Pictures from our first week home w/ Maya Sept 2007

You asked for pictures... Here you go!!!

Maya sports her Ethiopian hat

mmm... Yummy!

When Maya is hungry - she wants to be fed now!

Maya loves to have tummy time

More tummy time...

even more tummy time (except mom wants to finish changing her)

Toby is the first responder to the cries

Who said the dogs and Maya wouldn't get along?

Typical Dave - always multi-tasking!

Maya with mom (Theresa)

Maya with dad (David)

Day 4 - Tuesday (of our 2007 trip to Ethiopia)

Hello everyone - we had another busy day so far.  We got back to the guest house late last night as we had dinner with our friends who are also in town.  Our friend is from Addis but lives in Fargo.  We had dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant which was great.  Dave is a big fan of Ethiopian food but I don't care for it as much.  I am craving a cheeseburger right now but will have to wait until we are back in the USA.  I also have to note how cheap the dinner was.  My meal was 48.00 BURR which is $4.80.  The same meal back home would have cost me at least $12.  We did have a great time with our friends and were so glad they were able to take us out.  Our adoption agency has a schedule for us and keeps us close by so we don't get to see much of the city.

Today we had a busy morning driving around Addis.  The goal was to do some shopping but it didn't end up that way.  I ended up getting motion sickness and still have it.  The driving here is unexplainable  and something that we have never seen.  There are no stop signs, stop lights, traffic rules of any kind, and people walk on the street.  It is amazing there isn't many car accidents.

This afternoon we went to the USA embassy to get a visa for Maya.  Before we left, the nannies brought the children to the guest house.  Maya was dressed is a very cute dress and was very happy.  She did fall asleep on the ride there and snored!  At the embassy she focused on the Monday night football game.  Yes, they had the game on a day later.  And...we have determined that Maya is daddy's girl.  She snores and likes football!  The embassy went extremely well and we are officially her parents.  Honestly, I am so happy and I love that girl so much.  She is so sweet and happy.  She even took some of the bottle today from Dave!  She struggled with it yesterday but did take about 3 oz today.  We are so pleased.  If we haven't mentioned it before, they cup feed all the babies here as it keeps down the infections.  Maya has never been breast feed or bottled feed until now.  We hope she continues to eat from the bottle as it will make a better trip home.  Oh...I have to say that the nanny yesterday told me she doesn't like bottle and that she will give me a cup tomorrow when I take her home.  It was kind of funny to be honest.  The nannies just love her so much and know her so well.  It will be hard for Maya to leave them as she is very attached. 

We are off to the Crown Hotel tonight for a traditional Ethiopian dinner and dancing.  Although I don't feel well, we are still going.  It should be very interesting.

Take care everyone and we hope to see you all soon! 

Theresa

Our first blog post from Ethiopia - August 27, 2007

Below is our first post from Ethiopia - it took a few days to post it as the weekend was a blur with meeting Maya and then traveling south to the Hosanna area of Ethiopia. I still remember sitting in the small room waiting to meet Maya, and then being called on first. In fact, they called Maya by another name (a long story) and we didn't even realize it was our daughter they were calling out. She was as amazing then as she is now!

August 27, 2007

Hello from Ethiopia!

Hello, can you believe we are starting our third day here in Ethiopia. We will try and provide you with enough detail to give you an idea of the adventure we are going through.

Ethiopian Airlines

We flew out on Friday morning, having no issues getting to the airport and checked in. We quickly connected with four other families using the same agency as us and another using a different agency. It was nice to find others who were in the same situation as us. The flight itself went with no issues outside of being confined to very small space for 15 hours. The food was good and we were fairly on schedule.

We arrived in Addis Ababa and claimed our bags and converted some dollars to local currency with no issues. There was a drive waiting for us as well as another couple that had flown in earlier that morning. As we caravanned with our bags to two vans waiting for us, we saw the first images that told us we were not in the U.S. anymore. There must have been a 1/2 dozen men cutting the grass using hand held cutting knives and another group following and picking up the grass...

We piled all of our bags into one van and then we squeezed into the other. We rode back to the guest houses where we had about 10 minutes to drop our bags and then pile back into the van and off to the office. We did some paperwork there, got a ride back to the guest house to eat lunch.

After lunch we got a ride to care center to meet our daughter!

Meeting our Daughter!

We were all brought into one room to wait to be called to meet our children. Amazingly Theresa and I were called first to meet Maya Nejbya (pronounced Neji-bia). We were told to follow the social worker and as we walked into the room we were being filmed, which will be included in the DVD they are creating for us.) She is so amazing - she smiles and cuddles and is absolutely the most beautiful baby - still a bit hard to believe that she is our daughter. She is so loved by everyone at the care center, from the nannies to the photographers - they all stop to play and kiss her each time they see her.

The Trip to Hossana

Time is short, we'll post more later but here are a couple of pictures!

Seeing Maya again

We were able to go see Maya again on Sun night - this time we brought the camera and video camera. Some pictures below - isn't she amazing!

She really is the most amazing little girl - she has the flu and was obviously not the same happy girl as she was the day before, but she didn't fuss or cry. We spent over an hour with her on Sunday, just getting her familiar with us.

