Unexpected Blessings of International Adoption

When we were preparing to adopt across cultural lines, part of our training included watching some videos. One of these videos talked about the importance of not just trying to keep your kids tied to their culture of origin, but for the entire family to become a little bit (in our case) Ethiopian.

It's a tall order, and one which I hope I'm successful in filling. One thing that I really love about our church is their annual "Nations Sunday" in which there is a focus on world missions. On this particular Sunday each year, many of the world's flags are paraded in during a special procession and the entire congregation is invited to dress in clothing from other nations. For our family, it is a natural opportunity to celebrate our sons' Ethiopian heritage and for them to wear their special outfits we bought them when we were there adopting them.

Our family

One unexpected blessing of becoming "a little bit Ethiopian" is that I've become much bolder in introducing myself to people if I suspect they may be Ethiopian (or from any other African country, for that matter). Consequently, I've made friends with some wonderful women, one of whom has become particularly dear to me. Her name is Sophia, and I met her last year on Nations Sunday. She is a beautiful woman--both inside and out--and last year, she was wearing a gorgeous dress from her native Kenya. I introduced myself to her and we've been friends ever since. She is also the mother of two little boys.

About six months ago, she traveled to her homeland for a visit and returned with a surprise gift for me...a beautiful pink dress!!! It is a Ghanian style dress, and this year's Nations Sunday was my first opportunity to wear it. I love it, and most of all, I loved that my boys could see how proud I was to wear a beautiful African dress...it was a celebration of them as much as it was a chance for me to feel pretty!

Sophia (left), her two sons, and her aunt.

I'm so grateful for the ways our adoption of Jeremy and Zachary has opened my eyes and my heart to people and experiences I might not have otherwise known.

Our family was asked to be part of the flag procession this past Sunday, and when I saw the Ethiopian flag, I found myself dashing over and saying, "May I carry that flag? It's my sons' country!" I couldn't have felt more proud and somehow unworthy at the same time. I'm so blessed and humbled, too, to be a little bit Ethiopian.

Return: Volver

On Thursday, Rebeca (our summer nanny) will be returning to Spain to continue her university studies. What a fun summer we've had with her here! We took advantage of overcast skies and cooler temperatures today to do a photo shoot with her and the boys. Rebeca, thank you so much for all you've done for us this summer! You were wonderful with the boys and a great friend to me! We love you and will miss you so much!!!

Couple Friends Reunion

Last weekend, our dear friends Dave and Jenn flew in from California for a visit. It was so wonderful to see them! They were our closest "couple friends", and we have really missed them since we moved to Texas. This was the first time they met the boys and our first time to meet their precious daughter!

Isn't she adorable?!!

Friendship is such a treasure, and I'm so glad that in spite of the distance our hearts have remained close!

Awesome visit with another ET Adoptive Family

Ten years ago, I got to know a wonderful woman named Carrie. At the time, she was pregnant with her first child. She now has five children, the youngest of whom they adopted from Ethiopia about a year before we adopted our boys. They live overseas, but are currently stateside, so we seized the moment to get our kids together and to catch up a bit. She took some wonderful photos of the kids that I want to share with you:

Selah and Zachary... they loved each other!

Makaria and Jeremy. Don't they look adorable in their matching colors?
(We went to a parade over the weekend, and Jeremy LOVES his Mardi Gras beads!)

Three Ethiopian-American cuties!

God has been so gracious and good to me, giving me sweet times with old friends lately. And I'm very thankful for this visit! I'm also thankful that we've gotten to know so many other families who have adopted from Ethiopia. I think it will be so wonderful for these kids to grow up knowing other kids who share their story and history!

Home Sweet Home!

After a brief night's sleep in Dubai, we boarded our airplane and began the 16 hour flight to Houston. It was loooooooooooooooooooong. At least my baby got to fly in style! Emirates Airlines has bassinets available for families traveling with babies. We loved flying Emirates!

The boys did really well on the flight. We were exhausted by the time we reached Houston. One of the flight attendants was so excited for our boys' homecoming that she and another flight attendant lent their hats to our mothers for a photo op when we had landed!

It felt great to be back in Houston!

We made it through passport control, and then Brian and I and the boys had to go through immigration. That's when things got rough. There were about 30 people waiting for their visas to be processed when we walked in the room. It took over an hour for them to get to us. Normally, waiting that time wouldn't have been so bad, but given that we had been traveling for such a long time on very little sleep, I hit a proverbial wall, and I couldn't hold it together anymore. It was a level of exhaustion that I had never experienced before, and I just sat there sobbing, holding my baby as I was dealing with nausea from the exhaustion, waiting for them to get to us. It wasn't pretty. Brian was holding Jeremy, who suddenly got a bloody nose (altitude change, maybe?). Poor Brian yelled, "Does somebody have some tissue? My son has a bloody nose!" Not long after that, we got our visas and were on our way.

I was soooooooo happy to finally walk out through the big doors and see my sweet sister, who had been waiting there for almost three hours!

My friend Cissy was also there waiting to meet us with balloons, ice cold bottles of water, and her big SUV to load up our luggage. Thank you, C!

I changed clothes to feel a little fresher, because there was a wonderful group of friends waiting for us at our house to welcome us home! They were so awesome--they had balloons, American flags, groceries, and two huge chocolate chip cookie cakes, which we feasted on for days!!!!

After our friends left, we went inside and Aunt Jilly got to love on little Zachary.

We showed the boys around the house and introduced them to their new room.

It was great to be home! I had hit a point with the exhaustion that I had to go bed, so I did just that...and slept for 19 hours! Thankfully, Brian and both of our moms were here to care for the boys while this Mama caught up on some much needed sleep!

Serious Cuteness!

Many thanks to my sweet friend Julie who sent the boys these adorable outfits. I think it's fitting that they celebrate their new American citizenship with a little red, white and blue!!!

Ethiopia - Day 5 - Visit #2 With the Boys + Surprise Coffee Ceremony + Dinner at Fasika = Best Birthday Ever!!!

I woke up on August 5th (my 36th birthday!!!) with the joyous contentment of knowing that I was the mother of two wonderful boys. Our first thing on the agenda that day was to go visit them at the care center. We decided to go visit Jeremy in his environment, so we went to the toddler room first, armed with bubbles and balloons, hoping that this visit with him would be more fun for him than the last one. And it was!

After we played with him (and the other kids) for a while, the care givers brought out breakfast, and we got to feed him, which was fun! I love feeding my baby bird!

After breakfast, we took Jeremy with us to the baby house to visit Zachary. Poor Jeremy cried and cried again until he fell asleep in Brian's arms. This was our first photo as a family of four:

Here's our wee one:

I loved seeing his name written in Amharic:

After saying goodbye to the boys, we went back to our guest house, where some of the guest house staff had arranged a surprise coffee ceremony in my honor to celebrate my birthday! It was so sweet and special! Our driver, Solomon, bought me a beautiful birthday cake, and everyone sang "Happy Birthday to you" in both English and Amharic! It was awesome!

That's the coffee pot sitting on hot coals. Coffee is traditionally served with popcorn in Ethiopia.

These are some of the wonderful women who work at the guest house!

That night, all of the Gladney families were taken out for dinner to a fantastic restaurant called Fasika for a traditional dinner of Ethiopian food and amazing performances featuring music and dancing from various regions in Ethiopia.

These were two other Gladney moms who I got to know and love while we were there!

The dancers came around the room and danced with the patrons. I got to try out shoulder dancing!!!

It was a great day!!!