One month home...plus a few days

One month home with this sweet boy. Mati is a happy guy for the most part unless he's not feeling well and then nobody's happy! Unfortunately he's not been feeling great lately, but hopefully we're on the upswing. We had a follow-up appointment at the International Adoption Clinic this week and went over all the labwork we had done when we first got home. Nothing too interesting to report other then the fact that Mati did indeed have chicken pox. We thought he must have because he has several scars on his face and back, but we were assured that he didn't. His bloodwork proves otherwise. One less vaccination to get! Once again, we were so pleased with the care we've received at the IAC and would highly recommend them to anyone adopting.

We've learned a lot about Mati in the last month. Here's just a few things...

Loves: bananas, applesauce, cheese, milk, goldfish, peas, waving hi, "talking" to Cale on the phone,
Dislikes: cantaloupe, getting told "no", when Haven walks away after playing with him,

And guess who started walking??!!! He took his first steps last Saturday and has taken a few more each day. Definitely not proficient, but it's amazing how far he's come in just one month. Our boy is growing up!

Officially official

Yesterday we headed out early to go to our local county courthouse to re-adopt Mathios. It turns out that this is probably the simplest thing we've had to do for our entire adoption! We filled out a few forms, wrote them a check and a few signatures, stamps and seals later it was done. Mati's legal name is now Mathios Jon Kumalo Zeune and it was accomplished exactly one month from when we first met!



Unfortunately this is just the first part of a long succession of paperwork that awaits us. We still need birth certificates, citizenship paperwork and a social security number. But one thing at a time! And we'll take this small victory and celebrate that he is ours (again!)!

Three weeks home

I have thoroughly enjoyed following along with other adoptive families and their journey to bring their kids home. From the paper pregnancy, referral, court dates and travel...especially the travel and hearing about meeting their kids for the first time. But then people come home and they quit updating. I never understood that! Don't they know that I'm still interested and want to know how their doing?!



And then I adopted a little boy and came home and quit updating. I fear that the lack of updating makes it appear that we are not doing well; that our adjustment has been rough and we're frazzled and crazy. None of that is really the case! Is life busier? You bet it is, but in the best possible way! We have adjusted very well to being a family of four and Haven is pretty much the best big sister their is. She loves Mati like nobody's business. The other day he was fussing about something and she came up to him and said, "You miss your other mommy, don't you buddy? It's okay. You've got the Zeunes now and we'll be your family forever! We love you!" She is too much!



Mathios is just a great baby. He's been sick the last week or so and has not been his usual good natured self, but even not feeling good, he is a sweet boy! He continues to eat like a champ and in his first three weeks home has gained 1.5 lbs. He loves fruits and vegetables and will cry if someone is eating a banana and not sharing with him! He loves the pool, walks in the stroller and climbing up the stairs. He calls Kate mama and is picking up sign language quickly. He is also a big "talker" and sits in his high chair jabbering away during the entire meal. I think he's trying to keep up with his equally talkative sister!



We hope to put some new pictures up soon. We've had a camera malfunction and hope to get that taken care of this week sometime. We do have some up on another site so if you're interested in seeing them comment on this post and we'll send you the link.

A week of firsts

Mati's had a big week. So many firsts, all in just 6 days time!

First...
-bath with Haven
-lunch at Chick-fil-A
-visit to the park

-stop at Target

-ride in a shopping cart

-visit to the library

-time meeting his pediatrician

-walk to the post office

-splash in the pool

-rides in his car seat

-walks on the bike trail

-bottles with whole milk

-sippy cups

-foods- including turkey, grapes, bananas, sweet potato fries, applesauce, sloppy joes, green beans, squash casserole- and those are just some of his favorites!

We are so thankful for how well Mati fits into our family and for a great week of adjustment as a family of four!

Getting adjusted

It's hard to believe that we've been home for two days already. We had such a sweet homecoming with Haven and were able to celebrate with several friends that evening.

Sunday was a fog and mostly forgotten by all of us. Yesterday found us feeling more like ourselves. We spent the afternoon at the International Adoption Center and everyone was so pleased with Mati's progress. He was not too pleased with the whole situation there as he got no sleep, they kept messing with him and took 11 vials of blood!

It still doesn't seem real that this has all happened and we are home together. But we are enjoying our new reality!

Big sister Haven always wants to be with brother. He's not too sure what to think about it sometimes!

Home

After three flights, 31 hours of travel and not much sleep we made it home! We arrived in Cincinnati around four yesterday and made it home just before six. It was SO amazing to see Haven and introduce her to her brother. Several of our friends also stopped by to meet Mathios and celebrate our homecoming. Thanks for praying us safely home...more to come!

Ethiopia: Day 5

It's been a much quieter day for us today. We decided to stay back at the guest house while some of the other families went to visit one of the orphanages that AW works with. I think it was a good choice for us. Mathios has come out of his shell even more today. He's pulling himself to stand on the furniture and even cruising a long it. This from the kid who just sat and looked at us 48 hours ago! He's laughing, playing and letting us know when he's not happy about something! We met up with our group for lunch at Metro Pizza. It was a really nice place, but directly across from a large plot of men herding their goats. Like we stepped off the bus and had to step around goats. Different!

This afternoon we hung out here while Mathios slept and then we went with a few other families to do a bit more shopping. The whole point of the trip was to go to a spice shop and I still don't know how that never happened. Transportation has been interesting this week! Everything was crazy today as people were going in a million different directions including back to the embassy. Praise the Lord that our two families that had delays at the embassy yesterday got everything worked out and will be leaving with us tomorrow.

Tonight we ate dinner in our room instead of having pizza again here at the guest house. Easy mac and tuna salad- yum! M ate spaghettios and he was a big fan! He's been eating so well. Thank you to everyone who prayed for that! The guys were supposed to have a guys night out tonight but our guide never showed up so they just sat around downstairs talking. I was planning on reading and relaxing while they were gone, but our suitemate, Sara, and I got talking and that was time much better spent. We are going to miss Shawn and Sara- they have been the best!

And now were headed to bed. I thought today would drag by, but it hasn't at all. I can't believe this is our last night here! Tomorrow morning we are going to visit a coffee factory and we'll be purchasing the coffee we promised some of you! We leave for the airport around 4:30 for our 7:30 flight to Dubai. A brief layover there and then a 2:30am flight back across the world! We land at JFK around 7:30am Saturday morning and will arrive back in Cincinnati around 4pm after a painful layover in NY. Please pray for the Lord to shower us with grace, perseverance and patience for our travels. We are so ready to be home and hope that the trip isn't as painful as we're expecting! So this will probably be it from Ethiopia. You'll hear from us again when we are safely home!