Trip to the Pumpkin' Patch

For my birthday, Michael asked what I wanted. My answer... a trip to a pumpkin patch! It was a brisk day so the trip went pretty quickly, but we were successful in picking out some prize pumpkins and a few adorable photos.

Right after placing him on the (cold) ground, Mehandis put on his brightest smiles and enjoyed exploring the big orange "balls".



It was good the sun was setting, as Mehandis does not like the bright sunshine in his face.

Here's to your 1st Wisconsin Fall!!!

Journal Entry 9-18-07

Wednesday

I woke up early on Wednesday, I had a hard time sleeping. I got out of bed around 5:30 and went outside for a bit. I then wandered back inside and sat on the couches for a while. Eventually the others got up and soon it was time for breakfast. Breakfast was simple oatmeal and it was very good. After getting ready for the day, I heard the driver outside playing with the soccer ball, so I went outside and joined him. Soon Massi joined us and the three of us juggled the soccer ball in the courtyard for a while. It was a warm sunny morning and I was soon sweating. It was a good time playing soccer with these guys.

The buses left at 8:45 to take us shopping. We first stopped at some shops on a decent area of the city. The shopkeepers were nice and we found some good gifts for us, Mehandis and our house. We purchased a head rest, a purse, necklace, baby doll, two outfits for Mehandis, a drum and two pictures for our wall. Everything was very reasonably priced.

Then we drove to another store that was a bit nicer than the small shops that were in and most of the same things, but a less expensive price. We purchased a bracelet for Michele, a statue for the mantel and two crosses. Then we were off to the Markato.

The Markato is the largest and oldest open air market in all of Aftrica. To say it is huge in an understatement, it is enormous. There was too much to describe and put into words. But basically anything you can think of is sold here. You can watch the streets for hours and see a tremendous range of products, people and vehicles for transporting goods. We saw donkeys carrying products, mattresses piled 10 high on a car, a man carrying dead chickens, wooden toothbrushes, shoes piled to the ceiling and on and on. The road traffic was crazy busy, it could take 10 minutes to drive one block and there were people everywhere walking between cars. It was really a site to see.




We finally left the Markato and cruised back to the care center. We went to the grocery store, picked up some goods and kolo (the snack we had at Metro Pizza). Laura and Greg bought a bike for the kids to ride in the courtyard. We stopped at one more store to purchase some items and then we went back to the guest house. We enjoyed good leftovers for lunch and it was a nice conversation with the group.

After lunch it was raining but Michele and I wanted to go to the office to finally e-mail an update to our family. So we walked in the rain for the 15 minute walk but it was only bad for the last five minutes. However when we got to the office, the power was out, so we had to wait. We waited for about 25 minutes and there was still no power. Since it had stopped raining, we walked back to the guesthouse. We ran into Greg Kenyon on the way back and gave him the news about the lack of power, so he walked back with us. We got back and took a nice nap.

We woke up around 3PM and we got ready for go to the send off ceremony at the care center. We got picked up around 3:30 and went to the care center. We were taken into the basement where all of the toddlers got to sit at one end of the room and we were all lined up against the wall around the room. They had a large Ethiopian flag painted on the wall that had the handprint of all of the kids who had been adopted in the year 2007. Soon enough all of the adopted kids came down the stairs in their traditional Ethiopian outfits. The funny story about this was that we were thought we were told that we needed to purchase this outfit for the kids, so all of us purchased these outfits at the store in the morning. There was even a rumor that the outfits we purchased would be donated to the care center Well it turned out that they supplied the outfits and we got to keep them. So this got really lost in the translation.




We started off the ceremony with a prayer and then some of the parents got to speak up with their thoughts on the care that the kids received and overall impressions. Two of the guys spoke up and then Michele said some nice things. Then all of the kids, one by one, with the help of their new parents, put a mark on the wall with their hands. Mehandis handled this part extremely well. Then the nannies took the children for one last time, hugged them and then gave them back to us and they hugged the new parents. We then had a prayer from CHSFS, then Shannon from our group said a nice prayer as well. The ceremony quickly ended and we enjoyed cake and soda. We got a picture of the nanny with Mehandis and we were soon off to the guest house with Mehandis. Soon it was time for dinner and I ate with Mehandis sitting on my lap.






