Mixed Feelings...

Here's a post for those of you who are following our ever-changing timeline. I can hardly keep track of it myself...

The jist of it is this: Our timeline has been extended again. We will likely meet our children by the end of the year. We'll be lucky if we meet our children by Thanksgiving.

Why the delay? Well, we still don't have our MOWA letter (though our agency expects it by next week), so we still don't have a court date. Our agency is now expecting that our court date will happen after the Ethiopian courts re-open in October. After our children pass court in Ethiopia, the adoption is final, but we won't be able to meet them for another 6-8 weeks (lots of logistics need to be worked out before we arrive).

Our feelings are mixed. Of course, we're upset that our children will have to wait without a family for another few months, and we're sad for ourselves that we can't yet share our lives with our children. We miss our children like crazy and we haven't even met them yet! How are we going to make it through another few months??? That said, I feel some sense of relief because I know when (approximately) we'll meet our kids. I'm a planner, and now I can plan the next few months with some sense of certainty. That part of it feels good. Again, our feelings our mixed.

To keep ourselves occupied, we've been doing all sorts of things lately: learning more Amharic (our children's native language), preparing photo albums for our family, organizing our house for kids, writing the life histories of our children in a story format (it's called a "lifebook"), and attempting to cook more Ethiopian food. More to come on some of these topics soon!

Things are Looking Up!

So, the rumor I feared turned out to be true, but now there is so much good news coming in, that I'm not too worried about it anymore!


The Rumor I Feared That Turned Out to Be True

Ethiopia's Ministry of Women's Affairs (MOWA) offices unexpectedly closed late last week for at least 2 weeks. This was BAD news because we've been waiting for the new MOWA office in Nazret to write a letter for us so that we can be assigned a court date. What made it worse is that the courts have historically closed for August and September during Ethiopia's rainy season. That meant that we had a much shorter window in which to be assigned a court date and pass court before court closed. If we didn't pass before court closed, we'd be looking at an October court date which meant that we'd likely be traveling in DECEMBER (instead of September or October).

The Good News From Late Last Week

Our agency has confirmed that, finally, some letters have been written by the new MOWA office in Nazret (before it closed unexpectedly for a couple weeks). This is VERY GOOD news because these were the very first letters ever written from this office and that means that progress is being made! We are likely near the top of their letter-writing list. That said, our agency cannot tell us whether or not our children's letters are among those already written. This gives us a better chance at passing court before it closes.

The Good Nearly-Confirmed Rumor

There is a new rumor going around that the courts are not going to close for the month of August (they usually close in August and September). Some say that our agency has confirmed it, but I haven't heard it directly from them yet. This is EXTREMELY GOOD news, especially when coupled with the news that the new MOWA office in Nazret is finally writing letters. This means that hope has returned for us to travel sometime in September or October. The sooner, the better!


So, hopefully, we'll have a court date before too long! Please keep sending good vibes our way... We still need them!

I Hate Rumors!

I especially hate rumors when the truth might not be working in our favor... A rumor is spreading like wildfire in Ethiopian adoption circles today. I'm not going to go into the details of it here because it isn't confirmed yet by our agency. I'm waiting for a call back from them. Suffice it to say, that if it IS true, this is BAD NEWS for us. It would likely delay our process significantly (by at least a few months). I guess the silver lining is that our match with our children isn't in jeopardy. Still, PLEASE let the rumor NOT be true!

All the Way from Jacksonville, Introducing Miss Michelle!

No, we didn't name her. This is the given name of this mannekin with beautiful natural African hair. Chris from Sally's Beauty Supply in Minneapolis looked long and far for her. She isn't available in any of the local stores, so she had to be ordered. After searching for a couple of days, he found her... in Jacksonville! She arrived in Minneapolis couple days ago. :) We look forward to practicing lots of hairstyles on her before we practice on our girls!

Caring for our children's curly and natural African hair will be very different than caring for our straight Caucasian hair, so we've been trying to learn as much as we can by:

* checking out African hair care classes! My favorite classes were with the African American Adoption Agency, at the Minnesota Adoption Resource Network's annual conference, and during Ethiopians for Ethiopians classes.

* reading books! The three that rise to the top are "Kinki Kreations", "Kids Talk Hair", and "It's All Good Hair".

* buying children's books that positively portray natural African hair. My favorites are "I Love My Hair!" and "Bippity Bop Barbershop".

* watching YouTube videos! Katelynlyn has some AMAZING videos that show how to do a variety of hairstyles, including cornrows, twists, veil-style, piggy-back braids, and many others!

* choosing products we want to start with. Given lots of recommendations, we've decided to start with the KeraCare line of products.

* discovering salons, barber shops, and hair care supply stores that cater to people with natural African hair. Too many to list here!

We're excited about applying what we've learned to the beautiful hair of each of our kids! Here are some of our very first attempts with Miss Michelle:


Hairstyle #1: Flat Twists in the Front, Hanging Twists in the Back

Hairstyle #2: Four Pony Tails with Hanging Twists, Flat Twist in the Front

So those are are very first attempts! It takes us a LONG time to do this, but hopefully with practice, we'll get a little faster and more skilled. :)

To any veteran hairstylists out there who might be reading this, feel free to give any tips or hints!!!