A Brother For Roma US to Ethiopia to Japan

Winter in Japan

2012-01-14T22:15:00.002-07:00

Well we have been here 41/2 months now. I decided for Christmas it would be fun to do a Christmas ornament that represented where we were stationed. We were able to make it home for Christmas in the nic of time by a miracle of God. He provided a plane especially for us. Space A travel is tough and when you don't get the space cost you almost as much as flying commercial even if you only miss it one direction. Thank God we have a God and a job that provided the money. My dad was quite ill and it was good to see him and see how much progress he made in just the short time we were there. It was good to spend the holidays with friends and family. We were able to report that there prayers were working and we had settled in to our new home well. In fact after about a week in a half I was already ready to go back home and get back to work. The kids pretended like they wanted to stay in Utah but once on the plane were ready to see our friends and be back home. We just really love it here. I signed my letter of intent this week saying I'll stay for another year. What we love about here, is the peace both in our hearts and in the city. In my 41/2 months I have met one Japanese who was rude and he was probably just having a bad day. Even though we don't speak the Language the Japanese still treat us with great respect and kindness. I Love our church small, but loves God's word and loves to fellowship and love on people. I love that we are a typical family here no one could identify us by our races or family make up or even how long we've been here. The diversity is beautiful here. I love that I am not over involved and feeling stressed that I need to help here, the kids do to do this there etc. I love and hate at the same time how much freedom Roma has here. She is able to go and do and things are much safer here, but my little girl is growing up. There is a wide range of activities to do here for all ages but I don't feel stressed that we have to do everything. I do much better I think at doing family activities and spending quality time with the Family. We are much closer and the kids are much more obedient and learning to be more respectful as the Military community requires it. Being far away I have learned too I have no choice but to rely and trust in God and that has led to more peace and less stress in my life. Snow in the winter, there is lots of it. It's beautiful when it's not on the streets or you can stay home all cuddled up snug as a bug in a rug looking out at it. There is our update.

Driving Directions from Misawa

2011-11-10T18:49:00.002-07:00

If you are ever board and would like to explore some of the things that are here around me I found this great blog. Also if your moving to Misawa there are some great driving directions. If you hit the link to driving directions and then near the bottom of the driving directions she typically has the post link that has pics and her experience. It is fun check it out

http://littleraindrops.com/blog/how-to-get-there/

2011-11-07T03:14:00.001-07:00

10 Interesting and fun things I love about Japan

2011-10-22T04:17:00.005-06:00

The Japanese windows have screens built into them. So you open the window and then pull the screen out of the window casing to close.

The Japanese put on the label or on the price sign where all things are from. What region, Now I just need to learn to read Japanese.

Japanese speak in Japanese to you like they think you understand them and smile.

Japanese are very organized in the way they clean up and take care of trash.

Japanese are very honest you don't get a white person tax here.

Potty Talk
Ok first I have to say I love having a warmed up toilet seat in the middle of a cold night.

I Like the idea of washing your behind every time you use it with warm water.

In the bathrooms at some restaurants they have music on the Toilets that makes white noise if you need it.

Some potties have the flush as a button on the ground that you step on.

I like how the toilet and Bathing room is separate. They have whole bathing rooms that have a shower and a drain in the bottom of the floor. All walls are covered with tile or plastic. It's an easy clean.

Shaking and Moving

2011-09-17T05:53:00.003-06:00

Wow today's been full of excitement! So exciting that the ground just won't stop shaking! :) There has been 8+ earthquakes ranging from 5.2-6.6. The kids slept through the first 5 and then some tonight they have felt. It's a bit funny I have been asking everybody all day, did you feel that and it's small stuff for them. It has been raining all afternoon too. We seem to get a lot of moisture here. I purchased a car and signed a contract that was all written in Japanese. I am buying a 1996 CRV with 25000 KLM Yes you read that right about 15,000 Miles. You'll be amazed when I show you pics, it still looks new. So here in Japan they have a smog thing called JCI they check absolutely everything and it has to be in great running order or the dealership must fix it. So every 2 years you must do this. The air is extremely clean here. Then also I have to pay Road tax and insurance. They gave me a loaner car until they finish this. So I drove today(excuse the language) I typically do not like to have my A$$ on the line, but today I kept repeating it in my head so I didn't kill us all. It worked pretty well but now I have a broken record in my head. I only drove on the wrong side of the road once pulling into the Commissary and when a car started driving towards me I said shoot that's Roma's behind on the line and pulled over to the other side. He smiled as I drove by. Thank goodness most everyone on the base has been in my shoes before

Japan

2011-09-15T07:24:00.002-06:00

Wow we have been in Japan 10 days now and what a great place it is
The move all happened extremely quickly. I had an interview, 3 or so days later got offered a job, within 2 weeks of the job offer I was on a plane thanks to my wonderful friends and family who are taking care of getting my house moved and ready to rent. The kids have adapted extremely fast to life here, I have to tell you Air force families are about the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. The Japanese are very kind and humble people as well.
How has Roma liked it?
She absolutely loves the fact that she is in High School. Yes that is correct 7th grade is High school here.
She is learning to be black :) She says "I have been white for the first 12 years of my life now it's time I learned to be black." (She cracks me up)
She loves the freedom of being able to walk just about anywhere on base and be safe. (don't worry she's been warned where she'll get taken down and have M16's pointed at her head.
She loves shopping at the BX "It's better than Walmart"
How does E like it?
He loves his new friends!
He likes being at school with mom and boy does it make things easier.
He likes umbrellas and walking in the rain,
He loves the retired jets parked outside our hotel.
He loves meeting new people and having a whole new group to talk to (nonstop)
He loves all the men and women in uniform
He loves rice and fish
What mom likes?
The people are so friendly. People just jump at the chance to help newcomers.
The diversity (I can't pick out my kiddos so easily anymore. In fact I yelled at a poor little kid thinking he was E in another teachers room)
The country side it reminds me of like a small town on the Oregon or Washington coast.
I love that people in the towns tolerate me not speaking Japanese and Communicating even though they don't speak English.
I love the weather so far.

Interesting things
At the end of the work day the American and Japanese anthems are played. People hide out in the office or their car, cause if you are outside you must stand at attention or with your hand over your heart until both are done. It's hilarious to watch and AFN actually has some commercials to discourage people from being bums.

Used cars like 12-20 years old are sold for high prices but have extremely love mileage like below 20000 miles.

Houses are heated with kerosene

Japanese toilets are located on the ground and you must squat.

Hi is used by everyone English and Japanese and does not mean hello.

There are at least 7 different types of rice.

Rad Resources

2011-07-13T18:52:00.004-06:00

I wanted to share this post with you all that a person from or agency shared.
I just wanted to pass on (with permission) a list of resources compiled by one of the Mamas on my Guat Board. I have a 4 year old from Guat and my 15 month old is from ET. The Guat program (now closed) was the second largest adoptive country after China. Many of these kiddos are now teenagers or older. A lot of the issues seen in these children didn't surface until much, much later - after kids had been home for years even though these children were in Foster Care and forever home at 4 months of age. I've included her post in its entirety because of the struggle she had to identify issues and then seek help which wasn't readily available by her agency or her traditional therapists. I know there are several on this list living with challenges so I hope this will perhaps help in some small way. The field of Neuro Reorganization is getting a lot of buzz (I've been reading about it on just about every list I belong to!) and I think offers some real possibility not only for RAD but also for SPD, Autism etc. From Alison -

"With hopes that I don't overwhelm everyone, I'd like to share a number of links to some resources that are changing my family's life. Here's the quick & dirty version: 1) problems with your child's brain are likely at the root of whatever diagnosis your child may have received, and 2) there are ways to help your child's brain change that may eliminate the problematic symptoms and the need for medication and allow your child to develop to his or her full potential. (If you don't read anything else, check out the links on Neurological Reorganization below.)

First, a bit of background. When I first adopted, I remember hearing about the high rate of all sorts of issues among adopted kids - attachment disorders, ADHD, asthma, etc., and it pretty much infuriated me. I interpreted it as people looking for problems to "blame" on adoption. And my belief system was bolstered by the fact that my son was a joy as a baby, was seemingly securely
attached, etc. Fast forward several years, and things started to seem a bit off. Lots of anger that seemed directed specifically and only at me. ('Oh, it's just the terrible twos" said well-meaning but clueless people, or "He's just being a boy".) Low frustration tolerance, increasing number of explosive rages (with hitting, kicking, scratching, biting, unbelievably foul language, and
getting things hurled at me with increasing frequency both at home and while driving down the highway).

After reading (and ignoring) many recommendations on this list to check out Beyond Consequences, Logic, and Control, about 18 months ago I finally took the plunge, visited the website, and bought the first book. That led to buying many more books, taking online courses, etc. Over the last year, and particularly over the last 6 months, this journey has led me to so many things I never knew
about, would have scoffed at or dismissed as hogwash, crackery, or worse, and yet, the changes I have witnessed in my son (and that I have learned about in others' children both online and from people I know "personally") have been amazing, I have enormous faith that he will continue to "heal" as we continue to work on specific things, and my reticence at exposing or revealing our personal story has been overtaken by a strong desire to share what I've learned with others who are struggling so hard to do what's right for their children and their families.

So, after all that, some things I've learned and resources I'd like to recommend (again, with apologies for the length, but I wanted to get all this down together):

1. First is the effect of trauma and stress on the developing brain - the most critical of which is that it can leave those traumatized in a heightened state of hypervigilance at all times and predispose them to interpret the most benign things as actual threats (leading them to a fight, flight, or freeze state). Obviously, this is not a rational or logical response, because such a response is precluded. These kids have very little to no access to those parts of their
brain; instead their behavior is involuntarily guided by overactive lower parts of their brain (like the amygdala) that words cannot reach. Some books and websites:

www.beyondconsequences.com
www.postinstitute.com
http://www.danielhughes.org/
http://www.radzebra.org/ (Attachment and Trauma Network)
http://www.bonnieharris.com/resources.html (Connective Parenting)
http://www.childtrauma.org/ (Bruce Perry's site)

Listserve: dailyparentingreflections@yahoogroups.com (many members of this list are also on DPR).

Beyond Consequences, Logic, and Control Vols. 1 & 2 (not terribly well written, but full of good info)
The Connected Child by Karyn Purvis
Trauma Through a Child's Eyes and Waking the Tiger - both by Peter Levine
Building the Bonds of Attachment by Dan Hughes

2. But, as much as I believe in the Beyond Consequences and other
"therapeutic" approaches to parenting, I also believe that for some kids, it can only take you so far. Happily, the other really transformational thing I ...have learned more recently is that the brain is an amazingly plastic thing, and so much can be done (at any age!) to help it make connections it never had the chance to make (for whatever reasons) that can lead to all manner of problem
behaviors (including those usually diagnosed a ADHD, RAD, Sensory Processing Disorder, etc.). And the therapy that seems best able to help the brain is called Neurological Reorganization. NR is a movement based therapy that helps the brain build connections it is missing from the bottom up and takes it through specific developmental sequences that "normal" brains go through (with a huge emphasis on belly crawling and "creeping" on hands and knees).

