Christmas in Ethiopia!

This morning, we got an email from our agency director, Jim (yes, the one who went with me into the bathroom via telephone in my last entry).

TRAVEL DATES!!!!!

We will be spending Christmas in Ethiopia with our kids!

We have to be in Addis by the 21st of December...then we meet the kids on the 22nd! We have our embassy appointment on the 23rd, then Christmas...then we get issued the kids visas, then we leave to come home forever on the 28th!

AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

Too excited to type...holy cow, I've got LOTS TO DO before we leave!

Love to all...
Lisa

The Greatest Day!!!

I know, I know, I've been a VERY bad blogger of late. But basically, I've been so stressed that I haven't been able to put into words what I was feeling.

Today, I let it all hang out.

This morning, around 7:15, I got the most amazing phone call of all time. The director of our adoption agency, Jim, called to tell Nate and me that our adoption case had passed court!

We are theirs, and they are ours...forever!

Today, we became the proud parents of a son, Amanuel Austin Muze Day, and a daughter, Meseret Lucinda Muze Day.

When Jim called, I was in the kitchen. I hadn't even had a cup of coffee yet. Nate was upstairs in the shower. I saw the agency name on the caller ID before I picked up the phone. I knew this was "The Call"!

I answered by saying, "Jim, please tell me you have good news." He started laughing a bit, "Yes, Lisa, I do have good news."

I slid down onto the floor. "I'm a mom?"

"Yes, Lisa. You're a mom. And Nate is a dad."

I don't remember much more after that. I do know that poor Jim went with me, via telephone, into the upstairs bathroom where Nate was showering. I will forever remember the look on Nate's face when he poked his head out from behind the shower curtain and said, "We passed?" then yelled out, "YEAH!!!" And I know that a little while later I found myself sitting again on the kitchen floor, sobbing, not having realized how stressed out I had been about the court date.

I also know I made a spate of telephone calls... and only made it to work about ten minutes late! Amazing!

So apparently, this is what happens next. The Ethiopian government will issue birth certificates for the children with Nate and me as their parents. Once the adoption agency has those in hand, they will transfer our children from Mekele (in the northern part of Ethiopia) to Addis Ababa. They will have to be tested for TB by a doctor approved by the American Embassy. If they have active TB, they must be treated before they can be granted an entry visa to the US. If they don't have active TB, the Embassy will set a date for us to appear (with the kids) to file for their visas. That's when we travel...to be there for our Embassy appointment.

We're hoping and praying that we will get to travel before the end of the year!

I want very badly to post pictures of the kids online, but our agency advises against it until they are in our arms forever. If you want to see pictures, please email me and I will send them to you privately.

Oh, one more piece of good news...the young man mentioned in the previous post (I referred to him as MZ)...his adoption went through court today, too!!! He and his new sister, G., will probably be coming home at the same time as our kids!

I believe in miracles.

Last week, a wonderful woman named Michelle and her husband Matt went to meet their children at the orphanage in Mekele, Ethiopia, where our children are currently living. They were kind enough to hand-deliver care packages to our kids – apparently, they took video and pictures of it, and I am DYING to see it. But this post isn’t about our children; it’s about another boy in the same orphanage who also touched my heart.

Because of privacy issues, I will not post his name. I’ll call him MZ. He is 7 and is good buds with my son A. I have several pictures of them together. He’s a handsome boy with an open, sweet face. He was on the first “Waiting Children” flyer we received from our agency, and he has been on every one since. We had looked into adopting him, too, because there was just something about him. I fell in love. Every night, I prayed for my kids, and I also prayed specifically for MZ to find a family.

