Together Wing to Wing and Oar to Oar

It is hard to believe that it was only six years ago that we said our vows...

...or that I was ever that skinny!

Love, respect, trust...

We have it all and I am grateful to travel this life with you by my side. 

Happy Anniversary, My Love.

The Master Speed by Robert Frost

No speed of wind or water rushing by

But you have speed far greater. You can climb

Back up a stream of radiance to the sky,
And back through history up the stream of time.
And you were given this swiftness, not for haste
Nor chiefly that you may go where you will,
But in the rush of everything to waste,
That you may have the power of standing still-
Off any still or moving thing you say.
Two such as you with such a master speed
Cannot be parted nor be swept away
From one another once you are agreed
That life is only life forevermore
Together wing to wing and oar to oar

One Year!

One year ago today I awoke in one of the most beautiful places on earth. The sun wasn't up but the birds were singing and the air was cool and moist on the shores of Lake Awassa. My stomach was in knots in anticipation of what awaited me on the other side of a six hour drive to Addis Ababa.

In Melissa Fay Greene's new book, No Biking In the House Without a Helmet, she writes:

"I was beside myself with excitement and a kind of stage fright. For the second time in my life I prepared to meet a child who was going to call me Mama. There can be no other demarcation of time, no other "life-cycle event" as significant a crossing-over as this one. Marriage is momentous, but in most of the modern world, brides and grooms stand at the alter beside their beloved. Childbirth is a major event, but it, like marraige, follows a deep prior connection. Now the elderly guard pulled open the gates and I prepared to meet a person who would join, and change, my life permanently."

I have never been as nervous as I was while we waited for those gates to open. I have never wanted so much for someone to like me, nor ever felt so certain that someone would not.

Then they arrived, wearing the cloths we had sent over months before and holding on to sticky sweet caraminas for dear life. When I show these pictures to the boys they ask, "What Mama say?"

They already know the answer but I tell them again how I leaned into the car, looked into their beautiful eyes for the first time and said, "Selam! Attafra. Ishi." (Hello! Don't be afraid. It's ok.)

"Then what Mama say?" 

I tell them, "Lay-ah-zek?" (Can I hold you?) and describe how Dash examined my face intently, then lifted his little arms up to me. All four of their arms are in the air reaching for me before I finish retelling my story.

They were so uncertain and scared but so very, very brave.

How all this came to be, how perfectly these two children fit in this family, is a miracle to me. It has restored my faith in life, love and God to a level I haven't known since I was a child myself.

Happy Family Day, sweet boys! Thank you for changing my life for the better and making me the luckiest and happiest Mama on earth!

I interrupt this adoption blog...

...to wish my husband a happy 4th wedding anniversary! You are my very best friend and our years together have been truly wonderful. May we share many, many more!

All my love,

Heidi

Happy Anniversary...

...to us! We celebrated our 3rd anniversary this past Thursday. It was a beautiful sunny 75 degree day...nothing at all like the blustery, rainy, cold weekend we got married! We were so happy that day I think the only time I really noticed the cold was when we were having this picture taken! We celebrated on Thursday by having a romantic dinner at a terrific tapas restaurant down the street from our house. Apparently the restaurant has been in business for 19 years, but we only just discovered it! We will definitely be returning. It was the best food and service that we have had since moving to CT!

You probably aren't reading this to hear about our dining experiences, so the adoption update is that all the documents we gathered for our dossier have been sent out for authentication. Huh? OK, let's take a step back. The first step in creating a "dossier", aka the set of official documents that will eventually be submitted to the Ethiopian government as proof that we are fit to parent, involves collecting medical reports, financial statements, letters of reference, FBI clearance, proof of insurance, proof of employment, color copies of our passports, a written statement explaining why we want to adopt from Ethiopia, birth certificates, marriage certificate, and a few other things. Each and every one of these documents must be authenticated, and the authentication chain looks like this:

1. Person writing the letter signs the document

2. Notary Public authenticates signature and date

3. County clerk of court authenticates notary's seal (some states skip this step)

4. Secretary of State authenticates county clerk or notary's seal

5. U.S. State Department authenticates the state's seal

6. Embassy of the foreign government authenticates the U.S. State Department's seal

7. Finally, after being mailed all over the place and stamped within an inch of its life, the document is ready for the dossier!

8. When all the required documents have been authenticated, the completed dossier goes off to Ethiopia

Phew! I am tired just thinking about it! I know this all might sound crazy, and it does at times feel like we are puppets on the string of a sadistic governmental puppeteer, but authenticating documents from another country is standard practice for all sorts of business dealings between countries and if you think about it from the perspective of the foreign government it makes sense. The foreign country sets up requirements that they think will "prove" that prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) are mentally, physically and legally up to the task (and believe me, Ethiopia's requirements are easier than some). Then, since they obviously can't just take our word for it, they need proof of the authenticity of the documents. In this day of high quality technology you can imagine how one might be able to trump up official looking documents that a foreign official might not be able to detect...and how do they know that the signatures are legitimate and not just the signature of someone's brother-in-law with a fancy stamp from Staples? You see where I'm going with this....

So, our documents have begun their world tour, and since we had documents originating in NY, CT, NH, ME, MI, CA, NJ, MA and probably a few other states that I am forgetting at the moment, the pages of our dossier are currently off visiting State Houses around the country. The Secretary of State will not notarize documents that aren't absolutely to-the-letter perfect, so for those of you who had to create these documents for us, this is why you received that long list of weird and detailed guidelines! It is also why the notary's commission needed to be good for two years. As soon as the notary's commission expires, so does our document, and we would have to go through the whole crazy authentication process all over again. As you can imagine, this could bring an adoption to a grinding halt! We have had one small hiccup so far...one notary's name could not be deciphered but we think it has been quickly resolved with another letter. Fingers crossed that the rest go through without a hitch!