Toothless Grins

Minna is teething. Come on little toofers... break through already! Little mouth...BIG OUCH.

Nine Month Check-up

Minna was in for her nine month check-up last week and she is doing great! She's up to 17.1 pounds! Way to eat Min! She's in the 25th percentile for height, 15% for weight and 75% for head circumference. And the best news is that she's finally gardia-free! Yeah for a happy, healthy baby!

Oh and she's got skills too... She can clap her hands, blow kisses, cluck her tongue, pitch a royal fit, self- feed puffs, say mama and dada, scoot around on her tummy (usually in circles), play peek-a-boo with a blanket, and be as cute as you can imagine.

My favorite time is at night when we snuggle up for her bedtime bottle and she snuggles her face into me and then looks at my face and gives me the sweetest grins and snuggles some more. She really is the happiest baby I have ever been around and she is such a sweet blessing!

We've been home just over six months now and Haile (high-lee)is doing really well too. Every day I feel like we all fit together and understand each other so much better. We have a lot of fun together and love to laugh with each other. He is understanding the flow of the family and we are understanding what makes him tick. Everything is seeming more normal now and behavior issues are no longer an everyday battle. We are gel'in.

Haile and Lydia have started an indoor soccer instructional class that they both enjoy immensely. Haile received his first pair of soccer cleats as well, which was super fun to watch. He was so excited that he kissed them and tucked them in at night. The next day he put them on as soon as he woke up and wore them all day long. Every Tuesday he gets dressed in full soccer gear (including cleats and shin guards) straight out of bed and sports this look all day until his class ends at 8:00pm. I just love his smile. I love that he and Lydia can play soccer together too. They are always either the best friends you could ever be, or the most bickering, competitive brother and sister you every met. It's like a switch. I'd like to duct tape it in a certain direction, never to be switched again. But I guess I'll take what I can get. They sure are adorable when they are switched on to best buddies.

All the kids are doing well with school and Haile's English has improved drastically. He still says some funny things like "oooooch" instead of "ouch" and they are so cute I hate to correct him, but I suppose I better get on them before they stick.

Thanks for reading, I hope to update more often than I have been but of course, we'll have to see how it goes...

Until next time, be happy and blessed!

Finally Uploading Photos

Phew, who new it would be so hard to find time to upload photos. Three months later... this is what we all look like... hope you enjoy their sweet faces as much as I do!!!

Mina the sweet is a strong sitter with no more wobbles. She's started solid foods and so far green beans are her favorite. The sides of her hair are growing in but her daddy still thinks her mohawk is pretty hard core awesome...










Lydia the brave had surgery this week. Tonsils and adenoids. She is recovering well with still quite a bit of pain...it's only been 2 days. The boys are out of town with Daddy so the girls have been enjoying lots of movies, junk food and pedicures.



Lydia got to wear her jammies for the surgery and this is us before we walk out the door. I was as much of a wreck as she was until they gave her that sleepy medicine and she was all goofy grins and cuddles. Then it was just me biting my nails. She was happily smiling as they wheeled her away to the OR. What a sweet girl.



The boys got up early to say goodbye to Lyd on surgery day. I just love them all in their jammies, so warm and snuggly with crazy hair and morning breath.



Showing off her nails...



Relaxing with a book...



We set up an air mattress in our room for Lydia so I could help her through the night and give her pain meds. She likes sleeping in it and getting it all set up with her snacks and drinks and stuffed animals. Mina stopped in to check out Lydia's cool setup and to make her sister smile...



Going out for a special night with Dad last week as a reward for finishing her Language Arts workbook... Lydia's favorite place...Godfather's pizza buffet... and some much needed alone time with Daddy.



Stay tuned... more pictures of the boys to come, maybe...

Three Months of Blog Free Family Life...

In case you were wondering, I didn't take an oath to avoid the blog for three months. It's just that I seriously don't sit anymore. And if I do sit, I'm liable to fall asleep and even if I can stay awake it is difficult to think clearly with all of the activity around me. The couple of time I did sit down I couldn't come up with words for all the emotions I was feeling at the time and stared at the blank screen for a while and then walked upstairs to embrace my pillow. So how are we doing since we have become a family of six? Our life is full of fun and laundry and laughter and setting boundaries, and bottles and doctor's appointments and medicine and games and soccer and hugs and smiles and grumpy faces. Our life, MY life is GOOD. I thoroughly enjoy my family. Each of one my children are amazing and unique and my husband is a helpful and wonderful person to be living this full life with.

