Busy 24 hours

On Thursday afternoon we went to the AWAA office to see if our 2nd MOWA letter had come in. They told us it hadn’t. We need this MOWA letter to get Jacob’s birth certificate. We were told that it would come in “maybe tomorrow”. So we left thinking not much would be happening this week. Friday morning we went to the Embassy to try to get our I-600 notarized (something that just became required). We hired a driver and went to the Embassy only to find out that the notary doesn’t work on Fridays. We got back to the guest house and were trying to decide what to do with the rest of our day. We were sitting down in the lobby using the internet and watching the Royal Wedding when T came in a told us we had an appointment at Immigration to get Jacob’s passport in 30 minutes. We were so excited and confused how this happened so fast! We started asking T questions and he said you have 30 minutes to get there, so we can talk later. We quickly called our driver and he was close by! We made it to Immigration with 5 minutes to spare, then waited for another AWAA employee for about 30 minutes. I was afraid we missed our appointment, but it didn’t seem to be a big deal. We followed the AWAA employee to the front of the line. This was a little uncomfortable. There were over 100 Ethiopians waiting to apply for visas, and we just went to the front of the line and applied for Jacob’s passport and he got his passport photos taken.
While we were waiting for the paperwork to be all filled out we got to see Jacob’s birth certificate. It said Jafar Bradley Mowen ( we will legally change it to Jacob Jafar Mowen when we get home)!!! How exciting!!!! It also listed his birthday as November 8, 2010. All of the paperwork we had received said December 8, 2010. We called to the AWAA office and they told us its no big deal it was just a typo, but it’s what we have to go by now. We have a police letter that says he came to the orphanage on December 8th and we were given pictures of him from when we was just days old, so we know that was a close birthday. I was so sad that we lost a month of his life. He is now 5 ½ months old. Although, I am sad he is now considered a month older, I am glad his birthday won’t get mixed in with Christmas.
So within 24 hours AWAA received our MOWA letter, got Jacob’s birth certificate, and we applied for his passport!!!! Praise the Lord!!!! We are hoping that we will be submitted to Embassy for our appointment and Jacob’s visa on Wednesday. Then we are hoping we will be able to come home WITH Jacob in the next 2 weeks if everything goes quickly!!!!!

Ethiopian Easter

Often Easter is celebrated a few weeks later in Ethiopia than back in the US, but this year we were celebrating Easter all over the world! We started our morning out by having a coffee ceremony at our guest house. They decorated with long grass and flowers. They made bread, popcorn, and coffee. Then we went to church at the International Evangelical Church. Jacob was dressed up in his traditional Ethiopian outfit! Ethiopian wear these outfits on special occasions, so there were many people dressed up all over town!
Another custom here at Easter is slaughtering an animal for a big traditional dinner. Job, an AWAA employee, went out of his way to make our Easter special! He hosted a traditional dinner for us. In the morning he slaughtered a goat, and then he and his mom prepared a whole big dinner for us. We really appreciate him including us and making Easter special!
Here are some pictures from the day!






