So, as I've been taking advantage of Jessica's (13) and Christopher's (11, almost 12) help over the last few weeks, I am constantly amazed at how God has blessed me with them with them. I am so thankful that this was a group decision and that we were all totally sold out to the idea of adoption. It never would have worked otherwise.
To know that we all felt God's leading to adopt and that Jessica and Christopher are still so helpful and energetic with the twins, after the "honeymoon" has worn off, is more confirmation that we are where we are supposed to be. Now, don't get me wrong...I'm sure many of you are thinking to yourselves "Boy, are they in for a shock! Wait until the "new" wears off." I am not delusional, I promise. I do know that Jessica and Christopher will struggle at times, but when I see them pick up one of their baby brothers and see their face light up with joy, I know that they are totally in love with their new little brothers. I see Christopher run in the room and say "How's my sweet baby brother??" and I am constantly hearing "Mom, do you need my help?" and I know that I am so blessed.
We've been getting ready for school to start on August 13th. While the rest of Austin and Texas and probably the whole world, will be starting in late August to early September, our school decided to start early. Thankfully, both Jessica and Christopher are ready to go back to school, no doubt, in part, so that they will be away from fussy babies for most of the day (not that they're complaining-yet). They are finished with their summer reading and enjoying the freedom that the next 2 weeks will bring.
I am slowly, but surely, getting into a routine with Joshua and Josiah. They're eating better and seem to be gaining some weight, not that they are in need of more rolls on their legs and arms...
We went to our first Austin Ethiopia event as a family this past Saturday. Mom was here with us and we all went to my friend Heather's house for a backyard BBQ. I was surprised by how many of us in Austin are either currently in the adoption process or have completed it. There were ALOT of little Ethiopian children there. It's so neat to know that Joshua and Josiah will have a group in Austin that they can grow up with and relate to. I know that it will be a blessing in the years to come to know other Ethiopian children that have been adopted.
More later...
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Life with twins and teenagers :)
Friday, July 25, 2008
Interesting what we found out today...
We had to go in for the second round of vaccines and a chest/rib xray for Joshua and Josiah today. Thankfully, Matthew was able to go to the appointment with me. I don't know what a single mom with twins does to survive. Really! How, on earth, do you manage 2 babies at one time?? I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what I'm going to do to survive when the day comes that I have to do something by myself with these guys! Like go to the grocery store or doctor's office...Yikes! Am I pitiful or what??
Chest xrays were completely normal. However, we have results for the stool samples. Both of the boys tested positive in all 3 samples for parasites. Yes, I know that it was a likely probability, but I was hoping for the best. ICK! ICK! ICK! They have to take 3 days of medicine and hopefully that will clear it up and we won't have to repeat the process all over again.
And, Joshua tested positive for a bacteria in one of his samples, called Shigella. If you Google it, you'll find lots of lovely info on this particular bacteria. The strange thing is that Joshua didn't have any of the symptoms of Shigella. If he had it, we'd have definitely known it. It's a BAD bacteria! So, Dr. Albert seems to think that Matthew may have cross-contaminated one of the samples when he was changing the diaper, since we never figured out what he was so sick with in Ethiopia. When I looked Googled it, sure enough, Matthew had the worst of the symptoms. So, it looks like we've discovered what the cause of Matthew's horrible sickness was. YAY!!
Friday, July 18, 2008
Shots are BAD :(
We took the boys in for their first round of vaccines and they were little troopers. They only cried for about 30 seconds and then they were back to grins and giggles.
Dr. Albert came out to get us because she had just gotten the results back from all of their bloodwork that was drawn on Tuesday. She said that both of them were "remarkably" healthy. Only a couple of things were slightly off, but they were nothing major. We'll repeat the bloodwork in 6 months to make sure that we're on the right track.
Did I mention that we had to "collect" 3 stool samples for each baby? I say "collect", tongue in cheek, because anyone who's had to scoop poop from a baby's diaper knows that there is no neat and tidy way to do it. And, really, the whole reason for scooping poop to begin with, begs you to wear gloves. Seriously, it's NOT fun!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
First Doctor Visit
We took Joshua and Josiah in this morning for their first official visit with the pediatrician. She looked them over from head to toe (literally) and seemed very impressed with how healthy they look.