The following websites give a lot of background on what NR is and what it can do.

http://www.brainhighways.com/ (A more "generic" less individualized approach that still seems to get some fabulous results plus they do a great job explaining and presenting it and they offer online courses for folks to do at home). The videos are also fabulous - presented from a kids' point of view. They also managed to get this program instituted into the San Diego School System.

http://activehealing.org/HTML/home.html (Sargent Goodchild's group - he was diagnosed with autism plus lots of other stuff as a kid and went on to become "cured" after doing NR work for several years.).

http://www.developmentalmovement.org/default.html (Bette Lamont's site)

http://actg.org/ (A Chance to Grow- for those in the Twin Cities area) .

http://www.neuroreorg.com/ (Emily Beard's site).

http://www.attachmentandintegrationmethods.com/ (Very helpful site with lots of information about various disorders and therapies)

Listserve: NEUROnetwork@yahoogroups.com (Many practitioners participate, and there are numerous posts and saved files of remarkable success stories, including this one (which I have permission to link to): http://familystuffandjunk.blogspot.com/2011/04/adoptioncom-guest-blo gger.html

We will be starting an NR program in a few weeks. There's no question that it requires a lot of time and dedication, but I am absolutely convinced that until we "fix" the foundation of my son's brain, all the other stuff will only get us so far.

3. The third piece of all of this is a bunch of complimentary therapies that I would have previously put entirely in the "woo woo" compartment and dismissed entirely. This includes things like Brain Integration Technique (or Crossinology), cranial sacral therapy, neurofeedback, and chiropractic. My son had about 6 hours of BIT just a few months ago and I saw an immediate reduction in the number, severity, and duration of his rages, a greater ability to control himself, and quick and sincere apologies following the times when he does still lose it. His teacher also reported that he was finally applying himself at school and made great progress right at the end of the year.

http://www.crossinology.com/ (has a list of trained practitioners in various parts of the country).

There are still more therapies (amino acids, various other supplements (including Fish Oil and Probiotics), specific diets, etc.) that I won't go into right now, especially since those are the ones I have the least understanding of so far."

Poverty Tourism

2011-07-03T07:41:00.006-06:00

Shepost posted a piece on poverty tourism, It was very thought provoking and really makes you think about your vision when doing missions trips. I suggest linking over and reading the whole article but here is a glimpse.

"Heather Armstrong traveled to Bangladesh on a media trip to bring awareness to Every Mother Counts, a charity dedicated to child and maternal health. Shortly after her first post about the trip, UK news outlet The Guardian posted a critical article about the trip, with the provocative title Blogging from Bangladesh – more poverty tourism? In the article, the author suggests that such trips are lacking in sustainable solutions, and takes jabs at blogger/charity partnerships as being merely vehicles for high-profile bloggers to go slum-touring in third world conditions:"

Very thought provoking. I am hoping to organize a missions trip to Costa Rica near where we have been staying. I can tell you what inspired me and also what gave me that ugly feeling that has just labeled for me as poverty tourism. This little church that we have been going to literally gives 90% of all incoming money to outreach programs, that are only benefiting the communities and not their church except for the benefit of giving. Because of where I am located they often get visitors, and after learning about the outreaches I overheard one of the visitors not asking what can we do to help but please take me and my kids out with you. Now I have to admit I want my kids to go with me and be involved in these trips to appreciate what they have an eventually advocate for those who need help especially those of their heritage countries. However the number one issue is how are we helping the people we are there to serve. Next admission; As I was thinking about what type of missions trip we could do I was thinking a VBS would be great. I am a teacher and this would be easy for me. However as I was talking to one of the ladies who is involved to going to the poorest of areas she said what they really need is a way to provide for themselves. So now my goal is to check into those Micro loans and help to figure out what skill we could teach these families to make a life changing difference. If anyone has ideas please share.

7 days left in Heaven

2011-07-01T08:57:00.004-06:00

So we have one more week in Heaven. I will miss it greatly. What do I love about Costa Rica? Well beside the beauty that you can find nowhere else, the clean clear beaches, and the incredibly friendly Ticos, Costa Rica is a place of simplicity and Peace. People live off what they have in general you don’t see lots of big fancy houses and people buying every new electronic gadget that comes out. People buy what they need and enjoy family, friends and the beauty around them. In Costa Rica it appears that family is the number one priority. Children are valued; education for all children is highly valued. Something that I learned this trip I didn’t know before, but talking to people I learned, is that the home for a family is literally their sanctuary. Although often a tico will give you the shirt of their back but it will often takes years if ever before they invite you in their house, as it is a sanctuary reserved only for their family (including extended family).

Food – It has become a little more commercialized over the years, but still the staple of the Costa Rican diet is raw foods, not processed. Typically Rice and beans is served with every meal. There are many fresh fruits and vegetables and here if you see fruits on the trees you are welcome to pick them. There is fish and chicken readily available, red meat is not eaten as much. It used to be that there were very few processed foods, but now they are getting more and more, they will cost you though. I find myself here cooking more from scratch and it really not taking much longer than premade stuff. Oh and tasting so Yummy. Another interesting side note, while here I went to 3 different potlucks and the food that people made was very international. (Of course the people were also from the US, Guatemala and Canada. We ate Indian, Indonesian, German, and Thai. I think people really try out their culinary skills here.

Simpleness - Part of the simplexes is that we as a family are living out of 11/3 suitcases and a backpack as well as what the condo owner has supplied in the condo and living in an 80 meter unit which is about 800 sq feet. (Why did the USA not really teach us metrics? Doesn’t pretty much the rest of the world use it?) This makes cleaning a snap and it doesn’t take all day to clean your house. Also life just feels a lot less cluttered. Here when you don’t need things any longer people pass them on to others. Also Costa Rica is a very “Green” country before they have destroyed their natural resources. Recycling is very big here. I have learned that some families even go to the dump and sort through and bring stuff to the recycling centers. Also another thing we choose to do here is walk everywhere (unless some kind soul offers us a ride ☺ (thanks Devan). This is so good for us. It does limit where we go but hey we have a beach a ½ mile away and a town with a grocery store 2 miles away. What more do we need? We do occasionally take a taxi at very reasonable prices. $4 for the 2-mile ride after shopping. City busses are incredibly cheap. 50 cents or less to go many miles, just not to our town. We also don’t have a phone here. Honestly I liked last time when we didn’t have a computer either because I’m a little addicted to my computer and I liked having to walk to town to use a computer.

So with the simpleness, the beauty, and the healthy food, it brings me to a place where I can get focused of what is important and what God’s plans are for my family and me. I find myself reading the Bible more often, Praying and praising God for the beauty around me. Then this trip I found something amazing a wonderful church full of English speaking and slowly moving towards bilingual people who love God. These people are here in Costa Rica for the same reason I love it. They are reaching out to the communities all around them to show God’s love. I had the opportunity to stay one Sunday for their yearly meeting and I was amazed that 90% of the income they bring in from tithes and offerings go right back out to the communities. They have a program in which they teach women skills to support their families. They go to incredibly poor area and provide food and hope to families. Guess what they are not doing this to build their church as they must refer families to other churches because theirs is an English speaking church. They are building God’s church. Come and be refreshed in Costa Rica live the Pura Vida life. Please leave all your American (USA) worries and ways in The U.S.

Today's creatures

2011-06-14T17:15:00.004-06:00

abandoning what you know is best because your in another country?

2011-06-14T11:15:00.002-06:00

So our vacation thus far has been really pretty great as far as behavior. I mean the a lot of teasing still goes on between the kids but other than that pretty obedient good kids. Yesterday however that changed. We have been doing swim lessons in the pool each day. I found some on You-tube and we been practicing each day. Okay to give you an idea of my personality as far as that goes, I'm not quite my dad "throw them in the middle of the pool and they'll learn to swim" but I do have very little tolerance for the screaming flip over and claw onto you behavior either. My thought is let them get comfortable in the shallow end playing etc and then take the to the deep end (where they can touch or almost touch) to work on swimming lessons. So we have been in this particular place 4 days in the the pool doing lessons. We'll today he decided he was not going to do them. When I brought him over to do them he was doing the claw onto me thing etc, I put him by the wall said we will try again in 10 sec. He takes off gets out of the pool is screaming on of course the one day we have neighbors. I count to three which believe it or not typically works. He runs not knowing where he is going. Typically my rule for runners is let them run don't chase them as they will just keep running. Also it encourages the running behavior. However, being in a foreign country not knowing my surroundings well (knowing that there are dogs maybe wild and Monkeys(don't know how they act with screaming kids) when he continued to run I chased, luckily I am still faster than him although probably not for long. Anyway here I am in my swim suit with a snorkle mask (perscription) so I could see because I didn't stop to get my glasses chasing a seven year old. That probably would of made a great video (LOL) running through the condos past the guard into the street chasing a screaming boy. I am able to catch him fairly quickly and then I can't let him out of the activity he was avoiding, otherwise it will teach him running or screaming will let you avoid things you don't want to do. So back in the pool, we finish what we were working and then after had his time to think about what he did he ask once again . "Who is going to take me back to Africa?" Every time he know mom is really upset at him, every time he does something really naughty that is the question, and every time the answer is the same. Sorry buddy you are stuck with us forever, just like Roma you are here and part of this family forever. This time I added that if I take him back to Africa and leave him the Judge will put me in jail because I promised to take care of him. We are at 15 months and he is still not sure he is staying. Good thing is it has been a few months since he has asked. Older adoption is a lifelong process.

2011-06-12T13:34:00.002-06:00

Children's Museum San Jose Costa Rica

Traveling with 2

2011-06-11T13:51:00.004-06:00

As a single parent I have always enjoyed traveling and have quite a bit with my daughter. This however was our first big trip with two kids out of the country. Two kids have raised my anxiety level a bit especially knowing that E would likely go or do what ever any adult asked him to. He also is not apt to stick to my side naturally like Roma does. So prior to our trip was the first time ever I have been concerned and had anxiety about traveling. I'll walk you through the trip thus far.
First plane ride.

We had 5 big checked bags (we brought some donations). Handling that many bags is tough even with a cart and a strong 12 year old. Little carry on rolly bag is to much for a seven year old to be in charge of.

If you are single do bring your proof of sole custody (for me an adoption Decree and Divorce Decree) or permission from other parent, they do check.
Make sure your passports are in good condition. (if not some foreign goverments will not allow you in their country.

Red eye is great!!! because the kids sleep and sleep and sleep.

TACA is a good airline, better than Delta not as good as Jet Blue or Emirites.

The guys at the airport continue and grab your bags all the way out to where you catch the bus. You may as well let them take them right out the door because your gonna pay a tip regardless and that way you can keep ahold of your son so he doesn't go try to flag down his own Taxi

Money and credit cards should be kept in three different place. Luckily for me I did this. all 3 of my cards were placed in different strategic places. One card was stolen/lost, but my other two are fine.