Coffee Ceremony at Polaris Guest House

Caylene, Roza, Sada, Tara, Brad, Jacob, and Job

Job slaughtering and preparing the goat for lunch

Our traditional Ethiopian Easter Dinner

Our First Full Week with Jacob Jafar

Monday, April 18th-Gotcha Day
We showed up to the TH at about 9:30am and the Dr was checking on Jacob. She said he was very sick and didn’t know if we should take him or not. She told me he had a fever of 39 C. I didn’t know what that transferred to in F, so I wasn’t too worried yet. I started to cry and I didn’t ever know if we would pass court or not. I just kept thinking “we might be able to legally take him, but the Dr. won’t let us”. Well an hour later the Dr. met with us and told me we could take him if I did this list of things with him. Then the nurse told me that his fever was 102.7 F. Ahh! My poor baby! He was awfully cuddly all day. As I was walking out of the Dr.s room, Yonas-an AWAA employee- came to tell me we passed court and Jacob Jafar was legally our son! I shouted with joy jumped on Yonas and then started crying some more! Happy tears this time!! Yonas told me that he didn’t tell Brad yet, so I went to tell him. I was crying so he thought something was wrong at first. Then through my happy and relieved tears I told him “We passed!! This is legally your son!!” Brad was skyping with another family and their older kids. But he jumped up and rejoiced with me!!
There is another AW mama staying at the same guest house with us. We were all hoping and praying we’d pass court together on Monday and bring our kids back together. She didn’t have a scheduled court date (we did). So we heard first that we passed and they didn’t know anything about her yet. Yonas told me someone was still waiting at court to see if she will pass and that her case is more complicated. I think that was just because she didn’t have a scheduled court date. Praise God about an hour later she found out she passed too!! We were taking our kids home on the same day!!
We finished with some things at the TH, and Brad had a tearfully goodbye with an older kid that is waiting for the correct papers before he can be adopted. Brad is ready to start the process to come back for him and his little brother. We will see what the Lord has in store for all of us! So we left the TH around noon and brought Jacob back to our guest house. He wasn’t feeling that great, so he slept most of the day. One of the things I had to do for him is give him a Tylenol suppository. I had never done this before, so as I was changing his diaper one of the workers at the guest house asked if she could do it. She used to do some kind of health care before working here. So I gladly let her. But I had plenty of times to give it to him over the next 5 days.
At the TH they were feeding Jacob about 7 oz every 3 hours. He never finished a bottle when I gave it to him. So I was hoping to give him about 5 oz about 5 times a day. But he didn’t really want to eat anything. We bought him a little bed, but he is too big for it, so after a while he was kicking so much to stretch his legs we brought him to bed with us. He woke up scared about 10 times. As soon as he heard one of our voices he was OK. He also ate like 3 oz 3 different times in the night. I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to complain and just be thankful that God chose me to be his mama and love on him and hold him while he is sick!
Tuesday morning he woke up without a fever, but woke up from his morning nap at 11am with a 103.1 F fever. We called the Dr. at the TH and she wanted to see him right away. We rushed back to the TH before the Dr. left at noon and she checked him out. She thought he had double ear infections and still a high fever, so she wanted to keep him overnight for 24 hours of observation. They started him on antibiotics, which he HATES. I was crying, again. I didn’t want to leave him sick at the TH for lots of reasons. I am his mama and I wanted to be the one holding him when he didn’t feel well. But we left, with me crying, and went back to the guest house without Jacob. We woke up early the next morning and went back to the TH and the nurse told us he was fever free and we could take him back with us!! Praise the Lord!! We got to hang out at the TH with the other AW families for a little bit while we waited for our driver. He still wasn’t 100% better and was really liking cuddling with me! He did just a little better at night. He still woke up several times, but quickly went back to sleep after we patted him or gave him his pacifier. He ate 3 oz 3 times at night again. He also woke up in the middle of the night with a fever again.
Thursday morning he still had a fever and didn’t want to wake up. He slept all day. I woke him up to eat and give him a cool bath. Then I noticed that he had about 15 dots on his stomach, sides, and shoulder. Several kids at the TH have the chicken pox now, so I was thinking it could be that. He went back to sleep-all day. We just stayed at the guest house with him all day. He had a fever on and off all day too.
Friday morning he woke up with a slight fever and he still hadn’t pooped since we got him Monday morning. But there were no more spots, so I was really hoping it wasn’t chicken pox. We took him back to the TH and the nurse saw him and gave him medicine for the constipation. The Dr. was already gone, so she didn’t see him. She asked us to come back Saturday morning.
Saturday morning we went back to the TH, this was the week we were supposed to take Jacob and not go back to the TH- but we were there 5 out of 6 days. Saturday morning the Dr. said she didn’t think it was chicken pox, but maybe a reaction to the antibiotics or the new soap we were using. His fever was also gone and the only thing she noticed was his cough. She gave him some cough medicine and medicine for the constipation. On Saturday night he had his best night of sleep. He only ate one time during the night to eat and 2 other times because he was scared. We are hoping that we are finally starting a little bit of a schedule and he is much better!
Easter Sunday was a great day with Jacob feeling much better and we had a great first Easter together, I will post about it next…
We am so thankful for this 1st week with our son and we can’t wait to spend more time with him!! We are so thankful that God chose US to be Jacob’s parents!!

