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Sometimes it really pays to have married someone with the organizational skills that I lack…
It was time for an update from our social worker on the status of various pieces of our Colorado agency and homestudy requirements. So Shannon threw together a quick list (a short 23-item bulleted list of things that needed doing or receiving, with dates or expected dates of completion. And, of course, all of our questions were in red text).
I’ve been dying to decorate the bedroom next to ours for years. See, it’s been unused and unfurnished since we moved here 3-1/2 years ago (except for a makeshift bed that’s been used, oh, once).
Black Boot the Pirate. That’s what Dan has been calling me since I broke my foot in February. Within a couple of weeks, I was down to one crutch and clomping around the house with a very stylish fracture boot (and leaving black marks on the hardwoods).
OK, so Dan and I had a little chuckle last night when — at a few minutes before midnight — we caught ourselves scanning through game show contestant applications with some seriousness. Yes, we’re desperate!
So I’m driving down Highway 85 through a rural part of Colorado on my way to work this morning… It’s spring and very nearly warm out, and a lot of us (the commuters) had our windows down.
So, I had the unpleasant realization today that a big chunk of our adoption fees are not nicely spread out over a long period of time as I had expected, but are actually due in a couple of months from now, which is long before our official waiting begins. Holy smokes! This comes after learning that the adoption tax credit isn’t quite as friendly or helpful as I originally thought. 
So, after the initial heart attack and subsequent number-crunching, followed by a good dose of scrambling to check all financial balances, I put some energy into researching how to pay for adoption expenses now rather than later. When I read through lists of “money-saving tips,” though, I belted out a hearty laugh — then cried. Why? Because we already do those things, so the proverbial belt is already cinched pretty tight.
One of our big worries about adopting in Ethiopia is navigating the travel arrangements. Mind you, this is coming from the Queen of International Travel herself. Yes, the woman who can turn every outgoing penny into a frequent flyer mile somewhere down the road. Yes, the very same woman who cannot fly for two years, but still end up with a couple of free seats on one of the biggie airlines. And we’re not talking about schmucky seats either…our last freebie trip was first-class to Costa Rica (complete with smelly hiking boots and backpacks, but that’s a story for another time). Yes, the same woman who handles the majority of the extended family’s travel arrangements…yep, she-who-knows-how-to-”work it” is worried. (And she’s getting kind of annoyed at the third-person voice here…)
OK, not really, but I did get some mildly exciting news today. After no raise for the past several years, I found out today that I’m getting a small salary increase! It’s only a drop in the bucket, especially since I work part-time. But the exciting news is that it goes into effect last October, which will throw a few hundred bucks our way from back pay (if the tax man doesn’t steal it first). Yippee! OK, it’s not going to cover the thousands of dollars that we have to come up with in the next several weeks, but it sure does ease the pain of some of those nickel-and-dime fees (not to mention taxes)! God is good.
Watch Adoption Story on the Discovery Health Channel Tuesday, March 20th at 7:00am or 1:30pm. This half-hour episode will feature the Matthews Family, who adopted a little girl from Ethiopia.
Apparently, this month’s edition of “O” Magazine also features three articles on adoption. I haven’t seen it yet, but I hear it’s worth the read. Off to Borders I go!
For regular news about Ethiopia and Transracial adoption, subscribe to the swerl blog.
…the paper chase ramps up to full speed.
I don’t know what I was thinking. I was under the mistaken (deluded?) impression that the big paper chase for the homestudy these past few weeks would cover the bulk of official documents. My oh my, how I was wrong!
The NY Times had a great article on Ethiopian food in the Travel section today. Click here to check it out, and don’t forget to watch the fabulous slide show.
In Egypt (on the African continent, northwest of Ethiopia, and bordering the Meditteranean, for the geographically challenged), the ancient Greeks (who took over Egypt with the Ptolemies…after the pharaohs) were baffled by the flooding of the Nile each summer, to which they could set their proverbial watches. Before those times, the Egyptians themselves just figured the flooding was the result of a god bringing fertility to the land. But what was really happening?
