First Father's Day, hearing test, bbq party

It's been a busy couple of weeks for little Miss Netsanet! We went out with both sides of the family for dinner at a restaurant and Net was able to visit with her cousin Elizabeth. They took turns pounding and sliming the glass door that separated our area from the rest of the restaurant (I'm sure the restaurant staff loved cleaning layers of small handprints and drool off the lower 3 feet of the glass later that night ;-) Net did pretty well and didn't have a vomit explosion like last time - progress! It was fun to get together with the family, and to see the babies play together. Elizabeth took her first steps by herself at the dinner, which was a big moment!

This past weekend we took Netsanet to get her hearing tested, at the recommendation of the doctor (standard routine stuff, apparently). We sat in a quiet room where they taught her that the funny noise coincides with a dancing toy that lights up - which is how she learns to look for the noise, and they can tell that she is hearing something. It's really interesting to see how they have adapted vision and hearing tests for babies - I never would have guessed! Her hearing is all within normal range, which was great to know. It was interesting to see her reaction when we walked into the hospital, though. She got quiet and withdrawn, which means she's uncomfortable. I think she recognized that this is similar to the doctor's office where they stick all those needles in her legs. She ended up having a good time, though - no needles this time!

On Sunday we took Net to her first large gathering - my nephew was graduating from high school and all his family members were there (probably about 30 people). Net was a star at the party, and there were tons of kids around. She absolutely loves kids and babies and seemed so happy when she was surrounded by a group of little girls. She played with all the kids and they blew bubbles for her and Elizabeth. She sat in the grass for a while, and got licked by a puppy (loved that!). She missed her afternoon nap and was a little loopy by the time we left, but she had a great time.

At home, she's starting to walk with some help and she is ecstatic about her jumper toy that our neighbors loaned to us. Her little legs are getting so strong! She hasn't progressed to crawling, and I think she might be more interested in learning to walk than learning to crawl. She rolls very quickly, but gets frustrated when she can't follow us out of the room. In Ethiopia, they teach babies to walk and not many get around to crawling, so she might just do the same.

I'll be starting my leave at home with her in 2 weeks. I'm really looking forward to getting out in the sunshine with her, but I'm not wearing rose colored glasses - I know this is going to be exhausting, even while it's fun :) Spending two weeks at home with her when we got back from Ethiopia taught me that she needs to keep a schedule every day, and my back will hurt from carrying her. Ken will have the car at work, so our mobility will depend on walking and the bus. We'll still have fun, though!

First post-placement visit and a photo shoot

On Friday we had our first post-placement visit from WACAP. Three of these are required - one at 3 months, one at 6 months, and one at a year after Netsanet has been with us. The agency asks questions about her doctor visits, her growth, her milestones, her daily schedule, whether she has had any big social events, and how she is bonding to us. Net did pretty well and went down for a nap part way through the visit. It was fun to put together her medical information and show how proud we are of all her growth and development since she came home :)

Once the 6-month post-placement visit is complete, then we can start the process to re-adopt Net here in the US. We need to do that before we can get her citizenship, SSN card, etc. We'll need to get an attorney for the process, so WACAP advised that we start looking into that soon.

On Saturday we went with Netsanet's cousin Elizabeth and her mom and my mom to get portraits taken of the girls together. They are 11 days apart in age, and it was really fun to get photos of them together. Net was a natural and smiled her wonderful smile for the photographer every time! I was impressed at how the photographer would play with the girls to get them to smile, and all the pictures turned out beautifully. Net really enjoyed hanging out with her cousin, and they took turns slobbering on each others' toys and grabbing faces. The waiting before and after the photo shoot was difficult though, since it was hot and there was nowhere to sit. We stripped the babies down to onesies and leggings after the pictures so they would be more comfortable. I think next time we might try another photo studio (this one was kiddie kandids at Babies R Us - the name alone is enough to make me try a different one ;-)

New phases, new faces

I just posted some pictures of Laura, Paneal and Eyu on here, after Laura said it was ok. Paneal and Eyu are two of Netsanet's adoption buddies who came home at the same time we did. Paneal and Net especially enjoyed playing with each other in Addis, and Net was absolutely riveted by both her and Eyu whenever we were all together. It was so fun to see them again, and wonderful to see how well the kids are adjusting to their new loving home with Laura!

