Immigration Miracle

We changed Marie's name from Asnakech to Marie Asnakech after we adopted her. Unfortunately I did this AFTER applying for her citizenship card which was my bad. So, we had one set of documentation that had one name and another that had the other name. Under normal circumstances this would be fine, however since we are crossing many borders soon with our big move to Tanzania, I thought it would make life way simpler to have just one name for the child that looks nothing like her parents (especially travelling in countries where adoption is an unheard of concept). I called immigration and asked how long this would take. I was told that it would be 10 months to a year... not good news since we were leaving in 8. I asked if they could expidite the process and was told that unless someone was dying, there was no way... The trouble is that I had to send back her first immigration card and run the risk of having none. GULP. I wrote a letter and with great treppidition put that and the card in the mail. A month and a half later, I had the new card in my hands with the correct information!!!! The funny part is that two days later I received a letter from CIC stating that they had received my application and would process it in the next ten months! I laughed with tears of relief streaming down my face. I really think they have no idea what they put us through, but am grateful none the less for Marie's paperwork to FINALLY all be in order. :-)

Marie and Marie

Last spring we travelled to Calgary because we knew that my Oma was dying. I wanted to see her one more time and wanted the kids to see her one more time. Marie is named after Oma and Oma cared very much for Marie. I didn't realise how special it was to her that Marie was named after her until after the fact. Oma told me, that she was sad to not be able to see her grow up.

I was so glad that the kids each got to sit on her knee and say goodbye. The boys understood. They hugged her and kissed her and when I told Ryan it was time to say goodbye, he said "It's not goodbye mommy... we'll see eachother in heaven"... So they said their see-you-latters. It was a special easter. Today on face book I came across these pictures that my aunt had taken. I miss Oma, but at least I have little Marie to hold onto.

Canadian Citizenship DONE

Well we FINALLY got Marie's Canadian Citizenship done! Here she is holding her card: Part of what took so long was that she would not sit still to have her picture taken at least not with the standards they had... eyes open, facing forward, mouth closed, no smile etc etc. It took us three hours during 3 different sessions to get this done... I tried everything I could think of...

Some kids were just not made to sit still. Now we have to get her passport done...

A couple more pics

Thanks to our friend S for taking the pics! We were well overdue for having a family photos again.

Update

Well we past the one year mark and had Marie's 2nd birthday this spring. Time is flying by and our little girl is growing up before our very eyes. Not sure if anyone is still reading, but if you are, I thought you might enjoy a photo update of our munchkins.

Marie the computer geek

Well Marie takes after dad I guess. She loves to press the buttons on the keyboard... and sometimes if you aren't paying enough attention, right in the middle of an important document... the power switch.

Ucluelet

We were having difficulty finding time to just be together without having an agenda. So at the last minute we decided to take the kids to Ucluelet for the weekend. For those who don't know Ucluelet is on Vancouver Island's west coast near Tofino. We had an amazing weekend. The weather was fantastic and so were the kids. We rented a cabin on the beach and just enjoyed being a family. The kids were very impressed with giant waves and the vast expanses of beach. Paul and Ryan claimed squatters rights in a driftwood fort and enjoyed playing their morning away making "additions". Marie stomped and splashed in every single puddle she could find including the great puddle called the pacific. I was very glad to have packed the mud pants for all five of us :-). The kids were excellent even on the four + hour drive and we have resolved to do this kind of thing a little more often.

The Change over 8 months

This is Marie the first day we met her...

Nervous and shy, Daddy had to whisper reassurances to her.

