One week home

Joseph has been home now for a week and things are going very well. It is amazing how resilient the little guy is after all that he has been through. He seems to be bonding with "momma" and "ababa" and getting used to the new routine. We have been amazed at the English he is already picking up. So far he can say doggy, momma, cat, bye, and monkey. We've also picked up a handful of words in Amharic that he uses often which has been helpful in communicating with him. We've had a blast this week with the warm weather visiting parks and playing outside.

We've discovered this list of likes/dislikes over the last week:

LIKES: "Makenas" (Amharic for cars), eating, baths, reading books, anything that lights up or makes noises (basically anything with batteries), eating, dogs, looking at himself in the mirror, swinging, slides, and did I mention eating?

DISLIKES: vegetables, waiting for mommy to make his meals (he wants it the moment he sees it), any food that is cold, dirty hands

We feel so blessed to have this amazing child as part of our lives!!

For those of you who would like to see more photos of our welcome home celebration at the airport, visit this link.(username: Joseph G password: 11046). My friends Ashley and Lana photo-documented the big event for us. This is something I will forever treasure!! Lana owns Art & Soul Photography which I would highly recommend checking out if you are looking for a photographer for any occasion.

Our friends Stephanie and James, who are also in the process of adopting from Ethiopia were also at the celebration and took video of the event. The video can be viewed here.

Finally!!

Well, after over 19 hours on a plane . . .



And 3 airports later. . .



We touched down in St. Louis . . .



And Joseph is finally home!



Daddy was so happy to see him. . .



And so was grandma and grandpa. . .





Now we are at home adjusting to life as a family of three - and it has been great! Praise God from whom all blessings flow.



I promise more pictures in the near future. :)

Almost time to come home...

Things are still going really well here in Ethiopia. On Monday, we attended the farewell ceremony at Joseph’s orphanage which was very cute. All of the children that were going home with their parents were wearing traditional Ethiopian outfits and they all sang a song and then cut a cake together. They gave Joseph this knife that was about a foot long to cut the cake with, which was interesting. He knew exactly what to do, though. It was really cute. Yesterday we had our interviews at the Embassy and things went well there also. They will have our visa ready to pick up tomorrow and then we will be flying out tomorrow evening.

So far, being a mommy has been going well too. I made it through the first meal, bath, nap, bedtime, and very large BM without any problems. Joseph is such a sweet, sweet boy. For the most part he is very laid back, especially around strangers. He has certainly warmed up to grandma and I, though, and we have seen lots of laughs and giggles. We have also been chatting via google video chat with Jack too and Joseph loves seeing him. He points to his face on the screen and waves and says, “Abba” which means daddy. I can’t wait to get him home so daddy can hold him!

Super Sunday in Ethiopia

Sunday was another great day in Ethiopia! We attended a church service in the city and then in the afternoon we visited Mount Entoto (10,000 feet high!) as well as a museum. I have been trying to take in as much of the Ethiopian culture as I can so I can share it with Joseph as he grows older.

I wanted to also post some more pictures of the trip to Hosana we took on Saturday. These are pictures of the landscape on the way there as well as one of the thatch huts. We actually just pulled over to the side of the road and asked this family if we could see the inside of their home. They were more than happy to show us around. The pictures show the inside of the hut with a fire burning, a kitchen area, and a bed all in the same room! The hut next door housed 6 cows and chickens. What an experience. I was excited to get these pictures as Joseph was born in the same kind of home!

Today is day number one of being a full-time mommy! This afternoon, Joseph’s orphanage will have a farewell ceremony and then he will stay at the orphanage with us the rest of the trip. I am so excited!

Meeting Joseph's Birth Mother

Today was a day that will be etched in my memory forever. This morning we woke up early to travel 3 hours south of the capital to a town called Hosana. Hosana is the location of the orphanage where Joseph was first brought to and where our agency arranged a meeting with Joseph’s birth mother. The drive there was absolutely breathtaking – the scenery was amazing.

We learned that Joseph’s birthmother was from an area south of Hosana, and in order to get to Hosana to meet us she had to walk 3 hours just to get to the road and then take another 1 hour bus ride. Wow! Needless to say, I was very nervous about this much anticipated meeting. I knew that I wanted to reassure her that we would love Joseph with all of our hearts, but I also wanted to get as much information as possible about her and her family to be able to share with him when he is older.

