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The shots are rearing their ugly head once more. After a full day of activity Dustin and I are feeling crumby again.I feel feverish and achy D says ditto for him too. I don't believe this will be our favorite part of the pretravel prep.Blech!
Hubby got me a new phone. I had been making due with a rather annoying one and hubby surprised me with a Blackberry Pearl. I am just getting used to it but I can tell already it's a dangerous thing for me. Access to email and Internet where ever I go? How will I ever pull myself away?? (Just kidding. I like living an actual LIFE!)
The first phone I was given was defective. My sister-in-law and I spent a good hour plus on the phone with tech support. During that time she taught me to knit!!! (We were on hold A LOT) I am so excited. I have always wanted to learn and I just needed someone to show me for I could never understand the patterns. Now she's letting me finish a baby blanket she began and keep it for Jonas. Isn't she sweet. I feel like new doors have opened to me! I can't wait to learn new (what would they be called??) stitches (?) and make new projects.
The phone service provider gave me a phone to replace the deffective one and it's up and running smoothly. My friend Brooke showed me the ropes while we were over at her place last night celebrating her hubby's completion of his MBA. We had a great time, as always, with our friends.
Today my arms are better. The left arm is still a wee bit sore but nothing unbearable. It continues to be a bit swollen. Dustin and I continued to grow more achy into the evening and both of us had a small fever. This morning I woke up feeling just fine and Dustin tells me he feels fine as well. All in all, the immunizations weren't so terrible.
We are having lovely weather here in Phoenix. It's cooler today. In the 80's. I can't tell you how thankful I am for the respite from the heat. Fall can't come any sooner for me.
Finally, I am looking for fun fall arts and crafts activities for the children. It seems my creativity has run dry. Anyone have any suggestions?? If so please share them here or post about them on your blog and leave a comment directing me to it. THANKS so much!
Our kids call shots pokes. Today Dustin and I received our travel pokes. Dustin had 8 and I had 6. Besides the hit our wallet took it was relatively painless. My left arm is acting up though. It's getting quite swollen and a bit tender. I think that was the polio booster but I can't be sure. Anyhow, I am glad to have them over. We head back in a month for 2 more and then again in 6 mos for the final shot. Our protection should last 10-15 years after that.
BTW- Jonas is 7 months old today.
Lean in. I've got some unofficial news hot of the presses of the Yahoo Group to whisper in your ear. It appears all of the families who have received referrals now have court dates scheduled. That includes us! We have a CD (court date) people!!!! Now, it's our agency's policy not to share the CD with families to prevent disappointment if families don't pass the first time. Their policy, instead, is to inform families after they have successfully gained custody of the kids. This is wonderful news as I had prepared myself for delays, so I am pleased.
It does seem that AWAA is issuing tentative travel dates during the wait time. So, it's probably safe to assume that if a tentative travel date changes folks didn't pass court. There are two groups with tentative travel dates so far. As things stand for the first tentative travel group (TTG) there are 7 families set to travel Oct 25th if there are no complications. (We are praying for those families that it would be so!!) Next, the second TTG group has 4 families checking in so far for tentative travel on Nov 1st. I am curious to see how many more check in for the second TTG. It would appear that since Dustin and I are 9th on the list of families waiting for travel dates we'll be going in the third TTG. Those of us on the YG wonder if that TTG (#3) would receive a date for mid Nov sometime. If this is the case it would certainly be an answer to our prayers. PTL, God is faithful!
Yesterday's daily Bible reading gave me more than a chuckle. I had been planning on getting in touch with my inner persistent widow regarding travel to get Jonas before Christmas and this reaffirmed that decision for me.
Isaiah 62:6&7 (emphasis mine)
O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray day and
night, continually. Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord. Give the
Lord no rest until he completes his work, until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth.
We received a few lines today from Rachel our TH director in Ethiopia to update us on Jonas. She visited him last week on the 25th. She included two photos of him. Jonas looks so much bigger already. His eye lashes are so long!! We are missing him so much.
I can't wait to share these photos with you all.
I heard that the courts are now open. That's really great news. Some folks w/ our agency have a court date scheduled for the 8th. I don't know if the courts will hear their cases early but I am encouraged that things will be in order by 8th and am confident that they should clear court that day. Their travel won't be long after that.
We are still praying for a court date before the end of Oct.
What a title. I promise I'll explain...... later.
Yesterday evening Dustin mailed off a care package for Jonas. We included the picture album, the blankie, and a stuffed animal we've been sleeping with for many months now. I was excited to hear from Duni that they will make sure The Boy gets his goodies. I also heard from another mom with a son in the orphanage along with Jonas that we can expect an update soon. I was super excited to hear that! I am anxious for new pictures of our Ethiopian Chick Magnet. (He sure makes all the women in this family swoon)
In other fabulous news our agency has hired a spectacular American doctor who works in ET to keep tabs on all our precious ones. She's known as the best in the biz I hear. What a relief to my mommy heart.
So back to the reasoning behind getting our stink all over Jonas' stuffed animal. That may seem really strange to my non adoptive friends out there in bloggy world but the idea there is to provide a basis for Jonas to recognize us by the familiar and, I hope, pleasant smell of his stuffed animal. Hopefully, by the time we arrive he will have become fond of his stuffed elephant and therefore enjoy or at the very least recognize our smell when he meets us. Many adoption behaviourist/attachment professionals suggest adoptive parents use the sense of smell as a tool in their parenting tool box. We're willing to do whatever it takes. Every night before bed D and I would each reapply our respective cologne and perfume for the sake of stinking up said stuffed elephant. The thing is we pretty much have to commit to consistently using the same scents for at least a year after Jonas comes home. I've even gone so far as to consider which shampoo, conditioner, soap and laundry detergent I can stand for that long. Same with lotions. We tend not to be creatures of habit in this area so it took some planning for us. We want to smell consistent. (Ha! That's funny to type.) Attaching in Adoption and Parenting the Hurt Child have more to say about the subject of using the sense of smell as a tool for attaching and bonding so I won't lecture on. Instead, I want to share a really cool story about how a certain smell can get locked in a child's memory, particularly during the stressful turbulence of coming into a new home.
