The Fischer Family Online

Is Our Dad Black?

2012-01-18T19:36:00.003-07:00

Before we were matched up with Alemitu, we told the boys that their sister would have darker skin. We told them that she is darker because she is from Ethiopia and that is the way God made her. We've even heard them repeat this explanation to their friends who have asked why their sister is different.

We never wanted to introduce race issues until we needed to. The boys have never been concerned, and I think that is due to the fact that they have friends of all races so it isn't shocking to them to see people of different colors. The boys don't even know that they are considered to be white.

This afternoon I received an e-mail from Calvin's teacher talking about a really neat experiment she did in class about prejudice. They have been talking about Martin Luther King, Jr., and so today she gave all the boys in the class fun things but never gave them to the girls. The experiment worked well, but after reading the e-mail I knew it was time to talk about race.

I asked who Martin Luther King was, and Calvin was quick to correct me and say that I needed to say "Jr." at the end of his name. Good point. Wes then followed up by saying he knows a short way to spell "junior". After this, I decided to start again and asked why Martin Luther King Jr. was so important. Calvin talked about how there used to be "white only" signs up and MLK, Jr. didn't like that. Wes said MLK, Jr. had something to do with reading. It was evident that Calvin's class had discussed this issue more thoroughly.

So I dropped the bombshell. "Do you know your sister is black?" Jaws dropped to the ground. They had no clue. This kind of surprised me. Wes then asked why she is black when her skin is brown. Excellent point. We talked about how we are white and Allie's mommy and daddy are black and so that is why she is black. We talked about different colors of people, and the boys were adamant each time that it doesn't matter what color someone is -- we are the same inside. I love that they felt so strongly about this without me saying it first.

In the end, Calvin summed it up perfectly by saying that because all three of them are so silly on the inside, then they are the same and it doesn't matter what color their skin is. Love it! Wes then said, "I love my sister and never want her to leave because I want her to play with me forever. (then he pauses) And we are white -- um wait mom --- so ... is our dad black?" It was so hard to not start laughing. I love, love, love their innocence and blindness to color.

We are so grateful for what Martin Luther King, Jr. has done. It has allowed us to have our mixed family. I can't imagine life without my little Alemitu.

Doctor's Worries

2012-01-05T16:10:00.004-07:00

Two months ago, I took Alemitu to the doctor for a check-up. Her doctor has been working closely with her development and "gut issues" (as he calls it). He has even called me a couple of times. He has been giving her top notch care.

At our last appointment, he did mention that he thinks she has more delayed growth than we originally thought. He showed me her growth chart on his computer, and it showed that Alemitu had shot up in height over the 3 months prior. It looked good to me. Evidently, that was a trigger for the doctor that she had had some serious malnutrition in the womb and as an infant, and she had delayed growth. When he looked in her mouth and saw that at 17 months she only had 4 teeth, he said he wanted to see me back in 2 months and we were going to take measurements again and talk about a plan.

Normally the parent worries about the health of their children, but I wasn't worried at all. I thought it was a "no big deal" kind of thing, and her doctor didn't seem freaked out either. I was wrong. Evidently, he was dreading seeing me today for several hours before we came in. He was bummed Adam wasn't able to make it, and he was expecting to give us some real bad news. I knew none of this. I wasn't worried at all.

After the nurse took measurements, the doctor came in and asked questions about her growth and speech than about her "gut issues". I was a little confused, but I told him that she talks all of the time, and that she must have hit a growth spurt because she can open doors now and some of her clothes are too short all of a sudden. He gave me the weirdest look and said, "Really? Growth spurt?" Um yeah, I think so.

To make a long story short, after taking her new measurements it was discovered that her measurements from the previous time were incorrect. The nurse wrote down an incorrect height measurement (showing she was a little taller than she is right now), and so last time there was a huge spike in the growth chart. Again, that meant nothing to me, but her doctor was overly excited that it was an error. He kept telling me how worried he was and how he was really preparing himself to give me bad news. He went on and on and on about her. I would chuckle a little when he would tell me how excited he was (about every other sentence), and he stopped one time and said, "Seriously mom. I was really dreading this appointment." I don't know what the bad news would have been, but it doesn't even matter. Alemitu does have delayed growth, but nothing to be concerned about. It is at a level that is completely normal with "healthy" adopted children from 3rd world countries.

Her doctor confirmed that her biological parents are really tiny because she is still really tiny. He also confirmed that once again, he thinks that she was taken care of in the womb and at birth. This was his initial statement back in March, but it all changed two months ago. He said that she is just going to be a petite girl. We expected this because her features are so petite. She is on the growth chart (just barely), but he was happy that she is now touching the lowest curve on the growth chart and she is staying with the curve rather than jumping high or low.

All in all, it was a great appointment. I went in thinking Alemitu was healthy but small with some delayed growth, and I came out with the same conclusion. No more special appointments for her, and she doesn't have to go back for another 6 months!! Below are some fun pictures from today:

Allie started screaming as soon as we walked into the exam room.

The boys couldn't handle the noise. (What helped Alemi to stop screaming
was to pet Wes' head and say "niiiiiiigh doddy" - nice doggy.)

Alemi's new hairstyle.

Alemitu is all about shoes. If she isn't wearing shoes, she will bring a pair to us
and keep saying "Shoe, shoe, shoe, shoe" over and over until you put it on.
She keeps working (lots of grunting) at trying to get them on herself, but
she isn't even close yet. We keep her shoes on this shelf, and if she sees any lying
on the ground she will immediately put them back where they belong.

Shopping with her sippy cup, ponies, and Wii remote.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T12:58:00.014-07:00

This year we had an amazing Christmas! I am so very blessed. We were able to spend the week before Christmas with my parents. On Christmas Eve, we spent several hours with good friends eating a Mexican breakfast (kids were in pajamas) and decorating cookies. We also spent a few hours with Adam's parents and grandma as we do each year.

As soon as Wes lost his top two teeth,

I purchased this shirt for him. Perfect timing!

Alemitu pushing cousin Chloe around. Even though it
doesn't look like it, Chloe was having a blast.

At the zoo with grandma and grandpa!

Going down the polar slide at the zoo. Grandma and grandpa paid for
them to go a few times. The boys were yelling that it was the
best day ever after they finished riding. Grandma even went too!

On Christmas morning, the boys woke us up at 8:15 and they ran out to see that Santa had brought them new bikes and Ghostbuster toys. The boys love anything Ghostbusters since we bought them some used Ghostbuster toys on Ebay this summer. Alemitu got a cozy coupe, a little horse, and some other toys. She didn't care about unwrapping any gifts, but she stayed in her cozy coupe and pretended to drive all morning. My sister and her family came over for a few hours, and it was wonderful. After they left, our house was quiet. Alemitu was napping and the boys were playing in their room. I remember how my mom used to say that Christmas afternoons were so quiet as we played with our toys. It was such a beautiful and calm day, and we even went on a few bike rides. The boys haven't stopped playing with their toys, and we even had to ask them to go to bed around 1 a.m. last night. It has been a wonderful Christmas, and we are so very blessed.

Calvin riding his new bike with his Ghostbuster costume on.

When Alemitu saw these horses at the store, she would scream her head off.
She was terrified of the noise. I kept taking her to the store and letting her get
used to the "nice horsey". She loved her horse when she saw it under the tree.

She loves to sit in her cozy coupe. So far, she can go backwards in it.

My new bike!!!! My old bike broke a few months ago, and so I've been riding
Adam's. I am so happy I got a new one for Christmas! Alemitu and I always
ride to the park and the grocery store during the week.

Great Grandma and Grandpa Jones got Alemitu this slide. She has
no fear and slides down it so fast -- over and over and over again.

Normally for Christmas we pick a family with my sister and provide them with gifts. This year, we did something different. We are helping a family in Korah (the dump and leprosy colony we visited in Ethiopia). These people really touched our hearts, and so we are providing for a single mother to have her children in day care while she works. This provides two meals for the family, education for the children, medical care, etc. You can watch a video below regarding this program. Because of the support they have received in the past 6 months, they are waiting to get approval to add more families to this program. That is wonderful!

I hope you and your families had a great holiday as well. We love you all!

Alemitu's Hair

2011-12-15T21:45:00.007-07:00

After 9 months, I have started to feel like I finally understand how to take care of Alemitu's hair. This week I decided to do something a little more advanced. My goal was to complete the style within 3 hours. NOT including any breaks, it took me over 5 1/2 hours. Including breaks and two trips to the beauty store for more hair extensions, it took 9 hours.

Alemi did great. She has learned to just lay on the floor and rest her head on my legs -- all while watching Care Bears. Today I saw Care Bears over and over and over again. Allie even fell asleep at one point. While I am so sore to the point I want to cry, two good things came out of this. Allie got a great style, and I learned that she is ready to fly on an airplane again. If she can sit all day and get her hair done, I think she is finally old enough to sit still on a plane.

Step 1: Remove last week's style and brush out her hair.

Step 2: Shampoo her hair, and comb it out again. After shampooing, put it in loose braids so it doesn't tangle up overnight.

Step 3: Set up hair braiding station. Fully equipped with 3 types of hair extensions; 4 different products; beads; clips; scissors; combs; bands -- and Care Bears.

Step 4: Start the clock and start the braiding.

Step 5: Take lots of Advil and hope that this style lasts at least 10 days.

State of the Union

2011-11-28T13:16:00.007-07:00

We've had a lot going on the past 3 months that I thought I would take some time to share where we are at right now.

Adam has moved his business from a studio in our house to a studio in Scottsdale. He is at a place that houses several video production companies. While this was a scary move, it was definitely worth it. He has already seen such a huge benefit to working at the Scottsdale studio. Adam's business is booming, and we are so very grateful for that. At home he has been working with the boys on rollerblading and skateboarding. The weather is great and we enjoy the time outside.

Because Adam no longer needed a studio at home, we decided to move out of our big house and into a house that was much more practical for this. We love it! At school the boys, especially Wes, will write about it in their journal. They are so happy that we are closer to "each uddy" (each other). Allie loves the new house because she can walk anywhere without having to worry about gates and stairs. I love it because it is so much easier for me to maintain. I love being able to open the back patio door while I cook dinner and let the boys play outside on the trampoline and not having to worry about them falling into a pool. (But I also love that we have a community pool we can go to anytime.) I love how the yard and the inside are so much easier to maintain. Adam loves the house because he doesn't feel like he lives where he works anymore. We share an office and the office opens up into our family room, so even when he does do work at home we are still together. We also love that the house is right across the street from our city park. We are at the park all the time whether it is to picnic, play on the playground, ride bikes, or let the boys go into the skate park. We love, love, love this house!

Picture of Adam's office space in September when it was still under construction.

Like Adam, I just moved my business too. I have always been a contractor and just rented my space at different salons. A month ago, I was presented with an opportunity to have my own salon suite. A great friend of mine and I teamed up and opened our own place called The Chair. Our salon is in a building that houses several small, individual salons. I love it there! I love working with Bridget so much, and I love having my own place. My clients love the salon, and that just makes it so much easier. Leaving my last salon turned out to be very dramatic, and so I am so grateful to have gotten the opportunity to go elsewhere.

As for me personally, I am really happy just being with my family. We just spent Thanksgiving weekend in Flagstaff for a little family getaway. It was so very nice to just spend time with Adam and the kids. When Adam showed me the photo that we took in Flagstaff, I just got this warm and fuzzy feeling about how we are a family of five now. Seems silly, but it was just shocking for me to realize that. We are a family of five. On the drive home from Flagstaff, Adam and I talked about how one of the social workers told us that we were a very close knit family of 4. There was such a tight bond -- would we be able to allow a 5th person into our family? I'm a worry wart, and that honestly worried me. I love my boys so much, and I didn't want to have to take away some of my love for them to pass it on to someone else. However, Adam was right when he told me that my heart would grow bigger. Could we allow a 5th person into our family? YES! I can't imagine life without all THREE of my kids. We are now a tight group of FIVE. Life is just wonderful. Whether it is riding my bike to the grocery store with Allie, going to the park with the boys, or watching a late night movie with Adam -- life is wonderful. I cherish these moments and often think about how blessed we are.

Picture of 1/2 of my salon suite. Bridget's station and chair are behind me.

Calvin is doing great. He still loves school and Mrs. VanDeCar. He has a bunch of friends that he runs around with on the playground. Calvin plays football and just enjoys being on the team and able to hang out with this friends. He has taken a big interest into skateboarding, and he will be getting some professional lessons soon. Calvin is so patient and doesn't get frustrated easy, so this type of sport is perfect for him. He still loves to play with his brother or by himself. And most importantly, he still dresses up in costumes EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Wes is just as fast paced as always. The kid just goes and goes and goes and well you get the idea. He loves school too. He always wants to play on the trampoline, wrestle with Calvin or Allie, or play the Wii. I don't need to set an alarm in the morning, but Wes will come in an tell me that it is 7:02 -- and I'm late getting up! Wes is always worried about the time (like his mom), and he also worries about everything else (i.e. putting his folder back into his school back, turning in his homework, etc.) Even though he is super fast paced, he is such a little cuddle bug and full of compliments for people. He is very competitive, and loves trash talking his Grandma Allen when they play games. He keeps track of how many Uno "wins" each person has during each visit.

Alemitu is almost 18 months and is also always on the go. She loves wrestling with Wes or watching Wes try to beat up Adam, but cries when Adam wrestles with Wes. She is still a GREAT sleeper, and I am so very grateful for this! Her two favorite words are happily yelling "No!" or saying "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy" and on and on and on. We thought our 2 1/2 hour trip to Flagstaff would be filled with her constantly saying "mommy". Whenever I look at her as she says it over and over and over again, she just smiles and waves, and then keeps saying "mommy". I forgot to mention, her third favorite word "Pizza!" She thinks all food is pizza, so every breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack she keeps yelling "Pizza!" with excitement as we prepare her food. She says lots of other words too, but these three seem to be her favorite. She recently went to the doctor and she has completely caught up developmentally. The only issue left is her growth. The doctor wants to see her again in a month to do some more measurements. Her bones are showing a delayed growth, but it isn't something to worry about. She IS growing, but it just shows that she had quite a bit of malnutrition when she was little. She'll catch up, but I think she will always be petite. Alemi loves to smile and cuddle, and we are so lucky to have her in our family.

Celebration Day!

2011-11-19T21:14:00.005-07:00

Today was an AMAZING day!! All three of my children had really special events today, and everything went great!

Allie was NOT happy anytime we moved her balloon out of the way.

Alemitu's event was her final court room appearance to finalize her adoption in the State of Arizona. We have already adopted Alemitu, but by doing it again through the state then we are able to have easier access to her birth certificate, adoption records, etc. Otherwise we would have to get them from Ethiopia when they are needed. In addition, this allowed us to change her name back to her original name. When we brought her into the US, the embassy renamed her to "Alemitu ADAM Fischer". So we gave her her grandfather's name back, and she is once again "Alemitu Tagese Fischer".

Our paperwork finished just in time to be a part of National Adoption Day. There were about 300 families in Phoenix that came to the courtroom today for their adoption proceedings. There were bounce houses, free food and treats, and even Santa Claus. My mom came to visit this weekend and so she and Jenna's family were able to come to court with us. After we all enjoyed the National Adoption Day festivities, we met with our attorney and then went to our court hearing. I knew this was just a formality as she has been legally ours for 8 months now. I was surprised that we all got choked up during the hearing when the judge said "Your adoption is final." It was emotional, and when leaving the court room Adam said a prayer with Allie for her grandfather, Tagese.

After the hearing, we all rushed back to the football fields. Today was Wes & Calvin's big football tournament. We were ranked #2 in the division, and for the last 7 weeks we have been practicing solely to beat the 1st place team. They have a really good player on their team, and so Coach Justin has worked with the kids for 7 weeks on how to get past this player. We had to win two games to get to the championship, and they were tough teams. We saw the boys win the first game and then Grandma and Grandpa Fischer stayed with them through the second game while we went to the adoption hearing. The second game was intense, and very close -- but the Raiders won again.

It came down to the final game. The game we had been practicing for -- 3 times a week. The team played so hard, and they were so exhausted, but we managed to win by just a few points. At the end it was so intense and the other team was pretty much on the touchdown line and if they scored, they would win. With 2 seconds left in the game, they made a play, but time ran out. The game was incredibly tense and so very exciting. All of the parents were screaming, yelling, and cheering. The parents stormed the field at the end of the game. It was exciting, and I think all the parents have lost our voices. Coach Justin is simply amazing. He doesn't just teach the kids football, he also teaches them to be respectable young men. It was a great, great season. The entire team signed up for next season so I see a lot of football games in our future.
A lot is happening in our life right now, and I'll update in a few days. It has been a busy past couple of months, but they have been really good. I'm looking forward to some family time in Flagstaff for Thanksgiving.

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-10T21:31:00.005-07:00

We had a great Halloween this year! We looked at tons of costumes, but the boys were adamant about having Captain America and Green Lantern. As for Allie, I chose a Care Bear costume because that is what she watches on television when I style her hair. I picked the Care Bear that I used to have as a kid - Cheer Bear. She loved wearing her costume.

A few days before Halloween, I took the kids to a local Halloween festival at the Goodyear Ballpark while Adam was in Mexico. We went with my sister and her family. Uncle Zach dressed up as Mickey Mouse (Chloe was Minnie Mouse), and he pulled Allie and Chloe in the wagon the whole night. The boys got to go on some rides and enter a costume contest. We had a great time.

On Halloween night, Mickey Mouse pulled Allie and Chloe in the wagon again. Allie has always been especially fond of my sister, and she just had so much to say to Jenna. We have no idea what most of it was, but every time the wagon got close to Jenna, Allie started chattering away at her. Chloe held on for dear life. She did not trust her daddy pulling that wagon and she had the tightest grip on the sides of the wagon for most of the night. Towards the end, Allie directed her conversation to Chloe and they talked a little bit.

The boys were so excited for Halloween. Wes kept writing about it at school for two weeks leading up to the holiday. There was no hesitation as they went door to door. They even learned to say "Trick or Treat. Smell my feet. Give me something good to eat." They couldn't believe how much candy they got and they were super excited. The fact that they both don't really like chocolate didn't seem to bother them. They just enjoyed collecting the candy and spending time with all of the family that came along.

It was a great night, and we ended it by drinking hot cider on the patio.

The boys pretended that super heroes were doing Calvin and Wes' homework.

My baby girl

2011-10-22T22:00:00.003-07:00

A year ago we got a phone call informing us that we had a 4 month old daughter waiting for us in Ethiopia. This was the first picture we saw:

It has been a year, and I have been waiting weeks to write the "It's been a year since our referral" post. However when Friday rolled around, I just couldn't find the words. How do I convey how happy Alemitu has made our family? Tonight, Alemitu showed me the words.

We had friends over for dinner to discuss a new business venture. As we were talking details, my daughter walks around the corner in her Halloween costume. I was in business mode, and then Alemi melted my heart and lit up my face. Her bright eyes and big smiles lit up the entire room - thus lighting up my life. I realized right then that it isn't the vast array of emotions we have felt in the past year that I need to write about. It is simply describing the brightness in our lives because of Allie. I get to see that brightness in all of the little things, each and every day.

This morning Allie sat on the blanket watching her brothers play football. Alemitu was surrounded by her cousin who smiles every time she sees Allie; her 3 year old friend Faith who has renamed all of her own baby dolls "Allie"; and her 6 year old friend Makya who just admires Alemi at every game, practice, and social outing. My daughter lights up the lives of these little girls several times a week -- thus lighting up my life.

On Thursday my friend Hollie came to visit from Tennessee. She could not wait to get her hands on Alemitu, and I couldn't wait for Hollie to see all of Allie's changes. I was overwhelmed with feelings of pride and a sense of comfort. Hollie and her husband Brian, are the only people in the world who know the real Alemitu from as far back as Adam and I do during our first meeting with Allie to our first time taking her from the transition home. They are the only ones who can truly see how much Allie has changed, and how much has stayed the same. Hollie knows Alemitu's grandfather and she can't wait to one day tell Alemitu about her grandfather's kind eyes. Hollie always calls 'Allie' - 'Alemitu' because to Hollie, Allie is and will always be 'Alemitu Tagese'. Hollie knew Alemitu before we decided to keep her full name 'Alemitu'. In fact, they along with my dad, were the people that helped convince us to keep her name. Alemitu lit up Hollie's world during Hollie's short visit -- thus lighting up my world.

On most nights the boys wrestle with Allie. She giggles and makes huge belly laughs as they wrestle around on the floor. At least once a week I watch this go on and I think about how Alemitu's grandfather couldn't contain his excitement when he learned that she would have two brothers. He told us that made him very, very happy. I think all three of my children light up each others worlds every single day -- thus lighting up my world.

Allie loves to talk on the phone. When Adam travels, Adam always gets to talk on the phone with his little girl. She will have a long conversation with him, and he'll sit and listen even if he can't understand a word she is saying. Alemitu lights up Adam's world -- thus lighting up my world.

On Friday morning, I went through my normal routine: Put Alemi in her carseat. Start the car. Turn the music up a little louder. Then look in the rearview mirror to watch my daughter dancing and singing. It's the simple things, but it makes me start my day off with a big smile. Allie lights up my world every single day.

