Celebrating Gotcha Day!

This weekend we celebrated Joseph's Gotcha Day. The Gotcha Day is a day celebrated by many adoptive families to commemorate the day that the adoptive child was placed into the family's home for adoption, in other words, the day the family Gotcha. One year ago Joseph and I stepped off the plane and were reunited with Jack, and our life as a family of three began. We have been blessed in so many ways by our sweet Joseph over the last year, and he has changed so much. It is hard to believe that this shy and reserved boy who would barely make eye contact with us would turn into the spunky, outgoing, and talkative little man that he is today.



To celebrate Gotcha Day we took Joseph along with some friends who were in town out to one of the Ethiopian restaurants for lunch. We also gave him a handmade Ethiopian doll that we bought last year while in Ethiopia. He doesn't know yet, but we bought enough gifts while in Ethiopia so he will have one unique gift from Ethiopia each year on Gotcha Day until age 18. (We also bought him a wedding gift in Ethiopia that we will be able to give him and his wife one day.)



Joseph - we are so proud of how far you have come and the hurdles that you have jumped in the last year! We love you so much, son. Happy Adoption Day!

It's a Boy!

We are so excited to announce that last week our agency matched us with the sweet 8 year old that we had been praying for and eluded to in our last post. We are SO excited and feel so blessed that we will be able to call this child our son. Joseph is very excited, too, about his big brother.

We waited for six long weeks for one last document, the I171H, to come in before our agency could officially match us. We received word from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service on January 23rd that we had been approved and immediately let our agency know. Just a few hours later we received word that we were officially matched!

We let Joseph call our family and tell them the great news - it was so cute to hear him tell them that he was going to have a big brother. We already have lots of pictures of him, too, so it was fun to be able to show him off to the family.

While I can't share a lot of details or any pictures online - I am happy to show him off to you in person. It is crazy, but we think he looks a lot like Joseph. He has big, brown eyes and a sweet smile. We know that he is in school and learning some English, loves to play soccer, and apparently likes to take care of some of the younger children at the orphanage. Perfect since he will have a little brother!

And to make things even more fun, my sister announced that she was pregnant on the same day that we found out! I am so excited that the two of us are getting to share this journey together! Yeah Mandy!

Many of you probably want to know when he will be joining our family - unfortunately it will probably be at least 6 months until he is home. More on the process to get him home in posts to come, but in the meantime thanks for your prayers for our expanding family!

I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. 1 Samuel 1:27

Waiting Children

Several months ago I blogged about the changing trends in International Adoption and the great need for adoption of older children and children with special needs. Since that time, Jack and I have been praying about how God would have our second adoption unfold. We have also been praying over the children on our agency's Waiting Children list.

What is this "List" you may be asking? Well, most adoption agencies have a list of children who are harder to find families for due to various reasons. Some of them due to medical conditions, but most for the simple fact that they are older children. Many of the children are between the ages of 4 and 12. Many of them are harder to place JUST because they are older. Some of these children have been in the orphanage waiting to be chosen by a family for years.

Adopting a child from the Waiting Children List is different from most infant international adoptions. For those who wish to adopt an infant, there is often a 1-2 year wait for an infant to be available for adoption. I know this sounds strange considering the estimates that there are millions of orphans in the world. But due to government restrictions and lack of documentation of a child's orphan status, few of them are actually eligible for adoption. Of the children eligible for adoption, many of them are older children or children with special needs. However, most people who are willing to adopt are often only interested in healthy infants, hence many older and special needs children are left waiting.

(I will reiterate as I did in a previous post that this entry is not meant to dissuade anyone from infant adoption. We waited for a 0-2 year old with our first adoption and felt as though that was what we were called to do at that time. As Christians, we are called to adopt and God loves adoption of any kind!)

But this adoption has been different for us. As we prayed over our agency's waiting child list over the past 4 months, we felt as though God had laid a particular child on our hearts. We weren't allowed to be matched with this child until there was some final paperwork that came in. That piece of paperwork, called the I171H, granted permission from our government to adopt an orphan from Ethiopia. After stalking our mailbox for 6 weeks, it finally arrived in the mail last Monday! That same day we asked our agency to officially consider us to be matched with the sweet child we had been praying for on the list.

