Becoming a Family of Four

 

It's a girl!

"She's pretty. She has hair like mine!" -Zain

We are proud to announce that we received a referral! We have been matched with a 19-month-old girl from Ethiopia!!!

Excited. Nervous. Sad. Thrilled. Happy. Butterflies.
There are lots of emotions flying around here. We have been in the process for over a year with paperwork and waiting, however being matched once again feels sudden and immediately life changing. We are so happy. We are also sad because every adoption story includes loss, and though we do not know everything about the first year of her life, we know it was hard for her and her birth family. We are a bit nervous about parenting two at a time, but we know we can do it. It will be a big adjustment, but we are ready.

There are many aspects of this second adoption that are the same, however some changes in the process have occurred. Lord willing, we hope to bring her home sometime before she turns two. In May, Zain will turn 3 and she will turn 2 a couple weeks later. 

We will go to Ethiopia once this spring to appear before a judge to officially say, "YES! We want her!" That trip will be about five days long. This time we will come back to the U.S. to await news of her paperwork being ready to return to Ethiopia to pick her up. We will go back for about a week to bring her home to Illinois!

Because she is not legally ours, we once again cannot post pictures or identifying information about her before the adoption is final in Ethiopia. For now, we are calling her Hoolet. This is simply the Amharic/Ethiopian word for number two! (You might recall that we called Zain "Moosh" for a while. This is similar.)

Since we can't show you her picture unless you see us in person, we thought you might want to see Zain's reaction to first seeing the picture of his new little sister! I didn't get the camera on right away, but you can kinda tell that at the beginning he is saying, "She looks kinda like me!"

A few notes: In the pictures we have, she is in a cute dress with purple flowers on it and pants underneath. In one of them, she is riding in one of those "Little Tykes Cozy Coupe" type of cars and there are some toys laying on the floor in the background. 

Zain cannot wait to meet her. He wants to play Legos with her, teach her to bake muffins, play drums with her and race cars. He knows he is the big brother and she is the little sister. He smiles every time he sees her picture. 

We have seen God's hand in some incredible ways over the past eight weeks. He is so good.

Happy New Year! Here's to becoming a family of FOUR!  

Referral-versary

One year ago we "met" Zain for the first time. We got an adorable picture of a chubby little man named Sato and fell in love. I have seen pictures before of referral compared to a year later and been blown away by the difference. Love changes a kid for sure! Funny thing, I don't think that our referral pics look like Zain at all! So here it goes:

Our first glimpse.

Our first meeting.

Our first week.

Our first week in the US.

Zain "helping" dad change the oil on the car.

Zain playing in our living room yesterday.

We are so in love with this kid! We are now good at waiting and will wait with joyous expectancy for our next referral day. Happy Referral-versary, Zain Sato!

Packing List for Ethiopia

This is for all you adopting parents out there. I thought it would be really helpful to many of you to share some insights in our packing. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• We were adopting a six month old son.
• We went for our court date and stayed through our visa appointment. We did not make two trips.
• We stayed at the HOH2 for the first 4 days with our travel group. We then stayed for the remainder of our time with an Ethiopian family in their home.
• We packed 4 suitcases and got them all right around 50lbs. We brought one entire suitcase-worth of donations. On the way home, the donation space became space for the souvenirs we got.
• Our son got REALLY sick while we were there. He got an amoeba (pretty much could not keep anything “in” for six days including water) followed by an upper respiratory infection right after that. He had ten days of injection antibiotics in twelve days and lost 17% of his body weight. No joke. It was scary.

Things I am really glad I brought:
For him

• Moby wrap - This is the NUMBER ONE thing that I am glad I brought. I would have have  made it without it. I could cover him completely so he would even sleep on me in it with no distractions. It also felt safer in the car since there are no carseats - it was like a big seatbelt to me. These things hold up to 35 lbs and can be found at Target or Babies R Us. Get one!!!
• Lots of bottles (In fact, I could have brought more.)
• Playtex Drop Ins - way easier to deal with
• Lots of bottle nipple options - he likes the faster ones
• Plenty of Bibs
• A Thermos to bring hot water on the go for bottles. You can get bottled water anywhere, but it is not always hot or warm enough.
• Baby bowls and spoons
• A variety of medicines from the States.
• Cheerios
• Blankets

For us

• Swiss Army knife or utility knife, specifically with scissors. We also used the bottle opener a lot for cokes - they are glass bottles there.
• A variety of medicines from the States.
• Tampons (They have pads there, but no tampons)
• Sweatshirts
• Flashlight (bring 2!!!)
• Nalgene bottles for both of you
• Watch (I don't wear one, but needed it all the time because of feeding and nap schedules)
• Floss
• Instant Oatmeal packets
• Granola bars and/or powerbars
• Snacks with substance
• Flipflops for shower
• Shoes good for walking
• Slip on shoes (You have to take your shoes off to go in the kids’ rooms at the HOH)
• extra ziplocks - GAL size - used them all the time. kept clean things in them so they stayed clean!

