1Hundred Girls

A few months ago, I posted about my friend, Tamara, and the amazing work she is doing through Studio Samuel Foundation(SSF) to empower young women who are aging out of the orphanage system in Ethiopia with life skills and the confidence to break the cycle of poverty. Recently, Tamara asked me to join the board and take a more active role in the projects and goals that Studio Samuel is embarking on this year. My answer of "Yes!" was a no brainer. I believe whole heartedly in their mission and am hoping, for reasons close to my heart, to be especially involved in their upcoming projects focused on women's health. If it isn't obvious, I am pretty excited about all of this!

Yesterday, SSF launched the 1Hundred Girls Campaign. I wanted to share two easy ways you can get involved and make an impact on the life of a girl in Ethiopia.

BRAS! Yep, you read that right. SSF is trying collect 260 new or gently used bras for teenage girls at Kechene orhpanage in Addis Ababa. I visited Kechene while we were in Ethiopia and I would love nothing more than to help provide those girls with self esteem, even if it's something as small as owning a bra. Here is the LINK with the mailing information to send a bra or bras. SSF needs to receive all the bras by February 1st so they can be sent to Ethiopia in time for the event.

KARATE!! I think it's pretty well known that karate not only teaches self defense but builds self esteem as well. Sadly, many of these young girls find themselves in situations where defending themselves against rape is not uncommon. For only $27 you can sponsor a girl to take karate classes for 6 months! Think about how easily and quickly you can spend $27 at Target (or your favorite store to putz around) on stuff that is simply that. Stuff. But $27 would provide a young woman with possibly life changing skills. Here is the LINK for more information about the karate program and you can read why each girl in the program has a desire to learn karate.

If you are able to send bras or sponsor karate class, would you please let me know? I would love to send you a personal thank you.

"Invest in a girl and she will do the rest."

Studio Samuel

I've met a lot of amazing women through our adoption process. It's no shock that many of these women have come home from their travels to Ethiopia and have been inspired to make a difference. One of the women I became closest to during the wait is Tamara. She brought her son home from Ethiopia just a few weeks before we traveled to bring LB home. She met LB before I did and our boys even shared the same special nanny at our agency's care center. Here is Tamara giving some love to LB before I could. You've got to love the pink onesie with red hoodie ensemble LB was rocking that day!

Through her connections in fashion she has started an amazing foundation, Studio Samuel, that aims to empower women by teaching them a skill and providing them a living wage. If you've seen the video about The Girl Effect or it you are familiar with the Half the Sky movement then you know a lot of people believe the place to start for eradicating poverty in the developing world is women. The Girl Effect says, "Invest in a girl and she will do the rest." Tamara decided to focus on women as well. She's put together a video about her foundation and all that she is hoping to accomplish. She even has Cyndi Lauper on board to help raise awareness.


STUDIO SAMUEL from bridge sessions on Vimeo.


I am inspired by her and hope you are too! If you are so inclined to give to her foundation then please click HERE to make a secure donation. If you make a $50 donation then you can claim a gift of a bag of coffee from Ethiopia. Damon and I took an entire duffel bag to Ethiopia so we could bring home as much coffee as possible. We both shed tears the day we used our final bag. There are other gifts to claim as well.

Studio Samuel will be launching their line during NYC fashion week.

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend and let's provide some valuable work for women in Ethiopia!

Heard Around Here

LB's language development has definitely been one of my favorite parts of this age. I know it's really common for toddlers to refer to themselves as "me" but I just think it's so cute when LB does it. His running commentary on everything provides for lots of laughs. Here are few things heard around here recently.

"Me splash splash. Me all wet."

"Me same as Buckeye."

"Me a pilot. Me on runway. Me take off."

"Me's helicopter go up up high."

"Go Efiopia! Run Fast! Go Tiki!"

This last photo brought me to tears. We woke up Sunday morning, turned on the Olympics and got to watch the last several miles of the marathon. With about a mile to go an Ethiopian woman, Tiki, made a move and none of the other runners could keep up with her. We got LB his flag and told him the woman running was from Ethiopia, which he knows is where he was born. He started cheering for her and it was a really emotional moment for me. The combination of my son, another Ethiopian and my own history with the marathon made for the trifecta of emotions for me. I'll never forget it!

