My 2 Ethiopian Girls: Santa Cruz Trip

Friday, July 24, 2009

Santa Cruz Trip

It would be hard to explain our Summer travel plans as they have changed through out the months. But we finally got on the road and decided to head towards Northern California to visit family and to see a part of California we hadn't spent much time in.

Driving thru the Salt Lakes in Utah was a massive arera of dried up salt lakes. So we stopped the van and checked it out. Brandon placed an old car antenna thru the salts and it went down at least 3 feet ... I wonder how deep it really was?

How 'bout those colors?

Tigist

Daddy and Tigist in the pool in Reno.

Reno, NV We tucked her in, the boys watched over her and David and I met my uncle Denny in the lobby. He is my Dad's brother, so it was really wonderful to catch up with him. He reminds me so much of my Father who passed away a while ago.

Tigist sometimes asks for one of us in particular to hold her and cuddle. This time it was Evan she wanted.

Tiggy's new boyfriends in Reno!!!

That's what I'm talking about ... No, we didn't stop at ALL of them. Just a few.

In Santa Cruz Main Street, we saw these 3 little Indians all in a row.

This was our trek down to the beach every day from our Santa Cruz Beach House 2 blocks from the beach. What fun. This was Tigist's 2nd time at a beach.

Looking for the sand crabs

Brandon ... I'm waiting for my sand crabs please

Evan, where did the sand crabs go?

Whew! Here they come ...

Daddy ... stand over there for my good side!

Evan time ....

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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, July 24, 2009

Santa Cruz Trip

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