Girl Time!!!

Well it took her long enough but Tacie is here! Yeah! There are three of us girls out here that have waited FAR too long to see our dear friend! We have her for a whole week and while we are "splitting custody" of her, we have also gotten to know one another a little better in the process and are enjoying the girl time.
Here are a few pictures of night one together. We went to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory where we all ate like pigs and shoved in some cheesecake too! Then we wandered around Bethesda and found a restaurant with a massive plastic lizard (really- it was 3 times the size of me) on the ceiling where we sat and had drinks for an hour or so eyeing the lizard and laughing at life, then we all headed home.
It is great to have a week of distraction ahead. The closer the trip to get the girls comes, the more difficult I am getting to be around so girl time is just what the doctor ordered! Yeah!!!!

Just One?

The Guest House.

I know a lot of our friends and family are interested in our trip to Ethiopia, so I thought I would enlighten those interested.
We will be in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. We were given the choice of staying in a hotel or staying in the guest house, which is run by Children's Home Society (our placement agency). We decided to stay in the guest house and are excited to meet the staff there. We are told that they cook some good Ethiopian food and are kind enough to teach the families that choose to stay with them.
Currently there are two guest houses: a new guest house and an "overflow" guest house located close by. We are assigned housing and rooms, so we aren't quite sure where we will be, but will inform family as soon as we know. Some rooms have their own private bathrooms, others require sharing a bathroom. As in any developing country, there are some challenges: sometimes there is no hot water, sometimes there is no electricity, and the internet can be very slow. While these are basic conviencences in the US, we are excited to experience what much of the rest of this world lives like on a daily basis. It is all part of the travel experience.
For those of you that know Garrett and I, we both love to share our space with people. We have lived with roomates and even shared an apartment with other couples, so shared space and the difficulties that can come with it are welcomed and seen as an opportunity to grow when we are faced with them.
Here are some guest house pictures to take a look at. It will at least give you an idea of what life will be like the week we are there.

Waiting

I have to be the most selfish woman ever! Here I am, complaining about the wait to go pick up my own children and now there is an extended wait for families still on the list anticipating a referral. We forget so quickly, how blessed we are to be waiting to travel, regardless of how long that wait may be.
When we were put on the wait in January, the wait was said to be 6-9 months for any families interested in a single infant referral. That wait has recently been extended to 12 months.
For those of you inexperienced on matters of adoption, at 6-9 months you have really already been waiting more like a year. It takes the average family at least 3-4 months just to get their home study completed. That is required prior to being placed on any agencies list. You can imagine after just a 6 month wait, the frustration of hearing it could be 9, but to receive the news that it could be as long as a year, is agony. For these families it means that with all the combined steps they have had to take, they will have waited over a year and half just to hold their children in their arms.
Again, this is not due to a lack of children needing care. This is due, most likely to a lack of staffing in the courts. There are more adoption agencies coming into Ethiopia every day, and with each of them, the paperwork pile grows taller. If the government doesn't have the staffing to process it, it simply sits there and backs up. Meanwhile, the children remain in orphanages and care centers and the families longing for them, are left waiting on this side of the world.
With all my heart, I wish I could do more, send more, give more to Ethiopia and it's people that so long to give their children a better life. It is not for lack of love that these children are waiting to be placed. Please have Ethiopia and it's need for government workers in your thoughts and prayers. There are thousands of families that are waiting to be brought together.
To those amazingly strong families in wait..... my heart is with you. My prayers are with you. It has been and will be a long and difficult number of months for you, for the staff working with our children (they want to see them with you too!), the children's families, and of course, the children themselves. Be diligent in action, prayer and hope. They will be in your arms soon!

What?!?!?

This guy is obviously in politics!

Rising Hope, pt. 1

There are 3 parts to this video, all worth watching. I have only posted the first part.
I am left, once again, amazed at the strenth that Ethiopian women have. They carry burdens every day, far beyond that which I can begin to comprehend.
If you have the time, watch for the information, the beauty of the Amharic language itself, and the inspiration the Ethiopian people have to offer.

The Longest Labor In The WORLD!!!

I have to vent about this because, well, it's just insanity.
If the process of adoption is called a "paper pregnancy", then the time between referral and travel should be "labor" right? Well, let me tell you- I have had just about enough of these labor pains! I want my children now!!!!! I am going crazy!!! Don't get me wrong, I would go through this process a million times over to bring our girls home, but four months seems like an eternity.
Every day is filled with attempts at distracting myself from watching the clock as it moves as slowly as possible through each hour. I am a jumbled ball of emotions that keep me from locating any sense of reason or logic about pretty much anything.
Garrett is patiently dealing with my lack of sanity and is hanging in there pretty well. It takes a lot to deal with a crazy woman while trying to adjust to the new standards medical school imparts on it's students. The school already has him at Walter Reed sitting in with doctors there as they work with patients through various aspects of treatment. They are also expected to assist in home visits within the next week or so.

Garrett's books for the year and the box of human bones he was issued. Pretty cool!

Needless to say, Garrett has jumped in with both feet. It really is pretty amazing what these students get to do. He comes home tired, but the look of satisfaction on his face shows the confidence he feels. He is doing what he was made to do, and I am proud.
The house is pretty much unpacked. There are only two or three boxes left in the basement, but with 6 weeks left until travel, I hate to tear into them for fear of having a REALLY bad day and needing something to work on. So for now, I continue to delve into worlds of rearranged furniture, recipe experimentation and the every day household chores.
I swear the clock is ticking slower than normal....

Obama!!!!