What a crazy coupla weeks!

Sorry for any suspense as I know I left my last post as sort of a mystery...

*Complainer Alert!* I have barely been keeping my head above water these last few weeks with a hectic work schedule (working 10 and 12 hour days), no car, and the mix up that happened last week with our sweet boy. I have been stressed, feeling defeated at work with little support, feeling guilty for making people drive me around, and just want to focus on the cute pictures I get maybe once a week. *Complaining over, I think*

So- I'm not so sure that I should be writing this in a blog, but I want those that are also in the adoption process to know what bumps may come along the way. Two Thursdays ago, when we were anxiously awaiting any news on our little Agegnehu, we got an update email late in the evening from our adoption agency... with pictures of a frail, thin baby who was 6 months old and only 8 pounds. We sat there staring in disbelief and we searched the picture for any feature that slightly resembled the healthy baby boy we had gotten a picture of only 2 1/2 weeks earlier. We were certain there had been a mistake. We immediately called our agency and left a message. I made Lucas do it because he would sound meaner. How could our baby have 1) changed ages 2) lost 3 1/2 lbs in 2 weeks 3) not look anything like the first picture?

We were shocked when we heard back from the agency that this was in fact our Ageghehu, that he had become very sick, and that we just didn't recognize him because of the weight loss. Lucas and I still weren't convinced. But we felt everything was out of our control. We tried to talk ourselves into believing that the pictures were of the same boy: "Maybe the eyebrows are the same... his ears are kinda the same shape..." Either way, we were somewhat mourning the loss of our healthy baby- the one we had first gotten the picture of and studied daily. Our little boy in pink was now very sick. I began researching formulas to send with friends to Ethiopia. This boy had to get some weight on him fast. We had already heard this week of a little girl who died of pneumonia in the same orphanage... this could be us. Somewhat thankful that I have a nutrition background, I started to believe that this boy was meant to be my son.

Fast forward 4 days. I get a call at work, on a busy busy day. "You were right. We made a mistake. We found your Agegnehu. There was a mix up between the two orphanages. This never happens. Your boy is safe and healthy."

Emotional roller coaster. Bittersweet. Jerking our hearts around! Now who will love the tiny Agegnehu? It's still too much to think about at times. But I am SO happy we have our boy in pink back!!! I am already madly in love with him.

There is more to the story that I won't share here. I will always think about tiny Agegnehu, I hope he finds a family soon.

This week's stats:

Jalele Lark (~6.5 months)
11lbs 12oz, 24inches

Otis Alan Agegnehu (~5 months)
11lbs 13oz, 26inches

Both are growing... but I would be a happy with about 5 more pounds each! Can't wait to get you babies! C'mon court date!!!

And I really can't wait to celebrate these two on Friday. You should come... we'll have pictures! Thanks again, Sarah and friends!

Injera and Berbere

The last few weeks have been somewhat frustrating waiting for updates and pictures of our little babes. Today we went on an emotional roller coaster that I'm not sure I want to share with anyone yet. We're still waiting for more info... hoping things get cleared up tomorrow or very soon. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers this week.

We did get Jalele Lark pics. She is getting so chubby! And her hair is simply gorgeous. This week's stats:
11lbs 7oz, same length and hc

On another note, Lucas and I have been doing some Ethiopian cooking. We are finally using our skills from the Ethiopian cooking class we took back in March 2011 (R.I.P. Generous Servings Cooking School, sniff). We also received some ingredients from a very sweet friend of the family for Christmas: teff flour for injera, berbere spice, tamarind, and fenugreek seeds. She also gave us a cookbook by Marcus Samuelsson, a celebrity chef who happens to be adopted from Ethiopia.

We used his recipe to make our version of Injera, and it actually turned out good!! Not quite as sour as what I have tasted before, but perfect consistency and look! We were pretty proud of ourselves (and special thanks to Hayley for perfecting the batter). This is not a traditional injera, as apparently, the real thing is made with a sourdough culture type starter. I hear that is virtually impossible to find in the USA.

Here is the close-as-it-gets recipe:

2 cups teff flour or fine ground whole-wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup plain yogurt
3 cups club soda
2 Tablespoons clarified butter (although I just used cooking spray)

Whisk together the flours, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk the yogurt into the club soda, then stir into the flour mixture to make a smooth thin batter (like a crepe batter). Strain through a sieve or strainer to remove any lumps.
Grease a large skillet with clarified butter and heat over medium-high heat. Pour 1/2 cup batter into the pan in a spiral, starting at the center, and cook for 20 seconds. Cover the pan and cook for another 30 seconds. Transfer to a plate and cover with a cloth to keep warm while you cook the remaining injera. Makes about 12 large flatbreads.
*my notes: I didn't want to use all of my hard-to-find teff flour at once, so I used 1c teff, 1c whole wheat, and 1c all purpose flours. The batter should be very thin. I found I had to add almost double the club soda to get the right texture (which could be from my use of greek yogurt instead of regular- I thought it would make it a little more sour?). I also had a huge pan. If you don't have an extra large non-stick pan, I would use a little less than 1/2 cup for each injera so it can get thin enough. It took a bit of practice. But we had plenty of flatbread to serve with our meal.

Final product served in what I will call "Modern Ethiopian" style (ha!):

Miser Wat (Berbere spiced red lentils), Injera, Ginger Honey Sweet Potatoes, and an Arugula Salad. Oh, and wine, lots of wine. Success! We had fun sharing with our Wednesday night dinner crew Doug, Hayley, Rob and Steph.

Crossing my fingers for a snow day tomorrow, and good news.

XOXO

Ahem... NOT twins.

So, this week I've been a little heart-broken.

