Attachment Plan for Isaiah and Kaleb

Brad has taken the time to right down some of our thoughts about the boys as we are preparing to come home. We have had the boys for 8 weeks now and we have seen great signs of bonding from Isaiah, but not so much from Kaleb. Please support us as we try to foster the bonding with Kaleb. All this being said, we welcome everyone to hug and kiss the boys at the airport. As long as Kaleb is comfortable we don't care who holds him and loves on him on Saturday. But on Sunday we will be putting the following plan into place. Isaiah can't wait to meet everyone and is so looking forward to lots of hugs at the airport.

Kaleb:

We love this boy!!! His laugh will melt your heart and his "Kaleb" language will make you laugh. His eyes will make you want to say yes to everything he wants. Kaleb has made us question our parenting skills multiple times. To say that parenting him has been difficult would be an understatement. We have some very specific requests when you are around Kaleb. We know this is unnatural but please do not pick him up. We will most likely have him in the ergo, however, if we don't please do not pick him up if he comes to you. We are trying to teach him that we are the ones who will meet his needs. Along the same lines, do not feed him anything. He will ask constantly for food. Please refer him to us or let us know if he is wanting to eat or is acting like he is hungry. Not that anyone is standing in line to do this, but.....please do not change his diaper. This action, again is associated with bonding and us meeting his needs. We may have a time of cocooning in order to best meet the needs of all of our children. We are unsure of how this will go and will wait to see how things are going when we get home. We do, however, welcome anyone who is willing to bring us dinner...just kidding...ok no we are not.

We feel like the bonding and attachment process is going slow with Kaleb. We are trying everything we know to speed this process up. The things above are just a few ways that you can respect our process and help us bond with him. We know that this will take time and perseverance and most of all prayer.

Isaiah:

Isaiah is doing incredible! We are so proud of how far he has come. We truly believe that God has protected his heart through all that he has endured! Please feel free to hug him and tell him how happy that you are to finally meet him. Guys, please do not freak out if he grabs your hand and wants to hold it! This is a completely normal and acceptable behavior in his culture. Everywhere you go in Ethiopia, there are adult men holding each others hands. Please keep in mind of how much his mind will be taking in. This will be a whole new place with different scenery, sounds, smells, and people. Although he will be thrilled to be home, he will at the same time be grieving the country that he loves. Isaiah thinks that all Americans (including us) are "rich". Do not let him play with any of your possessions unless you are ok with them being broken. He does not take care of things very well. He thinks that we can just buy a new one (i.e. the mp3 player that he was told to put up when he was not using it...needless to say the mp3 player does not work anymore). Isaiah's response was "no problem, we will just buy a new one".

Isaiah's English is very good. He can understand 75-80% of what is being said. Keep this in mind when you are around him. He can understand what you are saying. Please do not talk about anything that you do not want him to or anything he shouldn't hear (we learned this the hard way, LOL). Please, Please, Please do not ask him offensive questions about his birth country or his birth family. If you are wondering if the question that you want to ask is offensive, it probably is and shouldn't be asked. If you want to ask him questions about Ethiopia, please run them by us first. We have a couple of reasons for asking you to do this...One, we may have not asked that question yet and want to hear his answer. Two, if we have not asked the question, we may not no how he will respond to the question and we want to be around to comfort him if he is feeling at all uncomfortable.

Thank you so much for your consideration of our requests. We can't wait to introduce you to the new additions to our family. They are amazing!!! We appreciate all of your prayers over our family. Each day, we can feel them working more and more! We know that all of this could not have happened without God. He is the master planner!!!

We are CLEARED!!!

Today was the birthparent interview at the Embassy and a few hours later we received an email that we were cleared to come HOME!!!! We received an interview for tomorrow afternoon! We booked tickets to leave Addis Ababa on Friday and get home on Saturday!!! We can't wait to see Brad again and Isaiah is really excited to meet our dog Molly and all our other friends and family. After being in Ethiopia for 11 weeks, I am ready to be HOME!!!!

Thank you for all the prayers during our time in Ethiopia!! It has been great to spend so much time with our boys already, but we are ready to be home and start our life there!!!! Isaiah is also ready to start school!

