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:
:














learning to love the bath:
:














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.

March 8th (Written by Jeremy)

We've had one complete day with Marie now. It's quite remarkable how well things have gone so far. We were prepared for a lot of crying, not being able to console her, a lack of sleep, the whole gammit. As it is, she seems to have adjusted to us well and is a cheerful little soul. If she cries, picking her up and holding her calms her down immediately. She was a bit of trouble to settle down last night because she kept waking up. After a while though she went to bed and slept the whole night through. She woke up very cheerful and has remained so for most of the day. Are we going to pay for this later in life? We visited the Merkato today with a couple from Edmonton. I think we spent more time looking for parking than actually shopping. Ketema our driver, strongly warned us about pickpockets and other theives. After a relatively short visit to a few shops we headed out. I must say I prefer Church Hill Rd Market. It is smaller, easier to park and has more variety in a small area. It caters mainly to tourists. If we were living here, I am sure we would find the Merkato useful though. The Merkato is broken into areas by contents like "shoes and purses", and "automotive" etc. This is great if you are looking for a particular item, but is lousy if you are just browsing. Apparently you can get anything at the Mercato from false teeth to donkeys. After dropping the other family at the Sheraton for swimming, we went to the Haile Selese Museum in Addis Ababa University. We learned a fair bit more about different cultures within this amazing country. Leah is finishing a Suduku puzzle and we only have one pen, so that's it for my writting for now. Leah: This is a list of the things we know about Marie so far: She cries when we put her down but calms down immediately when picked up. She prefers to sleep on her tummy She likes the snuggly She likes to cuddle She likes juice from a cup She has two teeth She is too busy to get dressed She babbles to herself in the morning, especially if you put her in front of the mirror. She has birth marks on her back. She is perfect.

Friday March 7th -- Gotcha day

Today we are going to pick up our beautiful little girl we are pretty excited. It is windy today but sunny about 24 or 25 degrees. We are slowly adjusting to the time. This morningI did not wake till the call to prayer at 5:30. I am told that there are two different calls to prayer, one for Muslims and one for Orthodox. I cannot yet distinguish between them but whatever it is it is quite beautiful.

Later: We could not pick up Marie in the AM since Haregwoin was in court this morning. So we went to the National Museum and saw Lucy to pass the time. It was pretty neat. I was surprised at how small the museum really is. After that Messfin took us to a restaurant near the museum and we got to see our first coffee ceremony. After that we were able to go to the foster home to pick up Marie!

I think she recognized us from the last time. They brought her down to us in the clothes we brought. I was happy to see that they fit so well. We played with her, took some pictures and got a little bit of information about her schedule. I found out she gets up in the middle of the night for an hour and a half! That is something to change sooner rather than later! She also takes two naps a day. She is drinking formula as well as wheat cereal from her bottle. She has two teeth though and is coming up on ten months so I think we will try to introduce her to solids soon. Whatever they have been feeding her she certainly isn't suffering! Messfin says he thinks she breaks the record for weight at the foster home! I am not sure how much she weighs now but at Christmas she was around 11 kilos. She certainly feels heavy! She has rolly polly legs and a round little tummy.

We said goodbye to Haregwoin and thanked her for caring for Marie all these months. We left all the donations we had brought for babies. I took a picture of the outside of the foster home and I wish I had been allowed to take pictures of the inside so that I could show Marie later in her life where she waited for us. Messfin took us to buy a couple of supplies (the formula and cereal she was used to eating) and then back to the guest house. We spent the afternoon getting to know each other and resting. It's funny, we expected this to be a really emotional day, but it really wasn't. It just felt normal. I think possibly because we have waited so long for this, we were emotionally prepared or had already expended so much emotion? I am not really sure. The only thing that could have made the day more complete was to have the boys with us. But even with that, I feel like we made the right decision because it will be nice to have time with just the three of us to establish a bit of a bond without dealing with the needs of Ryan and Paul as well. All in all it was a pretty perfect day.

Durame

Our journal entries from Durame we are going to keep just for our family. However, we thought you might enjoy some pictures from the area.

