April 2nd Update

Not too much new to report. We are still waiting for the next big round of referrals. Not optimistic that we will be in this next round, but are hoping it sets us up for a May referral.

 

We met identified another family in Fargo who just returned from adopting their son from Ethiopia this January. We have communicated via email at this point and hope to get together soon. They have enrolled him into the daycare we are considering and that is how we were able to connect with them. We are very excited about the possibility of our child to have someone to connect with during their early years.

 

We'll be in touch again soon.

 

David

Ethiopia Day

This past weekend Theresa and I went to St. Paul where CHSFS hosted families for their first Ethiopia Day.

 

• The day started with remarks and experiences of an Ethiopian American professor from St. Cloud U who has adopted from Ethiopia (most recently as last week!)
  
• Then info about Ethiopians for Ethiopians, a program where Ethiopian in the Twin Cities are coming together to assist children adopted from Ethiopia to learn the language and culture and most importantly know they are accepted as an Ethiopian.
  
• For lunch we had the opportunity for the first time to try Ethiopian food catered by Queen of Sheba Restaurant. It was good outside of one dish having a few too many random bones in it...
  
• The afternoon included photos and insights into ET culture by a couple of staff members - the country and people are truly beautiful, but it is sad as well to see the plight of so many.
  
• The day ended with a panel of parents who have their kids home. It was a Q&A session where we were able to hear their experiences and learn a bit from them.

One of the best parts of the day though was meeting another couple from Green Bay, WI. It is nice to visit with someone who is in your shoes and realize that we are not alone, that others are going through the same emotions as we are. We look forward to keeping in contact with this couple as progress on this journey.

Have a great week.

David

March 10 Update

Not too much new to update other than that we are still waiting... :) We still think things are on track for a late April, May referral based on the trends the past two months. Lets hope there are no unexpected slow downs.

 

We are attending Ethiopia Day in Minneapolis next Sat, which is hosted by CHSFS. We are excited to learn more about the culture of Ethiopia as well as meet many of the folks that are forum members as we are. It will be great to continue to build out our network.

 

We hope things are well with all of you.

Cheers,

David

The CHSFS program continues to grow

CHSFS just announced that they have added a new guest house which is much larger, housed more families. It looks pretty sweet to be honest!

 

Introducing the New Guesthouse
A new guesthouse has been rented in Addis. Formerly a private home, this guesthouse features plenty of community space, many bedrooms, bathrooms and outdoor play areas.

 

Update

Just thought I would drop everyone a quick note and let them how things are going. Referrals have slowed again the past week. It appears that there is a pattern of groupings that occur so we see referrals in bunches vs. spread out over a month. I analyze the list daily and we are moving up! I am still optimistic that late April early May will bring us the news that we so patiently are waiting for.  

We will be looking at a number of day care centers next week and getting our names on their waiting lists. Seems like there is a level of status attached to which care center your child attends, leading to long waiting lists at a number of the more popular ones – it is truly amazing how we have to compare ourselves to others at each stage of our lives. We are not sure of the environment we want our child to be in so we are truly going in with an open mind and feel confident that we will know which one is right when we see it.  

March is looking to be busy again as I will be spending a week in San Diego for work. Then as soon as I get back we will be heading to the cities as our agency is hosting an Ethiopian Day to learn more about the culture. We are very excited to meet many of the families we have gotten to know via the various message boards and continue to build our network of other adoptive families.  

Hope everything is well with you and your loved ones.
David

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