Convenience sometimes wins to cost, it wasn't worth it to me to walk several blocks in the capitol city to eat, although slightly high we just ate at the hotel Cafe.

With two I did not take local transportation when traveling with all my bags, it just was not worth the risk. Instead I hired a private Driver. Shop around for prices and look at reviews. They stop any time you ask.

A pool is a must!

Happy Mothers day

2011-05-08T16:29:00.000-06:00

Ethiopia - Mother's Day in Ethiopia occurs in mid-fall when the rainy season ends. Called “Antrosht,” Ethiopians celebrate by making their way home when the weather clears for a large family meal and a three day long celebration. For the feast the children bring ingredients for a traditional hash recipe. The ingredients are divided along gender lines, with girls bringing butter, cheese, vegetables and spices while the boys bring a bull or lamb. The mother prepares the hash and hands it out to the family. After the meal a celebration takes place. The mothers and daughters ritually anoint themselves with butter on their faces and chests. They dance while the men sing songs in honor of family and heroes. This cycle of feasting and celebration lasts two or three days.

Passport

2011-04-01T23:24:00.002-06:00

Sent off for a passport today. Hoping and praying all the docs come back with a passport. For those of you interested, This is what the officials said you need, for the west anyway.
Birth Certificate Ethiopian and US (Official)
Adoption Decree must be translated or in English (original)
Registration of a foreign adoption (Certified copy)
Green Card or Ethiopian Passport
Then I needed my passport which they verified copied and gave back to me.

2011-03-21T21:48:00.000-06:00

typeTAP: Water Revolution from The Adventure Project on Vimeo.

A year home

2011-03-15T18:10:00.003-06:00

and we are all still alive :)

2011-01-29T01:48:00.003-07:00

Wow one year ago today(well technically last night) was the day I passed court and Elias officially became my boy. I so remember that whole month it was so up and down. I remember how uncertain I was that the day would ever come that I could bring my boy home. After a failed previous court date where we thought the dad was in Addis for court but turned out not to be there, and weeks of searching diligently to find the father for weeks at 10:00 in the morning I finally got an e-mail from Mary with the good news. The world wind since the has been phenomenal. E I am so happy the day finally came that I could call you mine. :)

When is it the right thing to do to retain a child?

2011-01-06T21:16:00.003-07:00

When is it the right thing to do to repeat a grade? I would love your opinions. My thoughts are this; If a child is making adequate progress but is still a year or two behind his current grade level and by retaining him it would cause the child to close the gap and be on grade level or very close to grade level the next year I say it's worth looking at. If a child is not making progress and likely will not close the gap, by retention then you should not. I also feel like size, maturity level, the students feelings, age difference and a few other things come into play. The so called 'experts ' in the district say research clearly shows that retention leads to a higher drop out rate and is very emotionally damaging to kids. Anyone who has researched knows research can typically provide support for pro and neg on just about anything. Personal experience talking to people who have chosen to retain their children, (not been strong armed into retaining their children) I have heard the exact opposite, that they have much success in school and become more self confident. I am interested in hearing your opinion. Here is the case scenario tell me what you think.

1st grader Nov birthday (maybe all though in reality birth dates are rarely reliable when adopting)
Emotionally immature (through moms eyes)
Bright learns quickly especially English
Small for his age (all though making strides to hit average)
Academically learning most his letters, beginning to blend sounds, Math and really everything academically needs to be shown 1 on 1 how to do things before he has a chance of understanding. (typical of an ESL student)
What do you think? Would love your opinion!

The Alvord's 2010 at OneTrueMedia.com

2011-01-03T22:06:00.001-07:00

What an amazing year!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It's been a while

2010-10-23T11:16:00.002-06:00

I know it has been quite a long time since I have blogged. The transition of El coming home has been a tough road, and still has a long struggle ahead. A few months ago El was diagnosed with RAD (reactive attachment disorder). I have thought hard about how I would like to discuss this because I don't want to completely compromise our families privacy, but at the same time I want to break the silence of the unspeakable " What if your adoption doesn't quite work out the way you planned?" this is what I decided as I blog I am going to share experiences but not only mine. No names will be used. I have networked with several different people and read lots. My hope is to share with you a glimpse of what it is like having a child with these issues as well as give people the power to know they are not alone and can reach out.
What is RAD? RAD is the failure to attach to your primary caregiver. Attachment.org describes the following as signs and causes of RAD.

• Superficially engaging & charming This child makes friends very easily but has trouble keeping them because they are very manipulative. Often you will see this child playing with other kids and all the other kids getting in trouble when in actuality this is the child causing the problems.

• Lack of eye contact on parents terms
• Indiscriminately affectionate with strangers will go and hug on, sit on there lap yet
• Not affectionate on Parents’ terms (not cuddly) upon picking up your child from the orphanage they may act like they are the ones attaching the best, very polite, people pleasing, huggy, and happy.
• Destructive to self, others and material things (accident prone) Tearing up siblings homework, cutting electrical cords, peeing on things, coloring all over walls, breaking things in the car, breaking toys.
• Cruelty to animals
• Lying about the obvious (crazy lying) You can watch them do something and they will lie right to your face.
• Stealing Check their pockets, this also means getting into stuff they shouldn't, eating stuff out of the pantry, having little finger claws in the peanut butter and having peanut butter all over their face hand and clothes and swearing they didn't get into it.
• No impulse controls (frequently acts hyperactive)
• Learning Lags This may be playing games. One minute they know something the next they know nothing. (I'm talking about things they have shown they know) also one minute writing beautifully with great angle and spacing the next scribbling.
• Lack of cause and effect thinking None reward systems and token economies don't work well. Especially if reward are placed closely together.
• Lack of conscience Doesn't show empathy, likes to brag about the things they have, get to do in front of their sibling.
• Abnormal eating patterns Hords, doesn't eat, barfs
• Poor peer relationships
• Preoccupation with fire
• Preoccupation with blood & gore
• Persistent nonsense questions & chatter Never stops talking, has to monopolize the conversation, talks about cars for 21/2 hours straight with a 30 word vocabulary
• Inappropriately demanding & clingy Only to control you into doing someting he/she wants or stopping you from doing what you are doing.
• Abnormal speech patterns
• Triangulation of adults
• False allegations of abuse
• Presumptive entitlement issues big time
• Parents appear hostile and angry because of the constant effort it takes to keep this child from hurting others.

Causes
Any of the following conditions occurring to a child during the first 36 months of life puts them at risk:

• Unwanted pregnancy
• Pre-birth exposure to trauma, drugs or alcohol
• Abuse (physical, emotional, sexual)
• Neglect (not answering the baby’s cries for help)
• Separation from primary caregiver (i.e. Illness or death of mother or severe illness or hospitalization of the baby, or adoption
• On-going pain such as colic, hernia or many ear infections
• Changing day cares or using providers who don’t do bonding
• Moms with chronic depression
• Several moves or placements (foster care, failed adoptions)
• Caring for baby on a timed schedule or other self-centered parenting

Many parents after even just a few months of having this child home begin to resent the way this child has come and turned their families life upside down, and how much hostility they have brought to the home and no matter how much love and patience you have shown to them they really want nothing to do with you.

Here are a couple stories I have run across lately

Was Our Adoption a Mistake? - A family's journey through older-child adoption _ older child, mistake

Post-adoption blues? Many families need more support

This is a blogger who lays it all out and has some great You Tubes
http://www.welcometomybrain.net/
and another blogger who had to find a new home for her son
http://www.watchingthewaters.com/2010/10/attach-conference-anything-you-say-or.html

It is a small small world

2010-07-22T23:00:00.003-06:00

It is really interesting to see how small this world is. This last week I interviewed for a job. I would really like to be in the same school as my boy so I can make sure he is getting the education he needs and so I can be a support to his teacher both in resources and following through on what she/he is teaching him at school. This really oppurtune job came up and a former student of mine's grandmother was able to recommend me for the position. The school is an awesome school in my neighborhood with an amazing staff. So I interview for the position and even got called back for a second interview and then find out how many people we all have in common. 1st my nephew had the principal as his A.L.L. teacher a few years back, Then my neighbor across the street took the vice principals old job and worked with him last year. Then my neighbor across the street the other way is like good buds with him. He also was looking at a house across the street from me to buy. Imagine that having your vice principal living across the street from you. Could be good, could be bad(they would see the uncut,untamed version of me). The good thing is if I get the job, my initial impression seems to correct, they are all great, reliable, helpful, nice wonderful, smart people. Just a simple reminder too, you never know who knows the people you come in contact with. That is one of the interesting things about Facebook. You get to see the friends you have in common. It's a good thing I am nice to my neighbors and hopefully have made a good impression on them. So I guess the whole point in this post is, the world is small, make sure you don't spend your time complaining and that you build relationships with everyone you meet because in the end, you can all be a support to one another. I feel like God's trying to teach me something this week. Look how your daughter is willing to give it all are you? How are your building relationship skills? Are you uplifting and helpful or are you the one always looking to be uplifted? Are you real, is what you portray who you really are? As I thought about those things and thought about my neighbors, I thought you know I'm pretty sure they would have good things to say about me except maybe she takes 3 days to mow her lawn and clean it up and oh you should see what see wears to work in the yard. Have I spent the time really to build relationships with my neighbors, to really know them and let them know me? What has happened to those days of really knowing your neighbors? The thing I can say is these two neighbors are the two in the neighborhood I know the best. I need to be more proactive in my neighborhood spending time getting to know people. I get so many grand ideas of how to do that but I need to follow through on them and start with the simple things.

Sometimes you just got to be proud

2010-07-21T19:44:00.010-06:00

I have been not so great at updating my blog. It just seems like I'm at least twice as busy as I used to be. Free moments to set and blog are rare. I couldn't help but post this post though. My daughter ask last night if there were some jobs she could do to earn money. She worked hard and last night and this morning earned $10 a lot of money for a 11 year old. So today we went out shopping and she really didn't find anything. On the way home she asked if she could go to a few more stores. When she came back she had a bag full of stuff for not her but for her little brother. When I asked her why she did that she said because she loves him. Then she asked the question didn't you ever do that for your little brother. The answer to that question shows that she is a better person than I. Can you imagine just handing over your weeks paycheck to your little brother just because? Not a birthday, not a need just because you love him? I sure love you Roma You are awesome!!!
So this is what she got him
Buzz lightyear outfit
Buzz lightyear flashlight
Batteries
A police car

A Vision Test, by Amie Sexton

2010-07-15T19:49:00.002-06:00

This is a concept that is so hard to get the community, our families and others to understand. Amie says it perfectly.

A Vision Test, by Amie Sexton
Tim and Amie live and minister among families living in low-income/government housing. They have adopted five African-American, Haitian or bi-racial children. Their lives have inspired us and we hope you'll check out their ministry here and consider supporting their work in some way. Today Amie shares her thoughts on seeing your child's color.