And this is our Marie today:

Her favorite thing in the world is to be squished in a hug between her parents. To the point that Jeremy can't hug me without feeling a little tug at the pant leg. If that doesn't yeild results quickly enough, she follows up with emphatic sounds and trying simultaneously pull herself up/climb our legs. :-)

A Thanksgiving Update

Well school is in full swing and we are thankfully settled into a routine. This Thanksgiving we went to my Aunt and Uncles for dinner. Mom and Dad Devin and Erin, and S and R were also there. We had a wonderful day. I was snuggling with Marie on the couch as she slept and tears began to stream down my face. I was remembering sitting in the very same spot last year with a massive gapping hole in my heart. Last year at Thanksgiving, I knew that we were weeks away from a proposal but had been so long all ready I felt like it might still be years. Don't get me wrong, I was grateful for my boys and my amazing husband, but I also knew that there was a little girl out there who needed me and who didn't even know I existed yet and if the truth is told, I needed her as well. So, this year when people came by and offered to hold her for a while, or suggested that I could lay her down in the other room, I just smiled and held on a little tighter to my sweet little bundle. Yep. This year I have lots to be thankful for.

Dinner was also very yummy!

 

A busy busy summer

Well July was insanely crazy. We decided to take out a loan to finish the reno's. We were really feeling like our family life was suffering because all of our spare time was being taken up renovating. To that end we hired my uncle and his partner to come in and do the following:

1. Replace the kitchen (we bought used cabinets for $600)
2. Take out the chimney that was in the middle of the boys room and re-do the room
3. Move the entry from the side of the house to the front and build a covered deck in front of it.
4. Make the mud room into a dining room ( I know that sounds odd, but it's adjacent to the kitchen and it works).
5. Add a wall to divide the living room from the new entry and build a hall closet.

All of the flooring and finishing work was to be done by Jeremy and I because of the tight budget.

The last week of june, my Mom let us stay with her. Then we took off to alberta for a couple of weeks. When we got home, Jeremy and I helped for a week while mom watched the kids (thanks mom) and at the end of July we finally moved home. At the beginning of August Jeremy had to go back to work and things are still not done, but they are liveable. I can't believe there are only a couple of weeks of summer left before the craziness of school begins again. SIGH.

We still have to put cupboard doors on the kitchen (I have to sand and paint them). This is becoming a priority though as Marie frequently helps herself and empties the pots and pans etc. I am always coming into the kitchen to find odd things on the floor!

Also, we still have flooring to do in the kitchen/ entry and some painting on the new deck. We have a new office that needs finishing as well. I am thinking that these projects will have to wait for the winter months though.... so much for having more family time...

We did enjoy our time in Alberta though. We drove through the night to Grande Prarie so that the kids could sleep. This was the first time Marie met Jeremy's family. It was nice to visit with them, but a bit crazy. There are now 9 grandkids (soon to be 10!) and 8 of them are 5 years and under, 7 are boys! It was hectic but lovely.

We then drove down to Wetaskwin for Jeremy's cousin's wedding, where we got to introduce Marie to more of Jeremy's extended family. We stayed a couple of days and this was truly the highlight of the trip for the boys because there were puppies and quads on the farm! After that we made our way to Calgary where we had a fantastic visit with our good friends Debbie and Einar and visited Drumhellar and the zoo. Then we made our way to High River where we had a couple of days with My Oma and Opa. Marie is named after my Oma. It was really good to see them again. We then made the epic drive (this time during the day, over a couple days) home.

Marie Update

Life is humming along and so is Marie's development. She is growing quickly and last week she learned to walk. I have never seen a kid go from crawling to walking so quickly. The day she took her first steps, she worked her way up to 9 steps. A week later she is walking 1/2 the time and crawling the other. I am going to miss her crawl... on her feet and hands (no knees) with her little bum up in the air. However, my arms are grateful as she is still heavy! Here is Marie baffed out on the couch after a busy day of walking! As if june isn't busy enough we have started our massive reno. The boys room upstairs, new roof, new entrance, and the kitchen... so check back for before and after pics coming sometime...

Marie's first birthday

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who was able to make it out for Marie's party on the long weekend! We really appreciated your company while we celebrated this milestone. How many milestones can you pack into two months?

