Adopting from Ethiopia

To all of our Ethiopian adoption bloggers out there, go tell our friends Ryan and Robyn Maner "welcome to the adoption family!" They are using Gladney and have already done a big chunk of the application.

We love the Maner's and are excited to share this journey with them.

Project Play Room

We have been mad busy around here over the last two weeks. Our guest room is getting an overhaul and becoming playland. Don't worry grandparents, there is still a bed in there. However, it does have a few more lumps than the old one. All the kids, minus Addis, chipped in with the painting.



We wanted to do some sort of wall hanging that represented our love for Africa. I cut the shape out of MDF and with a little creativity it became a really cool project.
We used a projector to shine this verse from Psalms over the whole cut out, letting it bleed over the edges in some places.
We painted most of the letters with stain and polyurethane, and a few of the words are painted in red. The final result looks amazing.

No, we will not make one for you.
Yes, it is for sale.
No, the price is not reasonable.

Real Life Magazine

Our family was featured in our church magazine this month. There are several other families in our church that have now begun the process of adopting from Ethiopia, and we are hoping to see that number grow every month. That has been our prayer from the beginning, and it is exciting to see it begin to come to pass.

Here is the article from the magazine.

Real Life - Upload a Document to Scribd

Another picture

Surgery Day

Addis is having his "welcome to America" surgery this morning. Right
now he is pretty happy. I have a feeling he won't be so happy when he
wakes up!

Tagged

I have been tagged by my friends Robyn and Lisa.

1.I can't sleep at night if the sheets are not totally straight and even everywhere on the bed. I pretty much remake our bed every night before I get in.

2.One of my favorite thing in the world is Starbucks but I HATE coffee. I go for the hot chocolate about 3 times a week.

3.Since we just had this discussion in small group, I NEVER dress my husband or pick out his clothes. It is the opposite at our house. He picks a lot of my stuff out. He also decorates our house and sews just about anything.

4.I have the biggest fear of flying. My mom was a travel agent so I have flown a million times but just recently decided I will never get on a plane again!!!

5.I am slightly obsessive compulsive about things. Mainly how I fold clothes and put them away according to size and color in my kids closets. I usually take over an hour to fold about two or three loads of laundry. EVERY crease must be out.

6.I hate to read even though I really want to like it. I probably haven't read more than two books since I graduated from college and they were more skimmed than actually read.

7.I LOVE me some Ethiopian babies and I am convinced that everybody needs at least one!!!

I hope you enjoyed the random facts. O.K. so now I am tagging Marci, Courtney, Gretchen, Sara, Ashley, Shasta, Rebecca,

Devil's Den

We took the kids to Devil's Den State Park today to do a little hiking. We printed up a "Scavenger Hunt" checklist and gave one to each of the kids for them to find stuff on the hike.
After the hike, we had lunch by the river. The kids were dying to get in, so they took off their shoes and socks and waded out into the water for a while.



Yes, Sophie is in her panties in public. Her pants got wet, so she threw a fit on the bank of the river until we let her take them off. Trust me, she drew more attention to herself flailing on the bank than she did in her panties.


We spent the day with our friends, Ben and Carrie Butler and their three kids. They just adopted a cute little boy from Ethiopia as well. Here are best buds, Addis and Joby, fighting over crackers while their brothers and sisters played in the river.

Family Pictures

We had Family pictures taken last week with our friend Brian Armas of Armas Photography. He did a great job. Our new blog header is one of the pictures from the shoot!

Besides Sophie screaming her head off for most of the photo shoot, Addis eating leaves, and Easton smiling the cheesiest smiles ever seen, it was a success. At least Catherine is always cooperative.

Camping Trip

We have finally settled into life with four kids. I told Zach, this week was the first time I felt like I had some breathing room. Of course, there are still crazy days of driving kids all over the world and back, but we decided that we need to get used to that. I don't think it is going to slow down any time soon.

Sunday night, we decided to take the kids camping. I know, it sounds crazy, but it was only in the back yard and Addis wasn't invited. We had a monitor, so don't call SCAN on us. The kids were pumped up about camping, and they wanted to help with everything.


Zach made some ribbons to bring a little modesty to this blog post. Sorry, our kids prefer to be as unclothed as possible. The ribbons are for you Sara.

It was pretty hilarious in the tent. Each one of them had their funny moments, but Sophie definitely won the prize for funniest joke. In the silence, once we thought everyone had gone to sleep, Sophie whispered, "Passie tooted!"

Everyone was rolling laughing, including her. They finally went to sleep around 11.

All the kids had breakfast together in the tent the next morning. We will definitely do another camping trip soon, as it was a huge success.

AND... Before you go... One last funny picture of Sophie.

