Well we've been home about a week and a half-how time flies. I am so much busier here. I miss the time I had in Ethiopia during the boys' naps. Here once the kids are down I'm almost lost as to where to begin catching up on stuff and just maintaining the house (having one room that a person came to clean every day was QUITE nice). Anyway the boys are well, I am finally getting over a cold I've had for 2 weeks (I'm never sick that long?) and yesterday we completed their bloodwork/stool samples etc for the doctor. Everything takes forever with two boys! I went grocery shopping with them for the first time today and now I am exhausted! We are very much enjoying seeing friends and family again though-Here are some pics of the last week :Eli and Dad
Caleb

Eli
Their new Stroller:)
Caleb Jumping:)


First time in carseats at the airport-I'm not sure they liked them...

We're home!

We arrived home on Saturday afternoon at about 3pm. The next morning we woke up to snow, quickly followed by rain, hail, wind and sun-a very Seattle area March day! Here is a picture of my three long haired boys...It is wonderful to be home.

Our house feels SO huge. I just don't know what to do with myself-all these rooms, different places to place the children and let them explore, ROCKING CHAIRS (SO comfortable to feed the boys in vs the plastic chairs we had in our room in Addis), any food we want, high chairs for the boys, so much help, water pressure, clean tap water-I'm just taking it all in and feeling quite randomly tearful throughout the day as I am reminded what God has done, how Great He is, how he has made our family complete. I also though am thinking about how much stuff we have in the US, it is excessive and I will try my best to keep our lives simple despite this.

On the way home there was one more miracle that I must share:) As we arrived at the airport check in stand at the Addis airport (with our 7 bags to be checked and two carry-ons and 2 infants) the clerk kindly informed us that because we were going through Germany the boys required a transit visa and she could not allow us on the flight without this visa (US citizens to not require the visa but they were not US citizens until they entered the US, even though their parents are US citizens...crazy). We had been told that this was not required if did not leave the airport and that several families had been through Germany without this visa. We explained this to the clerk and she said she was sorry but this was incorrect and we would have to rebook our flights for next WEDNESDAY after we obtained these visas...Both of our hearts just sank and we began wondering how we would even contact our guesthouse as we had just given away our last birr in tips to the baggage handlers and no longer had our cell phone. I began praying, oh Lord, PLEASE open this door as you have opened the other doors. Sean stayed calm and began exploring options, could we change airlines and get on a flight directly into the US? No this flight was full...finally the clerk asked her boss if anything could be done. We waited and waited as she said her boss was seeing what she could do. About 20 minutes later I saw Sean talking to the clerk (I was standing with our huge pile of luggage) and he got a big smile! The boss had called Luftansa airlines in Germany who gave us special permission to fly without these visas. PRAISE GOD once again.
I thank so many of you for praying us home...We are all adjusting well. The boys did great on the plane and seem to be switching time zones very well. I think we can relax now and settle into life here with our new family...

We're coming home!

It has been quite a week and it is only Tuesday night. On Friday we were disappointed to find out that the US embassy was not open until Tuesday so we had four days to wait until we could find out how much longer we would be here (Monday was another national holiday). I was very nervous as our updated visa approval was apparently not in country last week even though the National Visa Center stated that it was sent twice, once on January27th and then again on February 26th at our request. The embassy needs this paperwork to give the kids their US visas. Anyway I was very worried again and wondered what God might have for us now. Would we be here another month, waiting for this paperwork? Last night as we prayed I realized that it was very likely that we would not be able to fly home this week.

Three things needed to happen that were not at all guaranteed:

1: We needed to be one of the first 50 people to have blood drawn at the embassy and because another requirement is to have a doctor first look over the kids, we had to first go to a clinic for this appointment, THEN go to the embassy for the blood work-this would mean we would be arriving at least 3 hours after it opened…

2: The embassy would need to have our approvals from the national visac enter.

3: The embassy would have to expedite our case and schedule an appointment for us this week, usually the appointments are at least a week out.

So we were not especially hopeful last night but we also were feeling very ready to go home, so we prayed, please Lord go before us, open the doors that only you can open, and HE DID! I still can hardly believe it, we get to bring our babies home!!! It was a long day though-doctor’s visit at a clinic, then across town to have the boys’ blood drawn at embassy (ooh first needles on these kiddos), then talking with the embassy about an interview appointment, back across town to the doctor’s office for immunizations (second needles, these they really didn’t like), out to lunch, then to the house of hope to fill out more paperwork for our embassy interview on Thursday (Caleb and Eli will be 7 months old on Thursday).The kids did great but were very tired and grumpy when we finally got home.The visas should be issued on Friday morning and we are planning on leaving that evening. Wow!