Here are a few:

Solid food:














learning to crawl:

learning to stand:
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learning to love the bath:
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Learning to walk holding my hands and "table walk":



















She has even mastered going up the stairs much to my dismay and her delight. It feels like almost over night Marie has turned into a little adventurer. In one very long day (for me), she tipped over 2 glasses of juice (left on the table by the boys), and one cup of (thankfully cold) coffee. She also discovered the joys of swishing your hands in the toilet (YUCK) and got her fingers stuck in a drawer. I was glad when she was safely asleep. Since then, I have gotten used to having a little mischief making toddler around again and it is delightful watching her grow accustomed to her new role in our family and her surroundings. She now expresses excitement and delight as well as being able to (loudly) assert herself when things are not quite to her liking.

Here are some of the pictures from her party. We filled the trampoline full of balloons for the bigger kids and the baby pool full of balls for the smaller ones. She had a ball... but thought very little of the cake

Marie's First Birthday

If you know us and are in the area you are invited! Marie is having her first birthday party this weekend. We have felt really supported by our community in the adoption process and would really like to make her party a community event. So we are having an open house on sunday, potluck style. Feel free to drop by anytime after 1ish. We'd love to see you even for just a couple of minutes :-)

April 28th

The kids are doing well. This last weekend we had Auntie Nina's birthday party and Daddy's birthday as well so it was a pretty busy weekend. Oma and Opa are here from Alberta so Marie got to meet them which is special. Marie is named after Oma, so we had two Marie's in the house!

Everyone seems to be settling in and doing fine. Everyone but me. I seem to be in a bit of a funk. I am thrilled with Marie and her progress. I love spending time with her and with the boys. Ryan is becoming a super helper and Paul is really developing a hilarious sense of humour. Nothing is particularily wrong, I just can't seem to get a handle on things. Anyway, enough complaining.

Here are some pictures from this weekend.

Marie getting to know Oma and Opa and Daddy blowing out his candles with help:

Since we've been home

I don't seem to be able to get around to blogging lately... something about chasing after 3 kids...

I did want to do an update on Marie though. She is doing fantastic. She has made a nearly seemless adjustment to life here in Canada with us. It took us a little while to get her used to being immersed in water for bath time and a few days to adjust to PST time. Other than that though, she has been doing awesome. We are so proud of her. She cries very rarely and is mostly found giggling and cooing to her brothers. In the month since we took custody of her she has learned to eat solid food (voraciously), and has learned to crawl. She also says DA DA DA and MUM MUM MUM. She knows who we are and she prefers us to all others (me especially). She recognizes her brothers and misses them when they are gone. She waves when someone waves at her and has learned to clap her hands. Her health is good, today we had her hearing checked and it is perfect. If she is crying, she is calmed almost immediately by being picked up. She still gets up once a night which we are not fond of, but hey, no one is perfect (she is close though!). In the last week she has began to express her preferences a little more vocally which we are glad to see as it means she is getting more and more comfortable. Things have been going so well that I have actually even left her for a couple of hours with my mom and my sister, which is something I didn't think I would be doing for months. She got a little clingy the week after Jeremy went back to work, but that seems to have passed and I think we have a general routine that is working for us.

It seems though, that I can't leave well enough alone and we have embarked on another reno project... We are finishing the entry way. I also got 12 yards of dirt delivered to the back yard to spread out and begin a veggie garden. Jeremy just shakes his head. I am glad he puts up with me :-)

March 12th

Today, Jeremy went to the German Embassy to get Marie's transit visa. I went with the other mom's (and one brave dad) to the hospital to get all the kids checked out for ear infections before the trip home. It was quite the experience. It cost $4 to see the doctor and apparently it was a pretty swanky clinic that the average Ethiopian would be turned away from. It was kind of sad, before I realised what was happening, we were given preferential treatment. We were seen before everyone in the waiting room because we were foreigners. At one point, we had to go and wait in another waiting area, and the nurse kicked other people who were waiting off the seats so we could sit. I tried to tell her that it was not required, but she wouldn't listen to me. It was quite unfortunate. The Dr saw Marie and he gave her a clean bill of health in terms of her ears. So hopefully on the way home we won't have any screaming. That was all I wanted to get checked. I figure that the rest can wait until home. Some other families had their kids checked for other things and so we had to wait for some tests to come back and prescriptions to be filled. The kids all did really well, some of them cried in the exam room but even so, it was a pretty frazzling experience. I think we were glad we did it though as a couple of the kids did actually have ear infections. We were glad to get back to the guest house and get lunch.

