Friday, August 29, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
Home
As I try to figure out this whole blogging while you're a mom thing, I just wanted to type a little post that we made it home safe and sound. We are all doing extremely well considering the long flight and all. Our trip to Ethiopia was simply out-of-this-world. Not only because we got to bring home the most amazing little man who we are so lucky to call our son, but we absolutely fell in love with the country. On all of my prior travels, I have never gone past day five or seven without getting an overwhelming urge to get home. Not this time. I was a complete emotional wreck on the night before we were to leave. We were at a traditional Ethiopian restaurant eating fabulous food, watching amazing dancers perform and listening to the most lovely music and I just kept tearing up. It was sinking in that we were leaving and the knowledge that it would be some time before we were able to return to Ethiopia was hitting me very hard. I have never been to a place with such incredibly warm, friendly and beautiful people. I am so honored that my son is from this phenomenal country.
There is soooooooooooooooooooooo much more to write about but my baby boy is about to wake from his nap. So, in the mean time, I'll give you what you all want anyway. Photos of Miles Mubarek.
There is soooooooooooooooooooooo much more to write about but my baby boy is about to wake from his nap. So, in the mean time, I'll give you what you all want anyway. Photos of Miles Mubarek.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
2 in 3 out
In less than 24 hours we'll be on a plane. That is the craziest thing. For real. We're going to Ethiopia and coming back with our baby. We've been in the whole adoption "process" part for so long that to finally get to the part where you get your baby is pretty, forgive me for being trite, surreal.
Seriously, when you really think about it, it's the most absurd thing. Ethiopia is going to let a woman, who had a melt down in Target yesterday because she didn't know what a burp cloth was and then hyperventilated because she couldn't find where they kept this mysterious object, be a mother. For the past week, there have been countless times that Jason and I would look at one another, and then without uttering a single word, bust out laughing. We're laughing because in a matter of weeks, there will be this little person living in our house who is completely dependent on us. Now, that's funny to us.
You can all rest assured that we've thought ahead and made certain we would be traveling with someone who has some experience in this whole mothering thing. Yes, my lovely mother-in-law will be accompanying us on the trip and will not only be the go-to person with frantic questions, but also the head camera person responsible for documenting this life-changing event that we have dreamt about for the last two years.
So don't change the channel. Stay tuned for the trip of our lifetime where we finally become, Smieja, party of three.
Seriously, when you really think about it, it's the most absurd thing. Ethiopia is going to let a woman, who had a melt down in Target yesterday because she didn't know what a burp cloth was and then hyperventilated because she couldn't find where they kept this mysterious object, be a mother. For the past week, there have been countless times that Jason and I would look at one another, and then without uttering a single word, bust out laughing. We're laughing because in a matter of weeks, there will be this little person living in our house who is completely dependent on us. Now, that's funny to us.
You can all rest assured that we've thought ahead and made certain we would be traveling with someone who has some experience in this whole mothering thing. Yes, my lovely mother-in-law will be accompanying us on the trip and will not only be the go-to person with frantic questions, but also the head camera person responsible for documenting this life-changing event that we have dreamt about for the last two years.
So don't change the channel. Stay tuned for the trip of our lifetime where we finally become, Smieja, party of three.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Why we're not moving.
I make fun of living in the burbs. Let me rephrase that. I make fun of living in the burbs a lot. I've talked ad nauseum to Jason about the good public schools in Atlanta proper, the going against traffic on his whole commute thing and that we really don't need to live in a big house. We're city people. Just when I think he's starting to see things my way, this happens.
The kids in our suburban hood, along with their mommy's help, made a sign for Miles and got him a present that I've been eyeing up for weeks. We're not going anywhere.
The kids in our suburban hood, along with their mommy's help, made a sign for Miles and got him a present that I've been eyeing up for weeks. We're not going anywhere.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
February 12, 2008
This was the first picture we saw of our son.
It was February 12th, somewhere around 5pm, and I was in the middle of cleaning the upstairs. The phone rang and I remember struggling to remove the rubber gloves from my hands in order to answer the phone. I didn't want to miss any phone call because I had a feeling that "The Call" was coming at any time. But finally, snap, off went the gloves and I got to the phone just in time. It was Jason. My heart sank just a teensy bit because it wasn't our consultant phoning with "The Call". I expected Jason to tell me that he needed to stay late at the office or something like that but instead he said he received a call from our consultant and I believe I screamed, "Do we have our referral?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
He went on to tell me that she had called with information about a baby boy. I was confused. Was he our referral? What information? This call wasn't happening like our first call. What's going on? Jason was finally able to get a word in to halt my barrage of questions to explain what was happening. Our agency was doing everything in their power to minimize any risks for us with our referral. The baby boy she was calling about had been hospitalized briefly with a fever and rash and she wanted to provide all of this information to us before we accepted the referral.