After dinner we went to the main room and played with Mehandis. Soon we went into our room and gave him a bath. We got to see all of his skin issues and saw why he needed the skin cream and diaper rash cream. He was great in the bathtub, holding himself up and enjoying the water. We played with him a bit more since he was in such a good mood, but it was soon to put him to sleep. He put him down at 7:30 extremely easily, without a cry. We stayed for up a bit longer, had a nice drink and went to bed around 9:30. First we had to give Mehandis his medicine and he refused to wake up for it, so it was a bit tough. But soon enough he finished it up and went quickly back to sleep.

Michele and I looked through the pictures from the day before turning off the lights. Michele had been a bit emotional during the send off ceremony and now it was my turn. I was certainly not expecting this, but I was all of a sudden overwhelmed with emotion because Mehandis was so happy, just a great little kid. We had gone through so much over the years of trying to have kids, giving up and deciding to go down the adoption trek. Then a year later from starting the process we were in Ethiopia and now had full custody of this great little kid. We were both so happy.

A Friendly Fellow

We have enjoyed have enjoyed the many visits (and the occasional prepared meals that they bring for us!) from our friends lately. Mehandis really enjoys seeing other kids, since he was so used to that at the care center. There he had six roommates whom he would play on the floor with through out the day. I would love to know where some of those children now live. We were especially enamoured with Mehandis's little "girl friend" whom he would chatter back and forth to, fight over balls with and she would occasionally tug as his small tufts of hair! She was a bit bigger and stronger than him at that time... so I think she was usually the victor.

My friend from college, Kerbie, came by my parents' house last week with her son Brannon. Mehandis was drawn to Brannon and his pacifier :) Brannon is a several months older than Mehandis. It was fun to see all the things that Brannon is doing now. He has a love for pineapple, climbing and electrical equipment! Kerbie has volunteered to have Brannon "kid proof" our homes, since he can quickly find the "no-zones"!!!



Another friend of ours, Dana came by this past week and brought her two children. Here is a photo of our affectionate little guy with Jade. He was successful in giving her a couple little "kisses"!


And I just had to add this cutie pie picture, because I couldn't resist!

Journal Entry 9-18-07

Tuesday – 9/18/07

We had a great night of sleep, especially since the power went out during the night sometime, so it got really dark in our room. We got up and showered and went down for breakfast. Breakfast was eggs and some great banana bread. After breakfast we waited outside on this beautiful morning for the vans to come pick us up. They vans arrived around 9AM with the older kids already in the vans. They dropped off the young kids and the rest of us piled into the vans to go pick up the young kids from the care center. This was the first day we could take the kids back to the guest house with us. So we quickly picked up Mehandis, Michele going in the care center while I stayed outside and played with the kids in the courtyard. I had about five kids around me when Michele came back with Mehandis. There was a nurse who came out and she cried while saying goodbye to Mehandis. She said that Mehandis reminded her of her own child.



Soon we piled back into the vans and went back to the guesthouse. Michele and I went to the outside swing and hung out with Mehandis there. It was nice to get pictures and video of him and hang out on our out. Around 10:15, we went inside and fed him rice for the first time on a spoon and it went well. Then we moved to changing his diaper for the first time, and again, it was a success. We then made up a bottle of formula and after a bit, he got used to drinking from a bottle and went at it. In the care center they do not feed by the bottle, they use cups and force feed the kids. They do this for easier sterilization and quicker feeding. Luckily Mehandis ate well out of the cup and quickly adapted to the bottle. After our tests with Mehandis, we moved on to lunch where Michele ate and had him in her lap. Eating had a different look with all of the kids at the table. We had some great lasagna for lunch.



After lunch we got ready to go to the U.S. embassy to get the visa to take Mehandis home with us. We both changed to dress up for the occasion. The U.S. embassy was right near the national museum, which is the place we went to the day before. It took about 30 minutes to get there since there was a lot of traffic on the road. The embassy was extremely fortified, much more than any other embassy that we had seen around the city. We had to park across the street and walk to the guest station to check in. We had to show our passports and go through a metal detector. Then we went to a staging area and had to go through another round of security with passports, bag checks and metal detectors. While waiting you can read a wanted poster for Osma Bin Laden, describing how he had a key role in the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. It really brought it home when you are standing the U.S. embassy in Ethiopia, that borders those two countries.

