded a bit!


We left for the airport at about 6:00 p.m. for a 10:45 flight! Yes, LOTS of time at the airport. Fortunately, we got right in and up to our gate. It was New Year's Eve for them (different calendar) so it was neat to see people out and about getting ready to celebrate. Even in the airport, the lounges and shops had long grass clippings spread over the floors and had coffee ceremonies going on! (Both traditional celebrations!)

Juniper slept almost the whole first flight, except when the flight attendant (is that the PC term?) made me take her out of the Moby wrap and facing her forward to put a pointless, silly, and completely unnecessary belt thingy that didn't offer any protection whatsoever. However, she did fall back to sleep and was just waking up as we were landing in Amsterdam. We were behind schedule, so the 6 hour layover was only about 3 hours. The airport is nice, so it wasn't too bad. I could send Jana pictures and video of Junie for a little sneak peak, which was great. They even had an art museum, so Junie and I got to see a real Rembrandt while we waited. Pretty cool.

Junie and I at the Amsterdam airport

The flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis was a little tough. She was busy once again. Fortunately, everyone was great about it. We made it through customs in Minneapolis and I had just time to get my belt back on after the security screening (about 45 minutes because Junie was in the Moby wrap again!!!), walk to our next gate, and it was time to board our LAST flight home! The hour flight to Lincoln was spent wrestling her into a cute dress (Jana's term...) for her homecoming.

We had great friends and family waiting for us in Lincoln, and they even let Jana come to the gate to see her. (The first guy said no, but was shoved aside by a woman who said "Absolutely...I was adopted too." Amen!!!) It was so wonderful to see Jana, Paisley and Majil.

"Are you watching for them girls?"

"There they are!"

"Daddy and Junie are home!!"
thanks to Missy for the airport pics!!

Jana wasn't sure how Junie would take to her....


Apparently, just fine!


From that point until about 2 weeks ago is a blur. Just kidding....kinda.

Awesome opportunity

Today's the day.

Go here to donate $10.

From the website:

$10 will provide one person in Africa clean water for 10 years. It will literally change and possibly save someone's life. A mother. A child. A brother. A grandfather.

We are rallying together for a cause. Clean water. One day. $10. Asking everyone to let this be their first gift. Let water, let life be their first gift of the season.

Day 4 (Tuesday)

Tuesday morning was an excellent morning for one reason: the first smile at me! Junie woke up laying next to me (the crib in the hotel room made me nervous!), so she opened her eyes, looked at me, and gave me a crooked “uh, so that wasn’t all a dream?” smile. She got pretty serious afterwards, but was in a good mood. She spent the morning being hesitant about everything…picking up toys slowly, watching me as if to say “is this ok?”


We had a lazy morning and then got her in a cute outfit (which were sorted ahead of time by Jana, paired with things that match!) to head to our Embassy appointment.


We met the rest of our group downstairs and got ready to go. I was a little intimidated…like I’ve said before, Jana is the brains around here, so I went through the diaper bag about a bazillion times to make sure I had the essentials: bottle, diapers, wipes, change of clothes, passport, paperwork, etc. I don’t know what I was worried about; 9 other families surrounded me, 8 of which I believe had kids in diapers! I could have freeloaded the whole week if I planned right! Just kidding…Junie rode in the Ergo baby carrier (which was the easier to put on of the two we brought, but less comfortable in my opinion than the Moby wrap) and did really well.

We climbed aboard a bus and were off. No carseats or seatbelts (which explains the absolute loathing with which she viewed them once home!) It was neat to see the city again as we had during the shopping trip the day before, but this time I was WAY more self conscious. Whenever we’d stop in traffic, I wondered what the general population on the street and in other buses thought of our bus full of Americans and Ethiopian babies. Some sources say that it causes problems to be out in public because the citizens don’t want their children taken out of their native culture, which is completely understandable. On the other hand, there are 4.8 million orphans in Ethiopia alone. The Ethiopian culture is very focused on family; as a nation, they were once able to care for all the children who needed homes. Kids lived with aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc., but since famine and war have torn the country apart, there aren’t enough resources for all the kids to be provided for and the orphan rate has skyrocketed. I didn’t see any negative reactions about adoption, but we did get some strange looks just because we were American.

The Embassy is on the other side of Addis, so it was quite a drive. We waited outside on long benches, covered by an awning which was nice to have because there was a thunderstorm getting closer and closer. We went into the Embassy in groups and were led to a separate building that had a large waiting room and a TV in the corner. It cracked me up…Jana and I get hooked on Big Brother almost every summer, and on this TV there was a commercial for the show. I didn’t want to watch because I had been gone and didn’t know who had made the finals this season, until I realized the season they were advertising was about 3 years ago! I think they had some show like Extra or Entertainment Tonight on after that, which, given the condition of the city we were in, seemed absolutely ridiculous! Jon and Kate getting a divorce, blah blah blah….we’re surrounded by poverty, orphans, and an AIDS crisis people! No wonder Americans get a bad rap in other countries!

While waiting for our name to be called, Junie and I had some playtime. It was fun because she was trusting me more and starting to show a little of her personality. I put a blanket over Junie’s head and when I pulled it off, I received the biggest, most beautiful smile from her.

Our name was called and we went up a flight of stairs to a room with several windows. It was like a movie theater ticket window…you had to lean wayyyyy over to hear the questions they were asking through the little microphone, and even then I caught every 3rd word. The lady was very nice about it and was very patient. Everything was in order and we got her birth certificate and some other paperwork to take with us; that was it! We went downstairs where the rest of the group had taken to cheering when someone came back down. I wasn’t sure what the cheers were for; I realize now it was celebrating another step closer to being “official”, but at the time I thought, “Did they think I wouldn’t pass!? Do I look shady!? Do they think I’m on the border of unfit to parent!!!!????” Funny how your mind works in stressful situations…

That night, we had more time hanging out at the hotel and enjoying the other families and their new little kids. It was so great to be surrounded by such caring people who were going through the same experience.


The next day was a lazy day and the cultural dinner at night. More on that to come! Thanks for hanging with me!

Sorry for the hassle!

Hello all!

So sorry for the hold up in posting, as well as the hassle of being a private blog. I'll write more later about why...but basically it stemmed from comments left by unknown people. We're excited to be on our adoption journey, especially now that we're home with our Juniper and want to continue sharing!