Selam from Ethiopia! Tabitha and I made it. I only have a few minutes of internet time left, so this will be short. This place is amazing. I don’t even have the words to describe it right now. I’m not able to download pics right now. Tab’s laptop died. I’ll be posting a lot when I get home. The Melkam Guest House is good. Zeyede, the owner, is a trip! Nice guy. He’s been looking out for Tab and I. We ventured out on the streets on our own today for the first time. Walked to the Friendship Mall and found the coffee shop! Thank God!! We got a lot of stares. No one is rude, but they’re definitely curious, but too polite to ask, I think. I feel completely safe. A little uncomfortable, perhaps, but that’s just me. I’m definately out of my comfort zone here. But hey, it’s good for me, right? I think I’m suffering a bit from the altitude. I feel dizzy and breathless sometimes. I’m not thinking very clearly. Some of that could just be jet lag too. We should be able to pick up the boys Monday. I know I won’t sleep Sunday night thinking of holding Asher in my arms for the first time. I wish Owen were here to share those first moments with me. I miss him so much! One more week and he’ll be here. I’m looking forward to seeing the other CHI families next week. It will be nice to see some familiar faces, even though they’re only familiar from the internet! See you soon guys! Your babies are waiting!!

There are 14 families who didn’t get much sleep last night. We’re all waiting to hear the outcome of our court dates in Ethiopia. We should know something by noon today.

An email yesterday from CHI instructed us all to call in to a scheduled conference call at 1:00PM Central time (that’s noon for us) to go over the information received from CHI’s in-country representative and answer any questions. I’m hoping we’ll be discussing the good news that EVERYONE passed court today!

Stayed tuned…

We received our court date today. It’s scheduled for May 12. We have a tentative visa appointment scheduled for June 5. So, it looks like we’ll be leaving for Ethiopia sometime around the end of May as long as we pass court. Keeping my fingers crossed!!

We got the call today! We are parents! There are no words to describe how I’m feeling right now. Tomorrow would have been 7 months exactly on the waiting list.

Our little guy is 3 months old. Unfortunately, that’s all I can share until we pass court in Ethiopia. He is beautiful and we are so blessed!

Well, so much for things quieting down for the holidays on the adoption front. Our agency received 7 referrals in the last two days! 4 boys and 3 girls! There were also two sets of sibling referrals last week, one of which was a set of twin girls. One of the baby boy referrals went to one of my blogging buddies…I won’t say who just yet since she hasn’t posted it on her blog. What I will say is Owen and I are exactly one month behind her and her husband on the waiting list. That could mean a January referral for us. Woohoo!

Our agency received two referrals…a 6 week old and 9 month old, both boys. Congrats to the families!

Our agency also said that during the court closure things slow down, meaning referrals. The courts reopen the first week of October, so let’s hope it starts raining referrals again!

Sleeping in my own bed never felt so good! Unfortunately, I’m still having a hard time adjusting to the time change. My body clearly still thinks it’s in California.

Owen and I had a great time visiting with family in California. It was non-stop fun for the entire 7 days. I think I need a vacation from my vacation! I think we ate out more last week than we have in the last year. Not good for my diet (I’ve lost 15 pounds in the last month) but I only mangaged to gain 3 pounds back, so it’s not too bad. We finally got to try Ethiopian food. We went to this great place in “Little Ethiopia” on Fairfax in L.A. called Messob Ethiopian Restaurant. Little Ethiopia is an area in L.A. filled with Ethiopian businesses and restaurants.

We had a great experience. We went for an early lunch, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. When we walked in the hostess was walking through the restaurant with a hot brazier roasting coffee beans. The smell was wonderful! One of the owners (he was from Addis Ababa) spent a lot of time with us discussing the food and making suggestions from the menu. We ended up ordering two combination items from the menu, so we got to sample a variety of dishes. The meat combo contained Doro Wat (chicken), Siga Wat (beef), Yebeg Siga Alitcha (lamb). The vegetarian combo contained Yemiser Wot (lentils in red pepper sauce/berbere), Yehabesha Gomen (steamed collard greens with garlic and green chilis), Yedenech Atikelt (potatoes, carrots, and cabbage), and Yekik Alicha (yellow split peas stewed with garlic, ginger, and spices). Everything was served on top of a huge injera round on a platter with a side-basket of injera for scooping and eating. My favorites were the Yebeg Siga Alitcha and Yekik Alicha, and of course, the Harar, a dark Ethiopian beer perfect for cooling down those spicy dishes! We were stuffed and well-satisfied by the end of the meal.

We spent a lot of time at the beach, visiting our old haunts…the Redondo Beach Pier, Bluff Cove in Palos Verdes, and Santa Barbara. Boy, do I miss the beach!

It’s always good to come home!

That’s how I’m feeling…like I’ve been dodging bullets for the last two days. I ran into a few speed bumps with the dossier. Owen wasn’t able to get a copy of my birth certificate in California. He picked up his, but they wouldn’t release mine to him. They told him I would have to order mine from the state. That was going to take  So, I called my agency and told my coordinator that I had an old certified copy that my Mom had from 1982. It’s in pretty decent shape and all the stamps looked official enough. I sent her a copy via email and she told me it would work. First bullet dodged!

The rest has just been minor annoyances with getting our home study updated. Ethiopia requires a lot more detail in the home study and our agency coordinator is pretty thorough when it comes to checking things over. I’ve spent the last two days going back and forth with her and our social worker trying to get things just right. I think we’ve finally got it! Regardless, we still have to wait until next week to get it signed off. I guess one more week won’t matter much.