adoption follow up...

Just when I thought we were almost done with all the paperwork, there's so much more!!  We have already had our first post placement visit from our social worker, Cindy.  She'll need to come back again in September to do another intake and then she can file for our re adoption in the california courts.  I need to supply a bunch of info and photos...all the paperwork and letters I've gotten in the mail are sitting in a pile in the dining room.  I just want to enjoy the last few days of summer with the kids.  I figure I'll have plenty of time when the kids go off to school...

The biggie is all the medical follow-up needed.  Tess has never had any immunizations so we are starting from scratch.  She has been such a trooper!! It's much easier to immunize babies then 7 year olds- especially now that she knows what she's in for... This week she had 3 more immunizations, a TB test and a blood panel that needed 6 viles of blood... and then it was off to the dentist.  She had a tooth pulled and another filled and we have 3 more appointments scheduled already!  Every test has come back normal!  PRAISE GOD!!  

Super-Tess!!

What a great day!! We started off at the kids school meeting their teachers for the upcoming year.  Tess was very cute and excited to see her school and meet her teacher.  We were able to meet a few kids from her class which was great!  Cameron was so thrilled to find out his cousin Jason will be in his 4th grade class.  I'm really happy since this will be a new school for Cameron.  After that we went to a near by farm where the kids can feed and hold animals as well as ride horses.  Tess was so happy to hold some guinea pigs and bunnies, but the highlight was her first horse ride.  She had a moment of shear terror and then settled in and loved it!  As we were looking at the pictures she was asking to go back...the funniest part was how excited Cameron and Jason were to play with the animals too!  Tess and I were ready to leave way before the boys.  They were making forts with the guinea pigs...and cracking up!!

I know I've said it before but we are so blessed by Tess's happy sweet personality!  She is really such a spunky giggly little girl!!  I am just loving every minute of it!!! (almost)

a beautiful quote...

"You will, in adopting this child, make the child your own.  Your life will swerve to meet the child's; the two of you will begin to develop in tandem, becoming different people than you would have been without each other."

playdough princess!!

I can't believe we've been home from Ethiopia for 1 month-it seems like 1 week.  I am so proud of Tess and how well she is doing.  Everyone who has met her comments on how self confident she is and how she just jumps into any situation.  She really tries to speak english and express herself.  We have left her with friends and at grandma's or aunt Jane's and she is always happy to stay.  She's eating almost everything!  We have really come a long way from just bananas, avocados and tortillas!!  We took her to Cameron's Football try outs and as usual she asked about herself..."Tess sport No?"  I asked her if she wanted a sport and she said yes...so we signed her up for soccer.  All the things I was holding back on , fearing it would be too much for her...forget it! She wants to do everything her brothers do and then some.  A month ago at the Sheraton in Addis, she was terrified to go into the pool.  She latched onto Christine's neck and wouldn't let go!  Flash forward a month and she jumps into the pool alone and puts her head under water and can do about 5 strokes!! She's almost swimming! She is so excited for school!  We drive by her school often and she always asks "school Tess going?"  And I re-assure her that "Yes, Tess is going to school in 7 days!"  We couldn't be happier with how far we've all come in a month!  

Are you the Jonas Brothers?

OK, so how funny is it that we get weekly calls asking if this is the house of the Jonas Brothers!!  (they are the new hot boy band for young  teen girls)  Bennett of course tells me to say yes and put him on the phone!!  The boys have been asked if the Jonas Brothers are our cousins...It's been funny, except for the phone call at 2am!! Not so funny!

Anyway, this is the last family picture we took before Christine left for school.  We're all adjusting nicely to her being gone...we speak to her 2-3 times a day but are all working on getting that down to 2-3 times a week.  She is having a ball. Went to her first frat party and loved it!! Too cute- takes me right back.  

Tess is so ready for school too, minus the frat party!  We went to drop off some forms at her school and she loved it.  She asks everyday to go to school!  She is doing great and has been really fun!  She has mastered the phone, the remote control and the DVD player!  She counted her shoes (4 pairs) and then Cameron's shoes (10 pairs-mostly hand me downs) and determined that she was getting ripped off...Came and got me and in her broken sign language told me 4 pairs were not enough and she needed more shoes...now that's a fast adjustment to American life!!  I'd say she's doing just fine!!