Brad- we will see you in FIVE DAYS!!!!!

Popcorn

When I posted about our typical day I forgot to say we get to eat popcorn every afternoon! Worke makes popcorn on the stove everyday. All the kids love it. I'm not sure how the maid feels about it. Here is a picture of Isaiah helping clean up after popcorn!

Two Months in Ethiopia.....

It has been 8 1/2 weeks since we arrived in Ethiopia now. And we have had the boys with us for 6 1/2 weeks now. Here's a little update on each boy and our time here:

Isaiah really has been doing great!! I know I keep saying this (and I am waiting for a change) but he really is such a fun and loving boy! He likes to say bye and I love you many times before going to bed and hanging up on the phone or Skype with Brad. One time just isn't enough! He is such a sweet big brother too. God seriously has prepared him for this roll. He hates when either of the little boys cry and he is always willing to help them with anything. He loves to play outside on the scooter or inside playing games. He is willing to do any school work or read books to his brothers. He is really excited to start school when we get home and to join a soccer team this spring and a baseball team this summer. He hopes to get a bike, scooter, skateboard, legos, a tennis racket and a remote control helicopter for his birthday. That list seems to grow when he watches a new movie. Ha!

Kaleb has come along way, but still has a long way to go. Adopting toddlers is tough! We would really appreciate prayers for him. He still has a long way to go with the bonding and attaching to us. He looks to anyone to comfort him or pick him up. He likes me fine, but not necessarily more than anyone else. This process with him has sure taught me a lot about Christ's love for us. Even when we run from Him, disobey Him, and steer clear from Him- HE still loves us. We don't always mean to run away from God. I am trying to remember that each day with Kaleb, trying to love him through this transition like Christ loves us through each of our transitions. Kaleb has become cuddly first thing in the morning and likes to be held when Jacob is being held :) He enjoys using a spoon or fork to feed himself from a bowl.

Jacob spent the first month here scared and sad. But he also has come far! He is a little more clingy to me than before we left, but he loves playing with his brothers. When we left Illinois he was only taking a few steps, but now he can run after his brothers all day long! He also got all his molars here (not fun). He is saying more and more words each day too! But his favorite words are dog, juice, and hat. All liquid is juice, all animals are dogs, and anything on your face or head is a hat, haha!!

Our time in Ethiopia has been so different this time around. We are renting a house and finding our favorite places to shop this time. I am even brave enough to walk places by myself this time (but not in the dark, of course). I am busy each day, but this is life now! Bonnie (the other mom renting the house with me) and I were talking about how much we can't wait to get home. We keep thinking it will be easier at home. But one day we starting laughing when we remembered that we will also be cooking and cleaning when we get home. Isaiah can't believe we don't have a maid and cook at home, ha!

Multi-Colored Necklaces only $10

I was able to get 100 multi-colored paper bead necklaces. They are gorgeous!! I was kinda picky on which ones I bought at the market. We are selling them for $10 (plus $2 shipping if you are out of town). Brad has 50 of them at home and I will bring the rest home with me. All proceeds will go towards our plane tickets HOME!!!!

Here is a paypal link or you can mail a check if you aren't local.

Thank you so much!!!

These Two Are Something Else....

For the past week or so, these two boys have become partners in crime. When I start to approach them to get them to stop whatever it is they are doing, they speed up and do it faster. Here's a few pictures from their trouble. I don't have any photos of them in the toilet (which happens everyday, gross). I stop them before I grab my camera then :)

Kaleb is Two!

I forgot to post pictures from Kaleb's 2nd Birthday!!! His birthday is January 31st. But since Brad was leaving Ethiopia on January 20th, we celebrated on Brad's last night here. We got cupcakes from Cupcake Delight and had all the friends renting the house with us. Here are some pictures of our birthday boy!

