School Days

It's hard to believe that Solomon has been home for over 2 months and it is already time for him to start school!  Here are a few pictures of his first day of 2nd grade and Joseph's first day of preschool.

If you are wondering why Solomon's clothes are a little wrinkled, it is because when I went into his room to check on him at 1000pm last night (1.5 hours after we put him to bed) I found him lying on his perfectly made bed, wide awake, with his school clothes on that we had set out for today!  Apparently he was really excited about starting school. (But then disappointed that I made him put his pajamas back on.)  :)

We are praying for this school year and that Solomon will quickly overcome the language barrier and fit in perfectly with his new class. 

How child sponsorship saved one child's life

If you are anything like me, you've probably seen the commercials on TV asking you to sponsor a child in need for only a dollar and day and thought, "Do these programs really make a difference?"  You can call it being a skeptic or just plain ignorant, but up until our involvement in child sponsorship programs, I didn't realize the real difference that these programs can make in a child's life.  You may remember reading my post here about meeting our sponsored child in Ethiopia through Yezelalem Minch and how wonderful of an experience that was.  Well, more recently we learned about another sponsored child and how a Compassion International Sponsorship saved his life.  Here is the touching story . . .

Five years ago, a youth group in Texas was attending a youth event where Compassion International was working to find sponsors for children.  The youth group picked the picture of this child from Ethiopia out of a group of children and decided that they wanted to sponsor him. 

Picture courtesy of Compassion International

The sponsorship was eventually taken over by a Texas family who worked with the youth group.  Over the years, this family not only provided financial support for the child, but also prayed for the child and corresponded with him via letters.

Compassion also sent updated pictures to the family over the years.

Photo Courtesy of Compassion International

Little did this family know during their sponsorship what a great impact they were having on this child.  The boy had been living with his mother in a very poor area of Ethiopia and the two had essentially nothing; the boy, therefore, was in poor health.  The sponsorship provided by this family changed everything.  Soon after the sponsorship began, the family was provided with financial help to provide for basic needs, the child was able to attend school, and they were connected with a church in the area who provided for their spiritual needs.  The child's health improved and his family was back on their feet.  It was clear that without the support that they received through this sponsorship, this child would have been left in a grave situation.

For those of you who haven't caught on by now, this sweet boy pictured above is our Solomon!!  And the story is ALL TRUE.  From what we learned in Ethiopia, this Compassion International sponsorship saved our son's life!!  While I won't divulge all the details online - what I can tell you is that he went from being in a very bad situation to receiving life-saving care.

And how do I know who sponsored Solomon you may be wondering?? Well , after learning this story and upon arriving home in St Louis, I contacted Compassion International to see if I could get in contact with Solomon's sponsor.  That was when I was given the name of the man mentioned above and his family in Texas.  I contacted the family last week and learned how they came to sponsor Solomon.   They shared with me that when Solomon was moved into the orphanage, his sponsorship ended.  They said that they have been SO worried about him since, and were very happy to learn that he been adopted and a part of our family.  The family even sent me all the letters that Solomon had sent them while he was in Ethiopia (hence the letter above.)  I can't tell you how thankful we are for this wonderful family.

So if you weren't a believer in sponsorship programs before, I hope I have made a good case for you today!  I have seen first-hand how child sponsorship for $1.00 a day can save a child's life!  I urge you to consider sponsoring a child in need.  There are many reputable organizations that have sponsorship programs.  Of course, I am a believer in Compassion International, but you may also want to check out World Vision, Yezelalem Minch, Holt International, or Bethany Christian Services.  Most programs are $30-$40 a month and you have the opportunity to communicate with your sponsored child in most of them.

Heavenly Father - THANK YOU for laying it on this family's heart in Texas to sponsor our son.  We sing praise to You that they stepped into his life at just the right time and gave sacrificially for our son.  We ask that you would use this example of faith to raise up more supporters and give more children a chance at life.

How great the love lavished on us, that we should be called children of God.  1 John 3:1

Let the Games Begin!

It seems like just yesterday that I wrote this post about the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.  If someone would have told me then that I would have a 3 and 8 year old from Ethiopia at the next Olympic Games, I think I would have laughed at them. . .

And here we are just two years later. . . the Summer Games are here. . . and we have not one but TWO Ethiopians living in our house! This certainly makes watching the Olympics much more fun. 

In true Olympic fashion, during the opening ceremonies we hosted a party where our guests dressed representing their favorite country or sport.  (Read more on the fun details of the party on my cousin Amy's blog.)  Solomon decided to dress as Kenenisa Bekele, the Ethiopian runner who won Gold and set world records in the 5000m and 10000m races in Beijing. 