We also had the opportunity to meet with the boys’ birth mother on Monday.We got up early and left around 6am. We dropped the boys at the House of Hope (first time I have left them during the day, this was not easy) and drove to Asela to the orphanage where they were dropped off in October. It took about 4 hours to get there, about 3 to get back, and we stopped for lunch on the way back so it was an all day trip. The birth moms do not always show up but we were very thankful that this mother did decide to meet with us. It was quite an experience and one I am still processing. We were not allowed to exchange any information or gifts with her, but we were able to ask questions, video and take pictures of her to show the boys. She is a wonderful, kind, strong, beautiful very young woman and I am eternally grateful that we were able to meet her.

We found out that even though the boys are from Asela, which is where the Oromia people group (mostly) live, she is Amhara, as is their biological Father. The Amhara people are from the North and many generations ago some of them moved south to take advantage of the rich farmland in the south.The Amhara people are strong, have survived in the mountainous/nonfertile part of the country forever. They also are the royal class (going back traditionally to the Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon in the bible) and have had ties to the Jews going way back. The Amhara people also converted to Christianity very early on and traditionally are loyal Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. The history of Ethiopia has become very fascinating to me as well as the Ethiopian Orthodox Church here which is very dominant.It has a lot of Jewish influence, more than Catholicism or Protestantism (due to the early Ethiopian ties to Judaism). Today though the Protestants here and the Orthodox people seem to look down on the other-I think in many ways it is like Protestants and Catholics in the states.

Anyway it has been a full couple of days but the Lord has continued to lookout for us at every step. Thank you again for all your prayers. I cannot express how thankful I am that we have had the opportunity to be here for the past two months. I will miss Ethiopia and many of the wonderful people I have met here. I also know though, that we will be back, half of our family was born here! I also though am very excited to come home. It will be SO nice to sleep in my own bed in less than a week, and see all the people I miss from home…

More Pictures

Week 8 - March 7, 2009

Well today we have been here for exactly two months. Things seemed to move a little slowly after the adoption was final (the court took a few days to write up the proceedings) but when they were finally completed on Wednesday, our wonderful agency (Children’s Hope International), specifically the director and his wife, worked very hard to get ALL the Ethiopian documents rushed for us, including the boys’ Ethiopian passports. These are all complete now so now we are just waiting on the US embassy (which is closed for 4 days, Friday-Monday?) and hopefully they will have received our paperwork from the national visa center in the US who will supply the boys with their visas. These visas will make them US citizens upon arrival in the country. Last week they had not received the paperwork yet even though it was sent in January so this weekend I am a bit nervous. If I have not learned patience by now though, I have missed something important through this process!

The boys are doing well. They are about 19 lbs each and are more active and able to stay up longer during the day. We had to move back into a small room as a couple had reserved the suite here weeks before we arrived, so we are a bit cramped but have everything we need. Caleb is LOVING to stand up. He holds on to our hands and just wants to stand there and look around. He looks very proud and happy not to be so low to the ground. He can stand for several minutes but has absolutely no balance yet, but strong legs! Eli has been bringing his feet to his mouth for several weeks which I think strengthens his core. He has been able to sit pretty well without being in the tripod position (both arms out) for a couple weeks. He has just started wanting to stand like his brother. Caleb is just now learning to balance without his hands forward. When sitting he carefully lifts one hand and puts it out in the air to balance, then lifts the other. It is amazing to see how much coordination and practice these steps take and it is interesting to see that they are learning them in different orders. Caleb has just started bring his feet to his mouth while on his back so this maybe is associated with being able to sit without being in the tripod position? Eli is very joyful and smiles so easily with people who he doesn’t know. Caleb is more cautious and holds on very tight when we are in the car or around strangers and sometimes even cries a little. They both are talking more and more and seem to even go back and forth with each other. The sounds are not very distinguishable, mostly, ah, ah, ah, ah, ba, ba, ah ah…

Sean went to visit an Area Development Program overnight this week and was able to visit with a child that my father sponsors through World Vision. Sean says it was a really fun experience, the boy was very excited but very nervous to meet with an American. Sean gave him a soccer ball and provided his mother and father with a bit of extra money. They gave Sean some local flowers, some of which I am pressing. The boy looked at pictures of my parents on his computer, likely the first time he had seen a computer. The family was very happy and thankful and I think my Dad will have fun seeing pictures/videos of his sponsored child.