There is a fair amount of rain in the Ethiopian Highlands. Lake Tana drains into the Blue Nile, which winds down out of the highlands with majestic falls.
‘Love thy neighbor’ is not a piece of advice, it is a command.
-Bono, acceptance speech, NAACP 2007 Image Awards
Watch this powerful and inspirational 7-minute video here. Thanks to Stacy (Raising Lucy) for sharing the link.
If you’re curious about Bono’s red campaign, click the (red) link on our website sidebar, or click here.
We’ve decided that we’d like to adopt an infant (0-12 months old). We’re also willing to adopt a sibling up to three years old (or a twin – yikes!). At least that’s the plan. But age is an interesting topic in international adoption, and it’s often based on guesstimation. In Ethiopia, age is complicated by a totally different calendar system than ours.
We haven’t received many comments (just emails), and it finally occurred to us that — duh — many of you might not know how to leave comments on the blog. So, here’s a quickie lesson:
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is yours truly, as captured by the fine folks at American Traffic Solutions. It seems that Greenwood Village, Colorado has outsourced its traffic safety to a company in Arizona. No points, no record, just a $75 fine mailed to an anonymous address in Ohio.
For those of us who attended California public schools, a little geographical orientation:
Our kiddos are somewhere in Ethiopia, which is a landlocked country on the Horn of Africa. It’s about three times the size of California or two Texases. Yeeehaw!
Ethiopia is surrounded by Eritrea and Djibouti to the north, Somalia to the west, Kenya to the south, and Sudan to the east.
In the 70s, 80s, and 90s, we all saw images of Ethiopian drought and famine in photos and news footage. I (Dan) know that, until recently, I held a perception of Ethiopia as a dry desert-like wasteland full of starving nomads roaming the country. I guess it depends on which way the camera is pointing.
I have the tendency to take life pretty seriously. (Nooooooooooooo, really?) Over the past several days, Dan and I have been getting less sleep and more slap happy. As a result, we’re finding a lot of humor in this adoption process. So, we’ve decided that — in addition to being a place for information and updates — we’re going to share the lighter side of our experiences in this blog. After all, if it’s not fun, why do it?
So you’re probably wondering what we mean by the new blog name. In Amharic, selam means “hello” or, more often, “peace.” So, for us, “selam” is both a reference to the fact that we want this blog to be a welcome and communicative place (we’re saying “hello” to all) and it is a reminder for us to slow down and find peacefulness in this process. The rest of the blog name simply lets you know that we might get a little cheesey at times and Dan has a very wry wit. Thus, Selam with Cheese on Wry seemed like a good blog name, although I did veto Dan’s suggestion for a tag line: “it just takes a little bread…”
Update 05/25/07:
Nearly 4 months into our adoption journey, we were blessed with a new addition to our family: a healthy newborn boy who happened to be right here in the US. To others, this sudden jolt of parenthood seemed to come out of left field. Indeed, it took us by surprise too. But clearly we were meant to be Baby Joe’s parents. Ironically (or typically, I should say), our home also sold the week before Joe came into our lives, thus keeping our family on our toes, especially since finding our son required a bit of last minute and frantic travel on our part. (With family scattered from coast to coast, this wasn’t such a huge feat, as we’re used to being on the road.) But this change in our family status also required an update to our blog name. Rather than change it completely, we simply updated the blog name to reflect our newest bundle of joy. So, our peaceful humorous journey now includes three of us…and seasoned travelers we are!
Thank you, in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia. We have been blessed with friends and family who share in our excitement, and it’s great to know that we have your support! Particularly excited are our moms (Germaine and Marianne) and Dan’s “Noni P,” who wept at the news of possibly becoming a great-grandma! Thank you for your many emails expressing congratulations for making this big first decision. (Comments on the blog are welcome too…)
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