Dabo Kolo

Today, for the first time, we tried an Ethiopian recipe. Dabo Kolo is a crunchy, spicy snack that is popular in Ethiopia. They look something like peanuts, and they are served like peanuts: as a snack, between meals, with drinks, and are available from street vendors and small shops. We thought they were pretty darn good.

Here is the recipe if you want to try it out:

2 cups wheat flour
1 tablespoon berbere (can substitute cayenne pepper or red pepper)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water
4 tablespoons butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350 F. Combine dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Slowly add the water and mix as to form a thick paste. Remove from bowl and knead it on a lightly-floured surface to form a thick dough. Add the softened butter and knead for an additional five minutes. Let the dough rest in a cool place for 10 minutes. Divide the dough into handful-size pieces and roll these into long "pencils" not quite as thick as your small finger. Cut these rolls into pieces, each piece no longer than the width of your finger. Heat an ungreased skillet over medium heat. Place enough of the uncooked dabo kalo in the skillet to loosely cover the bottom. Cook over medium heat, stirring periodically, until they are lightly browned on all sides OR arrange on a baking sheet and bake for 20-30 minutes shaking the pan a few times to prevent sticking. (We preferred the oven baked method.)

Safari

We are only a few weeks from closing on our house in St. Louis . . . which means that soon I can start decorating our baby's room! We have decided that an African Safari theme would be fun and would also be gender-neutral since we don't know if we will have a boy or girl. It is also a theme that works for any age since we could get an infant or a toddler.

So far, we have a crib that will convert to a toddler bed and have picked up a few "safari" theme items. This giraffe seat/coatrack is my favorite! I put it together last week.

If anyone has good ideas for our African Safari room, then send them my way!

Whatever it takes. . .

Whatever it takes…

I’ve said that phrase so many times during this process. Whatever it takes to make this adoption happen, I’m willing to do. I truly mean that. If we have to travel two times to Ethiopia or ten times, we will do whatever it takes. As luck would have it, one of my favorite bands Pillar has a song on their new album titled, “Whatever it Takes.” As anyone who knows me would guess, I have made this my unofficial theme song for the adoption process (it’s not mushy enough for me to get Dana to make it our official song). I was listening to the words again today:

“Whatever it takes to get to you, whatever it takes to break through, whatever it takes you are my reason, for everything I do. Whatever it takes.”

I think it’s crazy to think that we love our future child so much that we would do anything for them-even though we have never seen or met him/her (or them). Then it hit me that God has that crazy type of love for us. Romans 5:8 says that “God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” God gave his only Son Jesus to die for my sins. Jesus paid the penalty for my sins on the cross thousands of years before I was even born! That is an amazing kind of love. As we continue to struggle through this process I’m trying to see the struggle as a small (very small) example of the kind of love God has for us and his relentless pursuit of us, His children.

Two trips to Ethiopia??!!

When we started the adoption process we were told that the only thing predictable about international adoption is that it is unpredictable. Well, that is certainly proving to be true.

This past week we learned that the Ethiopian courts are now requiring families to travel to Ethiopia - not once, but TWICE! We will now be required to attend the initial court date (which occurs after a referral) and then travel back to Ethiopia 6-8 weeks later for the Embassy date and to bring our child home. Apparently this is due to over 50 families (none from our agency) deciding, when they travel for their Embassy date, that they do not want their child. This is Ethiopia's effort to ensure that a family has met and seen the child before their Embassy date and therefore this will resolve some of these problems of families deciding at the last minute they do not want the child referred to them. (I can't imagine deciding that you don't want a child, but sadly it happens.)

While we are a bit stressed about the extra cost of airfare and time off work to do this, there are some positives. First - we will get to see our child sooner!! (But I imagine leaving them after that visit will also be very hard.) In addition, our child will be eligible for an IR-3 visa since we will be at the first court date which will make them a U.S. citizen immediately upon arrival in the United States.

Although we definitely weren't expecting this huge change, we are comforted in the fact that God has had this planned all along. :)

Back from Honduras

After spending the last 10 days in Honduras on a medical mission trip we are back and feeling spirit-filled and refreshed. It was on the mission field that we first seriously considered adoption, so this trip was extra special for us. We had a great time and it was awesome to see God at work in so many ways. We saw over 1200 patients in clinic and the surgery team performed over 30 surgeries. We thank God for all that He provided over the week. To see a short slide show/video from the trip, click here.

And of course I have to show off what we brought back for our little one. We just couldn't pass up these souvenirs. We thought this would be a good start to our multicultural doll collection.

Dossier to Ethiopia

We received word from our social worker today that our dossier was sent to Ethiopia on March 5! What great news! Once it has arrived in Ethiopia, it will be translated and sent to MOWA and the various orphanages that our agency works with to await a referral. Gauging from last month's update from our agency, it appears that we are 60 something on the waiting list. Recent families have had a 6-10 month wait so we are hoping to have good news in 2010! It is cool to think that somewhere in Ethiopia there is a child that is meant for us.

Why Ethiopia?

