Three days and counting ...

I work with the best people in the world! Today was my last full day of work before our travels begin and my co-workers threw me a surprise shower today! It was truly unexpected and so wonderful of them. There are only 13 of us in my office, but with everything Kali received today from just these people, she won't have to wear the same outfit twice this summer! Since we bought Dora for her bed, Dora was the theme of the day. Kali is going to come home from Ethiopia seeing Dora and Boots in her sleep!

In addition to the shower, I received numerous phone calls and emails from the great agents we work with sending lots of good wishes and congratulations. I am sure they all knew that I was desperately trying to get my desk clean before leaving for a month because I had very few work related emails. I was able to get very close to my goal of leaving a clean desk. Just an hour or two on Saturday and I can leave on Monday with a clean conscience.

Mary has confirmed for us that we are allowed 2 bags of luggage each and, yes, the humanitatian aid counts as luggage. Rather than trying to pack everything in 4 suitcases, we will use 2 suitcases for clothes, etc, and we bought a couple of 18x18x16 boxes from the UPS store to pack the humanitarian aid. We have right at 49 pounds of diapers, formula, wipes and candy (wonder if the candy counts as humanitarian aid) in each box! I did inquire about shipping this to Ethiopia ahead of time, but Mary said that shipping is not advisable (hmmm ... wonder how many people ask about shipping and how many times they have to answer this question ... maybe they should just go ahead and put it in the Ethiopia travel packet up front). We arrive in DC Monday night and our plan is to go straight to the Ethiopian Air counter to check the bags right away, even though our flight isn't until the next morning. After all, I believe the airlines allow you to check in 24 hours in advance now. If you can check in from your home computer before even getting to the airport, surely they will allow us to check in the night before so that we don't have to lug all that stuff to the DC hotel with us.

We can't believe that this is finally upon us! To borrow from another blog, it is now Ethiopia or bust!!

Gifts Anyone??

Does anyone have good gift ideas for the caregivers?? We are beginning the shopping sprees to get everything ready for the trip. We have the humanitarian aid (I think I read somewhere that this does not count as luggage, since it appears that we are limited to one piece of checked luggage each ... can anyone confirm that?) and have the beginnings of a list. It appears that only the babies are transferred to the foster home prior to our arrival, so I am assuming that Kali will remain in her orphanage until we get there. I am actually glad of that, as I think the fewer moves she has to upset her life, the better. Anyway, the point of that little side bit is that I don't think we will even be meeting the caregivers at the foster home ... maybe. Maybe we should just bring a whole bunch of things for everyone. How many people would that be exactly? What about those of you who have met Belay ... anything in particular that you can suggest as a gift for him? So many things to keep thinking about!

Since Kali is older and we don't have to pack all the normal baby things that take up so much room (I remember the days of traveling with the mongo size bag of diapers that takes up an entire half of a suitcase!!), I hope to have some extra room for extra gifts. We should be able to pack all of Rick's things in one suitcase and then mine and Kali's things in another (yes, Rick needs his own suitcase ... I know I'll hear from him about that one!). Another sideline ... Rick has washed and is folding the clothes we bought for her right now ... it's one of those "oh, look at this ... how cute ... can't wait to see it on her" moments. After a few more dozen washings, that feeling wears off and it just becomes more laundry!

Would love to hear from those of you who have been there with ideas! Anything in particular that they all seemed to like that we can take more of? I've already got Starbursts and Peanut Butter Cups on the list for Ryan and Abby (thanks for the hint, Mary)!

She's Ours!!!

Fantastic news!! Mary called and our adoption of Kali was approved by the Ethiopian courts! She is officially ours! And the shots weren't so bad either.

We received a very nice surprise yesterday with new pictures of Kali. We just can't believe how incredibly cute she is, and her eyes are the best! Between staring at her picture all day, the pain in my arms (we got our travel shots this morning), and the great news from Mary, I found it very difficult to concentrate at work today. Rick and I are both so anxious to get there.

