Family Day

Today is Family Day, the day we were granted guardianship from the orphanage, finally became a Forever Family!

“Race, blood, lineage, and nationality don't matter; they're just the way that small minds keep score. All that matters about blood is that it's warm and that it beats through a loving heart.” 

― Scott Simon, Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other: In Praise of Adoption

Court Anniversary

 

St Patrick's Day is a lucky day in our family, it is the day we went in front of the Ethiopian court to profess our love and devotation for our daughter. We are so lucky to be the parents to this amazing girl!

 

"Go and wake up your luck."

~Persian Proverb

 

 

Celebrating Mawerdi!

It has been two years since we looked into those Big Brown Beautiful eyes for the first time! We can't imagine our lives without her and will always remember this day as Mawerdi Day, since it is truly all about her...waiting to see her smile and precious face for the first time, waiting to hold her tiny hands and kissing her soft forehead....it was and is a day for Celebrating Mawerdi! So how did we celebrate? By going to one of our favorite places for a burger and fries and then ending the day at home, just enjoying our time together as a family in the backyard by the creek. We are so blessed, and truly a happy family!

“I sustain myself with the love of family.” 

~ Maya Angelou

Wordless....well Speechless Really

We can't believe that it has been two years that we first set foot on Ethiopian Soil, our lives have been forever changed from that point on. Not only did the experience of adoption change our lives, but so did our two month stay to this incredible country. The first two days in Addis was just the start of an amazing journey!

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler

only who is foreign.” 

~Robert Louis Stevenson 

Our thoughtful friend visited the Orphanage in Dire Dawa, where Mawerdi lived the first few months of her life, and brought back soil which she gathered there for Mawerdi. This precious soil and the Oromo flag sit in Mawerdi's room, along with her other treasures from Ethiopia. It leaves us speechless to think about what an impact one place or experience can have on your life. We can truly say we have love for Ethiopia and can't wait for our feet to touch the soil again!

“He who does not travel does not know the value of men.” 

– Moorish proverb 

Met by chance, friends by choice...Thanks Adoption!

 

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”

~ C.S. Lewis

 

We are thankful to adoption for many reasons, one of those reasons being for the true friendships that we have developed with other adoptive families. I have met so many amazing mothers and yes we have the common factor of adoption that might have brought us together, but it is the common views on life, children and the world that keep our friendships alive and strong.

 

We find it kinda funny when we hear statements like "oh are you going to hang out with your Ethiopian friends again, or you place more importance on the Ethiopian community than your other relationships." It is unfortunate when we hear these statements because people just focus on our common factor of adoption, not recognizing the fact that we would be friends even if adoption wasn't a factor. Yes we feel its important for our children to have friends who are also from Ethiopia, however they don't realize that our relationships (the children and mamas) now goes way beyond adoption, adoption is now only a factor in these amazing and genuine friendships.

“There is nothing I would not do for those

who are really my friends.

I have no notion of loving people by halves,

it is not my nature.”  

~ Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

 



 

“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain.

t's not something you learn in school.

But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship,

you really haven't learned anything.” 
~Muhammad Ali

I am so thankful for these beautiful and amazing women, for their love, support and friendship. I am also very thankful for the lifelong friendships that our daughter is developing, with the children and their mothers.