Oh, maternity leave. Please don't go!!

Today marks the beginning of my second full week home (w/o N), or my last week of FMLA. In this situation, I am choosing to go with the sippie-cup half empty approach: this is my last week at home! One week from today I return to the workforce. I so don't want to go.

Wanna know what we did today? Met friends for lunch, went to Target in the middle of the day, rode the escalators a million times (because NO ONE shops at Target midweek) and then came home. Y is sleeping and I just looked up all of the books I want to check out from the library, and decided to make this for dinner. Not what I will be doing a week from today!

Y is finally in a decent rhythm and I feel like I've got my SAHM groove on...

I'm not exactly complaining, just voicing...it's different right? N's mother comes for a three week visit starting on Friday, thus prolonging our need to begin the whole childcare routine. I return to work with a reduced work schedule (30 hours) and different job responsibilities. Both are great for this new Momma, but escalator riding is far more fun! Really six weeks? Are you finished already? Time flies when you travel across the world, become a family, travel back, get sick, have jet lag, celebrate three holidays and get head lice!

A future in drama?

Seriously, who taught her this stuff????

Week in review

Y has her first play date!!! ( I actually hate that word and need a new term.....anyone???

Whata week.

Sheesh!

N returned to work

Two trips to social security; one unsuccessful and one victorious

One Dr's visit

One ER visit (not Y, thankfully....N had a strange freak accident at work, but is fine now!)

Lice (minor, really)

33 loads of laundry

Sleeplessness

Some tantrums

Y's beloved Aunt Johnna has left the building (final semester of law school!!!)

First tacos

First play date (did you know that it takes three adults to make two kids happy? it does!)

Injera b'wat every single day of the week

Gena celebration with two other adoptive families (you think we had time for a picture?? no way!)

The ups and downs continue, but I gotta say that this was a pretty good week! I never could have handled this week two weeks ago, if that makes sense.....but now with more sleep and less sickness under my belt, I felt pretty good to go!

Headed to yoga today. Aaagh. First time in awhile......

One month together!

Hair time is a special time....oh, and we learned the Amharic word for "lice."


More special hair time. Moments before the tragic finger burn of 2009....
It has been one busy month!

Somehow this is our first family photo.....(in Chicago)

Wow! I initially had intentions of doing a "decade in review" post, and then when that fell by the wayside the second option was a "2009 in photos." Perhaps luckily for you, sleep just keeps on winning and here you have what remains: our first month together. And what a month it was.

I'm not gonna lie. Parenting ain't easy. Perhaps I was shocked that I was so shocked by the adjustment. This month has been full of ups and downs. Our first few weeks together were uber hard. Really. I am SOO thankful that N was able to have so much time off or I may not be writing this right now. Since he is a teacher, he already was scheduled to have the two week holiday break. Our travel dates could not have been more perfect as he was able to have two FMLA weeks off as well. Y LOVES her Babba....a lot! Having N around so much made the initial transition so much smoother!

The first few weeks were full of sleep loss, temper tantrums, travel, sickness, unpredictability and confusion all around. I think we wondered how we were going to be able to do it, and Y wondered what happened to life as she knew it.

The last two have involved introductions, family fun, sledding, more sleep, less tantrums, mild sickness and more stability. In some ways, the improvements Y has made have been miraculous. With a few boundaries and tons of attention, she is really adjusting rapidly.

Y is a gift to our family. She really is. She makes us laugh every single day and her courage is amazing. She loves to eat, play with dolls that have hair, slide really fast down big hills, read books, serve pretend coffee and go to visit people. She truly misses her friends from her orphanages and asks about them (and to pray for them) daily. Her desire to see them again, and her lack of real understanding about where they are now, is sometimes heart breaking. We have certainly seen her mourn in her own ways.

And I think I have mourned more as well. As we have learned more and more about her past, I am constantly reminded of how that will impact her future. It isn't all hard, but it isn't all easy either. Adoption just isn't. But that is ok. Our first month together is only the beginning. We have so many months and so many more ups and downs.

