1 week!

At this time next week, my plane will be taking off for Ethiopia. I'll be leaving all my boys at home to go and get our girls. I think the only thing I can say for sure is that it is going to be a wild ride...

I'm happy that the family Scott and I hoped for will finally be a reality.
I'm excited to meet Bri and Des.
I'm nervous about leaving Jack, Logan and Scott.
I'm grateful my mom is coming with me.
I'm desperate to see the girls smiling.
I'm scared that something could go wrong while I'm in Ethiopia.
I'm anxious to go already...and to come home already.

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3...

This is my trial run to see if I’ll be able to use the blogger email option to post updates while I’m in Ethiopia.  I’m also testing out whether I can post a photo…

Who's who?

Which little monkey:

• Tore apart our office supplies looking for an envelope so he could send his friend a cell phone while she was on vacation?
• Loves eating injera (an Ethiopian sour pancake served with every meal)?
• Was worried that the fireworks on the 4th of July were hurting the Earth?
  

Which little love bug:

• Was man enough to take a baby doll to show and share?
• Still, at 4 years old, insists that he was never in Mama's belly, nor was he a baby, but was a big boy from "the neighborhood?"
• Told me that his shorts were "striping wet" which apparently meant they were so dripping wet that he needed to strip out of them?
  

2 weeks!

More photos!

Last week we got a few new photos of our sweet girls. I can't wait until they are home and we can finally get some smiley pics of Des and Bri!

Debritu on the left, Desta on the right

I leave in two weeks. In terms of preparation, for the trip and around the house, I feel soooooo not ready. In terms of wanting to scoop them up and hold and love on them, I am soooooo beyond ready. Hang on girls...I'm coming soon!

Why International Adoption?

I've been asked several times (in person and through my blog) why we chose international adoption over the American foster care system. I thought I'd try and explain it here...

I guess I see it as kids are kids. I’m a human and a mom before I’m an American. So, a kid in China or Ethiopia is no more or less in need or deserving of a family than a kid in America. In that sense, they are equal.

What then sways me to international adoption is that in this country (and in my state) birth parents’ rights are often paramount. They seem to always be given a second and third (and maybe even more) chance. (Do some birth parents deserve extra chances? Absolutely. And will some of those extra chances result in a reunited, happy, healthy family? I hope so.) But each time a birth family is given another chance (whether deserved or not, successful or not) I imagine a foster family is left with a broken heart.

I don’t want to be a foster mom. I want to be someone’s “forever” mom. Just like, I don’t want Jack and Logan to be someone’s foster brothers but “forever” siblings. I can’t imagine trying to explain to them why their sister or brother would not be living with us anymore.

I guess I’m selfish in that I want to protect my heart (and my husband’s and Jack’s and Logan’s). And since I believe that all kids are equal and there are kids in need of families in other parts of the world, I choose international adoption.

3 weeks!