As far as the adjustment goes... I can sum it up by saying the first month was new and exciting and fun, yet exhausting. The second month was really difficult for everyone as we fell into our new roles, established new boundaries and forged new relationships. The third month has had easy fun- filled days as well as difficult adjustments, but overall each day gets less stressful as we all learn how to be a family.

Hailemicael is a really funny kid... like stand- up comedian kind of funny. He's very talented in every sport he attempts from bike riding to baseball with soccer and shooting marbles being the pretty amazing talents he brought from Ethiopia. He's a fast learner. He can read some 2 and three letter words in English and he picks up on Math really fast. His conversational English gets better everyday and he has a spirit of joy and laughter and goofiness that we all benefit from every day. He can definitely get me laughing. He's gained 10 lbs. since we met him and it think it's all muscle. Hours for soccer and bike- riding will do that to you, I guess. His fav food by far is my homemade whole wheat cheese pizza and he asks for it every day at all meals as well as at snacktime.

Mina has been the easiest baby and sweet as maple sugar. She can now sit up unassisted and babbles REALLY loudly. She so adorable and fun and she loves her brothers and sister and has big smiles for her mom and her dad all day! Definitely a ray of sunshine in our family. She weighed 10.8 lbs when we first met her three months ago and didn't even lift her head. She's now 15.6 lbs. and strong and healthy. Did I mention that she's SUPER sweet and beautiful?

Noah is doing really well and is sharing a room with his brother. He's doing great in school... we just started a section on map reading and he is really into drawing his own treasure maps in make- believe lands. But he'd rather be reading that doing anything.

Lydia has really enjoyed having her Ethiopian brother around as they are both very active and social. Of course, that also means they get at each other quite a bit too. She loves to communicate with Hailemicael and explain the English language to him. She has also picked up a bit of Amharic, due to her love of talking, and enjoys using her Amharic words with Hailemicael. It's pretty obvious that it drives him crazy when she does this, but it's cute, nonetheless. Both she and Noah just love to spend their days playing with little Mina and making sure she has everything she needs. I'm pretty sure they are teaching her to make a bunch of noise when she wants to beckon them as every time she makes a peep they are there with a song and a dance and a new toy.

OK, so time to feed my sweet little Mina, but I will leave you with a few pictures of the fam. Thanks for reading and God Bless...

Home

We are home. The kids are great...so precious and wonderful. Hailemicael has really taken to his Daddy. All three big kids plus some neighbors are out playing soccer (futbol) in the front yard. Ben is the goalie. Minalush is happily napping in her room. She seems to be handling the time change (7 hours) just fine with a tendency for one long nap in the afternoon and another long nap or two through the night. She slept from 9pm-3am and 4am- 8am last night, and mommy was very thankful. We all crashed pretty hard last night after nearly 30 hours of travel.

Here are a few pictures for now. I'll write more later... I have so much to tell I don't know where to start.

More Photos

So... the connection here is a bit slow for all these photos.  I'll give it another try and hope they post...  I can't get the nicest ones to download tonight... I'll try again later.  One more bottle for Minalush and then it's off to bed with me.

Adding Andrews Photos

Ben and two of our wonderful children are sleeping and our tour guide doesn't have us running around anywhere so I thought I'd post some pictures.  Immediately before meeting the kiddos I thought that I would surely faint or throw up or something equally embarrassing but I pulled it together an just cried a muffled cry.  I was trembling uncontrollably and overwhelmed with emotion.  We have had the children at the hotel with us almost 6 or 7 hours and they have been absolutely wonderful.  Hailemicael is very polite and was obviously raised to obey and respect his parents.  He was very excited about his new shoes and was eager to take a shower in the hotel shower.  I think he thought it looked fun... he look a LONG HOT shower and was all grins.  Minalush has not cried once.  She smiles and laughs and make cute noises.  I feel like I am in a dream...and I don't want it to end.