After we got through security, all of us went upstairs to a room where we were to wait to get the visa. There were other people there, who looked like they were applying for visas to travel to the U.S or get citizenship. One by one our families would be called to go to the same woman who asked some questions and granted the visa for travel. The social worker from CHSFS was standing next to us to make sure everything went smoothly. While waiting, I fed Mehandis a bottle for the first time. I had help from Shannon, who was sitting next to me who already had two kids, and was able to walk me through it.

Finally we were called up and Mehandis sat perfectly on the counter as we signed the paperwork and answered the questions. The process was quick and simple and soon we had the clearance that we needed to take Mehandis home with us!!!

After our approval, we went outside and waited for the rest of the group to get their visas. It was a nice day and others joined us outside, so we had a good time catching up as we waited. Soon enough all of us were through and we were off to the Hilton to change money and confirm airline reservations (Ethiopian Air only). The Hilton was very nice, had guards on the outside who checked the cars before going in the parking lot. Then we had to go through a metal detector and bag check inside the hotel. We changed some money and waited for the rest of the group to reserve their airline seats. Michele bought some peanut M&M’s and enjoyed them very much. I played with Mehandis and had two people ask us about him. First a Ethiopian gentleman asked us about Mehandis and said we will need to make him an engineer and had good wishes for us. Second a gentleman who was American came over and asked us about international adoption. His sister adopted from India and did not have a good experience. We told him all of the good things we saw with this process and what we liked about it. He was in Ethiopia worked on an investment project regarding bio-diesel.

Soon we were back in our vans and drove back to the care center to drop off the kids. Mehandis was so good during the day, he hardly napped. Michele had him in our carrier and he fell asleep, it was very cute. It was hard to return him but we knew we would see him again soon.

After dropping him off, we went back to the guesthouse and hung out outside with Greg, Harrison and John. Then we saw Russ on the roof, so we had to get up there as well. Russ showed us how we climbed the railing, so we all followed. It was a great view of the city from the roof. So I went back downstairs to get our camera and video camera so I could record the scenery. The sun was setting over a mountain in the background, so it made for a nice backdrop for pictures. Soon the ladies came up and we enjoyed out time up there.




Massi arranged cars for the night and had a great dinner planned for us. He took us the Crown Plaza Hotel for dinner and traditional Ethiopian dinner. The hotel was about 25 minutes away in a different part of the city that we had not been to yet. The restaurant was nicely decorated with murals and pictures inside. It was a bit touristy since everyone there looked to be tourists. We got some St. George beers, honey wine (Tej), and sat in a big U with traditional tables in front of us. Someone came around and washed our hands before the meal and then we proceeded to go through an extensive buffet line of traditional Ethiopian food. The food was great and I went back for seconds. During dinner the traditional dancing and singing started. There were about eight dancers, a couple of singers and about six people playing the music. The dancers changed outfits numerous times and there was some fun music and dancing. A coffee ceremony was performed on the stage and we were served the coffee at the end of the dinner and then a large tin incense was place in the middle of the group. We were not sure why they did this. Michele and I got a bit silly at the end of the night and finished our neighbors Tej, we could not just leave it there.







After a great dinner we piled back into the vans and drove back to the guesthouse. We stayed up a bit talking but soon went to bed around 10:30, our latest night yet.

Door County is Purr-ty Fun!

First of all, let me give a round of applause to my husband, Michael, for being such a great dad that I did not once hesitate about leaving for my annual Door County weekend. I was actually looking forward for Michael to get the chance to have some fun-filled days with our little guy, while I gallivanted around with my girl friends. And fun-filled days (and nights) they had... the "boys" went to a Marquette Madness basketball game, Cranky Al's breakfast and had some fun times with Mehandis's friend Stefan. PLUS - the house was perfectly cleaned upon my return home!

So... Girls' Weekend DC 2007 was a blast as usual. We always try to do something new each year (thanks to the creative mind of Jenn Moore) and this year was no exception. We did a Ghost Tour via trolley that was not only spooky but quite educational. But the cherry topping my sundae was finally getting to "Kitty Kat Korner".

A little bit of background... half of my friends have significant cat allergies and the other half have cats. So this has been a strong rivalry for many years. We have gone to the extent of sabotaging each other's houses with stuffed animal cats in a variety of poses and outfits.