Connecting Dots

In November, I posted about my encounter with an Ethiopian gentleman at a restaurant near our home. To refresh your memory, I was telling the nice man at the restaurant how I wanted to return to Ethiopia and he told me that if I did then I needed to visit a specific village in the south. That village happened to be where LB's Ethiopian family lives. It was an amazing moment. Most of the Ethiopians I have asked about his village have never heard of it.

Well, it turns out that there is a part two to this story. Just a few weeks later, I was perusing a Facebook group I am a member of that consists of parents who have adopted from Ethiopia. A woman posted that she had taken a recent trip to the southern part of Ethiopia and listed some names of places where she took several photos in case people were interested in seeing them. One of the places she mentioned I knew was close to his home village. Even though it wasn't the exact place I was still interested so I emailed her. I got a quick response back from her and as it turns out she also went to LB's home town and had several photos!!! She told me she would email a link to the photos. Viewing the photos made me extremely emotional.  As I scrolled through them, I couldn't help but look for LB's face in the images. It is more beautiful than I could have imagined. This kind woman gave us such a gift. D and I made a firm commitment to ourselves and to LB that we WILL go back to Ethiopia but until that time comes I am so grateful to see the beauty through her photos. Since they are not mine, I won't post them here. However, if you are interested in seeing a few of them then HERE is a link to her blog post where she shares some of them. Everything is so green and lush and simply breathtaking. I long for the day when we can go. I still can't get over that in a matter of weeks both of these events occurred. Amazing!

I hope that over time we can continue to connect more of these dots for LB. I have a close friend travelling to the southern part of Ethiopia later this year and she is going to try and take photos of the hospital where he was born. I know that it may never feel like enough but I want to fill in the blanks as much as possible. There are certain things I imagine we may never know, like the time of day he was born and what the weather was like that day. Since it was January in Ethiopia I can guess 70s, sunny and perfect but who knows. Can you imagine not being able to tell your child the time they were born or how much they weighed at birth? They seem like such simple facts that most parents probably take for granted. I think of all that I know about my own birth. I could tell you little things like my mom watched re-runs of I Love Lucy to distract herself from labor pains and that the doctor was happy I was born before the end of the business day. But I am not going to let my sadness about those things negate how I happy I am to have these photos. I'm so grateful and I pray that someday this sweet face will see the beauty in it as well.

African Music

Around the time we brought LB home my mom gave LB two CDs. One of African music designed for kids and one of familiar toddler tunes like "Mary Had a Little Lamb." For the most part LB seemed to enjoy the toddler tunes more and has learned a lot of the hand motions to "itsy bitsy spider" and "skinamarinky dinky dink." I can also usually distract him if he is upset by singing him those songs. However, I am happy to report that over the past couple of weeks LB has really started to enjoy the African Playground CD. Here is the LINK to the CD if you are interested. I highly recommend it! There are two songs on the CD that no matter what he is doing he will stop and dance. It's like everything else goes away and it is just LB and the music. Even if he is in another room and the volume is low he still recognizes his two favorite songs. It's one of the pros of LB's supersonic hearing. The best part about all of this is that one of his favorite songs happens to be the only Ethiopian song on the CD. He LOVES it. I had actually heard the song, Hoya Hoye, before on another blog and recognized it because we heard kids singing it once when we were in Ethiopia. There is something about the song that puts me in a good mood. We have enjoyed the CD so much that just a few weeks ago we purchased the Dreamland CD that is part of the same series. We have started playing it at night while we are trying to get LB to wind down before bed. Something about the music just allows you to exhale more deeply. It is that peaceful. There is also an African Reggae CD that is on my wish list. I should be their spokesperson.

Here is a video of Hoya Hoye that I found online. Listening to these kids sing makes me want to go back to Ethiopia so badly. Enjoy!

