Ethiopia: Day 1

We arrived in Ethiopia around 11am today. When we went to board our flight we were notified that we had been upgraded to business class. It was a great way to start the day! When we settled into our seats the other person in our row said, "Are you Kate?" It was one of our America World families who recognized me from the blog. So Allison and I spent part of the flight talking and getting to know each other. I could get used to the business class life- it was wonderful!

We were right at the front of the plane so we were quick to get in line for our visas and exchanged money very easily. After we passed through passport control we went to baggage claim. We kept waiting and waiting for our bags to come out. And then we waited some more. Two of our four bags arrived safely and we're not too sure where the others are. Unfortunately for our physical comfort, the two bags missing are the suitcases that contain all of our clothes and
everything I brought for Mathios. We filed a claim, tried not to get too upset and are praying that they will arrive on the flight from Dubai tomorrow morning. Please pray that they get here!

We were met at the airport by the tour company that works with our agency and were brought to the guest house. It's comfortable and clean and we have wonderful suitemates. We have private bed and baths and share a common area with a kitchenette. Sara and Shane, our suitemates, invited us to go sightseeing this afternoon. So just a few hours after we arrived we were driving through the wild streets of Addis Ababa up to Entoto Mountain. We visited a small Ethiopian museum (had a great tour guide), saw the oldest Orthodox Church in Addis Ababa and walked through the old "palace grounds." The views from the top were breathtaking and the history of this country is amazing. It was a great way to spend our first afternoon in Ethiopia.

As you can see, we have internet access and we're so thankful for that. This emailed post is coming to you from the comfort our own room. We just finished up dinner and are ready for bed. The last 2.5 days have been exhausting and we've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow! About the time you are getting up, eating breakfast and starting your day we will be meeting Mathios! We are truly amazed that this day has finally come. So what if we don't have clean clothes to wear- we get to meet our boy! Let's see if I can keep this attitude tomorrow if the bags don't come!

We're doing well, though we're pretty exhausted from traveling and now suddenly being at 8,000 feet or so of elevation. Hopefully a good night of sleep awaits us; we know that tomorrow will be great!

Dubai

Dubai: Millenium Hotel

Friday was the longest day of our life! Saying goodbye to Haven and life as we have known it for the last three years was every bit as hard as we imagined it would be. Haven did well talking about leaving these last few days and was ready to load up the minute Traci got there. But when we buckled her in her car seat, reality hit our sweet girl hard and she just couldn't stop crying. It didn't help that Kate was a wreck and they just sat there tears mingling together for a few moments. The windows were down as the drove away and Haven's poor sad wails still make our hearts ache. Traci said that she really did well the rest of the afternoon, especially considering what was going on. We are so thankful for that amazing girl the Lord's given us.

Our travels have been relatively uneventful to date. An easy flight from Cincinnati to JFK. Loathed JFK and it's ridiculous lay out. But we found some decent dinner and then just sat to wait. And wait. And wait some more. It was painful and Kate was really struggling. it didn't help that once we got on the plane and settled in we had another hour and a half ground delay. We did a lot of praying and through a few different things Kate was very aware that her struggles weren't just about missing Haven or being anxious about flights- it was a true spiritual battle. So we prayed some more and Kate prayed and journaled and listened to worship music. The Lord, in His grace, finally brought peace to our hearts, settled upset stomachs and gave our minds rest. By the way- Kate's soundtrack for this time was Travis Cottrell "Jesus Saves Live" and it was so appopriate! I wouldn't have thought this CD would be my favorite style, but the Lord has used it so many times in the short span we've had it.(The upset stomachs returned when they started serving curry for dinner at 2am. Kate slept with her sweatshirt over her head to block out the smell! And she even likes curry- just not at the hour!)

So now we're here in Dubai, getting ready to leave in a few short hours. We definitely have a countdown to Mathios running in our minds. 36 hours til we see our son's face! Praise the Lord!

We and 300 or so

We and 300 or so of our closest friends are boading a jet for a 13 hour flight to Dubai. Goodbye USA! See you on the other side...

Itinerary

We have had several people ask us what our trip is going to look like so we thought it would be helpful to post our itinerary for you. Here goes:

Friday 17 July 09: We are flying out of Cincinnati. We fly to New York and will have an overnight flight to Dubai. Thirteen hours. Oy.

Saturday 18 July 09: We arrive in Dubai at 7pm local time and will spend the night at a hotel. Thanks, Emirates!

Sunday 19 July 09: Depart Dubai in the morning and arrive in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia around noon. We will go to our hotel and have the rest of the day to get acclimated.

Monday 20 July 09: We will have a huge paperwork meeting with all the other America World families in country preparing for our Embassy appointments later in the week. That afternoon we get to meet Mathios!!! We'll spend a few hours with him at the Transition Home and that night will have a special Ethiopian meal with all our travelling families.

Tuesday 21 July 09: We will have free time in the morning and that afternoon will get to go pick up Mathios for good! We'll spend several hours at the Transition Home, taking photos for a few other waiting families and loving on their kids and will have a traditional coffee ceremony with the nannies. Then back to our hotel for the evening.

