Flying Solo

Last week Pete was on a business trip and this week he has had to go to a training class all week. Even though he's technically not travelling, when he gets home at 10:30 pm and leaves at 6:30 am, he might as well be. So it's safe to say that the quality of meals in our house has definitely gone downhill the last two weeks. Last night were going to have Boboli pizzas. The kids almost always just want cheese so I hadn't bought any toppings. They were determined to have toppings and this is what they came up with. Yum! Needless to say we are looking forward to returning to our normal routine with dad working from home.

Orphanage

We are counting down the days until our first trip to Ethiopia! There are so many emotions that I won't even try to describe them all.

Our first trip is very short, we are actually only in Ethiopia for 51 hours! We land Sunday night and Monday we meet our daughter and spend the day with her. Then on Tuesday we go to court where, hopefully, the judge will say those magic words "she's yours!" Then Tuesday night we catch a red eye home. If all goes well then hopefully we will be returning about a month later for a seven day trip to process her visa and bring her home. For the second trip we will mostly be in Addis but we will also journey to the town where our daughter's orphanage is. Another family that we will be traveling with has some pictures of the orphanage on their blog.

New Friends

After we received our referral in June, I started networking to meet other families of adopted children in our area. So far I have met two wonderful families that live near us and I met up with the two moms and our younger children for coffee last week. We all have older biological children and have chosen to extend our families through Ethiopian adoption. The mom above holding the baby boy also adopted a three year old but he was running around when I took this picture ... right before my camera died :(

As the mom in the top picture said, her three year old daughter is at an age where she is starting to notice people who have skin like hers or hair similar to hers. I am so thankful to meet these families and to hopefully create friends for our daughter to grow up with. And how beautiful are those children!?

In the moment

When I was growing up my grandmother was a huge influence in my life. Even though she passed away six years ago, I often think of the advice and life lessons she taught me. One of those was to not just focus on the destination but to enjoy the journey. Right now it would be very easy to just focus on bringing our daughter home. But then I think of our boys and all of the wonderful things in our life right now and I am reminded to enjoy the journey. Earlier this summer Pete and I took the boys up to the lake where I went every summer growing up. My grandma lived up there during the summer in an RV with a great big deck with a view of the lake. My aunt and uncle now have that same spot and while we were at the lake my aunt had us over for lunch and I got this picture of the boys on the deck where I spent so many hours lake gazing growing up. It was so much fun to go back to the place of so many wonderful childhood memories and to create new traditions with my family. The boys were filthy and exhausted every night and keep talking about Lake Almanor and asking if we can go back next year. I hope we do!

In addition to our wonderful vacation we have a lot of other exciting things going on while we wait to travel including Nick's first day of first grade! He loves being a big first grader and he has a great teacher so we are looking forward to another fun school year.

Siblings

When I was pregnant with Noah, a friend who already had two kids told me that one of her favorite parts about being a parent was watching the relationship between her children grow. It took us awhile to get there but I can now say I completely agree with her. The boys are at an age where they can enjoy many of the same activities. Nick, who doesn't like to be alone, has someone to follow him around and play whatever games he thinks up. And Noah, well, he just absolutely adores his big brother (in case you can't tell from the picture above.) Noah wants to be doing whatever Nick is doing but he also hates to see Nick upset or in trouble. For example, yesterday both boys had a new toy, a small helicopter. Of course whatever toy is newest is the most exciting, special toy that a child can have. Well, somehow Nick flushed his down the toilet (don't ask because I couldn't even begin to explain how that happened!) He was devastated and carrying on, well, like a kid who flushed their favorite toy down the toilet. Noah saw how upset Nick was and handed Nick his helicopter and said "Here Nicky, you can have mine." From a three year old!

I am excited and a little anxious to see how the relationship between our daughter and her brothers develops. Noah says he is excited to be a big brother but once he experiences what that actually means, will he feel the same way? Will he want to hug her goodbye every morning like he does with Nick? And Nick, who is so great with my friends younger children, will he be the same with his little sister?

One thing I know for sure is that it was be an adjustment for all of us but I hope that over time all of the children develop a strong, loving sibling bond with each other. As a mother I can think of few things that would make me happier.

Have Tickets, Will Travel!

Two months from today we will be flying to Ethiopia to meet our daughter for the first time! We are only in Ethiopia for a little over two days for this first trip. Just long enough to meet our daughter and go to court where, hopefully, everything will be approved and she will legally become our daughter. If all goes well we will return about 4-6 weeks after that to process her visa and bring her home with us. We are SO thankful that Pete's parents have offered to watch the boys for us for both trips. It's a huge relief for us that they can come and help us out while we travel, twice!

On top of the excitement of having confirmed travel plans, today we got a wonderful surprise. One of the families that took pictures for us had also taken videos and sent us two videos today. It was such a wonderful gift to see her so well cared for. Now we just can't wait to see her and hold her ourselves. Soon...

Girl Clothes

Last week I bought clothes for our daughter for the first time. A few friends and family have generously given us some hand-me-downs of toddler girl clothing but I had not bought any myself. I guess it still didn't seem real. But then we found out about our court date and bought tickets for our first trip and well... it is starting to feel very real! So I went to Old Navy and I was walking around the store with the biggest grin on my face. Naturally I have bought girl clothes for friends and nieces before but this was different, and I loved it :)