Here are a few fun Ethiopian Olympic facts for ya:

• There are 35 Ethiopian Olympians participating in this year's games.
• While Ethiopians have obvious, natural abilities in the track and field category, this year Ethiopia will have TWO swimmers enter the games.
• Yanet Seyoum, the countries first female swimmer to enter the games, did most of her training at a public pool where her mom timed her on her cell phone.  Read her story here.

And here is our sweet Joseph.  He dressed up as a US Men's Soccer player.  (Don't tell him that the US Men's team didn't even make the Olympics.)  :)

Soccer, Swimming, Spiderman and Silliness

As you can see - we are having fun around here!!  We've still got a long way to go, but things are looking up as far as our adjustment as a family.  We know that all of your prayers have had so much to do with the improvement that we have seen over the last week.  Thank you!

Here's a little of what we have been up to!!

Joseph at Soccer Camp - have you ever seen anything so cute?

Solomon did VERY well in his first organized sport ever!

Aggressively attacking the ball is his strength.

Oh yes - loving the new Spiderman pajamas.

Nightly silliness after Daddy gets home from work.

This is why I am now reading the book "Bringing up Boys." 
(We three girls did not do things like this.)

Swimming will never get old.

This is the face we fell in love with on the Waiting Child list one year ago.
Oh - how we love you sweet Solomon!

Keepin it Real

Today I am going to share a little of what we have been going through as a family for the last week or so.  I share this not only to keep this blog real, but also for my fellow adoptive families who may go through similar situations in the future. 

Imagine for a moment an 8 year old child that you know well - maybe your son, nephew, or good friend's child.  Imagine moving that child from their nice, comfortable life here in the US to the middle of Africa.  All familiarity is now gone.  They are now placed into an environment where they have new parents, a new language, new food, new home, new neighborhood, new friends, new school, and completely different culture.  Oh - and imagine throwing on top of this experiencing the death of a birthparent in the past.

Anger. Confusion. Depression. Terror.

This is what our sweet son is enduring right now.  Grieving. He has lost so much in his short life and been through so much recent change that we really shouldn't be surprised.  His grieving comes in various forms including anger, defiance, and most frequently long episodes of crying. No - actually sobbing. Believe me - seeing your child hurt like this is heart wrenching. 

So, yes, our honeymoon period has ended and the reality of what this adoption means has started to set in.  We are parenting a traumatized child and it is hard.  We have talked to many other adoptive families, spoken with our adoption agency, and have read many books about this topic.  We knew it was coming.  We knew when we decided to adopt an older child that there would be many challenges that would come along with it.  But when you are in the thick of it, it is still hard. 

The silver lining you may be wondering?  We follow a God who heals and mends broken hearts!  And He knew all of this would happen.  Our reliance on Him is what has gotten us this far and what will give us the strength to endure.  It is also what we KNOW will heal our son's heart in time.  Would you pray that God would bind up Solomon's wounds?

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.  Psalm 147:3

So - I share this story to keep it real for those of you who have been considering adoption, not to be a Debbie Downer. :) Adoption is wonderful, but it is also very hard.  My previous posts have shown the "happy airport" pictures, but I think it is only fair to share this side of the story too.  (You may also want to read another After the Airport post by a well known author and adoptive mom Jen Hatmaker.)

Now, with all that being said, I should also say that most of the time life is WONDERFUL at our house.  Solomon is a sweet, sweet boy and we love that God has given him to our family.  We are having some great times as a family and could not imagine things any differently.  Here are a few shots of some of our fun times the last few weeks.

Trying out his bike.

Brotherly love.

Quality time on the Wii.

First Cardinals game!

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!

The Missing Teeth

Chart compliments of ADA

When Joseph came home from Ethiopia at 22 months, he had 14 teeth.  He seemed to be right on track as far as teeth except that he didn't yet have lower canines.  We figured, though, that they would be popping through at any time.  Well . . .  a year later, when they still hadn't come in we started to wonder what was going on.  We had heard rumors from some online adoption communities of cultural practices in Ethiopia of removing these teeth in infants, but we were still thinking that they would just be coming in late. 

Fortunately, we were able to visit with Joseph's birthmother again on our last trip, so we had the opportunity to learn what happened!

And what we found out was VERY interesting.  We explained to his sweet, sweet birthmother that some of Joseph's teeth never erupted and we asked her if she knew of any reason why.  She said that when he was about 8 months old that they removed his canines!! We asked how this was performed and what we got through the translator was that some sort of "hook" was used.  She then preceded to tell us that the teeth were removed because this prevents diarrhea in the infant period.

