Now Blogging Here

I've kept this blog strictly for Oliver's journey home. Now that he is home, I'm solely blogging at A Family United. Hope to see you there.

8 Months Old Today

The many faces of Oliver...

Inquisitive

Upset

Silly

and that was all in a 2 minute span! Oliver has been home a little over a month and is settling in nicely to a routine. He sleeps well at night--has since the third night home. Naps during the day are a different story. He's a cat napper--taking 30 minute naps twice a day. He could probably use a third one in the late afternoon too.

Oliver can sit on his own now and babbles constantly. We are trying to encourage him to crawl and he is not far off from it. His upper body strength was weak when he came home and we have been working on that as well. We are still working out the feeding schedule but it's starting to come together as Oliver gets on a routine schedule.

Making a Blog Book

Only because you asked. I've tried before using other sites, but it seems that it just took your blog and slapped it in book form with little creative control. So, here's what I am going to do to make this blog into a keepsake book for Oliver. I "borrowed" most of these instructions from other bloggers who have forged before me into this realm.

I am going to make this blog into a 8x10 full color, hardbound book. Once I get it all done I will post photos of the final result.
Here's what you need to do:

1. Go to http://www.blurb.com/. Prices vary depending on the size of your book and the number of pages.

2. Create a free membership with a username and password then download Blurb's "booksmart" software. It's in the orange rectangle on their site. This is the software you'll use to make the book.

3. Open the Booksmart program, and click Create a new book. It'll ask you to choose the size you want. You'll then choose a background theme.
4. It will ask what layout you want and you'll choose "Blog to Book." It asks for your blog username and password. It will list all your blog posts, and you check all the ones you want included. I am going to put Oliver's blog all in one book, but when I get ready, I will divide our Family United blog into years.
It uses a default layout with a text box and a spot for 6 pictures. You can choose a custom layout if you have more pictures

Oliver Without His Hands in His Mouth

...and it wasn't easy to take photos without them in his mouth. My mother commented that Oliver has his fingers in his mouth on most of his photos so I decided to take some photos of Oliver sans fingers.

Oh, and that's applesauce and oatmeal on his face.

On a side note...since our journey to Oliver has come to an end and our journey as a family of 4 is beginning, I will be sending this blog to the publisher to be printed in book form and blogging only at A Family United. This change should take place within the next month.

This Boy Likes to Eat!

Church

We attended church today--all 4 of us. We were surprised to find out that our church was honoring the adoption of Oliver. They placed a special rose on the center altar and made a special announcement at the church service. Oliver got a round of applause.  Everyone was so nice and they also made a big deal out of Chloe becoming a big sister. It was great.

We've been asked to give a testimony on our adoptions at church service. I am not sure if we will, we will have to see.

Picture Day

Since my sister is still here to help me out, I decided to take both Chloe and Oliver to have their pictures taken today. Here's what we got for Oliver...

At Home Update

First, Oliver did great on the flights home. He slept most of the time and we landed at JFK around 8 a.m. We stayed up and tried to keep Oliver as awake as possible to get him adjusted to his new time zone. He improves each night but is sleeping from 7 p.m. until around 3 a.m. when he wakes for a feeding. He then goes back to sleep until about 7:30 a.m.

He is a happy and easy-going baby and we are so happy. Chloe is very interested in him and wants to bring him to school for show and tell! We have had a few meltdowns but we try to remind Chloe each day that she is doing a great job sharing mommy & daddy with her brother.

Oliver loves to eat and is currently taking an 8 oz. bottle every two hours! Yikes! It's constant feeding around here.

I mentioned the pollution in Addis Ababa and how it played havoc on mine and Matt's sinuses. Monday I got a full-blown sinus infection and went in to see the doctor yesterday. I am on an antibiotic and it seems the sinus infection moved into my eye (or I picked something up on the airplane) and has caused me to get conjunctivitus (a.k.a. pink eye) . There's lots of sanitizing and hand-washing going on around here.

My sister is still here helping us. She's suffering from a sore throat and ear ache too but has been a big help to me. Matt is back at work and I love my husband so much for being my "rock". He's been getting up very early to get home early and has supported me during some meltdowns from exhaustion and sickness.

Oliver goes to the pediatrician later this week and we are hoping for a clean bill of health.