Love is colorblind.

Do I hear a resounding “AMEN!”??? You might regret it. There are two things you should know before jumping on this bandwagon.

1.) 99.9% of the time this statement is made by white people. If you hear an African American use this comment (without an excessive sarcastic drawl and much rolling of their eyes) you are the exception to the rule.

2.) It is one of the most misguided statements commonly made by white people, many of them adoptive parents.

Let me quickly point out that I have spoken these words myself in times past. So has Tara. (Yes, Mrs. Livesay- I’m dragging you under the bus with me. =)) It is based on this personal experience and the outgrowth of it that I am willing to share my thoughts with you now. Let’s delve into the phrase more deeply.

Is love colorblind? I believe what we have here is a classic picture of good motivation followed by crappy methodology. Good intention meets bad interpretation. The notion behind colorblindness is just as simple as you might expect: to be blind to color. But one trip to Wal-Mart with your Haitian, Ethiopian, Ugandan, African American child yields extreme evidence through bulging eyes and double-takes that your and your child’s color difference is easily identifiable.

It is only convenient for a majority race member to flippantly (no matter how well-meaning) discount color in this way. White people don’t have to think about being white…it is what it is. Unless they happen into a room, party, neighborhood, or country in which they are the minority. The average white American will never walk into a department store and wonder “will I be followed around and accused of shoplifting today?” You assume this will not happen to you. No, no, wait. It’s worse than that. You don’t have to assume it won’t happen. You don’t have to even waste half a second considering it. It never has to enter your consciousness.

Hispanics and African Americans do not share this luxury of NOT considering it. I have witnessed blatant and abusive racism first hand. And at the Goodwill for crying out loud! I get that stealing is stealing but seriously? Is it really worth it to let your stereotype destroy another human being over a $3 pair of used jeans? Anyway. Without arguing through 200 years of history, the simple reality is that whiteness has natural benefits. Benefits that no one had to march for, beg for, or be lynched for. The freedom not to think about race if we don’t want to being numero uno on the list of benefits.

Furthermore, to say that love does not “see color” is as ridiculous as saying that because I love dogs they are all exactly the same to me. Suppose you stood before me with a Great Dane and a Chihuahua and I insisted that there is no difference between them –that I am blind to their genetic traits. Any one of you would argue my insanity in a court of law because clearly one of these dogs is a 210 lb. mini-horse and the other could be mistaken for a rat. My love for dogs does not change my ability to recognize their distinct attributes. My love may allow me to impart affection to both critters equally regardless of their size but it will not cause me to ignore what is obvious. And taking it even further –if I insist these two creatures are practically the same in every way and therefore I cram my Great Dane into a crate made for a toy breed I’m no longer just ignoring the difference but overlooking their specific needs and inadvertently causing damage.

Have you seen Avatar? The Na’vi tribe greets each other with the phrase “I see you.” Simple but heavily loaded with meaning. New Age nuances aside, it is explained in the movie as deeply significant and referring to the very essence of the person. I see who you are and all there is to know and love about you. We could take a lesson from the overgrown blue people.

When your adopted minority child looks in the mirror he/she sees black, brown, peach, yellow, tan, etc. skin looking back. For that child to hear us say that our love is “colorblind” can be far more hurtful than any of us would dream. What we mean is that our love for them transcends color and ethnicity. But what they often hear is “I don’t see part of you.” We so desperately want to affirm our children in the security of our unconditional love that we miss the point. What if Tara came to me tomorrow and said, “Amie, I’m going to overlook the fact that you are a red-headed freckle factory and continue loving you anyway”? Besides how completely ironic that would be given our shared features, it would also hurt me deeply because the very nature of such a statement implies that my traits are unbecoming and undesirable and something to be overlooked in order to find me acceptable. Our children want to be accepted because of who they are –inside and out- not in spite of it.

Love that overlooks is belittling. Love that acknowledges is accepting.

Bottom line: love is not colorblind. In fact, God (who is love) is not colorblind. And now the bigger questions are: How does God see color? Does the world see it the same way? Do we? And how do our, the world’s, and God’s views of race affect our adopted children?

blood Water

2010-07-10T17:43:00.002-06:00

Our kids at church are trying to raise money for water wells in Africa (including Ethiopia). Did you know that $1 can provide enough water for 1 African for an entire year? How many people will you provide water to for next year?
http://www.bloodwatermission.com/

Please go to the site and donate directly! Could you let me know how much you donated as the kids have a goal of providing water for 5000. If you are in town please stop by our (The Adventure ) lemon:aid stand at the Tesoro station 312 NW State Street,

Talking Talking Talking

2010-06-20T22:34:00.002-06:00

Oh my goodness E or actually L is what we call him, is talking up a storm. I have lost track of how many words he has now. He can say just about everything now days though. It was kinda funny last night though. We were were going to the store and were pulling in the parking lot and he keeps saying no sh... people over and over again. Roma and I are just baffled as where he picked up this naughty word and why he was saying it. ( I have to admit we were busting up laughing too.) To which he was not very happy "no funny guys, no funny guys" So anyway we were trying to understand what he was saying and why??? Ends up he was saying no shoot people. He thought we were getting a movie and he didn't want one that had shooting. This kids although he pretends alot with guns, made from everything he is terrified of shooting noises. We just took a trip to Cali and went to Disneyland and the first ride we went on was pirates. It terrified him I thought his heart was going to jump out of his body, poor little guy. I like yo ho yo ho no mom. He did however love Buzz moochoo (lightyear) and utopia (driving cars) He also liked the characters and train. Overall he was a pretty good traveler. He did get sick going down the canyon road however. "mom Makelle same same" I'm pretty sure the road from his home town to addis must of had canyons. The other kids who rode the bus with him said he got sick on that trip too. He also had his first trip to the big water (ocean). he loved the sand but not the water so much. He also loved flying a kite a friend had bought the kids. Had it not been for the portable DVD player this kid I think would have talked my ear off the whole trip.

2010-06-12T00:11:00.004-06:00

Only in America

2010-05-17T22:52:00.003-06:00

So I know it's been forever since I posted. Partly it is because I had no internet service for a while, I got sick and tired of dealing with Comcast and disconnected before I had other service, but mostly it has been because I have been busy being a mom to not one but two and a six year old boy. What a difference there is between a 6 year old boy and 11 year old girl!!!! My goodness does he have a lot of energy. So E's English is coming right along.
Everything used to be police Makeenas now we have V va Vans, SUV, Trucks, Busses, tractors, Doctor van Taxi's. We went up to a parade a few hours a way and Roma had already gone with her auntie. Oh my goodness 2 straight hours of talk about cars. I didn't know with such a limited vocab you could talk that much. We had Yummy cars and on the freeway mom's car was lightning Mcqueen. He was very upset that I wasn't Mcqueeen on the city roads. Then we had oh wow mom Elias big, Elias car. He liked the vet and the convertable. Then there were house cars and big trucks, school busses, Americana Bus, and just learning city busses.

He had a great time at the parade Only in America can you yell candy or chocolate and the passing cars will throw you candy. Pics a video to com. Well again it is late and my bed time. So just know things are well and more updates soon.

New words

2010-03-27T10:19:00.002-06:00

My name is (what's you name)
Charuck (truck)
Grandma
Grandpa
coming (come on)
kitchen
pizza
ice cream
doctor
tammy
valenie
OK
hallo hallo (phone)
good bye
this one
why
jacket
movie
film

The federal Adoption Tax Credit

2010-03-25T23:36:00.000-06:00

Adoption Tax Credit Extended and Improved

Posted by Dawn - March 25th, 2010

Yay, we did it! The federal Adoption Tax Credit has been improved and extended until Dec. 2011. This law was included in the Health Care Reform bill which became law on March 22, 2010. I’m pretty creative in coming up with ways that adoption is good for all concerned, but even I think the connection of the adoption tax credit and health care is tenuous. I guess the old adage that making laws is a lot like making sausage is true. It’s best to just enjoy the finished product without looking too closely at how it’s made.

The maximum credit will increase from $12,150 to $13,170 per eligible child. As with the old adoption tax credit, this credit applies to both domestic and international adoptions and to both special needs and non special needs adoptions. This increase is retroactive to January 1, 2009, so make sure to consider that when filling out your federal taxes this year. The biggest improvement of all is that the Adoption Tax Credit is now refundable. I am not a tax lawyer or an accountant, but from what I have been able to glean from the limited information “out there”, making it refundable means that if your credit is greater than the taxes you owe, the difference will be refunded to you as part of your tax refund. In the past, if your adoption credit was greater than the amount you owed in taxes you had to carry it over for up to five years in order to take full advantage of the credit. Some families were never able to take full advantage. Now, the IRS will include the difference in your refund check. To paraphrase Vice President Biden, this is a big “darn” deal. (Sorry Mr. Vice President, this is a family friendly blog so I had to take liberties with the quote.)

An income limit exists for receiving this tax credit. I haven’t been able to find out if this limit was adjusted under the new Adoption Tax Credit. In the past, the credit starts phasing out if your modified adjusted gross income is $182,180, and is completely phased out at $222,180. This is my understanding. but I’m not an expert. As always, when it comes to taxes, check with a tax professional for the specifics and how they will apply to you.

For more information on Affording Adoption and the Adoption Tax Credit go to our page with that title. Note that none of the IRS forms or factsheets on that page have been updated to reflect the new Adoption Tax Credit. We still have a ways to go with the Adoption Tax Credit. We will be facing this same battle when the deadline for termination of the credit comes up again in Dec. 2011. We need to make this credit permanent.

First day of school

2010-03-23T21:30:00.002-06:00

Today was E's first day of school. It was supposed to be yesterday but he got sick. Today we didn't say anything him about going to school until we got there. When we got there he held his seat belt and had to be dragged into school. He made it through the day and his class was very excited to have him there. So even though last week that is all he wanted to do this week was another story, He was very nervous when it came down too it. He did well all though he asked for food and cars all day. Just like everything else he'll learn what to expect and then will love it. Tomorrow is day two we'll see how it goes.

Is what you see really what's on the inside?

2010-03-21T09:10:00.003-06:00

The first couple of weeks went extremely smoothly with E. very obedient happy seemingly well adjusted kid. A part of me thought oh this is going to be an extremely smooth wonderful transition. He is not having any of the problems that some of the other kids are having. He's so happy and well adjusted , so resilent. As a teacher though part of me said when is the honeymoon going to end.( As I have seen time and time again children come into my class and I have none of the behavior that parents share with me, then about 2 weeks down the road this angel child lets there behaviors manifest.) Then the dust has began to settle. Routine has started to set in and the reality that he is here to stay forever with new people in a family setting is beginning to set in. He is not sure how he likes that. Not sure if he's safe here. Even though on the outside he seems he is extremely well adjusted doing way better than you could ever expect, home alone he is is adjusting and showing he's not sure how he feels about things. A freind has suggested reading The Connected Child by K. Purvis, It is ordered and on it's way. Hopefully it will help me to understand and deal with his feeling and bonding. Any other suggestions would be welcomed.

