Well this is a LONG overdue closing post for this blog. The past couple of months I've had plenty to say but it was mostly not stuff that belonged on Malachi's adoption blog. For that I've written a new blog and you can check it out here. If you've got a link to our blog on your blog please update the link if you wish. When we set out this blog was mainly to record the journey we went through to adopt Malachi. It's been an incredible adventure and we have been so blessed to go through it and now have a lifetime of blessings to come with Malachi.
The past few months have gone tremendously well. When we had our home study follow up visit we told the social worker that the "adoption" part of things had almost gone too easy. Malachi has been a great baby. He has adjusted so well. It's amazing how much Leah and him love each other. There has been very little if any jealousy expressed by Leah. We'll see how his birthday goes and how things progress but so far so good! I sit now and watch through the fireplace and see them playing in the living room and it's incredible. Leah has got a few licks in on him but she better do it now before he catches up with her size wise. He's just about there so when he starts walking, watch out.
Healthwise since we've been home has been rough. Several parasites made it through our family, Sarah and Leah have had MRSA, Malachi has had ear infection after ear infection and thankfully gets tubes tomorrow, and numerous other ailments. Hopefully we're on the mend, but we've felt that way before.
Ethiopia is an incredible country and we feel blessed that we were blessed with Malachi. We hope as he grows up we can include his culture into our household. It's also amazing the emotions we feel towards that country. Our trip was exhuasting and with everything we brought home healthwise there was a time when I thought I never wanted to go back. Oh I wish I could take those thoughts back, it was an incredible country and I am so ready to go back now.
Many have asked if we plan to adopt again. As of right now we have no idea. We truly have no idea what God will call us to in regards to family expansion in the future. At times we think we're done with 2, at times we want a large family, at times we want more biological children, more times than not we want more adopted children, but who knows in the grand scheme where we'll wind up. We love our family now and are really enjoying being a family of four. Thanks for following along on the adventure. It has been real, it has been fun, and it has been real fun:)
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Survival
Survival basically sums up our past couple of weeks. On the adoption front things have gone wonderfully. Malachi is dearly attached to Sarah and that is awesome. He cries if she leaves the room and wants her to hold him all the time. If dad comes through the room and doesn't stop and talk he doesn't like that either. Leah has done awesome with being a big sister. There are a few moments of jealousy but she loves her brother so much and always wants to sit on the ground and hold him and then she pushes him on the floor. She better get her licks in now because I have a feeling he will be a big boy and it won't be too much longer until he can walk and is bigger than her. It's been pretty cool to see them interact with each other. Malachi pretty much sleeps through the night about 1/2 the time and the other 1/2 he wakes up once a night. Not bad. We have been blessed with easy children. It's amazing though the difference between 1 and 2. We have easy children but it still completely changes things!! For the good though!!
Our health is the area we have been struggling with the past couple of weeks. First of all Malachi came home with giardia. That is basically a strong stomach bug that takes antibiotics to get rid of. Sarah then came down with MRSA staph infection, who knows where she got that at. They gave her incredibly strong antibitotics to get rid of that which caused allergic reactions among other things. Then Leah developed some bacteria which was basically another stomach but that did clear up by itself. Then Sarah caught that stomach bug. All in all NOT fun. We spend one whole day in the emergency room with one of the illnesses. EIGHT hours in the emergency room. Again NOT fun. Then tonight Leah starts running a temperature. What is this????? We are so ready to be a healthy family of four. We know this will pass but are ready for it now and want to open our windows and air out our house.
Back to the adoption front it's amazing how that all works out. Some people wonder if they can love a child that isn't their "own". I can tell you with out a doubt that we 100% love Malachi as much as Leah. As I was putting him down tonight it hit me how we truly consider him one of us. Even though his skin color is different and he came from 1/2 way around the world he is truly ours. Adoption is just amazing as birth I believe. Malachi was chosen to be our son and we had to jump through so many hurdles and hoops and paperwork but it all worked out just like God had planned. Our move last February slowed us down by several weeks in getting our paperwork done, our home study took longer to get reviewed than it should have, and many other things along the way we considered little bumps but as it turns out they were all Gods way of matching us with the most perfect son. We truly are blessed with our 2 children. Wouldn't trade them for the world!!