And there we had it - our suspicions were confirmed. . . .

Further research on the subject has revealed that this is actually a common practice in a lot of areas of Africa, particularly in the region of Ethiopia where Joseph is from.  Tooth eruption is sometimes associated with the onset of diarrhea, leading many mothers to assume a causal relationship.  They, therefore, feel that the removal of these teeth will prevent infantile diarrhea.  The procedure is most often performed on children from 4-18 months of age (depending on what source you look at), typically without anesthesia, and with a sharp instrument such as a hot needle or knife.  It is usually done by a traditional practitioner known as yetirs awlakiy (tooth extractor).  As for long term consequences of this procedure, it appears that he may have a higher chance of needing orthodontic work, but we plan to discuss this further with our dentist as well.

For my friends in the Ethiopian adoption community, here are a few links to articles that discuss more about this procedure.

Dental injuries due to African traditional therapies for diarrhea

Tooth follicle extirpation and uvulectomy

Clinical Topics — Canine Extraction
 

Ahl-geh-bah-gnim

Ahl-geh-bah-gnim or for those of you (like us) who don't speak Amharic "I don't understand."  This is a phrase that we have practiced over and over as we are sure that it will be used quite often in the first few weeks that our son is home! :) 

We've had many people ask us if our son speaks English or if we speak Amharic?  Well, unfortunately, the answer to both is No.  On a positive note, though, we are both making attempts from opposite sides of the world to learn a few basics in each other's language.  We were able to set up private English lessons for our son at the orphanage for 3 hours per week, and we have recently begun a few Amharic lessons of our own!

Our son's progress seems to be decent.  The orphanage said he is now able to count to 100 and write the alphabet, and from our experience with him, we are guessing that he has maybe 50-100 vocab words.  He was not able to understand much (if any) of what we said to him in English or form sentences while we were there, but we think he still has a good start.

As for our progress, well. . . . we are trying. . . but this language is HARD!  Our Amharic connection and lessons have come through an Ethiopian refugee in St. Louis who a friend introduced us to.  Meeting this man and his sweet wife (who just came to the US 3 months ago) has been a true blessing. We have learned just as much about the Ethiopian culture as we have about the language.  When we went for our lesson last night - they had a traditional coffee ceremony for us - what a great surprise!  And our progress with the language you may be wondering . . . well we can count to 10 and have learned several important phrases like - Are you hungry?  Don't do that! and Do you need to shint?**  We are slow.  :)

So between us learning a little Amharic and our son learning a little English, plus a LOT of charades hopefully we will survive the first few weeks at home.  We have talked to several families who have had to overcome a similar language barrier and they have told us that the children catch on VERY quickly.  We know that their will be lots of frustration, though, in the first few months so we will covet your prayers when we embark upon that part of the journey!

For those of you in the Ethiopian adoption world - we have found this book to be particularly helpful.  We bought it on Amazon.

**  Sidenote on "Shint."  So the Amharic word for urinate is "shint."  I know - interesting, right?  When Joseph came home from Ethiopia he used a handful of Amharic words and one of them used regularly was "shint."  One day after tireless efforts at potty training, while standing in the checkout line at Target, Joseph starting YELLING, "Mommy, Daddy - I need to go SHINT!"  Oh my - can you imagine the looks we got from everyone standing around us!  That was certainly a hard one to explain. . . .

A sneak peak

Well - we are home, over our jet lag, and finally getting caught up on things after being in Ethiopia.  We've had lots of requests for more pictures from our trip so wanted to post a few.   Unfortunately, we can't post any revealing pictures of our son until he is back home, but we'll give you a sneak peak today since there isn't anything identifying about him in the picture.  :) 



Building under construction in the capital Addis Ababa (notice the scaffolding)



The road to Hosanna







More countryside on the way to Hosanna



 

Rural Ethiopia - Lining up for water at the well



Water being transported from the well



Rural famer

Meeting the child my mom sponsors through Yelezelam Minch



Our son's room!



Your sneak peak!! (Measuring his foot so we can figure out shoe size!)



  

And we can't forget Joseph - he celebrated his 3rd birthday while we were gone!



We are still praying that we will be able to go back to Ethiopia within the the next 6-8 weeks to pick up our son.  We learned last week that they have secured his new birth certificate with our last name on it and hope to hear soon that they also have his passport.  After that our file will be submitted to the US Embasssy in Ethiopia so a Visa can be assigned.  Thanks for praying with us!