Christine is off to school!!

We have been in Dallas for 3 days getting Christine set up at SMU.  While we were thrilled with everything and so happy for her...it was really hard leaving her.  It was actually harder getting home to see her car parked out front and her room empty!!  It couldn't have been this hard on our parents-or we just weren't around to see how sad they were!   We are definitely sad.  Even the boys miss her!  I have peace knowing that she is happy and beginning an amazing chapter in her life...  and thank God for cell phones, texting and email!  How did our parents do it back when we didn't even have a phone in our dormroom!@#$%^&  Our family has definitely been through some big changes in the last month!  We are a bit off but I imagine God is working on us all to get things running smoothly again.  As I said in my best pep talk to Jeff " it's all good !!"  Even though there is a lot on our plate right now...they really are all good things that we are dealing with!!  Do I sound convinced??

We're getting the hang of it!!

We are finally getting the hang of being a "six pack"!!  It can be tough to find things to do that will be good for the little guys as well as Christine and Bennett.  We decided to take the kids up to L.A. overnight as a last family vacation before Christine goes off to college.  We rented bikes and rode from Marina del Rey thru Venice Beach to Santa Monica.  Jeff and Tess rode a tandem so she was able to just sit while Jeff peddled.  It was so much fun and worked out perfectly!  The boys loved it because they could stop and play on the various playgrounds along the ride that had some very cool things-like giant rings and rope climbs.  We had dinner at Jeff's favorite- BLT Steak- on Sunset.  The following morning we walked to the Santa Monica Pier where Tess had her first roller coaster ride.  She screamed bloody murder but loved it.  We laughed  hysterically!!

We are really beginning to get a sense of "normalcy" as a family.  Things have really settled down and Tess is really settling into life in a big family.  We had a great couple of days!

Forever Friends!!

I'm not sure if  you know why we changed our adoption from China to Ethiopia...meet Kidus!  He is a sweet, spunky little friend that lives around the corner from us and without even knowing it, changed our lives, especially Tess's, FOREVER!  A friend told me that there was a family around the corner that had just adopted a little boy.  Since we don't know too many people with babies anymore, I thought I should introduce myself so that the babies could be friends...It was march 10, 2008...

 Christy told me about their adoption process with CWA ( 7 months long). After waiting 2 1/2 years for China,   I decided to contact her agency and ask some questions. CWA  sent me a list of children in their 3 orphanages waiting for homes. The very next day... March 11,2009 I saw Tess's sweet face for the first time.  I was home alone, but when Jeff got home from work I sat him down and showed him her photo and asked what he thought about an older child...the rest is history...

So without even knowing it Kidus's sweet personality won us over and led us to Tess.  And we found forever friends in Christy, Brad, Justin (11), Ethan(7) and Kidus(almost 2).  The kids love to play together and having them so close is a blessing!  Tell me God didn't have a hand in this!! 

How do you communicate???

I think the question that I get asked the most is "How 's the communication going?  Tess is slowly getting enough english words to make herself understood...here are some examples...

"mommy going dogs Tess no?"  means "am I going for a walk with the dogs and is she staying home?  

"ice cream good no. ice cream house good yes"  means I don't like this ice cream, I like the one at home better

"mommy house going" means please stop running errands with me and take me home!!

"Cameron no Charlie house Tess no cameron going?" means why does Cameron get to go to CHarlies house and I don't!"

"daddy work no daddy house?" means when is daddy coming home from work.

"mommy-food" means I'm hungry

So some how I am really understanding most everything she says.  She has stopped talking to me in Amharic as I think she realized it was not working too well.  When she gets worked up though, it comes pouring out!  We just stand there listening, and thinking..."that's so cool!!"  She just gets frustrated.  She loves to answer the phone so if you call us, she will be the one answering! 

Devon, Tess and mom play dress-up

You gotta love little girls (and big girls too!!)  We just love to play dress up!  We played with some of my old wigs and Tess had a blast!  We just kept giggling and changing wigs.  Devon is Christine's best friend and we have to be together as often as we can until the girls leave for college!  Tess and I are going to miss them so much!  Bennett and Cameron are just not as fun to play dress up with!

