4 months waiting

I shouldn't really say 4 months. That would be cheating ourselves! We've actually been waiting ONE FULL YEAR now- since we first received application materials from our adoption agency.

It has been quite a year. And remember back when I was so bold as to predict a date for when we would have our baby (let alone babies!)? Ha! I laugh at that and now I know better than to do any date predicting.

But if you've been following this blog, you've seen a lot of the last year already. Here is what we've been doing in our 4th month of waiting since being placed on the wait list for our little boy and girl.

• Had a delicious traditional Indonesian meal made by Trixie's mom, visiting from near Jakarta, Indonesia. (Don't tell anyone, but we're pretty sure she smuggled in the delightful spices like saffron and lemongrass on her flight!)
• Went to Lucas' work holiday party at Wynkoop. 
• Friendsgiving (Thanksgiving #1) Lucas and I made Hasselback sweet potatoes with goat cheese and sage butter. This was the first time we had ever done a dinner with friends for the holidays. We had a great time and I'm hoping it's tradition!

Meat-carver Matty and his stout-brined turkey.

Friends.

• Thanksgiving #2 Dinner with friends and family at my parents house in Castle Rock. We made a green bean casserole despite the fact that I usually loathe it because everything in it comes from a can and it tastes so processed (*glimpse of food snobbery here. I try not to show it- but it probably comes out  more often than I care to admit). So we made one from scratch- and boy, was it good! We also made baked brie with a raspberry almond sauce. Mmm.
• Thanksgiving #3 This was in Wellington at Lucas' mom and stepdad's house. This year, Carrie raised her own turkeys from chicks and I'm sorry to say we ate one of those boys. But not too sorry, because he was delicious. AND, did I mention he was 40 pounds? He barely fit in the oven. I made my favorite alternative to stuffing- another recipe from my favorite Alton Brown- a sweet corn bread pudding. It didn't turn out quite as good this year- maybe because I skimped on the herbs and had to refrigerate the batter before putting it in the oven since we were waiting 6.5 hours for Mr Turkey to cook. Oh well.

Jon and one of the turkeys. 

This turkey makes the oven look mini- but I assure you it is a regular sized one!

• Thanksgiving #4 was a great one as well with all of Rick and Claudia's family. Everything was delicious here too, which surprised me, since it would be my 4th turkey of the week. The puzzle this year was a scene of 36 of the top 1000 Places to See Before You Die. I doubt I will ever get to all of them, but at least I'll get to go to Ethiopia- which I'm not sure is even on the list. But it's on MY list.
• Celebrated my beautiful sister Sarah's 28th birthday with a Sunday brunch party, sister margs, and a trip to the much anticipated and newly opened H&M. At her brunch birthday, we got to catch up with a few old friends and meet Moses and his mom Kate. Moses was adopted from Ethiopia about 6 months ago and is about the cutest little guy ever. It is reassuring to know we have some friends that we will soon have many things in common with. 

Sari is going to make a wonderful aunt. Happy Birthday!

• Got a check-in from the adoption agency, saying everything is moving along nicely in Ethiopia.
• Got really excited as our friends Jennifer and Tom left for Ethiopia today to go meet their 2 baby boys! They are using the same adoption agency as us and will likely be at the same orphanage where our kids will come from. I can't help but wonder if our babies are there now, or have been born yet; but hoping that wherever they are they are experiencing love from someone close to them. Really looking forward to catching up with them when they get back. 

Now- time to exercise after all that food! And yes, I do mean I will be getting to know Gilad quite well in the next few weeks. Haha! (Hey- it's a free workout! No money for a gym membership around this household)

We have MUCH to be thankful about! Love you all,

Yes, we know it's controversial.

Yesterday, this NPR story aired and it was obviously very close to my heart.

So, to those of you who have wondered- yes, we know international adoption is controversial. And that fraud exists. And that having an interracial family will be hard. And we aren't trying to be a trendy Brangelina family. We just want to be *a* family.

And no matter how you slice it, there are millions of kids (an estimated 5 million orphans and homeless children in Ethiopia, in fact) who don't have a family that can take care of them. Right now. And can't wait for their country's infrastructure to get better.

3 months waiting

We've made it another month on the waiting list, and we’re almost 1 year into starting the entire adoption process. I got a note from our adoption agency today, and they said they've put a little tickler system into the adoption agency in Ethiopia to check up on our application every so often. It’s good news to know we won’t get forgotten! This is what we've been up to while we've been waiting:

• Was on this Fox 31 News story with a dweeb. Watch the clip.
• Cousin Sean visited from South Carolina. We had a great time catching up and hope he gets a job here in CO!
• Got to see the changing leaves first in the mountains, then in Denver a week later, and then in DC a few weeks later. That’s triple more fall than usual!
• Had our first snow fall of the season.