Net had some reaction to her immunizations on Friday, but not as bad as before. A little fever, a little out of it for the rest of the day, some fitful sleeping and constipation but at least no vomiting or itchy welts. She's such a strong little person - very resilient and doesn't complain much. She's getting very vocal and lets us know when she doesn't like something, but she doesn't go on and on - she's happy enough to be distracted by her entertaining parents (especially Dad!)

Yesterday she tried out some solid foods in the high chair. She's gotten used to me feeding her bits off my finger during our meal times, but we're trying to get her to grab items and feed herself. She got the hang of it quickly with a cracker, and then tried some cheerios herself, and various items with our help. She tried cheese, avocado, banana, fig newtons, and cheerios last night. We tried a bit of yoghurt, but we're nervous about her throwing up after her miserable bout with cow's milk in Ethiopia. She seems to do fine with cheese, but made a nausea face with the yoghurt. Oh well, we'll keep trying with other stuff. She was considerably less angry about the food bits than the oatmeal cereal, so that's a good step forward :)

She's on the charts...

Well, we had the little bear's 9-month appointment at the doctor this morning, and she's had exponential growth in the last 2 months! She's now in the 10th percentile for height and weight, and the 25th for head circumference. (16 pounds, 26" long, and 17" head circumference) It's so good to hear that, since at her 7-month appointment she was off the bottom of the same growth charts (9.8 pounds and about 24" long). Hard to believe this little one has grown so quickly! The doctor was highly impressed and said she's never seen a growth chart that climbed so fast :)

The appointment wasn't all fun and games, though, since she had to get her second set of vaccinations. Poor baby cries so hard when those needles go into her thighs - it's so sad. Hopefully she doesn't get the same reactions she did last time (itchy welts, fever, throwing up, etc)... at least this visit didn't involve blood draw like the last one.

Two full teeth are visible on the bottom front of her grin, and I think the top ones may soon make an appearance. She teeths on anything that will sit still long enough, and is completely in love with orajel (we may have to seek a support group for her soon... ;-)

She's rolling back and forth and doing a bit of a sloppy commando-crawl, but not quite crawling yet. I think it will probably happen in the next couple of months, though. The doctor also advised trying more solid foods, so we're going to see if we can get her to eat without an anger fit (crying, yelling, and all foods/bowl/utensils end up thrown on the floor)... should be 'interesting.'

Last weekend we took a short trip to eastern Washington to visit some of her adoption buddies from Ethiopia. We wanted to see them, and see how she would do sleeping over night in a strange place. She did fairly well, although she's entering the 'stranger anxiety' phase where she doesn't want anyone else to hold her, and doesn't want Mom and Dad out of her sight at all. From what I understand, that's pretty normal for 9 months and a good sign that she has bonded to us well.

It was great to see the adoption friends, and we brought the kids some Ethiopian food from the restaurant and store near our house. They loved it, so next time we're going to bring a lot more :) Net did pretty well with all the driving, but got crabby and 'expressive' after about 2 hours in the car seat. Next time I think we'll try to leave earlier in the day and minimize the driving in one day (we did about 6 hours the first day, which I think was too much). We'd like to get her used to the idea of going other places overnight, since we both enjoy traveling.

Rolling on to 9 months....

This little girl changes every day... her latest thing is growling at things when she's trying to learn how to make them work. Ken refers to her as 'the little bear.' Tooth number 2 looks like it's pretty close to making an appearance as well, so that might be part of the growling. Ken is enjoying staying home with his little bear, and I'm missing both of them while I'm at work every day. Last week we took her to Seward Park and walked around it, next to Lake Washington. She was mildly interested in all the water, but more interested in all the people on the trail.

We're not sure how much weight she's gained, but we're guessing she's probably around 15 pounds now. She has a doctor appointment and an eye appointment at the end of the month (hopefully no more shots at the doctor!)...