Our health is the area we have been struggling with the past couple of weeks. First of all Malachi came home with giardia. That is basically a strong stomach bug that takes antibiotics to get rid of. Sarah then came down with MRSA staph infection, who knows where she got that at. They gave her incredibly strong antibitotics to get rid of that which caused allergic reactions among other things. Then Leah developed some bacteria which was basically another stomach but that did clear up by itself. Then Sarah caught that stomach bug. All in all NOT fun. We spend one whole day in the emergency room with one of the illnesses. EIGHT hours in the emergency room. Again NOT fun. Then tonight Leah starts running a temperature. What is this????? We are so ready to be a healthy family of four. We know this will pass but are ready for it now and want to open our windows and air out our house.
Back to the adoption front it's amazing how that all works out. Some people wonder if they can love a child that isn't their "own". I can tell you with out a doubt that we 100% love Malachi as much as Leah. As I was putting him down tonight it hit me how we truly consider him one of us. Even though his skin color is different and he came from 1/2 way around the world he is truly ours. Adoption is just amazing as birth I believe. Malachi was chosen to be our son and we had to jump through so many hurdles and hoops and paperwork but it all worked out just like God had planned. Our move last February slowed us down by several weeks in getting our paperwork done, our home study took longer to get reviewed than it should have, and many other things along the way we considered little bumps but as it turns out they were all Gods way of matching us with the most perfect son. We truly are blessed with our 2 children. Wouldn't trade them for the world!!
Monday, February 16, 2009
We are alive.....
We are alive, it just doesn't seem like we have been the past 2 1/2 days since we got home. Things have been a blur but have been great.
First, the welecome at the airport was incredible. Many people in the adoption community have strong opinions against big welcome parties so we struggled with what to do about that. So many people wanted to see him and we wanted to see familar faces so in the end we decided to invite everyone. Every situation is different but we are 100% sure we made the right one. Thank each and every one of you that came out there and we heard from so many who couldn't make it and we missed you and hope to see everyone soon. Our friends Matt and Meredith took pictures and put together a slide show. You can view Matt's website here and our slideshow here.
Malachi has adjusted extremely well, especially considering the circumstances. For those of you at the airport he was not himself and remained in zombie stage pretty much until yesterday morning. Since then he has gone 90 mph. If we could just get these horrible diapers gone things would be great. Also he has this habit of waking up once a night, so if we could end that we would appreciate it as well:) Just kidding, we were so lucky with Leah pretty much sleeping through the night from very early on this once a night thing has been rough on us. We do know we are extremely lucky with this as well.
Leah is a great big sister. I'm off work today and when I went to get her out of her room her first words were, "Where's Malachi", not "Where's mommy" like they usually are. She loves him to death. We've experienced some slight jealousy and regression but we've been pretty lucky. We missed her so much and are so glad to be home.
Sarah and I are doing good our selves. Flyright does work for a jet lag formula so if you are traveling overseas we reccomend it. The flight back was great and Malachi was a piece of cake. He slept most of the way and the other time he just sat on our lap and played with his toys. We aren't really jetlagged too much except for going to bed early and getting up early. Hopefully as we get into a "routine" the next few days we will do better. We tried going to eat at Chilli's on Saturday, DISASTER, we tried Wal Mart today, BETTER, but not great.
We owe a ton of thanks to everyone who helped make this process possible. We appreciate each and everyone one of you. Most of all though thank you to our families. Sarah's parents gave up two weeks to come take care of Leah and watch our house. We are so thankful for that and Leah loved it, we can tell. Also thanks to my parents who left this morning. Without them yesterday we might not have made it. We pretty much hit the wall yesterday both physically and mentally. They watched the kids why we just zoned out. Thanks again to everyone.
My only complaint about the whole trip is our US Customs department. This is very arrogant of me I know but there is no reason why I should wait in line 2 hours with only 6 people ahead of me. Make the process simpler or add a line for adoptive parents or American citizens sponsoring immigrants. My wife sat covered in leaking baby diaper for 2 hours while the customs officers, who worked as fast as typical government workers, tried to assist people who could speak no english and had no idea what help the needed. So frustrating. Other than that our trip was awesome. All our suitcases made it both ways, ALL six of our flights arrived EARLY at every destination, our agency was great, and our hotel, well it was ok.
