Several weeks home- an update

Tessa (Tizita's official nickname) has been with us long enough now that we're not even counting the time home anymore. I think that's a good sign. This Easter marks two months and it will be a special day of celebration.

Tessa is doing fabulous! She is content and happy about 95% of the time. Some of the biggest areas of growth are....

* She willingly lets us comfort her when she is upset. Previously she didn't want us to touch her or hold her when she was crying or upset and these moments were definitely our hardest during those first few weeks home. This is not uncommon with kids who have been in an orphanage for any length of time. But her trust and bonding with us has grown immensely and it is blissful to see her receive our snuggles and love.

* She doesn't wake up often at night! In the beginning she was up every two hours or so crying, and now she only wakes up 1-2 times a night for a short time. The best part is, she is looking for us to touch her and calm her back to sleep.

* She wakes up happy with sweet coos and sounds. I love just listening to her happy babble.

* She will drink water from her bottle and doesn't need her bottle 24/7. This was a huge step! The bottle has been her constant comfort for the last year- she literally had a bottle of formula in her hand 100% of the time for the past 10 months. But now that she lets us comfort her, she has given up on the bottle addiction.

Everyone asks us constantly how Tessa is doing. And she really is doing awesome! Life is still hard and overwhelming and some days I cry and feel defeated. But my tears and frustrations have nothing to do with Tessa's adjustment. They all center on my own struggle to release more control, become less selfish, lay down my rights, and serve and love the ones around me. It's hard, but a challenge that has priceless treasure on the other side!

Her personality is coming out so much! These four pictures capture her so well.

So talented! Sitting up against the couch by herself AND balancing a domino on her little arm at the same time!

Meeting Poppy and GiGi for the first time.

Merin got her nails painted for the first time by her cousins. She was so proud.

Sweet little spring dress that I had just to document a picture of. Lulo gave this dress to Merin last year and she is finally able to wear it. She would have loved seeing her in it.

Tessa and I were looking at a magazine in a waiting room and when I turned to this page, she yelled "Daddy!!!!"

Stroller derby.

TWO Weeks Home

Funny how easy it is to lose time perspective when life has so many dramatic twists and turns in a short time period. Two weeks feels more like two months at this point and several times a day I have to remind myself that "it's only been ____ days/weeks."

At this point, counting the time home helps me celebrate the victories with more vigor and be freer from the burden I feel from transitioning our sweet new daughter into this strange new life of hers.

Overall Tizita is doing amazingly well. When I consider life through her perspective, the transitions must be so overwhelming. I can't believe that she is so content, smiles often, eats well and seems to genuinly love being with our family. God's grace and love is covering all of us.

It takes a lot of effort to develop attachment with children who were adopted. It's Chase's and my job to build trust with her and teach her that we are her family forever.  I love to look into her eyes while I'm feeding her a bottle before bed and repeatedly tell her: "You are so loved by us." "We will always take care of you." "You are safe in our family." "We are so honored to have you as our daughter." "We are so proud of you."

We are also not going out of the house much at all so that she can get adjusted to life with just our family. In her orphanage, an average of 10-15 people held her every day! We are limiting holding and feeding and bathing and all other nurturing activities to just our family. As our attachment and her trust grows we will expand her circle little by little. I thrive on activity and interaction with people so it's a huge switch for me to stay at home all day. But it is so worth it and I really feel such grace to be content in this. Plus, it's just so hard to go anywhere with the two little girls that staying at home is just easier and more peaceful!

We've had lots of victories this week with Tizita...

* THREE new teeth have sprouted.
* She likes to feed herself with a spoon.
* She is rolling from side to side more often and with more strength.
* She will sit and play with things in the bumbo, even holding objects between her little arm and cheek while she uses her hand to grab something else.

Elias and Merin are continuing to love on Tizita and are adjusting better to having to share our attention with her. Merin loves playing with T and can entertain her for a long time by stacking toys on her bumbo tray, sharing snacks and reading to her.

Merin gathered an audience of dolls and strollers and read a book to Tizita. Notice her plastic high-heels.

Merin said she wanted to "be a princess" so I dug out this dress that I had saved for her. She immediately began twirling around and giggling. Love!

Tizita LOVES to play and squeeze her little arm.

First time for blueberries

I think she likes them!

Feeding herself with a spoon

The sisters playing kitchen. Notice how Tizita is holding the spoon with her little arm!

One week home

Tizita has been home with us just over one week and we are all amazed at the changes and developments in her during this short time.

