My 2 Ethiopian Girls: Brandon's 14th Birthday and Los Angeles

Friday, April 3, 2009

Brandon's 14th Birthday and Los Angeles

I think Brandon had one of his best birthdays this year. We had the neighbor down the street who Brandon has befriended drive up by surprise to take Brandon for a ride in his quarter of a million dollar Lamborghini. He couldn't believe it ... he was speechless. Here are some pictures...

Here he is watching the Lamborghini drive up ...

On the left is our neighbor who so kindly took Brandon for a ride to the Lamborghini dealer in his Lamborghini. His best 40 minutes EVER!

He can't get the smile off his face knowing he was going for a ride.

Here they are taking off ...

Happy 14th Birthday Sweetheart

Waiting for our car to get washed

She loves her tiger backpack

There's our car ...

Mike Dugan met us at Bob's Big Boy to meet Tigist for the first time.

Mike and Tigist ...

High School friends met up with us at Deb's house to reflect on her and good times.

Gina and Shelly meet Tigist

Shelly and Tigist

Reylene and Tigist

Reylene dancing with Tigist

Brandon loves exotic cars

Shelly's brother (Craig) and his son who races

We stopped at the Beverly Hills Lamborghini lot.

This car is "offered" at ... 2.4 million! Are you kidding?

Where the heck do you drive or park a $2.4 million dollar vehicle??????

Brandon's wishful thinking ...

High School friend Steve Irigoyen. We stayed together at Deb's house. Steve, Deb and I use to get out of school early our senior year and watch 3 hours of All My Children, One Life to Live and then General Hospital ... where did it all get us????? Steve even named his son Triston after Scorpio's character from General Hospital. We had some verrrrrrrrrry interesting chats that year.

Grampa Dave meets Tigist for first time

Tigist loved calling him Grampa!

Chatting away

Gina Johnston from High School comes to meet Tigist. I just loved it when my friends met her. it brought our worlds together in such a sweet way.

These girls were from Kenya. They had an outreach at Shere's church in Irvine.

Shere', Lana, her son Malcomb and Tigist

5 comments:

michelle said...: Lisa, what a trip! Looks like it was so much fun! Happy birthday Brandon! What an opportunity and exciting ride! I am actually headed to LA in a couple weeks for a live taping of Dancing with the Stars. Watch for me on 4/20. Hey we have exciting news to share, check out our blog, a TWIN blessing!!; April 5, 2009 at 7:23 AM
Michèla said...: Happy Birthday, Brandon! Wow! A lamborghini! Cool. You should talk to David about the friends and the cars he's ridden in. Also his 1974 Ducatti motorcycle. Hope you have a wonderful year!!!! Many continued blessings!; April 5, 2009 at 7:49 PM
the truman's said...: Hi Lisa- Looks like you guys had a great time! We have missed you. Ty missed having Tigi at his birthday party. Only 10 more days until our court date. Please pray it goes as God has planned. Hopefully we can get together soon.
Love,
Stacey; April 6, 2009 at 12:34 PM
Lisa said...: Michela,
I told Brandon you wished him a Happy BD. Thank you so much. We'll have to get a hold of David for that info...thanks for that. Hope all is well with you,
Lisa and family; April 8, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Lisa said...: Stacey,
We should schedule time at either your house or mine. I pray that your court date passes with flying colors the first time around. Let's chat...
Lisa; April 8, 2009 at 11:01 AM

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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

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Friday, April 3, 2009

Brandon's 14th Birthday and Los Angeles

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