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

Party and a Few Updates

This week were surprised by Sarah and friends with a party/fundraiser for our adoption! Lucas and I are pretty floored at what caring wonderful friends and family we have. Please come celebrate if you can!

Friday, Feb 17th, 8-11pm
Lost Lake Lounge
3206 E Colfax Ave

Our friends have organized an art auction, bands, and suggested donation at the door. We will also be collecting gently used and new baby blankets to donate to the orphanage. We're so grateful and excited for a fun time!

In other news, still no new pictures. Of either baby! People, you're killing me here.

Lucas and I decided on names, which was hard. But we are utterly in love with them and their now somewhat pronounceable names :). There is something to be said for naming your own child, and I never realized what a special process it is. We wanted to keep Agegnehu's (sounds like "again yahoo") which means "I have found you!" as his first name, but we just decided it would be too difficult to pronounce/spell especially when he starts school. We added in Alan because we thought it was very special to both Lucas and my families, as it is both my dad and Lucas's dad's middle name.

Otis Alan Agegnehu 

+

Jalele Lark

Rougé

Waiting, waiting, waiting for pictures and a court date. Really hoping these babes will be home by July.

Oh yeah, my car died this week. Dead. So amidst the adoption and crazy work transition (maybe more on that later?) Lucas and I will be carpooling everywhere in his 1985 Landcruiser which we are hoping will pass emissions this week. We may need some extra patience right now...

And now we have our boy!!

We were supposed to receive our referral of a boy and a girl at the same time. But- we are adopting, so things are bound to not go as planned. On December 5th, 2011 we found out about our 5-month-old little girl in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. On January 11th, 2012 we finally received word of our 3-month-old kissy-lipped baby boy!!

We know much more about him from his referral paperwork than we do with Lark. While I won't tell his story here, we do know where he was born and how he made his way to the orphanage. His lips are so big and kissable, and for his debut picture, we was adorned in a very pink sweatsuit! I can't help but giggle when I look at this picture, his expressions seems to be so serious- like he is telling us how tough he is even though we are seeing him in all pink. I'm not big on pastel pinks and blues for defining genders, but I have to admit it is pretty funny!

For some reason, naming this boy is much harder. His given name will be pretty hard to pronounce and spell in our culture- so we are working on a name that works for everyone but honors his Ethiopian heritage.... hmm.

This week's stats for baby boy:
11lbs (he weighs more than Lark, who is 3 months older!)
22 inches
head circumference: 15 inches

This week's stats for little Lark:
(we got an adorable smiley pic of her this week)
10lbs, 7 oz (may have lost weight? or maybe measurements are off? Will try not to get concerned yet.)
24 inches
hc: 15 1/2 inches

We couldn't be more excited about our family of 4!! Please pray for a court date soon!

How can I clean the house (or do anything) with all this cute oozing out of my computer screen??

I should be working hard on cooking and cleaning since we are hosting our 5th Annual New Year's Eve party tomorrow night. But instead I am just sitting around, looking at the pictures of our baby. I even poured myself more coffee to sit down and have a good long look. The two new pictures we got yesterday are SUPER cute.

Anyway... here are this week's stats on our little Lark (and now I think I know how to correctly report them...)

10lbs, 13oz
23 1/2 inches (although I quite prefer 1 foot 11 inches, ha!)
Head circumference: 15 inches

We aren't sure of her actual birth date, but she is around 6 months now! I'm also not sure if they take all measurements every week... so this is all I have to go on. I'm hoping her head circumference is a little bigger, and I'm betting it is, since she looks very healthy and proportionate in all her pictures.

Our friend Jen just left yesterday to return to Ethiopia. One of her boys is sick and needs a feeding tube. She decided she needed to be there, so she made a hard decision to start her maternity leave early and go be with her babies. We're hoping this speeds up her process and she can come home with the boys quickly! Godspeed.

2012 is going to be a doozy! Happy New Year, friends and family!

This week's stats:

Every Friday we've been getting a little information about our Jelly Bean and two pictures. Well, batch #3 came today (can you believe it has already been 3 weeks since her referral?? Crazy!)

Age: 5.3 months (is that how you say it? or should I be thinking weeks? Obviously new to this...)
Length: 1'11"
Weight: 9.7lbs
Head Circumference: 14.9"

She is less than the 3rd percentile in everything, but still on the charts- which is good/expected for these little guys. Also, she was most likely pre-term.

We have decided to keep her Ethiopian name as her first name (which I can't post on here yet), but she will go by her middle name unless she decides to go back to her given name at some point in time. We thought that by keeping her birth name as her first name, as opposed to the middle name, it wouldn't diminish her heritage or story in any way. Just our point of view.

J. Lark Rougé 


So, we'll call her Lark. Hope you like it, 'cuz now it's stuck. :)

(No news on our #2... was really hoping to hear before Christmas.)

Happy Holidays!

Jelly Bean Update

Sorry to keep you in such suspense (that is- if anyone is actually regularly following this blog!). We have gotten a little more information about our girl, who for now we will refer to as our Jelly Bean. She is beautiful, chubby, and perfect.

Earlier this week we received all the official paperwork for the referral. This is great news, although I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in the amount of info given. A lot of blanks. Her name is spelled 2 different ways in multiple places. Her most recent medical info we have was from when she was 1 month old- now she is 5 months. We also have to come up with a few thousand more dollars in the next 7 days to "accept" her referral. It was an oversight on my part... I thought we were all finished with fees until the trips to Ethiopia. I know it will happen- but this has added to our stress levels over the last few days.

We are hoping to get regular updates on her health with pictures, so we will see how often they come. We did receive pictures of her when she was first taken to the orphanage, and they are quite sad. She is so little. And thin. Those chubby cheeks we see now were in fact concave. But it shows she is strong and has come a long way.

It is getting harder now. We want to know EVERYTHING, but know we most likely will never know her entire story. We want to cuddle and hold her. My cousin's adorable baby boy is around the same age as our Jelly Bean, and I can't even begin to imagine him without a mom for this long. It breaks my heart. But every day we are getting closer!

 And still waiting for our baby boy- which we should hear about any day now....

We have a girl!

I'm a little too excited to write a blog post, but I wanted to keep you informed:

We got a referral for a beautiful baby girl!!! She is approximately 5 months old and perfect. I wish I could post her cutie face, but we can't post pictures until everything is legal and we pass court (but if you see me I'm sure I will gushingly show you her picture on my phone). We only know some of her story, and I'm not sure that I will share it all on this blog, but she has already had quite a life in her 5 months.

We are still waiting for a referral for a little boy, and we've been told this is in the works as we speak. Either way, we have the best Christmas present ever of seeing our baby's face. I thought surely we had months to go before getting to this point!

More to come................

squeeeeee!