* EATING! EATING! EATING! This is the biggest one. In the orphanage she was mainly just drinking formula from a bottle (which she had 24 hours a day) and some occasional soup broth. When I took custody of her I started giving her banana and some mashed carrots. She ate 5-10 BITES a day for the first several days. Now after one week at home she is eating 5 BOWLS of food a day- carrots, banana, avocado, applesauce, egg, yogurt, hummus, etc. She's getting such a little tight belly on her little body. I love it!

* She is learning to use her arm more and more. Her fingers are getting stronger so she can eat finger foods and feed herself.

*She uses her arm to pull herself up and down and around in her bumbo and roll over both directions. This is a big advancement as she wasn't really using her arm much before to move herself around.

* She is sleeping through the night! Her belly is full and she's getting more comfortable with us which means good, quality sleep. Previously she woke up every 2 hours but now she'll sleep at least a full 10 hours before waking. I've been gently trying to wean her from the bottle obsession but it hasn't been easy. I've been tricking her with a dummy bottle- putting a pacifier in the bottle instead of a nipple and most of the time it works if she wakes up at night.

And just overall she's content and enjoying life with our family! She is bonding well to us- won't let me out of her sight, even for a second. She screams when she's mad or if I walk out of the room. Chase said it sounds like a stray cat. My mom actually asked the other night how Harley (our outside cat) got inside. It was Tizita doing her mad cry/scream. :-)

Cartoon break

Carrots!

Playing house in the backyard

First sippy cup 

Nighttime routine in her specially-made pjs.

Bumbo Diva

All 3 kids in my lap

Such a cute sleeper!

Wagon ride with Nani

We are HOME!

Wow. It feels so wonderful to be home with Tizita. Our time in Ethiopia was rich and amazing but home is where she belongs.

Tizita's passport was delivered to us at 4:30pm on Wednesday- just 3.5 hours before we left for the airport. It was a little tense there at the end, wondering if it would all come together at the last minute so we could all fly home together that evening.

The embassy called on Tuesday morning to inform me that they had reviewed all of Tizita's paperwork and had decided to wave the requirement of having the physician correct the missing information. (It was only her birthdate and last name and they could easily fill this information in themselves). This was a huge relief! We all cried tears of joy and jumped around in the reception area of our guesthouse as the Ethiopians looked on in amusement.

We went to the US Embassy that afternoon, I answered a few questions and signed some final documents and an appointment was made for the next day to pick up the visa. Our agency delivered it to us while we were at the orphanage saying our final goodbyes.

I was pretty emotional as I walked out the orphanage gate one final time with Tizita in my arms and all the documents we needed to get her out of the country. This long adoption process was over and we were finally going home!

The travel back took 34 long hours. Tizita was great- it sure is helpful having three adults taking care of one baby! The longest leg of the trip was when I had to part ways with my sisters in immigration and they raced to their flights as I sat in the customs office and missed my flight which required me to then spend another 4 hours in the airport.

But the homecoming was sweet sweet sweet. It was so great to see my family again and the few friends who gathered to greet us. Merin just kept hugging Tizita over and over.

Our hearts are full so full of joy and satisfaction. God has been so good to us and we are so excited to be over the line and into this next season in our family's life. Thank you for all your support and encouragement and prayers!

Family photo at the airport

Holding my 2 girls

Sisters first hug!

Merin loves feeding Tizita!

The 3 kiddos together in their PJs

On the edge

I feel like I am on the edge of this line where I'm peering over into this new future life of mine where Tizita is home with us and I have three beautiful kids- daughters that play together and a brother that roughhouses and protects and loves. But even though I think my toes are right up against that line because the new reality is allllllmost here, I just keep stubbing my toe and can't cross over.

Ok, so a weird analogy but nothing here makes sense anymore because it's all just so crazy at this point. We finally got the MOWA signatures that we needed but not because the guy actually showed up at his office to sign them. By the grace of God he allowed my agency to drive to his location (his house? another job site?) and he signed them late in the afternoon/evening on Wednesday.

Thursday was a holiday so nothing was done.

Then Friday was the easy part where the agency took the signed documents to get the official birth certificate. Only the "this will only take 20 minutes" turned into a whole day affair with the office worker literally refusing to produce the birth certificate even after her boss instructed her to do so. Honestly I think she was just power hungry and made the agency worker produce additional unnecessary documents and finding errors in all of them the rest of the day.

At this point I decide I'm fed up so I get in a taxi with plans to barge into this woman's office in a very loud and demanding sort of American way. I and my country were spared the embarrassment though because the birth certificate was released right at that time so the taxi turned instead and headed toward Immigration Office where I would meet my agency to get the passport.