Entoto Mountain

On Saturday, April 16th, we went up to Entoto Mountain. Five of us went, so we split the cost and it was $11 per person. It was neat to see the city from a different view. The whole drive up the mountain we saw women carrying loads of wood and sticks on their back. They get less than $1 per load and it’s a very long walk up or down the mountain. I’d say its worth the trip to see while you are here. Here are a few pictures:

We Passed Court...Introducing Jacob Jafar

Today we passed court and Jacob Jafar Mowen is officially our son. Here are some of our first pictures of him!!!

Our Typical Day

Since we have been done with our travel package with AWAA we have been spending the whole day with Jacob! The sun rises at 6am and that is when people around here are up and moving. Out our window you can hear roosters crowing, people chanting, dogs barking, and guys walking around yelling trying to sell their mops. We will eat breakfast at the guest house and find something to do until our driver gets here. We usually arrive at the Transition House between 9:30-10am. We go and get Jacob from his room and hang out on the porch. There are 2 couches and 2 chairs that we all sit on. There are 2 other families staying until they are cleared to bring their kids home so we all hang out together. The Shelburn family has been submitted to embassy and will hopefully bring their 1 year old boy, Theo, back to Hawaii in the next week. The Knox family is still waiting to pass court for their 2 kiddos that are 3 and 5. Caylene Knox is staying until she is cleared to bring her kids back to Washington.
10am-pick up Jacob and play on the porch
11am-Jacob takes a nap in our arms
12pm-Jacob gets 7oz of formula (he usually only eats about 5oz), we eat PBJ sandwiches or granola bars and then he will play some more
1pm-Jacob takes another nap
2:30pm-more playing time
4:30pm-we have to leave the TH
We go back to our guest house and make something for dinner and try to play a game. We have decided games aren’t as fun with 2 people as they are with more friends. But we will try to play a game, read, or watch whatever is in English on TV.
About a week ago we changed guest houses to save some money. Yebsabi (where AWAA families stay) is nice and clean, but it’s expensive. Yebsabi was $82 per night and Polaris is only $30 per night. Polaris doesn’t have internet service, but we were able to get an internet stick and it costs us $6 per hour of internet time. Polaris also didn’t have a microwave, so we bought one. Most of the food we bought is microwavable, so we needed one to be able to make our dinners. We have seen a few roaches in the kitchen, but no one seems to think that’s a big deal. Thankfully we haven’t seen any in the rooms and we wash everything before we use it. Caylene Knox is also staying here so it’s nice to have a friend here! The staff is really nice here; they really take care of us. Tonight Brad was going to walk around the corner to get a phone card and some water and they said they wanted to do it for us. We are kind of getting spoiled here. We miss seeing other AWAA families and how clean Yebsai is. We will see how it works out here once we have Jacob. Yebsabi has a crib and baby bath tub that we can use and Polaris doesn’t have anything. So we will see how creative we get with some place for Jacob to sleep and bathe. We may end up back at Yebsabi later on, but now we are happy to be saving money!

