Meeting Miss Rosie on Monday

I met my little girl for the first time on Monday September 14th, 2009.
Elizabeth and I were told that our driver would pick us up from our guest house at 10:00. We were assured that he would most definitely be late and not to worry when he was, he would eventually arrive.
Ok...we were ready to wait patiently when he arrived early. He was to take us to the orphanage where she had lived for the past year or so. As our van pulled up to the guest house the gates opened up and I recognized her immediately. She was being held in the arms of one of the nannies...tiny, perfect and dressed all in pink. Big brown eyes, cute little braids... frightened little face staring in shock and disbelief. Poor little peanut. I didn't want to scare her more or to have her burst into tears so I tried to make myself smaller and talk to her in my nicest mommy voice. Before too long her nanny got impatient and kind of shoved her in my arms and there she was. Wow. After almost two years of worrying and paperwork and forms and imagining and memorizing every detail of every one of the photos of her cuteness... here she was in my arms. Just like that. A real little person- not just a picture of one... a little like meeting a celebrity or a public figure. Someone you feel like you should know because of the photos, but in reality you haven't a clue.I was overwhelmed with gratitude for her little self... she was ok, she seemed healthy and I am the person who gets to be her new mom. Someone gave me flowers... roses wrapped in cellophane and I had trouble holding her and the flowers. Her little body was tense, but she didn't cry. We are quickly ushered upstairs to see her room. It looks clean and bright... 7 cribs in a semi-circle. 8 or more baby roommates. There is a photo of my family that was taken from our home study report taped to the wall over her crib... someone from the orphanage has photo shopped a photo of Rosie in with the rest of my family, which was nice, but looks a little surreal.
No time to linger, we are hurried out into the van and to our agencies office building to finish up with more paperwork. Onward from here.

Adorable again in the Pink Princess Sweatshirt

Just received some updated photos of Miss Rosie...here she is sporting the bucket hat look...


... and here she is looking like she really needs us as much as we need her.

Tomorrow is the big day of departure. I am traveling with my very cool and adventurous friend Elizabeth and Karl is staying here and taking care of the home team.Elizabeth and I leave tomorrow (Saturday) arrive in Addis Ababa on Sunday and meet Rosie at her orphanage on Monday. We go to the embassy early in the week and then fly home on Thursday to arrive in Cincinnati Friday afternoon. Whew, what a week!

I wonder what she will think of me?
I am off to try and sleep while I can... I don't think a person could be more excited then I am right now...Rosie girl, here we come!

Back to School!

I really love summer... I really do.
Or I should say that I love most of summer- the final week left me worn out, cranky and hankering for the routine and structure that school brings.
So happy happy joy joy... it's back to school time for us...yippeeee!

Happy Birthday Henry!

On the eve of Henry's birthday, his big brother bluntly informed him that his birthday was really just an ordinary day and nobody even knew it was his birthday because he wasn't famous. He told him that we celebrate famous people's birthday's like Jesus's on Christmas, but unless you were Jesus, you shouldn't really expect to get any presents because to everyone else it was just a regular day. I happened to be standing behind Jamie as he delivered this information to Henry and was able to step in and tell Henry that it was a mommy's job to call all of the birthday boy's buddies and tell them exactly when a birthday was happening and invite them over for a party and cake and tell them what kind of presents the birthday kid liked.
Henry leveled a stare at me and said "maybe NEXT year you can do that for me..." I guess he had already written off this year as a birthday loss because the look on his face when I told him that I already made those phone calls and lots of people were coming to help him celebrate was one of pure 5 yr old happiness. It's not often that mommies get to be birthday heroes so I will remember that cute little expression of gratitude for a long time now.

Updated Rosie Photos

Same expression, same outfit... seriously cute new hairstyle.

I absolutely can not wait to meet the adorable Miss Rosie and bring her home and do whatever it takes to put a smile on the cutest little pouty face in all of Ethiopia. We have confirmed travel dates now... depart on September 12th and return home on September 18th. Countdown to Rosie =24 days.

Turkey V. a small truck

I feel like I got hit by a truck


Turkey, Anna's little Boston terrier was hit by a truck last week and lived to talk about it. It was a small truck, but still, when a 20 lb dog goes head to head with a truck, no matter how small- I would put my money on the truck. But he made it... thanks to luck and amazing veterinarians and now he is in recovery at home. He is completely pitiful with a repaired shattered hip among other things but he is alive and hanging in there.
Our little Turkey dog with all of his doggie issues and quirks is really a part of our family and the fact that we came so close to losing him was tough. While I kept reminding myself that our little Turk was a dog- not a person and I should be able to cope, I really wasn't nearly as composed as I hoped to be and our whole family was just plain ol' sad until we were reasonably sure he would survive.

Here he is hanging with Jamie and Lily pre-truck



...and here he is contemplating a baby rose bush.

"I can't believe I'm seven now...not regular old six!"

With much fanfare, Jamie turned seven and I have never seen a boy happier about being a year older. Is there some kind of a super fun secret society open only to seven year old boys? There must be because Jamie can not stop talking about how much cooler it is to be seven instead of regular old six. It's almost like he was embarrassed that he was ever six and would just prefer not to speak about it now.
The morning of his birthday, in an act of manly celebration, Jamie yanked out his (only a little bit) wiggly baby front tooth. That's just the sort of thing a kid does at seven. Sure, it's ok for six year olds to still have front baby teeth- but once you hit that birthday milestone, the baby teeth have got to go. Happy Birthday Jamie-you rock.