2 weeks home

Home now for almost 2 weeks and lots of people have been asking how things are going so far.  We had our first post-placement home visit with our social worker and what I told her was that 95% of the time things are going great.  For the most part, Solomon is happy and loving life.  He gets along with his brother most of the time and has made some great progress as far as bonding and attachment.  We are not sure if we are still in the honeymoon phase, but overall things are much better than we anticipated.

The 5% that is a bit tougher usually revolves around food.  Mealtimes often involve lots of pouting, tears and at times complete shut-downs.  He likes Ethiopian food (which we have been buying from some Ethiopian friends in town), pizza, pancakes, and hamburgers.  Fruits and vegetables are a major struggle.  When he sees them on his plate, he almost immediately tears up.  With our 3 year old, he has been trained well and knows that he has to eat what is on his plate or he is not getting anything else.  With older adopted children, this is not advised - at least at first.  It has been suggested from those with experience in this area that we just let him eat whatever he wants for the time being.  If you think about it, he has had to adjust to A LOT of change over the last few years - most of which he has had no control over.  So . . . . it kills me that he won't eat really anything with great nutritional value, but we will just let it go for now. . . 

And here is a glimpse what we have been doing since Solomon has been home!!  We are loving our family of 4!

Snuggled up for movies on the couch.

Visiting the penguins at the Zoo.

Soccer lessons with Dad (not sure what Joseph is doing.)



LOVING the pool!



Solomon's sense of humor is the best. 
Everyday after Dad comes home from work he finds his tie and shirt
and puts it on and runs around the house laughing hysterically. 

Airport Homecoming

Words would not do these pictures justice, so please enjoy what has been so beautifully captured from our Airport Homecoming. 

Donna Harris Photography - Airport Homecoming

We feel blessed by the family and friends that were there to support us and welcome Solomon home.  Thank you!  We continue to praise God for the gift of this child!

Welcome Home Solomon!

After over 35 hours of travel, Solomon is home!!  He did incredibly well during the journey home.  Here are a few pictures from our week!

Saying Goodbye to his favorite nanny at the orphanage!

At the Farewell ceremony.



After passing Embassy!

I told you he was a Mizzou fan already.

Landed!!

Loving his first American Meal at the airport.

Excited to see his new room.

Donna Harris Photography

Our family of FOUR formed since the beginning of time by our Almighty Father!







Final days in Ethiopia

We are settling in for our last night here in Ethiopia.  This time tomorrow we will be on our way back to the US!  While we have had a great time here, we are ready to be home. 

Today we were able to get out of our Guest House for a bit and visited a park where the kids were able to run around for the morning.  We went to a nice restaurant in town for lunch which was our son's very first time to eat-out.  Apparently he liked it, because he ate more than anyone at the table. :) This afternoon we played more soccer (imagine that) with the other families at our Guest House.

Overall things are still going really well.  The language barrier hasn't been too bad yet.  Our son's English is limited, but still better than we expected.  He doesn't understand a whole lot of what we say, and speaks even less English.  What we have been most impressed, though, is that he can read English pretty well.  This is amazing to us considering Ethiopians have an entirely different alphabet.  He is able to sound out most words when given something age appropriate to read.  Of course, we know that he is not actually comprehending what he is reading, but this is still a very good start.

Our prayer as we journey home is that God would continue to strengthen the bonds that are forming within our new family.  We know there may be struggles ahead, but we also know that our God will be present to us through all of them. 

Next post will have some REAL pictures!!

Definitely our son

The more we spend with our son, the more obvious it is becoming to us that he has been put with our family for a reason.  Most importantly, please look at what he picked out of his suitcase of clothes to wear today!  Seriously - the child melted our heart.  I mean he had lots of options, but this is what he insisted on wearing. 

And it gets better - this afternoon when it warmed up he asked to change into the Mizzou jersey!  Oh. My. Goodness.  Can you imagine how proud we were as parents?  :)

You'll also see behind him that his bed was made nicely.  That's right he woke up and made his bed right away without us saying a thing. (Those of you who know Jack will understand how big of a deal this was to him.) And after changing his clothes he neatly folded up his pajamas and placed them on his bed.  Then he motioned that he was going to the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth.  Apparently the orphanage really had him trained well - let's hope this lasts longer than the honeymoon period. 

The rest of the day we spent playing soccer and games at the Guest House.  Tonight we are having a special Ethiopian meal of Doro Wat which he is very excited about.  Oh yeah - I guess I should mention that we went to the US Embassy today for our visa interview.  It was really uneventful.  The only exciting part was that our son thought the security machines and drinking fountains were pretty cool.

Just 2 more days here and we will be on our way back!  We can’t wait for you all to meet him.  (and to finally be able to post some good pictures!)

