Finally!

Sorry it has taken me so long to post again but as you can imagine... life has been a little crazy lately. I finally feel like things are returning to "normal" whatever that is.

Manny had the hardest time adjusting at first. We can only imagine all the things going through his little head. We didn't have attachment problems just problems getting him into a routine and finding his place in the family. He and Joey are so close in age that they are the "worst of enemies" and the "best of friends" all at the same time. He did play baseball on the same team as Joey and made some friends and really enjoyed that. He loves sports of all kind and is VERY talented playing them. Manny is riding a two-wheel bike already and can swim quite well. He LOVES to watch movies and his favorites are the action movies... Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park... but sometimes I catch him watching Barney with Fayisa. He is doing really well speaking English! He never ceases to amaze us with that.

Fayisa... the little boy who always looked so "sad" in the pictures has not stopped smiling and laughing since we picked him up. As long as Mom is within 10 feet of him he is usually fine... just doesn't like it when she is out of sight. Em-min-nee is the next best thing to Mom. He is even letting her rock him to sleep sometimes. She and Fayisa have really developed a wonderful relationship. Fayisa is adjusting great!! No problems at all other than some minor medical issues which we are taking care of. His English is coming along well too!

We have done a lot of fun things together already.... trips to the zoo, Miller Park to a Brewers Game, the 4th of July Parade and a long weekend in Green Lake. Manny even tried to water ski. He got up but didn't get far. When we first got home the boys like to stay at home a lot. As you can imagine going out was a little over whelming. We have turned them around fast though... and they are fitting into the family perfectly! Manny always asks me in the morning "We go today Mommy?" "We go library, shopping?" He always has some suggestion.

This past weekend we went to the Brookfield Zoo for a reunion with CCI (our Adoption Agency) and got to see some Children that they knew from Kamashi. It was a fun time but emotional too. Manny was a little worried that he may have to "go back". I assured him that he will never have to "go back" and that he is with forever and always! Not the easiest thing to explain to a 6 year old that has experienced the loss that Manny has.

Thanks to everyone for all their well wishes and prayers! Manny and Fayisa are two very SPECIAL little boys.... and such amazing gifts to our family!!

Finally Home!

Hello Everyone! We are finally home. So sorry it took me so long to post but adjusting to life with four children has been a priority. Things are really going incredibly well. Better than we ever expected. The boys are just perfect and Em & Joe are so happy to finally have their brothers home.

We finally made it back to Chicago around 10 pm on Sunday night. All the travel is a story in itself. Our flight from Dubai left an hour late and landed 45 minutes late... making for a miserable 14 1/2 hour flight. When we got into Immigration and Customs in New York it was about 85 degrees and there is NO air conditioning in the room. (Made for some lovely smells.) I don't know how we did it but Brent sweet talked some people and we make it through there in about one hour. We talked a driver into trying to get us to LaGuardia in time to catch our 6 pm flight to Chicago. We had a wonderful driver from Jamacia and he did everything he could but the Mets Game had just gotten out and traffic was horrific. We made it across town in about 40 minutes and just as we were getting to LaGuardia Fayisa got car sick and puked all over the place! I ran out and went up to the United Counter and they said there was no way they would let us try to catch our flight. We ended up on another flight to Chicago about 2 hours later. We were just thrilled that we were getting out!

When we landed at O'Hare Emily, Joey, Auntie Margot, Uncle Mike and Grandma Margaret were there to meet us. Fayisa did great but Manny had just woken up and was a little on the shy side. He did start to open up in the car on the way home and when we finally got home Manny was VERY happy. He jumped on his new bed and was squealing with delight. We all did eventually get to sleep. We let Joey and Emily play "hookie" from school and Monday so that we could all spend some time together.

We have been just working on getting the boys comfortable with all of us and getting them used to our routine... it is really going well!

I will try to post again soon.

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes!

Amy, Brent, Emily, Joey, Manny and Fayisa

We have our boys!

Well, here we are, finally able to get on the web and get a posting to our blog. The best laid plans seem to always have a bump in the road, and we hit that bump while in Ethiopia and being unable to get quality internet service, without traveling to a major hotel, such as the Hilton or Sheraton in Addis.

We were able to have phone service and texting capabilities, so we did keep up a little bit with that mode of communication. We are sorry that we were not able to keep all of you updated like we originally hoped to do.

I/We will try and recap our week as best as possible. It may take a few postings, but I/We promise to bring things up to speed over the next few entries.