Her hair is coming in nicely, after the last haircut they gave her at the orphanage. It's curly on top and on the sides, and straight in other areas - it will be interesting to see how it looks as it grows longer!

In two weeks we are going to visit some of the other people we went to Ethiopia with. It will be her first overnight trip since we got home, so fingers crossed that she sleeps ok in her travel crib. It will be a little test to see how well she does away from home, and then maybe we can try some more short trips. We're really looking forward to seeing our adoption buddies again, too!

Growing growing growing!

This little girl is growing so quickly! It's hard to believe it's only been a month. She cut her first tooth two days ago, and is teething like a madwoman. She's rolling all over the floor and starting to scoot herself around. She's pushing up her legs like she wants to crawl, but hasn't quite got the front end figured out (so sort of ends up pushing herself on her face)... She has outgrown all of her footie sleepers, but still fits most of her onesies, so I think a lot of the growth is in her legs. (Although there's a fair amount in the belly, and around her cheeks and chin! - VERY cute :) She's gotten quite muscular, and has the attitude to match her new strength. This is not the passive little baby we met at Bete Saida! She makes hilarious new sounds every day and is always figuring things out and is not afraid to let you know what she likes and what she doesn't.

She's sleeping and eating on a regular basis, and it's great to see her adjusting so well. She loves going for walks, and continues to enjoy meeting new people. She definitely keeps her parents busy... such a fun little person to raise! Now I must run, since it's time to serve the queen ;-)

Sorry for the lack of updates!

Well, unfortunately I wasn't able to update this blog while we were in Ethiopia. When I could find a working computer with both power and internet service (roaming power blackouts and lack of internet cafes made this difficult), I couldn't access the blog website. I heard through word of mouth that others have had trouble accessing blogs in other countries, so who knows....

Anyway, a quick recap of our trip: it was a very difficult week, since both Netsanet and Ken were very sick with stomach things and each had to visit hospitals while we were there. If nothing else, I got a great overview of the Ethiopian medical system (knowledgeable staff, kind people, lacking a lot of fancy medical stuff like call buttons, but very inexpensive to visit). It cost 10 birr (about $1) for Ken to visit a doctor while we were there for 15 minutes, and 200 birr (about $20) for Netsanet to spend 6 hours getting rehydrated through an IV. The medical folks were very kind and accommodating, and spoke English pretty well (much better than my Amharic!). Laura, one of the adopting parents in our party, came with me to the hospital with Netsanet, since Ken was too sick to leave his bed. She is a registered nurse and was at one time a pediatric nurse, so it was a HUGE relief to have her along. She was able to tell that everything was sterile and adequate for Net, even if the facilities were lacking some medical supplies that might be normal here in the US.

The buildings were interesting - all marble floors and great stonework, but somewhat run down and obviously lacking funds for the last 40 years or so (understandable, given the wars and such that have gone on). The hospital I took Netsanet to was a women and children's hospital that was about 6 stories tall with no elevator. When we went in, a woman was in labor on the ground floor. A half hour later, Laura went downstairs in time to see her being walked up the stairs to her room right after giving birth. Tough lady!

Aside from medical experiences, most of what I saw included the grounds of the Ghion hotel where we stayed, and some parts of the City viewed from the minibus we rode around in. We had to spend parts of two days visiting the American embassy, and another two days at the German embassy (since Netsanet and we were flying through a German airport on the way home, so she needed a visa - grrrr!!!!).

With those outings, and the first two days spent mostly at the orphanages, we didn't have much time to do anything else. When I did have the opportunity to spend an afternoon shopping, Netsanet and Ken were both so sick that I couldn't leave the hotel room. On the last day, I was able to get in a 15-minute shopping trip to a "government store" that carried a lot of local crafts and jewelry.

