It's Time!

Bags are packed. There are still loose ends, but I guess we're as ready as we'll ever be...

Addis here we come!

We will fly out in the morning to Denver then D.C. We will overnight in D.C. then catch the morning flight straight to Addis Ababa (15 hours) and arrive in Addis at 8:00 a.m. Ethiopia is 9 hours ahead of MST. We will actually wait in the Addis airport for the day and catch a flight to Mekele that afternoon. The care center where the girls spent this past year is there and the girls supposedly come from that region, so we want to do all that we can to catch a glimpse of part of their roots. They deserve that. We have one full bag loaded with donations for the care center there.

We will return to Addis on Monday morning and will meet our daughters on Tuesday morning. From that moment on, they are permanently in our care.
Wahoooo! I CAN'T WAIT! (0;

We will leave for home Friday evening and fly into SLC late Saturday night. We will overnight in SLC and head home Sunday morning. We are hoping to keep visitors to a minimum--not because we don't want all our friends and family to meet our beautiful daughters, but due to attachment issues. The girls have had a number of transitions in their short lives and will likely view this change as just one more transition. It may take a while for them to realize that this is HOME. We are their FAMILY. FOREVER. Meeting a lot of new people may confuse the process of them attaching to our family. Meeting lots of new people and suddenly being dropped in the middle of American society may cause massive over-stimulation. Any visitor is likely to be viewed as a potential person to come take them away to another orphanage. Without having properly attached to us, the introduction of Friend or Grandma or Uncle means nothing to them. Nothing, at least, until they truly see me as Mom and Colt as Dad and Wy and Noah as their brothers. We haven't a clue of what will happen after we bring them home, because it is up to them and their history and their ability to adapt. And it is up to our ability to recognize and facilitate their ability to attach to us.

I will write more on this after we bring them home...when reality is in our laps and we know our daughters a little better. I just wanted to warn those that if you do not see the girls in church or are not invited immediately over after we come home, please don't take it personally. We still love you and you will meet our daughters, just give us a few weeks to get to know each other.

THANKS!


A few have asked for some phrases/words in Tigrinya to help them communicate with the girls. I have written a few below. Keep in mind, most words have two to four versions depending on who you are speaking to (male, female, male plural, female plural, plural formal, etc.). It's not easy! I have just included the female version as that is who you are talking to in our case.

Tigrinyan Primer:

Hello: Selam
Good-bye: Dehan kunee
Welcome: Merhaba
Yes: Uway
No: ayknonen
Please: bejakee
Thank you: yekanyeley
How are you?: Kemay alekee?
My name is...: Shemay ..... iyu
I don't understand: ayeterede-anen


I will add more later, but now I think we're ready to head to SLC. I will try to update the blog while in Ethiopia--there is Internet service, but the power is unreliable.

Thanks to all for your love and support...heeeere weeeeeee GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...