We'll post some more about our trip and our thoughts/reflections on the trip and then we'll shut down this blog and start a new blog about our family of four.
Later,
Adam
First, the welecome at the airport was incredible. Many people in the adoption community have strong opinions against big welcome parties so we struggled with what to do about that. So many people wanted to see him and we wanted to see familar faces so in the end we decided to invite everyone. Every situation is different but we are 100% sure we made the right one. Thank each and every one of you that came out there and we heard from so many who couldn't make it and we missed you and hope to see everyone soon. Our friends Matt and Meredith took pictures and put together a slide show. You can view Matt's website here and our slideshow here.
Malachi has adjusted extremely well, especially considering the circumstances. For those of you at the airport he was not himself and remained in zombie stage pretty much until yesterday morning. Since then he has gone 90 mph. If we could just get these horrible diapers gone things would be great. Also he has this habit of waking up once a night, so if we could end that we would appreciate it as well:) Just kidding, we were so lucky with Leah pretty much sleeping through the night from very early on this once a night thing has been rough on us. We do know we are extremely lucky with this as well.
Leah is a great big sister. I'm off work today and when I went to get her out of her room her first words were, "Where's Malachi", not "Where's mommy" like they usually are. She loves him to death. We've experienced some slight jealousy and regression but we've been pretty lucky. We missed her so much and are so glad to be home.
Sarah and I are doing good our selves. Flyright does work for a jet lag formula so if you are traveling overseas we reccomend it. The flight back was great and Malachi was a piece of cake. He slept most of the way and the other time he just sat on our lap and played with his toys. We aren't really jetlagged too much except for going to bed early and getting up early. Hopefully as we get into a "routine" the next few days we will do better. We tried going to eat at Chilli's on Saturday, DISASTER, we tried Wal Mart today, BETTER, but not great.
We owe a ton of thanks to everyone who helped make this process possible. We appreciate each and everyone one of you. Most of all though thank you to our families. Sarah's parents gave up two weeks to come take care of Leah and watch our house. We are so thankful for that and Leah loved it, we can tell. Also thanks to my parents who left this morning. Without them yesterday we might not have made it. We pretty much hit the wall yesterday both physically and mentally. They watched the kids why we just zoned out. Thanks again to everyone.
My only complaint about the whole trip is our US Customs department. This is very arrogant of me I know but there is no reason why I should wait in line 2 hours with only 6 people ahead of me. Make the process simpler or add a line for adoptive parents or American citizens sponsoring immigrants. My wife sat covered in leaking baby diaper for 2 hours while the customs officers, who worked as fast as typical government workers, tried to assist people who could speak no english and had no idea what help the needed. So frustrating. Other than that our trip was awesome. All our suitcases made it both ways, ALL six of our flights arrived EARLY at every destination, our agency was great, and our hotel, well it was ok.
We'll post some more about our trip and our thoughts/reflections on the trip and then we'll shut down this blog and start a new blog about our family of four.
Later,
Adam
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Pictures
Well we are home and doing GREAT. I'll post details yet but thought I would throw out some pics first.
Adam
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Praise God, Earlier Flight!!!
Well the prayers you all lifted up yesterday must have helped. We got moved to an earlier flight, we think, from Amsterdam to Detroit. This does NOT put us home any earlier than scheduled but gives us 4 hours in Detroit to get through customs. I would much rather have the 4 hour layover in Detroit than our original 6 hour layover in Amsterdam.
I don't know that I will get a chance to blog again before we get home. I will try and blog once we are through customs and settled in Detroit. I am so ready for unsweet ice tea. There is no such thing as ice tea over here but we couldn't drink with ice anyway.
Sarah and I both are experiencing minor health issues. Nothing outside of what some in our group have had and nothing that we didn't expect. It's still not fun though. It's basically a stomach bug. We either ate something we shouldn't or got some water from here in our system. Anyway pray we make is safely home and arrive at 4:40 tomorow!!!!!!! Let the countdown begin!!
