DON'T WAKE UP D!

A fellow adoption Mommy who just went to ET to pick up her twins (!) took some more pictures for us.

She warned us that D was woken up for these pictures as will become plain when you look at them! Check out this progression, D is on the right, as Laurie tries to draw her out:









The cutie patootie on the left is J, she is being adopted by a family in Colorado.

The look on D's face in the third shot cracks us up! This is the same face A used to make when he was fussing at us. He would screw up his little face and stick out his lower lip. And did A hate to be woken up!!! Still does. My brother Thing 1 loves to tell a story about picking up A from preschool once. When he got there all the kids were playing in this big room where against one wall there was a lump on the floor with a sign above it on the wall that read:

"DON'T WAKE UP A!"

We'll consider ourselves warned!


















Lauren

An Update on Fitsum

A is sponsoring a boy in Ethiopia so that he may go to school. In Ethiopia going to school costs $25/month.

Today A got this brief note:

Fitsum is in Grade 4 and doing well. He wishes to thank his "American brother" for this wonderful gift.

And these pictures, the posed one with the book made me smile:





Beautiful boy! We will put together a package for him when we go to get D.

Lauren

Some deets--

They estimate D's birth day to be 6/27/09. She is almost 6 mos old!

She was 10.8 lbs on 12/7 and 24.5 inches long. Not bad considering she probably was not getting fortified formula, or formula at all. She'll start growing like mad now though! Parents caravan formula over there when traveling. L took 8 cans for me to put in the kitty.

Her hair is probably short because they shaved her head to control/prevent lice.

She is from Djimmah (Jimma), a city south west of the capital Addis Ababa. It is in this region where coffee was discovered and Jimma is a trade center for coffee. See the map on my "coffee" post below. We will try to travel to Jimma when we go to get D, although she is now in Addis.

J and I keep going back and forth on names. When we had A we were RELIEVED he was a boy for the singular reason that we could NOT agree on a girl's name. So we'll have to get back to you on that---because Bronwen is RIGHT OUT!

Lauren

Signed sealed and delivered!

We have sent in our signed CPR for D. Now the ET representative of our agency will ask the courts in ET for the next available date for the adoption hearing. These are typically scheduled two months from right now. So February for court! If so, then maybe March for holding our baby girl and smelling her neck and kissing her cheeks.

On our side of the pond we have almost finished the bathroom for our little one. It is all up to me now, J has finished the plaster work and the rewiring: Girls need lots of outlets in their bathrooms Daddy! And a vanity lite and a cool jazzy chandelier. Geesh! I need to paint and then we can put up the decals and style the room (code for buy all the cool decorative items).

The nursery is coming along too. J has started plastering--a new feat!--the walls to rid the room of the dangerously sharp stucco. Not kidding, when we first moved in A skinned a set of knuckles on the walls. Then we paint the walls. Some of the furniture, besides the crib and changing table, I want to put in there needs to be painted, so that'll be me too. IKEA will be supplying the cool window treatments for the 10 foot slider/sidelight combo in the room. Then Daddy will build out the closet to support the clothes habit mommy has, er, clothes baby girl will require.

Enough to keep us busy during the wait!

Lauren

An update from a traveling new Mommy--

Lauren,

D  is a beautiful little girl! I quizzed the manager on her and her name does not mean greyish-brown baseness and worldliness :-) In her case the name is an Oromo word that she claims she gave her because she felt blessed and lucky to receive her and knew that the child was blessed and lucky to arrive. D is Oromo for "Blessed" or "Lucky." :-)

I held her and checked her out and she appeared to be very healthy to me. She is small, but not in an unhealthy way. I think she's just playing catch-up. I did not have a measuring tape with me, so no measurements, but she's wearing 3-6 month clothes, smiles readily, and there is no yellowing or paleness in her eyes or gums. I think she's a good one! I got pictures of her with the manager and J. She would not let me hold her once the camera came out :-) Oh, the manager and nannies were thrilled by your family book! The manager opened it immediately and called the nannies in for a look! Good move making it chewable ;-) I used a hug and kiss from you as a covert way of checking breath sounds. No problems there.

The orphanage was clean, tidy, lots of laundry hanging out, and all the nannies were friendly as can be. It's in one of the more impoverished sections of town and, being new, needs a lot still. She requested that I put the word out that they need practical items and food for kids aged 0-7. She was very intent about that. She also requested a camera. Still, I got the strong feeling that this woman would go without food herself before allowing the kids to do so. I was impressed.

L

Our baby girl!

Isn't she the cutest!!

This is another new Mom holding D.

Such lips! Such eyes!!! We can't wait to get our bundle of baby girl home!

Lauren

We have a referral!

She is a 5 mo old girl, named D (for now). We got news of her before Thanksgiving but waited for her medical report before saying anything. It has been hard!

She is healthy, tall, but a little underweight for her age. A little anemic, but that is easily mended. They say she is happy and social! She's a cutie. We are over the moon! I'll post a picture later.

Next step--our International Adoption Pediatrician will review her medical file and render an opinion. If positive, and I expect it will be, we will officially accept the referral and await a court date in Ethiopia where the adoption is granted. It will probably take 2 mos for that. Then we will travel to get our daughter 4-6wks after that! So March?

Lauren