We are constantly stopped in public places by people telling us how beautiful and expressive Allie is. She lights up the world of strangers, family, and friends. I can't imagine our family without her. So many people talk about what an amazing thing we did by adopting her. In fact, some of our good friends really talked about that this weekend and they even gave me a special bracelet that says "beyond" as a reminder that we have gone beyond what is typical to do something special. I'm so humbled by their sweet comments and it brought tears to my eyes, but it is me who feels blessed. I am the one that feels lucky. You want to know why? Because Alemitu lit up the face of her grandfather. Her grandfather, Tagese, loved his little granddaughter. He was so proud of her. It was written all over his face. Alemitu lit up his world from the beginning. She lit up the world of her nannies. We never taught Alemitu to have this spirit -- it is a gift from God and she has had it since birth. I don't know much about Allie's first 4 months, but her grandfather's face said it all. She lit up the world when she was born. And it is me, her adoptive mother, that is blessed to be able to have brought her into our family and be a part of her glowing and growing life.

If you want Allie to bring a smile to your face, click on the link below to re-watch the short video Adam made in February after we met our daughter for the first time. I guarantee she will light up your life today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTUU2AfL8TQ

Fall Break

2011-10-16T19:22:00.010-07:00

The boys were on fall break this week, and we had a blast. I think I'm more sad about school starting back up than they are. Time is just flying by. I can't believe we are already talking about Christmas lists and making our plans for the upcoming holidays. Although with temperatures back up in the 100s, it doesn't feel like the holidays are approaching.

This week we had playdates with a few friends; went to the zoo; went to the park; went to Makutu's Island (huge indoor play place); went roller skating; and ended the week with a big cookout with friends. By Thursday Wes was so exhausted that he took two naps on the couch. That never, ever happens. It was a great, great week!

As for my diet, I stayed on track throughout this crazy week. I ended the first 17 day phase with a total loss of 9.6 pounds!! I'm thrilled. Today was my free day (there is a huge soda on my desk right now), and tomorrow I start the second 17 day phase which is a little easier. I'm hoping to lose 6 pounds. This will be a shock to those who know me well, but I didn't even have ranch dressing on my free day. The thought of dipping food in ranch seems pretty disgusting and overindulging to me right now. My free day consisted of a cheeseburger for lunch, and cookout food/dessert this evening. I'm stuffed! Phase 2 here I come.

Here are some pictures from this week:

Wes at the zoo. He fell down from this pose and hurt himself. Calvin then asked if he could try, um, sure thing buddy as I sheepishly looked at my sister knowing I'm winning "worst parent of the year" award. Calvin didn't fall -- and then I let Wes try again.

Alemitu and cousin Chloe at the zoo.

Wes and Calvin with friends Denali and Dalton

Makutu's Island - I read a book for 4 hours while the boys played.
I had to beg them to take a break and eat some lunch.

Calvin's friend, Santino, was helping him learn to skate.
Wes loved skating, but he liked to stay in the middle and was cautious. Calvin took skating extremely seriously (like he does his dancing), and he went around and around and around. He was not intimidated, and falling down over and over never bothered him. He just kept going. By the end of the day, he told me he was so good at skating, but his skating involved running on his skates around the rink. I'm still so impressed with both boys for not once getting frustrated.

The boys LOVED skating. They are begging us to take them back ASAP. Adam suggested buying them rollerblades for Christmas since we live across the street from a skate park. Wes and Calvin have already asked for skates about a dozen times in the past 24 hours, and they don't understand why we won't just go to the store and get them.

Allie enjoying a cheeseburger.

Wes' second couch nap on Thursday. Crashed.

It's Fall!

2011-10-06T20:48:00.004-07:00

The weather is finally starting to feel like fall in Phoenix! We have been to the park several times, on a few bike rides, and today we spent quite a bit of time playing outside on the bikes, scooters, skateboards, and power wheels car. I love fall!

Yesterday I went to the boys' school for parent/teacher conferences. The teachers had great things to say about both boys. I did hear two great stories from Calvin's teacher that Adam wanted to make sure I wrote down so we wouldn't forget.

1. There is this "bad" kid in Calvin's class named Rowan. The boys always talk about how Rowan gets in trouble every. single. day. They describe Rowan's behavior very dramatically. Anyway, I was surprised when Calvin's teacher said that when she has the kids in her class choose partners, Calvin chooses Rowan over his very best friend, Levi. What? After he did it a few times, she asked Calvin why he would keep choosing Rowan as a partner. Calvin replied, "Because he is bad and I am good, so maybe I can show him how to be good." How sweet. I am so proud of my little guy!

2. In Calvin's class, a girl announced that she was adopted from Korea. A student asked her what adoption meant. She didn't know. Calvin raised his hand and said very matter of factly, "Well, we adopted our sister. Her mommy and daddy couldn't take care of her, and my mommy and dad could. So, uh, we just went and took her." :-) Not very politically correct, but Mrs. VanDeCar said it was such a perfect explanation in first grade language. I didn't even think Calvin knew what adoption meant. I'm so proud that he has developed the self-confidence over the past 1 1/2 years with Mrs. VanDeCar to be able to share these things with the class. Prior to entering into first grade, his answer was "I don't know" to everything. Again, we are so proud.

Wes had a great conference too. His teacher doesn't share as much as Mrs. VanDeCar, but she did tell me that Wes is a great kid. He got 100% on most of his tests and she kept saying, "Nothing to be seriously concerned about here." Um, I don't think you can get better than 100% so I'm pretty sure I'm not concerned at all, let alone seriously concerned. Oh well. She is growing on me, and Wes really likes her. I think Wes was nervous about his conference because that was one of the first questions he asked when he saw me. I told him that his teacher thought he was doing great and that we only needed to work on a few things, and his face lit up and said "Really?" Wes is such a sweet, sweet boy always trying to make his mommy and daddy happy.

Allie is still just as happy as ever. She is repeating so many things we say. She says things on her own like "Thank you (day do)"; "here you go (here doe)"; and she even said "pweas" instead of blowing a raspberry. Pweas only lasted a few minutes before she was back to blowing raspberries. She is learning smaller words every day like ball, truck, brother, etc. but most of it is her repeating the sounds rather than her retaining the word and its meaning. She loves to tell you where the kitty (dee dee) is, and where the doggie (dah dah) is, and always, always, always she will tell you where her cousin Chloe (doe dee) is. She still won't consistently tell you where mommy and daddy is though. :-) Silly girl. Also if you ask to change her diaper, she make a run for it. Then she'll turn around a few feet later just to make sure you think she is funny. I just love to watch how she grows each and every day.

The funniest thing she is doing now is shaking her head "no" and saying "uh-huh" to every, single question you ask her. She can differentiate between a question and a statement, and every question will be answered with a "no". She'll blow a raspberry and say "please" for some more milk. Then I will ask "do you want some more milk?" Shake her head and "uh-huh" comes out. The boys are trying to teach her to say yes. She isn't grasping that concept just yet.

She is also still having issues with eating solid foods. She has stopped gagging and throwing up, but she just doesn't have a whole lot of interest on most days. Other days, she will eat anything you give her (i.e. peel and eat shrimp) I'm quickly learning that it is easier for her to eat off of my plate than to put it on hers. Scrambled eggs on her plate - Yuck! Stealing scrambled eggs from mom's plate - Delicious! She is getting better though, and it is just going to take some time.

Adam has been and will be traveling most of this month so I'm playing single mom. I am so blessed to have such great children that help make this single mom business really easy. Poor daddy sure does miss his munchkins and is always asking for pictures, video, and phone calls.

1/3 of the Way Through

2011-10-03T16:49:00.002-07:00

Ever since I wrote my last post about dieting, I have received so many encouraging words. Thank you! Thank you! The very first morning, I wanted to have a glass of orange juice with the boys, and I didn't -- only because I had posted it on the blog. I almost deleted the post multiple times before hitting "publish". I was embarrassed. But I knew I had to do it. I knew I needed the accountability. Thank you, thank you!

So I'm on day 6 of the 17 day diet -- phase 1. (This diet has several phases, all 17 days.) This is called the "accelerate phase" and it is hard. Basically I can eat all the chicken and lean fish that I want to. Unfortunately, I don't like lean fish -- I like shellfish. So I'm eating chicken and salads for dinner most nights. Some nights my plate is just filled with lots of asparagus. (I do love asparagus.) It isn't easy. The first three days I was making a LONG list of the things I was going to eat on Day 18. BW3s, Macayos, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and soda, soda, soda. Days 4 and 5 got easier. I feel stronger. I'm not craving those foods. I'm not craving fast food. I'm craving a more normal diet. I'm craving a weight watchers type diet where I can eat in moderation, but have more variety than chicken, veggies, and water to drink. I think this is a great thing.

I have a long, long way to go, but I'm doing really well on this phase. I think once I get past the first 17 days, I'll be good to go and continue losing the weight at a normal (not accelerated pace). So far, I've lost 4 pounds in 6 days.

Have I cheated? Yep. On Day 3, I had a little bag of fruit snacks after hearing how stressed Adam was about a project with issues here while he was in New York. Without thinking, I just grabbed the 80 calorie bag and ate them standing up in the kitchen. I felt awful. Later that night I met one of Adam's colleagues at Dairy Queen to pick up some things from him. I pulled out of Dairy Queen, drove 1/4 mile, then turned around and went right back into the Dairy Queen drive-thru. (Rob, stop laughing!) On Saturday, I had 6 ounces of Dr. Pepper.

So I've cheated, and I felt guilty. I was thinking "Well I guess I didn't have the will power after all." I was thinking negatively, when I should have been thinking positively. I slipped up, but it didn't set me back an entire night. I just went right back on my diet. And I may have said yes to soda one time, but I have had to deny it on multiple occasions when clients and co-workers have offered to get me one. I walked down to the coffee shop with a friend, and she kept saying, "Come on Sabrina, I'll buy you a soda." Everyone knows I love soda. I hadn't told her I was on the diet yet. She kept asking, but I kept refusing. In the end, she chose to get herself water instead too. I am becoming stronger. It isn't about the number on the scale, it is about moderation. Stop drinking all the soda. Stop eating fast food for lunch and dinner. This first phase is tough and definitely not intended to last much longer than 17 days. But it makes you strong. It's totally worth it. I need this.

I'll report back in another 6 days. I promise this blog won't turn into "All about Sabrina's Diet" -- just the first 17 day part. :-)

Adam called me fat

2011-09-27T21:14:00.004-07:00

Over the past few years, we have had a lot of ups and downs, and I've been open to sharing them with my friends, family, and clients. I'm not worried about anyone judging me. My "judgmental" opinion is that the people that loudly judge everyone, while keeping their own faults private, are usually the miserable ones anyone.

One thing I have learned I can't fake is being fat. I'm fat. I know it. I want to be skinny, but right now I'm not. One day I was trying on an outfit and I asked Adam if the shirt made me look fat. He hemmed and hawed and then said, "Honey, the shirt doesn't make you look fat. You being fat makes you look fat." Gasp! In our marriage, it wasn't shocking and didn't upset me -- I laughed. You see, Adam is right. I was trying to fake something I wasn't. No matter what I wear, I'm not going to fool anyone into thinking my body is the same as Cindy Crawford's. (By the way, Adam read this and said "Cindy Crawford? Really? That's who you pick?" I said her name was the first I thought of. Adam said Jennifer Aniston is better. Hmm should I worry? Ha!) Adam is blunt like myself and it works well in our marriage. He isn't fake with me. If you ask him if he has an obese wife, he'd say yes. But everyday he tells me how beautiful I am. That isn't fake.

I've had someone tell me that I should get skinnier during our adoption process to be able to be a better mom for when we would bring Allie home. I'm a good mom. Being skinny doesn't make you a good mom. I run on the treadmill. I bike, run, skate, etc. with my kids. I'm a good mom, and my weight has not hindered my playtime with my children.

However, I'm not setting a good example. I want teach my kids that they just need to keep trying their hardest and they will get better. We preach that over and over and over again. No matter how frustrating, just keep trying -- your hardest. I've been "trying" for the last 6 years -- but not my hardest. I try to diet and sometimes I lose 30 pounds, and sometimes I quit after being on a diet for 3 hours. There are so many excuses -- and I HATE when people give excuses. So why do I feel it is okay to keep giving excuses? Why do I keep telling my kids to try and they'll get better, when I'm not practicing what I preach?

Even worse, I have a hormone problem that mimics diabetes and there is a very, very high chance of me being diabetic at a very young age. In just a couple of years, my doctor will test me once a year and then start twice a year. I've known this since I was 23. It isn't news to me. But yet, if I'm being honest, I'm jeopardizing my future with my family for instant gratification at In-N-Out Burger. I don't want to be that person. I may not be able to prevent the early diabetes with PCOS, but my doctor said that getting the weight off will definitely help me. He said I'd struggle with it my entire life, but the less I weigh the less my symptoms will be. (Jillian from the Biggest Loser said practically the same thing -- and she knows everything. :-)

I'm not perfect. I never will be nor do I want to be and nor do I want to portray that I am. However I am very self-reflective and I am always trying to be a better person, and rid my life of negative. So in my life right now, this is what I struggle with the most. This is what I need to work on. And I have tried so many different diets, but I've never tried just getting it out in the open and asking for support and accountability. Tomorrow, Wednesday, I will start part one of the 17 Day Diet. While I won't be skinny in 17 days, I will have met my first goal of just simply being on a super strict diet for 17 days. If I can't stick to something for just 17 days, what example am I giving my children when skateboarding gets hard? School gets hard?

17 days. I can do this.

Family & Football

2011-09-25T15:27:00.011-07:00

The boys started playing flag football this last week, and my parents were here to see the first game! In addition to football, we went on bike rides; went to the park a few times; played at a few splash pads; and Grandpa even took them to see the Smurf movie. The boys love when their grandparents come to visit, and we were all so sad to see them leave. Here are a few pictures of the past week:

Cutest Raiders cheerleader ever!

Wes is the official center for the team

Coach Justin is AMAZING! In addition to being good friends with their family,
he has coached the boys in soccer too and he is just an amazing, amazing coach.

PLAYING AT THE PARKS:
We have a great city park that is across the street from our neighborhood. It has several large playgrounds, a skate park, baseball diamond, bike riding bath, volleyball courts, and a splash pad. Grandma and Grandpa took the kids on a bike ride to the park a few times while they were visiting. The boys are really enjoying all of the amenities that surround our new house. Football practice is 1/2 mile away at a field in our neighborhood and we usually ride bikes or take the golf cart there.

Allie LOVES water -- especially the splash pads.

She was so mad when we made her leave.

Calvin is great at climbing the rock walls.

Allie yelling "GO!" She also says other little words like "thank you" and "ut-oh"

BIKES & GOLF CARTING:

Wiped out!

Sweet Mamma!

2011-09-15T21:11:00.007-07:00

Here are some recent pictures of our lil' mamma. Or -- as Calvin likes to call her now "Little Miss".

Pigtails!

Look at that hair!!

Not wanting to pose for her "first time wearing jeans" picture.
Believe it or not, she does frown sometimes.

Spittin' Image

2011-09-11T19:59:00.008-07:00

We have been really busy the past few weeks with painting the new house and moving, so I have gotten behind on the blog entries.

A few weeks ago Adam's dad sent us a picture of Adam in first grade. It is shocking how much it looks like Calvin. In fact, when we asked the boys who was in the picture, Calvin thought it was himself. Everyone always talks about how Wes looks just like me and Calvin looks just like Adam. The boys' pediatrician was talking about it to a new doctor when we were there in July (without Adam). He said he doesn't have another set of twins where one looks just like mom and one looks just like dad. So, I thought I'd post the proof:

We're Moving!

2011-08-16T21:08:00.004-07:00

It's that time of year again. It seems like every year around this time we are making some big changes in our life. My sister Jenna described me and her as getting complacent easy and needing to change things up a little. :-) Adam and I are definitely changing things.

I won't bore you with Adam's business details. Long story short -- we previously built out a large studio/office in our house with a separate entrance for Adam's business. This has been wonderful for the past 2 1/2 years, but Adam has grown out of it. There are people coming and going all of the time -- at all hours of the night, even when Adam is traveling and I'm here alone with the kids. Our street is getting crowded. He is running out of space. So he is moving his business to a studio in Scottsdale that houses several video production companies. This is a wonderful opportunity and Adam has a business relationship with the owner of the studio. Adam is also taking on a partner who has been sub-contracting for him the past several years. Jeff will handle all of the management, invoices, new clients, etc. for a percentage of the business. Jeff will "buy in" to the company by paying for half of the rent at the Scottsdale studio.

This is the biggest risk that Adam has ever taken with his business. I don't like risk. We normally butt heads when Adam wants to take a risk. Oh I was kicking and screaming over this one. I even blurted out "this is the stupidest thing ever" on one occasion. There were tears shed. However in the end, I knew he was right. It is time to move on. It is time to grow. It is time to decide if he wants to stay a "mom and pop" company or grow into a larger company. I was terrified.

It didn't take long for me to realize that if Adam moves out of this house, we won't be using half of it. We live in a 4,800 square foot house. Our electricity bill last month was $823. Our monthly HOA bill for the gated community is $152/month. This has been a great house, but I can't imagine paying for it, cleaning it, and taking care of the larger yard when we don't even use half the space. We don't even have a TV downstairs at all (except the studio). We live in the upstairs of our house practically. We never sit in our family room. We sit upstairs in the loft. It was time to start thinking about downsizing.

The market in Arizona is very, very different than most other places right now. Rentals are going fast. People are having to place bids on rental houses and you have to snatch them up very, very fast. While we were looking around at rental houses (we have no intention of actually buying a house for many, many years because of the current market), we happen to see a house that had a little "for rent by owner" sign in the yard. It wasn't on any of the real estate websites. We called the guy, saw the house, fell in love, and we just learned yesterday that he picked our family over the other applicants. So . . . we're moving!

We've been renting the past 2 1/2 years from Jim and Sherree, and they will be able to sell the house for a profit when we move out. As for our new house, it is 2,150 square feet -- less than half the space we currently have. But we are ready for small. We are so ready to get back into a "cozier" feeling house. A more manageable yard. And no video equipment taking up my garage space!!!! The house is 3 bedrooms plus a den, and it has a 3 car garage. There is no pool in the backyard, but the neighborhood has a large community pool and tennis courts that are free to residents. Now I don't have to worry about my kids playing in the backyard with a pool. I don't have to worry about the pool maintenance. It's great! We will probably add a jacuzzi to the backyard once we get settled.

The boys are super excited about the move and they want to get to the new house as soon as possible. It is 4 miles from our current house, but I have applied for a variance so the boys can continue to go to their current school. I have been told that it shouldn't be a problem because we are still in-district. The neighborhood is really quiet with a lot of cul-de-sacs and no through traffic. We live across the street from a huge park and a skate park. We can ride our bikes to so many different places. Currently we are limited to just our neighborhood because of lack of sidewalks outside of it. At this house, we can go for miles and miles to restaurants, grocery stores, and parks.

The best part -- by downsizing we will be reducing our monthly expenses enough to pay for the studio, Jeff's percentage, and to have a little extra leftover in our pockets. Adam is able to take his risk, and I'm able to play it safe by downsizing our costs. This is a good thing.

The landlord has been great, and I did research on him just like he did me. We are planning on getting the keys on September 1st and moving in mid-month. We want to paint a little in the house, and Adam wants to have time to set up his garage -- ya know, the one without all of the video equipment everywhere!!!!!

There are lots of changes, but these are great. We are really looking at what we "need" in life. Bigger isn't always better. We understand what we are giving up with the big house, private pool, gated community, etc. -- but we also understand that we are going to be gaining a whole lot more. I'm ready!

First Day of School

2011-08-08T22:30:00.006-07:00

Wes and Miss Larsen

Calvin and Mrs. VanDeCar

Today my boys started school as First Graders. I am so proud of them, and they are so proud to be first graders. All summer we hear things like "It won't be wild when we go to Jenna's house anymore with the dogs because we are first graders." (By the way -- they are still wild when at Aunt Jenna's house.) They also keep talking about how they will get to play on the big kid playground rather than the little kindergarten playground "which was actually really boring" according to Wes.

Last year at this time, I was a complete mess as my two boys were going to school. I was pretty sad this year, and I shed some tears, but it was so much easier than last year. Last year I knew I would miss them terribly, I would be lonely at home, they had never gone to full-day preschool, and I was worried about Calvin adjusting since we were on the fence about sending him to kindergarten. This year, I don't have those worries at all. I am sad they are growing up, but I know that they will do great. They both did awesome last year, and they loved going to school every day. Calvin has the same teacher, and that makes things so much easier. Wes has a new teacher but he told me today that he likes her and he gave her a high five.

The boys purchased new shirts and lunchboxes for the school year. My mom had sent them a little money for school supplies. I sewed a new Ghostbusters patch on their backpacks.

This picture makes us laugh because it shows so much of their personality. The posed, smiling pictures weren't that great because Calvin's eye has been a little swollen the past few days and the sun was really hurting it. So we thought we'd go with posting this picture this year.

They were excited to start school, and they settled into the classroom really easily. We peeked through the window a few times and they were doing great. Calvin has a lot of the same friends as last year because his class is mostly the same, but Wes told me that he met two new friends today. Also, tonight he asked if he could make new "Mii" characters on the Wii. After about the 3rd one, he asked if he could make a girl and if I could tell him how to spell "Molly". Hmmm I didn't ask any questions so he wouldn't be embarrassed, but now we have a Molly Mii character on the Wii.

The boys have lunch and recess together and they are excited about that. They still call each other "best bud" so it is great that they can see each other throughout the day. Calvin's favorite part of the day was recess, and Wes talked a lot about going to the computer lab and having his very own computer where he could type things.

It looks like this is starting off to be a great year!