The Blue Nile

Over the weekend our good friends, Allie and Ethan, came to visit and were kind enough to join us in our adventure to try Ethiopian food for the first time. I wasn’t really sure what to expect but I like a lot of ethnic foods so I was hopeful I would enjoy it. The Blue Nile has been around Columbus a long time and I wanted an authentic experience.

Here is a shot of the four of us gathered around the tray.

The owners were incredibly nice and I think their website does a great job explaining the experience and the significance of sharing the same plate. Here is what they say:

“Gather around the tray (Mosseb) made for a group to eat from the same platter. Experiencing the community dish by eating from the same plate and sharing the same bread (called Injera) is socially significant in the Ethiopian culture and also creates a bond of friendship and personal loyalty between the diners. It is said that people who eat from the same plate (Mosseb) will never betray one another.”

As an appetizer we ordered Vegetarian Sambusas, pastry shells filled with potatoes, peas and herbs. They were delicious. Here is what we ordered for our entrees as described in the menu.

Doro Wat: Chicken cooked and perfectly simmered with seasoned sauce of berbere. Served with hard boiled egg.

Minchetabesh: Finely chopped prime beef first fried in a pan with ginger, onion, cardamom and white pepper until golden, then sauteed in Ethiopia's famous keywat.

Kik Alicha: Yellow split peas cooked with onions, green peppers and garlic.

Shiro: Spiced and milled chick peas cooked with onions.

My favorite was the split pea dish and D liked the chick peas the best but was also partial to the chicken. All of the meals are served with injera. The injera basically acts as your utensil. Here is how Blue Nile’s website describes injera. “Injera, a flat tangy, crepe-like bread, is the essential part of the meal. It is made out of teff, wheat and corn flours. Teff is a cereal grain, until now unique to Ethiopia, which is rich in iron, protein, complex carbohydrates, calcium, potassium, and other minerals.”

Here is a shot of Allie scooping up a yummy bite with the injera.

All in all it was a great experience and I am so glad we have The Blue Nile in Columbus. I am eager to go back and get to know the owners better.

In adoption news, we completed our fire inspection on Tuesday morning. It was good to check that off the list. This weekend we have our appointment with CIS. It feels like we are moving along and getting stuff done. Hopefully the trend continues over the next few weeks!

Education

First of all, thank you to everyone for the well wishes for our first home study appointment. D and I both think it went really well. I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect but it was actually a very good experience. Our social worker is super nice and I am glad we will be working with her. We basically spent the entire two hours just answering her questions. She asked us how we met, about our courtship (if you can call it that), our strengths and weaknesses as a couple, what we see as our role as parents and other questions like that. But we also talked about adoption in general and how we will communicate with our child about his/her adoption. D and I had briefly discussed some of that but it was good to make sure we were on the same page. I had always assumed that we would talk about it from the beginning and would tell our son/daughter the story of their adoption. It’s not going to be a taboo subject in our household but something to celebrate. Our child will have a story, it will be the story of how our family came to be, and I want our child to know about it. Part of the conversation was about ways to incorporate the child’s Ethiopian culture into their daily lives, which is very important to us. That made me think about how D and I have been trying to educate ourselves about Ethiopia and have learned a fair amount thus far.

I thought some of you might be interested to know some of those facts as well.

*the capital city is Addis Ababa (it means new flower) *the official language is Amharic *the major religions are Christianity (mainly Orthodox Church) and Islam *Ethiopia is one of the world’s oldest countries *Ethiopia was the original source of the coffee bean *the literacy rate is 42% *Ethiopia has only 1 medical doctor per 100,000 people *there are more than 3.8 million orphans in Ethiopia

Being a huge fan of the Olympics and someone who enjoys running, I had always been familiar with the Ethiopian runners and the success they have had at long distances. But I didn’t know anything about the history including recent studies that claim the present-day vicinity of Addis Ababa as the point from where human beings migrated around the world. Very cool.

D and I are obviously trying to soak up as much information as we can. We are going to have our first encounter with Ethiopian food this weekend as we will be going to the Blue Nile. I will give a full report next week.

I will leave you with a shot of a bumper sticker I just ordered from Etsy. I am super excited to proudly put it on my car.