They were 29 inches long and 24 pounds. At 15 months, they are a little small by American standards. Their weight puts them in the 20th percentile and their height puts them in the 15th percentile. She asked us to be working on slowly moving the boys toward table food, as right now they are only eating Stage 2 baby food, cereal and bottles. Stage 3 baby foods aren't a big hit right now. Those usually get us a "That's so gross" look and then it promptly gets spit out. They just don't like the texture of the Stage 3s, so we'll keep working on it.
We'll return in a week to begin the vaccinations, which I'm so not looking forward to. In the meantime, we went to the lab to have a FULL workup done on the boys. They drew 8 vials of blood for EACH boy. They were extremely unhappy little fellas, as you can imagine. Hoping everything is normal!
Friday, July 11, 2008
WE'RE HOME!
We arrived home last night at 5:50pm and it was somewhat surreal stepping off of the escalator, descending to precious friends and family clapping as we made our way down to baggage claim. I tried to hold it together, but the tears flowed nonetheless :) It was simply unbelievable to arrive in the U.S. with our family intact (LOL), surrounded by many of those who have prayed us along in this journey. The Lord is simply unbelievable that He would allow us to experience this journey and that we are finally home.
Due to the time that we left Addis and arrived in Texas, jet-lag has not been an issue for any of us. Once friends grabbed our luggage and put them in the car for us, we headed to Fuddruckers (what can I say-all 4 of us wanted an American hamburger). I don't think I've ever appreciated a hamburger more!
We've been home for 24 hours and it's been very smooth so far. We've been busy entertaining the boys and getting our HUGE suitcases unpacked so that we can return them to their faithful owners :) We have meals in the refrigerator, thanks to some sweet, sweet friends. Can I just say "YAY" for that AND for the refrigerator!
Joshua and Josiah are hysterical. They like to race each other around the floor, with Josiah speed-crawling (I use that term loosely, due to his size-tee hee) with his head down. That has presented some "interesting" boo-boos, to say the least. We're working on borrowing a couple of Exer-saucers to help strengthen the boys' leg muscles so that we can get them walking. I realize that I may regret trying to hurry this along, but know that it's what is best for them. Look out world when they do start walking! It will be a constant race, that is for darn sure.
I'm off to bed, as I just got Joshua back to sleep for the evening. Take a look at our "Welcome Home" video that some friends put together for us :)
Blessings,
Heather
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Where's the Diet Dr. Pepper??
Greetings from Newark New Jersey!!!!
Praise be to the Lord Most High!! We made it out of Addis in barely enough time to make our flight last night at 10:45pm. I am now jumping up and down after racing through immigration and customs in Newark. I couldn't wait to get to the nearest fast food place and order whatever I could find :) That and, of course, find the nearest store that sold Diet Dr. Pepper. For those that know me very well, you know that it was a SERIOUS sacrifice for me to do without my daily staple for 2 weeks!!
Our flight out of Newark has been delayed. We now leave at 3:35pm, which should put us in Austin around 6:30. Check Continental.com for flight number 450 from Newark to Austin to check on our arrival time.
For those who are meeting us at the airport, we can't wait to hug you and show off the kids (all of them :)))))
Love you very much,
Heather
Monday, July 7, 2008
On our way home to Texas
Two days after I posted the last update, Matthew became ill. He went to a lunch meeting on Thursday and came home thinking that he was getting a sinus infection. He went to bed and hasn't left since. He has had a temp of up to 101 and has been unable to keep anything down but crackers.
Because of how sick he has been, we've decided to come home early.
We had planned a dinner party at our Guesthouse for Saturday night, but had to cancel, which we were really disappointed about. We did call Dr. Segrest, Matthew's childhood doctor who is working here in Addis, and asked him and his wife, Becky, to come look at Matthew to get his perspective on what could be wrong. He was very gracious to take a taxi all the way out to the Guesthouse to meet with us and look at Matthew. According to Dr. Segrest, having a temperature and vomiting is very common for new arrivals in Addis. There are many things here that can make a person sick, one of which is the storage of leftover foods and refrigeration. We came across some very alarming things, trust me! He recommended that Matthew take the Cipro antibiotic pills that I brought.
