F.A.Q. Travel Edition

Been getting lots o' questions about the trip itself... hopefully this will answer some of the questions you have. Please feel free to ask more questions in the comment section.

1. How long is the flight? We are flying to Dulles (in D.C.) from O'Hare (Chicago), then have a few hour layover. I believe we will be meeting up with the other families adopting through AWAA. Then we have a "non-stop" flight that touches down in Rome to refuel (we don't get off the plane), then on to Addis Ababa. It's about 24 hours of travel... some 16-18 hours in the air. If you're looking for things to pray about this is a big one. I'm not so concerned with the trip over, but keeping 2 kids occupied on the way back DOES worry me some. I get air-sick, and believe me, I've stocked up on everything possible to try to mitigate the severity.

2. How long do we stay in Addis Ababa? We will be there for about one week. We arrive back at O'Hare the afternoon of Sunday, June 15.

3. Do the children speak English/How are you going to communicate? We're still getting this question, and believe me, I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around it too, so I totally understand why it keeps coming up. We are assuming that they do not speak any English. If they know any words at all, it'll be a bonus to us. We have learned a few words of Amharic, but honestly... their language is so different from romance/germanic languages that I (who am good at languages) am unable to get more than a few words to stick. There's just nothing for the words to stick to, since the root is completely foreign to my brain. Between the 2 of us, we've managed to learn about 1/2 dozen words. PITIFUL! I know it! We'll be cramming on the plane, I think, and relying heavily on our dictionary and fellow travelers. I'm sure if we were in Ethiopia longer and heard the words daily and in context, we'd be able to speak some, but man, I may have to play the dumb American card here. The children will learn English quickly through immersion. We have found through a friend of a friend an Ethiopian man in our area. He is willing to help us with translation, etc, so if all other forms of communication fail (arm waving, speaking LOUDER, because, you know, that helps) we'll be able to call him and find out what's going on.

4. Are we nervous/excited? Yes. We are in a bit of a daze. BUT, there is only so long one can keep up intense emotions. I would say that my worry circuit has been fried, and is no longer functional. We do not have the bandwidth to be nervous/worried, etc 24 hours a day. When people have received a lack luster response when they ask if we are excited, they often say "It doesn't seem like you're excited." And I think to myself... I can't really worry about how it looks to you... but rest assured, we are FULL UP with joy and peace, and all the other appropriate emotions. When all those emotions come at once, there might be a deer in the headlights sort of look about us.

5. How do you pronounce the children's names/Can you spell them phonetically? Since the children's name are originally in the Amharic language, the names you see have been transliterated into English equivalents, so they pretty much are already phonetic. Remember phonics? That'll come in handy in pronouncing their names... I'll break it down for you.

Habtamu. (the a's in this case are pronounced "ah". The 'u' is pronounced 'oo')
H(ah)b t(ah) moo. The accent is on the second syllable. HabTAmu.

Yordanos. (o's are pronounced "oh", a is "ah".)
Yor(like "your") d(ah)n (oh)s. Accent is on the 2nd syllable. YorDANos.

Please do not start shortening their names to anything. We've received several suggestions for nicknames, but that'll have to be between us and the children. And there may already be nicknames in Amharic that we don't know about. We'll let you know if they'll be going by nicknames. Thanks for your understanding.

Blessed

We were blessed to have received some pictures of our children when they were younger. Here's one of them. Look at those little cuties! This must have been about 5 years ago.

The Longer Version

On Friday, as we got in line to pay for our Badger tickets to cross Lake Michigan, I checked my voice mail. I said to Lee "Oh. I bet we didn't pass court again today." (Since we'd had no luck on Wednesday and power outage on Friday.)

I listened to sweet Terra's voice saying "Congratulation! You passed court today!" The message was longer but I didn't hear anything else after that. I yelled over to Lee, who was sitting with the luggage "Hey! We're parents! And we're traveling June 7! Get on line quick and post something." Then I started calling our parents. Left messages as neither set of parents were home. (Where the HECK were they! Hello! Important news!)

Got a call from AWAA, but was on another line, so called back, assuming it was Terra. But it was the travel coordinator. Oh gosh. Paid for Badger tickets. Called Travel Coord as we were walking onto the car ferry. She asked if she could call me back since I was clearly distracted, and the ferry was loud with all the cars being loaded on. I said sure. We got seats and settled in, and then I realized that NO, she couldn't call me back because in about 10 minutes we were going to be out of phone range. Called her back and left message saying that she'd have to call me soon and that my in-laws were traveling with us as well. She didn't get that message, as I called her back again just as the boat left the dock.

We made the travel arrangements, I gave her the credit card number. Whew! Still have a signal... called Lee's sister Carrie who was very excited for us. I think we got a "Holy Schnickeys" out of her. Called Lee's mom again. Left message about tickets being ordered and that June 7 was a go.