And last but not least, a random picture of Calvin dipping his donut in ketchup the other night. Gross! He actually liked it.

San Diego!!

2011-08-08T21:45:00.007-07:00

We were lucky enough to take a quick family vacation to San Diego a few weeks ago. Adam had some work for two different clients in San Diego and Los Angeles, and our gas and hotel rooms were paid for by the clients!!

The 5 hour drive went by so fast, and Allie was such a trooper. The boys have always been great travelers, but we were happy that Allie is comfortable in her car seat and didn't have any issues. When we went to Vegas in June, Wes asked a lot of questions along the way. This trend continued to/from San Diego. It goes something like this:

Wes: Are we out of Arizona?
Me or Adam: Not yet buddy, we still have a ways to go.
Two minutes pass
Wes: Are we out of Arizona?
Me or Adam: No, we still have about 2 hours.
Two minutes pass
Wes: Are we out of Arizona?
Me or Adam: Okay, when the clock turns 5 p.m. we will be out of Arizona.
Two minutes pass
Wes: Has the clock turned 5 p.m.?

Now, keep in mind that this conversation happens while he is wearing headphones and listening to music or a movie. So he is yelling at us, and we are yelling the answers back at him, and he always has to ask "What?" before he can hear us. We try to tell him to take off his headphones, but he yells "What?" It makes Adam and I laugh pretty hard. Once Wes finds a clock or his watch that he can see, and we give him a time, he will stop asking, but he will remind us that we only have such and such time remaining. Generally speaking, Wes is more calm when he is wearing a watch. He takes after his mother -- always needing to know the time. My mom tells me that even when I'm wake up from surgery, I ask her for the time over and over again.

While we were in San Diego, we visited Sea Harbor Village a few times. Our hotel backed right up to it, so it was a nice place to walk around, ride the carousel, and look out at the water. Adam got some great photos of the kids during our time there.

On Day 3, we headed to Anaheim and took the kids to Disneyland. They had so much fun. It was crowded, but they didn't mind waiting in lines -- even Allie. Goldfish and sour gummy worms kept her happy. She loved the rides and her eyes would just be huge as she looked around at everything. The boys got to go on a big roller coaster and the Star Wars ride. They waited 70 minutes to ride Star Wars while Allie and I watched the parade, and then I comfortably read my book as she slept in the stroller. Earlier I took Allie to see Minnie Mouse. We waited in line for 45 minutes, and with about 3 minutes remaining she fell asleep in my arms. I was able to wake her up for the picture but she looks so sleepy and refused to smile. It was such a peaceful and fun day, and we were able to go on most of the rides as a family.

Late that night, we arrived at our Ramada hotel. We went from a super fancy Hyatt where we were treated as platinum members to a really ghetto Ramada. We were expecting it, but Adam had a shoot at NFL studios in LA the next morning so we wanted to be close. We had called ahead for a late check-in, but they had sold our room anyway by the time we arrived. We were given the penthouse suite. Did anyone know that ghetto Ramada has a penthouse? This Ramada looked like the crummiest Motel 6 you could find. The Penthouse was on the top floor (level 3), and it was about 2,000 square feet. Huge. It was dusty, and the decorations were odd. The lamp shades still had plastic on them. It was pretty bare. The curtains were like thin sheets and they were torn. The closet doors were broken and as I was trying to open one I was afraid of what I would find behind it. However, it was a place to lay our heads for the night. We were grateful for that -- until the morning when I saw stains on the sheets I had slept in. The weren't from me or my family. Yuck!!! It still makes me shiver to think about it.

On Day 4, we drove home in the afternoon. We loved our little trip, and the weather was gorgeous. When we swam in San Diego it was actually cold! People were laying out by the pool in sweatshirts. The weather was just perfect. The entire mini-vacation was perfect.

Allie, Allie, Allie

2011-07-21T21:26:00.002-07:00

First off, this week's hairstyle is a faux hawk. Check it out:

Second, Allie is really repeating words back to us lately. (Night, night; dog; hi) She has learned several new words, and the one we are most happy about is "please". We've really been trying to teach her to say "please" whenever she wants to be held or a drink of our soda out of the straw. She finally started saying it, but she has trouble with the /p/ sound. So instead of saying anything like "please", she actually just blows a raspberry in our face. Kind of disrespectful if the boys did that to us, but really, really cute that our 1 year old does it. Of course, now that we laugh at her she does it every time we ask her to say "please".

Third - Alemitu is walking! Okay, maybe not full blown walking, but she did take a few steps, several different times tonight. The first time was with my dad in her bedroom. My dad must be the baby walking whisperer or something. In October 2006, I stood Calvin up to face dad (with no intention of him walking) and he just walked to dad like he did it all of the time. We were shocked to say the least. Same thing tonight. Allie was standing against one of her toys and she turned around and ran to dad. She did the run/walk a few more times and then took a few steps real slow. Most of the time she just pretended her legs weren't working and wouldn't even stand up for us, but we all saw it and I believe Adam got it on camera -- she walked!

As for the rest of the family, we are all doing great. My dad has been here for about 1 1/2 weeks and leaves this weekend. My mom came in earlier this week to join him. We've had a great time. Allie discovered real fast that mamaw and papaw are suckers, and she has become a papaw's girl. My dad is already talking about fitting her in his suitcase when he leaves.

Next up for our family - a trip to San Diego and Disneyland, and then school starts. :-( We've had a great, great, great summer. I hate for it to end. Adam's business is changing a lot right now, and I'll post more about that in the coming weeks when I get a moment. In the meantime, prayers would be appreciated. This is a good risk we are taking, but probably the biggest risk we have ever taken (according to Adam, who isn't as dramatic as myself). All is good.

Shampoo/Style Days

2011-07-14T21:01:00.005-07:00

Thursdays are Alemitu's shampoo & style days. She has been home for 4 1/2 months and I still feel like I'm just getting used to her hair. She has more styling products and accessories than I have ever had. One thing I am told over and over again is that it is okay for her to cry when I'm doing her hair. You have to get those many, many tangles out each day and it hurts. However if you don't pull their hair now then it will be harder when they get older and are tender headed. So I pull, she screams. It isn't fun for either of us. BUT I am happy to say that the last few weeks there haven't been tears. Maybe a whine here or there out of boredom mostly, but no screaming fits!! It is getting easier.

Because it is getting easier, I thought I would try something a little more difficult tonight. I didn't really have much of a plan in mind, but I just kind of went with a random veil style with some twists. I'm not sure the twists will hold up all week (especially since she goes underwater a ton of times every time she is in the pool) so I thought I'd get a few pictures in tonight in case they don't. Stay tuned for more Thursday hairstyles.

I couldn't resist taking a photo of Alemi cuddling up to her new bear. For all those parents of small children -- these bears are only $29.99 at Costco right now. Seriously. We snatched one up when we saw that price.

Happy Birthday Wes & Calvin!

2011-07-05T21:39:00.000-07:00

My boys are 6 today. It is amazing how fast time flies. When I woke them up, I asked if they felt any older. They both thought about it and then Calvin said that he did feel 6. I then told them to go get dressed for the movie, and Wes said, "I wonder if my clothes will be tight." Ha! Later on he told us that his clothes still fit even though he is 6, but he thinks they will be tight soon.

We took them to see Cars 2 at a super fancy theater in Scottsdale that has recliners and waiters/waitresses to serve you lunch. The boys started saying that this was the best day ever!

After that, we came home to open presents (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Ghostbuster toys -- old school from Ebay). When Wes opened a Joker (Batman) car that my mom had sent him, he started jumping up and down and yelling "I've been waiting for this my whole life!"

We then went out to dinner at Rustler's Rooste where they got to play on the big metal slide and were given cowboy hats and bandannas.

After dinner, we walked out to see the coolest looking dust storm heading our way.

About 2 minutes later, it was right on us and it went from being light outside to instantly dark where you couldn't see past the hood of your own car even with lights on. We had to wait it out for about 20 minutes. Visibility was low, but we knew if we could get to the freeway (1/2 mile away) at least we would all be heading in the same direction. It soon started raining which allowed us to see further, and we made it home without issue. Adam's parents saw a tree fall on a parked vehicle while they were waiting it out. I do love monsoon season in Arizona but this made me a little nervous.

All in all, we had a great day. In the beginning it was the best day ever and in the end Wes told us that it was "the most bored night" because we had to sit and wait out the storm and drive super slow home. He wanted to get home and play with his toys.

So, what is Calvin up to these days?

Calvin is such a sweet, sweet boy. He is often quiet and independent. He loves to give me kisses on the arms and legs. He rarely whines and never throws a fit, but he does know how to push his brother's buttons without technically breaking any rules.
Calvin is so funny. He will crack a joke every once in a while that is truly, really funny. He has a good sense of humor. Right now most of his jokes involve the word "brain" in them.
Calvin loves to dress up. He easily can get into a world of make believe through toys or costumes. He dresses up in costumes several days each week. He feels really special when he walks around in his costume and is noticed by others.
Calvin loves to explain everything in detail (I wonder where he gets that from). He uses a lot of hand gestures and is super serious about his explanation (i.e. telling you the rules of a game; plot of a movie; etc.)
Calvin can easily play by himself, and he loves to build things like Legos, transformers, marble tubes, etc. He doesn't get frustrated and he really concentrates on whatever he is doing. Sometimes this leads to "hearing problems" because he is so focused on one thing that he has no idea what is going on around him.
Calvin loves to dance. He likes to dress "cool" when he dances which normally includes tall soccer socks, baggy shorts, shirt, and a winter hat no matter what time of year it is. He has recently started picking out some of his own clothes and he normally goes with all green. Green winter hat, green shirt, green shorts, and green shoes. He says because everything is green (his favorite color) then he must match really well -- although everything is a different shade of green.

Wes -

Wes is my cuddle bug. He loves to curl up with me in a chair, on the couch, or in bed.
Wes can be very competitive. He is a good trash talker when he plays games and he accepts losing pretty well. Sometimes though we have to work at him wanting to be "first" at everything, but he has come a long way this year. My mom loves to play games with Wes so they can trash talk each other. It is hilarious to watch.
Wes sees the world in black and white (just like me). This can be both a good and bad thing. The good thing is that he follows rules and understands them well. The bad thing is that when those rules change for special circumstances, he doesn't handle that well and is confused. He knows he is right and the other person is wrong, which is true in a black and white world, but not practical in day to day living. Adam and I are working together to find ways to work with him to help him understand that not everything is black and white, and sometimes rules can change in different circumstances. This is a difficult process, but Adam and I are working hard to try to parent him in a way that best fits his needs and personality rather than just tell him the rule changed this time because it just did.
Wes loves to learn. He is already learning first grade and he thinks learning is so much fun.
Wes still says some words incorrectly and we refuse to correct him because it is so cute. (Bachine for Machine; Each Uddy for each other; Berry for Very; Micken Donald's for McDonald's; Up-a-side for Upside) Calvin says a lot of these words the same way too.
Wes loves to wrestle. He will beat-up on Adam, Calvin, or Uncle Zach. He is strong and he doesn't mind getting hurt in the process. Calvin will put up with it for a while but soon gets annoyed. We want to enroll both boys into a Jujitsu program so Wes can expend some of that energy.
Wes loves to sing. Adam has some old songs (i.e. Michael Jackson, Beatles, B.O.B., Vanilla Ice, etc.) on Wes' iPod and he loves to sing all of the songs. He takes singing very seriously, and he always makes Adam play the music in the car. Wes learns intro songs to television shows after listening once or twice and you'll always hear him singing along with the show.

Both boys love their sister so much. They play with her every day . . . by choice. If she lets out one little fuss, they are constantly trying to cheer her up. Normally Calvin will yell out "chicken head" and that makes Allie laugh. Wes always calls her "Miss Allie" while Calvin prefers "Alemi or Alemitu". We did not realize how much Wes and Calvin would fall in love with their sister, but they love everything about her. They already watch out for her so I can only imagine what it will be like in 10 years.

Wes and Calvin love to play together and they are "best buds". The both call each other "buddy" rather than by name. Normally when they play together Wes will narrate what is going on and will often tell Calvin what he is to say next. It is really cute, but we are teaching Calvin that he doesn't always have to say what Wes tells him. A lot of times they will pretend they are Mario and Luigi or Ghostbuster characters and will address each other by the appropriate character name. I love that they are best friends, and I love that they have huge imaginations.

I am blessed to get to be the mommy to my sweet boys - Wes & Calvin - my 6 year olds.

Last Minute Road Trip

2011-06-26T17:13:00.002-07:00

Adam took a last minute job in Las Vegas this weekend that required him to shoot an event from 6-10 in the MORNING. So we decided to tag along.

We left Phoenix at 6 p.m. on Friday and we were asleep in our Las Vegas hotel room by 11 p.m. Adam got up at 5 a.m. to go to his shoot while the kids and I slept until 9:45. We then went swimming; went to the kids' first buffet; went to see the World Series of Poker tournament (and then got kicked out because the kids were under 21); went to Sigfreid and Roy's Secret Garden Zoo; went to M&M World; and then got Noble Roman's breadsticks and drove home. We were home by midnight on Saturday. The kids loved it and told us that they want to go every day. (Side note: Allie is a great traveler in the car.)

While we were driving on the strip and seeing hundreds of people crossing in front of our truck, we got the feeling that something was wrong with the front of Adam's bumper. People were staring, gawking, pointing, showing their friends, etc. So we finally pulled over to take a look. You'll see what we found when you watch the video below. :-) The video is a quick 60 second summary of our trip.

Hilton Head Island

2011-06-18T11:44:00.000-07:00

We went to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina again this year for vacation with my parents and my sister, Christina, and her family. We had a great time. There was lots of bike riding to the beach and restaurants; eating seafood everyday; and swimming, swimming, swimming. Here are some pictures from the trip:

Our kids plus their cousins, Sydney & Carter

Calvin showing off his face painting.

My parents got Calvin the "army guy" costume for his birthday. He wore it every day. After we got home, he told me that he saw a "real army guy" on the airplane. The army guy wore boots and not tennis shoes, so he asked if he could start wearing his army guy boots too (camo rain boots). Sure thing.

My mom and Allie with Jake from the Salty Dog Cafe.

Allie LOVED the water. Salt water in the eyes - no problem. Sand in the mouth - yummy. She crawled right into those waves.

Allie sleeping on the little propeller plane from Charlotte to Hilton Head Island. She hates being held when you are sitting down because she is a huge wiggle worm -- which makes flying very, very difficult. I don't think we will be flying anywhere the rest of the year. We need to wait until she can understand why she has to sit still. Not fun!

You can see Adam and Wes in the background heading out into the ocean. Wes LOVED going out as far as he could touch (and farther when Adam was holding him). They stayed far out for hours. Calvin chose the beach. He saw tons of jelly fish and huge sand crabs. No thank you.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

2011-06-08T16:36:00.001-07:00

Happy 1st Birthday Alemitu!

Our baby girl just turned one. Allie is doing so well. She is now in the 10th percentile for weight/height (18 pounds/27 inches) versus the 4th percentile when we brought her home. She is also cruising around the furniture and standing a little bit on her own. She says "ma ma" and "da da" and occasionally will say "Ciao Ciao" (bye bye) or "ut-oh". She loves to wave hello/goodbye, clap her hands, blow kisses, and blow raspberries. She flirts with everyone from afar, but if you get in her personal space she will cling to mommy or daddy.

She sleeps 12-13 uninterrupted hours each night, and she takes two 2 hour naps each day. Her stomach issues are getting better, but there are still some minor feeding concerns so she will be going to therapy at Phoenix Children's Hospital soon. She will probably have to take a probiotic daily for at least several years, if not the rest of her life.

Allie loves:

Her brothers. Allie's grandpa was so happy that she would have brothers, and I know he would be so proud to watch that relationship grow. Her brothers are probably her favorite people and are constantly making her laugh. She looks for them every morning when I wake her up. The boys are just as smitten with her and have not uttered one complaint about her.
Water. Allie is a sand eating fish. She is not terrified of water, including the ocean. She crawls right into those waves. Sand, shampoo, saltwater, etc -- gets in her eyes but it doesn't bother her. (You would understand why if you saw her nannies give her a bath in Ethiopia.) She loves to go completely underwater, swim, drink the water, etc.
Animals. She thinks our dog and cat are funny. She likes to pet (pull out their hair) whenever they let her get close.
Move. This girl can't sit still. She has found freedom and is constantly on the go.
Give kisses. She loves to cuddle a few seconds at a time and give lots of wet kisses. Normally if you say "that's nice" or "be nice", you will automatically get a big wet kiss.
Stealing food. If you put table food in front of her, she'll throw it on the ground. If she can steal the food from your plate, it will end up in her mouth.
Her swing. My sister gave her a patio swing for her birthday. She sits in it most nights and will swing and swing and swing. I mowed the entire lawn last night while she sat there happily swinging.
Dancing. Anytime she hears music, that body starts moving.
Laughing. She laughs all of the time. She laughs at herself and her brothers the most. She has a great, deep belly laugh.

Allie doesn't like:

Sitting still. Which is why I won't be flying with her again anytime soon. She doesn't like to sit in a car seat when the car isn't moving. She doesn't like to sit in a stroller if you aren't moving. She doesn't like to sit down while you hold her. She needs to move and cruise.
Brushing her hair. She is getting better, but I have to wet down and brush out those curls everyday. She gets excited to put her head under the faucet. She hates it when I comb through the many tangles. Unfortunately, she has to develop a tough head at a young age.
Normal baby toys. She likes her brothers' army guys, swords, etc. She likes cups, keys, phones. She doesn't really care to play with baby toys.
Being told "no". It is hard not to laugh when we tell her no. She will look at us with this awful face with a mix of being shocked and sad at the same time. This lasts for about 30 seconds. Then she opens her mouth and belts out some screams.
Doctors. Since we brought her home 3 1/2 months ago -- if a doctor touches her at all, she starts screaming.

Allie is a great baby. She rarely fusses, and she is just a happy girl most of the time. We feel so blessed to have her in our family. We love her dearly, and I can't wait to see what this next year holds for her and our family.

Birthday Party!!!

2011-06-05T12:07:00.009-07:00

We had a great birthday party for all of the kids last night. With their birthdays being so close together, we decided to throw one big party and the boys wanted a superheros theme. We had a great time, and it lasted almost 5 hours. The funny party was that there were exactly 17 adults and 17 kids there so Adam and I got to play with our friends too. The boys said it was the best birthday party they've ever had, but they also said that next year would be the best too. Allie was a little overwhelmed at first with all of the people, but she warmed up quickly.

There was lots of fun on the trampoline. Quite a few adults got on it too throughout the night.

There was LOTS of swimming. We've had cold weather recently. The pool was 80 which is pretty chilly out here. The kids didn't seem to mind though.

Allie was completely shy and overwhelmed for the first 30 minutes or so, but after we blew out the candles she had a lot of fun.

Early in the night, Calvin asked Adam if he could have a bottled Coke because he saw Adam drinking one. Sure thing buddy, it's your party. After the party was over, we discovered that Calvin lost a tooth at some point during the party. Maybe the acid from the coke dissolved it . . . or maybe Calvin just swallowed it while he was eating dinner.

We had such a great time. Thank you to everyone who came out and made it special for all 5 of us!

Graduation!

2011-05-27T11:43:00.004-07:00

My boys have graduated from Kindergarten!! They had a graduation ceremony yesterday, and today they went to their 1st grade class for the day. I am officially the mother of first graders!! I was so, so sad when they left for kindergarten, but I am so, so happy for them right now!

This has been a wonderful year for both boys. Let me start with Calvin. Last year, his pre-school teacher told us that she was "on the fence" about recommending he start kindergarten. He would be a young 5 year old, and she felt he had some confidence issues. She said she is pretty sure that he knows the material, but he always says "I don't know" when asked. After talking to several teachers and the principal of their current school, we learned that since the issues weren't behavioral and maturity, then it would be best to go ahead and start him in kindergarten. Nervously, we did.

In the beginning of school, we were also told that Calvin had scored ZERO on his first DIBELS test before entering Kindergarten. Again -- was it because he didn't know it, or because he was too shy? Calvin's teacher caught onto this real fast and she helped bring him out of his shell. It was simply a confidence issue. When I got Calvin's report card today -- he met all expectations for Kindergarten. He exceeded in a few areas of math and drawing, which doesn't surprise us at all. Calvin can look at an object and draw it very well. His DIBELS test scores were all above average. We are so, so proud of him!

Whether it was his teacher or a substitute teacher, everyone always complimented Calvin. He never got in trouble or reprimanded one single time at school. We were told by several teachers that he was extremely well liked in class and a great role model. Calvin loves his teacher, Mrs. VanDeCar, and I believe the feeling is mutual. She is always telling me Calvin stories, and she always talks about how much she enjoys having him in class. We were hoping we could get a first grade teacher that would be as good as her, and a few weeks ago she pulled me aside to let me know that she was looping up with the class. If we wanted, she could be Calvin's teacher again. YES!!!

Principal Gunning giving Calvin his diploma

We are just as proud of Wes even though we knew he was ready for kindergarten. He had a great year! He scored very, very high (one even off the charts) for his DIBELS test score. He loves to sound words out. Sometimes we will be in mid-conversation, and he will stop to sound out a word. His favorite subject is Art and he was so sad when he had the flu and missed art class. I promised him that we would have our own art class this summer, and Adam is already looking into other art classes for the kids. As you can imagine, being self-employed in creative fields, Adam and I both think that Art is the most important thing you do in school. It is nice to see that both boys enjoy it so much.