March 5 2008 (written by Jeremy)

I'm still recovering from jet-lag and am wide awake at 4:30 am at GMT +3. We're expecting to travel to Kembata today, perhaps as early as noon. I am looking forward to the trip to see more of the country than just the capital city. From what I understand, modernization and industrialization are still very centered in the major urban centersand haven't yet reached the rural populations. It will be interesting to see what Durame is like compared to what we've seen so far in Addis. I've noted how people are quite friendly here and are willing to talk to one another. Mesfin was waiting for traffic to move and while waiting, chatted with the traffic controller. I also saw another vehicle ahead of us later on, the driver was chatting with the occupants of the next vehicle. People also seem to be willing and happy to talk to us, quite often in English.

Later March 4th

On our way back from buying a few groceries for the trip to Kembata, we passed a mother and her two children on the street. The boy was maybe four and the girl looked about 3. They asked for money for food. We gave them the 10 birr we had (one dollar) and decided to go up to the room to get some more stuff for them. I picked out two sweaters that mom and I had made and a couple of tennis balls. We also gave the children's mother 100 birr. The kids were over the moon happy. They both kissed and hugged us. They had grins from ear to ear. Later when we passed again they were wearing the sweaters (it gets cool in the evening) and playing with the balls. As soon as they saw us they immediately ran up again to see us and give us another hug. They were so cute. Sweet little kids.

We found a restaurant that serves Italian and Indian food (odd combination). We opted for Indian. It was very very good. We enjoyed talking to the waiter who's english was quite good. We slept a good part of the afternoon as we still have not adjusted to the time difference. I thought I would not be sleepy tonight, but I am already tired again.

March 3rd

We arrive late after over 30 hours of travel. We were releived to find Messfin and Ketema (our drivers) waiting for us. They brought us directly to the guest house which was about a ten minute drive. They checked us in and we collapsed into bed.

March 4th (I think)

We are unsure what day it actually is since we lost a day somewhere along the way. Jeremy and I woke up at 4:30 this morning. We played cards because there was nothing else to do until the rest of the world woke up. We heard the call to prayer (Muslim I think) at around 5 ish. It is a beautiful sound to wake up to. At 7 we went down and had breakfast. Around 9 Messfin and Ketema came by and asked us if we wanted to meet with Haregwoin and meet Marie! We jumped at the chance because we thought we would be unable to meet her until after our trip to Durame. One of the foster home workers brought her down. She was shy with us. She remained stiff and shy for about 15 minutes, not making a single sound. After that she relaxed a little and by the end of the hour she was starting to coo a little. She is a very beautiful baby, round and roll polly. I think it will take her a little while to get used to us. We must look and sound so strange to her. We spent around an hour with her and I thought it would be difficult to give her back, but it wasn't. We knew that she was tired and that she needed the time to process the experience. I hope that next time we meet her, it will be a bit easier. She loved the book I brought for her and she did not want to let it go so we let her keep it. Hopefully she does not lose it because she likes it so much and it would be nice to have. When we were first introduced, Haregwoin asked me if I recognized her and I said "yes", she said "really because this is a different baby!" I nearly died... she said later that the look on my face was priceless. Aparently she finds it funny to tease jetlagged Canadians! It was rather funny in hind sight. The other eventful thing that happened was that I got peed on. At the foster home they use cloth diapers which are not nearly as absorbant. Haregwoin told me that I had been "claimed". It was quite funny. On this day we also made arragements for our trip to the Kembata region. The cost of the vehicle is $100 per day plus fuel. We will leave sometime tomorrow.

Trip Post #1 March 2nd

(waiting to board in Toronto)

Well so far we have had a reasonably uneventful trip. It was hard to say goodbye to the boys this morning. They came with us to the airport at 4:00 am. The checkin counter was not even open yet. I guess we did not have to arrive as early because we did not realize that this leg was only considered domestic (Victoria to Toronto) We met another couple also on there way their way to adopt, also traveling early. Their son is two months younger than Marie. It was nice to spend the layover in Toronto with them/ getting to know them. Tomorrow they will leave for Uganda to visit their foster child.

