I have been writing about how we experienced many unexpected emotions on our trip to adopt our son, Ben, from Ethiopia.

Another emotion that we were not prepared for before our trip to Ethiopia was that of love for the culture and people of Ethiopia, and personal dedication to giving back and trying to make even a small difference in a place we came to love in a very short time. It sounds very cliche to say that our trip was life-changing, and yet it was. Both Josh and I returned home from Ethiopia with the knowledge that we would return, and that we would have a life-long involvement... more

To wrap up writing about Ben and his adoption process, and what it was like for us as adoptive parents, I have to write some about our trip.

Getting a new, almost six-year old son is an emotional, overwhelming, amazing, life-changing event. However, traveling to Africa for the first time and experiencing all that is Ethiopia for the first time is also an emotional, overwhelming, amazing, life-changing event. When you put the two together, you are setting yourself up for one heck of a ride.

The... more

I have beens sharing my emotions and experiences with meeting our adopted children for the first time and what our early days and weeks with them were like for me. In my last post I wrote about our domestic infant adoption, and in this post I am going to share what it was like adopting two older children domestically.

Our adoption of Mercy and Des was not exactly planned. Marcus was only two months old when we got a phone call from a domestic agency that we had sent our profile to when we were waiting for an infant placement. We were asked if we would consider adopting two older children (with... more

After writing about the emotions that adoptive parents often feel when they are going through the adoption process, I wrote about the emotions that are common for adoptive parents to experience when their children are first placed with them, and then I started sharing some of our personal experiences with meeting our children for the first time and what our early days with them were like.

Our first two experiences were with international... more

I am a nut when it comes to naming our kids. I have to choose a name right away. For me, it is just an important part of bonding with my child to be, whether that child is coming through birth to me or adoption.

Within weeks of getting a positive pregnancy test I would be handing Josh lists of baby names and asking his advice. Within weeks of accepting a referral or choosing a waiting child I would present him again with "what do you think about this name?" types of questions. Josh is a pain in the butt when it comes to choosing names. He doesn't like anything "fancy" or "weird". He doesn't like anything that sounds "made up" and he doesn't like anything that is spelled unusual (unless... more

Within minutes of deciding that Josh and I did indeed both want to adopt Solomon, I had emailed Adoption Advocates International (who we used to adopt our Belane and highly recommend), and let them know that we wanted him! They were already aware that we were considering adopting him because we had requested his file and an updated medical report. I got an email back almost right away saying that if we could get our paperwork updated quickly, that they would put him on "unofficial hold" for us.

Well, "quickly" is my middle name when it comes to doing adoption paperwork. I got right on the phone with our homestudy agency and... more

After coming to the realization that Solomon was indeed meant to be with us, I had a lot of conflicting emotions. When I saw new pictures of him from people who traveled to AHOPE or heard little udpates on how he was doing, my heart soared.

And yet at the same time, I was really nervous. For one, I was worried that Josh would not agree that we should adopt him. Deciding to adopt Belane was very emotionally difficult on both of us, and I did not want to go through that, or put Josh through that again. However I did know that there was at least a possibility that he would be open to the idea, because a few months earlier he had knocked my proverbial socks off when he told me that HE... more

Yes, the rumors are true. We are adopting again! :) I have been sharing our story of how this all came to be, and in my last post I explained how we got reconnected with our little Solomon, who we first met while in Ethiopia last fall.

Upon learning that Solomon was still available for adoption, I did have not have that overwhelming "this is your child" feeling right away like I did with Belane. It was more like a quiet, yet persistent thought and voice in my head, that gradually grew louder and harder to ignore.

My first... more

In my last post I let you in our secret, and announced that we are adopting again from AHOPE.

As I said, I had no idea when we first met Solomon that he would be ours. In fact, we believe that he already had a family committed to him. (Which is probably a good thing, because at that point I was so consumed by Belane and her adoption process that I never would have even considered another child).

We got Belane home, she settled in perfectly and life got to feeling "normal" really quickly. I volunteered to be the supplies coordinator for AHOPE, and I got involved with Project HOPEFUL,... more

I promised I would let you all in on what we are up to, so here is the big announcement.

We are at it again! We have committed to an absolutely beautiful little boy at AHOPE, whose name will be Solomon Tsega Eyasu H. He is almost two years old, and did I mention that he is beautiful?

I have lots to share about our journey so far. I have been bottling it all up until I was sure that pieces were falling into place, that it was really going to happen and that we got to tell the important people... more