My 2 Ethiopian Girls: February 2009

Saturday, February 28, 2009

I'm Coming To L.A. area ...

Leaving today for Los Angeles. Bringing Brandon who will do E-school with his laptop and Tigist who will probably distract him from doing school.

I'm staying with my friend in Huntington Beach, Shere', who adopted a beautiful baby girl from Vietnam. Her son does school on the internet as well, so that'll work out great. We'll probably hop around from place to place, but I really want to see my friend of 35 years who is trying to get better right now in the hosptital. She's been fighting pancreatic cancer now for over 10 years and it's really giving her a hard time right now ... she'll hate it that I'm coming, but I just want to see her and have her meet my new daughter too. Sorry Debbie ... I'm coming anyway. Can't stop me now!

I haven't told anybody I'm coming yet, but I'll have time at the airport and when I arrive.

Bye for now... will post pics and I can't wait for Tigist's family to meet her.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Caren comes to meet Tigist!

My friend from choir who moved to Texas before Tigist came home, was dying to meet Tigist. It was really great to catch up with her ...

Her hair is getting longer and I can do a little more with it. It's fun to decide what to do with her hair each day ...

Evan turns 12!

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y . . . E V A N!

Evan celebrated his 12th birthday by becoming the owner of an electric motorcyle. He is so excited. He paid half and we paid th eother half. He had a friend, Brandon, with him to go to the movies and then have a celebration back home until 10:30pm.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream. Mom's watching her weight and I have to go and purchase this amazing cake and I didn't have a bite. How hard was that? Haaaaaaard!!

Brandon O. and Evan

I must love him very much to have to go out and buy this and not getting to have any. But hey, this was NOT about me, right?

A little Rock Band gig...

Tiggy has fun all day long with Evan's spongebob balloons. She calls him "jumjob"

She loooOOves balloons!

Rock Band jam

Evan's new birthday gift. An electric bike.

Random Pictures and Stuff

Just a few pictures that I've not posted over the past few months.....

Evan thought his face looked funny hanging upside down.

Aman (Tigist's boyfriend) and his Dad Mesfin sharing pictures.

This is our friend's (Genet) Mother ... we call her Amaye (Mother in Amharic). We don't share any language, but we've shared laughs, smiles and food!

There was something about seeing Tigist on her lap that takes me back to Addis Ababa and what it would feel like to have Tigist on her real Grandma's lap... I just love this lady.

Exchanging conversation ...

Aman loves to kiss and hug Tigist

kisses and hugs

Momo time

Although Brandon is only 13, David let him drive a mile up and back. David and he went on this men's retreat (Brandon served and worked in the kitchen) and David saw this stretch of dirt road amoungst this forest area and had this bright idea of letting him take the wheel ... alone!?

A day to remember ...

This is our food court in the mall that we frequent near our home ... Park Meadows

David's Men's Retreat 2008

A park near our home

Tigi (she calls herself this ... pronounced TeeGee) holding hands with 2 of her most favorite people.

I just love seeing them together like this!

Welcome to our Site ... This is our Journey of our Adoption from Africa and our Life in Denver.

This journal (blog) is about adoption, our change of life from California to Denver and our little girl who we have adopted from Ethiopia. Our daughter came home to us after 9 months of tons of paperwork and she has come home to us on August 18th, 2008.

I highly encourage you to post comments at the end of any post if you'd like. I update every few days, so sign up to be emailed each time I post something new. It's a great way to keep updated.

So far, this has been an amazing journey. The adoption process is more "stuff" than you can imagine leading to what has been an incredible change in our lives. This journal is from my heart to you the reader and to our daughter whom we just recently met. It is also dedicated to the biological parents of our adopted girl who may or may not be alive. I do know that Tigist was placed in a safe place to be found by police, who then took her to an orphanage. In doing so, they saved her life! I applaud her Mother and/or Father's courage in the decision to offer their child a life full of opportunity. They decided to put her up for adoption by relinquishing her in such a way. This is such a touchy subject, yet very personal to both the biological parents and us. We will always honor them in the lives of our daughter...they will never be forgotten! That....I can promise.

Where we are in the adoption process....

We picked Tigist up in Addis Ababa August 9th, 2008. She is home, healthy and very happy!

We passed court on June 23rd 2008, traveled on July 31st, met Tigist on August 9th, and arrived home on August 18th.

What has changed is that we are not adopting two girls, which is what we started out attempting to do, but ended up with one amazing little 2 yr. old. Just another reminder how this process can be so unpredictable.

Why does our blog title says 2 girls...well, we sponsor a very sweet 12 year old girl in Ethiopia and have adopted another. So even though we weren't referred 2 girls as was the plan, the title coincidentally still applies to Our 2 Ethiopian Girls! One here, one there! We eagerly await the letters and pictures Fatuma sends us and we send letters and photos too.

The meaning of the Ethiopian flag

(adapted from a Yahoo group web posting and Unicef-Ethiopia)

Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world, and the only African country that has no history of colonization. Upon their independence, many African countries adopted the colors of the Ethiopian flag - green, yellow and red - that became known as the Pan-African colors.

The official flag of Ethiopia consists of three equal and horizontal bands of green (top), yellow, and red with a yellow pentagram and single yellow rays emanating from the angles between the points on a light blue disk centered on the three bands.

The significance of the colors on the Ethiopian flag are interpreted to have a connection to the Holy Trinity, as well as the three main provinces of Ethiopia. The red stripe stands for power, faith and blood. The yellow strip symbolizes peace, natural wealth and love. The green stripe represents the land and hope.

The yellow pentagram on the blue disk, also known as the National Coat of Arms, is a symbol of the current government; it is intended to reflect the desire of the nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia, as well as of its religious communities, to live together in unity and equality. The star represents unity of the people and the races that make up Ethiopia. The five rays on the outside of the star represent prosperity, and the blue disk represents peace.

My 2 Ethiopian Girls

Pages