Wes met his new first grade teacher today, and he said she was really nice. He is really proud of himself for being a first grader. Just a few minutes ago, I learned from the next door neighbor who was a 1st grader this year that Wes' new teacher yells a lot. Ut-oh. :-)

We had a really, really good school year with only some minor bumps in the road. It ended on a great note too -- both boys got Student of the Month this month! I am so excited to get to spend more time with the boys this summer and we have all sorts of stuff planned. Wes' first plan is to stay up until midnight tonight.

Wes' 5th grade class "buddy" congratulating Wes.

Calvin is Student of the Month, next to proud teacher Mrs. VanDeCar

Wes showing off his Student of the Month certificate

Camping On Trampoline

2011-05-27T11:39:00.004-07:00

They made it until 3:30 a.m. and then had to come back in because it got too cold for Wes. Wes is our Phoenix boy because he hates anything cold. In fact, he carries his drinks around in a koozie so he doesn't have to touch them if they are cold.

Sweet Pictures From Calvin

2011-05-22T21:48:00.003-07:00

Tonight was just a perfect night. I was laying on the floor in the playroom reading a book. Allie was climbing all over and around me using me as a jungle gym. The boys were sitting at their table drawing pictures. Adam was working on the boys' ipods. I thought my night couldn't get any better, but I was wrong. Wes has asked if he could tape a picture up in my room. Sure thing buddy. He likes to tape pictures on the wall by my desk. However tonight was different. After we put the kids to bed, I went back into my bedroom to see a heart that Wes had drawn and colored. He had taped it on the wall, centered over the headboard of our bed. What a sweet, sweet boy.

This reminded me of another post I've been meaning to do for over a month now but I keep forgetting to go downstairs and scan in the pictures. I finally did it tonight. Calvin drew me 2 pictures that I will cherish forever.

This first picture was drawn after my birthday. We went to the green park and had dinner. He told me that he drew the picture of us at the park so he will never, ever forget what a special day we had.

The second picture is actually a note that was written a month ago. I had to put the boys in time-out for not listening. After they come out of time-out, we always talk about what they did wrong, and then all is happy again and they go play some more. A few minutes after they started to play again, Calvin brings me back a note that he wrote me. Calvin isn't good at making spaces between letters, and he actually started writing at the very bottom of the page and worked his way up. However the note said "I love you and I never stop loving you." This was his way of saying sorry. He probably mentions this note at least once a week and asks if I still have it.

The boys are at such a great, cute age. I know I say that no matter how old they are, but they just make me smile every day. I am so excited to have them home from school this summer (even though they are already sad about school ending). This past week, they are playing with Allie nonstop. Carrying her around places is the most fun. They love to make her smile and laugh. I am so happy that she has been home almost 3 months, and that the boys have welcomed her with open arms and without any jealousy issues. I think it is easier for twins to accept new siblings. Whatever the reason, it has made this transition so much fun!

Now it is time to go to sleep underneath the heart taped on my wall.

How Will You Change The World?

2011-05-12T10:40:00.000-07:00

You have to watch the short video below! This video was shot during our second trip to Ethiopia. Sam (video guy) and Dawit (IT guy) would come to our guest house for dinner every night all sweaty with video equipment slung over their shoulders. Adam and Sam would discuss video stuff nonstop. After dinner, we would bug Dawit to get the internet working, and once we even bribed him with sweet treats if he would bring a modem over to our guest house from another house. The people in this video may live across the world, but they are our friends.

The video is about Korah and Addis Ababa. It is such a joy to see these faces again. Summer is the woman who showed us around Korah, and I couldn't help but smile as I recognized children from our trip there. I couldn't help but touch my neck as I saw the women making necklaces that I purchased from there. Adam and our Tennessee friend, Brian, have been itching to go back to Korah and help in some way.

This is a great video, you just have to watch it. As I watch it (for the 10th time), I feel it. I see it, feel it, smell it. It puts me right back in Ethiopia. I have to quote my friend Hollie because she says it perfectly: "Thanks Sam for creating such a fantastic video..a wonderful representation of the beautiful people of Ethiopia and the powerful ministries stirring the souls and giving hope to all they meet."

The City of Addis - A short documentary from Session 7 Media on Vimeo.

One happy mother

2011-05-07T23:45:00.006-07:00

Disclaimer: It is almost 1 a.m. and I can't sleep. Adam is camping out with the boys on the trampoline, and I am lying awake with so many mommy thoughts running through my head. I decided I wanted to write this stuff down because it is important that I never, ever forget it.

I have a lot of anxiety and always wonder about the "what ifs". I remember sitting on the couch at the Arizona Fertility Center with Dr. Nemiro in 2004. He was telling me that the procedures we had done were not working. My ovaries were not responding to the high dose of fertility drugs or AI. He was proposing I undergo ZIFT. This is where I have 2 surgeries within 24 hours and the embryos are implanted directly into my fallopian tubes. In addition, he was talking about some bad results from blood tests; bad things from my uterus scan; steroids; and 2-3 shots per day for 8 weeks. He was very matter of fact and he told me what would happen, the costs, and the statistics. Most people would have a lot of questions. My one and only question was "What do we do if this doesn't work?" He wouldn't answer me. I was scared. I was scared throughout my pregnancy always wondering "what if" something happens. I had already gotten adoption paperwork because I had told Adam that if something happened during my pregnancy, I wouldn't try again. Everything was done with caution. I gave birth to my two little boys 8 weeks premature but yet I couldn't see them for hours. They weren't breathing when they were born, but I just laid there as they intubated them -- not being able to focus on anything. They tried to wheel my bed into the NICU but I still couldn't see them because the isolettes were too high. In fact, the first time I saw my boys was in a picture on our blog. In that moment, I fell in love immediately. When I saw their pictures I was just overwhelmed with emotion and how much love I had for these two boys. They were my boys.

The first pictures I saw of Calvin & Wes (respectively)

Allie's story isn't much different. Throughout our adoption process, I always had the "what if" playing over and over in the back of my mind. I said things like "Oh we will definitely pass court eventually even if it isn't on the first time" . . . but inside, I'm worried. I remember riding in the van on the way to court and the "what ifs" were going through my mind. What if her grandfather doesn't show up? I got this sense of determination come over me as I thought "That can't happen! This little girl is my daughter! She is mine! That just can't happen! She is mine!" I realized that was the first time that I could no longer think of "what if" because there was no "what if" -- I would fight and fight for my daughter. Before passing court, she was already my daughter. In that van ride, I knew that I had fallen in love with her.

The next day it was time to say goodbye to Alemitu. I knew it would be hard. I knew I couldn't prepare for it. I still wasn't prepared for how hard it would be. When it was time, I gave her back to the nannies and I tried to wave bye and explain to them that I wasn't coming back. The nannies didn't speak English, but they understood when they saw my eyes well up with tears. I just quickly handed her over, waved goodbye, and turned around and walked away. I walked to the balcony where Adam was standing and he went to give me a hug. I said, "Please do not touch me. I will fall apart." He understood and we left the transition home quickly as all I could think about was just putting one foot in front of the other and not falling down on the ground with tears. She was my daughter.

Those are tough memories that I never want to forget, but they are such happy memories as I know distinctly when I fell in love with my children.

My kids make it easy for me to be a good mom. They are just really, really good kids. We laugh every single day. Do I mess up? Oh yeah. But I make it known to them that I am not perfect, and I quickly apologize if I've done something wrong. As they grow older I know it will get harder, but I'm ready for the challenges that will arise. They are my kids. I love them. I will fight for them.

So this year, I've chosen to do nothing out of the ordinary for a regular Sunday in our house. As cliche as it sounds, I feel blessed every single day of the year with great kids and a great husband.

So many people talk about how special this Mother's Day will be for me now that I have my daughter at home. It is. But this Mother's Day -- and future Mother's Day, it will be a day for me to not only celebrate my love for my own mother and my children, but to also celebrate Alemitu's birth mother. I was so very sad when I had to leave Alemitu at the transition home and walk away. But I knew I was coming back. I knew she was mine. Allie's mother had to say goodbye to her child knowing she would never see her again. There were so many uncertainties. Alemitu's mother needs to be celebrated for bringing such a beautiful little girl into this world and into our lives. I pray for Alemitu's mother all of the time. Sometimes I wonder if she crumbled to the ground in tears when she walked away. I cannot imagine her pain. But I can give thanks to her for her sacrifice. I can pray for her healing.

Today, this Mother's Day, will be a great day. But they all are.

Friends

2011-05-01T22:46:00.005-07:00

We've had a busy weekend with our friends. On Saturday we went to 3 different birthday party. The first was for Wes' good friend, Denali. Denali lives in our neighborhood and this was the first party that I left the boys at without Adam nor I present. I stayed about 25 minutes and realized that they were going to be just fine without me. Wes thought it was so cool that he was going to hang out with his friends without mom around. I came back to the house empty handed to a very surprised husband -- who was staying at home to take care of Allie during the party. When I explained that they were at the party by themselves he said, "Okay, I think we just need to sit on the couch and process this one for a minute." Our boys are growing up. That makes me sad and happy at the same time. I went back to the party an hour later to find Calvin jumping on the trampoline with a dinosaur mask on his face and a hook on his hand scaring everyone. Wes was running through the house with some kids playing battle something or other with swords. They had a really good time.

Calvin & Wes at Denali's Party

The next stop was Hayden's party (Calvin's friend). We only stayed for a short while but the boys were able to make their own pizzas. They tasted pretty good too.

Preparing pizzas at Hayden's party

Our last party was for Ella (Alemitu's friend). Ella is turning 1 next week. Her parents have been some of our best friends since we first moved to Arizona 9 years ago. We always love spending time with them, and the boys enjoy playing with their son Jack who is 2 years younger than Wes and Calvin. At this party we caught up with quite a few of our other friends while the kids watched Toy Story 3 on a huge screen in Ella's backyard.

Watching the backyard movie

It was a great day. Today continued to be a lot of fun. We opened up our pool for the summer and the boys did a little swimming (73 degrees -- brrrrrr). This evening we went to the airport to greet our friends Jason and Paige who were bringing their daughter home from Ethiopia. We were so excited to go to the airport and meet Sophie. Paige and I were already planning playdates.

As for Adam, this fun weekend just wasn't long enough for him because on the way to the airport he asked if we could extend it longer. He asked if the boys could skip school tomorrow so we could have another family day and go to a mid-day movie. You don't have to ask me twice! We left it up to the boys (because they are normally disappointed when they can't go to school), and for the first time they were super excited about skipping it. Right now they are watching a movie and having a slumber party in our room. This has been a great weekend!

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T22:37:00.005-07:00

I distinctly remember in early February sitting next to Adam's mom at church. Our pastor was making this huge announcement that will change our church completely (merging with another) which will take place in 10 weeks -- which just happens to be 2 weeks before Easter. I'm sure most people were thinking about the merge (some were crying, some were cheerful, most were scared), but instead of feeling those things, I leaned over to Sherree and said "Ya know, Allie will be here for Easter." Sherree participated in the inappropriate, sidetracked conversation by talking about Allie's pretty Easter dress and shoes and hat. I had just gotten back from Ethiopia for the first trip and my mind's only thought for day in and day out was "Alemitu. Alemitu. Alemitu." And to be fair, I was aware of the big announcement before it was made to the church that day so I already had time to process the news of change. But I remember that moment in time vividly as I dreamed of having our family together at the next big holiday.

And now it is Easter and we have had Alemitu home for 7 weeks!!

Today the kids woke up to new baskets from the Easter Bunny. Right now Wes and Calvin are all about vampires, ghost, aliens, and "bad guys" (thanks to Scooby Doo). They keep asking us "are vampires in our world" or "are ghosts really real?" Unfortunately a few weeks ago when Calvin asked me if bad guys were real, I said no. I had to go back the next day and apologize for lying and tell him the truth and discuss how bad guys are in our world; however God, the police, and mommy and daddy won't let the bad guys get him. With all of this "are they real" talk, I knew that a very important question would be coming . . . is the Easter Bunny real? Adam and I came up with this answer "Well, you get baskets from the Easter Bunny don't you? I've never seen him but you get baskets from him." That seemed to work and they were happy. Whew.

After seeing what was in their baskets (slippers, coloring books, and new DVDs for boys; keys and cups for Allie) we headed off to a new church we have been attending. Until the kids' rooms are finished at the church (next week), kids have church with their parents. It was really nice to have church with our 2 boys next to us at our table and Allie asleep in my arms. Jim and Sherree also came to church with us this morning. All the way to/from church, the boys watched one of their new DVDs -- The Real Ghostbusters cartoon. Or as Wes calls it "Ghost Brothers". :-)

After church, we headed to the green park with the Fischers for a pulled pork barbeque lunch and an easter egg hunt. What fun! We were so exhausted from eating too much and playing too hard that by the time we got home we all took a 2 1/2 hour nap!

Today was a great day!

Check out Wes's crack in this pictures -- too cute!

Doesn't everybody water the spring flowers on Easter?

This pictures makes me sad. He looks so grown-up. :-(

She finally has a granddaughter!

2011-04-19T13:41:00.006-07:00

This is the face that Adam's Grandma Jones has just been dying to meet. She has wanted a granddaughter for so long! Her kids all had boys and now her grandkids are all having boys too. Every time one of us gets pregnant, we get a pink dress. It never gets used. Grandma Jones even has a license plate that reads something along the lines of "Grandma's scorecard. Boys - 10. Girls - 0" So you can only imagine how excited she was to finally get to meet her great granddaughter, Alemitu. Here are some pictures from their first meeting:

Grandpa Jones was also taken with her:

Adam's Aunt Debbie also came to visit:

We had a great weekend visiting with them. My mom was also in town for a few days. We spent the weekend going to a t-ball game, having a cookout, going to the zoo, having a picnic at WestGate, and get stuck in the golf cart along Litchfield Road and having to be towed home.

Yep, we were towed home. It is a memory I never want to forget. We drove a few miles to the boys' t-ball practice. The golf cart didn't have a full charge when we started and we were wondering if we would make it back. Sure enough, along the golf cart path/sidewalk on Litchfield Road we came to a stop. We were able to push it a little and get it going again. All four of us hopped back on and got in place. We drove a few more feet and the golf cart dramatically slows again. I asked Adam if I need to get off and he says "yes". I am holding Allie in a carrier on me. After a few seconds, I realize that Adam wants me off the golf cart but he has no intention of stopping to let me off. So I put my foot on the ground a few times and then I hop out. A few more feet and the golf cart stops completely. The boys hop out and we call Jim to come tow us in Adam's truck. Adam gets back into the golf cart and it starts working with just him in it. Keep in mind that the golf cart path is on the side of a very busy road. Adam takes off in the golf cart -- the boys start wildly chasing after him -- and I'm walking in the back carrying a baby. It must have been quite a funny sight for anyone passing by wondering why this guy is making his kids, baby, and wife all run/walk behind him as he just drives along. I had tears coming down my face but it was from laughing so hard. I never, ever want to forget that image and I wish I had a camera! We did end up getting towed, but Adam was determined to try the trek again the next day for their t-ball game. We made it there and back without issue! Good times!

Even though I don't have pictures of our golf cart break down, I do have a couple from the zoo and a t-ball picture of the boys with their Coach Grandpa.

On the log ride

On the sky ride

Our new ride

2011-04-11T15:10:00.004-07:00

Most days the boys and I ride our bikes to school. Sometimes we ride scooters. Sometimes we walk. Sometimes I drive. And now -- we can add a golf cart to the list. That's right. We just purchased a 1973 street legal golf cart for $300, and it runs great.

Golf carts are common in Arizona with the elderly. You can register them with the DMV and drive them on the roads (with speed limits less than 35 mph). Trying to drive down Bell Road in Surprise/Sun City area can just be downright frustrating as you are having to drive 20 mph behind an old golf cart driver out to get his groceries.

While I've wanted a golf cart since a very young age (and even started saving money for it with my best friend, Tara), Adam took an interest in them a few years ago. At that time we lived in a neighborhood where you pretty much had to own a custom built, lifted golf cart to reside there. We even saw a "stretched limo" style golf cart there. We were probably the only house that didn't have one, along with the only house that did our own yard work; the only house that didn't have a statue of lions out in the front; and the only house without his/her matching Hummers and Cadillac Escalades (okay I might have exaggerated a bit, but one of the houses did have a pair of his/her matching Hummers & matching Escalades!).

Adam didn't want a fancy golf cart, he just wanted a simple, electric golf cart that he could build with his kids and take on rides to my sister's house (1 mile away) going through neighborhoods to get there. So for the past few years he has been watching the prices on Craig's List and he just found one for a steal! It wasn't working because it needed a new $60 rechargeable battery (it has 6). But we had decided that even if that didn't cause it to start working, it was still a great buy for that cheap and Adam and the boys could work on it together. The good news is that we bought a new battery and that really was all it took to fix the golf cart.

So we are now proud owners of a golf cart and we could move back into our old neighborhood with our heads held high if we wanted . . . or maybe not! We could even join their annual Christmas parade where everyone drives their golf carts around the neighborhood with Santa following in the truck.

The boys love the golf cart and even drove it a little today (with daddy's help). One thing is for sure, Litchfield Park just got a little bit more dangerous. Watch out!

Family Photo

2011-04-09T21:07:00.004-07:00

We have been home for over a month and we finally got a picture taken with all five us of in it! Thank you Zach!

We've had another good week. Yesterday was my 31st birthday. I'm officially "in my thirties". My life is far from what I had imagined for myself when I was 20, but I love it! It is actually better than I had imagined it! One thing I swore I would never, ever, ever have is 3 children. Never. And now I am the happy, proud mommy of 3 kids. We all have things about ourselves that we wish we could do better or personality traits that we battle on correcting every day -- but I can easily say that being a mom is what I do best! My kids make it easy for me. They make me laugh and smile everyday. So this year, I just wanted to spend a quiet birthday at our favorite place -- the "green" park (boys named it because it has green slides).

So last night Adam drove 30 minutes to get my favorite food from Chino Bandido (Chinese/Mexican dive). Then we packed up our dinner (in my new cooler I got for my birthday from Jim & Sherree) and the kids and headed to the green park where we met my sister, brother-in-law, and niece. We do this about once a week but it is my favorite thing to do. The green park is a really nice park with a large playground, several picnic tables, and a huge grassy area. It is surrounded by HUGE homes that haven't been finished because the housing market went upside down -- so we always have this beautiful, secret park to ourselves, and it is about 1-2 miles from our house! We had a nice dinner and then ended the night playing tag with the boys on the playground. I am so blessed!

Speaking of tag, I am baffled about something. I run on the treadmill several times a week. I stink at running. I hate it, but I always thought it was mental. When we taught the boys how to ride bikes, Adam said that he noticed I don't take long strides and maybe that's my problem. I tried and failed miserably. Don't get me wrong, I realize that I'm overweight and not in the greatest shape. BUT, I really do run on the treadmill several times a week and have done this for years. In addition, my legs are twice as long as Wes' legs. He's five. The problem: I can't beat my 5 year old in a foot race. I run as fast as I can and I can't do it. My parents can do it. My dad even turned around at one point to see where Wes was, but I run straight ahead and I can't beat the kid! Wes thinks it is hilarious and loves to try to race me. He's "slightly" competitive. Ha!

As for Calvin, that kid is just funny. We got report cards a couple of weeks ago and his teacher just wrote beautiful things about him being a role model for the class, etc. Calvin is really independent and just does his own thing. He loves to dress himself and add accessories to his outfits. The other day he picked out his Mario hat and a pair of fake glasses. I just had to take his picture when we got to school. A few weeks ago it was a Buzz Lightyear huge space rain jacket thing that he wore to school in 80 degree weather. He loves dressing up!

And I can't leave out Ms. Allie -- she pulled herself up today!! Her leg strength has improved SO much and she has been trying so hard to pull herself up on anything and everything. Today she pulled herself up on me so fast that I didn't even catch what had happened until about a minute later when I realized that I didn't stand her up. She did it again for Adam to see. Yay!!!

This week Adam's grandparents are coming into town and my mom is also visiting for a few days on an extended layover on her way back from Thailand. We are excited for everyone to visit!

Time Flies

2011-03-31T15:33:00.008-07:00

On Monday night I was shocked when I was glancing at my e-mails and saw one from my friend Hollie that referenced how it had been a month since we picked up our children from the House of Hope. Wow. Has it really been a month already? "Time Flies" -- I haven't said that phrase too often during our past 1 1/2 year wait, but right now the time is just flying by.

Things are going really good at our house. Other than the first week of me being sick, jet lagged, and overwhelmed -- we are doing great! We have really been enjoying the beautiful weather with bike riding to/from school each day, dinners at parks, jumping on the trampoline, and watching the boys play t-ball. We are really enjoying being a family of five and it doesn't overwhelm us at all. Allie is a great baby and sleeps 12 hours a night and takes two great naps each day. No matter what time we put her down to sleep, she doesn't make a noise. My family came into town and she had to take a few naps in her stroller because we were out and about during nap time -- no problem for Allie.

Playing at the park with cousin Chloe during a t-ball game

I do not grieve for the first 8 months of her life that I missed. I do have so many more questions and I wish I could sit down with her grandfather again, but I don't feel like I've missed out. 9 months is a great age. She talks and smiles all of the time. She has also learned how to say "dada" and "mama". She is so close to crawling, and she loves to stand up. The bonding process has gone better than expected -- both ways. I really can't say anything negative about our transition from being a family of four to a family of five. We are really enjoying it. As for the boys, they still enjoy having Allie around and they have never complained about her at all.