The Newest Landed Immigrant!

Well after 36 hours of travel we are home. We left Addis on March 17th and arrived at 11:40 pm on the 18th. Marie did excellant she was such a trooper. There were 6 other families traveling home all together with their children. This was our approximate itinerary:

Arrive at Bole international airport at 7:00 pm. Leave Addis around 10:00 pm. We were glad to have arrived the full three hours early because there was a glitch with one of our families tickets and they sat at the desk sorting it out until 15 minutes prior to boarding!

Arrive in Khartoum (Sudan) around midnight. Here we had a technical problem so we sat on the tarmac for about 2 hours waiting for them to fix the plane. This made the flight about 10 hours instead of 8. Most of the kids did awesome on this flight although for some of the older ones, it was the first time being buckled in anywhere and they were not impressed with that aspect. All in all though, they were really good. Jeremy and I took turns holding Marie (she weighs 12 kilos and did not have her own seat) and sleeping.

Arrive in Frankfurt around 6:00 AM. We parked ourselves in the McDonald's for our 6 hour wait due mostly to the location in the airport (close to two bathrooms and the shower) and the fact that we knew they would not kick us out. Jeremy and I each paid an appalling $8 US each to have a shower (yes it was worth it!). The prices in Frankfurt after the prices in Addis were quite appalling. At McDonald's Jeremy paid over five euros for an orange juice, a coffee and a croissant! We passed the time chasing the kids around alternating sleeping with our heads on the table. At the end of this layover we said goodbye to Deb Northcott (one of the directors of CAFAC) and an awesome family with two gorgeous little boys (ages 3 and 1). They were travelling via Calgary instead of Toronto.

Arrived in Toronto around 4 pm. This flight took 8 or 9 hours and was probably the easiest leg for us because we scored bulkhead seating and had a bassinet to lay Marie down in. This meant that when she slept we could also sleep. When she was awake, there was enough room at our feet for her to play on the floor. The only time she cried the entire flight was when Jeremy took her to the itty bitty little bathroom to change a dirty diaper. When we arrived in Toronto we passed through customs and immigration which was a breeze. The airport officials were friendly and helpful and we did the whole process in around 30 minutes. At this point she was officially a landed immigrant to Canada! It felt good to be back on Canadian soil even if we were still far from home. We celebrated by taking Marie to Tim Horton's for the first time ever. Yup she is now officially Canadian! On this layover (approx 4 hours). We said goodbye to the rest of the families. This was sad for us because we made some great friends and we are all scattered around the country. The closest family to us is in Vancouver, the rest are all in the prairie provinces. We got onto the flight home around 8 pm. All three of us slept the majority of the flight. We arrived home somewhere around 11 pm. Ryan, Paul, Nina, Mom and Dad, Erin and Devin and Auntie Sylvia and Uncle Bryn were all there at the gate ready to greet us with big smiles on. It was the best homecoming ever. Marie did great, she did not mind being passed around and was fantastic through the big hugs her new brothers gave with great exuberance! She did not even mind being strapped into her car seat. We drove home Caravan style and did not get into bed until around 1 am. It was fantastic. Paul had a hard time going back to sleep and so he was awake until around 2 am. Jeremy and I took shifts of sleep and awake because after all that good behaviour on the plane, Marie was wide awake and raring to go. She slept maybe 45 minutes all night. I have never been more tired in my entire life.

In the morning we all got up and played. The boys were stellar, the brought her toys and played with her and distracted her during diaper changes. They are the most awesome big brothers a little girl could ever hope for. Later in the day we went for a walk down to the lake. We came home and had lunch and my Mom came and took the boys out so that we could have a nap. Jeremy and Marie and I were down for around 5 hours. We drove out to Mom and Dad's and had dinner there, then brought everyone home to bed. We all slept like logs from around 8 pm till 5 (except Jeremy who has been up since 3). The boys are still asleep and Jeremy is busy trying to get Marie down for her morning nap. It is good to be home. I will post about our time in Addis later. We meant to do it during the trip but Ethiopia has blocked blogger.com and so we could not access it.