Wednesday 22 July 09: We have a free morning before heading to the Embassy that afternoon. Each family gets called in one-by-one to be interviewed and I think having a last name that starts with Z will once again not be helpful. Could be a long afternoon for all of us!

Thursday 23 July 09: We have the opportunity to go visit two of the orphanages that America World works with in the city. We aren't sure what we will do yet, it depends on how Mathios is doing, but we hope to visit at least one of them. And word is that there is some sort of Guys Night planned for this evening!

Friday 24 July 09: We don't know exactly what is planned for Friday, but again, we can choose to do whatever we want. We might try to see some sites if we have the time, but we'll just have to be flexible. We depart Addis at 8pm headed back to Dubai.

Saturday 25 July 09: We'll start our day in Dubai and too many hours later will land in Cincinnati at 4pm. Home again, home again, jiggety jig! Hopefully we will be united as a family of four (and joined by several other family members and friends) by 6:30pm!

That's a lot going on for 8 days! It's going to be an amazing, life-changing trip! Pray for us!

An adoption party

One night last week, some sweet friends of mine and Amber's threw us an adoption party. It was a wonderful night and I left being so thankful for all these women who are so excited about the little boy getting ready to come home with us. The girls thought of everything and made prayer cards with our pictures for all in attendance, had an Ethiopia quiz, and had us share our adoption journeys by asking a series of questions. The food was delicious and the gifts were abundant. It was a wonderful night!

Gifts, prayer cards and adorable candle holders with Ethiopian colors

The food was wonderful and plentiful!

Marisa made these amazing banner for each of our sons. It said Mathios Jon: Gift from God. It's going to be hanging in our living room to welcome him home next week!

Thank you to everyone for such a special night!

Six days...

We are leaving to go get Mathios in six days! The last week of our life has been absolutely crazy. We found out late last week that Mathios has continued to have feeding issues and they have put him on an NG feeding tube. Of course this greatly worried us so we decided to take advantage of the resources at the International Adoption Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. We have been able to talk with the doctor there and she's helped us formulate a game plan for getting him home. We were encouraged this week to find out that he has started to eat some food again, but don't know what the situation will be once we get there. So we are preparing for the worst (which includes the two of us knowing how to put in and care for the NG tube!) and hoping for the best. We are so thankful for the support from the IAC and will do Mathios' follow-up care there when we get home.

We didn't receive our concrete travel dates until Tuesday and didn't realize what a miracle it was until later in the day. On Tuesday afternoon we were informed that the agency that handles all the paperwork and processing for adoptions in Ethiopia was suddenly shutting down for two weeks for training- effective immediately! Our agency's staff worked diligently after business hours ensuring that our final piece of paperwork was complete, thus enabling us to travel next week. It is truly miraculous! There was at least one other family that was supposed to be in our travel group that didn't get the necessary paperwork completed and their travel was put off until mid-August. We are praising the Lord that now is the time for us to bring our son home!

In between all the phone calls, doctor appointments, shopping, laundry, list making, packing and preparing to leave we've also been trying to make the most of our last few days as a family of three. Haven is so excited to have her brother here, but the anticipation of being apart from us has been hard for her. Please pray for her little heart!

So we leave in six days and we'll be ready. We have a few transportation details to work out and I'm sure we'll be at the store a few more times picking up "just one more thing". But come Friday, we'll have five suitcases packed and our hearts set toward Ethiopia. Can't wait!

By the way, you can sign up on the right hand side to have our blog updates delivered to your inbox. We will be posting as much as we can in Ethiopia and we'd love for you to follow along with us!

What's in a name?

Mathios Jon Kumalo Zeune.

Quite a mouthful isn't it?

Mathios: Amharic version of the name Matthew which means 'gift from God.'

Jon: Named after his grandfather and means 'God is gracious.'

Kumalo: His birth father's first name and this is his given last name by Ethiopian custom.

Zeune: Self explanatory. We didn't get to pick this one!

Mathios was named by his birth parents. Since the very start of our adoption process we have been certain that we would keep our child's given name. There were a few small caveats to this decision, but we felt very strongly about keeping his given name. The Lord knew our hearts about this and could not have given us a more aptly named child!

In Ethiopia, names take on even more significance, especially for boys, then they do here in the US. When a man has a child, the father's first name becomes the child's last name. There is no family name, but the father's first name is passed on only to the next generation. Our understanding of this cultural practice and the great emphasis placed on naming children in Ethiopia makes us appreciate our son's given name even more.

Now that we know a little bit about Mathios's birth parents and their background, knowing that they named him "gift from God" is amazing to us. He is indeed a loved little boy! He is certainly a gift to us and to our family! Our children both have two middle names, as do several of our nieces and nephews. We love this idea and of being able to honor both sides of our families and carry on those family names. There was no question that our first born son would be named after my dad, Jon and the meaning of that name is even more profound as we have been overwhelmed by God's grace in bringing Mathios into our family. We decided to keep Kumalo as his second middle name as a way of showing respect to his birth family and to his Ethiopian heritage. And well, then there's Zeune. Enough said.

And in case you were wondering, Mathios is pronounced Math-e-os. Or at least that's how we are pronouncing it! We think it is relatively correct based on our extensive internet research!

What's in a name? In this case, a lot!