Stay tuned for more on how this story unfolds. . . .

Melkam Genna!

Melkam Genna means "Merry Christmas" in Amharic - and today is Genna, the day that Ethiopians celebrate the birth of Christ. We were excited to celebrate today with Joseph and decided to treat him to Ethiopian cuisine at one of the local Ethiopian restaurants. We even let him get dressed up in traditional Ethiopian attire.



Of course, this year we were excited to introduce Joseph to some of the American traditions surrounding the celebration of Christ's birth as well. He thought our Santa tradition was pretty fun and enjoyed some fun gifts as well.



He thinks the fact that one of the Wise Men may have come from Ethiopia is pretty cool. We attended a Birthday Party for Jesus in St. Louis and he was able to dress up as the Wise Man bearing frankincense.




And, as you can see behind Joseph, we had 4 stockings hanging this Christmas. The last one we are hoping will be for Joseph's older brother. We have no new news at this time and are still waiting on some paperwork, but hope that we can be matched within the next month or two. We will keep you updated.



Happy Birthday Jesus! Melkam Genna and Merry Christmas!

Inked again

Today we journeyed downtown to have our fingerprints taken in order to obtain approval to adopt from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. This was the SIXTH time that we have had our fingerprints taken since we started the process with Joseph. (Last I checked fingerprints don't change?) Nevertheless, as we have said before - we will do whatever it takes.

Next up, awaiting formal USCIS approval, getting our dossier state sealed, authenticated in Wash DC, and then sent off to Ethiopia. We are getting there.

Blessed

This past week marked one year since we were approved by the Ethiopian court system to adopt Joseph. We had no idea one year ago how much of a blessing that this would be for us. Thank you God for all of these blessings.

Jack put this special tribute together about our adoption process. Hope you enjoy it!

He's getting big!

Joseph had a well child check yesterday and I just had to post his growth chart. It is amazing to see the progress he has made since coming home just over 9 months ago. As you can see he was well below the 5th percentile for weight when he first arrived and now he is up to the 25th percentile! His height has jumped up as well. When he arrived home he had an infection called Giardia in his intestines which probably contributed to his inability to absorb a lot of nutrients. It is awesome, though, to see what good nutrition, treatment of Giardia, and a little TLC can do! Hopefully this will encourage some of my friends who are in the adoption process currently. :)

Homestudy complete!

We feel like we are finally making some progress on our second adoption, as we recently received approval for our homestudy. The next step is to submit the homestudy to US immigration services to get approval to adopt internationally. Once this is complete we will be able to submit all of our paperwork (the dossier) to Ethiopia.

Something that we haven't shared with everyone, yet, is the fact that our homestudy has been approved to adopt a child 4 through 9 years of age! We have prayed fervently over the last few months about this and feel led to proceed in this direction. We know that there will be plenty of challenges that will come along with adopting an older child and adopting out of birth order, but we also know that there will be many blessings.

We look forward to sharing more about this unique journey back to Ethiopia in the days to come. . .

DJ Lance in the House

Happy Halloween from DJ Lance!

The Changing Face of International Adoption

This week I read an article about the changing trends in international adoption. Jack and I have been praying about our next adoption and what path God would lead us on, so I was certainly struck by what I read. The article talked about how the faces of international adoption are changing - from faces of babies to faces of older children. Faces of boys, not girls. And faces with special needs including underlying medical conditions.

It is becoming easier, in many countries that allow international adoption, to find an international family to adopt a healthy baby. In addition, the article stated that the growing economies and better social acceptance for domestic adoption in foreign countries has lead to more children being able to stay in their home country. Praise God for this!! With these and other changes and trends in adoption, however, many children with special needs and older children have been left waiting in line to be adopted.

Anecdotally, this seems to be the case with our agency as well. There is a waiting list of Americans who are waiting for a young, healthy 0-2 year old child to be available for adoption, while older children, some with special needs have been sitting in orphanages waiting for months, sometimes years for a family to adopt them.

Please don't get me wrong here. I am not insinuating that it is wrong to adopt a younger or healthy child (we did just last year), but as we have asked God to allow His will to be done in our lives, our hearts have been opened to possibly something different with this adoption.

