Dossier Update

We are plugging away. Today I will go to the bank to get a financial statement notarized. So far, we have:

• Sent away for certified birth certificates
• Asked a few non-family members for "official" letters of recommendation
• Written a letter to our orphanage
• Written a letter to the Ethiopian Government
• Appointed an Ethiopian Power of Attorney
• Employment verification
• Proof of assets and liabilities

We still need to:

• Get official doctor's notes, again (this is much harder than it sounds- frustration!!)
• Take pictures of our house and us (I wonder if Josh and the kitties can be in this pic?)
• Wait for Immigration Services to allow us to schedule fingerprinting (again)
• Go to the Health Dept to get a certified copy of our marriage license
• Proof of home ownership
• Get all of the above notarized
• Send all of the above to the Secretary of State for the official CO seal

In other news, Lucas's knee is doing well. He is at a follow-up visit to the osteopath today, and we're hoping for news that he can start walking on it. We leave for Alaska next Tuesday... so we are crossing fingers that those crutches won't have to come with us. They probably will... but here's hoping!

Alaska! I've never been and never met most of this side of Lucas's family. Luke's cousin Adrienne is marrying Casey in Ketchikan on May 7th. This will most likely be our last true vacation in awhile, so we plan to soak it all in and have a great and relaxing time with family.

We've also had to make some tough decisions in the last few weeks. Will we refinance the house or will we move? Definitely yes to one of those. Andrea will stop going to school for now. Work decisions. Baby room colors! We also have a decision that we'll reveal a little later... quite a surprise to us, I'm sure it will be for you too. Stay tuned.

New Books

Here are a few more books we've received as gifts and we're really enjoying:

This was given to us by our adoption agency, and it has very helpful information on almost every topic. Great for international adoption.

Thanks to Amber and Todd, this book has been great and a few family members have already read it!

Some classic kids books from Trixie and Ryan that are perfect!

Dossier

Last week we got our Dossier packet to begin a mountain of paperwork. I'm going to be honest and say that the list of everything we need to do is really bumming me out. Every single item we need must be written, sent away for or we need to schedule an appointment during office hours (translate to taking time off work)... then notarized... then taken to the Secretary of State for their final seal. Some can be done together, but most can't. I'm thinking it will take a few months. SO close, yet so far away.

Ethiopian Cooking Class

Sorry it's been so long since the last post-- crazy week with Lucas's knee (no driving makes for some complete rearranging of schedules for both of us) plus school and work. Lucas is back to work, and is actually trying to play a few shows on the weekends. I would stop him if I could... but hey, Lucas does what he wants! He is feeling good, and on the road to a full recovery. Thanks to all our friends and family for meals, snacks, video games, movies, and helping with cleaning and driving Lucas around!

Last week we got to take a cooking class at Generous Servings (thanks for my early birthday present, Rick and Claudia!) and we had SO much fun. Lucas and I learned about 6 recipes that we will add to our cooking repertoire. If anything, we learned some ET cooking basics and flavor profiles so we can make some traditional meals for the kid on special occasions (and cook for friends!). Here are some pics of our fun class-- hope they look ok since we used our phone to take the pictures:

Prepping the Injera, a squishy sourdough flatbread used in place of utensils and made from Teff flour

Curried Brown Lentils, Spicy Red Lentils, Beef in Red Pepper Paste, and Spiced Vegetables. This inspires my next culinary purchase to be a dutch oven.

Getting ready to eat!

Hambasha, a traditional honey bread. Delicious!

Our Stewed Beef- we made a traditional spice mixture which is used in many dishes called Berbere as well as a Temsi (spiced clarified butter) before adding to the beef. 

Finished traditional family-style plate. The white on the plate is Iab, a fresh cheese we learned to make from buttermilk.