About Jacob

For the first 2 weeks we only got to see Jacob for about 2 ½ -3 hours each day, it was either morning or afternoon. On Wednesday we got to spend the whole day with him at the Transition Home. It was so nice to just hang out all day as a family of 3! There were 2 other mamas hanging out with us on the porch all day too! We all have sons about the same age, so it’s been fun to get to know each other and have the boys play together. One of the families is from the Chicago-area so we hope the boys will get to see each other every once in a while! The other family is from Hawaii, I’d love to say we will visit them, but I doubt it.
Each day when we show up to the TH, we get to go to Jacob’s room and get him. He is in a room of 9 babies with 2 nannies. The nannies always give him a kiss before we take him to the porch. It’s so sweet to see the nannies love for these children! He started recognizing our voices on the 3rd or 4th day. When we come into the room and start talking, he just lights up and turns his head to find us. He melts my heart each day with his smiles!
We usually hang out with Jacob on the couches on the porch or on a blanket on the ground. He loves tummy time and playing with toys. When we first met Jacob, he couldn’t/wouldn’t put any weight on his legs. Today he was going crazy pushing up on his legs. He thinks it’s so funny if you pull him all the way up so he is standing. He is teething and chews on everything he can get into his mouth. He also has strengthened his stomach muscles a little bit. Two weeks ago if we tried to sit him up in our laps, his head would fall onto his feet. But the last couple of days he has started to hold himself up a little bit and his head doesn’t touch his feet anymore! He continues to smile and laugh every day, which is such a joy to hear!! He has been able to roll over from front to back and back to front since we met him and he continues to do that each day. We put some leave-in conditioner in his hair and it curls up into a faux-mohawk, so cute!! The back of his hair needs to come in a little more, but it’s really cute from the front!
Brad is really afraid of, or disgusted by, baby spit up. He has really been hoping that Jacob won’t spit up much. He really didn’t spit up much at all, until we spent the last 2 full days with him. He has been spitting up a lot these last 2 days. Yesterday he got Brad for the first time. I ran to get my camera before I got a rag! J
We just love every second we have with him and can’t wait for the day that we bring him home with us!

