THE Trip, Homecoming: Six Month Reflection

It was a wonderful feeling to make it home!  We had been traveling for about 27 hours and were ready to crash into friendly arms and then start life together in our home as a family.  We made the decision to only have family at our homecoming to minimize the stress of too many new faces for Mikayla.  It wasn't an easy decision because we wanted our support system to share in the joy of our homecoming (and let's be honest...who doesn't love a good airport homecoming)?!  In the end, we feel like it was a good decision for us because our sweet little one was completely overwhelmed with the few people who were there!  We were so blessed to have our good friends Sara and Justin come to photograph and video our homecoming though.  Sara even put together the following video and slideshow...enjoy!




On a funny note, we made it to baggage claim and Justin was helping me gather bags, and I was sort of in space because finally Justin asked me if I was still waiting for something.  Apparently we had been watching the same bags go around for quite a while, and we were missing one final bag.  We were so exhausted that we crashed right after dinner and didn't hear the THREE calls from the airline letting us know that they had found the missing luggage.

Lessons Learned from this Day:
-If you are going to have your luggage lost, losing it on the way home is the way to go.  You're home, so who cares about luggage? :)
-If you are traveling when it is chilly, pack the car with coats for everyone and ask someone to bring them into the airport for you.  Thank goodness my mom was there because she actually had to tell me to put on my coat!
-Make sure whatever car you are riding home in has the appropriate car seat/booster seat for your kiddo.
-If you are able and have space, make several freezer meals to have ready to go.  These were a really nice supplement to the meals that our church family and friends made for us.  I didn't have to cook for a long time, and we could focus on spending time with Mikayla.
-We also had stocked some food/drink that would have been good if either/both of us had a stomach bug.  Brian was really sick when we got home from our first trip, and we had to stop at the gas station on the way home from the airport.

THE Trip, Day 5: Six Month Flashback

On Thursday, we again spent the day at our guest house because our flight didn't leave until around 10:30pm.  We packed up our things and played for most of the day.  We also looked forward to our agency dropping off Mikayla's Ethiopian passport and paperwork allowing her to enter the United States.  Let me tell you, a baby's passport is just so stinking cute!  I especially enjoyed it because we got to see a picture of Mikayla  that I had never seen before.  So we got our passport and big, official envelope which they (meaning EVERYONE) tells you that you are not allowed to open.  You are to guard it with your life and then hand it over to the customs official when you make it back into the states.  Let's just say we followed those directions and didn't try to find out what would happen if we opened it...

Before we left, we had a mini photo session on the roof.  (I honestly still think about the roof and really miss it sometimes.  It was awesome being up there)!

Our family.  Mikayla is dressed in PJs with hope that she would sleep lots on the plane :)

The Mitchells and Mummerts.  This trip would NOT have been the same without them.

We arrived at the airport and made it through customs and security with almost no line, which is the complete opposite of our last trip when we waited in line forever.  That was a total answer to prayer with a little one.  We finally boarded the plane and played musical seats about 50 times so that we would be able to sit together .  We were originally assigned a bassinet seat in the bulkhead and the second seat was a couple of rows back.  We were ok not sitting together if that meant we would have a bassinet for Mikayla.  We were thankful that it ended up working out that we got to sit together for most of the flight.  I have to say Mikayla was a complete trooper on this flight.  She slept a lot (Brian and I not quite so much), and wasn't too fussy considering the crazy new experience.

Out like a light in the bassinet.  Whoever invented these things is a genius and a gift to parents traveling with infants internationally.

We didn't need movies on this flight for entertainment.  Silas took care of entertaining us!

After an incredibly long flight, we were thrilled to touch down in D.C.  We got our luggage and made it through customs without a hitch.  What a great feeling it was to know that when we made it to U.S. soil our baby girl was a citizen.  We were both pretty emotional at this point.  I almost lost it while eating breakfast when an Ethiopian gentleman came up to me after Brian left to go change Mikayla and said, "God bless you."  I must have given him a confused smile at first because he continued, "God bless you for what you have done with your child.  She is Ethiopian, correct?"  I nodded and he went on, "I thank you for what you are doing for that child and I pray God's blessing on your family."  Such sweet, soothing words to hear from this man who shares the same beautiful heritage as our daughter, especially when our 2 year journey was coming to a close...

Our Ethiopian Air plane

Our new little citizen

Lessons learned from today (oh, I could write a book, but I won't)

-If you have a baby, some kind of carrier is so crucial.  We have a Baby Ergo that we love.  It works great for babies that are a little heavier and you can put the kid on your chest, on your hip, or on your back.  