Would you take a second to pray for all of God's children who are waiting for their forever families? In particular, would you pray that God would continue to reveal His perfect plan to our family?

Summer of Fun

Summer of 2011 has treated us well - we are so sad it has come to an end. Here is a taste of some of the fun that we had!

We started the summer with a fun Kentucky Derby Party - my date was the best!



Several trips to the Lake!




Exploring the trains at the Museum of Transportation.



Learning how to play golf.



Lots of swimming.



A trip to the most magical place on Earth . . .




And most importantly - our first MU Football game!!

A Hairy Situation

One thing that has certainly been new for us on this journey is Ethiopian hair! It is quite obvious that Joseph's hair is very different than both Jack and I, and with that difference it has required very different care. After 6 months we have finally felt like we have the hang of how to keep his hair looking good. This requires infrequent shampooing (compared to our own hair anyway), and a great morning routine with wetting the hair and applying lots of leave-in conditioner (we have grown to love Cantu Shea butter leave in conditioner). Other than having to chase him around the bathroom every morning to do this, things have gone great . . . that is until we decided that he needed a HAIRCUT!!

We had been putting it off for months as we were nervous about him sitting still to have it done. But finally last week I could take it no longer and we made our way into a salon in Lafayette Square which was recommended to us by friends who have children from Ethiopia. This is what he looked like before going into the salon.



Unfortunately, I wish I could post an after picture, but . . . well . . . the haircut didn't happen. After 20 minutes of screaming, bribes, and lots of tears, we couldn't even get him to sit in the chair - not even on my lap. Ughhhhh.

So, I decided to take matters into my own hands and this is what happened next. Am I crazy or what? I know nothing about cutting hair - especially Ethiopian hair!!




And here is the final product! Not too bad for a white girl, huh?

Referralversary

Today is our 1 year referralversary. One year ago today we got the call that would change our lives forever. I get goosebumps thinking back to that day. To read more about it click here. It is amazing to think back on how God has blessed us this past year. Here are 2 of the pictures that we received of Joseph 1 year ago - the very first pictures we saw of him!




And here he is now 1 year later!!

Talking it up

One of the things that we have been very pleasantly surprised about with Joseph is how quickly he has caught on to the English language. When he came home with us at 21 months English was the third language that he had been exposed to. His birthmother spoke one language, then Amharic was spoken at the orphanage, and now English! We assumed that he would be delayed for the first year or so with language development. To our surprise, he has caught up very fast. In fact, he seems to be right on target with others his age. Joseph's doctor who is a specialist in international adoption actually told us that at his age the kids are usually caught up within about 6 months of being home. This seems quite incredible to me considering I took years of a foreign language and still couldn't carry on any sort of conversation in it. :)

As you can see in the video, flashcards have been a part of our routine at home. As an "independent" 2 year old, though, he now feels that he needs to quiz us on the flashcards instead of the reverse.

Child Sponsorship

With millions of vulnerable children throughout the world, there are far more than can be taken into families seeking adoption, and far more than all of the orphanages in the world could hold. This is why child sponsorship programs are so important. Child sponsorship programs provide children with food, education, sometimes medical care, and support. I'm sure you have heard of some of the well known sponsorship programs including Compassion International, World Vision, and Holt International.

One of the best parts of our trip to Ethiopia in February was that we had the chance to meet the child that we sponsor through a program called Yezelalem Minch. YM is not only a child sponsorship program, but does much more to help those in need in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (which you can read more about here). I don't think I ever realized the magnitude of the effect that child sponsorship programs have in countries in need until this visit. It was awesome to meet this beautiful young girl and hear a bit about her life. She was so excited to get the backpack and school supplies that we brought for her. My mom also chose a sponsored child while we were there and she got to visit with him.

Many people are not able to be foreign missionaries or adopt a child, but it IS very easy for anyone to sponsor a child! Many of the child sponsorships start at just $30 per month. Would you pray about whether God is calling you to sponsor a child in need?

Here we go again!