So this year I was lucky enough to be in the car that missed it's turn... so the turn-around point was Kitty Kat Korner. We got out and had the appropriate photo opps.

The scariest part was that once inside the "boutique" I was actually a bit frightened. The clientele were in iron-on feline sweatshirts. The odor smelled of a distinct kitty scent. And one of our friends heard the owner say that she previously had over 100 kitties, but now just has a couple.

While I love our Chewy... I would hope someone would help me come to my senses before I reach "Cat Lady" status.

Thanks girls (and Mag) for such a great weekend!

Journal Entry 9-17-07

Monday – 9/17

We got a good night’s sleep and were up around 7AM. We both showered and got ready for the day. Soon we were treated to a great pancake breakfast. After breakfast, Michele and I played a game of PIG in the courtyard with the basketball. I am sorry to say that she won. It must be the thin air. Then Michele took on Gretchen and this time she lost. Soon our vans showed up to take us to the museum. The National Ethiopian museum took about 20 minutes to drive to. The drive there was great, the streets were really filled with people, so it was good people watching. The people have an incredible knack for walking between cars and the drivers have really few traffic laws, just go when you can and be aggressive. But no one seems to mind, it is just how it is. We see very few tourists on the streets, 99.5% of the people look to be locals. On the way there we drove past the Sheraton Hotel (very large) and the presidential palace (extremely large).


The museum was ok. We had to be patted down by a security officer to enter the grounds and the highlight was seeing the Lucy (because you have to see Lucy). Lucy is an extremely old fossil of a human being and the actual fossils are now on tour in the United States, stopping first in Houston. Michele and I went through the museum quickly, it only cost $1, so we got our moneys worth. We were the first ones done and stayed outside waiting for the rest of the group to finish.

On the way back to the guesthouse, we stopped at a grocery store so we could pick up some needed things. Then is was off to the care center to pay for the Hosanna trip. After we sat for a while in the conference room, someone came and collected our money. After we paid, Michele, David and I decided to walk back to the care center instead of waiting for a van. When we got back, it was time for lunch. Everyone else was already there, so we took our food outside and ate there. It was a nice day, so it was a good place to eat. Soon Jarusha and Greg joined us for dessert and we hung outside for a while talking.

After lunch we got back in the buses and went to the care center to see the kids. Today was the day that we got to go see the doctor. We picked up Mehandis and we were second on the list, so we headed over to the office right away. Mehandis was in a good mood and it was fun to have him outside of his room. He was very observant and looking everywhere. Mehandis was very good during the doctor visit, he sat on Michele’s lap and was quiet. The doctor told us a couple of things that we did not know but it was nothing too serious.

After we met with the doctor, we got to meet Russ’ kids as he was heading to see the doctor. Michele, Mehandis and I then wandered into the courtyard area and hung out with Mehandis on our own for the first time. We decided to get out our camera and took our first pictures of him with us. After a bit, we went back inside and went to the waiting room where we found John and Alicia with their son, Elijah. He is really small and has tons of hair. When they left to see the doctor, Russ joined our family in the waiting room. Soon David and Willow came and joined us in the waiting room. It was fun because by now, we had spent a good amount of time with these people but this was the first time we saw each other as parents and got to meet each others kids.

We eventually went outside and saw that many of the other families were outside with their kids, still awaiting their turns to see the doctor. It was fun going around and meeting all of the kids. We spent about a half an hour outside and saw that the report was true, Mehandis does not like the sunlight. When the sun is in his face, he crinkles up his face. Soon we dropped Mehandis back in his room and walked back to the guest house with Russ, Alicia, John and David.






When we got back, I decided that we should get a beer. So Russ, Michele and I walked back to Metro Pizza to get a beer. We ran into Jarusha, Greg, Harrison and Gretchen on the way and twisted their arms to join us. The beer tasted great and the conversation was lively. I had to finish Michele’s second beer, which made three for me. In the high altitude, I was feeling the effects.

We wandered back to the guest house for dinner. On the way back, we saw a huge heard of sheep on our side street coming our way. It made for a great photo. So Jarusha got out her camera and took a picture. The herders of the sheep made her pay for the picture. We thought they were joking at first, but they were insistent, so they paid and we left. Unfortunately the picture did not turn out well!