Overall, people in Addis were very kind and sweet, and all stunningly gorgeous. I had heard that Ethiopian folks are generally beautiful, but it was an entirely different thing to be in a city overflowing with naturally gorgeous people. (I felt like a tired, fuzzy, huge, pasty frump, in contrast :) The city also seemed really safe and interesting. Women and men are always walking on every street, with women walking alone everywhere even at night. I would have felt quite safe exploring if I hadn't been so exhausted and busy with my sick family members.

The Ghion hotel includes large grounds with lush landscaping, and I spent some time walking with Netsanet in the carrier around the gardens. She would only stop crying when I walked and bounced her, so this was a good solution when I had energy. (but not much energy due to lack of sleep and lack of food!)

The weather was great - about 85 degrees and sunny most of the time. It did rain one day, with a pretty good downpour. Our driver said this was the first time it had rained in 8 months, which is normal (the rainy season is in the summer, with dry days most of the rest of the year). In spite of little rain, all of Addis is quite green and looks somewhat tropical. Trees and bushes were in flower everywhere - Acacia trees, bougainvillea, etc. When one was not in the traffic areas, the air felt really pleasant and not too polluted.

When one was stuck in traffic, it could be a pretty unpleasant experience (we unfortunately spent a lot of time in traffic, due to all the embassy and airline office visits). All vehicles appear to be diesel powered, with little or no emissions restrictions. A lot of the city is hilly, so when you are going uphill every vehicle belches black acrid smoke. After a day of this, your eyes and lungs burn.

The urban planner in me noticed the dichotomy of the city - some really new upper-end development happening in certain areas, with a lot of new taller buildings and fancy single family houses. In other areas of the city, you find 1950-1960's 10-story apartment buildings that are kind of run down. In many areas of the city, you find a lot of one-story corrugated tin shacks or worse, with a lot of obvious poverty. In some areas of the city, a lot of beggars will approach car windows of any car at a stoplight - it's heart breaking to see such obvious poverty and people with no other options for survival. I never felt unsafe in any part of the city, though. People stare very directly, but are really sweet and smile back if you say 'selam.'

Ethiopian folks seemed very kind and relaxed in general. People speak very quietly, but are social and affectionate with each other. You regularly see friends holding hands or putting their arms around each other while walking down the street (males and females alike, although couples don't show physical affection in public). I would have loved to gotten out more and tried out my bad Amharic on some potential new friends. Well, maybe next time...

We visited three orphanages while we were there, which was very very hard. One was Netsanet's orphanage. Another was the orphanage where Laura's two little ones were. A third was an orphanage that WACAP (our adoption agency) was considering working with. Each orphanage was clean and organized, and the kids appeared to be well cared-for, considering the lack of funds and busy staff. There were about 30-40 kids in each one, with about 5 nannies at each one. Each included babies and older kids (up to pre-teen age, it seemed). The babies and kids were all amazing - beautiful and sweet, intelligent, and great little personalities. The babies were two or three to a crib and mostly appeared to be fed from bottles propped on pillows. They appeared to get held at least some of the time and played with. The older kids would play together in groups in the yard areas, with great clapping and singing games, or a rather sad game of soccer with a deflated well-loved ball. So many wonderful kids; it was really hard to know that we couldn't take them all home with us. It felt really helpless, but we were still glad to have met them.

The flights there and back were brutal. For anyone considering this long of a flight (30 hours total flight and airport time), I STRONGLY recommend breaking it into pieces, if possible. If I did it again, I would fly from here to the east coast and spend a couple days sightseeing, then east coast to Europe and spend a few more days sightseeing, then Europe to Addis. Each flight is then only about 8-9 hours. It would also help with the jet lag - Addis is 10 hours ahead of Seattle, so you feel like night is day and day is night. Very confusing and exhausting.

Netsanet did pretty well on the first two flights back and slept (Addis to Khartoum, Khartoum to Frankfurt) and then screamed most of the 10 hour flight from Frankfurt to Portland. We had a bassinet for her in the bulkhead seat, but she needed to be bounced and rocked to keep her from crying. That was a rough flight, but c'est la vie! My parents picked us up in Portland to save us the last leg of flying, which was great. Our plane was an hour late, and given the time needed to cross customs and immigration, we would have missed our last flight. Immigration was good, though, in spite of having to go over Netsanet's paperwork. It only took about 45 minutes total and the people were really nice - what a relief!