I am sending some more pictures and again they are in time order (I’m sure you figured out that last weeks pictures were actually in opposite order with the one on top being the most recent). The first picture is of the boys sleeping in the pack and play. For the past few weeks, they each have their own as Sean’s parents brought us an extra P&P (thank goodness, they were well over the maximum weight capacity!). The next two pictures were taken in early Feb. because EVERYONE here kept telling us that the boys must be cold, even though it is always about 85 degrees here, and their skin is not cold at all. The people here dress their children VERY warmly so I decided, since we are in Ethiopia, do as the Ethiopians. Since then, however the boys are usually just in a onesie and they seem just fine-but they sure looked cute in their warm clothes, although not very happy (Caleb is on the left, Eli on the right in these pictures). In the next picture, Eli is on the left, you can see them playing together (they love to chew on each others hands and toes). Eli is next, playing with one of his favorite toys (thank you Chet and Katie), doing one of his favorite activities, feet to mouth Caleb is next in his tripod sitting position (a few weeks ago). The boys are then seen outside American style in their shorts, with their Dad during our guesthouse’s BBQ and finally you can see how we feed these boys often, in chairs, a very messy process (Eli)! I also have included a recent picture of the boys sunning in our new room (I am standing at our door to the hallway) you can see it is quite a tight fit for all 4 of us!

The Lord gave me this verse on the day before our court day and it was very comforting for me:

“The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. The world and all who live it; for He founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters” Psalm 24:1-2.

These children were his from the beginning! He is in control and he is a good God, how comforting it is to place our trust in Him.

Hopefully we will be coming home in a week if all goes well with the embassy. We are getting excited about this possibility; we miss so many of you!

Pictures

Week 7 - February 26, 2009

Today we are happy to announce that we are officially parents! I really can’t believe it!

So we introduce Eli Tariku Kerrigan. Eli means God is uplifted. The stories in the bible of the priest Eli who adopted the great prophet/judge, to be, Samuel as a small boy (told in 1 Samuel), as well as the stories of the prophets Elisha and Elijah (told in 1 and 2 Kings) have been a GREAT encouragement to me during this long wait. These were people of GREAT faith and people who boldly asked God to act in situations that seemed impossible.

We also introduce Caleb Dereje Kerrigan. Caleb means Bold and Faithful-the story of Caleb and Able have also been a great encouragement to me during this long wait. Early on God gave me the verse “He is ABLE to do immeasurably more than you ask or imagine”(eph 3:20). We considered the name Able (as in Cain and Able) but decided instead on Caleb (which has the letters of able) because we were inspired by his story as well and again the theme of FAITH and boldness.

The meanings of their Ethiopian names, Dereje and Tariku both have something to do with history, change, and stories of their birth. I hope to speak with their birth mother in the next couple of weeks to find out more about why she chose these names. It is important to us to keep these names, which signify their RICH Ethiopian history and ancestry.

For me, one of the hardest parts of waiting for a family for these 5+ years has been the fear that I would not be a mother, the fear that perhaps for some reason God did not think I should be a mother. At some point I realized that this was a lie and not the truth at all. God began revealing to me that he had a different plan than what I had originally thought for my family and WOW how wonderful His plan is!

So, here are our children, the first two pictures were taken 7 weeks ago on January 8th when we met them, then the pictures are in order by date up to the picture of all four of us that was taken just last week I chose pictures where Caleb is always on the right and Eli is always on the left so it will be easy for you to see who is who (actually strangely enough it just worked out that way!) In the individual pictures, Caleb is in blue and Eli is in Orange. Both boys are doing very well. Still no major health concerns and both are progressing so well. They could barely hold their heads up when we met them and now they are sitting pretty well without assistance and standing up (when holding on to us), picking things up, looking for them when they drop them etc…The progress has been SO fun to watch. They also are MUCH quicker to smile and laugh, its SO fun. What a gift it has been to have this time with them.

I can’t thank you enough for your prayers. I was so nervous (and so was Sean) and your thoughts and prayers upheld us during this time.