-Securing a bassinet took a lot of confirming/hounding people.  We reserved it with our travel agent at booking, we called the airline the day of our flight to confirm, and we confirmed it again when we checked in at the ticket counter.  Honestly, they are first come, first serve and it sort of felt like the luck of the draw as to who actually got them.  If you need a bassinet, when arriving at the airport, earlier is better!

-Take a change of clothes for the parents as well as the kid (we didn't need to change on the plane, but know parents who needed to change and didn't have clothes accessible).

-I also had just a few toiletries that were easy to get to in our checked baggage since we knew we would have access to them in the customs area.  During our layover, I changed and actually felt mostly human on the last leg of our flight.

-So you've clearly picked up on the fact that Mikayla was having digestive problems during the whole trip and the flight was no different.  We took tons of diapers and wipes on the flight and used all but one diaper.  We also were prepared with one change of clothes in the diaper bag, but she ended up going through 3 outfits.  We were glad we had made a couple of extra sets easily accessible in our checked bags that we could get to when we went through customs.

-Just keep in mind that even though the flight is WAY long, it has to end at some point!

I'll share our homecoming tomorrow, so stay tuned!

THE Trip, Day 4: Six Month Flashback

We woke on Wednesday with the whole day ahead of us and no real plans other than to hang out with Mikayla.  It was a relaxing day of chatting with friends, playing with our kids, and watching our kids play together.  It was such a joy to watch Mikayla develop even in the short time that we were in Ethiopia.  When we first met her in November, she wasn't even sitting up.  By the second day she was starting to pull up on things, and by the end of the week, she was just beginning to do a cute little army crawl.  We say that her buddy Silas taught her those cool tricks!

At first Mikayla didn't just use her arms to help her pull up, she also used her mouth.

We spent quite a bit of time up on the roof.

A photo op with the two littles up on the roof

I'm so glad that our little suite at the guest house had this coffee table.  It was PERFECT for the 11 month olds!  How cute are they together?!?

We actually ended up having a yummy lunch from another one of our favorite places to eat in Ethiopia, Zebra Grill.  This little gem of a restaurant was only a couple of blocks away so we sent Brian and Phil to pick up burgers for everyone.  There were also a few things left on our "buy" list that we wanted to get before we left.  Since we couldn't take the kiddos out in public, Brian and Phil headed out to the Alert Colony.  This is a place where people with leprosy live, and they also create goods that are sold in a little shop.  Brian did a great job shopping and we have a few gifts we will be able to give Mikayla as she gets older, and we have a few more decorations that bring a bit of our little girl's culture to our home.  While the guys were out, Mikayla had her first melt down during nap time.  Of course it happened while Brian wasn't there!

Lessons Learned from this Day:

-Do absolutely as much as you can during the first trip because there just isn't a good time to be out and about once you have custody of the kids.

- We brought small bags for dirty diapers, but the Mummerts told us about Arm and Hammer bags.  I honestly think that we were changing Mikayla's diaper constantly, and when you are stuck in a fairly small/hotel type space, the effects just seemed to linger constantly.  The Arm and Hammer bags are nice because they actually do seem to absorb some of the odor (not just cover it up).  Have you noticed we learned a lot about diapering our first week as parents?  Mikayla had LOTS to teach us!

-Alert was a good ways away from where we were staying, but Brian said it was totally worth going there

-If you need to take a taxi somewhere, ask the staff at your guest house to negotiate the rate to your destination and back before you leave.  Our guest house had one lady in particular who was quite the negotiator! 

THE Trip, Day 3, Six Month Flashback

Our second trip to Ethiopia was much more low key in some regards.  On one hand we were living the craziness of being parents for the first time in a foreign country.  On the other hand, our agency requests that once you take custody of your child, you stay at your guest house with the exception of official appointments.  This meant a lot of spending time in our room, in the courtyard, and on the roof of our guest house.
Tuesday was, however, embassy day.  This meant that we had our official appointment to visit the United States Embassy.  The embassy appointment was really important because this is when we received final approval to have Mikayla's visa issued so that we could bring her back into the States.  We honestly don't have many pictures from this day because we spent the morning in our room at Yebsabi and then had our appointment at the Embassy in the afternoon.  You aren't allowed to take any kind of photographs at the embassy, and we didn't even take one of us before or after our appointment.  Oh, well!  We had heard different things about the embassy, but it was a fairly easy process.  The room reminded us of a drivers' license office.  We sat in chairs and waited to be called up to a window where a very kind man asked us questions.  We were the last out of our group to be called, but fortunately Mikayla had slept for a decent amount of the wait, and she was fairly content to be held at this point.  Of course Mikayla had a dirty diaper that needed to be changed right before we were called up to the window.  The man behind the window was MORE than happy to wait a few moments for Brian to finish with the diaper before coming with Mikayla.  After a few questions, we were on our way back to the guest house.

