Our Journey

We invite you, our friends and families to follow along with us on our journey to bring home the newest additions to our forever family. I believe everything happens for a reason and I know that the newest additions to our familiy are out there somewhere waiting for us to be matched. We have followed our hearts and that has lead us on a wonderful journey to a wonderful country "Ethiopia". We look forward to the day when we are able to finally go and meet in person and bring our littleones home forever.

We hope you can all be here with us through the tears and laughter as we move through our adoption journey.

love & kisses
Lilypie

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Don't forget your passport!

The TV show "Don't forget your passport" on the outdoor life network is airing a show on Ethiopia Feb 4th at 10am. Please consider checking it out....we will be!

Monday, January 28, 2008

Looks like we've been approved for 2!

I am happy to say that it looks like we have gotten the approval from our social worker and social services to adopt 2 kids (siblings). We hadn't heard anything for awhile so I weas starting to wonder! Hopefully our amendment should be in Ethiopia in the next 6 weeks or so. Keep your fingers crossed!

Monday, January 14, 2008

1? 2? 3?........

Yes, 3......Dale and I have decided to change our referral request from 1 infant to a sibling pair (1 under 1 and 1 under 5). We feel that we have enough love and room in our hearts and home to provide 2 special children a forever family. Dale and I have spent allot of time making this decision as it was not an easy one. However we do feel that this is a good decision for our family as a whole. We are very excited about our new future additions.
With this new change we are not sure how this could affect our time lines, but we do think that our travel times could vary greatly from late summer to sometime next winter. We look forward to sharing our journey with you so please stay tuned!

Interesting links

Check out this link and watch the video. Some of the children that are adopted from our agency come from this orphanage. Also a very good book to read!
http://www.thereisnomewithoutyou.com/

Also, Here is a recent article by Melissa Faye Greene
http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2008/edition_01-13-2008/Finding_My_Daughter

Sunday, January 13, 2008

52 weeks..........

I found out this week that I am eligible for the full 52 weeks parental/adoption leave in Saskatchewan. Not sure when this changed from the 35 weeks, but I think this is fantastic news! Even my HR department at work was not aware and have had to update the HR website with the updated information. I guess they have not had an adoption leave in Saskatchewan recently and in MB where our head office is they only receive 35/37 weeks. Way to go Saskatchewan!

Monday, January 7, 2008

mälkam gäna - January 7th - Merry Christmas

Today is Ethiopian Christmas! mälkam gäna hulum (Merry Christmas Everyone)


Ethiopian Christmas is known as Genna. It is celebrated on 7th of January. Christmas celebrations take place both in ancient churches carved from solid volcanic rock and modern churches designed in three concentric circles. Men and boys are made to sit separately from girls and women and the choir sings from the outside circle. Candles are given to people as they enter the church. They light the candles, then walk three times around the church and stand throughout the mass, which may take as long as three hours.

Traditional Christmas dish includes Injera, a sourdough pancake like bread, which serves as both plate and fork along with Doro Wat, a spicy chicken stew served in ornamented baskets. Giving gifts is not a big deal in Ethiopia and children usually receive clothes as presents. On Christmas Eve, people remain outdoors and pray and chant all night. In the morning, a colorful procession marches to the nearby hilltop headed by three young men with whips to keep everybody in line, where a service is held. After the prayers, priests bless the bread and wine and distribute it to everybody. People dance, play games and feast for the rest of the day.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Happy New Year!!! a little late!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that everyone has a wonderful new year filled will love, happiness and good health.
With 2008 comes the anticipation of a new addition to our forever family. We hope and pray that we are brought together this year so that we can start our life together.
As much as I can't wait for the day to come I do not for a minute want time to go by any faster than it already seems to. Sometimes I think Cohen is changing daily as he continues to amaze me each day. He is counting and recognizes his ABC's, he knows his colors and even his shapes. He has been playing with a leapfrog program ages 4-6 and is doing great! However there are the days like yesterday where I am completely amazed at how absolutely stubborn he is! Not quite sure where he gets that from ;-)
Yesterday he picked up the phone and I asked him who he wanted to call (exspecting it to be grandma or papa or someone like that) and he said sister, mine sister. I guess that just shows that he is understanding what we are telling him. He also knows that when he sees mom looking at her Ethiopia book and he picks up his Ethiopia alphabet picture book mom won't refuse to read it to him.
God I love that little boy!

Take care and all the best for 2008!