My family just visited from Indiana for 8 days. Below are a few pictures from their trip:

Grandma & Grandpa Allen with Alemitu
They could not believe the improvements (especially regarding leg strength) that she has made since they first saw her in Washington D.C.

Calvin running to home plate
During soccer, Calvin really enjoyed himself but he wasn't aggressive. A smile was always on his face and that's all that mattered. With t-ball, Calvin tries to go after each ball. He had a really great catch when he was pitcher's helper. He is really into t-ball and it is great to watch him so passionate about a sport he plays. Wes really loves t-ball too.
Grandpa Fischer is their coach.

Cousin Chloe & Allie in matching rompers

Wes, Calvin, and Cousin Carter at the Sea Life Aquarium

Adam and Calvin on a roller coaster at Castles & Coasters

Calvin going down a slide at Rustler's Rooste Restaurant
(say that 3 times fast)

Alemitu & Cousin Sydney

Trampoline Static vs. Cousin Carter's hair Trampoline wins every time

Wes playing in the fountains at Westgate
Wes told us this week that he will have ZERO kids when he gets married because "big guys" (Wes' term for adults) can't have kids AFTER they get married. Hmm I think we need to explain a few things in the near future. Calvin said he will have 100 kids.

Tattoos Wes asked Adam how a tattoo on a "big guy" doesn't wash off. So Adam took the opportunity to explain exactly how a tattoo is done. Wes, Calvin, and Sydney have all said that will never get a tattoo.

Spring Break

2011-03-17T16:44:00.006-07:00

The boys are on spring break this week and we are having fun! On Sunday Grandma and Grandpa Fischer took them up near Sedona to Out of Africa. It is a safari type zoo and we went with them a few years ago. The boys had a blast and even brought along their own cameras to take some pictures.

We've been mostly hanging around home the past few days. Wes was determined to stay up past midnight. He failed the first two nights. He even told his brother than they can't watch movies at night because that makes them fall asleep too early. Wes and Calvin finally managed to stay up until 1 a.m. with the help from Daddy and the Wii. I was fast asleep.

Today we went to the Wildlife World Zoo which is just about 5-10 minutes from our house. They have expanded it and added an aquarium. The boys had to study each and every fish no matter how small or big. Allie had a great time looking at the fish but fell fast asleep after lunch so she missed the big animals. The zoo added a log ride and all 3 boys had fun going down it.

The kids acting like monkeys!

Allie loves to blow raspberries.

All those days staring at a computer finally caught
up with Adam and he had to get glasses.

Tonight the boys have t-ball practice and they are spending the night with grandma and grandpa. It has been a great week. I am not overwhelmed at all and we are settling in to a great schedule.

This morning Allie woke up with 2 little bottom teeth! She has been drooling a lot lately, chewing on everything, and yesterday she was more tired than normal. She loves to cover her teeth with her tongue so views of them are really hard to get, but I sort of got a shot today at lunch. Look closely and you can barely see those two little white things in her mouth.

Speaking of Alemitu, Dr. Spiekerman himself called us the other day. It made me nervous when I heard his voice and not his assistant's but it was all great news. Allie's hip x-ray came back normal and he'll re-evaluate her in 3 months. Her blood/stool labs came back normal except for some small inflammation in her stomach or intestines. Dr. Spiekerman assumes that is from parasites, but he had already prescribed medication for that as a precaution anyway. She is finished taking antibiotics for the chest infection and she no longer is coughing much or having a runny nose. Dr. Spiekerman told me that she is a very healthy little girl!!

In fact, she loves to bear weight on her legs now! In January, she wouldn't do it at all. We have been practicing with her the past few weeks. At first she would only last a couple of seconds and hated it. Now she loves doing it. I think she is building those leg muscles pretty quickly!

Adjusting

2011-03-13T20:25:00.003-07:00

We have completed our first week as a family of five and it went really well! Allie has adjusted wonderfully -- much faster than we expected. She sleeps about 12 hours each night without waking up (beginning at 8:30 p.m.). This allows me to take the boys to school in the morning by 8 a.m. and get back just in time to clean up from breakfast, start a load of laundry, and then wake up Ms. Allie. She also takes two 1 1/2 naps each day at 10:30 and 3:30. She is a happy little girl and she is really starting to attach to Adam too. This weekend has been great bonding time for them and today she reached out and cried for him to hold her (while I was holding her). It was wonderful!

We also saw another great sign tonight when Grandpa Fischer was playing with her a little while she was in her high chair. After a few minutes she started fussing and held up her arms for me. I wasn't standing right there or anything, Jim was. One day she will cry for grandpa but it was awesome that even with someone right in front of her, she was crying for me. That is great, great progress!!

The hard part about the bonding process is the fact that she wants us all of the time. This week, even though she adjusted perfectly, and I was getting more sleep than ever -- I was overwhelmed. Honestly, I broke down a few times on Friday. I was exhausted. I felt like I couldn't get anything done. I didn't know how to carry a load of laundry up the stairs with her too. I didn't know how to fix myself lunch or breakfast when I had to tend to her the whole time. BY CHOICE, since I work part-time, I have always been adamant about cleaning the inside of the house, taking care of all of the yard work, doing the business and personal finances, as well as working a part-time job. This is my CHOICE and Adam steps in whenever I ask him too. However, this week I was completely overwhelmed and not understanding how I could do any of those tasks let alone all of them. I was putting so much pressure on myself.

However on Saturday I woke up with so much energy. It finally occurred to me that just because I stopped puking early Tuesday a.m. didn't mean that my body just got back to normal immediately. I'm dealing with jet lag and getting over 3 days of some sort of stomach flu/food poisoning. I was trying to ignore those things and just try to jump back into my normal life. And what has my normal life looked like pre-Allie? It is busy, busy, busy - not with obligations, just with "stuff". Ever since the boys started full-time kindergarten I have "busied" myself every minute that they are at school. I missed them terribly and that is how I coped. I don't sleep much when I have anxiety, but for the past 9 months I stopped sleeping to the point that Adam told me I needed to go to the doctor to be treated for insomnia. In January when I left Allie the first time I made myself even busier to the point that an outsider probably thought I was on crack. :-) Before we left to pick her up I couldn't even sit down and watch one of my tv shows because I thought I had no time and I wouldn't be able to concentrate on it because I'm sure there were some baseboards that needed polishing. My house and yard had never looked better, but I now realize I was doing all of this to avoid emotions.

So Saturday when I woke up feeling refreshed I started processing the past 9 months of my life. I realized that all of my "busying" isn't necessary. I am not trying to meet deadlines for work. I don't have to do all of this stuff. I was simply coping. I need to slow down. I need to enjoy this. And that's what I did this weekend. We had a great time bonding with Allie and I got some laundry done too! No baseboards were cleaned and yet my life didn't fall apart because of it. :-) I actually read some of my book this morning while Allie played on the floor by me. I would read a little, play with her a little, read a little, etc. Reading is my glass of wine. I miss it! As for sleep, that hasn't been an issue since we got home from Ethiopia. I'm sleeping 7-8 hours a night now without any help from Tylenol PM. Amazing!

We've also had so much fun as a family this week. We've gone to the park a few times, had a picnic one night, went bike riding, went to the mall, spent some time with family (including Adam's cousin and cousin's girlfriend (Damon & Amanda) who drove here from Indiana), and the boys also started t-ball practice. It is nice to be able to stop and enjoy life right now. I'm not waiting for my little girl to get here. Our family is complete . . . for now! Ha! Things are going better than we had hoped for. We are so happy!

Allie kissing cousin Chloe

P.S. No word on Allie's test results yet.

Doctor Visit

2011-03-08T19:27:00.004-07:00

On Saturday what I thought was bad food from Texas Roadhouse was more likely a bug of some sort from Ethiopia. We had some questionable fruit and Ethiopian airport food right before we left. I spent the past two days either having food go right through me or throwing it all up. It left me tired and achy and it was pretty rough yesterday. Last night Adam sent me to our bedroom in the evening and he took care of the kids. I fell asleep at 7 p.m. I was up several times throughout the night with cramping, but I woke up this morning feeling great and ready to start my day fresh and get some things done! We were going to go to a quick doctor's appointment for Allie in the morning and I was going to work in the afternoon. Those plans went completely down the drain and we spent the day at the doctor's office and at several different lab facilities. I should first thank my wonderful clients who let me reschedule them at the last minute for Wednesday and Friday instead!!

We arrived at the pediatrician's office at 10:15 and didn't leave until 2 hours later. We love Dr. Spiekerman!- We started going to him when the boys were 7 or 8 months old (we didn't like their first doctor). He is a straight shooter, and he is also very proactive. He evaluated Allie today and then asked if he could step outside and think about her case a little and then come back in with a plan. His office was right outside our room and we heard him discussing her case with someone the entire time. It was well worth the 2 hour visit! (We also heard him go into the other rooms to apologize to the other waiting patients . . . oops.)

To sum it up, he is happy with her status as an internationally adopted child. She cried while he examined her and he was thrilled with that. He kept saying that she must have been in a good place that cared for her because she knows to cry to let you know that she is unhappy with something. A lot of kids from orphanages don't cry anymore because they have learned it does no good. He kept saying how happy he was about that. He also said her head size is large (even though her body is tiny) which is a good thing and shows that she had adequate nutrition in the womb and after birth. She weighs 15 pounds which is what she weighed in January.

Good news: he doesn't think she has a tumor at all, he thinks it is a capillary hemangioma -- which is essentially exactly what we had originally thought (a strawberry birthmark), thanks to my niece Chloe having one like it. So I feel much better about that.

Another "minor" concern we had was her flexibility in her legs. The girl is a contortionist! I thought this was normal for all infants. Within minutes of being back in the hotel room and I was changing her diaper (during our layover in D.C.), my mom said, 'I think her leg is dislocated" because she could move it so high up. My dad couldn't believe the way she moved her feet and ankles. Hmm. So I guess this isn't normal, but we just thought maybe it was because she doesn't have a lot of muscle mass in her legs from being in a crib so long. In fact, she didn't put any pressure on her legs to stand in January. She does a little now and I work with her on it several times a day.

We thought this was minor but decided to bring it up. This was Dr. Spiekerman's major concern. He rattled off things like it possibly being spina bifida or a tethered spinal cord. It shocked me for a minute but then I realize that it doesn't even matter. We'll deal with whatever cards we are dealt, and I wasn't concerned. Towards the end of the visit he did rule out spina bifida but we still had to get an x-ray for possible hip dysplacia. He did also confirm that there is a chance it is just low muscle mass from being in a crib.

Our major concern was her cough. She has had a nasty cough since we saw her in January. Her medical records from October said she had an upper respiratory blockage and was treated for that. Dr. Spiekerman couldn't hear anything wrong in her chest and thought it was just post nasal drip, but he did order a chest x-ray to confirm this. Very quickly after the x-ray was finished, Dr. Spiekerman's office called Adam to tell him that they did find an infection in her lungs and they called in a prescription. So we feel much better because we knew that it was more than post nasal drip.

Dr. Spiekerman also ordered 11 different blood tests and 6 stool tests. So after 2 hours at his office, we went to get both of her x-rays done, and then we went to get the blood tests. Unfortunately her veins are so tiny they had difficulty getting blood to flow. So after poking her in each arm (oh yeah, did I mention that Dr. Spiekerman's office gave her a few shots too), we were told that they only could get 2 of the 11 blood tests. So we were sent to the Phoenix office to see a specialist for drawing children's blood.

We rush to pick the boys up from school and then head out to Phoenix. After seeing the band-aids on her legs from the shots and the wraps on her arms from getting the blood drawn, the specialist was really hesitant about poking her again. However, we had blood with us that will expire if we wait until the morning. So we go back to the blood drawing room, Allie screams her head off some more, no blood comes out, the guy feels horrible, and in the end we go home with no more blood drawn. He suggested we load her up with liquids tomorrow and then come back on Thursday. Dr. Spiekerman's office agreed.

So we spent the entire day dealing with her medical issues and we still aren't done. I feel so bad for her! I must say that I wasn't prepared to have such little medical background information. When filling out the new patient forms, I had to leave huge sections blank with big question marks over the entire section. The nurse kept asking me questions and all I could say was "I don't know". She finally said, "I don't mean to embarrass you mom, I just have to ask. I understand you probably don't know this stuff." That was just something I wasn't prepared for and it made me sad that I knew so little.

All in all, I'm so happy with her visit with Dr. Spiekerman. I'm not even anxious to get the hip x-rays back. I love her know matter what her physical condition is, and God has been in control this entire time.

After all of that we made a trip to the mall so Adam could buy a new laptop for his business. The boys (all 3) love going to the Apple Store, and they also love to eat at the food court. Okay, and we did promise the boys a tiny toy at the Disney store for going to Phoenix with us and getting Allie's blood drawn. Wes thinks the Disney store is 'Disneyland' so one day he may tell you that he goes to Disneyland a lot.

So we all headed to the mall. The good news is that Alemitu loves her car seat as long as I'm not visible. Same with the stroller. If she can't see me, she is happy in the seat and she sleeps most of the time. Wes asked if he could push the stroller for Allie's first ride in a stroller. He definitely felt like a big kid with a big responsibility. He and Calvin had so much fun pushing her all over the mall. It is so cute to see how they interact with her. Wes has always been my little cuddle bug, so I am making sure that he understands he is still my cuddle bug. He loves watching Allie and asking questions, but he doesn't really want to hold her or touch her yet. Calvin is all about Allie. He loves playing with her, holding her, touching her, etc. The boys are adjusting great and they told me this morning that they love having Allie home. Calvin likes to call her 'Alemitu' rather than "Allie".

We ended the day with all five of us in our bed playing with Allie. It is so nice to have her home. I realize this is completely random, but because I do this blog mostly for my own memories I must add this next part. The boys just asked if they could have a snack. They both wanted a Rice Krispee treat. Calvin asked for a "Frisbee treat" and Wes asked for a "Christmas Tree". I love that they still mess up their words sometimes!!! Adam and I got a good laugh out of it.

Pictures from our DC arrival

2011-03-07T19:33:00.003-07:00

Pictures from our Phoenix arrival

2011-03-06T11:13:00.005-07:00

Adam's Ethiopian friend, Tekabe, wrote this sign for Alemitu.

Wes giving Alemitu the stuffed animal he bought for her.

We are home!

2011-03-05T23:34:00.002-07:00

Right now I am typing this blog post as I lay in my bed. To my left on the floor are my two boys laying on their "slumber party mattresses" while they watch a movie. By my feet is my cat, Steve Russell. To my right is Adam who has the monitor so that we can view our baby girl fast asleep in her crib. When my boys fall asleep, I'll head into Allie's room and sleep in there the rest of the night. In this very moment, I am right where I am suppose to be. There is a great peace in our house and overwhelming love and excitement for our new beginning.

Our day today was great. We were able to get a row together on our long flight (thanks to the ticket counter lady loving my hair). Allie slept well in the beginning and then cat napped the rest of the flight and throughout the day today. We actually got in quite a bit earlier than expected because we picked up a tailwind. My parents met us at the airport and took us back to their hotel (it was like a little suite) so that we could rest, Allie could play, and we could eat some breakfast. Adam was able to get a good nap.

For lunch we went to Texas Roadhouse as we were starving for some good American food. Our stomachs were not ready and we have been paying for it ever since. :-(

I mentioned before that my mom had upgraded us to First Class on our flight from DC to Phoenix. This was my first time in first class and I was making a big deal about it. She told me not to take pictures of all the great fixtures, etc. Basically "don't act like a hill jack". So what did we do? We took silly pictures and text them to my mom before the flight took off. The caption read "Whoo-whee! We got us some first class seats."

Our 5 hour flight to Phoenix was wonderful. Allie and I slept the ENTIRE way home. Adam slept most of the way home. It was bliss. Sherree, Jim, the boys, and some friends came to greet us at the airport. (Jim, you can post pictures from your camera.) We were so touched. The boys were a little shy around Alemitu but they started getting more interested in her on the car ride home. I can't wait until tomorrow when we can all play together.

The airport did lose our luggage, but they said a lot of people from our first flight had lost luggage. We re-checked it when we got to DC so we at least know it made it that far. I hope to get it because of the souvenirs, but honestly, those are just things. I have the most important "luggage" with me.

We didn't know how Allie would do going to bed. Her scheduled is completely messed up and she slept so hard on the flight to Phoenix. With a little music and back patting from Daddy, she was fast asleep in her crib in no time. Our baby girl is finally home.

This has been an incredible journey and we couldn't have done it without the support, prayers, and love from all of you! We were so touched my parents drove to DC to meet us. We are also so very grateful for Jim & Sherree to take care of our children during both trips. Adam and I are blessed with great parents who are even better grandparents. We can't thank you enough!

Day 6 - A little late

2011-03-05T14:21:00.002-07:00

I had sent this e-mail to my family but it never went through, so here is our adventures from Day 6.

Today was pretty uneventful for us, but it was still a great day. We got GREAT sleep last night. In Ethiopia, sleeping through the night has been impossible for us and our friends during both trips. You have cars honking their horns, roosters crowing, dogs barking, and Islamic church broadcasting prayers through a PA all day and night. At home, one Tylenol PM will usually knock me out. Here, I take two and I’m lucky to sleep a few hours. I normally fall asleep before 11 and at 1 in the morning it feels like 7 and I sleep off and on from 1-5. I’m lucky to stay in bed past 5 in the morning. The same I true for Adam. Last night, I went to sleep before 11 p.m. and I didn’t wake up again until Allie woke up a little after 7 a.m. It was wonderful!

This morning Alemitu and I hung around the guest house while Adam and Tekabe shot video and photographs nearby. They went down a huge hill – which meant that they had to walk back up. Tekabe, who has lived here his entire life, was struggling and sweating on the way back up. So you can only imagine what a difficult time Adam had. I can’t stress enough how much this altitude gets to you. The altitude and the smog are pretty bad. Adam was wiped out when he got back.

For lunch, we were invited to a traditional lunch at CHI’s guest house. We declined. Then Brian was called by Tsegay and told that no one has EVER declined. So we went, a little frustrated. The food was very, very authentic and Adam and I really struggled to eat some of the stuff on our plate. It was really hard, but we tried. Adam had a huge headache still from being wiped out and it looked like he hardly touched his food. After that, we all had to drink some more coffee. It was a pretty rough lunch for us Fischers.

One of the reasons we declined lunch was because Hollie and Brian needed to make it to embassy by 1. Lunch and coffee ceremony was at 12 and it takes 30 minutes to get to embassy. Do the math – it wasn’t going to work out. Tsegay promised them they would be there on time. It didn’t work out. So as we were rushing to get there, Adam and I offered to go to embassy with them because their ride was planning on driving back to the guest house to drop us off before heading to embassy. We had nothing to do so we tagged along back to embassy. Because we were late, we were at the embassy for 2 ½ hours. Allie was great and it didn’t feel that long to me . . . but Adam’s luck had run out and he started getting sick at the embassy. Between walking in the high altitude and then eating a traditional meal we weren’t sure about – it hit him hard. I am glad to say that after some medication, he is feeling much better tonight. (Although as I was typing this, he did come up the stairs panting and struggling to breathe as we normally do and he fell on the bed saying “this building has gotten taller”) One of the people we met on this trip and stayed at our guest house was not so lucky. She is heading to the airport right now and is as white as a ghost. She has been sick all day. So we are very thankful that Adam is feeling better and we are NOT risking anything tomorrow when it comes to food.

After embassy we went to the Hilton Hotel to work out some details with our flight home. Ethiopian Airlines has an office there. We had learned that we wouldn’t get a bassinet and so we paid for a ticket for Alemitu last night. OUCH! But our flight here was pretty bad and there is no way that we can be crammed again like we were for a 17 ½ hour flight – with an infant in our lap. So we were going to the office today to get seats all three seats next to each other. That was a fiasco that we are still trying to work out but we were there for over an hour.

By the time we all got back to the guest house we were so tired. The kids did wonderfully. We ate some dinner and had another coffee ceremony. I think we may turn in a little early tonight. Tomorrow is our last night here. Hollie and Brian are going to do some shopping in the morning, but my wallet is still screaming at me for purchasing Allie’s ticket so we have done enough shopping this trip. We are really happy with the things we have purchased so far so we are just going to hang around the guest house and pack up in the morning. It will be our last day here.

Our trip this time was very different and I’m so grateful for that. We chose not to participate in the itinerary that CHI does for its families. Instead we wanted to get around the town and really experience Ethiopia. I am so thankful that we did this. I feel like the things we did and saw during our first trip made me a little naïve. Everything was butterflies and roses except for the poverty. This time, I once again witnessed the love and respect that most Ethiopians have for each other. Even in these hard times, they display so much happiness. However, I also witnessed some very scary and disturbing things. Things I will never forget for the rest of my life. I went back home last time thinking I found the beauty in Ethiopia – it’s the people. I will go back home with that same belief, only with the addition that I am grateful for the disturbing things I witnessed and learned because I now know that these people need our prayer. I understand Allie’s grandfather’s love for her so much more now. It is hard to put my thoughts into words but I can say my eyes are open. Hollie said it perfectly that we didn’t just see these things this trip to be disturbed by them, we saw them for a reason. I don’t know what that reason is, but I am praying that God will show me why I saw them. How am I to help? Maybe it is sponsoring a child from Korah to go to boarding school. Maybe it is to do some mission work. Maybe it is simply to pray for these people. I don’t know what it is but there is a reason we witnessed the things we did. There is a reason that the rose colored glasses were removed and we began to understand a little better. I hope that in time I am able to understand what that reason is.