New words

2010-03-18T10:33:00.002-06:00

Come on Roma eschool (he's ready to pick up Roma from school)
TT (Valana)
TT mom (auntie Tammy)
NO
Yes
Mom
Roma
Thank you
This one
I'm sorry
Costco
Car which most of the time is Makeena
Night Night
sleep
Molly woosha scream scream scream

operation rescue

2010-03-18T07:47:00.003-06:00

Mekelle and Operation Rescue at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-03-15T05:57:00.001-06:00

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Wow what an experience!!!

2010-03-15T05:05:00.002-06:00

Meeting Elias was amazing! Shortly after arriving in Addis we were able to meet Elias. We were picked up from the hotel and went on a short ride to the transition house. We pulled in a gated walled compound with a small house in front. There were four families that had arrived slightly early. We all exited the van and went into the house where all our children awaited. Upon entering the house Elias recognized us immediately and flashed us one of those million dollar smiles. Children were handed out to there perspective parents and finely Ato Teklu told Elias it was OK to go to us. He gave me a great big hug and leaned over and kissed his sister. He took great pride in the care package we had sent and pulled out some of the toys to play with. He put the sun glasses and hats on each of us and loved the cars. We were able to play for a few hours with him. He was very loving and kind to the babies who were having a tough time with all the new faces. He would go over and give toys and try and help them to be happy. We had sent a thing of mini M&M's which he still had half full from Christmas. He graciously shared them with everyone and thought it was pretty cool how he never ran out as Roma kept secretly refilling it. (or was it like Jesus and the fishes?) He was very animated had had us crawling all over the ground playing cars. He loved the camera and all the pics we were taking. He and Roma had an immediate connection and he placed Roma in the big sister role immediately as he placed her in charge of keeping his bag safe. It was a great first meeting.
more to come later.

Ethiopia was awesome! It was so wonderful to go and see everyone in action. Any fears that I may have had about anything happening there were completely cleared up when I saw with my own eyes the professionalism and diligence of all those working to get my son home.

Ready or not here we come

2010-03-01T08:47:00.002-07:00

Headed to Dubai and then on to Ethiopia Today!! We had a safe trip to SFO. Thank you for all your prayers!! We did have a sleepy driver and ran off the road but it was at just the right place , flat land and everything was fine with us and the car. Thank You Jesus!! Then I had a scare and could not find my passports or cash, thought I had left them in Utah. By time we got to SFO though all was well. We went to Fisherman's Wharf and also watched how the cable cars worked. Was lot's of fun!! Roma decided she wanted her extensions put in last night so I was up late doing that while she slept. Been a long time since she has slept while doing her hair. (she wanted to look all pretty for her brother) Now today off for what we have been waiting so long for. Wow the emotions and thought. All things that I have explored before but now it's happening. How will our lives change? Will he like us? Will he like the food that is available? How will we communicate? How long will it take before I can understand his wants and needs? What is he going to be like? Will he be afraid? How is Africa going to be? Those feelings aside How exciting it will be to meet this little one we have been learning about and loving and growing attaching to . How exciting it will be to have little brother!!

2 days!!!

2010-02-24T23:04:00.002-07:00

I have almost everything packed. I'm so thankful to all those who donated. I'm pretty much packed full with donations for the Checked and the carry on will be for what we need. I actually had to turn away some donations today which was kinda sad. Today went to the bank but forgot to notarize the one paper I needed to (the immunizations form). Picked up all kinds of Meds for Roma, she ended up with a sinus infection + finely got the Malaria and antibiotic prescribed . Filled out more paperwork. Still need to remember copies of passports and my friend who just got back from Haite copied everything (Card) he took with him in color. So credit cards, drivers license, insurance, etc.. He copied three copies and everybody in his group had copies of each others stuff in case anything got stolen. The two others would still have copies. I'm also taking a steri - pen to sterilize water just in case. Time is ticking and I better get off the computer.

Happy Birthday to you!!!

2010-02-22T22:44:00.003-07:00

My baby girl turned 11 today. I can not believe it has been 11 years. I remember how much joy she brought to me as a baby. She was a very happy baby and little girl and I would put her in so many poses and take tons of pics. She brought smiles to everyone around her. This girl was so resilient too. In her first 3 years we moved 4 times. She was always very quick to make friends. When I had her in my preschool class she was so kind and gentle towards our special need kids. She would sit and read stories to the kids and always played with everyone. As she got older she became interested in sports and did pretty good at all of them. This last year she even played tackle football. Roma has always been a great helper. She has made me a better person. I love you baby girl!

5 Days until I leave!!!

2010-02-21T21:02:00.002-07:00

So only 5 more days before were headed to Ethiopia!!! Some last minute things I have done.

Updated USCIS fingerprints so they had more than 30 days before they expire, apparently my fingerprints are wearing off because I use too much germX

Decided to get Malaria pills after all after my friends said they were eaten alive by mosquitoes

Got Mosquito repellant with 30% deet

Got Mosquito repellant stuff for clothes with Permethrin

Packed some more

Got some fun stories about my boy.
Will learn English for chocolate
Is a big Teaser

The times getting closer.

Brother room

2010-02-13T19:23:00.004-07:00

Brother's room is done and he's packed. This is starting to get really real. 13 days until we leave.

Time is ticking quickly

2010-02-11T19:06:00.002-07:00

Today I got little brother added to my insurance and both kiddos signed up for soccer. I wonder what he is going to think of American Kindergarten Soccer? Apparently he is a pretty serious soccer player and around here well lets just say butterflies and flowers often catch the attention of young soccer players. Roma is still concerned that he might be a better soccer player than she is. I told her he might be able to help her while she helps him learn all the other sports. It will be good to see Roma playing sports again after her broken leg.

Are you waiting for Sampson?

2010-02-06T21:11:00.002-07:00

Sampson. Is a 2.5 years old and lives in Ghana. If you are a family with a COMPLETED INTERNATIONAL HOMESTUDY please click here or copy and paste to see if Samson might be yours. http://gillispiefam.blogspot.com/2010/02/are-you-waiting-for-sampson.html

Packing

2010-02-06T20:24:00.002-07:00

So I have started to pack ,
Donations so far
I have all the Jeans, and T's, Shoes and Soccer Balls, Packed into 2 suitcases, 118 lbs I'm hoping that it is really the 30KG in each bag with Emirates.

For brother
I am packing 1 pair of saddles and 1 pair of shoes in size 11 and 12 I have 4 outfits size 4/5 and 4 outfits 5/6 Hoping that will be good. I figure if the smaller sizes are to small I'll just wash the bigger sizes. Anything that is to small I figure I'll just leave there. I'll bring 6 boxers or briefs, by the way why are boy underwear 2X's the amount of girls? 6 pair of socks He'll be with us 6 days before we all get home.

First Aid kit list
whats missing?

Sunscreen
Bandage
Antiseptic
Blister pads
Pain killers Adult/Child
Pepto-bismol
Tums
Moisturiser/after sun cream/lip balm
Malaria Tablets (if necessary)
Any prescription medication required
extra pair of glasses
Cold/flu decongestants
Antihistamines
Travel motion-sickness tablets (i.e. natural ginger tablets)
Mosquito Repellent
Insect bite cream
Tampons
Tweezers
Little Scissors
Rehydration salts (Gastrolyte)
Cipro
Anti-fungal ointment
Powdered electrolyte powder
Hand sanitizer
Hydrocortisone
Neosporin
separate combs/brushes for new kids (ring worm)

Busy busy busy

2010-01-30T08:30:00.002-07:00

Interesting before the last court date I had everything planned out to a T ready to go the minute I heard I past court. This time I am having trouble deciding. This is what I know. I am sure I am taking Emirates, from all the reviews it's hands down the best!!! I know I am going to Lalibella, Gondar and BahirDar. Should I take afew more days and go other places? I don't know whether to stay at TDS or a really nice more comfortable place around the corner but not with all the other families? I know I am going to Mekelle but should I spend 1 or 2 days? Oh the questions I have and how to figure it out by Monday?

A brother for Roma at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-01-28T21:22:00.002-07:00

pause music player to the right

Introducing Elias Alvord

2010-01-28T19:51:00.002-07:00

Today I hit a monumental post in my adoption Journey!!! I passed court Elias (el E us) is officially Roma's little brother and my little boy!!!! It feels so good to be at this point. It has taken so long and I am glad that NOW was finally God's timing. Now time to get busy and ready to go. We most likely will leave either Feb. 18 or Feb. 25th.

Court Date

2010-01-26T18:45:00.003-07:00

First of all I wanted to congratulate my ORE friend who passed court today.If all goes well this week we will be travel buddies. I have a court date Thursday. Hoping for the best but prepared for the worst. It has been such a long hard journey. I ready to finish this up and get my boy home. If you are a praying person I'd love your prayer once again.

Still no movement

2010-01-15T20:25:00.001-07:00

Just a little update, still no news really. My boy's father still has not been located. Court is in two weeks. I don't know which direction this is going to go. Please continue to pray for all involved.

good news today

2010-01-10T00:42:00.002-07:00

I received some good news today, One of the families from our agency who is in Addis, Emailed me this morning. She described him as a "ray of sunshine." " He is adorable, has a great smile, and was interacting happily with us (making faces at me and my husband and laughing). He is extremely happy and looks very healthy, too. " Such news just puts a mothers heart at rest. God is good and though he has not provided me with what I asked him for, (My little one now) He has brought some peace to my heart. Still praying my little one home.

done boo hooing Check out this ispirational video

2010-01-07T21:01:00.003-07:00

Pause music player to the side

My heart continues to Ache

2010-01-06T17:06:00.003-07:00

Come to find out all was miscommunicated and the father was never there. As you can imagine I was once again devistated. Will this child ever come home? Is he mine to bring home? My heart breaks. This poor child has lost the only family he has ever known, Left the only town he has ever known, and now sets there with a hope to come to a new mommy and sister who love him, To this American family that has sent him pictures and who he is learning their names. How will he feel when his little friends who speak his language and came with him to the transition house with him leave? Will he think he is not loved because his mommy didn't come to get him? Will he be able to communicate? Will he wonder if he really does have a family coming to get him? Will he think oh no maybe my mommy was really coming for a different little boy. The one that was in then pictures. My heart breaks for him, my heart breaks that it's Jan and I still can't tell people if and when he'll be home. My heart breaks that there is a room setting here with clothes and toys and everything a little boy needs, but there is no little boy. My heart breaks each time anyone ask me when are you leaving and more importantly when will you have your son home? I had a new little boy start in my class this week who came home from Ethio in Aug who is the same age as my boy 5-7 range some of my students families mistakenly thought he was my boy and congratulated me, Though I would love to claim him as he is such a sweetheart, My heart breaks that I have to tell my them that no he's not mine. Though my heart literally hurts and this is probably the hardest thing I have ever gone through, I'm trusting God that there is reason and that he is aware of this situation and has it in his hands. I'm also asking that he fixes and heals the pain in my heart and comforts my son. I'm also asking that if it be his will he brings this to an end soon one way or another.