Dinner was leftovers, pizza and the great Ethiopian food that we had for lunch. We had a nice long conversation over dinner. After dinner, we hung out, watched a bit of TV and talked. Michele and I went outside for a bit and were then joined by Harrison and Greg Kenyon. We went to bed around 10PM.

Video of the trip to Hosanna

Video From Journal Entry 9/16/07



To see some neat video from our trip to Hosanna, click on the link below.



Enjoy!

Chickens & Bears

On Sunday Mehandis sampled some chicken I made for him... the first meat offered since being in Wisconsin. You can see by his face he was a bit hesitant.

But willing to give it a try, mixed in with some squash & pears.
Mmm... maybe not.

If you had a discerning eye (or sport focused mind) you may have noticed that Mehandis was wearing his first, and only, Green Bay Packers jersey. This would come to a shock to those who know us, since Michael nor I watch football... and definitely do not cheer in any way for the Pack! But thanks to Mehandis's Great Uncle Mike, our son is fully outfitted from pacifier to booties. So we did our best to be true Wisconsinites and put our little man in the gear.

Looks like did his best to cheer them on to beat the Bears... but to no avail. Our neighbors do finally feel that there may be hope for us now though:)

Journal Entry 9-16-07

Sunday 9/16/07 – 6:30AM

We are on our way down to Hosanna at this time. There are four of us in our vehicle, a Toyota Landcruiser. Our driver speaks four languages, including English. He is very interesting and we are having a great conversation. I am sitting up front with him. In the back is Michele and a social worker from CHSFS who is located in Hosanna and he specifically remembers Mehandis. He has worked with CHSFS for one year.

The weather is rainy and very cool this morning. The landscape reminds us of Ireland, it is very green with rolling rocky hills. The road is paved but a bit bumby. There are small villages that we drive through with lots of dogs on the side of the road. We see many thatched roof houses and numerous aluminum houses in the small towns, which are very small. There are so many small storefronts that line all of the towns, it seems like everyone sells something here. There are no national chain stores, just a lot of small proprietors. We have hardly seen another car since getting out of the city.

Last night we enjoyed pizza for dinner with cookies and tomato soup. We visited the other guest house to see what it looks like as it is only one block away. It is smaller and less modern but is nice. We went over with Greg and Jarusha and when we got back, everyone else was asleep already. The four of us stayed up until 8:30 talking, having a nice conversation.

We went to bed at 9PM and woke up at 11PM with the buzzer ringing. I thought it was the buzzer to wake all of us up for the trip, since they were going to wake us up around 5AM. I looked down at my watch in the dark and saw it said 5AM. So we got up, turned out our lights, looked to unlock the front door to let Massi in and get ready for the trip. I went to put my watch on and looked at it again and it read 11PM. I looked at it some more, making sure I was not reading it wrong. I had Michele get her watch and we confirmed it, is was actually 11PM, not 5AM. We were both convinced it was time to get up. So after a good laugh, we locked the front door, turned off the light and went to bed. What happened was it was shift change for the security guards, and the replacement was ringing the bell to be let in. We were glad that we did not wake anyone else up in the commotion that we created.

Our driver has worked for a travel agency for the last 10 years and before that, was in the army for 17 years. He served in the army when Ethiopia was under communist rule and was let go when the regime changed. We are continuing to have a great conversation, talking politics, race and the status of the world. He does not have a good feeling about the current state of affairs in Ethiopia, he does not think they are going down a good road. He is worried about the Chinese influence and how they are becoming more and more involved in the country. With a communist past, he is worried that may rise again. He thinks that the US constitution is a great document and is really in favor of our two term limit of president. He feels that the freedom of the mind is extremely valuable and hopes that there is a better future for his country.

As we drive along, we continue to see how people live and get around. There are constantly people walking on the sides of the streets, extremely few cars are seen on the roads. There are mass transit buses that all look extremely old and well used. The driver tends to drive in the middle of the road with the horn going to alert the walkers and animals. There are a lot of cows, donkeys, lamb and dogs on the road. The scenery on the drive is terrific. There are mountains, green pastures and beautiful landscapes. The drive down was rainy and it was early in the day, so we did not see many people on the roads. On the way back, it was a nice afternoon and the towns and roads were busy with people.