Trip to Awassa and Shone- Days 8 and 9

We wanted to see some of the countryside of Ethiopia and meet our sponsor child, so on Friday morning we headed south. What we saw was exactly like all the pictures of Africa that you see back home. There were mud huts and people and animals everywhere. I expected to see a few little villages here and there, but there was village after village the whole 6 hours we drove south. I couldn’t believe the amount of people we saw walking or riding on carts led by donkeys. Our guide told us that everyone was heading to market. But there was seriously not a time that we didn’t see people out walking. There were children that were 5 or 6 years old that were shepherds in charge of their cows, goats, or donkeys. There were so many young children around 4-6 that were in charge of the babies too. The babies didn’t have any diapers or pants on, and the children were just carrying them around. There were many rivers and lakes we passed by and saw many people bathing and washing their clothes in the water. We got to see some people farming their land also, it was also just like we have seen on TV, everything done by hand. These people were some of the hardest workers we have ever seen. We wouldn’t even consider doing half of what they do everyday. Some people were walking miles upon miles to the big city where the market was. The women carried the biggest loads of wood or large baskets on their backs and walked and walked and walked. We took tons of pictures because we were so amazed by what we saw. Another reminder to be very thankful for our life in Illinois. But you know these people were so nice and smiled and waved at us as we drove by, they didn’t look upset or bitter, they just kept on going.
We drove for about 4 hours and stopped in Shashemene to eat lunch. I had to go to the bathroom so bad, but there is nowhere to stop. I was very thankful to stop for lunch. We stopped at a very nice little resort and we ate pasta and fish. I was glad to see some soft bread (a lot of the bread has been hard so far), with my upset stomach I needed something bland to fill me up. It was yummy bread, I hope we can find some like it at the store in Addis! After lunch we were heading to Shone to meet our sponsor child. On the way we found out she didn’t have 2 brothers, but she has two sisters. So we stopped to get two girl outfits. Then we continued on to Shone, another 2 hours down the road. So far we had a paved smooth road, until we got a little bit out of Shashemene then it was a bumping and curvy road.
Once we got to what looked like a tiny little village of Shone (we later found out there were 20,000 people) we went to the office of Look Development Ethiopia (the sponsorship office). There was an office worker and social worker that met us there and showed us around their office. They also went to the store for us before we got their so we could give the family some food. We saw some children playing outside and they thought us white people were funny. We were the talk of the community. Everyone wanted to come and see the white people. It was funny to see them look at us like we were aliens. I’m guessing not many white people go all the way out to this village. Next we got the food and 2 goats that we bought for the family and went to their house. They were all waiting for us. Many relatives came to meet us too. The sponsor child is a 5 year old girl named, Tedeke. She lives with her father, mother, two sisters and grandma. Tedeke was very shy but came and sat on Mary and I’s lap. The grandma kept saying “God bless you, God bless you, God bless you.” They were so grateful we would make the trip to meet them. We were so grateful they let us come and see their home and village. We spent about 45 minutes there, we gave them the food and gifts. We went in their house and the first room we went into was a decent size room (for a mud hut) with lots of chairs in it. We all sat down and talked through the translators. We also were able to buy 2 goats for their family. Right before we left their house the grandma wanted to pray for us. We have no idea what she said, but it was a sweet prayer to our Lord. What a neat experience! I was humbled by her prayer. Just knowing she was thanking God for us and our visit, when we were the ones honored to be helping them. What a blessing!
After leaving the family’s home we went to the Look Development Care Center. They have 20 children that they take care of there. They are in need of several items to function. If you want to give to a nonprofit, I would encourage you to look them up. They had nothing for these children except for beds and food. There were zero toys or equipment. The kids just sat there the whole time we were there. They waiting for government approval to turn the care center into an orphanage and possibly start letting these children be adopted. I was so thankful to see the company functioning that we have been sponsoring. It was such a blessing to meet the little girl that we have been praying for and see her family in their home.
Next we left Shone and went to Awassa, so back in the car for about 2 hours. It was only about 100km away, but you have to stop for all the cows, donkeys, and goats that are constantly in the road so driving takes a long time. We got to Awassa and checked into our hotel. It was really nice and only about $30 per room. We were all so exhausted from the busy and long day. The guys took a nap before dinner. We went downstairs and had dinner then went to bed early. Life in Ethiopia starts early in the day, like by 6am everyone is up and going, 6am our time is 1 Ethiopian time. The streets are busy and people are up going. Since we were out of the city of Addis we had to worry a little bit about the mosquitos and malaria. It isn’t the really bad time of year, but still a little concern. So we slept with a bug net around us at night. It reminded me of Girl Scout camp many years ago. It was also hotter in Awassa and I had a hard time falling asleep.
On Saturday morning, Brad and I both woke up and we were ready to head back to Addis and see Jacob. We planned on going out on the lake in Awassa to see the hippos, but we were missing Jacob and we all decided to just head back. The guide took us to see two beautiful resorts that were on the lake. He told us they were too expensive to stay at, so we’d just go look. They were gorgeous! We asked how much it would cost to stay there and it was only $50-60 per night. Wow! They would have been well over $200 per night back home. One of them even had private villas. If we didn’t have to worry about the malaria, we would head back down there to stay. It’s cheaper there than in Addis. So we left Awassa around 8:30am and made it back to Addis a little after 1pm. We had the driver take us over to the TH to see Jacob! We couldn’t wait to get our hands on him again!! It was so sweet to see his smile again!! We spent the afternoon with Jacob and got to see 5 families meet their children. Such a special day!! Our friends from Burlington made it here today and got to meet their sweet 4 year old daughter. She was sick today, so it took her awhile to come out of her shell, but once she got her medicine, she was the same sweet child we have seen all week. We have to leave the TH at 4:30pm each day. So we came back to Yebsabi and had a very full house for dinner! Last week there were usually about 6-8 people each night at dinner. Last night there had to be close to 30! We all visited for a while downstairs then turned in. We have been going to bed around 9pm most nights since we are all up by 6am!
What a wonderful first week in Ethiopia! God’s blessings are everywhere!! Thank you for all the prayers as we continue to wait to pass court, we really appreciate them!!