Prayer at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-01-03T10:54:00.003-07:00

Don't pause the music with this one It goes well with I'm not shaken.
I still have no idea why the hearing was postponed. There is however a possibility that they just didn't have time to hear it. In that case there is also a possibilty that tonight again while we should be sleeping they could hear the case. I'm asking once again for everybody to pray for this situation. As we saw before prayer works. Thanks!!!

Not such good news

2010-01-01T17:46:00.002-07:00

I was hoping today was going to be a great start to a new year. I thought today all of dreams were going to come true. I thought today I would be showing you pics of my beautiful little boy. Unfortunately I was wrong. Court was postpone and no reason was given why. My heart is broken that once again I will be waiting. More importantly my heart is broken that my little guy will be waiting longer. Who knows what happen, Did the father really not show up to court? Did files in the court get lost? Did time just run out? Who knows? Frustrated beyond belief!!!!

Roma

2010-01-01T17:44:00.001-07:00

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Awesome news

2009-12-31T10:44:00.002-07:00

All it took was that one awesome God!!!! My boys father is in Addis ready to testify!!!!!!! Praying tomorrow I will be able to post his pic for you all to see. Thanks for your prayers

1 እግዚኣብሄር ɨgɨziabɨhie̯rɨ (God) that's all it takes

2009-12-31T00:01:00.002-07:00

2 ኣደ ade ሓብቲ ħabɨt We are waiting

2009-12-30T02:50:00.003-07:00

Calling all Angels

2009-12-29T21:21:00.003-07:00

Calling all angels to pray that Elias Biological Father shows up at court New years day. So Really New years eve as they are 10 hrs ahead of us. Remember to pause the music on the side before starting video.

3 dino ዲኖ fetawis ፈታዊ (furry friends) ready to play

2009-12-29T00:52:00.004-07:00

4 lovely ladies waiting for you to come home ዓባይ abai, ሓትነ natine, ጓል ሓትነ gʷalħatɨne and ሓብቲ /ħabɨti/]

2009-12-28T00:30:00.002-07:00

5 ፈረሰኛ fereseɲa waiting to protect you

2009-12-27T10:28:00.002-07:00

6 ሳእኒ፣ ጫማ waiting to run and jump

2009-12-26T10:46:00.003-07:00

7 snowmen trying not to melt

2009-12-25T00:30:00.003-07:00

(couldn't find a translation)

I have to tell you about the sweet letter Roma wrote to Santa. She ask Santa to bring her brother home for Christmas. Then she also asked for new glasses. My little girl is growing up so fast.

8 እንሰሳ enssas waiting to roar with you

2009-12-24T12:05:00.002-07:00

9 meshafs waiting to be read

2009-12-23T07:51:00.003-07:00

10 መኪና Makinas waiting for you to drive

2009-12-22T16:57:00.006-07:00

11 ሳመ samas being blown your way

2009-12-21T20:36:00.002-07:00

Support a family

2009-12-17T19:59:00.002-07:00

Order these ornaments and help a family bring home their children. On the back it says 5 million-1

cloud nine

2009-12-13T18:25:00.002-07:00

I just don't even know how to describe it. I have just been in pure utopia. The thought of my boy coming home. The excitement, the joy, the thankfulness has just filled my heart. I can not believe in 18 Days He will officially be mine, forever and ever. The slightest little things just bring the excitement back. Someone talking about the end of a pregnancy, someone talking about cars or Makeenas (cars in Tigrinya), anything and I have remind everybody Do you know I'm bringing home my boy in just a little while. It is so nice to see an ending to this journey.

Yahoo A Court Date

2009-12-09T12:27:00.003-07:00

The long awaited day has come!!!! I finally have a court date Jan 1st 2010 Little brother will be official. Roma and I could not be more excited!!!!!!! That will probably put our travel date the beginning of February. 22 days until I am officially a mom again. 22 days until I can post show the world my beautiful son. 22 days until we are three instead of two. 22 days til our new life begins!!! What a way to start out the new year!!!

papers are in to court

2009-12-01T20:39:00.002-07:00

Teklu is awesome !!!!!! Our kids are at the WACAP house and Court has been applied for!!!!!!! Now just waiting for them to assign a court date. I am so excited. My joy over this adoption has returned. I am excited again and on cloud 9. Once I have a court date I'll have some idea of when I will travel.

Passport

2009-11-30T18:01:00.002-07:00

First of all I had to get a new passport for Roma even though it doesn't expire until the end of March. Ethiopia requires the passport to have 6 mo on it. Then I call to set up appointment at Lehi post office. If you need a passport do not go to the Lehi Post office. Both parents must be present. She only has 1 parent I have court order testifying I have sole custody. They won't process it they will not send it unless both parents are present.
Are you the passport office? No just set the appointments ok just set the appointment and I'll take my chances. Blah blah blah blah blah. Monday at 3:30 great yes I do want the appointment and no 2 parents won't be there.
Get there I stand by the side of the lady who sells stamps and when she finish with her customer ask her where the passport office is she tells me it's not my turn to wait in line and then she'll answer my question. I wait in line and then she tells me it is the last lady at the counter. I wait for 20 minutes while this lady finish doing what ever and then the same thing as the lady on the phone, Give her court order have to read to her where it says I have sole custody. Then her next deal was can't send it without a birth certificate. I am giving you her valid passport. Show her in the paperwork where it says passport is the only ID needed. She tells me that’s only for adults. I call fed passport office to verify come back by my original appointment time (waited for her to finish post office work) said they verified only need valid passport. She says sorry passport office is closed now I can't process your application. I say you will process my app. She says sorry. I said get your manager now. She said he's not here I start become loud and say someone get me in touch now with the postmaster. She finally says fine I'll do it. Do you have the B.C? No as I told you I don't need it, well I cant process it. Your job is to verify the info and send this not to process the app. Now verify the info and send it. She finally did it but then says she can't take a credit card even though the web site says the can charges me more then the correct processing fee and for a money order. I will drive to Provo next time I need a passport.

waiting

2009-11-26T00:28:00.002-07:00

A friend shared this song with me it is so inspiring. Go to the bottom and pause the music there before starting the video.

Teklu has the paperwork

2009-11-24T22:41:00.002-07:00

Our agency rep in Addis finally has our paperwork. This day has been long awaited for. I have waited a little over 5 months to hear this news. I finally feel hope that this adoption is really going to happen. It is now in the hands of our well loved well respected just awesome guy Teklu our agency rep in Ethiopia. I have such confidence in his ability to make this happen quickly and without mistakes. During the last month or so I have been feeling so un-secure wondering if I would ever bring my little boy home. wondering if this was in Gods plans for me or if I just totally had it all wrong. It seem like a never ending process. Now I see the light at the end of the tunnel again. I am praying for a Christmas miracle now. I would love a court date before Christmas. God is the timing right yet for my boy to come home?

Kreative Blogger Award

2009-11-22T20:01:00.003-07:00

I was given this blog award by Jenny at Journey raising my little ones. Thankyou Jenny you are so sweet. Jenny is a wonderful single mom who adopted little 4 year old twins from Ethiopia. She has been very supportive in my Journey as she seemed to go through alot of the same long delays that I have had. Jenny is so down to earth and has wonderful advice to help you keep going.

These are the blog award "rules."
1. Thank the person who awarded me the award, and link that person's blog on my blog.
2. Identify seven things about myself.
3. Award seven bloggers with the "Kreativ Blogger Award," post links to their blogs, and leave a comment on each of their blogs, to let them know of the honor. I don't really know what a "Kreativ blogger" is, so you can just give it to whoever you like!

Seven things about myself
1) I love to travel, my favorite place so far is Costa Rica.
2)I am a special need preschool teacher. I have also taught 1st grade, 4-6 resource and could teach Prek through 12th grade special Education. and 1-8 regular ed.
3) I visited or lived in 32 states.
4) I am the only non Mormon in a family of generations of Mormons
5) On that same note I am a Born Again Christian that lives in Utah of all places.
6) I have a Masters in Special Education with an emphasis on Autism, but I don't have the personality to teach an Autism Unit. (I'm not that structured)
7) I love thrift shopping.

Here are the 7 bloggers I am giving this award to:
1) Ethiopian triple land These are the cutest dang triplets I have ever seen.
2) My twins This is another single mom who is awesome. Her blog is all pics and movies.
3) Mamushsky World Headquarters Another wonderful blog of family who has 1 boy from Ethiopia and is working on baby #2
4) Fermemberwhen Another great blog She is now waiting for a referral.
5)Daniel Grows Watch this little boy grow he's adorable.
6) Noah's Journey HomeThis is a great blog about a family who adopted a 7 year old
7) Another Espresso Please This blog always has great info about Ethiopia and so much more.

time keeps going on

2009-11-08T15:18:00.001-07:00

Well time just continues to tick with little or no movement on the adoption aspect of thing. God continues to be my strength and refuge. Although I do not know why the wait has been so long and there has been so much trouble getting this little one home I do know God must either be moving in our life or his life and the wait continues.

2009-11-03T15:03:00.005-07:00

The ups and downs of International adoptions

2009-10-31T10:29:00.002-06:00

I have been debating back and forth whether to write this post or not. It is kinda of a downer and I really would like to post the positives of adoption to encourage people rather than discourage people to adopt but I feel truth and light helps people through the process. Adopting from Ethiopia can happen very quickly or slowly. Some people get their paperwork in and get a referral the next day no matter what age child they are looking for. Some people ask specifically for older children who are waiting and wait 6 months for a referral. Some people wait almost a year for a referral get one and the next person in line gets a referral who has only been waiting a few month and passes court before your referral the parents decide to parent and then you start the whole process of waiting again. Some people get a referral and then a court date less than a month apart. Others get a referral after waiting 6 months and 5 months later still don't have a court date. Some people get referral pictures and six months later when their child gets his/her care package finds that the picture they have been bonding with is not even their child. That they have pics of both their child and a child who has a family.Some people pass court the first time because their agency has a very thorough lawyer. Some people with that same great lawyer don't pass court the first time because family memebers don't show up to court. Some people work with other agencies and don't pass court over and over again because their lawyers aren't as thourough. Some people adopt through orphanages where all their ducks are in a row and everything runs smoothly others children are referred through orphanages that don't have their paperwork and licenses in order and the local goverment advocates to move the child to an orphanage that does.SOme children are referred as healthy children and come home sickly and disabled. SOme children are referred as sick and disabled children and come home healthy. As parents waiting for children some of us sail through smooth waters and our patience and understanding is not tested at all. Others of us Me in particular at this moment God stretches beyond belief and our patience level and understanding of situations stretches so thin that if it is stretched any more it is going to snap. SOme families bring their children home and there are instant bonds of attatchment other children come home and have what they call RAD radical attachment disorder and may never fully attatch. Some people have the process almost all the way through (both in domestic and international adoption) and then the parent decides to parent. Which is good whatever is best for the child is great but it still is tough on the parent. Let me tell you adoption is never fair. You will always have people on both sides of the coin. You will also always have people who have it easier and harder than you. Pray for those families help them to be stetched just a little thinner without snappingh if that's what needs to happen. Understand that no two adoptions even from the same country with the same child request will ever be the same.

pics

2009-10-27T16:50:00.006-06:00

Well I guess that is all that want to upload. Hope they are fun to see

Roma 's Football Team

Fishing with Kylie at Houston Aquarium

New pics

2009-10-27T16:37:00.006-06:00

New's anchor Roma

Roma getting her tonsils out

Roma at the children's museum in Houston

Roma's new long hair

I still don't have my computer back but we got a new student computer for my class. So I thought I would update with a few photos. On the adoption side of things it's still not moving. I am still waiting for a court date. Good news is I got a couple new photo's of my guy. Bad news is I can't post them until a court date.

still waiting for everthing!!!

