I need more patience! I just want an Embassy date!!!
I heard good news last night from our director. So far 4 children have the Dec. 2nd Embassy date and another 6 children can fit into this date as well. We are one of the families waiting at the Embassy and are hopeful Cullen will be one of the remaining 6.
We've heard that he is really starting to walk around and he loves playing with a girl his age. Hopefully he will like playing with a boy his age too. : ) When a lady was there he ran up to her wanting to be held because the nannies said she looked like me. I hope he will keep remembering me for the next few weeks.
I'm trying to stay busy to keep my mind off him, but nothing is working..
Hope to hear something on Monday.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Birth Certificate
We got his birth certificate on Monday. His DOB matches what his birth mother told us- 8/21/2009. The next step is to get his passport which we are hoping to get it by Monday and then the paperwork goes to the Embassy. So far everything extra the Embassy has been requesting doesn't apply to our case so we are hopeful for the Dec. 16th date.
The orphanage director's wife has been emailing me some pictures of him. He looks like he is really walking and very happy there. He is smiling in most pictures. I sent over a picture of the two of us and they printed it and gave it to him. I was the happiest mama when I saw these!!!!
She also asked that I bring over children's DVDs, clothes, shoes and toys for the older kids. If anyone has stuff they would like me to take over there I will gladly do so.
The orphanage director's wife has been emailing me some pictures of him. He looks like he is really walking and very happy there. He is smiling in most pictures. I sent over a picture of the two of us and they printed it and gave it to him. I was the happiest mama when I saw these!!!!
She also asked that I bring over children's DVDs, clothes, shoes and toys for the older kids. If anyone has stuff they would like me to take over there I will gladly do so.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Ethiopian Adoptions in the News
We came across this same article in the Cincinnati Enquirer on Friday, and were surprised at the number of adoptions from Ethiopia. We are also very happy to hear that the program is going in the right direction.
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20101013/NEWS04/310139983/1006/NEWS
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20101013/NEWS04/310139983/1006/NEWS
Laughter - The Universal Language
Here is a video of Cullen with a friend of ours after we passed court. You can see why we love this little boy so much.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
We're Home
On a happy note- It is so great to eat pizza once again.
Leaving Tsegaye was really rough yesterday. When we got to the orphanage his nanny immediately grabbed him from me and took him to his room.
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When I was giving kids toys, bubbles and cookies and I had a complete meltdown. I didn't think I could leave him. I was hysterical and the nannies just laughed at me and spoke about me in Amharic. Since he was new at this orphanage I had my list of many things to tell them (he likes formula with sugar in a cup, he eats a lot in the middle of the night, etc.) so that helped ease my mind. I hope this next month and a half (hopefully!!!!) goes by fast.
Here are a few great pics of Cullen during our trip.
When we talked to the orphanage we asked them about their needs. They said disposable diapers and wipes are their first need followed by formula and then clothes. Of course the orphanage was extremely grateful for all the stuff that we donated, and a lot of the kids were already wearing the clothes we dropped off the day we met Cullen.
On the flight home today we had about 40 kids from the Asante Kids Choir on our plane. Every one of them were so well behaved and were so thankful when you showed them how to get the movies to work.
We've been on 3 continents in the last 24 hours... we are exhausted!
I'll post more as we hear from our agency about our Embassy date. We are hoping for the December 16th date- just in time for Christmas! There are multiple steps before you get the date but I am hoping we start hearing about the first step soon.
Cullen- WE MISS YOU!!!! You be a good boy and don't bite the nannies when you are getting changed like you did me all the time!
Leaving Tsegaye was really rough yesterday. When we got to the orphanage his nanny immediately grabbed him from me and took him to his room.
When I was giving kids toys, bubbles and cookies and I had a complete meltdown. I didn't think I could leave him. I was hysterical and the nannies just laughed at me and spoke about me in Amharic. Since he was new at this orphanage I had my list of many things to tell them (he likes formula with sugar in a cup, he eats a lot in the middle of the night, etc.) so that helped ease my mind. I hope this next month and a half (hopefully!!!!) goes by fast.
Here are a few great pics of Cullen during our trip.
 |
| Cullen with his birth mother |
 |
| Big Smiles All Around |
 |
| We taught him how to honk his nose |
When we talked to the orphanage we asked them about their needs. They said disposable diapers and wipes are their first need followed by formula and then clothes. Of course the orphanage was extremely grateful for all the stuff that we donated, and a lot of the kids were already wearing the clothes we dropped off the day we met Cullen.
On the flight home today we had about 40 kids from the Asante Kids Choir on our plane. Every one of them were so well behaved and were so thankful when you showed them how to get the movies to work.
We've been on 3 continents in the last 24 hours... we are exhausted!
I'll post more as we hear from our agency about our Embassy date. We are hoping for the December 16th date- just in time for Christmas! There are multiple steps before you get the date but I am hoping we start hearing about the first step soon.
Cullen- WE MISS YOU!!!! You be a good boy and don't bite the nannies when you are getting changed like you did me all the time!
Monday, November 1, 2010
Cullen - Officially a Meiser
Read previous post from today first. Cullen is the fourth human member of the Meiser household (6th with Kelly math)!!!
We wrote a list of questions that we asked Tsegaye's Mom. For anyone adopting, we highly recommend you prepare these before traveling, even if you think that you will not meet her. We had no idea that we would ever get to see her, and our first meeting was very nerve wrecking and we were in complete shell shock. I know that the phrase, "chance of a lifetime" is used a lot, but has never been more true in both of our lives.
We asked:
Q - We know that Tsegaye is going to ask why his mother gave him up for adoption. Can you tell us why?
A - I cannot afford him.