Michelle was kind enough to post on our agency’s yahoo group while she was in Ethiopia, and all the parents with kids there were grateful to get even the littlest tidbits of news. On Thursday, I sent a message to her saying, “Thank you so much for delivering care packages to the kids, and thank you for giving attention to my kids A and M (and to the kids who don't have moms and dads yet). There is a boy who is on the waiting child list (his name is MZ) who is 7. We looked into adopting him in addition to the siblings we are adopting, but our state wouldn't allow it because we don't have enough bedroom space in our house right now. He has been in my prayers. If you get a chance, please give him some love for me, OK? It breaks my heart that I can't adopt him, too."

She messaged back: “The boy you mention... I am in love! He has an amazing spirit. He is pretty shy. I'd take him home in an instant if I could. He caught my attention before, but now that I've met him, I REALLY want to find him a family! Can't you add on to your house? ;)”

Soon thereafter, I got messages from several people from our adoption group, all saying that they have had MZ in their thoughts. One woman in particular wanted to know my thoughts on him and any information I might have about him. She said she was adopting a 7-year-old girl and hadn’t really thought about adopting a boy that age, too. She said she was going to talk to her husband over the weekend.... she wasn't really sure what he might think of the idea.

On Friday, I posted on Facebook that there was a wonderful 7-year-old boy in Ethiopia who needed to be adopted. I started asking everyone I know who prays to pray for him to get a family.

On Saturday I get a message on Facebook from a woman named Jillian. She adopted two deaf boys from IAG, has two biological daughters (and another on the way) AND her husband is a Marine deployed overseas. She is Wonder Woman, I’m telling you! She wanted me to know that if it was MZ that I was talking about, a family had just decided on Friday to adopt him, that he was "on hold" for them. I emailed her right back and sent her the pictures I had of MZ and told her to tell whomever it was that I was so excited for them and that I had been praying for their son and loving him in my heart for months.

As it turns out, it was the woman who is adopting the 7-year-old girl that I had been emailing! I guess she and her husband had both been thinking about him separately. On Sunday night, I got a message from MZ’s “mom-to-be.” She said that with all the prayers that went out for him, God answered.

I'm telling you, there is something truly amazing about this whole Ethiopia adoption thing. Every little piece of it feels like a miracle.

Sign from God in the form of a little boy

I was having a really rough day yesterday...our "new" adoption dossier just got completed a couple of weeks ago, and we got word that the translation office is so backed up that it may be 8 weeks before it gets translated. And the courts are closed for the rainy season. So we have no idea how long it will take before we can get our kids.

Anyhow, I was MAD. ANGRY. DISGUSTED. DISAPPOINTED. DEPRESSED. I was in the car, yelling at God about it. I know, probably not the best thing to do… But I asked God to give me a sign that this would all work out.


About fifteen minutes later, I was leaving the Hannaford grocery store in Gorham, Maine (I rarely go to the Hannaford in Gorham, since it’s a bit out of my way -- I don't know why I went there yesterday, but somehow that's where I ended up). As I was walking out, I saw a very tall gentleman with two beautiful children: an adorable blonde girl, and what was immediately apparent to me as an Ethiopian boy.

I said outloud (maybe too loud): "You have such a beautiful family!" The man turned around and smiled and said "Thank you." I said, "My husband and I are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia." The man stopped in his tracks and said, "My son is from Ethiopia!"

I thought, DUH, of course your son is from Ethiopia. He's my sign!

I stooped down in front of the boy and asked him his name. “Kamu,” he said. “K—A—M—Ooooh!” he spelled. Little Kamu...little does he know what an awesome message he was!

Oddly enough, this is the second time I have had a moment like that regarding this adoption. Right after Nate and I made the decision to adopt from Ethiopia (almost a year ago), I was angst-ridden about it. Were we making the right decision? Was this what we should really do? I asked God for a sign then, too. Not long after that, I was walking through the Hannaford in my town and met a little Ethiopian boy. I knew, just KNEW that Petros was from Ethiopia before I opened my mouth, and, in fact, Petros said "Hi" before I said anything. Same sort of thing...he was there with his dad, Dan, and I asked Dan if he had adopted Petros from Ethiopia. Now Dan, his wife Tiffany, and Petros have become friends of ours.