Day 7 - Heading Home!!

2011-03-04T08:02:00.003-07:00

I am so happy that we are finally ready to head back home. Adam said today that he is much more home sick this trip, and I feel the same way. Wes has been sick with the flu the past few days, and while we know he is getting excellent care we really want to be there for him. We were able to talk with him one day but because of the time difference and Calvin in school, we haven’t been able to talk with Calvin other than through e-mail. I miss my boys and I’m ready to unite our family on one continent!

So what’s in store for the Fischer family? A little alone time. We are about to start a stage in the bonding process called “cocooning”. I’ve mentioned before that we have received a lot of training on how to get Allie to bond with us, and that is extremely important for adopted children. She is doing great. Adam is able to feed and play with her. He can hold her and walk around with her. However, if I am in the same room (and she isn’t being fed), she cries and reaches out for me. Adam steps back and hands her over. This is all part of the bonding process and we are excited to see that it has already started. A lot of children bond with one parent in the beginning and want nothing to do with the other parent (typically the male), so we are very, very grateful that Allie enjoys being with Adam.

So for the next 6 weeks or so we are going to keep it pretty quiet at our house. Some of our family will come and play with Allie during this time, but we won’t be taking her around a lot of people and we can’t let anyone but Adam and I (and soon grandmas and grandpas) hold her at this time. Also during this time, we are adjusting our work schedules a little. I will work less, and when I do work, Adam will be taking care of Allie instead of sending her to grandma and grandpa’s house. This will be our form of a maternity/paternity leave.

We appreciate all of your support and we are so excited for everyone to meet Allie. I just don’t want anyone to be offended when we aren’t passing her around during our cocooning period. This doesn’t mean that you can’t see her or us for six weeks, it just means that you can’t hold her for a while.

Anyone is welcome to come to the airport on Saturday evening at 7:59, United Flight #953 (terminal 2). My mom was so gracious to use her miles and upgrade us to first class on our flight home to DC!! Speaking of my parents, they will be meeting us in DC during our long layover on Saturday. My dad called and asked me if it was okay if they drive down and take us to lunch during the long layover because “it’s only a 10 hour drive”. While we laugh at the “ONLY 10 hour” part, we are so very touched by their kindness and their anxiousness to meet their newest granddaughter.

This has been an amazing experience for us! We feel so blessed to have Allie as our daughter. Throughout this past 1 ½ years I feel like I have grown so much in so many different ways. We will miss the Ethiopian friends we have made at our guesthouse during both of our trips. We will miss all of the smiling faces. We hope to bring our entire family back here with the Roys in about 5 years. There are definitely things I won’t miss like not being able to flush toilet paper in the toilet; very, very low pressure tiny showers; power outages; and warm drinks without ice. Mom/Dad – we will be ready for a huge fountain soda when we get to D.C.! (and maybe some Gray’s carry out if you haven’t already left yet on your short 10 hour trip but I think I may be sending this too late)

We love you all. We can’t wait to introduce everyone to Alemitu Adam Fischer (in about a year, she’ll become Alemitu Tagese Fischer, when we officially rename her). Grandma Jones, you have officially gotten your wish for a granddaughter!

Now just pray that we get seats together on our flight home. Our travel agent has been working with the Ethiopian Air Office in D.C. to work out some minor kinks. I have no idea what to expect traveling with an infant for 17 ½ hours (nonstop) so we could also use some prayer in that regard. I hope we are able to get some sleep! And lastly, say a prayer that we arrive home safely, that Wes is feeling better, and that our cocooning period gets off to a good start. As always, we will continue to keep you updated through our blog.

Day 6

2011-03-03T19:15:00.002-07:00

No news today, just a couple of pictures to give you a feel for the area.

Day 5 - More Pictures from Leprosy Colony

2011-03-02T15:39:00.006-07:00

Here are a few more pictures from our visit to the Leprosy Colony

Day 5 - Leprosy Colony

2011-03-02T15:22:00.005-07:00

Today was another great day. Allie slept through the night again without a peep. She woke up a little before 7 a.m. By 9:30, we were off to the Leprosy Colony. It is one of the poorest places in Ethiopia. Here, the lepers are still outcasts. Any family members of people with leprosy must also reside in this colony. They are tiny metal shacks on land between a cemetery and a dump. Their source of food is the dump. People fight for food, and if you are small you don’t eat. It is hard for kids to go to school because then they miss the time at the dump when the hotels like the Hilton dump their food. If you miss that time, you won’t eat. There is a woman from Tennessee who sold all of her belongings and moved her family to help this colony. She started having children being sponsored so that they can be shipped to a boarding school where they can learn and be fed. While we were there, one family was asking us to take their son’s photo so that maybe someone will sponsor him.

When we arrived at the colony, we were told to stay in a tight group and we had “leaders” (men acting as guards) who walked in front and behind us. This made us a little nervous at first especially since we were carrying our children, but we soon felt very comfortable. Kids would run up to us and speak English asking what our name was. They would hold our hands and at one point, there were several children fighting over my hand.

Adam was a huge hit with the children. It is funny that everywhere we have gone Ethiopian men and women will comment on how much they like my hair. At the colony, it was all about Adam’s tattoos, earrings, and camera. Those kids would run up to him and say “stamp” “stamp” and pointing to his tattoos. They would ask what the tattoos said and some children could even read them a little bit. They also asked if his earrings were magnets, and they wanted him to take pictures of them doing all different funny things and they also wanted to take photos with his camera. Those kids just hovered all over Adam and he was having a blast. There was only one point that wasn’t good when the mothers came out with sticks. They weren’t happy that pictures were being taken.

Visiting the colony was such an amazing experience. Some of the stuff we saw was so sweet, and some of the stuff was very disturbing. If anyone would like more information, I can give you the details (name, website, etc.), but for security reasons I can’t share too much through the blog.

After that trip, we came back to the guest house for lunch and a nap. Allie also got a bath this afternoon. For dinner we went out to an Italian restaurant that also had an art gallery attached to it. The gallery shows work from 47 different artists and they are all on canvases. We purchased a piece for our house and we hope to purchase another one later this week. As for the food, it was delicious! Ethiopia was ruled by the Italians on two different occasions so they know how to cook it! The funny thing was that we chose to go to this Italian restaurant today – which just happens to be a national holiday celebrating when the Italians were conquered. :-)

It was nighttime by the time we left the restaurant and we’ve never been outside at night. It was so neat to see all of the people on the streets and the little shops were all open. This is the last time that we are eating out at a restaurant because we feel like we’ve been lucky so far by not getting sick. We don’t want to risk it again right before we all get on a plane. J

I did forget to mention that on the way to the colony, we were pulled over by the local police. This made us all a little nervous but he had pulled us over because there was a sticker on the van. This blocked the view to the passengers inside and so the officer wanted to check us out. The sticker was just a tiny little guitar.

Tomorrow we plan to take it easy. We’ll go shopping in the morning and then rest in the afternoon while Hollie and Brian head to the embassy. It has been a great day and Allie was back to her super happy self. We decided to feed her more, and we also aggressively cleaned out her nose with Little Noses spray. She is SO congested, and being outside in the smog is making it worse. After we cleaned her out this morning (and a little bit of fussiness), then she was all smiles again today!

I should also note that Alemitu is showing signs of bonding. She loves to have Adam feed and play with her. She isn’t scared of him at all, but she wants me around at all times. She wants me to hold her. There have been a few times when she has cried for me if I’ve walked out of the room or if I’m across the room. At this point, Adam is just handing her over immediately when she cries for me to encourage that bonding process. We didn’t expect her to show these signs yet. And by “cry”, I mean some minor fussing. We haven’t seen any tears yet.

Day 4 - Allie is a US Citizen

2011-03-01T10:27:00.003-07:00

Today was a great day, but I am SO tired! It is simply from our busy day and not because of Alemitu. In fact, she slept through the night without making a single peep! She went to bed around 7 p.m. and didn’t wake up until a few minutes before 6 a.m. We were told by the nannies that this was her wake up time and so her body is definitely used to that schedule. We fed her a bottle and assumed that we were up for the morning. As I was burping her, she fell right back to sleep. She slept until 7:30 and when she woke up she was just talking in her crib and not upset at all. She is a great sleeper!

At 9 a.m. we were taken to the HOH to fill out paperwork. Tsegay, the director, was nowhere to be found and our coordinator could not reach him. We had no idea what time our embassy appointment was nor did we know when we could get our paperwork filled out. Allie had fallen asleep during the car ride over to HOH. Then she woke up as we went into the playroom. Then she fell asleep a little while later only to wake up again as we had to switch rooms again. She could only cat nap and this was making her a little fussy today. We never saw tears, but she would fuss a little throughout the day and wanted to be up moving around rather than sitting still in my lap.

Unfortunately, this was a day that we had to sit/stand still for long periods of time. First when we did the paperwork. We were at HOH for maybe 2 hours. Then we rushed home to change into dress clothes, eat a couple bites for lunch, feed Allie, and then head back out the door to our embassy appointment – all in about 45 minutes. We got to the embassy and were behind 2 or 3 other agencies, so we were there for almost 2 hours. Allie was in the ergo baby carrier the entire time and she likes it when I stand rather than sit down. So I was in heels standing during this time.

Then we went up to the window when our name was called (it is like the mvd), and we raised our right hands and swore that the information is accurate. And then the guy says, “So are you aware that Alemitu has a benign tumor?” Um, no. So we are allowed to briefly glance at the medical records that the US Embassy’s doctors filled out. We knew she had a spot on her thigh, but we thought it was a birthmark. The doctors think it is a benign tumor that starts with “herm . . .” or something like that. We could only briefly see the documents and we weren’t allowed to have them. So while we were so excited that she became a US Citizen today, it was a little unsettling to get that news. One of the reports said that it is a “growth or slight swelling”, and we are thankful that it is benign. It hasn’t gotten any bigger than when we saw it during our January trip. It is really minor and it looks like a birthmark. Obviously we will be getting it checked when we return to the states but we aren’t worried about it at all.

After we were at the embassy, another man we were traveling with needed to go to the Hilton Hotel to access the internet to get some documents emailed to the embassy so he could go back to the US. Allie had fallen asleep in the car again, so I just stayed in the parking lot with our driver – for 40 minutes!!! I wasn’t expecting it to take that long with no air conditioning and a guard that kept coming over to look in the van.

After that, our driver dropped us off at the Post Office District to meet our friend Hollie and Brian and to do some shopping. We were thinking about going to the largest market in Addis, Merkato, but we learned it isn’t good for Americans to be there right now. So we stuck with the Post Office District which is still really good. We picked up some good souvenirs. Allie loves shopping!

After that, we went straight to a restaurant for dinner. Now we are home and Allie is falling asleep in her crib. Being in heels all day and carrying in her in the Ergo carrier for almost 6 hours has made me exhausted! It is mostly just the standing around in the heels and trying to walk around the shops in broken dirt and rock roads.

Even though I am tired, it was still a wonderful day. My daughter is a US Citizen!! We are completely done with everything! No more appointments or paperwork. We are done! She is our baby girl. We keep calling her Allie the Alligator and today we saw a handmade alligator when we were shopping. Obviously we bought it. We also bought a tiny coffee ceremony set that she can play with when she is a few years older. We plan to have a coffee ceremony to celebrate her adoption on January 25th each year. We’ll stick with a “milk” ceremony until she can drink coffee. In Ethiopia most people have a coffee ceremony daily. It is a really big deal. Coffee originated in Ethiopia.

One “interesting” thing happened today at embassy. We know that you can’t take pictures of the US Embassy inside, outside, or on the entire block. The man traveling with us was not told that. So as we are driving on the road, he holds up his phone and takes a picture from the van. We were driving maybe 20 – 30 mph, and we were in a van. The embassy has a huge block fence around us. Obviously no one can see that he took the picture. Wrong. Right when he did it, our translator turned around and you could tell he was a little worried. He told him to put the camera away immediately and that we will probably be stopped because they have cameras watching the traffic. We got through the main gate and were walking into the doors of the embassy when a guard with a gun came up to talk to the guard that let us in. They were speaking Amharic. Our translator told us that we had been spotted and to hurry and get inside before they stop us. Right after we get inside, the guard comes in and asks who took the picture. The man said that he did and they took him over to one side of the room and asked him questions about his citizenship and took his passport information down. Then they took his phone and he had to show them the picture and they had to watch him delete the picture. After that, they let us through. We were lucky. Our translator has said that has happened about 2-3 other times and he had forgotten to tell us that we can’t take pictures. I am so glad that they let us through!!

Alemitu is asleep now and so I’m going to head downstairs and send this off. I think I just might turn in early tonight. Tomorrow we are going to the leprosy colony in the morning and then just taking it easy in the afternoon. We’ll go out to dinner again, but it will be nice to have a more relaxed day! I love all of the e-mails and comments. Thank you so much for sending them!

Day 3 - Continued

2011-02-28T10:02:00.006-07:00

Here are a few more pictures of us spending time with our daughter!

Day 3 - Getting Alemitu

2011-02-28T09:58:00.005-07:00

We slept okay last night. We woke up about every hour and a little before 5 this morning, I realized that I was just too excited to sleep anymore so I went ahead and got out of bed. The power was out (and remained out for half of the day), and I became worried because we weren’t getting any hot water. I haven’t taken a shower since Saturday morning. My hair managed to keep the faux hawk style the past few days without a shower, but I felt dirty and gross and I NEEDED a shower.

A couple hours later, I told Adam that I was just going to turn on the shower but stand outside it. I would put my head under the water (which is barely flowing) to wash my hair, and then stick one limb in at a time. He wished me luck but he was not about to attempt this freezing cold, crazy idea himself. The water barely comes out, but after a few minutes it started to warm up. I realized that there was still warm water in the tank but because the water was barely flowing, it was taking a long time to reach the shower. So I cracked open the bathroom door and yelled for Adam to hurry and get in the bathroom. I said, “Okay, here’s the deal. We are getting warm water and I don’t know how long it will last. So take off your clothes and let’s alternate getting in this shower.” The shower is super tiny and the shower head is equal to Adam’s chest, so he can’t fit in the shower anyway since he has to bend down so far. But it was worth trying just to get clean. So I wash my hair real fast as he is passing shampoo and conditioner into my hands. Then I jump out and he gets in and washes his hair and then jumps out. Then I jump back in and wash my body. We were laughing pretty hard at how absurd this situation was, but in the end, we were clean!

A little after 9 a.m. our driver arrived to take us to HOH to pick up our kids. I had so many feelings during that drive (okay, well, since I couldn’t sleep). Would Allie recognize us? Would she be happy to go home with us? Would she transition to the food and formula that we brought?

When our van pulled into the HOH, all of the children (older than 2) were outside chanting “Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!” They were lined up on the sidewalk greeting us. When we got out of the van, they came running over. Two children immediately held Adam’s hands. The kids were saying “Daddy! Daddy!” to Brian and reaching up for him. Seeing these kids immediately erased any nervousness I had.

We walk upstairs and what feels like 2 hours, was just a matter of minutes, as they prepared Alemitu for us. They always try to dress up the children when we arrive. We waited and waited and waited – and finally she came out of her room. She was in the cutest little yellow dress and her hair had been styled in tiny pony tails. She looks like she has had a growth spurt. I got so excited!

The nanny handed her to Adam first and she stared at both of us like she didn’t really know what to think about us. And then after about a minute, she started smiling and chatting away. Alemitu loves to talk! And play games. And blow bubbles. And make herself laugh. She is a super happy baby!

We hung out at the HOH for a while and then headed back to our guest house. I was so thankful that I brought a baby sling/carrier thing. That car ride back was so fast and it was nice to have her attached to me.

When we got back to the guest house, we played a little on the floor. She LOVES the mirror. She kept laughing at herself and then she would kiss it. (drool on it) We fed her baby food (apples) and water for lunch and she ate well and didn’t have a problem.

After we fed her, we went downstairs to have our lunch. I had requested a salad that I LOVED last time. At lunch, they told me that they didn’t have the salad dressing but will have it by tomorrow – so today, they just put mustard on it instead. Mustard? On a salad? Yep. I tried it just to be nice and I have to admit, mustard salad is pretty good. Hollie about died when she tried it telling us that her tongue got stuck to the roof of her mouth it was so tart. Brian just said he liked it too – he called it a “party in your mouth”.

We came upstairs to get Allie ready for her nap. We are trying to stick to the schedule that she is already on. We were told that Ethiopian children do not take to pacifiers, and we shouldn’t bother bringing them. I did bring a couple because I was hoping to transition her to a pacifier rather than have her suck on her fingers. As cute as I think that is, I know I can take a pacifier away when she turns one but I can’t exactly take her fingers away. She LOVED the pacifier. When she fell asleep, it was still in her mouth so Adam took it out. Immediately her fingers went in its place.

One really neat thing that happened today was that a friend Adam made last time, Tekabe, came by our guest house today. It was his day off but he told Adam that he wanted to shoot video of us getting Allie. He went with us to the HOH and took some photos and video, and Adam and Tekabe are going to go around the town and take some video on Wednesday. Tekabe is really interested in video and he has his own camera. It was sweet that he came to visit on his day off.

Allie took a great nap this afternoon and even switched to Infamil formula without an issue. We had pizza for dinner, and our Phoenix friends Paige and Jason came to join us. They are here for their first visit and just passed court today! Adam just put Allie down for bed for the night. Today was a great day!

More pictures to follow...

Day 2-- A few more pictures

2011-02-27T09:47:00.004-07:00

Here are a few pictures of the guest house where we are living.....

This is the guest house. We're on the fourth floor.

Here are a few of the many, many, many steps we get to climb :-)

This is our bedroom,

and here are a couple views of the living room.

Day 2 - Hello Ethiopia!

2011-02-27T09:06:00.003-07:00

We made it! Our plane ride was full and so it was a little crowded and uncomfortable for 13 hours. This crowded flight felt twice as long as our 17 hour empty flight last time. Knowing the reason we were on the plane in the first place kept us calm. We arrived at 7:40 this morning, but it took a couple of hours to get through the visa and customs line. Our drivers from the guest house waited 3 hours for us, and they still had huge smiles on their faces when we arrived.

It was lunchtime when we got to the guest house, and we were hungry. The power was out so we couldn’t take showers. Instead, after talking a bit with our friends Brian and Hollie (who arrived last night), we hopped back into the van and went out for pizza, grocery shopping, and we even stopped at the Hilton Hotel to exchange some money. The hotel is gorgeous! Right outside it is a beautiful park that we want to take the kids to sometime this week.

Now we are back at the guest house for some rest and relaxation before dinner. We are completely unpacked and ready for Alemitu to join us! We are staying at Ethiopia Guest House, which is the same place that we stayed at last time, but we are in a different guest house (they have 4). It is the newest and biggest. We have a one bedroom suite that has a queen bed, crib, bunk beds, living room, two balconies, a storage room, and a bathroom. Last time, we had one room that had a bed in it and it fit nothing else — not even a dresser. We had a tiny bathroom down the hall. So we feel like we are living in luxury right now! The only downside is that we are on the 4th floor. Altitude is like 7,000 – 8,000 feet and last time we really struggled going up 3 flights of stairs, and now we have 4 flights to deal with. It is not easy! We have to sit down as soon as we get upstairs just to catch our breath.

We are so happy to be here right now and we feel so comfortable. When we walked out of the airport, both Adam and I had the same thought “this feels like our second home”. It feels good to be here and there are so many things we want to do/see this week — especially with our good friends Hollie and Brian. It’s funny how we got the closest with them during our last trip, and out of 10 families that we traveled with, we are the only two families in Ethiopia right now. We are so blessed to be traveling together and we are already making plans for the Roy family to come to Phoenix in May and us to go to Nashville. Hollie and Brian are adopting a little boy, Ty, who just turned 1.

Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. A van will pick us up to take us to the transition home where we will get to pick up our kids and take them with us forever! We hope to get to spend a little time at the transition home checking on children from our other friends/families that we passed court with in January. I am so excited to pick up Allie I don’t know if I can sleep tonight!

Day #1 - Washington DC

2011-02-25T21:04:00.006-07:00

We made it to D.C. today --- barely! I guess you really feel turbulence when the wind is 20 mph. Today it was 50! So the pilot kept giving us warnings about the situation before we even hit it. We were suppose to arrive 30 minutes early and instead we were 15 minutes late. We had to circle above until they could allow us to land. One of the airports (National) had already shut down. We got clearance to land, and the pilot warned us that we would come down fast. Oh wow. We were gasping, and I even caught Adam raising his hands a few times to brace himself. Everyone on that flight was scared.

Sometimes the nose would be high in the air and sometimes the tail would be high in the air. Adam had to make sure the barf bag was nearby. When we got close to the ground, the plane turned farther on its side than I have ever seen. I thought (and I wasn't the only one) that the wing was going to clip the ground. We were coming in fast but sideways! Then, the pilot straightens out and bam we are on the ground (a little wobbly).

While we were waiting for the shuttle to the airport, I asked a pilot if the nose up/nose down is a technique they do in wind. He said that it isn't -- that was wind pockets. It would throw the plane up and then the plane would drop down and so the pilot would have to hit the thrusters hard to try and level it out again. He also said that if we could survive this, then we can survive any turbulence because this is the worst it gets. He said that the airport was requiring the pilots to land coming in sideways and then quickly straighten out before dropping. He had only done it once before today.

To sum it up, I said a prayer of thanks when we were safely on the ground!