We surely thought it would be good to try and let everyone know, that we have our BEAUTIFUL boys, we are on our way home, but it feels like we are never going to get there. There is just no Shortcut home to Elkhorn, from Addis. We are all exhausted from traveling already and have only made the first leg of the trip. It is currently 5:35 a.m. in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Sunday, June 6. We will be catching our flight to NYC in about 3 hours. I just hope that everyone is able to catch a little shut eye on the plane...at least through some portion of our marathon 14+ hour flight to "America", as Manny puts it. The boys are AMAZING and we can not wait for you all to meet them. They are everything we ever dreamed they could be and even more.

We thank you all for your love, support & prayers over the past week!

We love you all,

Brent & Amy

Our week chronologically and to the best of our memories:

Tuesday, June 1, 2010 - We arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and went directly to our home for the next 4 1/2 days, The Newflower Guest House. We were greeted there by Sue Hedberg, executive director for CCI (our agency), her daughter Julie and her college roommate Christy, who were all in Ethiopia to escourt two other children home to the United States. We settled in for a little while, prepared a few things to take to the transition house and then we were off to get our arms around our two boys.

Traveling to the transition house we were told that it would probably be naptime when we arrived and that we would go directly up stairs to tour the transition house and not cause a stir to the napping children....MUCH to our suprise, we climbed the stairs and standing in the living room dressed and waiting, were Amanuel and Fayisa, who immediately came to us and embraced us with hugs of love and affection. Definitely one of those "Priceless" moments. We have pictures and video of our initial meeting and hope to post them when we get home and are able to reconnect with our cords that are need to transfer them to the computer (they are currently in a suitcase sitting and waiting to be boarded on a flight to New York City).

Leaving Dubai

Hello everyone! We had trouble posting last night as the blog site came up in Arabic! We had a good flight to Dubai but boy was it LONG! We took turn leaning on each other to try to help sleep. We ended up not meeting Belchi from SPX for dinner as we were exhausted. My blackberry didn't work last night but this morning it did so we got to call home. Teri was just getting the kids settled down for bed when we called and then they were up dancing! Sorry Teri!
They are just calling us to board the plane for Addis another full 777. 10 short hours and the boys will be in our arms!! Hope to post tonight again or maybe tomorrow.
Please continue to pray for our safe journey!
Sending much love to all.

On our way!

Well, we successfully completed the first part of our journey to New York City. It was a beautiful flight into NYC coming in over the Hudson River seeing all the sailboats and then coming over Manhattan. We missed the Statue of Liberty as we were on the wrong side of the plane.

We have met some really nice people so far on our journey. Right now we are sitting at JFK with a woman and her 3 year old son returning to India after visiting Dad in the US. We are helping her out as she is traveling alone.

As if we weren't excited enough to get to Addis, we received this picture of Fayisa today during his naptime. PRICELESS....

Fayisa and Amanuel... Mom and Dad are on the way.

Love you all!

(Em and Joe ... remember do not have any fun with Auntie Teri without us!)

Surprise Photos!

Woke up this morning to a nice surprise.... photos of the boys! Sue, the director of CCI, left for Africa on Tuesday of this week and was at the transition house with the boys. In the photos the boys are looking at the photo books we sent to them with Julie, Sue's daughter.

4 Days and Counting!

Well, I finally got the blog up and running! It is just in time as we leave in 4 short days. It doesn't really even seem possible. Just thought I would give everyone an overview of our trip so that you know what we will be up to.

On Sunday we leave Chicago O'Hare headed for Laguardia in NYC. We have to take a cab from Laguardia to JFK to catch our plane to Dubai. That flight doesn't leave until 11:00 pm so we should have PLENTY of time to make the transfer. The plan is to sleep? on most of the flight to Dubai. When we arrive in Dubai we are planning to have dinner with Bechir Melki who is the Sales Manager for SPX in Dubai. He is going to give us a tour of the city... in the dark.

We leave Tuesday morning to head to Addis Ababa. Upon arrival in Addis an escort from our Guest House, The New Flower, will be picking us up at the airport. We will get settled in and then around 3:30 PM we will head to the Transition House which is about 45 minutes away. I am sure the longest 45 minutes of our life as we will finally get to hug and hold our two new sons! We will stay at the Transition House for a while and then get to take the boys back with us!

Our appointment at the U.S. embassy is on Thursday and we will ge the boys visas and paperwork on Friday. Saturday we will begin our long journey home arriving back to Chicago Sunday evening around 7:30 pm. We are actually looking forward to the plane ride home knowing that we will be able to spend all that time with the boys.

Please keep us in your prayers for a safe journey and also for an easy transition for the boys.

We are taking a computer with us to Ethiopia and hope to be able to post while there.

We love you all!

Amy and Brent