Answered Prayers

Just settling in at the Guest House after tucking our son in for the evening.  We had another amazing day.  The day started with a visit to the guardian who took care of our son before he was placed in the orphanage.  It was really a blessing to be able to meet this amazing woman and find out more about his history and birthfamily.  She works for one of the churches in Addis Ababa and helped arrange for our son to be sponsored by Compassion International before his time in the orphanage.  Their support as we found out was integral to where he is today.  (We will definitely be posting more about this sponsorship in the future.)  One of the best parts of being able to meet her is that she had a photo album that his family asked to be passed on - it is AMAZING - pictures of him as a baby and much more.  This is something that I am sure he will always treasure.  At the end of our meeting with her she told us that she had been praying for a Christian family to adopt him.  She wept as she told us that she was so happy to see her prayers were answered.

And the day just kept getting better - next we were reunited with our son!  When we arrived at the orphanage in the afternoon, he had the BIGGEST smile on his face.  Our SW told us that he had been asking frequently when we would be back to get him, and it was definitely evident that he was happy to see us.  We spent the afternoon saying goodbye to his friends and snapping lots of pictures for him to keep.  He had a book that we brought him that he went around and had everyone sign (hence the picture).  The most touching part was the farewell ceremony where the other children and caretakers stood up and told him their favorite memories of him and wishes for the future.  They all had beautiful things to say and it was certainly evident that he will be missed.

Today we definitely felt surrounded by all of your prayers.  I can't imagine the day going any better.  Please don't stop praying though, because this is just the beginning and while we are all so excited to be together as a family, there was so much lost today as well.  Our heart broke as our son had to say goodbye to the people that have been his family for the last 2 years.  And in a few days he will say goodbye for now to the country he was born in, his language, and all familiarity as he now knows it.  Nonetheless, your prayers are still needed.

Tomorrow is our day at the US Embassy and first full day to together as a family- will post more then.  From Ethiopia with love!!

GOAL!!!!!!

We're in Ethiopia!  After a long, but uneventful flight we touched down in Addis Ababa at 700am this morning.  We rested for the morning and then our in-country coordinator asked if we wanted to go to an Ethiopian soccer game.  Ummm.  YES!!!  Well, it just so happens that tonight the Ethiopian National team was playing in a World Cup Qualifier against Central African Republic.  This was a huge, huge game for Ethiopia.  We were ecstatic to get the opportunity to do this. 

After scalping tickets outside the stadium, we made it into a stadium that holds 30,000 people but probably had about 60,000 in it. (Not to mention that I think I was the only female there - definitely the only blonde female there.)  All I can say is the game was C.R.A.Z.Y.  I have never seen more dedicated fans.  I thought St. Louis had good Cardinals fans, but this was insane.  The Ethiopian team ended up winning 2-0 in an exciting game. Apparently this now gives them the most points in their group at the mid-point in the qualifying rounds.  The streets were mad after the game with celebrations everywhere - definitely an experience we won't forget. . .. 

Now for the important part - our son!!  We did not get to see him today as the orphanage does not allow visitors on Sundays, but we are eagerly awaiting tomorrow which is Gotcha Day.  This is the day we have been waiting for; our oldest son will finally join our family for good.  In the afternoon we will be going to his orphanage where they have a farewell ceremony planned for him.  He has been at the orphanage for 2 years so I am sure it will be emotional.  Please pray that he would immediately feel loved by us during this initial transition as he leaves one life and steps into another.

Embassy Clearance and On Our Way!!

Labor pains.  That's how I would describe the last few weeks.  On May 15th, our case was submitted to the US Embassy in Ethiopia and since that time we have been on pins and needles awaiting to be approved and given a date to travel.  We knew there was a good chance that we would be able to leave today so in order to secure tickets and avoid inflation of prices at the last minute we decided to go ahead and book tickets several weeks ago.  We waited beside our computers for 2 weeks to get an email from the Embassy that we could travel.  The last week we were sleepless as we stalked our emails throughout the night (Ethiopia is 8 hours ahead of us.)  FINALLY - on Wednesday at 515am we received an email that we had been approved for a June 12th embassy date!  That's right, 36 hours before our flight was to leave out of St. Louis, we got the official green light.  Whew! 

So - here we are - on our way to Ethiopia where we will become a family of four.  Fortunately, just like labor, on the other side of those labor pains is a gift from God.  We will be in Ethiopia in hours and are so excited to be embarking on the last leg of this journey.

We covet your prayers this week for our son and his transition and adjustment period.  We know that there will be struggles in the days ahead, however we know that our God is greater and has called us to this journey.  We know He will continue to walk with us. 

Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Phil 1: 5-6

Our plan is to update our blog throughout the week if internet access is reliable.  We leave Ethiopia on Thursday and are arriving to St. Louis on Friday evening.  There will be a welcome gathering at the airport so if you want to meet us then contact my mom or sister and they can give you the details.  We can't wait for everyone to meet our newest addition!