Referral Activity Again!

Wow - after a long month of very little activity (only 10 children were placed in January) things have started moving again. If you remember right before Christmas there was a couple days of huge referral activity - well over 20 of them. Well, those folks are now traveling to pick up their children and this means more openings in the care center!

 

The week started with a sibling match and then a twins match. Can you imagine getting a referral for a boy/girl set at only 3 months old - wow. I am guessing we will end up with around six referrals and over a dozen new travel dates this week. We are cautiously optimistic that we will still hear something by the end of April.

 

On another note, my co-worker who inspired us to look into Ethiopia through his adoption of two boys last summer has moved to Madison, WI. This is a true bummer as he was a huge resource for us as we went through our home study and dossier preparations. But the opportunity for his career was one he couldn't pass up and they have a great Ethiopian community in Madison - hopefully they can find someone to help Ryan (their oldest) keep his Amharic current so he doesn't lose that part of his culture.

 

However, this week I found another family in Fargo who adopted from Ethiopia who lives in Fargo. Actually they have adopted twice, once from S. Africa and their youngest from Ethiopia. I believe the ages are 5 & 3. They finalized their adoption two years ago - amazing how the process has changed and lengthened with the popularity of the program. From the time they started thier homestudy until they brought their son home from Ethiopia only took five months. She has already been so helpful with recommendations of day care - we look forward to meeting their family and learning from their experiences.

 

Well, better get going, just thought I would stop in and say.

 

Cheers,

David

February 7 Update

Hello everyone,

Sorry it has been awhile since we last posted.  Honestly, there hasn't been much going on.  We did get the baby's room completed for the most part.  There are just a few finishing touches left.  We are very pleased with how the room turned out and hope baby Held will be happy with his/her room.  

January was a very slow month for referrals.  It was partly due to the fact that Christmas in Ethiopia falls in January versus December and our agency moving into a larger care center.  We did get some hope this week as there as been three referrals that we are aware of.  Dave believes there will be a few more this week.  We hope this is a sign that things are moving along again.

We are now starting the process of finding a daycare.  We hope to call on some places soon as well as visit a few of them.  It is going to be difficult as we do not know the age nor the time of year that our child will begin going to daycare.  We hope that the facilities in town have dealt with this before and will be somewhat flexible.  If you have any advise on what we should look for or questions that we should ask, please send them our way.  We obviously want to find the best one for our child.

Take everyone and stay warm (it is extremely cold here in Fargo),
Theresa

Donations

Theresa and I have been getting requests from friends and co-workers about possibly donating to the care center in Ethiopia. I contacted our agency and was provided some guidance on this issue. Theresa and I for sure when we travel will carry with us one suitcase (up to 50 pounds) of donations. Anything etc. that we collect we will be sure to get to the agency in St. Paul to coordinate delivery to Ethiopia.

 

Below are the items requested: (most urgent noted in bold and with *) 

MEDICAL NEEDS                                   

 -         *Rocephine (ceftriaxone) IV

-         *Ceftraxon-injection IV and IM

-         Zinc oxide cream

-         Amoxycilline syrup

-         Multivitamin syrup

-         Tetracycline eye ointment

-         *Augumentin syrup

-         Metoclopramide (antiemetic0 drops and syrup

-         Hydrocortisone cream

-         Clotrimazole cream, imidazole cream

-         Ketoconazole shampoo

-         Vitamin A

-         Vitamin D

-         Calcium gluconate, tablet or syrup

-         Metronidazole syrup

-         F-75 and F-100 (Formulas for severe malnutrition)

-         ReSOMAL

-         Iron Sulphate syrup, Iron folate

-         Mebendazole syrup

-         Salbutamol syrup and salbutamol inhaler

-         Cotrimoxazole (septrn) syrup

-         Varcomycine IV

-         Ceftrazidime/imiperum IV

-         Ticarcilline IV

-         Cloxacilline IV

-         Vitamin D injection

-         Miconazole oral gel

-         Vancomycin IV

-         Kanamycin IV

-         Ceftraxone injection, (IM or IV)

-         Contrimoxazole syrup

-         Ventolin syrup

-         Antibiotic cream

ADDITIONAL MEDICAL EQUIPMENT/ITEMS NEEDED

-         Pediatric Ophthalmoscope and Otoscope

-         Diapers (3-7kg) and (5-10kg)

-         *No 6 and No 8 Nasogastric tube

-         *Baby wash, soap

-         *Vaseline

-         Spatula (Tongue depressor)

-         Digital thermometers

-         Dressing set (forceps, scissor, needle holder)

