365 days ago

Our dossier arrived in Addis Ababa 365 days ago (December 23, 2008) -That's 365 days ago, right? It's been one heck of a year. While we weren't able to get Ari home for Christmas 2009, we are 2 weeks and 1 day away from leaving to go get him. Which means there are a lot more of these faces around our house:

(Taken at the airport the day Zoe came home)

It's so great to see Abby this happy and joyful. It's been quite a journey but we know everything is going to be worth it when we see his chubby little cheeks in person. Thanks to everyone for all your support and prayers. We couldn't have made it without all of you.

BTW: Abby continues to amaze me. In the time it has taken me to do this post she has made another batch of baby food. Blueberries this time. They would probably be really good on Andy's Custard. Mmmmmmm, Andy's!

Homemade Baby Food

So this is something I've found to do to bide the time while we wait to travel. I was inspired by my fellow adoptive friend Meredith to make homemade baby food (if you've seen the before and after pictures of Zoe, you'll see it works!), and I am having so much fun! For all of you experienced mothers out there who think this is absolutely unnecessary and will prove to be an inconvenience later on down the road, I would ask that you refrain from pissing in my cheerios and keep your comments to yourself. As an adoptive mom who has missed out on the first six months of my son's life and everything that goes along with those first six months, I find this to be a therapeutic way of dealing with that, a way to provide Ari with something that comes from me and from my hands and effort, not from a jar off a shelf. From all of the pictures we've received of Ari so far, it appears he is receiving good nutrition, but an orphanage is an orphanage and I think he deserves any extra nutritional boost we can give him once he gets home. Plus, baby food is really easy to make (I wish all cooking was this simple), cheaper than jarred baby food, contains no preservatives or additives, is organic if you so choose to buy organic ingredients, and I've heard it's easier to transition babies to table food without creating a picky eater because they're used to the bold flavors already rather than the bland, overprocessed food that has a shelf life of two years. Now, whether that is true or not about the picky eater aspect of it, I don't know, but I've decided it's worth a try. So far I've made carrots and sweet potatoes. I think we'll do mangoes next. I've been making big batches and freezing them (you can freeze homemade baby food for up to eight weeks), so I think Ari will have plenty to eat for the first few weeks he's home before I need to make more!

Photo Friday!

The sweet little girl in green is Ben and Kate's daughter Lyra and she is a few months older than Ari. Did we mention how much we loooooove Ben and Kate for taking all these great pictures a couple weeks ago?! Priceless.

updates

blogging each day seems like such a great idea. until it's 10:55pm and you haven't written anything for the day. then you start to scramble and see what you can come up with in the last 65 minutes of the day that will make for an interesting post. so tonight is "update" night.

• i got my passport back. in six days. it's amazing what can happen if you are willing to pay a little extra. everyone keeps asking me if i got my passport. it was such a huge deal at the time, but then it came in the mail 6 working days after i mailed the request in, and then it's not such a big ordeal. i had forgotten that i had blogged about it and there are actually people out there that read this (and care) what we are writing. so yes, i got my new passport, along with my old one back. we should be good to go.
• after 2 weeks and "interviews" with 3 different pediatricians, i think we have finally decided on ari's doctor. it's really weird to talk to doctors and see if they are qualified to take care of your child....a child you've never seen or touched. but i think we've made a a great decision. we just hope ari feels the same way after his first week home (and all the shots, tests, etc. that he is going to go through.....poor buddy)
• the nursery and supplies are slowly coming together. there are still a couple of things we haven't decided on. (monitors, etc) but the list of unknowns is getting smaller each and every day.
• we have a car seat. but we haven't opened the box yet. no reason. just haven't taken the time to read the directions and realize how complicated this install is going to be. hopefully i can get abby to video my first attempt at putting the car seat in.

one last random: happy birthday to "uncle matt". not officially an uncle, but a great friend that ari will always know as "uncle matt".

We started packing

With three weeks to go until we leave, we decided we would start packing up some stuff just to be sure we had enough room for all the donations, all of Ari's stuff, and what little we can pack for ourselves in the space that will be left. We started with the two donation suitcases. Thanks to my sister Tammy (I think she started a blog at one time but never published it so I can't send you a link), we got to experiment with some fun new toys -- the extra heavy duty vacuum sealer. Amazing. And so much fun. At one time we couldn't close either suitcase. Now it all fits, with room to spare.

The empty bag, on the table, with all the clothes...

All of the baby house clothes in the bag....

All of the clothes in the same bag, with zero air. Amazing.

Now we have room for extra stuff......we just have to monitor the 50 pound limit. It's hard to believe that three weeks from now we will be in the air on our way to Ethiopia. One more day down.

Stealing ideas

This post-every-day-mission is much harder than expected. Especially when nothing happens in relation to getting Ari home. So, I'm stealing a post from Zoe's mom. And after going to Walmart (where did the dash go between Wal and Mart?) and the mall I believe this clip even more.

Better stories tomorrow...

A Call to Ethiopia....

This morning I called a hotel in Ethiopia to book a (backup) reservation. I'll explain that one later. That will probably deserve its own post once we get back from Ethiopia. But the phone call was awesome -- and difficult!! I was so ecstatic when someone answered the phone. Even though they answered in Amharic and I had no idea what they were saying at first, I was just so thrilled to be talking to someone who is literally a few miles from our baby. It brought a huge smile to my face to hear their lovely accent. It really doesn't take much these days to get me excited, I know. So I just started talking (in English, of course) and they switched languages and accommodated my requests as well as they could. The person who originally answered the phone did have to hand off to someone else when I started asking too many questions and then I was talking to a woman I could barely hear. There was a lot of pregnant pauses and then "Hello?" Hello?" But we managed and (I think) we have a reservation. So awesome.

Successful Sunday

Church. Check.
Lunch with friends. Check.
Making copies for travel documents. Check.
2.5 hour nap. Check.
Dinner at home. Check.
Lots of Tivo. Check.
Ice cream for entire family.....

Check.