After we got to our hotel, we left about 10 minutes later to take a bus then the metro line into DC for a night lights city tour. Remember that awful wind I was talking about? Miserable. Miserable. Miserable. I had 2 shirts, 1 hoodie, and 1 jacket on -- plus gloves. I was miserable. It was neat to see the sights, but by the end I just couldn't get out of the shuttle anymore. The tour ended about 45 minutes early because it was a struggle for everyone. I'm glad we did it though because I have never been to DC and I wanted to see the White House. We also ate at a really good burger joint, Ollie's Trolley. I had probably the best burger that I have ever had in my life.

Now we are getting ready for bed. We have been back to our hotel for almost an hour and my fingers are still frozen. Our flight leaves at 11 a.m. tomorrow for Addis and we arrive Sunday morning!!!

We got a great call today from our agency that our appointment is on Tuesday!! This means that we will definitely make it home with Allie next Saturday! We also learned that we won't be able to see Allie on Sunday because that is the HOH staff's day off. We understand and are already making plans with our friends Hollie and Brian.

I am praying for a safe, smooth flight to Addis. Also that the plane isn't full. I wasn't doing well on the flight to DC before the turbulence thing happened. I'll post again as soon as we get to Ethiopia!

View of Washington Monument from Lincoln Memorial

Iwo Jima

We're Approved!!

2011-02-22T22:40:00.004-07:00

I was so impatient today. I could not concentrate on anything besides waiting for that phone to ring. Last night Adam told me not to get my hopes up. Um, too late. Then today I wanted to call our agency at 9:30 a.m. and he told me that I needed to wait until noon. We've been married for 11 years . . . he should have known that today was not the day to introduce patience to me. :-)

I managed to wait until almost 10:30 and I left a message for the director of our agency. In the few hours that followed, I heard from all of the other traveling families (who were also waiting on a call) that there had been questions on their files and it is causing a short delay. I expected the same for us. So you can imagine my surprise when the director calls me in the afternoon to tell us that the embassy approved our file without issue!!! We were given permission to travel to Ethiopia on Friday and they are hoping that we will know our embassy date (next week sometime) before we leave!! Better yet, we get to travel with our really good friends Hollie and Brian (we stayed together last time) because they got approval last week!

So what does that mean? It means we are done. There are no more hoops to jump through. We are done. We just have to go to Ethiopia, pick up our daughter, go to a meeting at the US Embassy to get her birth certificate, passport and US citizenship documents, and then we can bring her back home. We are done with the waiting. The relief is amazing (and then my crazy mind starts thinking that there must be some mistake if we were the only ones that didn't have an issue with embassy . . . aahh, crazy never stops).

So it's official. We leave Friday morning!!! Oh yeah, and what a perfect day to get this news as my mommy mobile (aka my Jeep HUMMander) was getting a little bit tougher. We had planned to get new tires when we bought the car a year ago and Adam said I could lift it a little when we did. Finally, after having to use my ABS brakes a few times this weekend when it rained, my tires/wheels/lift were ready! And what matches a tough looking HUMMander on the outside . . . a super cut carseat on the inside! We now have to use all 3 rows in the Jeep to get my kids to comfortably fit! This is the very reason we traded in my Cherokee for the HUMMander -- we were expanding our family. A year later, we get to use it! I love it!

Trying to step up into it and get Allie into her carseat will take some maneuvering. :-)

Thanks and Prayer

2011-02-21T17:09:00.003-07:00

First of all, I want to say I am so thankful that Calvin is doing better. He was really, really sick this past week with Type A flu. He was so sick (and contagious) that my family had to cancel their vacation to come see us - hours before they were supposed to leave! (rescheduled it for end of March) Calvin had a fever between 101-104 consistently for 6 days. It was awful! I am so thankful that he is doing better and we spent 4 hours outside today. We were all getting a little stir crazy (Adam is in Florida), and so the boys and I went on a bike ride, picnic, played at a park, and then played outside with the neighborhood kids. It was nice. Calvin is doing so much better!

While I am so thankful for Calvin's healing, I would also like to ask that when you read this post or think of us tonight and tomorrow (Tuesday), please say a quick prayer for us. We have heard all sorts of misinformation about the embassy rules and our file. We did confirm today that our file was submitted to the embassy on Thursday. Whew. We were previously told last week that all 6 of us remaining families had their file submitted, and that is not the case. We were split into groups and our file made the group that was submitted last Thursday. So we are very grateful that our file is there.

It is very, very highly probable that the US Embassy will come back with a decision tomorrow. They will either approve our file, ask for more documentation, or request another interview with Allie's grandfather. We are seeing the interview request on 50% of cases submitted and according to the embassy, it won't be long before it is 100%. This will delay our file another week. We are supposed to leave on Friday and if our file is delayed, we will most likely have to reschedule our trip. So I ask that you say a prayer when you think of us tonight and tomorrow that the embassy will give us approval. We have had several hiccups along the way, and it would be so great just to have this part go smoothly. We want to travel on Friday for so many reasons, but also because the room that we want is not available the following week. Also our good friends Hollie & Brian received approval last week and they are leaving on Friday as well. We were excited to travel with them again.

The embassy will open at 10 p.m. Arizona time (midnight Indiana time) tonight. Please pray that our file is given approval and that we hear from our agency tomorrow. If we are not given approval, please pray that we will make the right decision on either keeping our trip and taking the risk of extending it a little or rescheduling our trip for the following week.

Thank you! Now quit reading and start praying!

Alemitu's Shower

2011-02-14T23:04:00.006-07:00

Yesterday we attended a baby shower for Alemitu. Several people had asked if they could host a shower for us and we kept saying no. However after being so humbled by all of the support we received while we were in Ethiopia, when Sherree asked us after we returned, I quickly said yes. I realized that it would not be a burden for people to attend a shower for us -- it was a celebration of Alemitu and our journey.

Adam had made a video introducing Alemitu to everyone (a link to it is at the bottom of this post). We had lots of good fun, sunshine, and great people. I think there were about 60 people that came!! The boys had fun running around and playing with all of the other kids (until Calvin got sick).

It was a great time, and I'm so appreciative of everyone that attended. I was especially happy to have my friend Paige attend. We met her and her husband at our adoption seminar (an entire weekend) back in August 2009 when we first began our journey. They also have twin boys the same age as Wes and Calvin! We have been through our journey at the same pace, and our daughters are within a month of each other in age. While I hadn't seen Paige in 1 1/2 years, I feel like we have become close friends through e-mail and being support for each other during the ups and downs. I was so happy that she was able to come (she lives on the opposite side of town), and it was neat to get to share all sorts of details with her. They are traveling to Ethiopia for court at the same time that we are planning to go back to get Alemitu. We have already made plans to eat at a good pizza place together in Addis Ababa. I can't wait! It was also neat to see Paige trying to talk one of my other friends, Tiffani, into adoption while she was at the shower. There were two other families that attended that have also adopted children internationally. We have a great group of friends who know what we are going through and it was nice to spend some time with each other.

Thank you to everyone who came and made the day so special!

To watch Alemitu's 2 minute video, go to http://www.fischtale.com/vidplayer/#/alemitu01/

Me with one of my very best friends in the world, Char

Adam and our friends, The Guilds

Travel Plans

2011-02-11T00:36:00.006-07:00

The people I want to travel with . . .

The transition house gate that I want to walk through . . .

The girl I want to take home with me!

I mentioned in my previous post that it has been a roller coaster for me. To help combat that, I decided to make a conservative travel date for us leaving February 25th. Ever since making that decision, my roller coaster ride has turned into calm, but very excited, waters. I feel GREAT about this decision. Today my family has had to listen to me count down from 15 days to 14 1/2 days to 14 1/5 days . . . yep, I'm excited! And technically, it is after midnight as I am typing this post so we are already at 14 days now!!

We had 2 hiccups a few days ago. The first was that because of a clerical error, we failed court. The second was that the US Embassy is now requiring the birth relatives to travel back to Addis to appear in front of the embassy and confirm what is written on the agency's adoption paperwork. I find this to be very sad. Selfishly, I don't want our file delayed any more than it already is. But more importantly, I feel terrible for these birth families. Alemitu's grandfather had to come on a 12 hour bus ride with no air conditioning. It was a sad day for him to let go of his granddaughter (for the 2nd time), and yet he is now being asked to do the same thing for a third time? I find that heart-breaking for these birth families.

I found out from our agency today that while the US Embassy is making this a new procedure, it does not appear to be in full effect as of right now. Some cases (of family's we passed court with) have just passed embassy today with no issues or request of birth family meeting. There have been two families so far that ARE required to have the birth family appear. So it looks like it is hit or miss and we don't know what our requirement will be until our file is submitted to the US Embassy. If Allie's grandfather must reappear, it doesn't seem like it will delay the case more than a few days to a week though.

I also received notice from our agency today that we have in fact passed court!! Yay!!! Happy Dance!! Alemitu went for her passport papers yesterday and medical exam today, so our file is now ready to be submitted to embassy!!!! With the delay, we weren't expecting this to happen for another week at least.

Even though we may pass embassy sooner than the 25th, we are still not going to travel until that time. Adam has an out of state travel job that will put some extra cash in our pockets to alleviate any stress when taking time off for this trip. (Feb 16th - 21st) My family will be in town from February 17th through the 22nd. And lastly, staying at the Ethiopia Guest House is so important to us and it is not available until the 26th. So again, even if we pass early, I'm so good with waiting until the 25th to leave. I'm completely calm about it. Plus, we have two other families booked with us at the Ethiopia Guest House that stayed with us last time. I hope it turns out that we are all able to travel together again.

Our tickets are booked. We are flying Ethiopian Airlines this time because there is a mandatory overnight stay in Washington D.C. and I have never been there. We have booked a night lights city tour for the evening that we arrive in D.C. We leave Phoenix the morning of the 25th and stay the night in DC. Then on the 26th we take a 13 hour flight right to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. On Sunday we should be able to pick up our little girl and take her back to the guest house with us to stay with us forever!!! We will wait for our embassy appointment sometime that week (assuming we did pass prior to arriving), and then we come back home (through DC) on Saturday evening, March 5th. We will be gone for 8 days. I can't wait!!!! Okay, I must admit that I'm still getting nervous when I think about flying 13 hours there and 17 1/2 hours on the way home sitting next to someone -- but other than that, I'm so excited!

Great child, sick child, faraway child . . .

2011-02-08T16:48:00.004-07:00

A lot has happened in the past few days. I can't go into detail right now but we have had a few hiccups with our adoption. Our agency informed us yesterday that there was a clerical error on the report that MOWA gave to the Judge. If you remember, MOWA's report was the 3rd thing needed in order to pass court. We thought we had passed, but evidently we failed court the first time. MOWA has been moving offices and has not been able to correct the typo. Their office opened again today and our agency believes that the typo will be corrected in the next few days. Once this is done, it will probably take a week or so to get our adoption decree.

Yesterday I was devastated. Today I'm okay. It has been a roller coaster ride over here. I'm obsessed with just getting back to Allie. However today I'm really calm. I'm okay that we haven't passed court yet because I know we will. There are some stricter embassy guidelines that may slow down the process some more, but again, I'm okay with that. We will get there soon. Our guest house with internet (the only one with wireless internet) was booked until the 27th. This was really stressful for me because I really wanted to stay there so I could stay connected to Wes & Calvin. Knowing now that our file has been delayed, I moved our reservation to the 27th. I think we will pass embassy maybe right before that. Even with the extra stuff that has to happen, I think planning to pick up our daughter on the 27th is very practical. So I'm good. I'm calm. I'm looking forward to the 27th. If it gets pushed back, I'll deal with it then. Right now, I am simply concentrating on the 27th being our arrival day in Ethiopia. Not sooner. Not later. It is going to happen. Maybe not as fast as we had hoped, but it will happen! I think the idea of not knowing when it will happen was driving me crazy. So I am giving myself a conservative, practical date to plan for -- and poof, it calmed me down.

We've also had some really good news this week. Calvin got Student of The Month! Today his school had an assembly for the Student of the Month students. We are so proud of him. Even though he acts like it is no big deal and he always says "I'm good everyday", we know he was super excited to get this award. He was glowing when Adam and I showed up, during the car ride home, and since we've been home. When we mention how happy he made us, his face lights up. He can't hold back his smile even if he wanted. So even though he is "good everyday" -- we are still so very proud of him!

While we were at the assembly, Wes was at home with Grandpa Fischer hanging out on the couch. He got sent home about 30 minutes before the assembly because he threw up on the playground. Poor little guy.

New Hair Styles

2011-02-02T19:38:00.005-07:00

Cal got a new hair color today. Red lowlights with some blonde highlights.

After 3 foils, he was completely asleep!

Wes got a blue/purple color just on the top of his head. He was growing his hair out, but it only lasted a week. He decided that it will take too long to shampoo so he wanted his short hair back.

Patience is a virtue

2011-02-02T10:16:00.003-07:00

Alemitu with her nanny

I am not a patient person. I consider myself pretty self-aware, and I'm completely aware that I'm not patient during "unknown times". I can be patient waiting for our court date to arrive. I can be patient waiting for a vacation. However, if I don't know "if" something is going to happen, I have no patience . . . at all. I know that we will travel for our embassy date soon, but I don't know "if" it is going to happy before mid-February (when my family comes to visit) or after.

The past week, I have been busying myself like crazy. I just need to stay busy to keep focused and not dwell on the fact that my daughter is half a world away from me. It was hard when the boys were in the hospital for a month after birth. It was hard, but I still saw them several times a day. I could get an update whenever I wanted. Sometimes Adam and I went to the hospital in the middle of the night for a feeding. Waiting to get Alemitu is also very hard. This time, I can't get any updates on her. I don't know what/how she is doing. I can't get any new photos of her. I have no idea when we are traveling to go get her.

I am grateful that the US Embassy implemented new changes to allow for faster return trips. Trust me, I am extremely grateful. The new changes make our group the guinea pigs. So we don't get any answers at all from our agency -- they just don't have them. It is frustrating not to be told where we are in the process though. I think they should at least share that (i.e. has our paperwork been submitted to Embassy for approval, has Alemitu had her medical examination to get her visa, has her birth certificate been created, etc.). Instead, we get no answers. Another family that is in Ethiopia right now (and passed court on the same day we did) was told to expect a date next week! Next week!!! I called our agency to inquire, but I received no new information.

From what I hear, it looks like we will know when we are traveling about a day or two before we leave . . . short notice is fine by us. So for now, I'm just going to stay busy. Keep packing. Keep cleaning. Just keep moving.

Below are the boys' school pictures this year. They want their sister home fast too! :-)

We're Home

2011-01-28T08:42:00.004-07:00

Well we made it home! We thought we were going to miss our flight from Dubai - Los Angeles, but they held the plane for us and had an escort waiting. We were lucky! We got pretty good sleep on the plane, and a great night of sleep last night. I think we are lucky and don't have to deal with any jet lag. We let the boys skip school this morning (they only had school for 2 1/2 hours anyway), and so we are having a pajama party. :-)

On the plan ride I was able to get focused. I have a lot of stuff I want to do before our next trip from getting my car washed to finishing our taxes and organizing all of our house closets. I've made myself super busy and it will help the time go by quickly. I still tear up when I talk about Alemitu, but I'm good. I'm focused.

I mentioned we had met some really good friends, Hollie and Brian. They sent me some photos today and so I thought I'd post them on our blog. Enjoy!

Hollie & Me

These 4 families all stayed at the Ethiopian Guest House
(EGH has 4 different houses by each other)
We had just pass court.

In the van after passing court.

Eating lunch at EGH with Brian

Today is a hard day

2011-01-26T08:09:00.000-07:00

Our time with Alemitu was wonderful. Since day 2 when she discovered freedom of moving on the floor, she likes to play on her tummy and move all around rather than cuddle for long periods. Don't get me wrong, she still loves to cuddle though. The second half of the visit, she cuddled the entire time. She slept a little on both of us. She also said goodbye the same way she said hello -- she puked on Adam. (I think it is because of that wet cough and her gagging on mucus.)

Saying goodbye was really, really hard. Going 5 minutes without crying the rest of the day has been just about impossible. We are at the airport waiting for our flight. Thinking about her in anyway at this point easily brings tears. I just have to keep telling myself how our pain is so minor compared to her grandfather's pain. I have to keep telling myself that the nannies love her so much and she is so well taken care of (two baths this morning alone because of getting herself dirty). I have to keep telling myself that the US Embassy had a huge meeting on Monday that will probably make return dates quicker. I have to keep telling myself that she will be home really soon. Maybe, just maybe, if I say that stuff enough I'll actually believe it.

I cannot thank everyone enough for all of the kind words. Thank you for the bottom of our hearts.

I am hoping that in 5 1/2 weeks, "In Jesus' name, she will travel the world."

Gotcha Day

2011-01-25T12:48:00.002-07:00

This has got to be one of the most amazing days of our lives. At this point, I really can’t find the words to describe how we are feeling. I think it will take me a while to process everything that happened, but for now, I will share the story.

We slept pretty well last night. I woke up a few times and sat at the top of the steps for a while in the middle of the night. We have the top floor to ourselves. It was 2 a.m. and I had just finished typing yesterday’s blog. It was funny to hear the other families moving around at that time too. We were all restless before the big day, but yet, we all slept the best we had since we have been here.

Speaking of the other families, we have met some amazing people that we will be our lifelong friends. All of the traveling families are just amazing people. We have been staying at the guest house with another family, Brian and Hollie, and we have enjoyed their company so much. Adam said tonight that they will be forever friends of ours. We are counting on being back here at the same time for the embassy date, and we are already making plans to stay together.

When we arrived at the transition home around 8:30, we were all wearing casual clothes. We were expecting to have court in the afternoon, and after my puke experience on Saturday, we weren’t taking chances. Within two minutes of arriving, we were told that we must leave right now. The judge called and we had to be at court right now. Court is 20 minutes away. We all just jumped into the bathrooms like we were family and quickly changed our clothes. We hopped into our van (thankfully the guard had told them before they pulled away), and away we go. We are suppose to meet up with the other van carrying the families from CHI’s guest house. We are stopped for a little while, and then we drive. We pull over a few minutes later and the driver walks around back – we have a flat tire. Crap. We don’t have a choice but to keep driving. We meet up with the other van on the road, and their driver is pointing to our flat tire. Nothing we can do but keep rushing to court.

A few minutes later, we pull over on the side of the road to a place with old stacked tires. The driver gets out to change our tire, but they decide to put air in it just to get us to court. A few minutes later, we are off again.

We arrived at court and went up a ton of stairs. We were circling the broken elevator, and we were all about to die. This altitude is getting to all of us. We finally reached the top floor and we had to wait in a hallway for several minutes. We are surrounded by other Ethiopians who are waiting for court. We are then ushered into a room where all 10 families are standing in the center. On all walls of the room are other Ethiopians sitting down waiting for their time in court. It was awkward because we knew that some of those people were the birth families.

We were ushered into court in several groups. The first group did not pass because the birth families could not make it until Monday. That was heart breaking. We were the second group. The judge is a beautiful, young woman – and she was wearing jeans!! She asked us 6 questions and we could only respond “yes” or “no”. Afterward, she said, “Okay I will get your report this afternoon. You are done.” So, did we pass? That paperwork wasn’t there from MOWA but our court time wasn’t scheduled until 2 p.m. We weren’t really sure, and we aren’t sure that the paperwork actually made it there, but Alamez (director’s wife) assured us that we passed. She said to us excitedly, “Yes, yes! She is yours!”

After court we waited for our ride (they were getting a new tire), and we headed to CHI’s guest house for our birth family meeting. What an amazing experience. We arrived and once again we are standing and staring at the birth families. We don’t know who is who. We have one translator. It was hours that went by before we were done. All of us were trying to guess who their birth relative was, and they were doing the same for us.

Adam and I were one of the last families, and Alemitu’s grandfather came up to us. He gave us a big hug and kisses on the cheek. His name is Tagese which is Allie’s second name. When we were able to sit down with him, we had to work with a translator that spoke his language into Amharic, and then our translator who translated Amharic into English. We asked if he had any questions for us and his first question was to ask if Alemitu is healthy. He was so happy to hear that she is healthy and happy. We showed him a Shutterfly book that had pictures of her as well as pictures of our family. He smiled huge as he looked at her pictures. His favorite picture of our family was the boys on Papago Mountain. There was something about that picture that he loved.

He told us that he was so happy that she has brothers. When we asked what he wanted Alemitu to know, he said that he wants her to know about her grandfather. He wants her to know how much he loves her, and that he hopes we love her just as much. He said that he doesn’t just have one grandchild, he has more children because we are his family now. We are all family. He allowed us to take pictures and we promised to have his picture in her room. Alemitu has three grandfathers.

Ethiopians do everything with a purpose. They don’t name children because they like the name, there is a meaning behind it. We were not sure who named her, but we knew her name meant “she is of the world” or “she travels the world”. We asked how she got her name. He said, “I named her Alemitu because in Jesus’ name I want her to travel the world.” My heart melted. At that moment, her name officially became “Alemitu” forever. She is “Alemitu Tagese Fischer”. She is loved by her grandfather so much. (Tagese – Tuh-Guess-EEE)

After we finished our meeting and got our questions answered, we sat by each other for another hour or so. During this time, he is showing other birth families Alemitu’s photo album that we had given him. He is so proud. He smiled so much. He raised his hat to us on several occasions. Ethiopians keep their composure. To see such happiness and expression meant the world to us. About 30 minutes into this time, he pulled out a little book that was in his pocket. You could tell this little notebook had the most important things on it written down and maybe some ID. In one of the pages was a tiny piece of tissue paper that held a 1 inch by 1 inch black and white photo of Alemitu. This is the picture he carries with him at all times. At this point, I had to excuse myself. I went into the bathroom of the CHI guest house and just broke down. I regained my composure and then returned outside.

