Different Perspective

Thank you to everyone who responded to my last post (online or otherwise).
I am changing my perspective. There are no dumb, stupid or silly questions. Every question opens up an opportunity to share knowledge and educate people more about adoption. I really feel like I was the silly one for not seeing that more clearly when I wrote the last post.
Live and learn.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

Silly Question

You just have to laugh sometimes. This weekend I was talking to an adult I had just met through a friend and the conversation went as follows:

"do you have any kids?"

"no, not yet. My husband and I are in the process of adopting however."

"oh really, are you adopting locally or internationally?"

"internationally"

"oh, and what country are you going to adopt from?"

"from Ethiopia in Africa"

"don't those people have dark skin?"

"yes Ethiopian's do have dark skin and we are very excited to be adopting from there".

At the time I was thinking... you must be kidding me this person doesn't know what colour of skin people in Ethiopia have. Afterwards, I wondered if the strange question was more related to him being confused as to why a white person like me would be adopting from Africa. Anyways, I couldn't help but laugh at how stupid a question it was. Hindsight is always 20/20 and this morning when I woke up all I could think about was different ways I could have answered that question.
If stupid questions deserve stupid answers then maybe I could have said,
"no, actually all of the people in Ethiopia are albino"
or, "yes they do...by the way welcome to planet Earth I heard you just arrived last week",
but why go there, I think I would have said the same thing I did.

Anyways this one is going in the memory bank filed under "dumb ass questions"... I wonder when then next one will come. haha

Workshop

Sorry I have been a little slower with the posts over the last two weeks. It seems once it is nice outside there is so much to do and keep busy with.

At the workshop the instructor was showing us how we can use their amharic alphabet (fidel) to take a name and figure out how to write it in Amharic (you could try this for your children's names). The chart below is not the exact same one as from the workshop but very similar.

The vowel sounds are as follows:

a as the 'a' in father

ai as in aisle

ay as in day

e as in bed

eu as in the french neuf

upside down e as the 'e' in garden

i as in bit

o as in hot

ow as in cow

o with a line over it as in both

u as in flute

The consonant sounds are similar to what you would expect for the most part except the 'ch' shound has more of a click to it.

Vowel and consonant's are always lumped together.

reading accross the first row of the chart the sounds would be "heu", "hu", "hi" ... etc.

reading accross the second row the sounds for the different characters would be "leu", "lu"... and so on.

so for example my name is Shannon. To find the Ahmaric symbols that would represent the sounds in my name I could break it down as follows.

"sha-no-no"...hmm I think this is the closest I can get with the chart because the consonant sound always comes before the vowel. To write it in Amharic I would use the corresponding characters for those sounds. I noticed that there was no sound in the chart to represent "th" and then I noticed that when the instructor said "Ethiopia" she said it "Etiopia".

All in all I think it would be a very difficult language to study but then I am not a wiz kid when it comes to trying to learn different languages, I really had a hard time with French in high school.

Hope you found this a little interesting (-:

I noticed the picture of the chart shows up really small on the blog if anyone wants me to email them a larger version just put your email in the comments.

Long Weekend

I hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend. Friday we decided we had nothing planned so why not drive to Kitchener and try "AM Africa" for dinner. The Ethiopian woman who runs this restaurant was very nice and our meal was really yummy. You can check out their menu here if you are interested. She will even do a coffee ceremony if you call in advance and ask.





This is a picture of Matthew enjoying his Ethiopian food and beer. They had three different types of Ethiopian beer and he had to try just one of each!

They also sell a number of different spices and other things there.

We picked up a bit of Shuro (above) and green Ethiopian coffee beans (below).

Then on Sat. we went to an Ethiopian culture and language workshop put on by our agency "Imagine Adoption" in Cambridge. The more I learn about Ethiopia I am just fascinated by what an interesting country it is. Amharic is also a very interesting language. The Ethiopian lady who was facilitating the session had us practice saying the different phonetic sounds of their alphabet and they even have a sound that is used that sounds like a "click".

It has been a grey and rainy weekend so we didn't get as much as we wanted done outside. We have some plants we want to put in but we are going to wait because it is still a bit cool.

I will try to post a little bit of what I learned from the workshop on the blog over the course of the week. I hope everyone enjoys their holiday Monday.

New Book / Mother's Day / Video

Congrats Janice on getting your ministry approval and thanks for the book recommendation!

Someone at work was nice enough to lend me a copy of this book and I just finished reading it. It is fiction and I am usually not a big fiction reader but I did enjoy it a lot and would recommend it to anyone who is adopting. It is set in Ethiopia and provides a lot of insight into the culture and history which was interesting.

We had a nice weekend visiting with our moms and I even got my first mother's day card (from my cat Tilly - but really made by my husband) hehe. Thanks Tilly (and thanks Matty for thinking of me).

I watched a little bit of the Pangea day on Sat. as well. If you missed it but are interested in checking out some of the videos they are posted on this website: Pangea Day Films.

There was one very short film (only a couple minutes) about racism that I thought was very simple but good. If you want you can check it out by clicking on the link below. What do you guys think of the film? I will post my thoughts in the comments.

Telephone Game

May 10th - Pangea Day

I had heard about this day before but didn't really know what it was all about. Today I came accross some more info and it sounds worth checking out.

The idea behind it was this: the feeling that we are fundamentally different than people in other countries or parts of the world can lead to conflicts, lack of harmony etc. The person who put this day together decided to use film as a medium to try to bring people together and learn about our similarities. To try think more about ourselves as a “we” instead of an “us” and “them”.

2,500 short films were submitted by people all over the world and 24 were selected for the day. These films are intended to inspire and to allow us to see the world through another person’s eyes.