A woman shared this story on an AZ ethio adoption YG I belong to. She told us that she wore her hair curly when she travelled to pick up her child in Ethiopia. Since that time she hadn't been wearing it curly. When she styled her hair curly again a long time later (possibly years... can't remember) her child told her that she smelled like Ethiopia. The hair gel she used had triggered his memory of her scent when he first met his mommy. Now, if that isn't a powerful in-"scent"-tive (yes, I know that is a HORRIBLE pun!!!) I don't know what is.
PS- tonight is the first time the weather has felt even remotely fall-ish. It's not scorching outside anyway. The kids are squeezing every last drop of daylight while playing outside. I feel like baking something. And rolling in a large pile of leaves.
Okay, I'm over the last part.
I may be the last person on earth to try foil packet cooking. In case there is one other person out there I am posting this to convince them it's a good thing. My dad's wife had us over and made chicken and veggies in foil packets and they were delicious. Since then I've tried salmon and now I prefer this cooking method for it. My favorite is to zest an entire lemon and mix the zest with sea salt and pepper and rub the salmon down. Then I jam a bunch of squash, zuchini and bell peppers in a packet w/ the fish and broil the individual servings for a few minutes. SO EASY and you can't beat the clean up. Yeah for Nanna Janna who turned me on to the joys of foil. (now please don't tell me there's some aweful chemical in foil that cooks into the food during broiling or you'll ruin my day!!!)
I am trying to learn AT LEAST 5 new Amharic vocab words / week. I will share them with you. I am spelling them according to how the Lonely Planet Phrase Book spells them though upon hearing them prononced on my language software I did a few doubletakes. In parenthesis I will do my best to write them phonetically in English as I heard them pronounced. Good luck! (you'll need it :))
This week's are:
te-na yis-tel-leny (tay-nais-telany): It's a greeting. Literally: May health be given to you.
deu-na hu-nu (dena hoonoo): saying goodbye to more than one person
ow (aow): Yes
ay-del-em (eye-dell-em): No
e-shi (eh-she): okay/yes
e-ba-kon (e-bah-kwo): polite form of please
We went to the concert to benefit Hope for the Hopeless tonight. It was held downtown at the Salvation Army Citadel. I'd say there were roughly 50 adults in attendance. Maybe more. A few people, including us, brought their children with as well. I really enjoyed having the girls with us and I think it was a great experience for them since we have separate children's services at our church they haven't had the opportunity to attend adult worship.
The night included a special sign language performance of "I can only imagine." I particularly enjoyed this. It' was so beautiful to watch. The sign for "be able to speak at all" really got to me. The woman just grabbed her throat as if the words wouldn't shake loose and the look on her face was so expressive. Beautiful.
It is always special to me when I have the privilege to worship Jesus among believers from different congregations, denominations, and backgrounds. Tonight was no different.
Our total neared $3000.00 for the evening. Praise God. Surafel leaves for Ethiopia soon. There are a few more fundraising events planned. So far $4000.00 has been raised. About $10,000.00 more is needed so that the buildings can be finished and the kids can move in.
Today is one month since we received our referral for our sweet Jonas boy. I remember when our other children were at his age how much development took place within a month's time and my heart aches to be missing so much. He's almost 6 months now. He could be 8 or 9 months before we travel to get him. I pray often for his caretakers and especially that he has a special nanny to attach to who will mother him through his difficult waiting stage.
I've begun to mourn some things. For his losses most of all, for they are many. Then, for our losses as his family. For the time we can't get back. For the space between knowing of him and truly knowing and loving him. I will never be able to reconcile my heart with having to wade through bureaucracy while my son waits in an orphanage. I can only bend my knee before the Sovereign and trust He is in complete control and ask for that special peace that transcends my ability to understand.
I would like to ask for prayer for Jonas. We specifically ask for pray for his health.
In other news I am excited to have begun shopping for donations. I have most of our nanny gifts covered. I've also organized our packing list. It's very long. Dustin was in shock over some of the stuff on the list. He though I was going a bit overboard but I told him I had all the experience of our fellow AWAA YG families who have travelled ahead of us telling us these things were indeed necessary. Then I reminded him that since I was bearing the weight of the packing responsibilities and all he had to do was simply show up on the day of travel he had better back off or I might let him do some of the packing ;) That did the trick. He told me he trusted my judgement and decided he'd leave it at that. (U-hum. I thought so, buddy.) I am consciously trying my best to be considerate of the weight factor because if there's one area I know about my tendency to slack off it's in carrying our bags through airports. I tend to let my hubby do the lion's share of the work in those situations. I am sure it was with that eye that he cast a weary glance upon the packing list. Overall I am a very light packer. I have had many a gal pal comment on my ability to do so. I'd love to be able to cut our list in half but we just don't want to be in a new country without something we desperately need for our new son. It's not like I can send D off on an errand to the corner store to pick up what we need. Some things may not even be available there. Better to play if safe than sorry. Besides, whatever we don't use I can donate to the orphanages.