Our Typical Day

We have kind of settled into a routine here in Ethiopia as we wait to be cleared to come home. Most of our days look like this:

6:30am the boys wake up

7am skype with Brad

7:30am eat breakfast, Isaiah loves cereal, Kaleb and Jacob will only eat eggs

8-10am play inside, watch the Wiggles or some other movie with songs

10am Winshet, the nanny, watches the boys so I can take a shower (I hear Jacob crying the whole time)

10:30-noon play outside with the scooter, little riding toys, and swing in the hammock

noon- eat lunch

1pm-3pm Kaleb naps well, Jacob fights it but finally sleeps

3pm-5pm find something to do; take a walk, play outside, anything that we can find

5pm-dinner

5:30-7pm keep busy (my least favorite time of the day because the boys are ornery and we can't play outside anymore or go anywhere) so we read books, play with toys, etc

7pm talk to Brad

7:30pm start bedtime stuff for Kaleb and Jacob

7:45-8:30pm play a game with Isaiah

8:30pm Isaiah goes to bed

I am usually so exhausted I go to bed not too far behind him!

There are a few little market type stores close by that we walk to, there is a Kaldi's Coffee that is a 30 min walk each way where we can get coffee and ice cream. We also have found a pizza place that is pretty close by. Everything else we need to hire a driver for.

The boys know the Skype ring now and they run to the computer saying "Dada Dada" Its so cute! Isaiah hates when Brad hangs up too fast and doesn't say "bye" and "I love you" enough times, one time is not enough for him :)

Birth Parent Interview

Today marks 7 weeks since we left home, 5 weeks since we passed court for Isaiah and Kaleb and we have had them with us full time, and 2 weeks since Brad left Ethiopia. Today we also found out the US Embassy scheduled their birth parent interview for February 27th-WHAT?? That's almost 4 weeks away. The Embassy is interviewing every reliquishment case, which is fine. But they don't have the staff to do it in a timely manner. I'm hoping the can figure out something to make it a quicker process so other families don't have to wait so long. If all goes well on the 27th, we should be coming home the first few days of March!!!

Thank you for the continued prayers- we really appreciate them!!!

Help Us Come Home!

Whenever we are cleared by the Embassy we will need to buy tickets HOME! Jacob and I bought one way tickets to Ethiopia because we don't know when we will be coming home. We are hoping to come home by the end of February. We are waiting for the Embassy to open our case and review our file. Then they will probably request a birth parent interview, THEN we should be cleared to come home. Once we are cleared we will need to purchase 4 tickets home. We expect those to be between $3,000-$4,000. Our stay at the first guest house ended up being much more expensive than we planned. We are so thankful for the opportunity to rent this house with 2 other families. It has been a great experience and we have been able to save so much money. But we still don't have enough to buy plane tickets home.

If you would like to help us buy plane tickets home you can donate through Lifesong for Orphans. They are a great non-profit that assists adopting families and offers tax-deductible receipts. If interested, you need to put Mowen #2363 in the memo line of a check and mail it to:

Lifesong for Orphans

Mowen Adoption #2363

PO Box 40/ 202 N Ford St

Gridley, IL 61744

Thank you so much for considering helping us home!! God isn't finished writing this journey yet, so many people have been a part of Jacob's adoption and now Isaiah and Kaleb's adoption. We are forever grateful to each one of you!!!

One Year Ago...

One year ago today we received a phone that changed our lives-we saw our son! Early in the afternoon we got the phone call that we had a 2 month old SON!! We were so happy to find out that we had a tiny son waiting for us in Ethiopia! After hearing the basic information on the phone we waited about 45 mins to see this precious face:

Jacob Jafar has brought so much joy to our lives!! He is constantly happy and laughs all the time. We cherish every day with him and thank God that we were lucky enough to add him to our family.
Happy Referralversary Jacob Jafar!!

Submitted!!

We were submitted to the US Embassy today!!! When we got the call, I told Isaiah that God answered our prayer and he shouted the biggest "Yaaaaaahoooooo!!" All night he kept saying "I am very very very happy that my file is at the Embassy now!" Someone has told him all the steps of what happens in this process and he knows what comes next. Thank you to each one of you that prayed over this, we are so thankful that we were submitted.
I just now got an email from our agency saying they already need another piece of paper to be added to our file, but our agency thinks this should be easy to obtain and add to the file soon. Please pray that it is.