 

These photos are from when we first met on Monday afternoon, and no, I did not pass out...

The Kids Are Perfect

I'll start by saying that there is so much to write, I wil in no way do justice to how things went today.  Here are a few thoughts:

 

We arrived at the transition home this afternoon after filling out paperwork and having lunch with the other families.  Everyone was nervous.  So much waiting on this moment.  We knew we would be going first since families meet their children in alphabetical order.  We have thought about this moment for months and yet we were so unprepared.  They called our name out and we were still getting cameras out to give to another family to take pictures.  We went and stood in the courtyard facing the door.  I first saw a woman holding our daughter.  Then I saw she was also holding my sons hand.  He ran to me and hugged me for what seemed like many minutes.  I had prepared what I would say, eh-NAY deste Ba-lan-ua (which means "I am very happy for you").  I'm sure it didn't come out anything like I had prepared. 

 

Kris held Minalush.  She kept trying to hug Haile but he was busy hugging me.  Minalush was happy and laughed when Kris made noises at her.  She was perfect in every way.  She took her little hand and would hold Kris' arm. 

 

Kris gave Haile paper and markers.  He drew his numbers and ABC for us.  Then he drew a picture of a soccer ball and a house.  Kris brought the airplane lego set that the Crary's gave us for Haile and I to build together.  He is very smart.  We had a great time building it together and communicating in very limited ways.  He knows more English than I thought he would.  We asked him if he was hungry.  He said yes so we gave him some snacks (cookies, animal crackers, etc.).  We enjoyed eating together.  (Later he asked if he could give some to his friends.  He is so kind.  He ran around the orphanage sharing the snacks with the other kids and nannies.)  He also really got into our camera.  He wanted to take pictures of us.  You would have thought he had been using a camera for years.  At one point, he motioned to us that he wanted to take a picture of where he slept.  With that he led me throughout the compound wanting me to take a picture with him and every nannie.  I couldn't keep from crying.  My eight year old son had the foresight to document his stay with these special people.  He honored each of them so much.  Each nanny would say, "What a good boy", as they hugged him for a picture.  Regrettably, we couldn't take pictures of him with the other kids.  It's not allowed.  But it was fun to meet them and to see and take a picture of where he sleeps.  We also got a picture of his classroom and his seat.  Then he went looking for a soccer ball.  He seems to love soccer.  I don't....but Kris does.  They had a great time kicking the ball back and forth.  (He has some pretty sweet moves.)

 

Haile has a really good sense of humor.  Minalush wasn't afraid of us.  She took a bottle and fell asleep on Kris' chest.  It couldn't have been a better match for our family and these wonderful kids.  God is so very good!

 

Again, so much to write.  It has been a wonderful day.  Thank you to everyone for all your support and prayers.

 

Gratefully,

Ben (and Kris)

We are happily in our Guest House and ready for so serious sleep!

Hello everyone. We made it safe and sound to our hotel and our driver and guide are wonderful.  One of our bags is still in Amsterdam which we should get by tomorrow at midnight.  Our donation bins have been taken by someone to get a permit from the government or something and we hope to see them again at somepoint this trip.  Please pray that all these bumps would smooth out in the long run.  At the moment we are thrilled to be here and thoroughly enjoyed the ride back to the hotel  which was short and interesting and included serval broken down taxis in the middle of several intersections.  We are looking forward to seeing Addis in the daylight tomorrow and are goin gto church with a friend of a friend at 8:00 sharp...which is 1Am  where you are!  We truly appreciate all your prayers. We love you Noah and Lydia and we look forward to being home with you and Haile and Mina. Much love...I'm off to sleep.  It's not too loud here so far,  I'll keep you posted after 4 AM prayers over the loud speaker.:)  We probably won't have power tomorrow so I'll talk to you in a couple days!

...1 and we're off!

We are packed and ready to go...next time I blog I will be on the other side of the world! Thank you everyone for your prayers and encouragement along the way. Love to you all!

This is a test

This is a test.  I am testing emailing the blog because in ET often people have difficulty getting onto blogger...so here goes.

 

THIS IS A TEST.....

We are Leaving in 2...