You may be wondering what Joseph is so happy about in this picture and what all of those papers are in front of him . . . well . . . Joseph is excited because he is going to be a big brother - and all of those papers in front of him are the first steps in making that happen!! That's right, we've decided to start the adoption process again. We have always thought we would adopt again, and after praying about the situation we have decided to get things moving. We are using the same agency and adopting from Ethiopia but other than that have not made many decisions yet, as this will need more prayer. As you can see from the timeline on the right this is not a quick process so we anticipate that it will be at least 12-24 months before we get a referral. We appreciate all of your prayers along our journey to #2!!!

Orphanage memories

Last month we had the opportunity to visit some of Joseph's friends from the orphanage. They live in Michigan so we decided to meet up in Chicago. Our friends actually adopted sibling girls, one who shared a room with Joseph in Ethiopia. It was exciting for us to see them and catch up and Joseph had fun reuniting with the girls too. We hope that we can make this an at least once a year trip so they will be able to keep in touch. The pictures above are from our reunion in Chicago. Below are some pictures from the orphanage including Joseph's bed and one of his nannies that he was fond of.

Dedicated to Christ

May 29th was a special day for our little man as we had lots to celebrate that day. Not only were the Galbraiths in town to celebrate Joseph's 2nd birthday, but we also had Joseph's dedication at church. For those who are not familiar with a Baby Dedication, this was a time for us to celebrate God's gift of a child to us and also a chance to publicly pledge ourselves as parents to raising Joseph as a follower of Christ. Our friend and pastor at The Rooftop Community Church, Matt, led the ceremony which was very special for us. We were certainly excited to introduce Joseph to our church community and had a great time celebrating afterwards! Here are a few pictures from church and Joseph loving on his grandma afterwards, courtesy of my friend Lana who is the owner of Art and Soul Photography.

Mother's Weekend

Celebrating my first Mother's Day was fabulous! The weather was beautiful and I was able to spend the day outside with my family. Joseph even surprised me with flowers that he picked out himself! It is so awesome being a momma.

Something about this weekend, though, that many people don't know is that the day before the traditional "Mother's Day" is a day called "Birthmother's Day." This year we celebrated Birthmother's Day in a special way. We framed a picture of Joseph's birthmother and I from Ethiopia and put it in Joseph's room. We had been debating for a while about when we would show him this picture. Originally, we thought about waiting until he was older to show him, but recently we thought, "Why not now?" I think putting the picture in his room when he first arrived home would have been confusing, but he certainly has formed a strong bond with the two of us now. Plus, I wanted him to see the picture now while he still could remember her.

So we did it! When we showed him the picture, he immediately pointed to me in the picture, and said "Momma!" I then pointed to his birthmother and said, "This is your birthmother," and then back to me, "and this is momma." I do think he remembered her, but just wasn't quite sure what to think since it has been 9 months since he has seen her. We now have the picture sitting on his dresser in his room.

It was awesome to be able to honor Joseph's birthmother by doing this. She is such a strong and amazing woman and it is so important for Joseph to grow up knowing that. This Mother's Weekend I thank God for Joseph's birthmother and for the amazing gift that she and our Heavenly Father have given us.

Happy Birthday Joseph!

Today our sweet baby turns 2!! We celebrated this weekend with a cake and will be going out for Ethiopian food later in the week. Next month we plan on having a big celebration when Grandma and Grandpa Galbraith are in town. If you can't tell by the video, Joseph thought the cake was pretty cool!

He is Risen!!

This weekend, in addition to celebrating the resurrection of our Saviour, we were also able to share some of our family traditions with Joseph. We dyed eggs, participated in multiple Easter egg hunts, and Joseph even found a little Easter surprise waiting for him Easter morning. We feel so blessed to have Joseph as part of our family and to be able to share the joy of celebrating our Risen Lord!







1 Peter 1:3
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...

Daddy's Boy

One thing that we weren't expecting after bringing Joseph home is how quickly he would attach to the men in his life. He absolutely adores his Dad, Grandpas, and Uncles. In fact, when we are all together he immediately gravitates to the men. The reason we were surprised is that there were few, if any, male caregivers at the orphanage. We weren't sure how he would respond to the men in his life. I must say I think it is very cute how much he LOVES his daddy. At times, I admit, I am a bit jealous but it is so amazing to see my husband in that role and the incredible bond that they have already formed.

And you will never believe this, Joseph likes to dress like his Daddy too! :)