She walked into the room at the orphanage and I was immediately in awe of her beauty. It was amazing how much she and Joseph look alike! We immediately embraced with a long and emotional hug. I then showed her pictures of Jack and I as well as our parents and nieces. She really liked seeing the family. Next I gave her a book of pictures of Joseph that I had put together for her to keep. She opened up to the first page and immediately kissed his picture with tears rolling down her face. It was so obvious how much she loves him. I was able to ask her questions about where he was born, his family, the meaning behind his name, as well as what she wanted Joseph to remember about her. It will be so special to be able to share these memories with Joseph one day.

After asking her questions, she had a few things to ask me and then I read a touching letter that Jack had written her since he couldn’t be there. Last, she told me how important it was for Joseph to be raised in a Christian home. We both cried together as I promised her that Joseph would be raised in a family who loves the Lord. I told her that if we and Joseph weren’t able to see her again on this Earth, that we would certainly be reunited again in heaven. Before leaving I prayed for her and her family and then we embraced again before saying goodbye.

We Made It!

Today we arrived in Ethiopia around 800am after our 12 hour flight from DC. We flew on Ethiopian airlines new Boeing 777 which was very nice. Our flight was uneventful. . . . well except for the fact that they paged for "any medical professional that may be on board to report to the front of the plane" about 2 hours into the flight. Lucky me, I was the only one on board. This will make for interesting conversation in the future, but for now we have more important things to talk about!

After checking into our guest house and having lunch, we went to Joseph's orphanage to see him. It was SO wonderful to be re-united with him again. We spent about 3 hours one-on-one with him which was nice as I think this will help to ease him into things. He was very apprehensive at first, but eventually was warmed up and cracked several smiles. We also saw our first tears today which I think is due to the fact that he is a bit under the weather. The orphanage doctor started him on Augmentin several days okay, so hopefully it will kick in by the time we bring him home. He also got a haircut since we saw him last - it is certainly cute, but I think I am going to let it grow again. :) Tomorrow we will go back to spend more time with him before heading out to visit his birth family this weekend.

Please continue to pray over the next week for Joseph's health as well as for his transition to his forever family.

On our way!!

I can't believe this day has finally arrived. I have been looking forward to this trip for almost two years now and it almost feels surreal that it is happening. Today we will leave from DC to Ethiopia. We will reunite with Joseph and spend time with him at his orphanage on Friday, and then on Saturday and Sunday we will travel to the town where Joseph was born and will have a chance to meet with his birthmother. On Monday we will be briefed for the embassy appointment, Tuesday attend our Embassy appt, and then pick up our visa and head home on Thursday arriving back in the US on Friday afternoon. I plan to try to blog while there about all of these exciting adventures!

We are so excited for all of you to meet Joseph. He has no idea how many people back here already love him so much and are so eager to meet him. When we return home from Ethiopia, however, you may think that we have fallen off the face of the Earth, disappeared, disowned all of our family and friends, decided to move back to Ethiopia, or that we just plain don't like you anymore! Please don't be offended - we promise none of these are true! We will be on "lockdown" mode for several weeks. While we do look forward to introducing Joseph to all of our friends and family. . . we first need to introduce him to...well...us! It will be important for us to spend several weeks together as a family while Joseph gets acquainted with us and as we form the relationship of Daddy and Mommy with him. We really want to show off our Ethiopain prince, but we know this is a necessary step to help with Joseph's adjustment and attachment. We know that the new environment, new language, new food, new family, new everything will likely be overwhelming so we know we will have to take things slow so we don't overwhelm him.

We do, however, want to invite any of our family and friends who might be off for the afternoon of the 11th to join us at the airport for a meet and greet!! This will be your big chance before our several week lockdown to catch a glimpse of our little man. Jack plans to keep everyone updated on the time and place. So please contact him if you want to come!!

We beat the snow!

Wow - the past several days have been a whirlwind. Yesterday we decided to hop on a plane at the last minute to DC to "get out while we could." Considering a storm of historic proportions is expected we knew we had to leave quick. I was not letting a BLIZZARD WARNING keep me from Joseph. After de-icing the plane we were off, and made it safely to DC last night. We are camping out at a hotel today and will board a flight for Addis Ababa tomorrow morning at 1100am. We did receive confirmation of our February 8th Embassy appointment this morning which was also a relief!

Thanks for all of your prayers and please everyone back home be safe in the snow!!