First Week in Michigan

In his first week in Michigan, Turo...

found a new favorite plaything - cooling racks

(he loves taking them out of the cupboard and carrying them around the house)

met new friends was introduced to Great Grandma (also known as G.G.)

fell in love with Auntie Jess

played with his cousins
watched the "beep-beeps" (aka cars & trucks) come and go

and

was madly loved by his mama.

Tiny Tope

Santa Fe, Summer 2008

Ann Arbor, Summer 2009

Happy Father's Day

We love you, Papi!

Ethiopia, Buturo, Michigan. Oh, My!

In the last 30 days, we have become parents, traveled to Ethiopia and packed up all our belongings to move back to Ann Arbor, Michigan. It has been a crazy, wonderful & stressful time for us. We left Michigan three years ago to try out Texas living. The Lone Star State was a great adventure for us, but our hearts never really left home. We have moved back to our house (that didn't sell and that has been beautifully spruced-up by our friends who lived here for over a year) and Jose is going back to his old job. Sometimes life just all clicks into place. We arrived yesterday, and I am over the moon to be back.

Now that I have regular Internet access & life may slow down a bit, I may actually type out all the posts I have been writing in my head about the last month.

A big thanks to

Jose's Parents who let us stay with them for a week while we wrapped things up in Dallas.

My dad who not only met us in Houston, but also helped us pack up our Dallas house, drove my car to Ann Arbor and then helped coordinate the movers here.

My mom who has spent the last four weekends getting things ready for us and is taking all next week off to help us unpack.

Buturo in our spartan Dallas home.

(We stayed here for a week on air mattresses as our stuff traveled North.)

Buturo playing in his new playroom this morning.

Eating "picnic style" in Dallas.

A more civilized way to dine.

My attempt at a photo of Buturo's first meeting of Grandma.

Seven dollars

In a pre-Ethiopia organizing-spree, I put together a bag of books to take to our local book re-seller. With titles like What to Expect When Expecting, Your Vegetarian Pregnancy, Everything You Need to Know About Adoption and Your Guide to International Adoption, this bag represented our 2 ½ year long journey to become a family.

On Wednesday, my friend Carli, Turo and I ventured out to Half-Priced Books with the bag in tow. We sipped Iced-Chai Lattes and fed Buturo a Snickerdoodle while we waited for the books to be evaluated. After collecting my $7 voucher, I watched Carli and Turo play peek-a-boo from across the store. I stopped for a moment to let it sink in - this really happened for us. Those books and the hopes they symbolized led us to this lovely, energetic, big-eyed charmer who calls out mama when he wakes up and whose giggle makes me choke up each time I hear it. And there in Half Priced Books I released all that was and headed back towards all that will be.

Ethiopian Magic

Here is my attempt at capturing our week in Ethiopia. The music is from a CD our driver made for us (he really went above and beyond many times).

Airport Photos

At some point I will get it together enough to write about our trip (have I mentioned it was amazing?). These are some photos my dad took. He flew in from Denver to meet us at the airport. Grandpa Jim rocks.

Travel Tips

Since things were fresh on my mind, I thought I’d dedicate a post to travel tips. I will soon work on photos and tales of our actual visit.

You are going to have an incredible time. Ethiopia is amazing and wonderful and you won’t come back the same. Here are some random things that you might find helpful as you get ready to go.

Letting go
When you get on the plane, let go. Let go of your worries, your expectations, your to-do lists. Be open to the experience you are about to have.
Sight-seeing
Go out and do stuff. Ethiopia is incredible! I felt like I owed it to Buturo to learn all I could about his country and culture. If your agency offers caretakers, use them . These gals have been taking care of your kid for months. They know what to do (this is their job.) I think it was good for Buturo to be around familiar people and language. Most days we would feed him breakfast, play, leave for the afternoon and come home in time for dinner and bedtime. He fussed the first few days when his caretaker left, but later in the week he was happy to see us when we got back.
Packing
Take out 1/3 of your and your partner's stuff. I packed all sorts of snacks, books, clothes, drugs for Jose & me and they came back untouched. (The baby stuff I packed, however, all came in handy) On the plane, I only used my earphones to watch movies and I read a little. If you have a long layover in Dubai, it was nice to have a change clothes and basics for freshening up a bit at the hotel. The hotel had soap and shampoo. At the guest house, they did our laundry twice. I didn’t pack very much clothing and was fine. And they have stores in Addis for food items you might need. I wouldn’t have packed as much food. (I did, however, enjoy the peanut butter I brought for a few late night snacks.) Plus we still ended up buying pasta, cookies, bread, injera, nutella, water, eggs and powered milk in Addis. And take lots of large ziplock bags (this was a tip from another family and it came in handy for lots of stuff)
Begging
People will come up to you on the street and it is tough. We asked our driver about handling this situation and he suggested giving out food. We ended up passing out our snacks to people who came up to the car as we drove around.
Tummy issues
I have a super sensitive stomach, so I was very nervous about eating in Ethiopia. On the advice of others, I took priobiotics every night starting a week before the trip, and I took two pepto tablets with every meal. We ate at the restaurants our agency suggested, and I had no stomach issues at all while we there. I couldn’t believe it.
Your driver
Utilize your driver. Ours rocked! He had the scoop on the interesting places and knew all sorts of stuff about Ethiopia. Make sure to ask lots of questions. Ethiopians are proud of their country and seemed eager to share with others.
This moment is all there is
You only get to meet your child for the first time once. You will only visit the birth country of your child for the first time once. Release all the other stuff and savor the experience.

Our first family photo

(1.5 hours after we landed)

A Peek

We're back. We had the most amazing week. There are a ton of photos to share, but they are various memory cards. (I need to wait for Jose to put them all in one place.)

Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes! We truly are a very lucky family of 3.