We got news that adopting boy/girl twins had an indefinite wait. (Partially my fault for assuming, but I also thought that waiting a "little longer" meant a few months and not a few years.) It turns out that Radu, the man who oversees matches in the orphanages our agency uses, said he has only ever seen 1 set of girl/boy twins, translating to years of waiting... IF we were the first in line to request this. Twins, boy/boy or girl/girl, would be about 18+ months for a referral (which doesn't include travel or the wait time for processing the visa and all legal matters).

So- no twins for us, unless we decide that is the only way we'll go. And it isn't.

Right now, we are deciding between adopting 2 unrelated children (approx 6-8 month wait for a referral... although one can never be sure) or going back to our original plan to adopt 1 child.

I know we'll make the right decision. Thanks for your thoughts.

Luckily, my husband knows how to cheer me up by delivering these beautiful flowers to my work by sis Sari at Ladybird Poppy:

Cute, huh?

3rd Time's a Charm

Lucas is having #3 knee surgery today. His last incision became infected, so they are cleaning out the wound to make sure it doesn't spread to bone or blood. The surgeon is optimistic that this will be very minor and it won't disrupt his physical therapy or recovery time. Let's hope this is OFFICIALLY the LAST surgery for him. We've got bigger things to move on to, right!?

Sad News

Late Wednesday night, Lucas re-broke his knee. This is really sad because he had been walking without crutches for almost 2 weeks and was healing well. He was so excited to be getting back to normal, when he slipped while walking Josh in the rain. It broke in the same place, and he had surgery again on Friday morning. This time with screws + cable instead of pins + wire.

Back to square one.

He is pretty bummed, so send some love.

On the bright side, we had a GREAT time in Ketchikan, Alaska. Will post pics soon.

Stellar Patella(r)

Lucas and I read this post from a blog I follow while we sit in the hospital, waiting for his knee to go under the knife. It is very touching and makes me both happy and sad, and is beautifully written. This family just got home from their first visit to ET. Please read: Valuable

Update on Lucas's patella: Right now we are waiting for surgery. Lucas is in his gown with his leg shaved and being hydrated through IV. In about half an hour, he will go under general anesthesia, get 2 pins in his kneecap, with a thin wire wrapped around the entire cap to hold it into together. Ouch.

4 Updates

The first update is a good one. According to our agency, the blip in the processing in ET will not likely affect us. This is a temporary situation while they investigate one agency (not ours!) and the statements made by officials were exaggerated. In fact, the man who reported the "only 5 case loads per day" has lost his job for giving mass misinformation. I am grateful that ET takes allegations of child trafficking seriously, so all-in-all, this is good news. I'll post more updates as I hear them. Thanks for keeping us in your thoughts.

Next update: My DC trip was a fun one (although a bit exhausting!) Seems like I've just been going going going. (but update #4 seems to be helping with a slow down). I really like DC, with great food, cozy bars, great public transportation, cute neighborhoods, H&M, and my office headquarters. On this trip, I was able to get to the Hill, making visits to our Senators and House Representatives to tell them about Colorado's badly run school and summer meals programs for low-income children, as well as SNAP participation. Colorado ranks 51st in the nation- this is bad news and means Colorado is missing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars that are already set aside for these programs. ANYWAY, off my soap box... I think anyone who gets a chance should go to Capitol Hill at some point in their lives. Its a pretty great experience.

Update 3 is that we completed 8 hours out of 16 of our core adoption training yesterday. We learned a lot about child trauma and attachment disorders, as well as disciplining an internationally adopted child which is actually quite different than what most families do or what you find in a typical parenting book. This will all be a challenge, but the bright side is that we can reverse effects of any trauma and neglect the child may have been exposed to, and our baby can grow up to be a happy healthy person. Overall it was sobering, yet empowering. We also met families going through similar processes, although no one from Denver!! Families came from Durango, Grand Junction, Greeley, Lamar and other remote areas.  We were hoping to make some friends closer to home, but we have met some great families none the less.

Tough Guy with Busted Kneecap

Update 4 is that we only completed 8 hours of 16 of our core adoption training. After our training last night, Lucas was asked to be an alternate on our friends' indoor soccer team. He gladly accepted... but about 10 minutes into the game, Lucas made an unfortunate movement which literally snapped his patella in half. He was ambulanced to Swedish Hospital where I met him and waited to get results. In extreme pain, we were sent home with Vicodin and surgery scheduled for this coming Monday. He is doing well, considering the pain, and Lucas's sister Audrey is helping find a good orthopedic surgeon. We had to cancel our next day of adoption training, but our social worker assured us this won't affect our process. More than anything, I think Lucas is just bummed about what this will mean for driving, work, music, sports, and everyday life in the coming months. Send good thoughts.

Alert

Just learned about this today. Trying not to get too upset until we've talked with our agency. More to come...

Hold that thought...

Snow Day! 

Well, our first home study appointment is delayed until next Tuesday. Our social worker's kids' school is canceled tomorrow (and I am keeping my fingers crossed that work might cancel tomorrow too!) so she needed to reschedule. There isn't a lot of snow on the ground here in Denver, but it is SO cold. The high tomorrow is -3.


I'm a little relieved... because our house isn't quite where we want it for a special visitor. But with special thanks to my mom for helping me all day yesterday, we are a little closer. Wallpaper looks good as new (no thanks to the kitties). 

But I'm also a little bummed, because it means we have to wait that much longer.

For now, I'm just going to enjoy a latte with my sister while she goes through all my clothes I purged from the closet, eat take-out pizza, watch a movie with Lucas, stay cozy tonight, and pray for snow day tomorrow.