Columbus Group

Wow, this week is really flying by. I have had lots of thoughts swirling around in my brain about what to write about and am finally finding time to actually post.

This past Sunday we went to the Abyssinian Café on the East side of Columbus to meet with a group of people that have adopted or are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. When we first decided to adopt from Ethiopia I was totally clueless that there was such an active group. It was wonderful to meet other couples who are also knee deep in the process or were recently so it is easy to relate. It was great to meet Amy and Paige in person since I have been following their blogs. I’d thought from the get go that I wanted my future child to know other adopted children from Ethiopia. So I think the support of this group will be important for D and me but hopefully in the future it will be a good support for our child.

At the dinner we also heard about the upcoming Ethiopian New Year Celebration here in Columbus organized by ETSS (Ethiopia Tewahedo Social Services) of Central Ohio. Did you know that Ethiopia doesn’t follow the Gregorian calendar but they go by the ancient Julian calendar? I had only learned that recently. It is still 2001 in Ethiopia. So if you want to turn back time on your life you should head over to Ethiopia! I have decided that when we travel there I will temporarily be 7 years younger. If you live in Central Ohio you should consider attending the Enkutash Celebration. It will be on September 19th at Whitehall Yearling HS. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door and children under 12 are Free! D and I will definitely be attending. I am just so thrilled there are cultural events like this in Columbus.

I have decided that I am entering an important phase of international adoption…. the mailbox stalking phase. It’s an official stage. From what we have heard, CIS here in Ohio is usually pretty fast and several families got their CIS approval letters within just a few weeks. Next week it is going to be very difficult to squash the desire to drive home at lunch to check the mail for that elusive letter. D has already been instructed to text me when he gets home with a daily report of the contents of our mail. The last time I was stalking the mailbox I was looking for our FBI clearances. If you recall at that time I sent out a very polite plea to the FBI to hurry up please. Then we got them in the mail just a few days later. So I am making the official plea now to CIS. C’mon CIS! (please)

Also, there are tons of Gladney families with court dates tomorrow so I am praying they are all successful and can travel soon to bring home their kiddos before courts close for the rainy season.

On a more peaceful note, I will leave you with one of my favorite photos from our trip to New Mexico. It reminds me to keep breathing.

(That's me being Zen.)

Tuesday Tangents

On Friday night our friends came over for a little bbq. Marty showed up at the front door and much to my delight he was sporting his Mocha Club t-shirt! I was so touched that they decided to support Mocha Club and it was just too cute of him to wear the shirt over to our house that night. I had to document it, of course.

I had to do some cropping so the pic looks a little weird but I think Marty looks pretty darn good. Our close knit group of friends here in Columbus has been so supportive of our decision to adopt!

Since we were on vacation, I am way behind on reading the usual news sources online that I like peruse but I did finally read Bono’s opinion piece in the NY times from a little over a week ago. My late Uncle David first introduced me to ONE, the group Bono co-founded, so I get email notifications of what ONE is up to and I follow their blog. Bono wrote the opinion piece on the eve of Obama’s speech in Ghana. I also have yet to watch Obama’s speech but hopefully I’ll get to that this week too. Bono’s article was quite interesting and of course he talked about the continuing need to support Africa but he also highlighted a lot of the progress that has been made in Ghana specifically. Their economy is growing despite the global economic down turn and recently they had a peaceful transfer of power. Bono speaks of the power that Obama has from his presidential pulpit and that “he’s got the chance to lead others in building — from the bottom up — on the successes of recent efforts within Africa and to learn from the failures. There’s been plenty of both.” I think Bono was trying to make the overall point that Mocha Club makes as well. Despite the tragedy and poverty that has consumed much of the continent, there are still good things happening; people are still dancing if you will. We should continue to help and support Africa but we shouldn’t patronize either.