We have seen so much on this trip, it is hard to describe. We see ladies walking with huge stacks of sticks on their backs along the road, some beautiful and colorful clothing, we saw some apes crossing the road, donkeys carrying water and sticks and not one white person. On the way down, as we would drive through towns, kids would run out towards the road and wave at us. On the way back, we saw many kids doing work in the fields and the kids seem to be very much on their own, keeping track of each other. A lot of people carry umbrellas because the chance of rain during the rainy season is always prevalent. I saw some signs for some really nice buildings to be built in the future in some of the villages, but it hardly seemed possible that these building would exist so nicely in these desperately poor villages. Everything seems dirty here, with the dirt roads and no lawns and sidewalks, it is hard to see how a pristine building would exist in this world. I was very tired on the way home, but there was so much to see, I did not want to miss a minute of it.
Q: What animal do you see here? Kudos to the first one correct, given that our camera was on the wrong setting for all of the photos!

We just got a flat tire on the way home. We are near Addis Ababa and heard a loud pop and hiss and a four letter word from our driver (we understood this word). I did not mention that we had to switch drivers on the way back due to some people were going to take longer in Hosanna and our driver volunteered to stay late. He liked me and said “Mike, I will miss you” a number of times. He was going to tell me about the Somalia conflict on the way back, I would have enjoyed hearing his story. Our new drivers did not speak English, drove really fast and ate the plant that gets you a bit high. When we got the flat, he dumped the rest of the plant on the side of the road, since it is illegal to have in Addis Ababa (but legal in the rest of the country). We did not have a spare tire, so we had to wait until the rest of the caravan caught up to us. We waited outside the car and people began to come around and see what was going on. As usual, Michele and I really stood out. Soon one of the cars drove up and the guys switched the tire in about 10 minutes and we were quickly back on our way home.

We made it back to the guest house around 3PM after Michele nearly pulled all of her hair out as we narrowly missed car after car driving back through Addis.

8:15PM – Sunday

After we got back to the guesthouse, Michele and I decided to walk over to the care center to see Mehandis. We were joined by Harrison, Gretchen, Kim and Eric. The walk took about 15 minutes and when we got there, Mehandis was up and in a great mood. We stayed with him for about 30 minutes, there was a different nanny there and she was great with him.

On our walk back, we saw the pizza place that we have been told about by previous travelers through CHSFS, we saw the beer that they serve and it called our name. So the six of us stopped in and enjoyed the St. George beers (the oldest beer in Ethiopia). The beer was great, it was nice to relax outside over a tasty refreshment. For sever beers, the total came to about $8. After the beers we went back to the guest house for dinner, which was a good chicken stew, rice, spaghetti and sauce.

During dinner the last people from the group to Hosanna finally arrived back. It turns out that there was a car accident on the way back, two of the Land Cruisers collided going over a bridge when one of them stopped when a donkey walked in front of the car. The other was driving too close and could not stop in time. The car in front got pushed to the side of the bridge and bounced off the railing and back into the road. Luckily no one was injured in the accident (including the donkey, who somehow missed getting hit). They had to go to the police station and the whole ordeal took about 2-3 hours before they could get back on the road. They had to get rides from other people who were still coming back from Hosanna. They were a bit shook up but had some good stories from the adventure.

After dinner we sat in the main room for a while, talking and watching English Premier League Soccer (well I was watching this after I convinced everyone else that this was the best thing on). Greg Kenyon and I later on played a game of cribbage (I won) and were the last ones up. We went to bed around 9PM.

Motoring...

Mehandis is moving a little quicker these days! He loves chasing the balls that Becca gave him or crawling to get our toes (and sometimes Chewy's food). During Tuesday's doctor visit his pediatrician recommended that he be evaluated by an occupational therapist and physical therapist just to make sure that he is on the right path for motor development. So back to NBT I go... the ladies there are very excited that he is coming their way. I am not too concerned about him meeting his milestones right now... my OT and PT friends think he is coming along great. And I as a speech/feeding therapist, I am blown away by his tolerance of so many new foods and textures. He is now gesturing "up", signing "more" (with verbal and touch cues) and producing a lot of different syllables (including "mom")!!!!

Check out Mehandis on the move in the cute pictures below. He is a determined little guy :)