2009-10-11T16:01:00.002-06:00

So I apologize for not blogging lately.

I am still waiting for my computer to be fixed. It's a school computer so they are on their own schedule. My computer at home (That I am using as I type) is well about ten years old so you can imagine how slow it is and I am not going to even begin trying to upload any pics. So I have kinda been sticking to a few sentences here and there on facebook.

I am still waiting on a court date for little brother. There has been some difficulty getting the proper paperwork in order. The orphanage that LB is at does not typically do lot of adoptions. So they do not get all the necessary paperwork for court done right away. They leave it open so they can get additional funding for schooling. I think the funding that they get for orphans being adopted is different than the funding they get for community kids. Still not quite sure how it all works. But even with all that being said They have known I was going to adopt him since June. Our agency rep in country went over last week to speak with the Director and staff and local authorities to see if he could get things straightened out. The result was that we were promised the paperwork in six weeks. I am hoping and praying that once they get it rolling that it will actually happen faster than that. I would really like to travel to pick him up um this year would be nice.

Still waiting for Roma's leg to heal. She's been having more pain from putting weight on it and now I've banned her to a wheel chair for school.(the perks of working at a special needs school you have all kinds of equipment at your disposal.

Still waiting for more wishes for little brother's hundred wishes quilt. I think we are up to 63 wishes now. Thanks Carol for the fun turtle square and wish today. The school has already started sewing the squares together and as soon as I get my computer back I'll take pics it's so much fun.

Other news.
Little brother is no longer waiting to get his care package. He received it along with pics of us and our house etc.. This last week. When asked what he thought about coming to America he said Ok just wait till I finish my food (IV bag with meds) and I'll be ready to go. He really enjoyed the little match box cars in the care package too. It was kinda heartbreaking to have him in the hospital and not be able to be with him. Both of my children were in the Hospital last week and as I sat with Roma and imagined how scary it would have been for her not to have mom there, I prayed for LB that he would be comforted. Good news about his hospital stay is he was tested for Malaria TB and Hep C. Thank you Jesus that all the test came back Neg. They ended up giving him a broad spectrum antibiotic that managed to work. He got to spend the week with the orphanage director (I guess that's what you would call her) who gave me all kinds of info and pics to come. (unfortunately I won't be able to post the pics til I pass court and have my computer back. Thank you Pam for all the updates and loving you gave to him.

Roma's no longer waiting for long hair. I learned to do cornrows finally. The tip is always go under and only pull hair from one side The right I think. So after I did the corn rolls I actually sewed in the extensions. The microbraid ones. They say it's supposed to last three months. I wish I could upload a pic. It looks pretty good. I hope she doesn't play with her hair in school like she did in church this morning. It is down almost to her but and I told her if she gets in trouble for playing with it at school we'll have to cut it shorter. It ended up taking about six packs of hair and between 4-6 hours. We had a lot of breaks so I don't know exactly.

Anyway now your up to date. When I get my computer back I promise more pics and more regular post.

17 wishes quilt

2009-09-08T17:45:00.002-06:00

So far I only have 17 squares and wishes for little brothers 100 wishes quilt. So I'm still looking for 83 more friends to bring me squares and wishes. Again what I'm looking for is an 8X8 inch square of any material and a note card with a wish for little brother and a small piece of material that matches the 8x8 block on the card. I know I have more than 17 friends and family.

No new news I really don't expect to hear anything until OCT.

Computer is still dead so post are short and sweet and no picks :(

Update

2009-08-30T10:11:00.002-06:00

SO life has been a little crazy. I bought a new memory card and my card reader won't read it. My computer with all my home and work stuff crashed. My oldest nephew married a beautiful sweet girl in hot and humid Texas. We found another cool children's museum that rates right up there with Costa Rica's children's museum and a health museum that's so cool in Houston. I got new pics of my boy who is still the cutest sweetest little 5 or 6 year old ever. The person from the orphanage is going in a few weeks and promises videos and tons more pictures. Pictures make the waiting so much easier. I Got a new quilt square from my aunt who came up for my nephews open house. Oh and school started. New kids, new behaviors, new sickness few kids surgery fewer kids and that about sums it up! Now lets see how long it takes to post this on my ancient computer.

More quilt squares

2009-08-09T20:07:00.005-06:00

We got more squares for our 100 wishes squares. Today I got 7 more squares for our quilt I love the wishes and can't wait to see more. I would love all of you to do one. What I need again is an 8"X8" square of fabric and a card with a wish on it and a little piece of the same fabric on it. If you need my address Email. oromia@juno.com
Thank you Rebecca and Family and neighbors. Only 89 squares left to go

Yard Sale

2009-08-07T15:50:00.003-06:00

Tomorrow I am doing a yard sale to raise money for shipping of donations to Ethiopia. I have a very kind friend who will mail them for me and with the 75% discount she gets it will cost $350 for 3 50 lbs boxes. Is that highway robbery or what? I have such awesome neighbors and friends that have been donating great stuff left and right. I am planning on not pricing things but just allowing people to make donations. My hope is that their hearts will be large for a good cause. On the adoption front I get bits and pieces of info here and there, but no news of WACAP having the paperwork in there hands yet to file for court. Our main man from WACAP Teklu will be coming to the United States this next week and staying a few weeks. It will be a much needed rest for him from all the hard work he does. Anyway wish me luck with the yard sale tomorrow.

Update: We made $245 YAY!!!

100 post 100 wishes quilt

2009-07-30T23:38:00.003-06:00

This is my 100th post and today I have 100 news. I got my first 4 squares today!!! They were great and the wishes were just beautiful. Thank You Teresa and family. He is gonna love it! For those of you just joining us I am doing a hundred wishes quilt for little brother. I am collecting 8x8 squares of fabric and with each square you write a wish or a prayer on a card and put a little piece of fabric on the card. The fabric I will have made into a patch quilt and the cards I will put in a scrap book. Little brother can then match the wishes with the cards. I did one of these for my friend at work who adopted and it turned out great!! I can't wait to do this one and read all the wishes and see how amazingly all the squares come together.

Donations

2009-07-27T11:41:00.003-06:00

So i have collected quite a few donations to take to Ethiopia. I've collected Jeans of all sizes and Barratt Bobcat tees. I figure I will have at least 3 50lb boxes of clothes. Well I have a great friend who offered to send them using her discount. So I called to price today and it will cost $350 that is with the 75% discount. So now I need to do some fundraising to earn shipping money. So if anyone would like to donate please let me know. Roma started football practice today. She did good she held her own. She was a little shy about knocking down the other players but she held her ground and not a single boy could get her off balance. It looked like there were about 50 kids, so next week I think they'll split it into an A and B team. Since this is her first year she'll probably be on the B team but we'll see. She came home wiped out but good.

Weekend brings some news

2009-07-26T01:16:00.004-06:00

Well we have had an eventful end of the week. On Friday we celebrated Pioneer day (Utah Day). Roma had a parade in the AM with her cousin. I forced her to get up and fed her (yes spoon fed) breakfast, her screaming the whole time. As she got up ate and walked on the parade she got some energy going and did much better. Then we had a neighborhood bash that my neighbors across the street put on every year. It was as fun as ever. I really enjoy it because I get to socialize with my neighbors and get to know them better. It is a huge deal almost all the neighbors come out and the had pools and one of those big bounce house water slides, They have pie eating contest and much more. I was excited to share the news and pic of little brother and get the neighbors involved in both the quilt and donations to take over. It was funny we have two little brown babies in our neighborhood they both are about 2. Both babies were totally interested in little brothers pic. The one kept kissing it, it was very adorable. So anyway after the paty I checked my e-mail and low and behold I had an e-mail from the agency. No court papers yet, but another lab report. On the lab report it listed him as 6. This is actually kind of good in the way of school. With him in 1st grade I won't need to find daycare. My school shares a fence line with the kids school and they will just walk over after school. I am going to see though if I can get the principle to allow him to go to K half the day and first the other. That way he'll get the basic stuff they teach in K and have the social of peers the same age.Kindergarten is much better set up for ESL students also with all the visual. His labs came back also and those were pretty good. One level suggested he might of been dehydrated. My next question to get answered is do they have plenty of fresh clean water at the orphanage. If not what can I do about it? Then Sat. morning I went garage saling and found a few more things for brothers room and Roma a few things. Then we went to see Imagine that and took one of Roma's friends. It was cute but not as cute as Game Plan. After that we went to that friends house and roasted marshmellows and hot dogs. So we just had a very nice weekend and I think it did a lot of good in Roma's healing process. Now it's off to church.