Days 6 and 7

Wednesday morning we spent the morning with Jacob. He was as sweet as always and smiling from the moment we picked him up. I think he is starting to recognize our voices a little more. He will turn his head looking for Brad or I if we are talking to someone other than him. We got to see the Knox family meet their little ones (2 and 5) today! Such a sweet moment! In the afternoon we visited the Ethnological Ethiopian Museum. It was interesting to see the different parts of Ethiopia and things from each of the parts. We got to see some beautiful baskets made by people in Harrar. I wish it wasn’t so far, we would love to go and see Harrar, but I’m not sure its going to work out for us. We got to walk around and read about the different things which we nice because I didn’t have to listen extra to hear through the thick accents. A lot of people know a little English here, but some have such heavy accents it makes it hard to understand sometimes. We learned from one of our guides that they start to learn English in grade school here. Then their high school is completely in English.
Thursday morning we had our court appointment. We waited downstairs at the guest house until they called us to come to court. It’s not very far away, and this avoids you from sitting in a crowded room. They called us to come pretty close to 9am. We went in and sat down in a large room. We found out right before we went in that our MOWA letter was there yet, so I was prepared to not pass that day. I wrote a previous post about not passing, but it all happened really fast. The blessing of the day was finding out that Jacob was in two orphanages before coming to AWAA, and one of them is in Addis. We got to talk with one of the ladies who helped take care of him and made plans to go visit that orphanage next week! She also said she had a photo of him, I can’t wait to talk to her and see the photo. We treasure any information about Jacob’s first few months of his life!!
We got to spend the afternoon at the TH with Jacob again. Another wonderful day!! He was extra cuddly today and fell asleep at the end of our time there. He still only eats about ½ the bottle with us. They give him 7oz 7 times a day. With us, he only finishes about 4 oz. The nannies say that he usually finishes the whole bottle, but they sometimes have to finish while he is sleeping. The lady from the orphanage came over to AWAA to get a paper form to fax to the Harrar police and she came to say hi to Jacob. It was sweet seeing her and a nurse light up when they saw him!! We got some pictures too! We got to see another Meetcha day, the Murray family from Chicago came to meet their little guy. It was a sweet union!!

Days 4 and 5

On Monday we spent the morning with Jacob! He is more active in the mornings, so we got to play with him. Each day we go to the Transition Home, we spend 2 ½-3 hours playing with him on the porch or in the little grassy area. They have 2 couches on the porch and we have our own blanket to sit on too. We spend lots of time holding him and playing with the toys we brought. We try to get him some tummy time too! He really likes when we let him spread out and reach for things. His bed is a very small space, so I don’t think he spends much time sprawled out. Each day I get to feed him a bottle too! The first day we met Jacob he didn’t fall asleep, but he has slept in my arms every day since. It’s so sweet to watch him sleeping! He is so happy! He is constantly smiling and laughing!! His smiles just melt my heart!! I can’t wait to be a full time mama to this precious boy!! This morning we also got to deliver care packages for 4 families waiting to come meet their children and take photos to email home to 8 families!! These kids are so cute!! I can’t wait for their families to come and meet them!! Thankfully the internet worked well enough one night, Brad helped me email these precious photos to the waiting families. Receiving pictures of Jacob while we waited for a court date was such a gift, I was so glad that I could do this for these families!
In the afternoon we visited two orphanages in Addis. I have heard horror stories, but both Kids Care and KVI were clean and the kids all had diapers on. Many families in the US have been working hard at getting cloth diapers over here so these babies can have diapers, and I was so happy to see tons of cloth diapers on the clothes lines and all the babies covered!! The big kids were at school so we didn’t get to see them, but at Kid’s Care we were able to play with a ball and some of the 5-8 year olds. The workers at Kid’s Care had a coffee ceremony for us too! It was so kind of them to show their love this way. Brad took a cup, but I don’t think he drank any, and Randy (Brad’s dad) wasn’t too interested. I tried mine and it was REALLY strong. I did the best I could with an already upset stomach. Mary (Brad’s mom) did the best, she finished it all!!
On Tuesday morning we visited a coffee factory. There is a drought right now, so we didn’t get to see a lot, but they showed us around. There are usually hundreds of women who sit and sort coffee beans, but with the shortage of beans there were only 3 women working today. I forget the exact amount, but I think I’ve heard that the women work all day long and make less than $1. It’s amazing the hard workers here that get paid next to nothing. Just heartbreaking to think about some of the hard work they do, most of us wouldn’t even consider doing, especially without good pay. Each day I am constantly reminded how thankful I am for a good paying job and my house that is starting to look larger and larger each day that I am here.