I am going to share some videos we took while in Ethiopia. First is a short video of the first time we met Oliver. (Sorry for the wobbly video)



The next two videos are of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Christmas service we went to on Wednesday night in Ethiopia. The couple coming down the aisle in the one video is getting married.



This video is of the priests chanting and dancing.


This video is of Matt dancing (and doing a great job) at Yod Absynnia with one of the professional dancers. For those of you who haven't traveled to Ethiopia to pick up your children---start practicing!

Last Day in Ethiopia

Today is our last day in Ethiopia. We fly out this afternoon. We stop in Dubai for a short layover and then fly on to JFK, arriving home early Saturday morning.

We went to Toukoul after we stopped at a grocery store to buy the children some chocolate. Matt was Father Christmas, handing out sweets to the children. Even the nannies and the cook came out for a treat. Wendy went into the office for us and told them that Oliver had what appeared to be an asthma attack in the night and that we wanted some medicine to take with us. They wrote us a prescription for Ventolin.

We signed the paperwork officially releasing Oliver from Toukoul's care and received a cute yellow backpack and a traditional Ethiopian outfit for Oliver. We also got a chest x-ray and some more detailed medical records on him.

We walked around the orphanage and then were taken to see Oliver's room. There were about 20 babies in the room and 3 nannies. We were told there are 8 other baby rooms just like the room Oliver was in.

The families at the gates of Toukoul.

Oliver's crib at Toukoul.

After the final visit to the orphanage we went back to the hotel, packed and had lunch and then set out to see the Mercato and the Entoto Mountains.

The Mercato was stall after stall of everything imaginable. We saw spices being sold, berbere, old light fixtures, shoes, clothing and wiring.

The Entoto Mountains were lovely. Since Christmas was the day before, very few cars were on the road and the pollution was not as bad. We could see Addis Ababa from the top of the mountain. We also saw the women carrying eucalyptus down the mountain for 15 birr a day.

After our tour, we returned to the hotel and grabbed our suitcases. We said goodbye to Jennifer and Brian, who would be staying on for one more night, and then Wendy drove us to the airport.

Saying goodbye to Addis---at the airport.

Christmas in Ethiopia

Wendy, or driver and all-around great guy, with Oliver.

Christmas is a major holiday in Ethiopia where more than half of the population is Orthodox Christian. The celebrations occur January 7, the Feast of the Epiphany, instead of December 25. We were lucky enough to be in Ethiopia on Genet (Christmas). The Orthodox Christians fast from meat for 45 days prior to January 7. All week long we could see goats, sheep and cattle being walked down the road and occassionally we could see a goat or sheep tied to the roof of a van (it was still alive). The custom is to kill and eat the animal on Christmas.

When we arrived back at the guest house on Wednesday evening there was a brahmin cow outside the hotel. I didn't think much of it until breakfast the next morning when Jennifer told me I missed Wendy, our driver, killing the cow. It never occured to me that the cow was for those at the hotel. I thought it was one of the neighbors. After breakfast we went out to see the cow carnage and take a lesson in cow anatomy 101.

Beef, its what's for dinner.

After the morning's events we went to Toukoul and picked up the babies. Since everything was closed for Christmas we decided to have the children spend the day and night with us. We would return to Toukoul on Friday morning to officially sign them out and recieve the rest of their medical information.

We arrived at Toukoul and since school was not in session there was more children than usual out playing in the courtyard. Matt had been handing out Tic Tacs to the older kids all week so they believed he would have something good for them for Christmas. Children ran up to him yelling "chocolate". Unfortunately we were unprepared and the stores were closed. Matt promised the children he would bring them chocolate on Friday.

Our children arrived and we were given one bottle of formula for them. We returned to the guest house where we were treated to a traditional Ethiopian meal in celebration of the holiday. After lunch the women at the hotel made coffee for us all. After lunch we put Oliver down for a nap and in the late afternoon we had more coffee with Aster and attempted to do some traditional Ethiopian dances.

The coffee ceremony

Matt and Brian dancing.

Matt and I dancing. I am mastering what I affectionately called "the chicken dance".

Wendy, our cook, holding Oliver.

We spent all day at the hotel relaxing and enjoying our children and celebrating the holiday. Oliver spent the night with us and he woke up once in the night with a coughing fit. It was pretty scary and we believe he could have asthma. All in all he slept pretty well but I wish I could say the same for myself--I kept waking every few hours to check on him and ended up getting very little sleep.