On our balcony at Yebsabi

This picture just makes me laugh.  We have lots of fun stories about Mikayla's bodily functions, and once again Laura was on the ball and captured her mid spit-up.  Haha!

Mikayla and her partner in crime, Silas.  These two are only a couple of weeks apart in age and were roomies at Acacia Village (with several other babies as well).  It was a blast getting to watch them together.  They enjoyed seeing who could be the loudest and taking each others' toys!

This was our first time giving Mikayla a bath.  She LOVED the water (and still does).

Lesson Learned from Today:

-Double check your bag BEFORE you leave for the embassy to make sure you aren't taking any prohibited items.  We stuffed what we needed in our backpack (which was our carry-on for the plane).  We forgot that we had our travel cell phone and a couple of sets of headphones still in the bag from the flight.  Whoops.  The workers at the embassy were insisting that we had a cell phone (NOT ALLOWED) and we were sure that we didn't.  We were totally the clueless Americans that I'm sure they rolled their eyes about.  Even though we totally held up the line and were so embarrassed, they were extremely gracious and kind to us.

THE Trip, Day 2: 6 Month Flashback

We woke early on Monday morning after having a full night's sleep.  We both noticed and were really excited that we didn't hear dogs or roosters at night on this trip.  We think staying on the other side of the guest house made a huge difference in noise.  We ate breakfast and got our things together.  Our driver was scheduled to pick us up early to go get our sweet girl.  We piled into the van with the Mummerts and headed out on the 25 minute drive to Acacia Village, where Mikayla had been living since October.  They took us up to the second story patio and when we stepped outside all of the babies were getting some outside time with the nannies.  We looked at each face and didn't see Mikayla among the 10 or so babies.  We looked at each other and wondered if this was a test!  Then around the corner came the staff with the Mummerts' boys, and Mikayla arrived shortly after.

Mikayla being placed in our arms for good!  This moment was so surreal, and I don't think we stopped smiling for hours after this.  The sweet nannies had even given Mikayla some tiny little braids!  Precious!

Who are you people?

We spent a bit of time relaxing with our kiddos, enjoying the beautiful Ethiopian weather.

Then we got to see the new room where Mikayla had been living since our last visit.  Remember how it was just after the Ethiopian celebration of Christmas when we were there?  We had to take a picture by the Christmas tree!

Feeding Mikayla solids for the first time while we talked with the nurse and social worker about details of Mikayla's schedule, personality, and behaviors.

Helen, the social worker for Acacia Village.  You could just feel how much she loves all of these children.  She had tears in her eyes when we left!  It was impossible to express our gratitude to all of the people who took such wonderful care of our daughter when we were not with her.  How can you say thank you for that?

In the van leaving with our sweetie

After saying our goodbyes, we went to CWA's office to finalize paperwork for the embassy.  Then, we set off to find the same formula that she had received while at Acacia Village.  Our kind driver, Z, drove to THREE grocery stores before we were able to find what we think was the correct formula.  Then, we headed back to Yebsabi for lunch and parenting :)

We quickly realized that Mikayla was having tummy trouble, which lasted until after we made it back to the States.  Almost as soon as we arrived back to our guest house, she needed a diaper change.  Let's just say our first diaper changing experience as parents was exciting/tragic/hilarious enough that Laura grabbed our video camera as I was calling for Brian's help and taped the whole experience (be thankful that I'm vetoing Brian's request to post that video on the blog)!

We managed to get Mikayla fed, down for a nap, and then tucked safely into bed later that evening.  We went to bed fairly early, expecting Mikayla to wake for one feeding during the night according to the schedule we received.  We were surprised when she woke for the first time at 11pm and then every three hours after that.  Unfortunately for Brian and me, once we woke up that first time, we never really fell back asleep thanks to the time difference.  We ended up talking and laughing in bed until it was time to get up with our early riser the next morning.

Lessons Learned from this day:

-A true friend is someone who will videotape your first diaper-changing-experience-gone-wrong

-Tummy troubles are likely, so don't be shocked!  I took what I thought was WAY more diapers and wipes than what we needed based on advice from friends.  We definitely used more than what we thought we would.

-Stopping at the grocery store for extra water and snacks/easy food to make made the rest of the week easier.