The gates were closing as I walked up but I talked my way through and found my agency peeps where they then talked their way past all kinds of people saying "no" and within the next hour we were the only people left on a late Friday afternoon but walked out with all the paperwork processed (not submitted) and with the Director's signature authorizing an "urgent" passport.

There were lots of tears (mine and Tizita's) to get us to that point but I was satisfied with having tried our hardest and getting at least half the passport work done.

Friday night my sisters arrived and all was right in the world again. I felt so relieved to have them here to laugh with and to have their help with Tizita and keeping me sane in the membrane. We had a great weekend together shopping and exploring and eating delicious food.

Today (Monday) morning we headed early to Immigration to officially submit the passport paperwork. Unfortunately we couldn't get the passport within the same day, but they have promised it to us at 11am on Tuesday. My agency will then rush it over to the embassy to beat their 3pm deadline. (And by rush I mean driving in crazy, erratic traffic while dodging people, goats and sheep).

Just when I thought that we were almost across the finish line, the embassy called this afternoon to tell me that they found an error in the physician's medical report on Tizita. So now once the passport is received at the embassy tomorrow afternoon they will make a copy of it to send with the medical report via a courier and have the physician correct the mistake.

The courier will then bring the paperwork back to the embassy and if it gets there by the 3pm deadline on Wednesday, Tizita gets the visa and we get on a plane a few hours later!

I don't even need to tell you the obvious million reasons why it's very possible that none of this will happen as planned.

But I'm choosing PEACE and believing that God wants to just keep doing the impossible for Tizita. We have zero contigency plans because we're just peaceful that it'll all work out somehow and all four of us will board the plane together on Wednesday night.

I sure can't wait to cross that line into my new life. In the meantime, please continue to pray for miracles and peace for all of us.

Breakfast time (and I always make that face when I'm feeding a baby. Why?)

Stroll through the crowded market this evening

Lentils, beans and spices

With our Ethiopian sister (Elias' Aunt) at a traditional Ethiopian restaurant

The Aunts with Tizita

Coffee Ceremony in our guesthouse. We enjoyed coffee with Kenyans, Dutch, Irish, Italians and Ethiopians!

Hurry up and wait

"Hurry up and wait" is sort of the theme of any adoption process. Parents fly through paperwork only to wait for a response. Race through fingerprinting and then wait for results. Act immediately and promptly to any blip of an email from their agency only to get no or slow response in return.

We've hurriedupandwaited for 4.5 years now with this adoption and so it's sort of become the norm for us. So to be real honest, it was a HUGE surprise for us when the embassy agreed last week to expedite our case.

I thought that we had a decent case: child missing three limbs, respiratory infection, boils on her back, etc. But still all we asked for was permission to grant the medical appointment before the passport. We thought this would help decrease the average 2-4 month wait time between court and embassy just a little.

So it was a huge surprise when we got an email back from the embassy a few hours later saying that they would expedite our whole case (and not just the little medical appointment)!

I shouldn't have been surprised because I know how God loves to show me that He's into the details and wants to take care of us. But this has been a long hard road with so many twists and turns that I  just really don't know what to expect anymore.

When we got word that our case would be expedited, I launched into planning mode, trying to figure out whether or not I'd stay here with Tizita while Chase and Elias went home on the original return flight. There was a flurry of emails and conversations and prayers with friends, family, agency and embassy and in the end we decided that I'd stay here.

And the best part of all!?! My two sisters are coming! They are leaving jobs, kids and family and coming to be with me for a week to help with Tizita and we'll all fly back home together. Isn't that just an incredible blessing!?! I feel SO loved.

We still need prayer for our adoption case though. We've hit a hurryupandwait bump in the road because MOWA (the Ethiopian government agency in charge of adoptions) has still not signed a letter that we need to get Tizita's birth certificate and passport. The passport usually takes at least a week and we don't have that much time to get all that processed and cleared through the embassy. And the letter has been prepared and is sitting on the official's desk waiting to be signed. He has said he will sign. However, he didn't show up to his office for the past two days. Argh.

Chase and Elias left yesterday so I'm here alone and feeling rather vulnerable. I take custody of Tizita tomorrow and it'll be just us two gals for 3 days (which I'm looking forward to) until my sisters arrive.

Will you PLEASE PRAY! For God to move just one more mountain in this adoption case so that we can go home on Wednesday, 1/30? I'm ready for us to be a family of five!