Some of you may know that they cup feed the infants here at the care center due to the fact that it easier to keep the cup sanitized vs. bottles and nipples. We watched the cup feeding on Saturday but today Theresa had the opportunity to feed Maya. It was very interesting to see Theresa feed her for the first time - I was able to capture it on video!

Two Years This Week Maya Joined Our Family

On this day two years ago we left Washington D.C. to spend a week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where we met our daughter for the first time. It is almost surreal in how it feels like just yesterday that we were there, yet at the same time it feels as if Maya has been a part of our lives forever.

Not only did we meet Maya that week, we met a number of other amazing families that made up our August 24th travel group – it has been a joy to keep in contact with them these past two years and get to know their families.

This week we will be posting some of our original blog posts from our week in Ethiopia. We will start by posting our photo montage that we put together that captured some of the highlights of our trip. Enjoy and Maya, we love you!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ready

The other day I bought Maya a new winter hat and matching gloves.  As much as I would like summer (or maybe it is fall considering the cold summer we have had) to stay, winter is unfortunately around the corner.  Maya tried on her new hat, gloves, and winter jacket.  She is going into winter in style!

Our little swimmer

Maya had fun swimming at the pool last Saturday night.  She is a little fish and loves to be in the water. 

Weekend Pics

On Friday we took a vacation day and headed to the lake. We all had fun playing at the beach, going on a boat ride, taking a long nap, and enjoying some much needed family time. On Saturday we enjoyed a quiet morning at the lake (despite the rain) and then drove back to town to attend a good friend's 30th birthday party. Maya enjoyed the swimming part of the party :) After the party Maya got her hair braided while watching a little Diego. Today we are heading back to the lake to enjoy what looks to be a dreary day. But hey, why not? Unfortunately we don't have much summer left so we need to make the most of it.


How adorable is she? I think I've said that before but I'm her mom so it's okay.

We found a new place to dine on Lake Melissa. It had really great pizza, malts, and some yummy mints which Maya loved.


Maya loves the boat and loves to help Dad drive it. She has no fear and always wants to go faster.

Maya had a blast swimming in the big pool. It was hard to get her out of it when it was time to go home.

Love how her hair turned out and it took me less then 30 minutes. I think I love that even more. Maya always is asking for braids.

Tonight

On our way home from our 2nd picnic of the week, Maya began to sing me a song. It isn't abnormal for Maya to sing but tonight she sang a special song. This song is a song that I sing to her but with different lyrics. She sang it word for word. Here it is:

Rock-a-bye baby in a tree top,
When the wind blows the cradle will rock,
And Maya will go to bed,
And she'll sleep all night in her big girl's bed.

I love this kid.

I'm busy

Me: Maya, should we try going potty? Maya: I can't as I'm busy. Hmm...

After the first tantrum of the night which consisted of spending time on the naughty step, Maya stayed busy on her own computer.

This girl may be cute but she is stubborn and naughty too! What a night.

Maya Update

What is new with Maya you may ask? Well let me fill you in. First off, Maya is becoming more and more independent each day. Take this morning for example, she didn't want to get out of bed, she didn't want to sit on the potty but didn't want to get off the potty, she wanted to dress herself, and put on her own shoes. Knowing this, I may have to adjust the time to account for this "new" independence.

Secondly, Maya is trying to understand why she should go potty in the toilet versus in her pull-up or diaper. I find it difficult to reason with her so instead I try to make it fun. By that I mean I get very very excited and I say with as much enthusiasm as I possible can "GUESS WHAT TIME IT IS?" IT IS POTTY TIME!". Maya seems to respond fairly well to this excitement or maybe it is the sticker she receives afterwards? Today was a huge milestone as Maya went #2 at daycare (in the toilet)!!!! Maya has said several times that she only goes potty at home hence the milestone.

Thirdly, Maya seemed to have either caught a cold or has an ear infection. Her poor nose has been running like a faucet (okay, not that bad). Because of it, she isn't sleeping well at time and wakes up at least 1-2 times a night. The lack of sleep isn't helping any of us at the moment. We are giving it one more night before we make our way to the doctor's office to have those ears check. I wouldn't be surprised though as I believe she is getting her 2nd set of molars.

And finally, we found out a few days ago that Maya will be transitioning to the next room up at her daycare. She is going to the 2 1/2 - 3/3 1/2 year room starting next week. We are excited as Maya will be reunited with her old teacher from the pre-toddler room and she is fantastic. Her teacher moved to this room so Maya will be able to have her as a teacher one more time. Also, the class primary focus is potty training. WOO HOO! We do love Maya's current teachers but it is time for Maya to join the older kids. She needs it for her development as right now she is one of the oldest in her current room.

Well I can't blog without posting a picture of Maya :) Here is a picture of Maya with her cousin Olivia who visited this past weekend. Maya and Olivia are big fans of Dora and Diego so here they are watching their show right before bed. Too cute!

Never a dull moment

We had a fun yet busy week. Maya got a new fall outfit and had to immediately put each piece on. She is starting to love to play dress up.

Also in the week we met up with our adoption group at a local park. All the kids had a great time and the parents had fun visiting. We also got to meet Miss Anna who recently came home. Wow does she have an amazing strong personality. She seems to fit in just fine.

Maya had fun playing on all the different playground equipment.


Anna and Noah

Maya with her friend Wren and Wren's daddy Evan

The kids even raced!

We biked over to the park and Maya loved it.