-         Pediatric Urethral catheter

-         Cotton applicator

-         Pediatrics BP apparatus

-         Drop monitors

-         Oxygen administrations

-         *IV canula, Infant, Gage 22 and 24

-         *Surgical gloves and masks

-         Bottles (feeding)

-         Adhesive tape (roll)

 GENERAL NEEDS

-         Shoes of all sizes, children up to 16 yrs old

-         Clothing all sizes, children up to 16 yrs old

-         *Waterless hand sanitizer

-         *Towels, bath size

-         *Bedding including sheet sets in bunk, twin, full and queen sizes (gently used okay, but prefer new if possible)

-         Toys for all age groups

-         Educational supplies and instructional materials for toddler to schoolage

Jan 22nd Update

Well, another week has gone by and to be honest, we have very little in terms of 'news' to provide. We expect it to be this way for the next couple of months as we wait for our referral. I must admit that I find myself relating to our future child in a much more 'real' sense than even only a couple of weeks ago – I now imagine as I go through my day what it would be like to share in that experience with our child, and it seems real, no longer a fantasy. Truly is a neat experience and I assume it will only get stronger as we near our referral. I can only imagine what the wait will be like after the referral when we have made a commitment not only to adopt, but make a commitment to a living person complete with a name and photo. That will be so intense.

 Hope everyone is doing well and I will be posting over the next week a response to some who have requested about donations to the agency as well as my introduction to a co-workers friend who now lives in Addis Ababa and has opened a school – a pretty cool story and I look forward to telling you about.

Till then, cheers.

David

Just a quick update

Hello everyone,

Once again we had a busy weekend preparing for the new addition.  We were able to get the entire room painted and the closet organizer in.  All that is left is to get the carpet installed and of course to move all the furniture in.  Now all we need is to have CHSFS call to give us the good news.  I read a story about a women who received her referral on our message board while she was at her daughter's school.  She wrote about how she immediately started crying and couldn't remember her husband's cell phone number so she had to call her mother to get I but yet couldn't tell her mother the good news until after she told her husband.  She went on to say how she had to call her mother back to tell her the good news as she couldn't speak clearly through all her tears.  I just know that when we receive our phone call, I will be a total mess.  I am an emotional person and I know I will shed many happy tears.  I have already warned my co-workers that if I start to cry, shake, and unable to speak clearly that it is from receiving our referral not because of a bug by my desk.

Please keep all your fingers crossed for us that we will receive our phone call sooner than later.  I know we were told to expect to wait four months, but I am hoping that we receive our referral much sooner.  

Theresa

Update

This past weekend we spent prepping the baby's room for painting and new carpet.  It is amazing how much a person can stuff into one little room.  Okay, it wasn't that much but it sure seemed like it.  I am sad to lose my space but it is so worth it.  We did get the room emptied, Dave moved the shelving from that closet into our guest bedroom closet, and he ripped out the carpet.  This coming weekend we plan to paint the inside of the closet and install the new closet organizer.  The following weekend we plan to have the room painted.  Our house is currently a disaster but it should all come together in the next few weeks. 

 

On Wednesday we go back to get our second Hepatitis B shot.  I wish it were the last as I am not a fan.  We also will be getting our fingerprints done for whatever reason.  It is a requirement so we will do it. 

 

Take care everyone,

Theresa

 

 

Starting the baby room

Happy New Year!

 

Well it is my turn to update our blog.  We had a very fun day getting started with our nursery.  We spent some time browsing the Internet for some baby bedding and to get a theme for the room.  We are hoping to start ripping apart my office and start painting the room.  We found some bedding we liked so we ventured out of the house to see some of it in person.  We landed at Burlington Coat Factory to look through the Baby Depot area of the store and were amazed by the selection.  To our surprise we found the perfect bedding and purchased it.  The theme is "Snug as a Bug".  It has all of my favorite baby colors which are sage green, soft yellow, ivory, and a touch of blue and purple.  I am thrilled to have found it as the color I had picked out for the walls match it perfectly.  We can now get started on painted the room.  We have also decided to register at Burlington versus Target.  We also stopped at Barnes and Noble to look at baby books.  We realized when shopping that we have no idea what kind of bottles to purchase, quantity of blankets, etc.  We also have no clue on what to do with a baby.  Fortunately, we found a great book that goes through the first year that talks about bath time, essentials for the nursery, feeding, etc.  Dave is great about reading up on Ethiopia and bi-racial adoption, but I am excited to learn about how to care for a baby and to start decorating the nursery. 

 

We will keep you all in the loop on how the redecorating project is going.  It should be interesting.

 

Until next time,

Theresa