This is my first blog entry...thanks to Dana for all her hard work so far on this. I wanted to just put in a little bit on why we chose Ethiopia. As we talked about before, Dana and I have always had a heart for international adoption but never had in mind a specific country. Our heart for international adoption came from our work on several international short-term medical mission trips. During these trips we came to realize just how many orphans there are abroad that need a loving family. We chose Bethany Christian Services as our adoption agency because of their good reputation. When we started the process through Bethany there were multiple options with respect to country which included Bulgaria, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Hong Kong, Lithuania, Philippines, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, and the Ukraine.

Different countries have different requirements to qualify for adoption. This has nothing to do with our adoption agency, these are strictly country-specific requirements. Some require the parents to be a certain age, some require the marriage to be of a certain length. All the countries require travel to that country, however, some require a prolonged stay (up to 4-6 weeks) or multiple trips. With the work schedule Dana and I have, a prolonged stay or multiple trips would not be possible for us, so God closed the door on those particular countries. Some we did not meet the age or marriage length requirements. After reviewing the requirements of each country and after careful consideration and prayer we decided that Ethiopia was the country God wanted us to adopt from.

In Ethiopia there are over 6 million orphans. Many are orphans because their parents have died of HIV/AIDS, and many have been given to the orphanages by family members because they were unable to financially provide for the child. Some of the older children were brought to the orphanage by police or a social service agency because they have no home and live in the streets. The need is overwhelming but we are excited to take a child/children without a family and show them the love of Christ!

Ethiopia in the 2010 Winter Olympics

Last night we attended a Winter Olympics party hosted by our friends Jana and Jonathan Hill. Everyone dressed up to represent their favorite country, then we watched the opening ceremonies together, and later played Wii Winter Olympics (Jack, by the way is very good at Wii curling.)

Of course, we represented Ethiopia! Now you may be wondering if there are any Ethiopians in the Winter Olympics . . . and yes, there is a sole representative of the country named Robel Teklemariam, a cross-country skier. How does he practice in Ethiopia you may be wondering? Good question - he roller skies down suburban Addis Ababa streets. Check out the link to find out more about Robel.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?slug=reu-ethiopia_sports_feature_tv_pix&prov=reuters&type=lgns

Go Robel and Go Ethiopia!!

More on the adoption process

We have had lots of questions about our adoption process so we thought a FAQ post was in order.

What does the homestudy entail?

We actually thought the homestudy process was a lot of fun. We had a list of about 30 questions that we each had to answer about our past, our family, our relationship, and our thoughts about parenting. We were then assigned a social worker who met with us at our home on 4 seperate occassions. Her job was to make sure we were fit to be parents. During the sessions we went through the questions that we had prepared, she inspected our house, and we talked about what it would be like to be parents through adoption. After the meetings, she compiled a document known as our "homestudy" that detailed our complete history and ability to be parents.

What is a dossier? (pronounced “doss-e-A”)

A dossier is a collection of papers containing very detailed information about someone. Most countries open to international adoption require prospective adoptive parents to compile a dossier. Compiling a dossier involves gathering documents, having these documents notarized, and then adding various seals from your county, your state, and the U.S. government. NO stone is left uncovered in a dossier. It is really pretty amazing. Our dossier included information about us, our parents, and our siblings, our plans for raising a child, bank statements, pictures of our house, multiple sets of fingerprints, our homestudy, letters from our doctors, employers, and friends, and the list goes on. It took us 4 months to compile our dossier!!

What comes next?
We have completed and sent off our dossier, and now we are waiting for a referral. We have a preference for a child (male or female) 0-2 years or siblings 0-3 years. We expect to receive our referral in the next 10-14 months. Receiving our referral means finding out which specific child God has picked out for us. At that time we also receive a history of the child and a picture. After we accept the referral it will be 2-4 additional months before travel to Ethiopia and the adoption is finalized!

Kisses in the Wind

Jack found this and sent it to me - love it!

KISSES IN THE WIND (The Waiting Child's Lullabye)

I hold you in my heart and touch you in my dreams.
You are here each day with me, at least that's how it seems.

I know you wonder where we are... what's taking us so long.
But remember child, I love you so and God will keep you strong.

Now go outside and feel the breeze and let it touch your skin...
Because tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.

May God hold you in His hand until I can be with you.
I promise you, my darling, I'm doing all that I can do.

Very soon, you'll have a family for real, not just pretend.
But for tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.

May God wrap you in His arms and hold you very tight.
And let the angels bring the kisses that I send to you each night.

Genesis

It may be a surprise to many of you that we have decided to pursue adoption - and it may be an even bigger surprise to find out we have been working on this for so long!

In May of 2009, after attending a presentation by The James Fund on adoption, we could really feel the Lord tugging on our hearts. We had always considered adoption, but after that presentation the words of Matthew 18:5 really rang true. We began praying about adoption and 8 months later here we are - officially waiting!

Although that makes our journey to this point perhaps seem easy, it has been far from that. The applications, reference letters, multiple sets of fingerprints, home visits, trainings, required readings, dossier and much more have been exhausting. Knowing the end product, however, kept us going.

We are so excited to see what the Lord has in store for us and invite you to join us on our journey to find our baby in Ethiopia!