We officially booked our flights on Ethiopian Air and decided on the Hilton in Addis. We will be leaving June 4th!! The Sheraton looks amazingly luxurious, but we just couldn't justify it. Too bad that we didn't have the Bottomly's luck of the Hilton being completely booked already ... woulda been nice!! But where we stay ultimately doesn't matter nearly as much as getting there and bringing our daughter home!

As for the shots today, we both opted for the Hep A, Typhoid, Yellow Fever, and the Tdap (tetanus, diptheria & pertussis ... yes, pertussis!) I went ahead and had the Hep B done two weeks ago by my own doc, thinking I would get whatever I could out of the way here in town, thereby avoiding TOO many shots at one time. The nurse just kept asking over and over again why I got that one ... was I planning on working around blood or bodily fluids? Don't know what was up with her, considering both Gladney and CDC recommend Hep B as well. After the nurse's reaction to my Hep B shot, Rick opted out. Anyway, for anyone who is curious on how much $ to plan for on the shots, these 4 cost $450 total for both of us. The Tdap was a little more than just the straight tetanus shot. The meningitis is over $100 per shot, just in case you're planning on getting that one too.

Something tells me that these next two weeks will be loooooooong .....

Out of the mouths of babes ...

Further to my comments about raising a toddler ...

Yesterday when I picked Carson up from daycare, he asked me if he had a Nana. I explained to him that "Nana" is just another name for Grandmother and that he indeed has 2 nanas, but he calls them Grandma and Meme. Then he asked me if I am a nana. Thankfully, I was able to tell him no, not yet, that neither Landree, Channing, nor Jordan were married or had children yet. Carson responds, "But I am married to you and Daddy", at which I could only chuckle and respond "If you say so". (We've been through this before, trying to explain what being married is, and he just won't accept that he isn't married to me and Daddy.) Then the sweetest, most heart-tugging question ... "When you become a nana, will I have to find a new Mommy?" I tried to assure him many times over that I would ALWAYS AND FOREVER be his mommy, even if I do become a nana. Then he started whimpering ... "I don't want you to be a nana, or Daddy to be a grandpa either." I really hated to tell him (this goes out to Lori & Ted, another Ethiopian blog) ... people already think we ARE a nana and a grandpa ... to him!! And I thought we still looked so young ...

The 3 Big Questions ... And Answers

Time to address a few more specific questions about our adoption decision ...

1) Why did we decide to adopt at all? For those of you who know us, you know our "yours, mine & ours" family. Landree and Channing are Rick's two from his first marriage, Jordan is mine, and Carson is ours. After raising Jordan as an only child and fielding his many questions about when he was going to have brothers and sisters, and then seeing how very close Landree and Channing are as sister and brother, we knew that we didn't want Carson to be an only child. With the huge age difference between him and the other three, for all practical purposes he would have been raised as an only child. I suppose we could have tried to have another of our own, but we decided to adopt for a few reasons ... the main reason came from watching Carson. He is such a smart, loving, confident child and we know that much of this comes from him knowing how much he is loved. It is such a tragedy that there are so many children in the world who don't have that feeling of being loved, and we wanted to give a child that same feeling that we hope all of our children have. That, and I didn't want to have to go through pregnancy at age 40+!!

2) Why did we choose a toddler? Carson was 3 years old when we decided to pursue adoption and we knew that he would be 4 or close to it by the time we had our new little girl. We wanted both children to be close in age, but not so close that they would be in the same grade in school. And we wanted Carson to be the older brother, keeping the birth order. So we asked for a little girl between the ages of 1 and 3. As time went on, we somehow just began preparing our lives for a child closer to 3 ... buying bunkbeds?? Maybe it had something to do with dealing with a 3 year old at the time? I know that bringing a toddler home will present a totally different set of issues than bringing home an infant ... midnight cries instead of midnight feedings, teaching English instead of just teaching to speak, etc. And we are prepared for all of that. I was communicating recently with another parent who adopted a toddler and she mentioned how her child is finally beginning to feel more comfortable exploring the house. This brought a smile to my face because I remember when Carson became mobile ... I distinctly remember when he too began to feel more comfortable going into other rooms by himself without Mommy or Daddy being in there with him. And then it occurred to me that many of the transition problems/fears that scared us to begin with are normal things that even biological children experience. Besides, there is something so enchanting about watching a toddler develop and grow. Babies are sweet and adorable, but toddlers ... every single day, it is something new and wonderful. If you have never watched a toddler discover something new for the first time and try to figure it out, you just don't know what you are missing. And then when they start to talk, they will say something you had no idea they knew and say it at the right time in the right context ...it will just blow you away! Toddlers are little people in the making and they are truly amazing to watch!