It was really great seeing Dr. & Mrs. Segrest and having them pray over us.
Matthew's been feeling a bit better today (Sunday) and seemed to have a little more energy this morning. At least his humor is coming back and he made me laugh several times.
After I convinced him that we needed to get home, we decided that we would call Matthew's brother to get his help in rescheduling our flights for the U.S., hoping and praying to get out of Addis Saturday evening.
He was able to get our flights rescheduled, but we were too late to be able to leave Saturday evening. So, we have reservations to leave Addis this coming Tuesday night (July 8th) at 10:45pm and I am so thankful to know that we'll be on our way home in less than 36 hours. You just can't imagine how hard the last few days have been physically and emotionally. Trust me when I say that I have a new perspective on how easy we have it in the States!
We will be arriving into Austin around 6pm on Wednesday evening. We will be straggling in, I'm sure, but I, especially, will be extremely grateful to be home. I will have someone send an email from my Google Mail account, letting everyone know what time we will be arriving.
In the meantime, we covet your prayers for healing for Matthew and for a hedge of protection to be placed around me and the kids so that we will be able to get home without getting sick. Please pray for no delays with our flight out of Addis, as the rainy season has definitely started and it rains every evening. We can't wait to see everyone when we get home on Wednesday night.
God bless!
Heather
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Greetings from Africa!
Greetings from Africa!! We arrived into Addis Ababa safely Saturday evening at 9:05pm. Yay! The plane rides were loooonnnnggg, so long, but were very smooth (Xanax may have helped with that, who knows?? LOL) We had a driver from CWA there to meet us upon arrival, as well as a driver from our guest house, Oziopia. We were also greeted by Hailu, the father of our Ethiopian friends in Austin. It's a good thing that we had a driver from the Guest house there to show the CWA driver how to get to the guest house. Driving around in Addis is an entirely different experience, let me tell you. If you have ever ridden in a taxi anywhere in Mexico, you barely have an idea of what driving around in Addis is like. There are few, if any, street lights and drivers are constantly dodging people casually walking in the streets. There is simply nothing like it anywhere, trust me!
On Sunday, our driver picked us up at 10am to go get the boys at the CWA care center. We had asked the US staff if it would be possible for us to photo and video our initial meeting and were told that it should be fine. However, when we arrived in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian staff were pretty insistent that, due to privacy issues with the other children in the facility, we would not be allowed to video or photograph the meeting. However, we talked them into finding a small private room at the infant house, so that we could get those first moments on video. They were very gracious to find a tiny room that we could use for a few minutes.
We had prepared ourselves ahead of time for the possibility that the boys would most likely cry upon meeting us. And, cry they did! Wow! But, that didn't take anything away from those incredibly sweet first minutes with the boys.
They are absolutely precious and started bonding with us as soon as we left the transition home. Within the first few hours, they were holding their arms out to me to hold them, especially when upset, and are currently really enjoying sharing me with each other. Let's just say that they are a couple of charmers J
This afternoon, at 2pm, we went to our Embassy appointment. As many who've gone before us have said, it was pretty anticlimactic for such a long and tedious process. We went through tons of security to get inside and then we waited for about 10 minutes before being called up to a small window, where we were asked a few questions about the twins and our adoption. Then we were finished...
We're so thankful to have this part of the process over with. They will deliver the twins' visas on Friday.
Jessica and Christopher are turning out to be a HUGE blessing in so many ways during this trip. They are unbelievable siblings and are pitching in to help in every imaginable way. Well, except for the diaper changes, that is!
Updates will be few and far between while we are here in Ethiopia. We have to take a taxi to the Hilton to use the business center and that is about 30 minutes away from where our guest house is.
Prayer requests:
1. For the time to pass quickly-the diesel and pollution in Addis is taking a toll on our allergies and I (personally), just want to get home and start settling in.
2. For our immune systems to remain strong. We've been here 48 hours and so far, we're all doing fine. However, things can go downhill quickly, so we covet your prayers for our health.
Much love from Ethiopia,
Heather
