Environmental Karma

This is not adoption related, but I came across these ads and thought they were very clever. The tiny print in the botton reads "What goes around comes around. Keep the sea clean". What a neat idea for an advertisement - Environmental Karma.

Update and Food!

Just thought I would give an update for family/friends who are wondering what the process will look like from here. As soon as we get Matthew's fingerprints back from Japan we will move to this next phase of things:

Approval from Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services - 8 - 10 weeks
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (legalized) and Ethiopian Embassy (authenticated) - 2 - 4 weeks
Dossier to Ethiopia - approx. 1 week
Referral time (for an infant up to 12 months old) - 3 - 6 months
Time between Referral and Travel (court date, permanent resident visa, etc.) - up to 3 months for court, + up to 6 for visa

Last night we were out for dinner in London Ontario with some friends and family...mmmm Indian food!! Matthew and I were talking on the drive in about how dissapointed we are that there is only one Ethiopian restaurant in London to choose from (there used to be a second one on Dundas that we really liked but we were convinced it had closed down). We had been past there a bunch of times and it always looked closed.

Well silly us! We drove past it last night and it was open!! Yippi! Hope we can go sometime soon!

For anyone in London area they have a webiste: Addis Ababa Restaurant on Dundas

Homestudy Update!

This is Matty giving the thumbs up as he cleans the night before our social worker came to visit our home a week ago (hehe). I think when we make our memory book for our little one I will put this picture in with a note that says "see how much daddy loved you before he even knew you". Anyone who knows Matthew knows that it must be something important if he is going to jump up and grab a vacuum (someday when our child grows up he or she will see the humour in this).

So our social worker has told us that we don't need to make anymore appointments with her for now and that she is going to work on writing up our homestudy this week. We are still waiting on those darn fingerprints to come back from Japan and when Matthew called this week they told him it would probably be one to two weeks. I am a little stressed about that but hopefully all will go well.

I'm not sure if I clarified this before but for anyone who is curious we have requested a boy or girl up to one year old at the time of placement.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Challenge!! Map Game

I am challenging all of my blog readers to check out the Africa Map Game in the link from my last post and lets see who can get the lowest time (thanks Tanya for this idea!).

Here is the best we could do for scores:

Matthew - 57 seconds
Shannon - 61 seconds

(there is a bit of a learning curve so it took a bunch of tries to get our time down)
Don't forget to post your score in the "comments".

And I think I should fess up and admit that my first score was closer to 160 ! Yikes!!

Africa Map Game

Why is it that I grew up thinking of Africa as one large land mass where everything and everyone is one and the same? I don’t think there are any other continents in the world that I know so little about. Now that I am trying to learn more I am amazed at the number of countries that I have never even heard of and the amount of diversity amongst them. Wow, what amazing culture, food, religion, dance, and language! If it wasn’t for embarking on this process I’m not sure I would have ever known just how different and unique each country is. Why didn’t I learn even a fraction of this growing up? Why don’t we ever really hear about African news or history? Is Africa a forgotten part of the world to us North Americans? Is this a common experience or is this just me growing up in a bubble?

I don’t know the answers, but what I do know is that I am so excited to start to discover what seems like the tip of an iceberg of cultural diversity.

First task, to learn my African geography! This is a fun online game Matthew found that will help.

Check it out if you too feel like you missed out: Click here for the Map Game.

Many Rivers to Cross - A Late Night Reflection

Last night I watched the Idol gives back episode and was really moved by Annie Lennox’s performance of “Many Rivers”. I thought the lyrics to this song were really beautiful.

This song made me think about life and the many struggles people find themselves having to work through. I feel very fortunate that I live in a beautiful country and that I have a loving and supportive family, where everyone is healthy and happy. I feel a sense of guilt that this has been my life experience given that so many other people, including millions of children, find themselves in very different situations. I feel like I have been able to stay dry and keep my hemlines up above the water while other people have had to wade their way through. Is there anything I can do to help? Matthew and I try to donate to charities and do our best but somehow it doesn’t feel like enough. I feel like I need to keep trying to find ways to do more.

Our social worker has made the comment several times through this homestudy process that “happy well functioning families don’t give up their children”, meaning that the child we will adopt will have been orphaned because of some unfortunate circumstances. Last night when I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep I was wondering where the child we will adopt is now. What are the difficult circumstances that are going to tear his or her birth family apart? Somewhere in Ethiopia is there a sad story unfolding for a child we will someday love…I feel for my future son or daughter and for his or her birth parents and wonder what many rivers they are trying to cross.

Many rivers to cross
But I can't seem to find my way over
Wandering I am lost
As I travel along the white cliffs of dover

Many rivers to cross
And it's only my will that keeps me alive
I've been licked, washed up for years
And I merely survive because of my pride

And this loneliness won't leave me alone
It's such a drag to be on your own
Love has left me and I don’t know the reason why
Well, I guess I'll have to cry

Many rivers to cross
But just where to begin I'm playing for time
There have been times I find myself
Thinking of committing some dreadful crime

Yes, I've got many rivers to cross
But I can't seem to find my way over
Wandering, I am lost
As I travel along the white cliffs of Dover

Yes, I've got many rivers to cross
And I merely survive because of my will...

Comics

I guess this comic is an example of what not to do.

and this one I saw on another blog a while back. It shows a new way of thinking - I love it!

Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa is the capital city in Ethiopia.
-It is the city we will fly into and it is where the transition home is for our adoption agency.
-As of 2007 it had a population of 3,627,934 and is the world’s largest city that is in a landlocked country (a country that is enclosed by land - there are 44 of them in the world).
-It is 2,326 meters above sea level making it the third highest capital city in the world (Toronto is 76m above sea level).

Hello Addis



This is a video I found that has pictures taken from around the city.

Addis in 4:30



I have heard other people say that there is not much order to the flow of traffic in Addis, this video shows someone driving around and now I see how true that is.

One Family

A few weeks ago we ordered this DVD called One Family: An Ethiopian Adoption. It is the story of a couple in Vermont who adopt a 10 year old girl named Meskerem from Ethiopia.

We watched it when we got home from work tonight and couldn’t help but cry. In the video Meskerem’s new adoptive parents go to meet her brother and large extended family in Ethiopia before travelling back to the USA (her family was no longer able to care for her and had to give her up to an orphanage). It reminded me of how I felt at times reading “There is no me without you”. It is just so sad that there are not more ways to keep these children with their extended families (or birth parents if they are there). It is sad to see them lose their birth country, their language, the only friends they have known, and their remaining family. There is no doubt this is a loss the child and surviving family will feel their entire lives.

When people say “oh you want to adopt, that’s great you are saving that child”, the truth is adoption is not the perfect solution for these children. The day we bring our child home will be one of the happiest days of our lives but it will only be made possible because of the immense loss our child and his/her birth family have experienced (and will continue to feel over the course of their lives).

The video is only 35min long and cost us $23 (USD) with shipping. If you are interested here is the link - One Family: An Ethiopian Adoption.