Those of you who know me well know that it doesn’t take much to get some tears from me. They are usually tears because I am moved by something. Well, the end of Bono’s article admittedly made my eyes a little misty. He says, “Africa is not just Barack Obama’s homeland. It’s ours, too. The birthplace of humanity. Wherever our journeys have taken us, they all began there. The word Desmond Tutu uses is “ubuntu”: I am because we are. As he says, until we accept and appreciate this we cannot be fully whole. Could it be that all Americans are, in that sense, African-Americans?"

Wow. I really just had to sit there and think after I read that. Talk about thought provoking. And it just put to words how connected I already feel to our future child and who’s to say we won’t be “related.” As my mom said to me a few months ago, aren’t we all related?

Home Study to CIS and Friends

We received our finalized home study in the mail on Monday and on Tuesday mailed it to CIS! Good news! It is such a relief to know we have sent it off and now just need to wait for approval. Previously we got our fingerprinting appointments pretty quickly so we hope CIS works just as fast for the approval. Our caseworker has sent our home study and some final documents to Gladney so we are hoping to get Gladney approval soon as well. How many times have I used the word HOPE already in this post? But truly that is all we can do through most of this process so I am just getting my hope on early I guess.

Tonight D and I were watching some Friends reruns before the start of So You Think You Can Dance (that show is amazing this season!) and it was the one when the social worker comes to meet with Monica and Chandler to do their home study! Hilarious. If you know anything about me or my family you know we are way too knowledgeable about Friends. My sister and I both find Friends to be like comfort food. It is hard to spend time with my family and not hear a Friends reference at some point. D has been indoctrinated into this way of living and has developed quite a repertoire of Friends references.

Here is an example of a conversation from when we were in Taos.

Background: My sister decided to re-read “Little Women” because she had just read a book about the father so it sparked her interest.

Abby: “Beth is about to die.”

Me: “Oh, I hate that part!”

Dad: “Should we be like Joey and put it in the freezer?”

We all nod our heads and chuckle as if we are recalling a fond memory.

That is just a brief example but literally it happens all the time. I know in the future when D and I look back on how we were nervous about the home study appointment there is no doubt someone will make a comment of Monica and Chandler greeting the social worker with creepy smiles. Hopefully (there I go again) we weren’t too creepy.

Odds and Ends

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! D and I are still here in New Mexico and I really don’t want it to end. We’ve gone on some hikes, had fabulous food and just relaxed with my family. I am going to really try to savor these last couple of days of vacation. I’ll post some pics next week.

Before we left for vacation I stumbled across a blog post that I wanted to share. From what I can tell this family adopted a son from Ethiopia and then the mom went back when her sister adopted a baby girl from Ethiopia. She takes AMAZING photos and I just couldn’t stop looking at them. When you get to the middle of the post there is a photo of a boy running with all his might to meet her and get some crackers she was giving to the other children. It breaks my heart and I just sat there and sobbed. The photo is so powerful and in many ways speaks larger than any words could. Click HERE for the link to that particular post. She has posted other entries since then about her trip back to Ethiopia and those are also powerful.

I was in a Starbucks yesterday and noticed they have brought their RED products back for a while. If you buy coffee from Starbucks then please consider checking out the RED products. For every 1lb bag of coffee that is purchased they donate a $1 to the Global Fund, which helps people in Africa living with AIDS. They also have RED gift cards so if you go there frequently then you can just load the card and each time you use it money is donated as well.

I heard from our social worker last night that Gladney is done reviewing our home study and they are sending it back to our home study agency. That means we are VERY close to being able to send it to CIS for approval. We are so ready to be done with this first phase of the process. I am hopeful we will be able to send it to CIS soon.

Before I sign off I wanted to say Congrats to my new blogging friend, Sam. She recently got her court date for later this month and I am super excited for her. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Ethiopian adoption process, the courts there close in August for 2 months or so for the rainy season so it is great news she got a date for before the closure. I am hoping she passes the first time and can travel this summer to pick up her little girl. Congrats Sam!