Life in Southern California!!

Tess has come such a long way in 2 weeks!  The first time we went to the beach she waved her finger back and forth and said..."no, no, no" when it came to going in the water.  Now we have to take turns being in the water with her because she will literally be in for 3 hours straight.  She loves watching her brothers out on the surf boards and boogie boards and can't wait to join them!!  Everyday she asks ..."swimming, mommy?"

Summer fun !!!

Our cute boys!!

We are so proud of the boys!!  This has been a big adjustment for all of us.  They are really trying to figure things out and make Tess feel a part of the family...especially challenging for a 15 year old teenage boy!! (Some days I wonder if he has even noticed that there is a little african girl running around the house!!)   Every day gets a bit easier as Tess is learning more english and able to express herself better with them.  Thank God for the beaches and our friends pools because thats a universal language-FUN!  We love you boys and are blessed to be able to watch God work through you to help your little sister on her extraordinary journey.

Who needs SEAWORLD...

How funny is this... we went to PETCO to buy crickets for Cameron's Leopard Gecko.  Tess had never seen fish in a tank before and we ended up spending 40 minutes there looking at the fish.  She was amazed. She would tap the tank and screech when they would scatter.  She would just stand there staring and pointing and talking to me in Amharic.  I wish I knew what she was saying or asking!  Anyway, I decided I can save a lot of money by going to Petco instead of Seaworld or the San Diego Zoo.  We never even made it over to the bird or reptile section.  That will be next weeks  field trip!!

Family Meeting #1

What an incredible journey we are on...I knew it would take time but I did not know it would be this challenging.  What was I thinking-just business as usual? All of us are trying to find our new place in the family.... Tess is doing so well! It's the rest of us that seem a bit off.   

Tonight we had our first family meeting when Jeff got home from work.  We all sat around the family room and talked about how we feel so far, what we need to be praying for and how we can each  make sure we are having some special one on one bonding time with Tess.  Each day it seems everyone scatters into their own life- Bennett surfing at the beach, Cameron over at Danny's or Charlie's, Christine off saying her good-byes to her high school friends and Jeff off to work.  Tess and I are left to entertain each other.  We always do something fun, but we also end up running errands and grocery shopping and managing our old life-just with her in tow.  We decided we all needed to be a little more available to spend time with Tess and make her feel a part of our family.  Each one of us came up with 2 or three things that we could do everyday with Tess.  It was actually very heartwarming,  Jeff really made the kids understand that she was an orphan who has been through things we can not even imagine and that we need to live a bit more in her world and think about how she might be feeling.  Tess is just amazing. She sat through our family meeting not understanding a single word, but busily braiding  Christine's hair the whole time.  She is such a strong child with such a happy spirit.  Everyone tells us how lucky she is to have ended up in our family, but I think we are the lucky one's to have been blessed by her.

Sweet Christine!!

Saying things are an emotional whirlwind around here is an understatement...while we've all been so wrapped up in bringing Tess home, our sweet Christine has been busy packing her bags!!  Everyday I have to walk by the boxes and suitcases at the top of the steps that are ready to be shipped to SMU (Southern Methodist University in Dallas).   I'm trying to stay busy and not face the fact that my first baby is moving out!  I'm not sure what's more emotional-the one coming or the one going!!  No wonder I feel exhausted!!

...but I sleep soundly knowing what an amazing girl she is!  She has been pure JOY since day 1 .  She is just going to bloom at college and we are so very excited to watch it happen and be a part of it!!  I wish she was closer but I know this is the perfect place for her!! I love that God is with her and will be at her side the whole time we are not.  

God Bless you sweet Christine Jellybean!!  Now I need to go get a tissue...

A day at the Park

Tess was very excited to play at the park.  She opened her car door and went running!  Cameron has been the best big brother!! He has really taken her under his "wing".  We continue to struggle a  bit with communication and food...but all in good time.  Everything else is going very well.  She sleeps well and is great with her routine at home.  

Food is still a challenge as she doesn't go for the usual kid fare...french fries, burgers, pizza, pasta, cereal...all a no go!!  She does however roll bananas up in tortillas and devours them!!