One week

We have been a family of eight for one week now. Thomas seems to be adjusting beautifully. The twins are doing much better than I expected... jealousy issues have been at a minimum. Daddy is thrilled with his new son and the feeling is mutual. Big siblings are so relieved to have us home that to them anything else is a bonus.

I feel... weird. Unexpectedly down. Slightly panicky. I've also been sick almost all week. I'm feeling impatient and out of sorts. Not like a thrilled new mommy should feel... sigh.

Independence Day

Our new little American citizen, Feyissa Thomas,
experienced his first Independence Day today,
complete with some traditional fun July 4th activities.

First, some swimming with Candace and Sarah:

Followed by some fireworks provided by big sisters
Anna and Emily.

Tonight we'll watch the professional display here in our neighborhood, followed by bedtime. :)

Home!

He's almost here!

All this room needs to make it complete is one little boy. Tomorrow, we're on our way to bring him home.

Some summer fun

Things have gone all crazy around here as we get ready to leave for Ethiopia in just a few days, but we are still managing to get in some summer fun. Midweek, Tom and I surprised the twins by waking them up for a "secret adventure". They didn't know where we were going until we pulled into the parking area at Worlds of Fun amusement park in Kansas City.

Relaxing in the Shade at Planet Snoopy

Girls like monster trucks, too.

Yesterday I bought the girls their very own Barbie Princess fishing rods. They have already learned how to cast from their Daddy, so they were ready to start reeling them in. They can't wait to get Thomas started with his Spiderman rod.

Sarah

Candace

Embassy appointment!

We have our appointment! June 28! In just eleven days, we will be looking at our little Thomas' face, and he will greet us as his parents. Can't wait. :)

June weddings

June is the traditional month for weddings, and we just got to enjoy one! I traveled to Indianapolis with oldest daughter Emily for my niece Shawna's wedding to longtime boyfriend Kyle.


It seems like only yesterday, but also during this past week, this happy couple celebrated 25 years of marriage...

I hope Shawna and Kyle are as lucky in their marriage as we have been in ours!

p.s. ADOPTION UPDATE: Our case has been submitted to the Embassy, and they requested the correction of a discrepancy of the birth father's name which appeared in the documents. We are still waiting to hear if this has been resolved... very, very impatiently.

And the winner is...

Emily!!!

I used a random line picker application to choose the winner. Emily, email me your address and I will send the book to you ASAP! You are going to love it!

My first ever blog GIVE-AWAY!

I started this blog in September of 2008 as we were paper-chasing for our first adoption. Two years later, in August of 2010, I finally discovered the blog hit counter... slow on the uptake, I know. Anyway, in honor of my 10,000th page view (since 8/30/10), I am having a book give-away.

The book is Melissa Fay Greene's No Biking in the House Without a Helmet. Anyone will find it highly readable and fun, but parents of internationally adopted children will find that it resonates even more. I loved it.

To win, leave a comment on this post. I will post the winner this Friday.

School's out for the summer!

Their faces say it all...

Exuberant Candace jitterbugged up the driveway, looking forward to playing, less restrictive bedtimes, beach time, swimming and all the fun of summer.

While a thoughtful Sarah announced with a melancholy air that she was going to miss her friends.

New friends!

On Sunday we attended a picnic in Lincoln for Ethiopian adoptive families. We were thrilled to meet the Druckenmillers' new sons, and also to meet several new families and their children from Ethiopia... strangely, all boys. Candace and Sarah were the only Ethiopian girls in attendance! It was fun for all of us.

And now they are 7!

In one of the most highly anticipated events of the year, Candace and Sarah turned 7 years old today. We have been counting down the days most eagerly for the last two months. The big event was celebrated with presents, a Barbie ballerina cake and a surprise dinner of various wat dishes and lots of delicious injera. It was a lovely birthday for our lovely little girls.

Presents!

Barbie cake and injera feast!

Blowing out the candles!

Birth certificate... check

One more hurdle passed... we are in possession of an official Ethiopian birth certificate listing us as the parents of Feyissa Thomas. This, obviously, is an artist's rendering.

Age... 4, 5 or 6?

Whenever people hear about our adoption plans for little Thomas, they invariably ask "How old is he?" A sensible question, right? And one to which we invariably answer along these lines: "Ha, ha! Well, we heard he was four in December. But we thought he seemed older than that, and the bone scan and doctor in Ethiopia said he might be six. So we thought we would say that he's five, and everyone agreed. But now some people in Ethiopia say he can be four or he can be six, but he can't be five unless we want to go through court again. So now we are saying his birthday was in December, and he turned four, just as the original data suggested." By now the questioner has had his or her eyes glaze over and is walking away. Some more intrepid individuals question why in the world you would question the birth date in the first place, which is probably instantly regretted as that segues into another long answer about the Ethiopian calendar, lack of reliable data in the third world and possible deliberate under-aging of children made available for adoption.











Can your four year old do this? None of mine could... and he can jump rope well, too.







I was pretty set that being five would work out the best, so it's frustrating to have this change. I am fairly confident that Thomas is older than four and a half. So why did we pick four instead of six? Well, if we leave his birth age at four, he will enter kindergarten at age five plus and will have a whole year of home life in America under his belt. My plan before was to try to homeschool him for kindergarten the first year, and I was beginning to worry that this might be too stressful for both of us the first year home anyway. The second major consideration was birth order. We really think it is best for the family as a whole and the twins in particular to have a younger brother, not a same age sibling. So four it is. It's worth noting that due to Thomas's small stature, he won't be noticeably different in size from his grade level peers.

I know the artificiality of "picking an age" just seems crazy to most people. It is. But what can you do? Choose, and hope for the best.

Moving forward from painful

I have one of those gadgets on my computer side bar that randomly circulates photos from my vast collection stored on my hard drive. Lately, this photo of Candace has been showing up a lot. It was taken about a week or so after we got back to the United States.

This picture is almost painful for me to look at. This is the face of a child who is trying desperately to please someone she can't communicate with, she doesn't know and who is making her wear this horribly ugly dress (in her opinion... I myself thought it was adorable.) Tom and Emily were away for an overnight trip to Iowa State for orientation, adding some uncertainty to the mix as far as the twins' minds were concerned. I was trying to take pictures of the twins to use on adoption announcements, and after about fifteen minutes of trying, I think we were all in tears.

This is about when it sunk in to me how challenging these girls were going to be and that our family was forever altered in a drastic way. It was a very low moment, and there were many more over the next months.

It has now been not quite two years since the twins were added to our family, and we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our son. I think we are all more prepared this time. How couldn't we be? I am a little afraid. But I also feel stronger. Most of the time, my pictures of Candace these days look more like this one:

It was a long hard, journey to get to this point. It is still an upward climb... not just for Candace and me, but for Sarah and Tom and all of our family. There is still pain to manage and understand. It was, and is, so worth it. I am grateful to God for setting us on this path and giving my life a new purpose. I am eager to embrace Feyissa Thomas as my son and to continue to work on just being a family, all of us together under God.