• Went to my work’s annual Conference of Leaders. This year it was in Baltimore, MD. I spoke at one session, and ate some crab cakes on the company dime.
• Ate at our friends’ new restaurant: Wild Catch
• We were surprised by Lucas's sister Jacque, visiting from Pasadena, CA. She didn't tell anyone she was coming to Colorado for her friend's baby shower. We were all excited to see her and got to spend some quality time together at the zoo on a beautiful Denver day.

• Surprised by an anonymous person who left money for our adoption on our doorstep.
• Celebrated Halloween a little differently with a party where all our foods were the color black. It was fun to be creative with food like black sushi, black lentils, black quinoa, mussles, escargot, black bean hummus and frito pie, seaweed salad, dark chocolate torte, and of course preserved duck eggs.

Black bean frito pie and olive tapenade

Lucas's black sushi made with forbidden rice

• Spoke about eating healthy on a budget at the Botanic Gardens for Food Day.
• Saw Portishead- one of my all time favorite bands who I never thought I would get to see live. Check off the list!
• Presented my poster in DC at the American Public Health Association Conference. 

• My mom came with me so we could do some sightseeing together. Had a wonderful time!

I'm sure Lucas has a few things to add to this list, since he played a few shows, had some Halloween fun times while I was out of town, and probably a few other things I'm missing. 

Still counting the days until we get a call!

Anonymous Gift

Lucas and I now have enough money to pay for our first trip to Ethiopia!

Someone, a very sneaky and anonymous someone, blessed us with money for our first trip (whenever that may be). Both Lucas and I were floored and humbled by this when we found a note on our door that had a generous amount of money inside. Our letter was signed "from God" and we're so thankful that we are loved both by Him and our anonymous donor.

I don't cry often, rarely shed a tear. Ask Lucas- he thinks I have a cold heart (but then I say- hey, at least I don't bawl when flipping through the TV channels and stopping on a clip of a horrible Ben Affleck movie). So thanks to someone for helping clean out my dried, dusty tear ducts this week- which I'm sure can only be good for my health and heart. A friend once told me that she never cried about much until she became a mom. I must be practicing.

Thank you, thank you.

Love Ethio food!

Lucas and I have had the chance to eat a few more meals at Ethiopian restaurants in the last couple of months. We had Ethiopian at Nyala in Fort Collins with Lucas' fam. We had a great time showing Rick and Claudia how to eat with their hands and were happy to have Lucas' brother Barry join us! I found some of the pictures (from my phone- sorry about the quality):

A traditional version of an Ethiopian place setting

While Nyala was good, we discovered our FAVORITE Ethiopian restaurant in Denver this week: Queen of Sheba (at Colfax and Quebec). This is by far the best quality of food we have had yet. Our Wednesday night rotating dinner group decided to take a break from cooking this week and head out for a new food adventure. It was Doug, Hayley, Rob and Stephanie's first time with Ethiopian food. Of course Lucas and I were so happy to teach everyone about our new love of this food. A sweet older Ethiopian woman runs the place, and was very happy to explain the dishes and let us try samples of the Tej (sweet honey wine) before we ordered it. The Tej was more effervescent and Sake-like than at other places, which I liked. Also the Sambussas were amazing and all the meat and vegetable dishes were spiced extremely well. We will be taking people here from now on to introduce them to the food. There is also an Ethiopian market (Merkato) next door where we can buy Injera- the spongy sour bread used as a utensil to eat- when we finally cook some of the dishes from our cooking class.

Lucas and I had a chance to get away to the mountains last weekend where the weather was perfect and the aspens were changing colors. Very relaxing after a hectic work week. 

Grandma Dolan writing her memoirs on her special Chinese red desk in her cabin sun room.

enchanted forest

Family cabin in Bailey, CO

Mom and Sari

Josh and sister Sarah

Happy Fall!

2 months waiting

Here we are at 2 months since we have submitted our dossier. Nothing new to report, except we're waiting, waiting, waiting. But that doesn't mean I haven't been busy (in no particular order):

• Planted and landscaped one of our front flower beds with my dad.
• Said goodbye to my Grandpa Tedford. Rest in peace.
• Rode the oldest carousel this side of the Mississippi. 