3) Why did we choose Ethiopia? This is the easiest one to answer. Because of our ages, we discovered that we could not adopt domestically and get the toddler age that we wanted. We chose Gladney before we chose the country, so that certainly narrowed down our list of possible countries from which to adopt. We knew that we didn't want to wait 2+ years (China) or have to make several trips (Eastern Europe). We briefly considered the Latin countries because of the Latin influence in Texas. We thought it would be much easier to keep our daughter's culture alive for her being in Texas. But ultimately, we decided on Ethiopia. I don't know that there was any one real reason why we chose Ethiopia, but since race was not an issue to either of us, it was certainly never out of the picture. My sister spent time in Africa in the Peace Corps, and her experience there also helped to influence our decision. Rick started looking up all kinds of information on Ethiopia after we made our decision, and it only reinforced our decision. Then Landree gave me the book There Is No Me Without You for my birthday last year, and I couldn't wait to get there. What a wonderful, historic, proud country! We couldn't be more excited that our Kali will have such a rich heritage! And all of the blogs that we have been reading ever since do nothing but make us anxious to meet these remarkable people!

Shots ... arghh!!

I keep telling myself that if my 4 year old can handle getting 5 shots at his 4 year check up, I can certainly handle them as well! I strongly suggest that you begin getting your shots as soon as you get your referral or know that your paperwork is in Ethiopia. I looked up the recommended shots on the CDC website (very informative, by the way), and they recommend getting your shots 4-6 weeks before traveling. But they also go on to say that you really are not fully immunized form Hepatitis-B until after your 3rd booster ... 7 months after getting the first one!

Living in our itty bitty town, we have to go to the Public Health Department in Fort Worth. Apparently, they stay pretty busy because when I called to make the appointment for Rick and I to get the shots, they couldn't get us in for 2 weeks. And according to the lady who made the appointment for us, she advised getting the shots at an absolute minimum of 2 weeks before we arrive in Ethiopia. After reviewing the immunization info provided by CDC, I understand why. They advise that you are fully protected from Hepatitis-A 30 days after inoculation, but that you have a good, high level of the antibodies after only 2 weeks.

As it turns out, our appointment date is the same as our court date, so we may be crying and smiling all at the same time!!

I cannot wait for Mary to return from Ethiopia. I really want to know if she was able to see Kali and give her the photo album and gift we sent for her.

Almost time for American Idol ... gotta run!

Happy Mother's Day!!

What a glorious day for Mother's Day!! Here in north central Texas, the sun is shining and the weather is probably in the low 70's ... perfect for breakfast on the patio! For all of the mothers who are in Ethiopia right now with your new children, I know this is the best Mother's Day present you will ever get! My own sweet boy, Carson, just couldn't wait to wake me up and show me the cool music-playing Batman card that he personally picked out for me! He was so proud! Last night, my other sweet boy, Jordan, and I spent the evening having dinner and seeing the Ft Worth Symphony's performance of Beethoven's 9th, one of my favorites. I saw the sparkle in his eyes when the chorus kicked in and I knew that he would have given anything to be up there on stage singing with them! I hope he is able to get back into a choir when he gets to St. Edwards in August. It has been a year now since he was part of any choir and I know he misses it dearly.

To all the mothers I know, have a perfect Mother's Day with your children and treasure them always!!