Flashback

Last week, cousin Mackenzie had her 5th birthday party at the skating rink. Everything was just as I remembered it. The flashing colored lights, the worn out skates, the wood paneling in the party room, the metal fence that guarded the "snack bar" from the nearby skaters... The crazy thing is, this wasn't the skating rink we grew up going to. I think every skating rink is built exactly the same.

Even the bathroom was in tip-top shape.
Actually, it felt like we were back in Ethiopia for a second.

Grammy and Poppa were swarmed by the kids. Here is a shot of poppa with all four.

Easton, Harrison, and Aiden skated around several times together. I say skated, but it was really more like ran. The wheels on their skates were tightened down so much that they were more like heavy shoes than roller skates.

Easton even joined in the race around the track. Besides the 8 year old that actually skated, he held his own out there.

Catherine got in on the skating action as well, broken arm and all. I am not sure that it was the wise thing to do, but she had a great time doing it!

Sophie only made it one lap around before she had enough.


Nine of the ten grandkids on Erin's side of the family...

Things have been pretty crazy around here lately. From collecting what seems like endless stool samples for Addis' lab work to potty training Sophie, it has been a bit stinky as well. Sophie is finally catching on after ruining the carpet in several rooms of the house. Being the stubborn one of the four, we knew that once she decided she was ready, she would do it. And, she has done it. Yea Sophie! She is even sleeping and napping in panties.

Catherine's Arm

So I guess, since there have been so many requests, we should tell what happened to Catherine. While she was visiting Lovey and Poppa during our trip to Ethiopia, she fell out of the hot tub and broke her arm. We, the parents of the year, didn't fill out any sort of medical release form before we left, so they had a hard time finding her a place to go. The first doc in Hot Springs said it didn't look broken, but after a trip to our friend Dr. Silvey and then to a specialist up here, it was confirmed to be broken.

Big thanks to Dr. Silvey for working her in and taking good care of her while we were gone. If you are looking for a good pediatrician in Northwest Arkansas, go give him a visit.

The specialist asked if we wanted a hard cast on it, in case she might take off the soft one. Erin said, "Oh no! She won't take it off." Well, that night she took it off. To her credit, she was having a sleep over with her brother and apparently he asked her if he could see what her arm looked like.

Easton yelled from the bedroom, "But I didn't tell her to take it off! I just wanted to see it." Clever son. Clever.

She is tougher than anyone else around here, so she is really doing well with the whole thing.

Off to School

When we were in Ethiopia, I told Catherine that Addis didn't like the bath. She said, "That's because he hasn't taken a bath with me yet daddy!" Well, it turns out, she was right. He loves to take a bath with his brother and sisters. Now that his fear of the bath is gone, he really is the best baby ever.

The twins had their first day of school yesterday. They were so excited and did not want us to hang around their classroom. Catherine told us bye 20 times before we actually left. We didn't get much out of them concerning their first day. They must have liked it, cause they went back without a fuss today.

And, the backpacks are required. Not our choice. Because every preschooler needs to learn what it feels like to carry your own body weight to school...

Home Again

We arrived home to a flood of people at the airport waiting to greet Baby Addis to Northwest Arkansas. We are so blessed to have such great friends and family, giving up their evening to wait around at an airport to welcome us home.

The kids LOVE their new brother. Sophie even likes him, surprisingly enough! I think Catherine has fed him every bottle since he got home. She is a great helper.





Addis has adjusted well to his new home. We joke that he got more adult attention at the Foster Care Center than he does at home. He still rarely cries and sleeps through the night every night. We are blessed to call him our son.

There is so much to write about and reflect on from our time in Ethiopia, and those posts will come soon. For now, jet lag is calling me to bed.

Final Update? Maybe...

We haven't updated in a while, because there hasn't been much to update everyone about. We shopped most of the day Saturday, so that wasn't overly thrilling. At least not for me.
Yesterday, (Sunday) we went to church at the International Evangelical Church. It is an English speaking congregation, and we enjoyed getting to worship with the people of Ethiopia. In the evening, we went to Dreamland. It is a restaurant/resort that overlooks a crater lake about an hour south of the city. As you can see from the pictures, it was beautiful.
We went back to the foster care center today and spent some time with the babies. When we went into Addis' old house, they took him away to the upstairs baby room. When we made it up there, the caregivers had made him some food and he was eating away. They then gave him formula with a little cup. Who knew an 8 month old could use a cup? They put him back in his bed so that we could take a picture, and he freaked out. I think he thought we were going to leave him there.
Tomorrow is our last day in the country, and we are more than ready to go home. It has been a great visit, but it is too long to be away from the other three kids. Our flight leaves at 10:15 tomorrow night. Hopefully, Addis will sleep the whole way home.
Since we have to check out by noon tomorrow, this will probably be our last post from Ethiopia. Thank you all for your prayers and support throughout this process. God has blessed us richly, and Yeabsera has more than lived up to his name, which means "the work of God the Father." NWA, we will see you soon!