Apparently, God likes to deliver signs to me in the form of little Ethiopian boys at Hannaford grocery stores! And I am so very grateful. This really will all work out!

Much love to all of you...

Nesting

Nate and I have gone into full-blown nesting mode of late. Since finding out that we will have two beautiful children joining our family within the next few months, we have gone berserk for all things child-related. We're getting their rooms ready, buying clothes and such...SO much fun!

We had the opportunity to send our first care-packages to the kids with a friend who just went to Addis Ababa to pick up her daughter. Justine's daughter, Meron, was living in the same care center as our children. She knows both of them; it's so cool for me to think that they will grow up having someone who knew them in Ethiopia so close by.

Proud mom that I am, not a day goes by that I don't show a complete stranger pictures of my kids. I guess I lead a relatively sheltered life. Everyone within my circle of friends, family and acquaintances has been overwhelmingly excited that we are adopting from Ethiopia. Also, we are fortunate to have friends and extended family members who have adopted from Ethiopia and other parts of the world -- and we have a large and wonderful group of Ethiopian friends who are looking forward to the arrival of our children.

But when I pull out my wallet to pay for something in a store and show off pictures of my kids, sometimes I get reminded that the world isn't always accepting of transracial adoption. The vast majority of people have been great about it...but there have been a few who haven't been able to hide the look of disapproval from their faces. I'm not naive enough to think that everyone is going to be accepting of our family, and if it were just about me, I wouldn't really care at all. But very soon, it won't be just about me. It will be about two amazing children who deserve to have the world open its arms to them.

I think part of why I show off the pictures at every opportunity is to prepare people; to let them know that at some point, I will have two beautiful African children in tow when I go to the bank, the grocery store, the gas station. I want people to know their story before they arrive, in the hope that they will already have a place in their hearts for my kids.

OK, maybe I am a little naive. :)

Fortunately, the stage has been set for our family in this little Maine town that we call home. Dan and Tiffany, who live only a couple of miles away from us, brought home their handsome and precocious son Petros a little more than a year ago. He has been World's Greatest Ambassador for Ethiopia. So with our adoption of "A" and "M," we will triple the Ethiopian population in this rural Maine hamlet. How totally cool is THAT?!?

Blessings to all, especially two familes who got FABULOUS news today!

How do you choose a birthday?

How wild is this? We get to choose our children's birthdates!

Our adoption agency has determined (as best they can) that "A" (our almost-son) was born in 2003 and "M" (our almost-daughter) was born in 2006. Because of poverty, they weren't born in a hospital, and there are no birth records. There are no birth records for most people in Ethiopia, and birthdays aren't really celebrated in developing nations where poverty is such an overwhelming issue. Pretty sad, isn't it?

But the weird upside of this is: we get to pick a birthday for each of them.

This is an entirely new and bizarre situation for us. Any ideas of how to choose a birthday?

Support the Adoption Tax Credit!

Just a reminder that the adoption tax credit could come to an end this year if Congress doesn't act.

Please call, write or email your Congressional Representatives and your Senators to ask for their support of H.R. 213: Adoption Tax Relief Guarantee Act of 2009, which exempts provisions expanding the adoption tax credit and adoption assistance programs enacted by the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 from the general terminating (sunset) provisions of that Act.

I hate to think of how adoptions could be impacted if there is no tax credit. I'm sure that there are many, many families who would be unable to adopt were the tax credit not in place.

So please make sure your elected officials show their support for adoption!

Here are the web addresses for the members of Maine's Congressional delegation:

http://pingree.house.gov/
http://michaud.house.gov/
http://collins.senate.gov/
http://snowe.senate.gov/

If you live elsewhere, please go HERE to locate your Congressman/Congresswoman, and go HERE to find your Senators.

Remember that the most effective letters are personal ones!!!