In the afternoon we went to Gelgela orphanage. Marie spent a day there before being taken to the CAFAC foster home. I hadn't had a chance yet to go out and buy soccer balls, so I had to dig into the supplies that I brought from home as I did not want to go empty handed. I brought one soccer ball of really nice quality, and some clothes and hats for older children. I also brought a few school supplies. We were not allowed to take photos of the children which was disappointing. I did take a picture of these cribs though because you could not see the kids in them. There were four kids in these two cribs. It was really sad, one of the babies looked really really sick and small... to the point where I was not sure if he was going to make it. The kids were really ragged and there were no toys anywhere in sight. Many of the kids did not have shoes and the shoes that were there were falling apart. Outside in the court yard there was a merry go round and a swing set that had the swings wrapped around the top bar... aparently they were not for use. At first I did not know what to do. After a few awkward moments with the kids, I went to the swingset and unwrapped a swing... immediately there was a swarm of kids. I made them all line up so it was fair. Then one by one I pushed each child for a few minutes. I was very greatful I had learned to count to five in amharic, because I would count to three and then give each child an under duck. Then tickle them a little on the swing as I pushed them. After a couple of times, all the kids in the line began chanting one two three. You could hear a chorus of "and, oolet, soust!" It was very cute. I must have pushed at least thirty or fourty kids before I started getting repeat kids. At that point my arms gave out and another parent took over for me. Someone else brought balloons along with us and this was also a big hit. The kids thought blowing them up then letting them whiz through the air was really funny. The soccer ball was also a big hit. There was not enough room for a game so instead we played volleyball. The kids kicked our buts! I was very glad we went and the kids gave me a big complement by asking me to return the next day. One of the other families took down a list of things that the orphanage needs and they plan to go shopping for the things later in the week.

March 11

Today is Gotcha day for all the other families. We are so glad we didn't have to wait this long to get Marie! While all the other families went to collect their kids, Jeremy and I went shopping at Church Hill Market. This is essentially where all the tourists go to get touristy kind of stuff. We bought a traditional dress for me, and one for Marie, as well as some banana leaf pictures and some scarves. I kind of wanted to look around and see what all is available before I bought. I was surprised at the market, as I thought we would really be accosted and pressed to buy. Proprieters invite you into their stalls/stores and they will show you items, but it is fairly low pressure. You don't feel a lot of pressure and people aren't shouting at you from all directions. All in all it was a pretty good experience. I will post some pictures of some of the items we bought, but I have to take the pictures first ;-)

March 10th

March tenth we met the other families and figured out the rest of the schedule for the trips. Up till now we have pretty much had a driver all to ourselves. Now we will have to schedule our outings around the other families. Today, everyone else went to meet their children. We anticipated that they would be home around noon, but the whole afternoon went by before they were back. We had to keep ourselves busy at the guest house and surrounding area. By mid afternoon we were pretty bored. In the evening, we went to celebrate out at the crown hotel. There was traditional dancing from different areas of Ethiopia. I wish I had some pictures of it, but I didn't pack our stuff and so we ended up with neither video camera nor still camera along with us. Marie did amazing. She slept through dinner, then happily sat on my lap and watched till around 10 pm when we left. I would have liked to stay and see the rest but everyone else was still really really jet lagged and wanted to get some rest before they took custody of the kids.

March 9th

This afternoon, we met another family who came to Ethiopia a little early. Jeremy went out for dinner with them (again to the Indian restaurant) while I rested. Tonight all the other families arrive and I am excited to meet them. We have had contact via email, but we are looking forward to meeting in person and watching them meet their own children and becoming families.

We tried to give Marie a bath today and we found out that she has lungs and she knows how to use them. I am going to have to find out what they do to bathe the kids at the foster home because sticking her in a tub of water obviously wasn't it! She screamed so loud, I had pity on her and took her out and just gave her a sponge bath. Luckily, she calms down right away when we pick her up so the worst thing that happened was that she got my shirt all wet.