Brent, Amy & Meaza posing for their Christmas photo.

Oliver, one cool kid.

Dressed in our Christmas colors.

Getting the Visas

We had a new driver today. We left the guest house around 9 a.m. to go to the Mercato but before we left the guest house found out that we needed to meet Sintayehu at the U.S. Embassy to get Oliver’s passport and visa around 10 a.m. We instead drove through the older part of Addis and saw the tin roofed homes in the oldest remaining area of town. We then parked up the street from the U.S. Embassy and waited for Sintayehu. Sintayehu showed and he went inside the embassy and came out a short time later with all the kids paperwork, passports and visas. After the paperwork pick-up we went to shops so the other families could finish picking up some gift items to take home. We then returned to the guest house for lunch.


After lunch Aster delivered our 5 kilos of coffee and we gave her our gratuity for the staff at the guest house since the Christmas holiday was approaching.

At 3:30 p.m. we went to Toukoul to see Oliver. He sounded better after the doctor had started the medicine for his cough and he was very alert and lively today. We walked outside since it was a warm and sunny day. Oliver does not seem to enjoy sitting indoors but likes to be where the action is. We walked with him around Toukoul and saw some young girls styling each other’s hair in the sunshine. After two hours the nannies returned. We then went to a supermarket to purchase some items before we returned to the guest house for dinner.

Tomorrow is Genet (Ethiopian Christmas) and we will go to Toukoul in the morning and bring Oliver back to the guest house to stay. On Friday we will return to Toukoul for a tour and to complete the official paperwork to sign Oliver out.

National Museum & Traditional Dinner

We woke at 6:45 a.m. and had breakfast at 8 a.m. Wendy came to pick us up. We drove to the National Museum and Wendy was our guide. We saw Lucy and learned about Ethiopian culture & customs. While we were at the museum two groups of school children came to the museum. Each group sang a song before entering the museum. It was precious.


I felt much better today as I continued taking the allergy medicines. Matt was beginning to feel the pollution and thus started on the allergy medicine as well.

After the museum we returned once again to the Hilton to exchange money and to enjoy a diet Coke. We then went to the Emirat*es Airline office to confirm our tickets and to make sure we had the bulk head seats on our return flights.

After lunch at the guest house we went to Toukoul at 2 p.m. to meet with Dr. Tsige. We opted to have her meet with all three families at once. She discussed our children’s medical history since arriving at Toukoul and answered any questions we had about our children. Dr. Tsige and Matt got into a heated discussion about Oliver’s diaper blowout. It simply turned out to be miscommunication as Matt did not understand Dr. Tsige’s Ethiopian accent and she could not understand his British accent. I took over communication as Dr. Tsige could better understand my Texan English. We learned that Oliver had had clinical pneumonia. She also ordered that Oliver start albuterol for a raspy/rattling in his chest. He will continue the treatment for three days.

During the meeting our nannies brought us our children and we were able to feed them. Oliver received his medicine from Dr. Tsige also. After the meeting was over, the men went with Wendy to purchase soccer balls for the children of Toukoul and the women stayed behind to play with our kids. Once the men returned the kids came out of the buildings, having seen them carrying the large bag of soccer balls. One little boy entered the family room and asked, “Ball?”. I called out to Matt and he brought him a ball. Girls and boys then came out and kicked the soccer balls with the guys while we went to the Toukoul gift shop to complete the purchases we had started the day before.

We stayed at Toukoul until 6 p.m. Wendy drove us back to the guest house and at 7:15 p.m. we all left to go to Yod Abyssinia Cultural Restaurant for traditional Ethiopian dancing and dinner. Aster and Wendy joined us at the restaurant and ordered for us. Aster insisted on feeding us as it is an Ethiopian custom. We talked and watched the dancers. Later in the show the dancers came out and danced with the audience. Matt, Amy, Brent and I took a go at the traditional dances. During our entire dinner a group of very young children danced just below the stage. They were fantastic dancers themselves and we enjoyed watching them dance. Wendy informed us that Ethiopians are taught traditional dance once a week for an hour at school.

Dinner was fun and enjoyable. I think we all had a great time. We returned to the guest house around 11 p.m. tired and ready to get a good night’s sleep.