I heard hospitalized and I got really scared. I knew one thing and that was I could not go through losing another child.
We then conferenced in our consultant so I could hear about this baby boy and get as much information as possible. She read his medical file to us and I remember her saying that he had shown marked improvement since the hospitalization. That sentence stuck in my head. Everything else she said was just kind of like the teacher in the Peanuts, "wah, wah, waah". He had shown marked improvement. That's all I needed to hear. She suggested that we might want to have a doctor look over his medical files and offered a name for us. I didn't want to. We had done that with our referral of Samuel and left the doctor's office with no more information than we went in with but our pockets were short by $400.
So, with the three of us on the phone, Jason and I decided that this was our son. We didn't need to talk about it anymore, he was meant to be our son. She then told us his name, Mubarek. I didn't know what the name meant at that time but I knew that I liked it. Mubarek.
Prior to this call, I told our consultant that Jason and I had talked and we decided that, when the time came, we did not want to see pictures of our referral. We thought that it would be best to wait to see his picture until after we had passed court. Well, you can see how long that lasted. We changed our minds and asked her to forward pictures along with his medical information. Now, the hardest part was waiting for Jason to drive home so we could open the email together.
But the wait was well worth it. We opened the email and look what we saw. A sweet little peanut, who was clasping his hands together like he was about to play that little game, Here's the church, and here's the steeple. Open the door and see all the people. But better yet, he was smiling**! I had longed to see a just one photo of Samuel smiling and could not believe how lucky we were to see our son smiling in his referral photo. Jason then noticed that he was laying on a davenport (did your grandparents use that word, too?) just like his grandparents had.
After our loss, we were so scared to open our hearts up again. But we did. And our hearts are now swelled to the brim with love for this little boy, who was meant to be our son.
** After further review and enlarging the photo as much as possible, it was a cry and not a smile. But adorable, nonetheless.
It was February 12th, somewhere around 5pm, and I was in the middle of cleaning the upstairs. The phone rang and I remember struggling to remove the rubber gloves from my hands in order to answer the phone. I didn't want to miss any phone call because I had a feeling that "The Call" was coming at any time. But finally, snap, off went the gloves and I got to the phone just in time. It was Jason. My heart sank just a teensy bit because it wasn't our consultant phoning with "The Call". I expected Jason to tell me that he needed to stay late at the office or something like that but instead he said he received a call from our consultant and I believe I screamed, "Do we have our referral?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
He went on to tell me that she had called with information about a baby boy. I was confused. Was he our referral? What information? This call wasn't happening like our first call. What's going on? Jason was finally able to get a word in to halt my barrage of questions to explain what was happening. Our agency was doing everything in their power to minimize any risks for us with our referral. The baby boy she was calling about had been hospitalized briefly with a fever and rash and she wanted to provide all of this information to us before we accepted the referral.
I heard hospitalized and I got really scared. I knew one thing and that was I could not go through losing another child.
We then conferenced in our consultant so I could hear about this baby boy and get as much information as possible. She read his medical file to us and I remember her saying that he had shown marked improvement since the hospitalization. That sentence stuck in my head. Everything else she said was just kind of like the teacher in the Peanuts, "wah, wah, waah". He had shown marked improvement. That's all I needed to hear. She suggested that we might want to have a doctor look over his medical files and offered a name for us. I didn't want to. We had done that with our referral of Samuel and left the doctor's office with no more information than we went in with but our pockets were short by $400.
So, with the three of us on the phone, Jason and I decided that this was our son. We didn't need to talk about it anymore, he was meant to be our son. She then told us his name, Mubarek. I didn't know what the name meant at that time but I knew that I liked it. Mubarek.
Prior to this call, I told our consultant that Jason and I had talked and we decided that, when the time came, we did not want to see pictures of our referral. We thought that it would be best to wait to see his picture until after we had passed court. Well, you can see how long that lasted. We changed our minds and asked her to forward pictures along with his medical information. Now, the hardest part was waiting for Jason to drive home so we could open the email together.
But the wait was well worth it. We opened the email and look what we saw. A sweet little peanut, who was clasping his hands together like he was about to play that little game, Here's the church, and here's the steeple. Open the door and see all the people. But better yet, he was smiling**! I had longed to see a just one photo of Samuel smiling and could not believe how lucky we were to see our son smiling in his referral photo. Jason then noticed that he was laying on a davenport (did your grandparents use that word, too?) just like his grandparents had.
After our loss, we were so scared to open our hearts up again. But we did. And our hearts are now swelled to the brim with love for this little boy, who was meant to be our son.
** After further review and enlarging the photo as much as possible, it was a cry and not a smile. But adorable, nonetheless.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