Lost signal.

If all that sounds choppy and breathless... well, it was. It was all HURRY HURRY HURRY, and after so much PATIENCE PATIENCE PATIENCE it was quite overwhelming.

When we got to our motel in MI, my credit card was denied and I had a call from the anti-fraud dept. of the credit card co. Well, yes, I suppose $10,000 in tickets to Ethiopia DID look a little suspicious! Got that all sorted out and collapsed into bed, where we watched cable TV. (We don't have cable at home, so it's sort of a treat for us... except that nothing was on....)

They are ours!

Now that it's official according to Ethiopia, we can post photos...

Here is the 1st photo we saw of Habtamu and Yordanos, sort of a pre-referral. Based on the little information we received, and this photo, we asked for the full referral, because, you know, who WOULDN'T?















Here are the most recent ones of them opening our care packages:




































I'll post more later. Just wanted you all to be able to see!

Travel Date

We're leaving June 7 for Ethiopia. And I don't know if you realize this, but that is in LESS THAN 2 WEEKS. Just in case you didn't notice that.

We're still in MI, taking the SS Badger (linked for you, Sean!) tomorrow a.m. to head home, where in less than 2 weeks we will be leaving for Ethiopia.

ALSO, our travel plans include leaving June 7 for Ethiopia.

One down, one to go...

Our first court date went through this morning. What this means is that Ethiopia has reviewed our paperwork and we can now come and get our children!!! No travel date yet, but this means it will be soon!
Chris and I were at the ticket office for the SS Badger when she got the voice mail. Fortunately they've got a hotspot so I could post immediately! Yeay nerds!

No Lights for You!

Weeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.... There was no power in Addis Ababa today, so no one got court time. The plan is to try again tomorrow.

Besides the electricity, the paperwork part that is breaking down is the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) needing to send a letter of recommendation to the court. This apparently is not happening expediently.

So! Please pray for electricity tomorrow and quick processing of paperwork.

No Court for You!

Our court day did not happen yesterday. We are having the same issue that a bunch of people are having. A necessary document was not delivered, even though it was promised that it was delivered. They will try again today.

Uncharted Territory

Last week, my friend Karen and her friend Jonathan (whom I do not know) went out and bought us 16 spices that I would need for Ethiopian cooking. AND, Jonathan put together a binder of Ethiopian recipes that he'd used with his cooking students. (!) Thank you, thank you, because I never would have thought to ask for that!









Now, I'd always labored under the delusion that I did not like to cook because I work full time and am too tired when I get home, and that I probably wouldn't like cooking anyway, and what am I going to do, because 2 children will live here, and would like to eat regularly. BUT, when I saw the beautiful colors of those spices, something stirred inside me. It made cooking seem more like art.

I am cooking Doro Wat as we speak. That is a spicy chicken stew, usually served with injera, but I didn't order the teff flour yet, and that's got to ferment awhile before cooking. We'll have it with rice.

I had a lot of firsts with this recipe:

1. I minced real ginger root. Don't get me wrong, I've BOUGHT ginger root before because I love it's knobbly shape. Every one I've ever bought has shriveled up my fridge... except this one. It dropped off the side shelf of the fridge and onto the floor, losing one of it's appendages in the process. I didn't see where it went, and considered it lost. Later, I saw a TOE on the floor and almost started yelling, but it was just the ginger's toe. It really was the same size and shape of a pinky toe.

2. I made a recipe that serves 10. Of course, I didn't realize it until I had cut up the chicken, AND the onion, and I thought "Hey! That's a LOT of chicken and onion!" (Have Lee tell you about the year I made 200 chocolate truffles because I kept doubling and quadrupling part of the recipe, which meant I had about 150 more than I'd intended. Lee called it a "Bumper Crop of My Wife can't do Math".)

3. I used Fenugreek and other actual spices in a recipe. The only spices I've used in the last, oh, since we've been married are those to make Christmas cookies and pie. I'm not even kidding.

4. I purposefully set aside vegetable matter for composting. (!) My head may just explode from all these firsts.

5. I marinated chicken. No, really, never done that before.

6. I used a lemon that I bought. See #1. The life cycle of ginger root, lemons and limes all ended in dessication.

So, now that it is 8 pm, dinner is ready! Did I mention how I don't have time to cook? Apparently I do!

P.S. UPDATE: the doro wat was very good. It had a nice cumulative spicy heat that didn't leave you gasping. In fact, Lee and I decided it could have been a little MORE spicy, so I'm sure it would have been totally BLAND to any Ethiopian. I will definitely make it again. With more heat! BAM!

Book

I have my copy of There is no Me without You. Anyone want to borrow it? Let me know.