Saturday, March 26, 2011

Recent Restrictions in Ethiopian Adoptions

We continue to receive emails from the agency that we used for Abera and Mehandis's adoptions.  Typically they are letting us know of webinars for continuing education, picnics for celebrating children/families, post-placement information and updates within the Ethiopian Program.  The last few messages shared significant changes that Ethiopia's Ministry of Women, Children and Youth have planned. 

What follows is a bulletin from a link received within today's email -

"As was stated in the March 9, 2011 Adoption Alert, the Department of State received information on the announcement made by the MOWCYA (Ethiopia) regarding the planned reduction in workload processing.
MOWCYA planned to implement a reduction of case processing from approximately 50 cases reviewed per day to no more than 5 cases reviewed per day.

MOWCYA has stated that this reduction is to improve screening of adoption cases while also devoting existing resources to other priorities on vulnerable children.

MOWCYA reviews each adoption case at two points in the process: after the match with prospective adoptive parents and after the final court decree to approve issuance of new birth certificate and passport for child.

MOWCYA has not announced any implementation guidelines on how reduction in processing will affect each stage of the process

If only 5 cases are reviewed per day, delays could be significant. Calculations based on rough estimates of cases in process (around 1000) indicate delays of one year or more.

Department of State defines ‘cases in process’ as those whose dossier has been accepted up to those cases that have received the final letter approving issuance of passport and birth certificate."
 
I am saddened by this decision by MOWCYA on many different levels.  It is hard for the children who have been matched (after thorough review of the validity of their "orphan" status) to wait potentially an extra year long for placement into their "forever family".  While international adoption has brought much monetary "resource" to Ethiopia, there is minimal money for government assistance for those children, women, men and families and need via Ethiopian resources alone.  I am sad for the nannies, medical personnel and related businesses that found an opporunity to care for others and/or support their own families due to the funds brought about by the "adoption business."  Families, and close friends of ours, who have waited several years for a child to be matched via CHSFS Ethiopia Program are now being strongly encouraged to look into other options/countries.  It is hard to know that the popularity of the ET program resulted in dozens of agencies opening their doors likely with more dollar signs in the forefront of their mind versus continuing the open and clear cut ethical standards that were upheld by original agencies.  Very complicated on many levels as well, of course. 

So today I  look at our most recent addition, arriving only 6 months ago, with a more acute sense of gratitude and glee... tinged with a bit of guilt.  It is amazing how we never know where our path may lead us and how many times we don't know if we should continue following it.  It continues taking me places that I never before envisioned being part of.
 

Monday, March 21, 2011

Goggles to Sweet 16!

Didn't notice the new trend in MU basketball... regarding the "3 finger glasses" or "goggles" if you will.  But I will celebrate Buzz Williams in introducing this celebration exercise with his team.  A great 3 point free throw results in the goggles move from the team.  And this awesome atheletic ability lead them into the Sweet 16.  Hooray!!!!


And what a coincidence that one of our family's favorite books is another Ezra Jack Keats classic... Goggles.

We had a great time watching the game at our good friends, the Gifford''s home, to help us celebrate the win.  Thanks to the Kramers too for assisting in the entertainment and care of the boys!

Check out Abera's great spirit wear :)

Mehandis had to join in on the festive fun!
Let's go MU all the way to the Final Four!!!  We promised our oldest that he would get "official" MU gear too if we made it to the Final Four. 

Don't let a 4 year old down.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Evidence of needing to take more pictures!

Poor Abera is getting the short end of the stick photo wise!  I had plenty of time to take photos of Handi, posing and primping him as long as he would tolerate.  Now with two I have two places to watch over and when the camera comes out for the younger the older wants to jump in too.   At least big brother is also jumping in on the photo snapping.

This is the lovely portrait of Abera taking by Mehandis during lunch today.  Looks like the graham crackers and cottage cheese made the shot as well.

And here are two more reasons not to depend on my husband for picture taking...
It is a picture of the two boys cuddled up with their Uncle Gregg... the subjects definitely look GREAT but the quality from an IPhone not so great at all.
Another few and far between moment with aunts and uncles captured on IPhone and not film.  At least my memory isn't as fuzzy as the pictures!

I promise to myself (and Abera) to do better...

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Where did February go?

I still don't know where February went... but can definitely attest to the fact the snow is still here!

Such a busy month for the 3M's and little A.  We were so fortunate to connect with many friends and family during our 3 different weekends of road trips.

We started off the month with an impromptu trip to Door County with the fabulous VA's.  What a great get away it was for us - including pool/hot tub time, hours of cross country skiing (thanks again Courtney for hanging with the kids while we were out), lively conversation, sledding and a dinner out.

Tiz, Courtney and Handi cozied up with Clifford
The next weekend the four of took the train to Chicago for a little birthday celebrating (Michael's) with my family... and an adult night out for the two of us!  We had a couple of outings with the boys too, including a very chilly walk to a lake front park.  The windy city truly lived up to its name that day.

We did our best to keep smiling and moving :)
At least the adults were smiling and the kids were moving!
Michael and Handi had a race around the track for a little warm up too.
Here are the boys smiles back at my parents' home.  Love this pic of Abera sitting in the little rocking chair that has been in our family for at least 3 generations.
Best Buds and Brothers

Michael, Mehandis, my dad and I took a trip to the mecca for boys (and I am sure many girls too) - the LEGO Store.  Our 4 year old has been asking to go to the LEGO store for months.  I don't think there is one in Wisconsin so we had to fit it into the schedule while in Chicago.  Glad that the age recommendations on most all of the Lego's prohibited us from purchasing them at this time.  We did nab a very cool Toy Story 3 set that has large enough pieces to still be out by Abera.

The last week in February brought us to Michigan.  Again a last minute trip due to a death in the family.  We were very pleased to be able to connect with several groups of people also available on very short notice.  The visits included aunts, uncles and extended family - most of whom had not yet met Abera.  They were very kind to host us for a meals, soccer fun, cartoon watching and night of lodging. 

Abera was familiar with another family we had the chance to visit... twins he shared a care center room with while living in Ethiopia.  Melissa and Kurt were part of the same July travel group as I was in when meeting Abera in Addis.  Can you believe they and their twins live about 5 minutes away from family of mine in Michigan?  It was so fun seeing how much their kids have grown as they too enjoyed how much Abera has changed.  All three of these kiddos are 10 months old too. The following pics are from our visit... they are all so sweet I couldn't edit them down!

Abera is in the plaid shirt.  He seemed very happy to be re-connected with his previous room mates, or at least happy to be playing with some fun babies and cool toys!
Mehandis got in on the photo attempts.  How many pics does it to get 3 10 month old kiddos smiling or at least looking in all the same direction?  We will just have to make another play date for retake attempts for that feat!
What a smile she has :)  Like the hand holding here too.
Such expressive eyes these boys have!
The vocal skills are not lacking either!!!