Pangea day in Ontario will be on City TV and will run from 2pm-6pm (playing the 24 short films – with music and special hosts). It will be broadcast world wide. If you want to see what time and channel it is on in your area visit this link: http://www.pangeaday.org/television.php

Or you can watch it online at www.pangeaday.org

I am going to try to watch at least some of it. Have a nice weekend everyone!!

May 7- World AIDS Orphans Day

When I hear the statistics I think that the sadest thing about the orphan crisis is that these are children we are talking about. We can't sit around waiting and expect children to ask us for help or find solutions to their own problems. As adults in the world we have a duty to ensure that they have the help and support they need.

See this website for more information: http://worldaidsorphans.org/

Over 15 million children worldwide have lost one or both parents to AIDS – equivalent to the number of people living in New York, Paris, and Bangkok combined. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, over 12 million children have been orphaned by the pandemic.
Experts believe that millions more orphans remain unaccounted for in India, China and Russia.
By 2010, the number of AIDS orphans worldwide is expected to reach at least 20 million.

Lets ask our Prime Minister to help speak on their behalf. Click here to submit an online letter and let your voice be heard.

Homestudy Done! Yippi!!!

Well the fingerprints came back from Japan after 8 weeks (thank goodness) and Matthew and I signed off on our homestudy. It was sent to Imagine Adoption (our agency) about a week ago and last Thursday it was mailed off to the ministry. So from here we are moving onwards and upwards to the next waiting game. We have been told by Imagine that the ministry has been quite busy recently so we will expect an 8-10 week wait. Following that our papers need to be legalized by Foreign Affairs and then will go to the Ethiopian Embassy in Ottawa (approx 2-4 weeks). Following this our dossier will be sent off to Ethiopia! Hopefully by the end of the summer we will start the wait for a proposal. I have a feeling it may be longer than this, but a girl can dream can’t she?

I have to say both of our families have been great and very supportive. Below is a picture of Ryan and Jann (my brother and sister-in-law). Ryan is a lawyer and was able to notarize our documents for us! Thanks so much, this was a big help and saved us a bit of money!!

Tagged!

I have been tagged by Rana. Things are not all that exciting or earth shattering in my life so I hope I don't put anyone to sleep here (hehe).

I am: slowly going crazy one two three four five six, switch! Crazy going slowly am I Six five four three two one, switch (sorry it was the first thing that came to mind).

I think: the more I know about life the more I realise how much I don’t know.

I know: that I have been extremely fortunate to live in such a beautiful country and to have such a caring family.

I want: to be a mom.

I have: way more “stuff” than I really need and I am becoming more conscious of this the older I get. We have 3 telephones in our home plus 2 cell phones and I just learned 1/100 people have a telephone in Ethiopia.
I wish: that chocolate didn’t have any calories.

I hate: going to the mall. Just thinking about the mall makes me think of 16 year old girls flipping their hair over their shoulders and saying to each other “like, oh my God, like, does this shirt make me look fat”…ahhh when I see them I want to scream!
I miss: being a kid and not having any worries.
I fear: getting older and feeling like I haven’t done anything important with my life.
I feel: happy today because the sun is shining and it looks beautiful out.

I hear: my husband making us fruit smoothes for breakfast downstairs in the blender. mmmmm.

I smell: bad probably, I still have to take my morning shower.

I crave: sweets all the time. Anyone who knows me knows this is not an exaggeration.

I search: for meaning in my life.

I wonder: where the little one we will adopt is right now.

I regret: not being more actively involved in my community when I was younger.

I love: life. Each moment is a gift.

I ache: for being a mom and becoming a family.

I care: about the world I live in. We are all citizens of this planet. If aliens were to land would they understand our idea of imaginary lines creating borders between places? I think we have a responsibility to care for the entire planet and all of it’s people.

I always: have something sweet to eat after dinner. What a bad habit.

I am not: going to go to Wal-Mart anymore. I am getting fed up with the corporate monsters and my values don’t coincide with what they stand for. This may be a hard thing to follow through on because they make themselves so darn convenient, but I realize there are more important things than convenience and I am going to do my best to stop going there.

I believe: my cat Miss. Tilly is an absolute pest. She is a cute pest though (she is crawling all over me as I type up this post).

I dance: sometimes around the house. Mexican music gets me moving and shaking the

most (-:

I sing: sometimes in the car. I used to worry that other people might see me, but now I don’t care I just give er’

I cry: a lot more the older I get. I’m not sure why but the slightest sad thing in a movie can now open the flood gates.

I don't always: know the answer and I’m not afraid to admit it. I find asking lots of questions is one of the best things you can do.

I fight: sometimes with my husband about who’s turn it is to change the litter. Let’s hope we agree on diaper changes better than that.

I write: too little. I find that now that I am not in school and writing up lots of reports my spelling, grammar and writing skills are starting to slip.
I win: in the lottery of life I guess. I have been quite fortunate thus far.

I lose: a few calories every time I ride my stationary bike. We recently got a bike and I am trying to ride it a little everyday to offset the sweets after dinner (hehe). I said to my husband the other day, isn’t it peculiar that humans purchase stationary pieces of equipment to exercise on, are there any other animals in the animal kingdom that would have to set up something special to get exercise? I am picturing a lion on a treadmill and thinking “no”.

I never: say never.

I confuse: hmmmm. I’m confused trying to think of something to put. hehe

I listen: to a lot of different types of music. We recently discovered the Putumayo world music collections and love them!

I can usually be found: reading about adoption, working in my flower garden outside, pestering my husband or my cat, …
I am scared of: the dark. I was terrified of the dark as a kid and I have not completely gotten over it. Silly I know.

I need: to be loved. I can’t imagine going through life without that feeling that you matter to someone else.

I am happy about: my garden. This is the first spring where I have had my garden and have been able to watch the plants start to grow, what a neat thing to watch!