It was really amazing to meet all the children in our House 2 House sponsorship program in Wonji and Adama… And to learn more about their communities and families. I hope you enjoy the pictures, and are inspired to sponsor a child too!  Read more…

When we were visiting our House 2 House families in Guder, we also met with two women, the secretary and treasurer from the local Sunrise Women’s Enterprise Association.  … It was awesome to see such enthusiastic young women taking leadership in their community to change their lives! Read more!

Mom and I just had a restful night in Seattle and we are on our way
this morning to Ethiopia. In case you are wondering about the picture
above, that is the only way I can sleep in the same room with my mother!
And I thought you would find it amusing. T left a day before us,
routed through China. We are both reminiscing about our last trip to
Ethiopia together and how different this one is. We have four huge
checked bags full of donations – thank you to everybody who donated
medicine, toys, toothbrushes and shoes! And Tawnya had a huge bag as
well, including the laptop we scored for Faya Orphanage from BC Tree
Fruits.

I think all of us have different goals for this trip. T said
she’s looking forward to meeting all the people she’s been working with
over email for the last 2 years. Mom is looking forward to meeting the
kids and their guardians in the House 2 House program. As our update
lady, she knows all their faces, but she is looking forward to seeing
their smiles in person. She is also very interested to meet the
guardians of the kids… She says that they are the real heroes in our
program, taking care of vulnerable children who are often extended
family. Mom says they deserve our respect and she’s excited about
meeting them, especially the grandmother who takes care of the little
boy she sponsors. Of course we both have personal goals for the trip,
but that’s another story.

As for me, I think I’m really happy about meeting with our Ethiopian
partners and figuring out so many details that are hard to explain while
on the phone. I’m looking forward to meeting the government officials
and the folks at the HIV clinic who refer our families, checking in with
the families and seeing what their needs are, and really understanding
the whole system. We’re also doing exploratory work on this trip- we’ve
been thinking of starting other programs like micro finance and small
plot gardening, and I’m very interested in hearing from the families
what they think would be most beneficial to break them out of the
poverty cycle and enable them to care for their families self
sufficiently. The other goal for the trip is to work out kinks with our
updates and to figure out some more Vulnerable Children oversight and
engagement measures as our projects and activities continue to grow.
We’re considering hiring a (very) part time administrator in Ethiopia,
and have candidate interviews planned for next week.

Well, we’re now off to the airport. We should be arriving in Addis Ababa tomorrow.

Thanks for following along! Read more about Vulnerable Children

Nicky

Grandpa enjoys some injera

4 days to go?!?!? Where has the time gone? And I am SO not ready…

It’s the worst season of the whole year at work, I’m single-parenting for a month, we had 4 surprise dentist visits and a surprise $1500 brake job on the truck this week…. etc, etc… and I admit – I’ve been completely overwhelmed. So much that I had a good cry on the phone to my mom on Saturday. Then she saved the day by coming on the bus Sunday morning from Creston (and my dad came from Vancouver where he was working) and they helped me out for the last 2 days. Now I’m only 1 day behind, and not three!! thank goodness!!!

Tonight when I ran over to my friend M’s house to get her to stick me with my Twinrix shot (she’s a nurse) and pick up stuff for her family in Ethiopia, she surprised us with some supper for the night. Yeah! I may be swamped, but I am sure looking forward to the trip!!

Now enough “free time” – I’d better get back to work! Be sure to start visiting the Vulnerable Children Society blog on Sunday, as I’ll be blogging there throughout our trip!

Spice recuperating from the second of four dentist visits this week. That DOES mean 4 milkshakes, on the plus side.

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My permanent post in from of the computer, trying to get everything ready!!!

Jrock is having a lovely time – a blissfully laid-back working holiday on Haida Gwaii. (In the meanwhile back here I’m barely sleeping, but am I resentful????…. No…. – but jealous for sure!)

Actually, today he said he’s getting a little bored. He isn’t used to the extremely laid back pace. But he has gone on some adventures and I think you’ll enjoy seeing some of the pictures he sends his girls each day. He’s caught fish, eaten hotdogs, hiking out to a shipwreck… I hope we get to go next time!

We spent 3 days at Easter up in Prince George, visiting my best friend S, her husband T and their little daughters. The daughters names are also S and T - which could get confusing. So from here on out, I’ll refer to them as Mac and Cheese.

I was reminiscing during our visit – although only 22 months old, Mac and Cheese are the same size (weight and shoe size, anyway) as our girls were when we brought them home just short of their third birthday. So little! So packable!

Sugar and Spice were apparently reminiscing as well, since they turned from independent 5.5 year olds who can make their won breakfast and get ready for school, into helpless children who needed mommy to put their pants on. But whatever. With Jock gone, I’ve spent a lot of my time at home with them ignoring them and trying to get my work done, so it was a chance to coddle, nurture and lovey-dove them up for a few days.