Well, actually it's tomorrow, but we don't leave until later in the day so I'm counting tomorrow as a full day. That way I feel like we have more time to pack. :)

We will be meeting our precious children on Monday morning... a concept that is still very difficult to grasp. It's so exciting I can hardly believe it's really happening!

Please pray for safe travel, our health (not feeling too well this morning and Lydia was not feeling well last night), Haile and Minalush as they will be leaving their nannies who loved them and cared for them the last 3 months as well as leaving everything familiar to them, and for us that we would know how to comfort the kiddos and help them with all that they have been through in their short lives.

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for our family. We know that God will give us what we need to do what He wants us to do. He has already shown Himself repeatedly through our adoption journey and we trust He will be with us through he rest of it. I realize it may not be an easy thing... but I know we will not be alone.

Thank you for your prayers. We look forward to seeing you all soon with all four children in tow.

We are leaving in 3...

We are leaving in 3 days and today is all about my kids here at home. They have been VERY patient over the past year and a half of paperwork, often getting told "no, sorry not right now" to many things because we were not spending any money on anything... and they are just so ready to do something FUN!

So, last night I took them out to Steak 'N' Shake and told them they could order any shake they wanted. They both chose a full (adult) size Butterfinger Shake that was almost as big as they are. And is was so precious to watch their smiles and and big eyes when the waitress brought them out. Lydia wanted to sit up by the counter because it looked fun to her, and it was fun! They both got cardboard car kits that you build and put stickers on and you would have thought they were in Disneyland they were having so much fun. So, for $6.50 at Steak 'N' Shake we had a grand time. I would have to say this is one of my favorite memories I've had to date with my wonderful children. It's amazing how something so simple could be so special.

Today we hit the beach...packing can wait, right?

We Are Leaving in 4....

Four more days. We will be on a plane for 20 hours. Then we will get off that plane and have to wait two days until we see the kids. Those two days are going to seem like the longest days yet. It's a good thing I know without a doubt that God's timing is perfect and mine is not.

What's that.. you want proof of this? OK here's an example... today for instance when the Executive Director of A Child Waits called me and chatted it up for a while and at the end of the conversation blew me out of the water with a "the board has authorized a grant for your family in the amount of $4,000.00"...I knew His timing was perfect and not mine. After being shocked into a speechless state and crying, screaming, jumping up and down and calling everyone who's phone number I have memorized I did the math and realized that brought our funding to 99%. As I began to reflect more deeply on the situation I realized that if we had traveled our first travel date of July 15th or even our second travel date of July 25th we would not have had this money. We will receive the money approximately 24 hours before we get on that plane I was talking about earlier...you know, that 20 hour plane experience. Could the timing have been any more exact that that??!!??!!??!!??

After adding in one last donation I am elated to say that we are ADDING ANDREWS here people! We are officially 100% funded and all systems go to get my whole family on the same continent. Thank you A Child Waits, and thank you God for showing me that you do come through on you your own time and not mine.

Check out A Child Waits at www.achildwaits.org. They have a section of pictures of several families they have help unite across the globe and are awesome advocates for special needs and older children who are waiting for a family to welcome them and be blessed by them. Someday soon our family will have a photo on their site accompanied by a story of how our family was blessed with two beautiful children and how this organization made that dream a reality. Thank you A Child Waits...may God bless you for all you do for His children around the world.

The Final Countdown...We are Leaving in 5...

It's 1:20 in the afternoon in Addis Ababa as I write this.... 6:30 AM here at my desk. Five days from now I will be waking to start my day when it is 1:00 AM here at my desk. But then again all these time zones are meaningless considering our daughter eats every three and a half hours. :) I think we will just sleep whenever we can without regard to what time it is in Addis or even here, at my desk.

We are mostly packed, including two 49.8 lb. tubs of donations. The nursery is basically done. I have decided the deck will remain half stained until a later date (I'm sure our neighbors love the half- stained look anyway.) We have a pile of paperwork to get together and make extra copies of and some random stuff to purchase that we need for the trip (converter plugs and whatnot.) Then we must clean the house and the vehicles and contact the airline for there current baggage limits and fees (apparently this changes from day to day.) I'm also hoping to take the kids to the beach one day with some family that is visiting from Colorado. So... I shouldn't be bored this week:) Keeping busy right now is probably a good thing anyway... keeps my mind from wandering and makes the wait seem to go more quickly.