Two days after we got home Netsanet stopped crying and now sleeps through the night (ahhhhh....). She has gained over two pounds since her low point of the hospital visit in Addis (now up to 11 pounds 15 oz!) and is getting a fantastic little tummy and cheeks. She was dehydrated and underfed when we got her, since we suspect she has a milk allergy and all they had for the babies was cow's milk (served so hot it was almost boiling, but most of them loved it). She didn't thrive on it, though, since she threw up almost every time she ate. We got her onto soy formula and she is growing at a fantastic rate now :) It's so satisfying to see her looking healthy and well-fed. She's a smiley little girl, and very social. She enjoys getting out every day and meeting new people and going for walks. Every day she gets more active and starts doing some funny new thing. She's not crawling yet, but is squirming and scooting, so it probably won't be long. She can stand up with support, and sit for a little while. She doesn't have teeth yet, but is teething like crazy so we'll probably see those soon. It's going to be a lot of fun to watch her grow up!!!

Traveling tomorrow!

Tomorrow morning we leave our house before the crack of dawn to go meet our daughter! The airlines now say that you need to check in 3 hours before international flights. Everyone says, "don't worry, you can be there 90 minutes early and it will be fine!" But, we're worry warts and we have three legs to our trip, each with a plane change. I'd rather sit around for a while, instead of trying to run down the concourse to reach the plane in time. So, that means that unfortunately we'll have to leave our house at 4:30am to get to the airport 3 hours ahead of our 8am flight. Ugh.

We've been completely nervous the last few days. I can't sleep and I keep waking up around 4:30-5am. Yesterday I made sure that we have all the supplies packed, and at least a few clothes for us. We're bringing one large suitcases and two small suitcases, as well as maybe a large suitcase of donations for WACAP if they have a bag ready to go. We could fit everything for Ken and I into one of the small rolling suitcases. The large suitcase and small suitcase are filled with everything for Netsanet that we need or might need, including diapers, formula, variety of clothing sizes, few small toys, baby shampoo, diaper wipes, baby cold medication, and a whole variety of prescriptions in case she has any number of ailments. It's shocking how much stuff one small body could require! We'll be able to leave whatever we don't use with the orphanage, and she'll use up diapers and formula while we're there. So, we'll be traveling lighter on the way home, assuming we don't buy a ton of souvenirs (I doubt there will be much time for shopping!).

This weekend we met some neighbors who have also adopted children from Ethiopia. They came back recently, so were able to give us some great tips and just tell us about the experience in general. I think it's going to be interesting to see Addis, but I think we're going to have a hard time with all the poverty there. Ken and I have soft hearts (Ken's even worse than me), and that's going to be a tough one for us. This is our first trip to a developing nation...

I think it will also be fascinating to see the city and evidence of all the history there. Addis is a relatively young city for Ethiopia (est 1887) and yet there will still be so many interesting things to see. I hope we also have the opportunity to go outside of Addis for a day and see the countryside. Our first priority will obviously be meeting Netsanet and getting through the embassy process and all that, and then we'll see if there's time left to be tourists. If not, we'll know what we want to see on the next trip!

I've been trying to learn a little Amharic before we go and I think I have the hang of at least a few words. Once we get there, though, I'm sure I'll feel completely lost! We'll have a translator for at least some of the time, but I think it's still polite to know at least a little of the language (and a good ice-breaker, since you and others can laugh at your awful accent). It's an interesting language - semitic background, similar to Arabic or Aramaic. The sounds can be difficult, since there are a lot of syllables strung together in a way that's difficult for my mouth to say. Many of the words are also very long. I'm sure I'll mess up, but I'm willing to try!

Amharic is one of several languages spoken in Ethiopia (others include Tigrinya and Oromo...), but Amharic is the primary one spoken in Addis and the one spoken by officials. Since that is the area and group of folks we'll be interacting with the most, I chose that one to try out. Netsanet's name is also Amharic, apparently, so it may be the ethnic group of her birth family.