We went to the local science centre as well as to a friend of S&T’s for an Easter egg hunt, but the highlight was definitely just hanging out and catching up.

Funny, I could tell the girls apart right away, even though I hadn’t seen them since last summer… and didn’t mix them up once! Must be a mom-of-twins thing However, I may have mixed them up in the pictures… the chick pic, I can’t remember who was wearing what, and I can’t see her face! lol

Enjoy the pictures!

When Jrock and I were first deciding to adopt, we, as many adoption newbies, considered open adoption as a threat to our new family. We didn’t chose Ethiopia because of its distance away – but we definitely bought into the idea of orphaned children with no familial ties and only a vague possibility of living birth family. Of course, adoption is full of surprises, and our daughters have a vast contingent of living, breathing family members in Ethiopia… and we are so lucky and blessed to have an open adoption with our daughters’ Ethiopian family. What scared us as soon-to-be adoptive parents, now, is the greatest gift for our daughters: family and connections.

To many of our readers who know us offline, this isn’t exactly a shocker. But I rarely, if ever, have posted anything about our daughter’s family on this blog. So it may surprise you that I’m writing about preparing to meet with them next month, as I take a couple days aside out of my trip for Vulnerable Children.

Jrock and I have been very protective around our daughters’ connections and past history. We pretty much only share it with a small circle of family… our parents, siblings and two close friends, who for individual reasons, are excellent professional resources. For now, until the girls are much older and can understand the implications of what they share, their Ethiopian family’s details are part of our private family. However, I can certainly share about my process as an adoptive mom preparing for our upcoming visit.

We have what I call a mediated relationship – we don’t just call each other up on the phone. Of course there are language and technical barriers on the way. But we frequently send pictures and letters to the girls’ family, and we know that they get these updates on a regular basis. Occasionally we get pictures back but there is little information, and our girls need more. They are asking for more.

Jrock and I had a chance to meet with our daughters’ family a couple of times in Ethiopia three years ago. The meetings were awkward and wonderful and horrible all at the same time. Realistically, I should expect the same for this trip. But the optimist in me hopes differently. I hope that the family we’ve met before will recognize me and know that we’ve made good on our promises. I’m looking forward to them meeting my mom, as I think she automatically will be welcomed as an elder. My bags will be full of trinkets from Sugar and Spice for their extended young family members. We hope to capture pictures and videos of the family in action, and carry back tidbits of information that the girls ask about all the time. I hope we get some questions answered, and hope to bring lots of stories home. Most importantly, I hope to set up a mailbox and buy a bunch of stamps and envelopes so that they can receive and send letters and pictures to my girls, and our communication becomes easier.

We’re not starting from scratch, but I hope we can pick up a few pieces and find a few missing links.

I’m now trying to prepare for the trip (donations, vaccinations, etc.) but part of that preparation is getting the girls up to speed. I’m so excited myself, it’s hard not to get them revved up! but I also keep saying “IF we can meet so and so, I will ask…” “IF I meet so and so, I will give them these photos…” I don’t know if I’m managing to control their expectations or not. I hope so, but suspect not. We’re all too excited.

As for myself, it all will be a gift. The time with our Ethiopian family will be a gift I will live with my mom, covet in my heart, and share a million-fold with my girls and my husband. And hopefully soon, the girls will be able to go themselves and make those connections in person.

In the meanwhile, I have 10 photo albums to print, teeny gifts to buy with the girls, and adult gifts to puzzle over. (What can I bring from Canada that will be culturally appropriate, fit for a family visit, but not be construed as flaunting my wealth???)

I spent an hour the other day in Superstore worrying about skirt lengths and head scarves, wanting to make a favorable impression. Because, you see – these people, some of whom I have met, are my family too. Or, rather, I feel like they are my daughters’ family but I want them to be mine too. I want to be accepted like I am in my Canadian Ethiopian community… I want to “fit in.” I guess if I feel like I belong, then the pieces will align and all of us will belong together – not just our daughters belonging to us and our daughters belonging to them. But all of us – together.

I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

FAQ: I haven’t used any kind of birth family finding service, so I can’t help any of you with this. Because we traveled to Ethiopia during the bankruptcy, we met directly with our family and have direct connections still.

My parents sent me some pictures of the girls’ recent visit after I left, and I thought you would enjoy the pictures too!

We had a lovely time in Creston – I had to leave early to get back to work, but here are some of the pictures from our visit at the grandparents’. My sister and her husband came out to see us, and we even drove one evening to see some old friends (from Ethiopia!) in Cranbrook.