-Have a doctor appointment scheduled for your kiddos before you leave. We ended up emailing my mom to get her to call the doctor and have an appointment scheduled for us as soon as possible when we got back home.  

THE Trip, Day 1: 6 Month Flashback

Life six months ago was WAY too busy to record our thoughts and memories of our 2nd trip to Ethiopia.  But it is definitely something that we would like to have documented.  So, I am flashing back on the 6 month-iversary to share the details of our trip to pick up our daughter.  Enjoy the reflections over the next week!

We arrived in Ethiopia around 9:00 (Sunday, Ethiopian time) in the morning after traveling for what seemed like ages.  Our trip began with waking at 3:30am (Saturday, Eastern time) and a VERY early flight to Washington, D.C.  I was as nervous as could be driving to the airport, but relaxed some as soon as we got checked in and at the gate.  We met a few very sweet people at our gate and chatted until we boarded.  I knew that we were in for an emotional trip when one of the ladies whom we had just met handed me a bit of cash to buy something for our daughter because she was so touched by our story.  It wasn't even 6am and I was already crying!

We arrived in D.C., had breakfast and walked around the terminal waiting for our friends the Mummert family and the Diaz family to arrive.  We were so excited to see the Mummerts again and to actually meet the Diaz family face-to-face since we had only met virtually.  Knowing that we were going to experience this part of our journey with these two families was so reassuring to us.  Our weeks of emailing each other and talking about preparations were finally coming to a head as we boarded our plane to our children. 

The highlight of our travel day (other than meeting up with friends, of course) was seeing Rob Lowe in the airport.  Let's just say it was a LONG day of travel.  We were definitely hoping to sleep quite a bit on the plane, but each of us only slept a couple of hours, which made the flight seem that much longer.  We were thrilled when our plane touched down in Africa!

The driver from our guest house met us at the airport and it was such an amazing feeling to have our feet on Ethiopian soil once again.  We checked into our suite with the Mummerts at Yebsabi, and it felt like we were home again.  We had high hopes of doing something fun Sunday afternoon, but our goal quickly became to just stay awake so that we would sleep through the night.  We were all absolutely exhausted.  In fact, we barely made it out to eat at Makush art gallery and restaurant.  This was one of our favorite places to eat in Ethiopia.  The food was good, and seeing the artwork was cool as well.  We made it back to Yebsabi, and Brian and I finally gave up on staying awake and crashed at 7pm and slept like rocks for the whole night.  We knew that we would be traveling to pick up Mikayla first thing in the morning!

We only have 3 pictures from our travel day and first day in Ethiopia.  They are ALL of Brian on the plane.  To be quite honest, we were too tired the entire two days to think of taking pictures, and Brian's face pretty much sums up how we were feeling!

Lessons Learned from this day:

-If the connecting flight to make your international flight is REALLY early in the morning, fly up the night before and stay in a hotel so you are starting the trip well rested.

-Check out carry-on luggage restrictions for specific airlines (especially foreign airlines that might have different regulations).  We sat at the gate and totally reorganized our carry-on bags because we learned that we had to check one of them because of size!

-Think about taking something to help with sleep so that you arrive at your destination well rested like the lady sitting next to you that slept for 10 hours out of the 12 hour flight :)

-If you ask for enough refills of water in a short period of time, the flight attendant might have mercy on you and just give you the whole huge bottle of water.

A Different Kind of Christmas Miracle

Well, friends we have what one calls an Ethiopian Christmas miracle on our hands.  Christmas is celebrated on January 7th in Ethiopia, and we are LEAVING TO GO PICK MIKAYLA UP ON JANUARY 8th!!!  Originally we thought that our Christmas miracle was traveling to pick her up for our Christmas, but we are celebrating that God works everything in His timing.
If you live anywhere near us, the noise you heard this morning were my shouts for joy, songs of praise, and general freaking out from excitement when Brian called to share the news. Our agency collected our additional documentation, translated it, and submitted it to the embassy in what I think is record time, so we are cleared to travel for the January 11th embassy date.  We serve a mighty God, and miracles happen. 

Prasing Him as I pack and prepare to fly around the world in TWO days to be united as a family.