"Netsanet" means "freedom" in Amharic... we hope to find out if her birth mother named her, or someone else. We decided to keep her name because it will give her some connection to her time before she came to us, and freedom is a beautiful idea...

Four days to go...

Well, I swore I wasn't going to post our life on the internet for all to see, but here we are. I'm creating this in hope that we will be able to access internet while we're in Addis next week...

We will be traveling to Addis to meet and bring home Netsanet, who will be 7 months old when we return. She is the most precious thing we have ever seen. It's hard to imagine how you can love someone so much, even though you have never met her in person. It's overwhelming!

Ken and I chose to adopt a baby and started the process in 2006. In 2007, our agency (WACAP) announced that they were about to offer adoptions through Ethiopia, too. Because we live in an area of Seattle with a large Ethiopian community, we were really excited. We jumped at the chance, and put in our application by the end of summer. WACAP had to pass through four government ministries in Ethiopia for approval, and they thought that might happen by the end of September. It took a little longer, and they got their approval in mid-October. In the end of October, two folks from WACAP went to visit the orphanages in Addis Ababa (the capital of Ethiopia) that they would be working with initially.

While they were visiting these two orphanages, they found that three referrals (term for matching a baby with a family) were already lined up. Since we were one of the first three to apply for the program through WACAP, we were matched up with a gorgeous baby girl, Netsanet. We were so lucky that WACAP was able to visit the orhpanage at the time of referral, since they took a 5-minute movie clip of her in addition to the pictures. Ken and I have probably watched that movie clip about 4,000 times already!

Meanwhile, back in Seattle, WACAP told us a few more things had to happen with our paperwork before it went off to Ethiopia. We understood that once the paperwork reached Ethiopia, it would sit in a pile until we were eventually matched up with a child. So, we thought we weren't even in the official "line" in Ethiopia yet when WACAP called us with the referral for Netsanet on December 19, 2007. We were so surprised! It was great timing, though, since we were able to tell our families the good news on Christmas Eve when they came for dinner :)

Once we completed the official acceptance of the referral for Netsanet, then it was time to wait for our approval to travel. I have never in my life had time crawl so slowly as it has for the last three months. Every day felt like a week. Finally, finally, we got notice to travel on March 10th. We bought our tickets, and we will be on our way to meet Netsanet on March 25.

We will fly from here to Chicago, Chicago to Frankfurt, and Frankfurt to Addis (total time of about 27 hours). We'll reach Addis at 9pm on March 26 and go to our hotel, the Ghion. We're staying in one of the bungalows (see interactive Addis map to the left). We'll go to meet Netsanet the next morning on March 27! We will likely go to the orphanage to hang out with her and learn from her caregivers about her feeding/sleeping/etc habits before we take her back to the hotel on Saturday. On Monday the 31st, we will have the immigration interview at the American Embassy for Netsanet's visa. At some point we may or may not get to meet Netsanet's birth family (we're hoping, but the latest news says it might not be possible). On Friday, April 4, we may travel home. This schedule is all up in the air, since this is WACAP's first time with Ethiopia adoptions and they're not completely certain how it will go.

Two other families and two representatives from WACAP will be traveling with us, so we won't be on our own! There is also a representative for WACAP in Ethiopia and he will arrange for transportation, translators, the hotel reservation, etc.

Preparation for the trip included 7 innoculations, tons of paperwork, getting visas for us from the Ethiopian embassy, and a huge shopping trip for diapers, formula, medication, etc etc. I've called our banks to let them know we'll be using cards there, and we're bringing cash in case the cards don't work. We're trying to travel light, although one huge suitcase is for Net and all the things she may need. We plan to just leave anything we don't need/use with the orphanage for the other little ones. We are also bringing a donation bag from WACAP for the orphanage, since we're allowed 2-50 pound bags each. We'll have Net on the way back, but our luggage should be a lot lighter... we're not bringing a stroller for her, just a variety of slings/carriers.

Oh, so much to do before we leave!!! Here's hoping for a smooth trip!