We are so thankful for God's provision, timing and peace. We will be meeting our kids on Monday (that's right...one week from today!) and taking them with us for good on Tuesday. Excited would be an understatement.

July Update Photos

Are they beautiful or what?

Min has an awesome mohawk in these photos because the nurse had to shave her head for her IV meds when she had pneumonia. She has since had her entire head shaved for her passport photos, so we will be bringing home a sweet little baldy. We also heard she weighed mere 10 pounds at 4 months and she eats four ounces 7 times a day. The update also said that she is doing well and is not experiencing any sickness at this time. Lets hope she's gaining some weight now that she's feeling better. They also said that she likes to be held and doesn't cry much, but when she does cry...it's urgent! Like... feed me now! I can relate to that:)

Haile is doing well and learning some English at the Transition Home School. He knows his ABC's and numbers and some phrases like, "What is your name?" He likes to eat bread, pasta, meat, injera, and especially egg. It sounds like we will have to work him into fruits and vegetables. :) He enjoys sports like running, and soccer and also playing with toy cars. They also said he is very smiley and funny!

It seems surreal that new week I will get to know my beautiful children and experience them first hand. I seriously can't wait.

The Real Deal

This is the REAL DEAL!!! Our tentative travel dates are now concrete!!!!!!!!!!!!We are going to Africa to meet our kiddos (and to bring them home!) one week from today! I've been holding my breath for two weeks and now I can let loose and celebrate (and pack and finish overhauling my house)!

Plus we have new pictures and updates on Haile and Min. Plus we have like 10 cases of children's medicine that was donated by Perrigo to take over to the orphanage where our kiddos were first brought in Addis. And my favorite sister-in-law (this is an inside joke) loaned me all kinds of baby stuff! ALL this happened today!!!!!

This is what I would call REAL GOOD DAY (in case you couldn't already grasp that from all the exclamation points in the two previous paragraphs.) Look our Africa here we come! WHAAAAAAAAWHOOOOOOO!

The Name Game

Hailemicael and Minalush... how would YOU pronounce these names?

We have been working on pronunciations for the last two months and finally think we've got it. A friend of a friend who has lived in Addis for several years emailed me with her take on the pronunciations. She seemed pretty confident about it too. So these are the names of our kiddos...

Minalush... say min-ah-loosh

Hailemicael... say highly-mick-eye-el but he is probably just called Highly (like the Ethiopian Olympic Gold Metal Distance Runner Haile Gebrselassie or like the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, Haile Selassie.)

So practice up because you might me meeting them in 3 weeks!

Baby Min is healthy and strong!

After an agonizing weekend we received word from Minalush's physician that her lungs are clear and she is doing well now. Phew, I can breathe again. God is good!

I often wonder what would have happened to our beautiful girl if she had not been at our agency's transition home during this sickness. She may not have had any access to medical care or the necessary medications. I recently read that there are 3 physicians per 100,000 people in Ethiopia. I also read that the top causes of early childhood deaths in Ethiopia are pneumonia and diarrhea.

I feel so blessed that our children are cared for so well by our agency staff. I recently heard that many of the nannies stay well past the time they are paid to be there because they love the children so much.

Does a mama's heart good!

Introducing...

It's my great honor to introduce the rest of our family...


Our son Hailemicael Andrews


Hailemicael with a fellow adoptive parent looking at our photos for the first time. I wonder what he thinks about us??


Hailemicael showing his WMU spirit!


Our daughter Minalush Andrews at 4 months old (this beautiful photo was just taken a few days ago)


Minalush's referral photo taken at around 3 months


So sleepy!


So surprised! Who keep flashing that light in my face anyways?


Minalush this week with her IV for pneumonia meds. Poor baby. Keep praying for her little body to be strong!

Thanks for sharing in our little slice of happiness. We are thanking God tonight for all he has done for us and for our children. Thank you everyone who has been praying and giving to get us to this point in this wonderful, wild journey. I'll keep you posted on any news we get about when we get to travel and realize the two long awaited hugs that we've been dreaming of.