After our meeting (which we recorded by the way), he had his translator write a letter to Alemitu in Amharic. Then all of the birth families got in a van and they went to the transition house to visit with the children one last time. After that, they had a 12 hour trip on dirt roads back home. We were not able to attend the meeting between the grandfather and Alemitu, but all of us families wanted pictures. We were told that wouldn’t be possible. Adam gave my camera to another family that had their own driver. Their driver is best friends with the guard at the transition house. They rushed over to the transition house, dropped off our camera with the guard, and then they left. We didn’t know what, if anything, would happen but we were so excited to see pictures of the birth families and the children when we returned to the transition house later in the afternoon. The birth families all posed for a photograph. Alemitu now has a picture with her grandfather – her smiling, proud grandfather.

Today was one of the best days of our lives. We went to see Alemitu in the afternoon and had a great time. We got a group photo of all the traveling families and our children as most of them are leaving tonight. We came back to the guest house for dinner and participated in a traditional coffee ceremony. Tomorrow is our last day here. I am falling in love with Ethiopia.

House of Hope pictures

2011-01-25T10:10:00.005-07:00

Here are some photos of House of Hope.

A couple more pics

2011-01-25T07:13:00.002-07:00

It's official

2011-01-25T06:51:00.001-07:00

Another great day in Ethopia

2011-01-24T19:25:00.003-07:00

Today was another great day. We had gone to bed at 9 last night. By 5 am, we were both wide awake. Adam went downstairs to work and I stayed in bed catching up on Facebook. :-) It was a nice, quiet morning. We had waffles in the shape of a heart for breakfast.

We go to the transition home and Allie lights up when she sees us again. However, about 15 minutes into the visit she shows us how she can cry a little. It was simply just a few seconds at a time, but sometimes she produced these huge tears. She was biting on anything she could find. We could tell that her teeth were really bothering her. I was a little worried because she just wasn't her happy self, but when I looked around, all of the kids were so tired. Most of them were fast asleep or just kind of in a daze. I am sure this is all so overwhelming to them. We laid her down on a blanket. She loves to be on her stomach. Within a few minutes, she was in a deep sleep. She was just exhausted. She slept most of our morning visit (along with the other children).

We ate lunch back at the guest house (in the dark because we had no power), and then we went to the market for a quick shopping trip. We bought her a pretty Ethiopian dress that she can wear when she is a few years older. Adam also bought a camel bell. It is a hollow turtle shell with a stick in it. He said we'd hang it on Clementine. Um, I don't think so. At the market we were definitely swarmed by children who were asking to shine our shoes, sell us a map, or were simply asking for a few dollars. We had candy on us and so we were able to pass that out to them.

After lunch, we went back to see Allie. Oh the drive is definitely something you must experience at least once in your life. We did see one intersection with a stoplight – but it was more of a suggestion really. Most intersections have roundabouts with many lanes all coming together at once. At one point today, I thought we were going to drive up on the sidewalk to get by.

Alemitu was so much happier this afternoon. She was showing off how she can squeal/scream with excitement. She also showed us how she can army crawl. We had no clue, but out of the blue she just started scooting herself forward. By the end of the afternoon, she was on all fours rocking back and forth.

We are grateful that Allie has adjusted so well to us, but at the same time, we know we need to pay extra attention to her ability to attach/bond. Having her cry when she leaves a nanny is a really good thing. Alemitu loves everyone. When we bring her back home, we are definitely going to have to work hard during our nesting period to make sure she understands that we are her providers. She definitely favors us over strangers, but she loves to give everyone smiles and she loves to talk to anyone.

Later in the afternoon we were able to watch Allie get a bath. Oh wow. The nannies here are very much like the nurses at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. They know how to do things much more efficiently and quickly than we ever will. The nanny bathed her so quickly, turning her all sorts of ways. That sponge with the bar soap fit in places I never thought it would. Let’s just say that Alemitu is a very clean baby – everywhere. She had no problem with the bath, even when water and soap were running down her face and in her eyes. It was amazing to watch, and the other families had the same “oh wow” reaction as we did when they got to watch their children be bathed.

When we were first given Allie’s referral pictures, a few people said that she looked like me. We thought maybe they were being nice. This afternoon, one of the families said that they can’t get over how much she looks like me. Another woman sitting nearby (who is African American herself) quickly said “Yeah, my husband said the same thing!” Her husband then said that he thinks Allie looks a lot like me and if I put her hair in a faux hawk then she really would. While it doesn’t matter to us if she looks like us or not, it did make me feel so good to hear this

We have also decided to possibly make a name change for Allie. Opinions are welcome. Since we have been here, she is definitely “Alemitu”. That is what we call her, and we are really starting to love that name. To us, she is definitely Alemitu. Today I had my first thoughts of possibly keeping her name. The problem is that we still have the same concerns regarding her having to pronounce it for everyone; correct the teacher on the first day; be discriminated against on resumes when job hunting, etc. Adam thought of a good idea. There are so many people who go by their first and middle name (i.e. Mary Jane) – why can we do “Allie Mitu Fischer”? That way her first name is still “Allie”, but it would make perfect sense for people to call her “Alemitu” as well. You pronounce it by saying “Allie – Me – Too” with emphasis on the “Me”.

Saying goodbye to Allie for even just a few hours has been getting harder. I have no idea what we are going to do on Wednesday night. After we said goodbye tonight, the 4 of us families staying at the Ethiopian Guest House went over to the HOH2 (where the rest of the families are staying) to have dinner. It was a great night getting to talk to everyone. We had the most amazing salad, that I’m going to start making at home. It was simply peeled cucumber, onions, and some orange bell peppers with Italian dressing. Very, very good.

Tomorrow we have court. This is what we know: Court is in the afternoon. Court has been changed to 10:30. Court has been changed to 2 p.m. Court is whenever the judge finishes her paperwork and calls us over there. We were told to be at the transition home at 9, 8, and 8:30. We were told that we can play with the kids and then go back to our guest house for lunch. Then we were told that we need to be there early and wait for the judge’s call. We were told that we will have the birth relative meeting after court. Then we were told that they are driving a long way and may not have time to meet with us. Then we were told that the plan is for them to come to the transition home and we meet with them with our child. All of this information came just yesterday afternoon. Basically, we have no idea what is going on. So I guess when you think of it, say a prayer – we might just be in court at that time.

Tsegay said that we need three things to pass court: (1) consent to judge; (2); birth relative consent to judge; and (3) that important little paper from MOWA. Number 1 is easy. Number 2 is also set – all birth relatives confirmed to their social worker on Sunday evening that they are attending. We just need to get that special little paper from MOWA on time. If that happens, Alemitu will officially be ours and we can post her pictures everywhere!

Okay, that’s all for now. I typed this once before and lost it when we lost internet earlier. I just woke up and I’m sitting in the bathroom re-typing it so I don’t wake up Adam. It is 2 a.m. here. I’m hoping to catch a few more hours of sleep and then get ready for one of the longest days of my life! Adam has some pictures ready for the blog showing Allie's home. When he wakes up in the morning (evening your time), he'll send them over to add to the blog.

Thanks again for all of the e-mails, texts, comments. They mean so much. I really enjoy reading them all!

Praying for a “pass” tomorrow,
Sabrina

No news for now--Internet is down

2011-01-24T14:06:00.002-07:00

Just heard from Sabrina that the internet is down at their location. Not too uncommon there, apparently. Everything else is fine, just can't get onto the web. As soon as they are up and running again, we'll post the latest news.

Ethiopia Day 2

2011-01-23T14:04:00.003-07:00

First of all, I should mention that our regular phones work!! So I am able to get texts again. So send as many as you want because they are free! I love them all, I just won't reply much because it is 50 cents to send.

Also before I talk about today, I forgot to mention something else from yesterday. At the end of our time at HOH, we were able to feed Allie. Considering I still had puke all over me, Adam sat down with her. She was eating some type of potato mush. He starts feeding her and the nanny mentions something to Tsegay (the director) in Amharic. Tsegay says, "Adam, the nanny would like to show you how she feeds Allie." We all laughed and Adam handed Allie back over to the nanny. It reminded us of the times the boys were in the NICU and we were definitely not in control. The nanny takes Allie and just shovels that food into her mouth with perfection, and then she hands her back. It must have been driving her crazy to sit there and watch Adam slowly feed Allie bits at a time. Oh yeah, and they gave us a glass of water for Allie to drink. Yep, our 7 MONTH OLD BABY can drink from a glass. Amazing.

Anyway, back to today. I have to admit that yesterday was slightly overwhelming. The language barrier was difficult. Our tiny, tiny room was hard. When I got puked on and I had no way of cleaning myself up nor did I know how to get my clothes washed was hard. Trying to figure out how to call a driver to take/get us was difficult. Not knowing how to eat dinner or go to the market, etc., was also overwhelming. Adam feels like he isn't out of his comfort zone enough. Yesterday, I felt really, really out of my comfort zone. Today, I woke up feeling great. Everything felt natural. The language barrier wasn't hard because the guide at the guest house speaks great English. We were also with other families and not trying to figure everything out by ourselves. I felt at peace when I woke up. When we had Allie today, it felt so natural. Nothing was overwhelming. Today was a great day.

Our day started at 4:30 a.m. when we were woken up by the Islamic church. In Addis, Sunday is the day of prayer and rest. From 4:30 until after we left at 9 a.m., the Islamic church had singing and praying over the PA. In addition, there were dogs barking, cats meowing, rooster crowing, and what we thought were monkeys making noise. Evidently it wasn't monkeys but I have no idea what it was instead. The FAA doesn't regulate plane noise/speed in Addis, so it sounded like planes were flying right outside our window. Thank you Tylenol PM. Although I kept waking up for the next few hours, I was able to go right back to sleep. The family staying here with us was not so lucky, and they just flew in late last night so they are dealing with jet lag too.

We had scrambled eggs and fresh squeezed pineapple juice for breakfast. We then went to HOH to see Allie. It was just so natural. We held her and played with her for hours. There were 6 other families who got to see their children for the first time. The room was crowded but it was so neat to see all the babies and get to know all of the families. We stayed there until about noon. Allie was great the whole time. We learned that her favorite things are her two middle fingers. She sucks on them so hard. Tsegay said she has always done that. Allie smiled so much. I even got her to laugh a few times when I whispered in her ear. She is a really, really happy baby. At noon we were going back to the guest house for lunch, and it was hard to give her back to the nanny -- even for just 3 hours. I don't know how we are going to leave on Thursday.

We get back to the guest house for some yummy pasta, really good salad, and a fruit smoothie. The staff at the guest house wait on us hand and foot. They just want to please us. The food is really good, too. The other family had to take their son to the doctor, and they came back at lunchtime. It was interesting to hear about their visit to the doctor. The equipment is straight from the 1940s. Kind of scary.

The guide at the guest house walks us over to the market. We get some snacks and drinks. The weather is in the 70s but he said that it is hotter than normal and everyone is inside because they are so hot. The weather feels great, and the breeze is nice. We definitely notice the high altitude. No matter if we walk slow or run, going up 3 flights of stairs to our room is difficult. I need a few minutes for my heart to stop racing and for me to catch my breath. When we walked to the store, it was uphill and you could really feel how difficult it is to breathe.

At 3, we headed back to the guest house. When the nanny brought in Allie, she just smiled huge as soon as she saw us. Every time we look at her, she just smiles big. We played with her for another 3 hours. She started to get tired and we heard her whine a little for the first time. It is the cutest little high pitched whine. She will let out one little whine, wrinkle her brow, and flash you the saddest brown eyes you have ever seen. Then, that one little whine turns back into a smile. She talked and talked and talked. I think she was putting on a show for everyone in the room. She also demonstrated how she can take off her sock and put her toes in her mouth. Yummy. At the end of the day, we laid her on the couch. She showed us how she can roll over on her belly really easy. She rolled over and just laid still. I started rubbing her back and she fell asleep in no time. A 6, we woke her up and gave her back to her nanny.

After we came back to the guest house, we had an Ethiopian dinner. It was tibs (sp?). Basically it was beef with sweet onions and peppers. Then we had rice, potatoes, and bottled Sprite/Coke. We talked with the other family here for about an hour and then we headed back to our room to call it a night.

I can't wait until we get to see Allie tomorrow. She doesn't feel new, she feels natural. It is neat to see how much more she is smiling and talking when we thought she already did a lot in the beginning. She is definitely a happy little girl.

Thank you for all of the well wishes. I read them all and they make me smile!

We're in Ethopia!!

2011-01-22T12:57:00.003-07:00

Unfortunately, our phones still don’t work, and we are unable to contact AT&T. The good news is that the internet works great at the guest house.

We had a good time in Dubai. We are really glad that we got to do the city tour. It was raining in Dubai, and I guess it only rains there twice a year. We had to pay $8 for internet which only last 30 minutes. Hope you liked the pictures Jim posted yesterday and today. The buildings in Dubai are amazing! The houses/mansions/palaces are just shocking. It was also shocking to see that it was a real looking desert. It was neat to fly over it and see what a “real” desert looks like rather than Phoenix.

The hotel was a different story. It was pretty run down and we had two small twin beds in our room. It was almost impossible for me to try and get a hair dryer. The staff wasn’t that nice. We had vouchers for their restaurant, and while we did try the food, we definitely went to bed pretty hungry. We were tired so it didn’t matter much. There were no issues on our flight to Addis. It was 4 hours long. We easily made it through customs and immigration, and our driver from the guest house was waiting for us.

It was a nice drive to the guest house. The driver was so excited we were there. He said that he became a Christian when a missionary (from Indiana) lived here. He gets so excited to see people come to adopt because he knows that in some way God has been whispering to us and we are listening to his whispers. He was really, really excited. He said that on judgment day, it doesn’t matter how many bibles we have or how many times we attended church — but adopting our little girl is going to matter.

We had about a 15 minute drive to the guest house. The landscape of Ethiopia is really beautiful. It is in the mountains and it is normally in the 70s year round. You will see nicer buildings next to metal shacks. Driving is interesting. Lanes? What lanes? Speed? Who cares. Oh yeah, and watch out for the sheep, goats, cattle, horses, and people on the streets too. Yep, you can be driving fast as cattle are running on the road as well. Honking seems to be used as often as the brakes, gas, etc. Adam and I both saw people pulling a sheep along the road with one of its front paws. The person would pull the leg out straight and use it like a leash. The sheep looked like it was in pain. We also saw two men carrying a sheep down the road upside down. From our room, we hear dogs barking, rooster crowing, and a cat meowing. Being in Dubai was just simply a different country. Ethiopia is much more different.

At the guest house, we are in one tiny room. It fits one bed. There is no desk or chair or dresser. Just a bed and a closet. We have a private bathroom that is down the hall. The staff here is very nice although the language barrier can be a little difficult at times. We had spaghetti for lunch. We missed dinner and so we are eating crackers right now for dinner. We can’t go out by ourselves and we are the only ones here right now. 8 more families arrive tonight, and I think that will make it a little easier.

Adam had a first today — while we were waiting on the driver to take us to HOH (Allie’s home), we sat down by the small TV. The cook was watching TV and it was Ethiopian Idol. Adam has never seen American Idol, but he can now say that he watched Ethiopian Idol.

Well that’s all for today — oh wait, you mean you want to find out about our daughter??? Oh well,okay. :-)

We arrive at the HOH and were told to go upstairs in the waiting room. Keep in mind that we are the first family to arrive so we are completely on our own. One of the nannies brings in Allie. We were expecting her to cry — everyone was. She didn’t. She stared us down. She went right to me and then she kept looking at Adam and his camera. She reached out and to grab the camera. Then she grabbed Adam’s hand and held on tight. It was so special as I was holding her and she was holding Adam’s hand. It is common for an infant to only want to bond to one parent. Allie is not that way. She loves to be held by both of us, and she is fascinated with Adam.

She smiles a lot. She talks a lot. She sings too. We were with her for over 3 hours and she never cried. The nanny handed her to us and left. We didn’t see anyone else for hours. The director’s wife came in to give us water and bottled coke. There was a big language barrier and she was telling us that we cannot come on Sundays because they are closed. We were disappointed. After about 2 1/2 hours of us being there, Allie was singing and talking a lot. Her and I were face to face and I was mimicking her singing. Then she threw up all over me. A ton. She wouldn’t stop. All over my shirt, arms, and all down my pants. All on the couch and the floor. Everywhere. With the language barrier, it was so hard to get help. The nannies wouldn’t come help us. Adam found a towel for me to try and wipe the chunks off. I went to talk to a nanny, but the nanny just changed Allie and walked away. We had no idea what to do. I couldn’t sit or hold Allie. I stunk. I was so wet. About 20 minutes later, the director pulled into the HOH. He came upstairs and he speaks great English. He was immediately concerned about Allie and went to the nurse to see if she is on medication. He learned that she is completely healthy and this is the first time she has thrown up. (She does have a wet cough though.) She was happy before she threw up and happy after, so we hope that maybe she was overstimulated or something. He said she is not used to being held this much and is normally in a crib. When Adam asked what the schedule was, he assured us that we can come any day (even tomorrow) and stay for however long we would like. We can get there at 9 in the morning. He also said that our court time is at 10:30 on Tuesday.

Both the director and his wife were shocked that Allie never cried with us, but then they also said that she is an extremely happy baby. She just smiles all of the time. She is teething and so everything went into her mouth. I am glad we had brought some teething toys for her. Her favorite toy was the camera though.

Allie is perfect. She is still a little small. She wore a 0-3 month outfit (she is 7 1/2 months) that was definitely too short on her, but fit her around the body fine. It seems as though she fits better in 6 month clothing. I am guessing that she will be wearing 6-9 month clothing for a while when we bring her home.

It was so surreal and it was such a quick drop off. I am glad that it was just us there today because we really got to bond with her. Adam got great pictures and video and it is killing me not to be able to show it to you. It was a great day though.

We love you!

A few more pics from Dubai

2011-01-22T12:52:00.004-07:00

Skyline

It rains here twice a year. Wouldn't you know we pickes one of them to be here :-)

Palm Island

Some pictures from our layover in Dubai

2011-01-21T13:21:00.014-07:00

Not a sailboat, the Burj al Arab hotel

Atlantis hotel and casino

Our room at the Burj (just kidding)

Dubai

2011-01-21T10:12:00.002-07:00

We made it to Dubai! The plane trip was really easy especially considering the plane was barely full. I think everyone had a row to themselves almost. It was really nice and we got a lot of sleep. As soon as we got on the plane we adjusted to Ethiopia time. We were hoping to stay awake until 2 p.m. Phoenix time (midnight in Ethiopia) and then fall asleep for the "night". Considering we barely go any sleep the night before (45 minutes), I think we lasted until 1 p.m. and fell asleep for over 5 hours. Not too long after that, Sabrina slept another 3 hours and Adam slept 1 1/2. We arrived in Dubai mid-afternoon and that is what it felt like to us.

After getting to the hotel, we decided to take a city tour that our travel agent recommended. It was great! We were able to see the entire city in 2 hours. It was really interesting to learn how fast Dubai has grown. I think the guide said that in 39 years Dubai went from camel to Cadillac.

After the tour, we had dinner at the hotel and now we are getting ready to go to bed. Tomorrow morning our flight leaves at 8:30 to head to Addis Abada!!!!!! I really, really hope that we can meet Allie in the afternoon.

Leaving . . . On A Jet Plane . . .

2011-01-19T17:39:00.002-07:00

In 12 hours, we will begin our journey to see our daughter!! It seems as though we will have internet connection at the guest house we are staying at, so I am hoping to keep everyone updated through the blog each day. If I can't, my father-in-law will.

I think I am feeling every emotion possible right now (except anger). I am so excited to see Allie. I am so overwhelmed when I imagine what this next week will be like because I can't picture anything about it. I have never left the US before, and I have no idea what to expect. I am sad to say goodbye to my boys for the next 8 days. I am tired from getting my 3rd cold in 2 months. I am anxious to see Dubai. I am terrified of the long flight. I don't do well on domestic flights. I can't read, watch movies, etc. I sit and stare because of what I call "personal space issues" or "not being able to breathe" and Adam and the social worker call it "claustrophobia". Whatever it is, I'm having panic attacks the past 48 hours thinking about the flight, but I am grateful that my doctor prescribed some calming anti-anxiety medication. I am nervous that the medication won't work and I'll be breathing out of a paper bag at LAX tomorrow. I am worried that I'll pass my cold on to my daughter. I am hopeful that I'll get to see my daughter when we arrive on Saturday rather than have to wait until Sunday. I am so happy when I picture Allie smiling at me and not just as a camera. I am feeling loved by all of our family and friends who are so supportive. I am full of emotion right now. I think that it is a good thing.

The first leg of our journey begins tomorrow at 4 a.m. when we head to Sky Harbor Airport. We'll fly to LA, and then we will fly to Dubai. It will take us 44 hours to get to Ethiopia (22 of those are on a plane). I will try and update the blog when we get to Dubai.

During this next week, can you please pray for our safety? Please pray for the safety and comfort of Wes and Calvin. Please pray that we will begin to bond with Allie. Please pray that we will pass court the first time on Tuesday (it is very common to fail the first time). Please pray that if we do get to meet a relative of Allie's, that we are able to get answers to questions that will help her as she matures and questions her background. Please pray for comfort and peace for Allie's birth family.

We love you all!