Spiritual Food

So this hasn't been an easy week by any stretch of the imagination.  In fact, while we celebrated the joy of Christmas, we have also grieved quite a bit.  Thank goodness though, our God is gracious and His mercies are new every morning.  Over the past week, God has given us quite a bit of spiritual food that has helped sustain us through this difficult time.  Much of this nourishment for our hearts and spirits has come from you all!  You have shared words of encouragement, scripture, songs, quotes, and prayers.  For that, we are eternally grateful.  One form of spiritual food was a seed planted in both Brian and I...an older hymn that neither of us had really heard or thought of in a while.  But, over the last week, we have sung it together, hummed it, and meditated on it often.  I'm so thankful that this song of comfort has popped into our hearts and minds.

Great is Thy Faithfulness

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;

There is no shadow of turning with Thee;

Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;

As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

Refrain

Great is Thy faithfulness!

Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see.

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon and stars in their courses above

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Refrain

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Refrain

We will continue to feast on every bit of spiritual food that we are given.  Still trusting and praising our Strength for Today and our Bright Hope for Tomorrow!

A Roller Coaster

Yesterday we got the news that we DIDN'T want to hear.  We found out from our case manager that the embassy has decided to require extra paperwork/documentation; so we will not be traveling for the December 28th embassy date as we originally thought.  To make the situation even more complicated, the orphanage where our daughter was housed is now tasked with collecting documentation and reconnecting with people who were initially involved in her case (from about 10 months ago)!  Since this is a completely new requirement we have no idea how long it will take to gather this information and be reassigned an embassy date.  It might not even be the next available date, which is January 11th.  Honestly, we are shocked and crushed, but we have hope.  We are praying for God to move mountains and carve a quick path to our sweet girl.   Yesterday was a hard day and extremely emotional, but a friend April, posted a passage from Lamentations on her blog as part of her 12 Days of Christmas series that gave my soul desperately needed peace.  It is Lamentations 3:19-30 (from the Message)

19-21  I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness,

the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed.

I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—

the feeling of hitting the bottom.

But there's one other thing I remember,

and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

22-24God's loyal love couldn't have run out,

his merciful love couldn't have dried up.

They're created new every morning.

How great your faithfulness!

I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over).

He's all I've got left.

25-27  God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,

to the woman who diligently seeks.

It's a good thing to quietly hope,

quietly hope for help from God.

It's a good thing when you're young

to stick it out through the hard times.

28-30 When life is heavy and hard to take,

go off by yourself. Enter the silence.

Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions:

Wait for hope to appear.

Don't run from trouble. Take it full-face.

The "worst" is never the worst.

We need your prayers and support right now.  Please know that as soon as we have updated information, we will shout from the rooftops and share with everyone!

The Answer!

Remember the question that we are asked so often now?  Well, we got an answer yesterday!  We are on track for the December 28th embassy date.  This means that, as long as everything goes as scheduled, Mikayla will be home by the end of 2010.  Not only are we basking in God's goodness that we got the December date, but we are still in shock that we found out THIS week.  We are so thankful for the prayers.  We have lots to prepare, so please continue to pray as we make all of our arrangements.

A Bit of Progress!

We found out on Tuesday that Mikayla Tamir's birth certificate is ready to go, which another step in getting that embassy date that we have been praying for!  It was WAY cool to see Brian and I listed as her father and mother.  As our case manager mentioned when we asked about the possibility of getting the December 28th embassy date, "there are still plenty of opportunities for delay."  Her passport needs to be ready, she needs to have another round of medical testing, and there are only 10 slots for each embassy date.  Lots of hurdles, but we have a strong hope that everything will be in place by December 14th so that we can be assigned an embassy date of December 28th.  Please pray with us!

THE Number 1 Question

Brian and I feel totally and completely loved.  Not a single day has gone by since our court trip that we don't get asked, "when do you get to bring Mikayla home?".  Usually we each get asked multiple times in a given day.  It touches our hearts that so many people care for our family and are praying Mikayla into our arms forever.  The short answer is that we don't know yet.  We are waiting (kind of patiently) to be assigned an embassy date.  The staff in Ethiopia is gathering documentation to submit to the US Embassy in Ethiopia.  The latest news seems to be that we are waiting for her new birth certificate.  Once all of the documentation is in order, our agency can submit paperwork every other Tuesday.  The next date is December 14th.  If everything is in order and submitted on the 14th, we could get assigned an embassy date of December 28th.  This is our prayer!  Please join us in praying that her birth certificate would be ready and our case accepted at the embassy on December 14th. 

Oddly enough...the second most frequently asked question that I get (at least 3 or 4 times a week):  Have you gotten your little girl home yet?  Smiles :)  You'll know she is home because I won't want to let go of her!

Also-I know day 1 of our trip was incredible, but I haven't forgotten about the other days!  Life has just been non-stop since we got home.  Stay tuned for more posts about our trip.