RIP Ronny

2009-07-23T00:33:00.004-06:00

As I set here awake because I slept all day. I quite by accident came across an obit for a good friend of mine when I was young. His wife was one of my best friend's in high school and I dated his brother for quite a while. How sad that I did not keep up relationships with them all. My heart goes out for his family.
RON ROSE, age 38, of Rogue
River, died June 18, 2009 at OHSU
in Portland, Oregon.
Ron was born in California in
1970. He was raised in Simi Valley,
California. He met his wife,
Shannon there and they were married
May 27, 1989. They moved to
Oregon in 1994, and to Rogue River
in 1998.
Ron worked as an ASE Certified
Honda Mechanic. He enjoyed the
challenge of finding the solutions.
He enjoyed tinkering with
computers and designing web
pages,
and loved spending time with his
kids, riding his bike, gardening, and
fishing - not that he ever caught a
fish.
Ron was in Portland waiting for a
new heart. On June 18, he
received a heart, but didn't make it
through the surgery. He was 38.
He is greatly missed by his wife
and children.
Surviving Ron is his Wife of 20
years Shannon; Children: Trystan,
18; TY, 16; Sarah Grace, 14; Gavin,
10; and Emilianne, 6, all of Rogue
River; Mom and Dad, Ron and Pat
Rose of Simi Valley; Brother, Eric
Rose of Simi Valley; Grandparents,
Joe and Lois Rose of Van Nuys;
and many Aunts, Uncles and
Cousins.
Song of the day every Rose has it's thorn (this song was a song I connected with Ronny's brother way back when)

All done

2009-07-22T17:34:00.003-06:00

The surgery is done and we are home about 28 hours after surgery. So much for outpatient surgery. The surgery went well The Doc said her tonsils and atnoids were huge. For the most part the Nurses and technician were fabulous. Explaining each detail of every thing they were doing and checking on us frequently. But one was horrible and insesitive. Roma got out of surgery and kept her stats up while she was fully awake. But every time she would relax her O2 would drop and by drop I mean to 69-72. So the first nurse put her on O2 so she could rest. Then that nurse went to lunch and we got the lazy nurse. The first thing she did was take the O2 off which was OK to see if she could keep her stats up. Well No Roma would watch the stat moniter and when her O2 would fall with prompting and soon without she would take deep breaths and get it back up. But every time she would relax her stats would fall and the beeper would go off and remind her to breathe. Well this nurse let this go on from 11:30-4:30 and never gave her O2 and tried to discharge her 3 times. SHe said this is just her normal sleep pattern only thing is you don't have this thing (she couldn't even use proper names for things) to watch her levels. Luckily I work with special needs kids and I have dealt with pulseO2 moniters and no what normal ranges are as she kept reducing the # for the alarm until she had it at 80 Crazy!!. Also I have my own team of nurses at the school who I called several times yesterday. They are life savers literally. about three they said you need to demand to talk to the Anestiologist. Which I went to the station and did and the other nurses asked what was going on and said the anestiologist was gone but that my daughter needed to be observed overnight and they would get her nurse to call the doc and get those orders in. So the nurse comes back after taking her time and says I guess we'll try her on O2 for an hour and let her sleep and if after that she doesn't keep her stats up I'll call the doctor. Well she didn't even after a good sleep. They finally checked her in and we spent the night. We'll by time she was ready to fall asleep about 11PM as the medicine gave her tons of energy instead of putting her to sleep. Her stats were good heart rate a little low but nothing to worry about. It ended up that it just took a long time for the anestia or morphine to wear off. The Nurses in the pediatric unit were great too. It is to bad that 1 employee can make the whole establishment look bad. Well we got home about 10 AM this morning, fed the dog, had the cable guy come and fix the tv and went to take a nap. Next thing I know my parents are yelling in my door anyone home. It was only 5:30 PM. So we got some good rest.

My baby's having Surgery

2009-07-20T21:45:00.002-06:00

My little girl is going to have her tonsils out tomorrow at 6 AM. She has been really nervous about it. We went out today and bought lots of yummy soft foods. That helped a little. She is having a tough time sleeping tonight. I have to say I'm just a bit nervous too. I myself have only had 1 surgery in my life. I'm sure all will go well but it's my baby.

More on Ethio

2009-07-13T18:10:00.001-06:00

Interesting Facts About Ethiopia

Did you know that Ethiopia is the third largest nut producing country in the world?
Did you also know that Ethiopia is the sixth biggest producer of timber in the world?
Ethiopia has the world's third largest beehives with more than 4,300,000 beehives.
Ethiopia has the largest cattle population in Africa and ranks number 6 in the world right below Argentina with more than 38 million cattle.
Ethiopia is also home to one of the biggest horse population in the world. With more than 1,500,000 horses, Ethiopia ranks number 9 in the world in horse population and number 1 in Africa.
Ethiopia is Africa's largest coffee producing country and the second largest producer of cut flowers in Africa.

http://www.tigrai.org/

Hannah and her Home

http://childrensheaven.org/

Ethiopian Customs

2009-07-05T22:12:00.001-06:00

Great tips. Hijacked from Jenny who got it off of Meg DeZutti's blog (which she hijacked off another blog):

•Etiquette is very important in Ethiopia, both socially and in business.
•If you take photos of the people, ask first and offer to show them their picture if you have a digital camera with a display screen. Children enjoy seeing their pictures a lot of the time!
•Be polite but not intrusive. It is OK to ask questions of the locals, but you should be prepared to be hassled a LOT of the time if you are white.
•The most common form of greeting is a handshake with direct eye contact.
•Across genders, men should wait to see if a woman extends her hand.
•People are addressed with their honorific title and their first name.
•Elders should be greeted first.
•It is customary to bow when introduced to someone who is obviously older or has a more senior position. Children will often be seen doing so.
•Greetings should never be rushed. Take time to inquire about the person’s family, health, job, etc.
•Ethiopians respect their elders and visitors should show the same courtesy.
•Tipping: Tourist hotels and restaurants usually add a 10% service charge to the bill. Otherwise tipping is fairly common, but only small amounts are customary.
• The Ethiopian Highlands are mainly Orthodox Christian and restaurants do not serve meat dishes on Wednesdays, Fridays and during Lent.
•Shoes should be removed before entering mosques and churches. You may have to remove your shoes at the door no matter where you enter.
•Photographs should not be taken of military buildings and airports, and permission should be asked before photographing religious festivals and people.
•There is generally no touching between the sexes; however, if a foreign businesswoman extends her hand, a cosmopolitan Ethiopian may accept it to avoid causing her offense.
•Gifts are given with two hands or the right hand only; never the left hand.
•Do not bring alcohol unless you know that your host drinks. Most Muslims and Amharic people do not.
•Since Ethiopia is an extremely poor country, expensive gifts are not the norm.
•Giving a gift that is too expensive may be viewed negatively. It may be seen as an attempt to garner influence or it may embarrass the recipient as they will not be able to match it in kind.
•An invitation to a private home should be considered an honour.
•Do not presume that because food is eaten with the hands, there is a lack of decorum.
•Dress well.
•Punctuality is not strictly adhered to although considerable lateness is also unacceptable.
•You will always be offered a cup of coffee. It is considered impolite to refuse.
•Always sip the coffee slowly.
•Only use the right hand for eating.
•Expect a small earthenware or metal jug to be brought to the table before the meal is served. Extend your hands over the basin while water is poured over them.
•The meal ends with ritual hand-washing and coffee.
•Hierarchy dictates that the eldest person is the first to take food from the communal plate.
•Expect to be urged to take more food. Providing an abundance of food is a sign of hospitality.
Communication Style:
As a general rule, they are humble and respect that quality in others. They generally speak in soft tones. Loud voices are seen as too aggressive. Ethiopians pride themselves on their eloquent speaking style and expect others to speak clearly and use metaphor, allusion, and witty innuendos. They often use exaggerated phrases to emphasize a point.

As a rule, Ethiopians tend to be non-confrontational and offer what they believe is the expected response rather than say something that might embarrass another. Honour and dignity are crucial to Ethiopians and they will go out of their way to keep from doing something that could bring shame to another person. Therefore, it is important to treat Ethiopian citizens with respect and never do anything that would make them lose dignity and respect.

Freedom

2009-07-05T10:04:00.006-06:00

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

With this remarkable Declaration of Rights, the Second Continental Congress made the Declaration of Independence the "first formal pronouncement by an organized body of people of the right to government by choice" and severed colonial ties with England. Members of the Congress adopted Thomas Jefferson's declaration on July 4, 1776, and this date became the birthday of the United States of America.

Independence Day was first celebrated on July 8, 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was read to the public. By the 1880's, the Fourth of July had become the most significant patriotic occasion in the United States. Congress declared the day a federal legal holiday in 1941. The holiday is presently celebrated with parades, fireworks, picnics, sporting events, and music, including the "Star-Spangled Banner" and several marches of John Philip Sousa.

Song of the day I am free

Celebrating

2009-07-03T01:24:00.003-06:00

Today my friend Jenny got the news she get's to pick up her twins. She has been waiting 10 months since she first learned about her girls. I am so excited for her!! If you click on her name you can read her story. She also is so kind to take a care package over to little brother when she's over there. I so hope he is there when she gets there, so she can give him some extra loving. I guess I got that care package done just in time. It was packed tight. I kept finding just 1 more thing. Roma and I both wrote him a letter. Hopefully someone will be able to translate them and they will be comforting to him. It was good to sit down and write that, I did not realize how emotional of a process that would be.
Congratulations Jenny and thank you
Oh theme song for this post is celebrate.

Finishing up stuff for little Brothers care package

2009-06-30T11:18:00.003-06:00

So I just sent in the order for Photos for a small picture album. I ended up with several pics of the house and Roma, A few pics of Roma and I , our dog, snow and mountains out our back window, Grandma & Grandpa, Uncle Ben, Aunt Tammy's Family (as they all live in the same town as us and will see him often).
Then I also ordered t-shirts for all three of us of which I'll send him the designs in this post . I ordered this from Zazzle. I thinks it's gonna turn out well. I have a question for those of you who have sent care packages with t-shirts. Did they still have the tees when you picked them up?
I also put two matchbox cars
A small slinky
A TY monkey
plastic magnify glass
a notebook and colored pencils
a blow up beach ball
bouncy balls & jacks
and all this fit in a gallon zip lock Amazing.
Song of the day where ever you are "winnie the pooh"

EACH

2009-06-29T23:05:00.000-06:00

McLane Layton of EACH (Equality for Adopted Children), has introduced a new bill to Congress which will change the citizenship status of our foreign born adopted children. This would mean, among other things, that our children would not be subject to rules placed upon immigrants to the United States. It would mean no TB testing, no HIV waiver, no sputum testing, and no re-adoption in the United States. Once the child is legally adopted in his/her birth country, he/she will automatically become a US citizen with the same rights as a native born child, including becoming President of the United States.

Please show your support for McLane Layton and EACH by joining EACH (if you haven't already) and by being prepared to call, write, petition, and blog in order to help get this legislation passed. Also, read about the other Acts that EACH is involved in helping to get passed.

I saw God Today

2009-06-28T00:01:00.003-06:00

I'm gonna try something new, a friend of mine does a theme song for each post. I thought it was fun so I have no shame and am gonna still here idea. Today's Theme song is "I saw God today"
I have to tell you about the awesomeness of God. I went to a retirement party tonight and had wonderful good food and great conversation. (a lot of which was about little brother of course.) I saw lots of people who I haven't seen in a good long time, but let me tell you about the first person I saw. A friend of mine who has been crippled (I don't like that word but it fits) by a horrible degenerative disease who had been in a wheelchair for 12 year and whose body worsen every year. A few years ago she adopted her grand children and has struggled to care for them physically. She was walking!!!!!! and looked about 20year younger!!!!! It was amazing. No Doctor did this, she was told she would worsen and worsen until she died and one night God just touched her and healed her. She now has the energy to chase after her new little ones. Our God is an awesome God!!!! I can't help but wonder if another friend of mine, who was hurt in an auto accident and is paralized has seen this. Really this was the tip of the iceberg I witnessed other miracles today too.

Look what God does to people who visit Ethiopia

2009-06-26T22:31:00.003-06:00