Things we packed and worked out great:

For him

• Infant Fever Reducer
• bottles
• nipples
• bibs
• spoons
• bowls
• diapers
• changing pad
• wipes
• burp cloths
• teethers - he never used them even though he was teething, but kids are different.
• teething meds - all natural stuff.
• comb and brush - didn’t really use it, but other kids could have needed it.
• baby soap and shampoo
• his hair goop - they used baby oil on his head. we brought a couple other options, too.
• outfits
• onesies
• socks
• sleepwear
• coat or sweater
• receiving blankets
• cozy blanket
• nail clipper
• toys
• pacifier
• thermometer
• baby powder
• washcloths
• lotion
• diaper rash cream
• cheerios

For us

• Language Notebooks (we had a little notebook with us to write down words we wanted to remember later like “cooked vegetables” and “cooked all the way through”)
• Malaria Pills (we didn’t use them, but we would have if we had gone to his orphanage)
• Pepto
• Anti-diarrhea
• Motion Sickness Pills
• Bugspray
• qtips
• hand sanitizersunscreen
• band-aids
• first aid kit
• pro-biotics
• dayquil and nyquil
• neosporin
• antiseptic wipes
• prescriptions
• tums
• ringworm/antifungal
• anti-itch cream
• chapstick - (almost ran out! bring lots!)
• 1 roll TP - soft for when you are sick of rough stuff
• travel size tissues
• moisturizer
• bathing suits
• flipflops
• sunglasses
• hairbrush
• nail clippers
• tweezers
• safety pins
• sweatshirts
• socks
• underwear
• nice outfits and jewelry
• shirts
• pants
• workout clothes
• toiletries
• hats
• bible
• money belts/holders
• Notepads or journals
• Pens
• sharpie pen
• small sewing kit
• plastic forks and spoons
• computer and charger
• guidebooks (lonely planet, language books)
• Camera and Charger
• camera memory card
• Batteries
• Blank CDs for photos
• phone that can have a SIM card put in and work (some guesthouses provide these)
• ipod
• Gum
• Snacks
• instant oatmeal for breakfast - just add water! easy!
• diaper bag
• laundry soap
• bags for dirty clothes for laundry (we ended up using reusable bags and they were two of our carryons on the way home.)
• cash -crisp bills with no marks or tears
• proof of yellow fever vaccination and other immunizations
• CHI forms
• Homestudies

Things I wish I had more of:
For him

• Pedialyte and Gatorade powder packets
• Burp Cloths - I brought six, but still wish I had more when he was vomiting so much
• Wash cloths - adult and baby sizes
• Jammies for him. He wets through almost every night unless we wake him up. I brought five sets, but still wish I had a few more
• Warm Tops for him. It can get chilly at night and I only have one sweatshirt for him.
• Baby hats - sun hat and warm hat

For us

• Paper towels. Not too practical for packing, but boy do I wish I had them for spills!
• Dish soap with disinfecting antibacterial. I am not sure the dish soap here has it and they use a bar of soap on a sponge, so germies abound...
• Lantern for when power goes out
• Shaving Cream. Erik ran out and if you hadn't given him some, we might not be kissing for few weeks... :)
• There were a couple times that I would have liked to have had duct tape but it is not necessary.
• T-shirts or tops for mom and dad. We got thrown up on a lot. Solid food time also adds tons of texture to your shirts. I have plenty of shirts for when I was not a mom, but I think I need twice as many now. Even snot spots are hard to avoid at least a couple times a day.

Things that are easy to get here if you run out:

• Formula - the kinds he is used to from the HOH.
• Wipes
• Pampers and/or other kinds of diapers, but they are THIN.
• Ibprofen
• Bread
• Local Snacks (not full of protein, but something to eat)
• Tissues and TP (not super soft, but that only stinks when you get sick like we did)
• Laundry Soap
• Hand Soap
• Shampoo and general toiletries

Video Update!!

 

Moosh is great today. Things are going really well. We still love it here, goats and all!

We just want to send a thank you to all of you who are part of our village! We actually are posting blogs through my sister because we are blocked from blogspot here in Ethiopia. So we cannot respond to comments, but thank you for leaving them! Please keep leaving comments if you wish, and if you need a response, just shoot us an email.

Happy Thanksgiving!

HE IS OURS!

We passed court today and we are officially the parents of our little MOOSH!

We are thrilled and are so thankful. What a Thanksgiving!

We are still working on naming him. I know, I know, what is taking us so long?! We just don't feel at peace yet, although mom and dad are on the same page with our top three options.

Thank you so much for all the love you have given us in this process. Look for more pictures sometime soon!

Erik, Bet, and Moosh Olson (I love writing that!)