• Kicked butt at trivia. Lucas and I play with various friends at different bars and restaurants.We have won 3 weeks in a row at Moe's BBQ. It's pretty fun and we win food and drinks! www.geekswhodrink.com
• Celebrated Claudia's birthday with fancy cocktails, a rooftop dinner, and some music.

• Hung out with my good friend Trina who I haven't seen in ages.
• Had dinner in Longmont with Lucas's family and brother Gabe who was visiting from Portland, OR.
• Attended 3 weddings: Eleanor + Kevin, Jason + Becky, Megan +Jeff

• Lucas is now playing in all his bands again. He's had 4 shows and 11 practices.
• Went to a rock n' roll BBQ at Larimer Lounge to see our friends in Snake Rattle Rattle Snake play. They're getting pretty big these days.
• Played putt putt golf. I sunk this shot, by the way.

• Played Blue Rhino in the park.
• Helped our friend Kat move into her new place.
• Saw my Uncle Mike, visiting from Brevard, NC
• Walked the Poudre River trail with Claudia while Lucas went on a Triumph motorcycle ride with his dad.
• Went to La Loma (sorry we went without you, Lane) with Lucas' mom, Nick and Jon.
• Hung out with my good friend Sarah who I haven't seen in ages.
• Received the most adorable quilt (#1) made by my mom. Awaiting quilt #2!

• Went to the hugest antique mall at the Brass Armadillo. Luckily they had maps so we knew how to get out. You'll be seeing Christmas gifts coming your way with some re-purposed items from here.
• My poster on Ending Childhood Hunger in Colorado got accepted and I'll be presenting it at the American Public Health Association Conference at the end of October.
• Ate Ethiopian food with Lucas's parents and brother Barry. Sadly, the pictures were erased. 
• Watched a candle-lit Sweet Tooth Meat Tooth (our friends Doug and Hayley's musical side-project) performance under the stars in the "germ garden" next door to Kitty's South.
• Had the tree in front of our house removed. By order of the city.
• Had our lawn, or maybe I should more appropriately say weeds, cut down by my dad with a mega mower. By order of the city.
• Fixed my vacuum cleaner with my bare hands and a screw driver.
• Lucas got in a minor car accident and now has regularly scheduled chiropractor appointments.
• Survived an earthquake....?
• Hung out with my Uncle Dan and lovely cousin Jackie, visiting from Martinez, CA

• Had a few happy hours with good friends.
• Hung out with my cousin Jared and his adorable family, visiting from Kansas City, KS
• Talked about how to eat healthy on a budget live on Channel 4 News.
• Continued our beloved Wednesday rotating dinner night with friends Doug, Hayley, Robbie and Stephanie.
• Helped my sister design flowers for a wedding or two. 

Happy Ethiopian New Year!

Melkam Addis Amet!

Today is the Ethiopian New Year, called Enkutatash (en-koo-TAH-tash). I thought I would give a little history/culture lesson today since we don't have any new info while we're waiting for our babies.

Most of Ethiopia still follows the Orthodox Julian calendar. Unlike the Western or Gregorian calendar, the Julian year has 12 months of 30 days each and an additional 13th month with 5 or 6 days (depending on Leap Year).

Meskerem is the first month of the Ethiopian year. The first day of Meskerem, New Year’s Day, falls on our September 11 this year. Ethiopian New Year is a time to express hopes and dreams for the future.

Enkutatash marks the end of the rainy season in Ethiopia, when fields bloom and the spring begins. The literal meaning of Enkutatash is the “gift of jewels”. This is in reference to the gifts the Queen of Sheba received after her expensive journey to visit King Solomon in Jerusalem. The first day of Meskerem also marks the commemoration of Saint John the Baptist.

In Ethiopia, people celebrate New Year by placing flaming torches of dry leaves and wood in front of their houses on New Year’s Eve. On New Year’s Day, the people attend church, dressed in traditional Ethiopian attire. Historically, people would send flowers to mark the occasion, but greeting cards have become more popular. Villagers celebrate with singing and dancing.

Lucas and I plan to celebrate this holiday once our children are here. Creating new traditions with family is something we've always been excited about. So, if you get yellow flowers on September 11th from us, know that we're including you in the celebration. At the end of the rainy season and on New Year's day, yellow daisies bloom across the wild fields surrounding Addis Ababa called Yadey Abeba, identical to our Tickseed Sunflower.

We'll also go out for ET food, as most restaurants will stay open late for feasts and dancing.

On the 10th anniversary of the terrible events that happened at the Twin Towers, although we'll never forget, we're now ready to embrace and celebrate a new culture that will be a part of us very soon.