Windows Live™: E-mail. Chat. Share. Get more ways to connect. Check it out.
I don't know that I will get a chance to blog again before we get home. I will try and blog once we are through customs and settled in Detroit. I am so ready for unsweet ice tea. There is no such thing as ice tea over here but we couldn't drink with ice anyway.
Sarah and I both are experiencing minor health issues. Nothing outside of what some in our group have had and nothing that we didn't expect. It's still not fun though. It's basically a stomach bug. We either ate something we shouldn't or got some water from here in our system. Anyway pray we make is safely home and arrive at 4:40 tomorow!!!!!!! Let the countdown begin!!
Windows Live™: E-mail. Chat. Share. Get more ways to connect. Check it out.
One Day Left
It's with very bittersweet emotions that we are down to one last day. The trip has been incredible and life chaning on so many fronts but in so many ways we are so ready to get one. Number one reason is to see Leah. We can't wait to talk off the airport and see her.
Today was a VERY emotional day. We started out with a farewell party for all the kids at the care center. All the parents had to take a turn saying something and as you can guess that became quite emotional. The care center staff put together quite the part including cake, cookies, and a traditional coffee ceremony. The care center staff clearly love the kids and it shows.
After the farewell party we actually left the kids for a few hours while we finished up our shopping. Sounds confusing we know!! We got lots of great stuff. We bought a ton of stuff to share with Malachi over the years and we so hope that we can show him how to appreciate his culture.
After the shopping trip we had to go pick him up from the care center for the last time. Talk about gut wrenching. Words can't begin to express the love the nannies have for the kids and it was so hard for them to let him go and so hard for us to take him away at the same time.
Tomorrow is a day of rest and packing and gearing up for our 20 plus hour flight home. PLEASE pray for traveling mercies. God has been so good to us so far on this trip and we ask that He give us another great round of flights. Specifically pray for our flight through Detroit. We currently only have 1 1/2 hours to get through customs and onboard our next flight. We are trying to change it to allow us more time and still get home on schedule at 4:40. We are scheduled to get home at 4:40. Several of you have asked and we welcome anyone at the airport that wishes to see us home. If for some reason we have a change in plans we will TRY and blog asap so no one goes to the airport and we aren't there. Again, please pray that all goes well. We so badly want to get home and want nothing to get in the way of us getting home.
Thank you guys all for sharing this journey with us. Hopefully soon we can put into words what this trip has meant to us and all we have learned through this whole process. It's been amazing.
Windows Live™: E-mail. Chat. Share. Get more ways to connect. Check it out.
Today was a VERY emotional day. We started out with a farewell party for all the kids at the care center. All the parents had to take a turn saying something and as you can guess that became quite emotional. The care center staff put together quite the part including cake, cookies, and a traditional coffee ceremony. The care center staff clearly love the kids and it shows.
After the farewell party we actually left the kids for a few hours while we finished up our shopping. Sounds confusing we know!! We got lots of great stuff. We bought a ton of stuff to share with Malachi over the years and we so hope that we can show him how to appreciate his culture.
After the shopping trip we had to go pick him up from the care center for the last time. Talk about gut wrenching. Words can't begin to express the love the nannies have for the kids and it was so hard for them to let him go and so hard for us to take him away at the same time.
Tomorrow is a day of rest and packing and gearing up for our 20 plus hour flight home. PLEASE pray for traveling mercies. God has been so good to us so far on this trip and we ask that He give us another great round of flights. Specifically pray for our flight through Detroit. We currently only have 1 1/2 hours to get through customs and onboard our next flight. We are trying to change it to allow us more time and still get home on schedule at 4:40. We are scheduled to get home at 4:40. Several of you have asked and we welcome anyone at the airport that wishes to see us home. If for some reason we have a change in plans we will TRY and blog asap so no one goes to the airport and we aren't there. Again, please pray that all goes well. We so badly want to get home and want nothing to get in the way of us getting home.
Thank you guys all for sharing this journey with us. Hopefully soon we can put into words what this trip has meant to us and all we have learned through this whole process. It's been amazing.
Windows Live™: E-mail. Chat. Share. Get more ways to connect. Check it out.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)