Hello again, it has been too long since we last blogged...sorry about that!
Anyhow, in July we had the opportunity to go to Little Ethiopia in Los Angeles with a new friend of ours (who works at the same university as Jaime and I). Having lived in Ethiopia for several years, our friend was more than familiar with the food we would be partaking of, as well as the restaurants and shops in the area we were visiting. She was great in helping us determine what to order and how to go about eating a traditional Ethiopian meal. Having her along was a blessing indeed!! (You may notice that I have used "friend" and "her" with no name etc... This is only because I have not, as of yet, asked permission to post her name and/or picture on the internet. I know that if someone posted my picture or anything about me online without my permission - I would promptly, and without hesitation, hunt them down and slap them upside the head....with great force! So, I will go ahead and NOT do unto others that which I would not have them do unto me! Can I hear an Amen! )
Anyways, the food was great. Here is a picture of it before we dug into it!!
And finally, this is how appetizing it looks after you've finished. Mmmmmmmm...... want some?
I would go into detail about Ethiopian food, how it's prepared, and how you go about eating it etc... Except, ....yeah... I don't wanna. If you are truly that interested, we can have a conversation...OR you can take responsibility for your own learning and go google it. You'll find plenty of information AND have the joy and satisfaction of gaining the knowledge and insight on your own. Yay YOU!
Wow, I can tell by my sarcasm that I am too tired and cranky to do this anymore - so I am going to stop for now! It's not the writing that's so bad...it's just the fact that this is the first time I have tried to do a blog post with pictures embedded within it. Since I am not an 8 year old, it takes me a bit of time to figure it out and, quite frankly, it frustrates the daylights out of me. I have the attention span of a laboratory rat, so going to the online blog tutorials and reading instructions sounds about as desirable as repeatedly hitting myself in the face with a bat...with spikes in it... then cleansing the wounds with lemon juice and a salt scrub.
That's it for now....
Sean
As Sean said, we are adopting a baby boy from Ethiopia! We are very excited!! I cannot wait to be done with all of the paperwork. We are just about done completing the numerous documents that comprise the dossier. We are just waiting for our social worker to finish up the home study report. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!
We have been buying clothes and stuffed animals among other items in preparation for the day when we will bring our son home. His room isn't quite ready, but his daddy is working on that. Sean has been reading many books on international adoption and Ethiopia specifically so he might be a little more prepared than I will be. I am in summer school and applying to a PhD program (to start in the fall of 2010) so I regret to admit that I have not read many of the books that Sean is reading. However, I have been actively praying in preparation for our little guy to come join our family.
It has been so wonderful to have the support and love of our extended families. Sean's parents and my parents as well as our siblings have been so great during this process. We love you all!
Jaime
Hello Everyone! Well, here it is... the beginning of Sean & Jaime's Blog. I know you're all SO excited. Just kidding. Anyhow, a handful of you may know already... but, for those of you that don't... Jaime and I are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia!!
Here's a quick timeline/rundown for those of you that knew nothing of this until now:
1. Even before we got married Jaime and I knew that we wanted to grow our family through adoption. The only thing that hadn't been confirmed was when and from where.
2. At the end of 2008, after much research and prayer, we felt like God was telling us that our child was in Ethiopia.
3. In December 2008 we sent in our application to an agency. By February 2009 we had signed on with them and began our dossier (huge packet of paperwork). International adoption is quite a long and involved process... but we have finished quite a bit of the paperwork and hope to have our dossier complete soon. Once it is complete we will send it to our agency who will have it sent to Ethiopia. At that point we will begin our wait for a referral. Once we have and accept the referral of a particular child we will have to wait to get a court date, pass court, and then shortly after court passage we will travel to Ethiopia to pick up our son (oh yeah, we are requesting a 0-18 month old boy).
That's it for now. We will give more info and updates throughout the remainder of the process.
Thanks for reading... and God bless!! Oh yeah, it is not too soon to start praying for our little one, that the remainder of the process will go smoothly, AND that we find favor with: the orphanage from which our child is located, the Ethiopian government, US immigration, and the judge who will eventually hear our case.
Thanks,
Sean