Q - If Tsegaye ever wants to meet you in the future, would you be willing?
A - Yes! (this absolutely made our day)
Through this process, we learned that she is from a family of farmers from 230 km south of Addis Ababa. She was 19 years old when she had Tsegaye. We also learned more about the culture in the area.
Court was a little nerve wrecking. We were very prepared for court, but it was still very crazy thinking that the one minute that we had could change our lives forever. The questions that the judge asked were things like:
Q - Why have you two decided to adopt?
Q - Are you prepared to handle the biracial aspects of raising this child?
Q - Have you learned about Ethiopia?
Q - Does your biological son know about this adoption? What does he think?
A - Yes, but he is only one. He does kiss his picture every night before he goes to bed.
Q - Have you fulfilled your education requirements?
When we heard the words, "Then he is yours" I saw the room light up....it's unbelievable that this little, awesome guy is now a part of our family.
We also decided to write a letter to his birth mom, and we made a hand written copy that we kept for Cullen. In the letter we made a lot of promises to the birth mom to raise Cullen right - finish high school, attend college, and that we would encourage him to go for his Master's degree and PhD. Writing this letter and the questions was one of the most difficult things we have ever done. We don't know why we were privileged enough to be born in the United States, and into two great families - but it has definitely created a whole new perspective for us. We both kept thinking that what if the situation was reversed, and that Kelly was giving Kaden up for adoption because we were born in the United States and some rich person from Ethiopia was coming to adopt him. It's a tough thing to think about....
We head back to the orphanage tomorrow, and our mind is going to be on all these awesome kids over here that need families. We will post pictures on Wednesday (we are checking to make sure we are allowed to post them, we may only be allowed to post pictures of only Cullen) when we are back in the states. If you know of anyone looking to expand their families - tell them to take a look and let us know if we can help.
Most of the kids were singing to us in English as we walked into Cullen's orphanage. The kids at another orphanage opened the gates for us, walked us around the orphanage and gave us a tour, and were so helpful. These kids all just seem awesome over here.
Kaden - we are coming home dude. Get ready for a big kiss from your mom and she says that you better stop using Bruno as a bench.
We wrote a list of questions that we asked Tsegaye's Mom. For anyone adopting, we highly recommend you prepare these before traveling, even if you think that you will not meet her. We had no idea that we would ever get to see her, and our first meeting was very nerve wrecking and we were in complete shell shock. I know that the phrase, "chance of a lifetime" is used a lot, but has never been more true in both of our lives.
We asked:
Q - We know that Tsegaye is going to ask why his mother gave him up for adoption. Can you tell us why?
A - I cannot afford him.
Q - If Tsegaye ever wants to meet you in the future, would you be willing?
A - Yes! (this absolutely made our day)
Through this process, we learned that she is from a family of farmers from 230 km south of Addis Ababa. She was 19 years old when she had Tsegaye. We also learned more about the culture in the area.
Court was a little nerve wrecking. We were very prepared for court, but it was still very crazy thinking that the one minute that we had could change our lives forever. The questions that the judge asked were things like:
Q - Why have you two decided to adopt?
Q - Are you prepared to handle the biracial aspects of raising this child?
Q - Have you learned about Ethiopia?
Q - Does your biological son know about this adoption? What does he think?
A - Yes, but he is only one. He does kiss his picture every night before he goes to bed.
Q - Have you fulfilled your education requirements?
When we heard the words, "Then he is yours" I saw the room light up....it's unbelievable that this little, awesome guy is now a part of our family.
We also decided to write a letter to his birth mom, and we made a hand written copy that we kept for Cullen. In the letter we made a lot of promises to the birth mom to raise Cullen right - finish high school, attend college, and that we would encourage him to go for his Master's degree and PhD. Writing this letter and the questions was one of the most difficult things we have ever done. We don't know why we were privileged enough to be born in the United States, and into two great families - but it has definitely created a whole new perspective for us. We both kept thinking that what if the situation was reversed, and that Kelly was giving Kaden up for adoption because we were born in the United States and some rich person from Ethiopia was coming to adopt him. It's a tough thing to think about....
We head back to the orphanage tomorrow, and our mind is going to be on all these awesome kids over here that need families. We will post pictures on Wednesday (we are checking to make sure we are allowed to post them, we may only be allowed to post pictures of only Cullen) when we are back in the states. If you know of anyone looking to expand their families - tell them to take a look and let us know if we can help.
Most of the kids were singing to us in English as we walked into Cullen's orphanage. The kids at another orphanage opened the gates for us, walked us around the orphanage and gave us a tour, and were so helpful. These kids all just seem awesome over here.
Kaden - we are coming home dude. Get ready for a big kiss from your mom and she says that you better stop using Bruno as a bench.
Our New Family
Our family officially grew by one today!!! The judge asked us if we would like Tsegaye to be our son. Of course we answered yes, and then she smiled and said, "then he is yours."
We leave tomorrow night at 10:15 pm and that is going to be hard. We are going to the orphanage at 4:30 to spend time with him and the kids there before we leave. I want to paint their fingernails and color with them. There are so many great children in the orphange that it breaks my heart. It makes their day just to get their picture taken with you.
We found out that the mother was only 19 when she had Cullen. Doug is giving him a bath and he is screaming so I will try to post more later.....
We leave tomorrow night at 10:15 pm and that is going to be hard. We are going to the orphanage at 4:30 to spend time with him and the kids there before we leave. I want to paint their fingernails and color with them. There are so many great children in the orphange that it breaks my heart. It makes their day just to get their picture taken with you.
We found out that the mother was only 19 when she had Cullen. Doug is giving him a bath and he is screaming so I will try to post more later.....
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