This question thing was a great idea if I do say so myself! :)

Ok, I am going to go in order I guess, but I will lump a bunch of the medical ones together, because that seems easier and to make sense. If you'd like to ask a question, go back to this post and leave a comment.

Karin asked... “i'm curious to know about ben and belane. what's their connection like?”

Belane was very drawn to him from the beginning. In the photo album we sent to Belane that had pictures labeled with all of the kids and Josh and me, I had written “Benjamin Bekalu” on Ben’s picture. Well, the nannies must have understood that he is also from Ethiopia, and reinforced that with her. She recognized him right away, and although she knows who we mean when we say “Ben”, she will only call him “Bekalu”. It’s super cute.

I also think that she is drawn to him because he is quieter than our other boys (although he seems to be getting louder all the time!). I think him being soft spoken and more gentle made him less scary initially, plus I am sure that his Ethiopian accent helped too!

Ben has lost most if not all of his Amharic… a few months ago he was still pretty fluent, but it seems since he started school and has really been working on reading and writing English, he has lost it. I know a few handfuls of Amharic words/phrases, and Ben can’t respond to any of it, or finish counting, etc. In fact when I started counting in Amharic and asked him what came next, he said “quatro!” So I know he is paying attention in Spanish class anyway. 

So, Ben and Belane have a good connection. They did not know each other before she came home as they were in different orphanages, although Ben does remember the day we went to AHOPE and met Belane and the other kids. I do think that Belane sees him at Ethiopian and likes that, and I do think a lot of it is just Ben’s sweet personality and good nature, and that he is very good with little kids and they all just seem to like him! He is one of Marcus’s favorites too. Everybody loves Ben!

I think Ben really likes having a sister from Ethiopia, and he fully understands that part of it. I believe it will be a special bond that they will always have, and their adoption stories are definitely connected. When Ben’s adoption hit paperwork glitch after paperwork glitch, and a week or two here and there ended up taking almost two months longer than we first expected, Josh kept telling me to be patient, and to remember that we don’t always know why things happen the way that they do, or what reason there could be as to “why” things were taking longer.

And then we got to Addis, and finally got our wonderful son, and then met Belane, and had those overwhelming feelings…and found out that just that morning, Merrily with AAI had done her adoption intake paperwork. Coincidence?? I don’t think so.