How to travel cheap, but still enjoy yourself--Addis

First photo with Y and her Babba at Sidist Kilo MT home

If you are attempting to do adoption travel on the cheap, I will include several points of interest in this post. Here are my tips:
1. Fly Turkish Airlines----I had flown Turkish before and totally recommend it for cheap travel. Even at the last minute, our flight was only $1200 per person. (Because Y is over 2, she had to pay a full fare coming back which was also $1200, but for one way only...boo!). We flew directly from Chicago to Istanbul and had a quick layover of three hours. During that time we utilized the free Internet in the airport, but compensated with outrageously expensive and mediocre food and coffee! The flight was smooth, all luggage arrived as planned and the plane was new and well kept. Booking was easy. We did it through Cheap Tickets.com and then phoned the airlines to book Y's ticket which was linked to ours. Turkish has consistently had the cheapest tickets to Addis for over a year now. Although the ticket is nonrefundable, you can pay an extra $200 once you are in Addis if you need to change your ticket, and this is very easily accomplished. CONS: It was a slight nuisance to book over the phone as the connection was obviously through a distant call center, but totally worth the money saved. Also, flying back through Istanbul security was very tight. We had our passports checked six times. With a three year old in tow, this was a hassle and almost made us all go crazy, but one week later we are just glad to have saved so much $$$. No regrets on choosing Turkish. I would note that a stroller would have made this part of the trip 100% better!
2. Mr Martin's Cozy Place Guest House (or "German Guest House"): Some would call this "no frills." It is fairly basic, but still allows you to feel comfortable and safe and has the modern amenities one needs (hot water, electricity, and a shared refrigerator). We stayed in the single room one night before we picked up Y ($10 USD) and then switched to the family room ($19.50 per night). The family room included a sitting room with a desk, wardrobe and chairs and an attached bedroom with a double and single bed. The bathroom is down the hall, but felt like a private bath because only one other suite shared it with our room and the suite was empty most of the time. The staff are super friendly, they were understanding and accommodating to our screaming three year old, and all of the guests are fairly social, which is good given the amount of time spent in the guest house. They have a cafe with reasonably priced "Western" food ($3USD breakfasts). They have a decent Internet connection and the staff can help you get anything you need including changing money and running errands for you (the latter does not come for free, but is cheap!). Most of the other guests are tourists or low paid researchers or interns, which is nice because the place clears out during the day making the staff extra attentive and eager to chat with you! CONS: The walls are pretty thin in this place, so the noise really depends on your neighbors and what sort of...ummm, shall we say "activities," that they wish to participate in. (None on this trip, thankfully). If you are a Gladney family, this guest house would be far from the Care Center...about 30 mins, but totally accessible with your driver (this is in the "Atlas Hotel" neighborhood). Again, it is pretty basic, but they clean everyday and it is bud free etc.
3. Eat Local---This will save you a TON of money. Right outside of the guesthouse is an Injera house. We ate the local "Shiro Wat" daily which cost around $1.20 total. With drinks included we would spend about $2.50 on lunch and sometimes eat breakfast and dinner there as well. However, I am a saladaholic and need my salad fix, so we also ate at the neighborhood Lebanese restaurant that caters to foreigners...great, but much more expensive (still cheap at around $13 total). CONS: none! Injera and Shiro Wat at those prices can't be beat.

Hmmm those were our big price cutters! We also didn't have a driver at all, which worked well for us because we know Addis public transport, but most likely would not be a good bet if this is your first time to Addis. We aren't really super thrifty people and these things were all fairly easy to do. We certainly were not suffering.

To make up for all of our savings, I did feel the need to spend around $100USD at this store. I consider it an Ethiopia MUST!

What's sexier than sex?

I interrupt this otherwise normal blog to discuss the nastiness that has permeated our home----it is ringworm and it is on my face, on my daughter's face and threatening to overtake our life. Not really, but if you ever Google images of ringworm you will get the idea that you will never again be without it. Any suggestions? I'm sure other adoptive families have had it and I want to know what to do about it (we have OTC cream) and how long it will last!

It's kinda like lice or flies or bedbugs...once you hear about it, you are convinced that it is taking over your body and you itch and see it appearing all over the place!

Yuck and Happiest of Holidays! :)

Sost

Photo and joy created by the illustrious Sara B

I'm a mom, y'all! And can you believe that I am so lucky as to parent this cutie pie???

Y is a living and breathing and RUNNING....oh yes she runs, child in our home!

Stealing from the Office a bit in regards to parenting. I totally know what I am doing, but "in a much more real sense, I have no idea at all." :)

Ethiopia was wonderful! It was great to connect with friends, eat shiro and injera literally every day (except one) for lunch, drink endless amounts of coffee, pay $1.20 to get Y's hair braided, meet this family, meet this families children, shop for things we REALLY needed...(I mean who doesn't need yet another scarf?) and to just be in a place that celebrates being. It was for sure a different trip than any other, and we underestimated how much work it would be to have a child along for the ride! We dramatically scaled back on our initial plans of meeting friends for lunch, coffee and dinner everyday and actually just spent a lot of time in our guesthouse.

I feel like I have tons to write about; Y's adjustment, my adjustment to parenting, adoption travel on the cheap, adopting an older child, Missionaries of Charity orphanages (home to Y).....but for now I will sign off because it is not yet 6am and I need coffee and find this hour repulsive without it! And mostly because little Y is screaming that the "the urine has arrived" (literal Amharic to English translation) and how can I not attend to that???