A Baby Boy Awaits-Our Journey to Ethiopia

My Son.

2011-04-22T13:31:00.006-04:00

2 years together

Two years and 2 days ago Noah Tamirat was placed in our arms in Ethiopia and we became a family. Two days from now marks the day we brought him "home" to America a country and a life so different from anything he had ever known. I don't think I can ever fully express how much of a blessing he is not just to us as his parents but to all of our family and friends. This perfect gift from God that we did nothing to deserve but strive every day to be worthy of. My son. I didn't carry you in my belly for 9 months but we carried you in our hearts long before your birth. I didn't spend hours in labor but we labored for hours over paperwork and home visits. We spent hours on a plane to travel to the country of your birth and I spent what felt like hours sitting on the hard concrete waiting for you to wake up. I wasn't there when you took your first breath but holding you for the first time you took my breath away. I didn't hear your first cries but I cried the first time I saw you. We don't share skin color, eye color, hair color or DNA but we share the important things. We share laughter and tears,messes and food,happy times and sad, we share Life. I'm not the only woman you call mommy, i'm not the only woman that calls you son. I'm certainly not the first or the last woman who's heart you will steal. Because never for a moment doubt that sitting there in that hot african sun you might have been sound asleep but my heart was lost to you forever. You are my son and I am your mom and its as simple and beautiful as that.

Potty Trained??

2011-02-09T11:30:00.003-05:00

Ok so I didn't think this would be my next post. Two weeks ago I decided to just jump into the potty training and see what happened. My thought was to dress Noah in socks, undies and shirt and keep his potty in the living room to see what happened. After a couple accidents in the morning he freaked out and didn't want undies on..ok not my plan but we'll see what happens if he's naked. After nap I left him diaperless. He was playing with toys when all of a sudden he ran over opened his potty and sat down...he then turned to me and said..pee pee momma. Sure enough potty success all on his own doing. It took a day or two for him to poop on the potty and lots and lots of encouragment. There were a couple accidents but we went a week undie free and he did really well. We then switched to my original plan of wearing undies..Again a couple accidents because he won't pull down his own pants but he will tell you and run to the potty so you have to pay attention to his needs. Over the weekend we went ahead and got his potty training reward and he also had his first success on a public potty. He is still pretty scared of big potties but has gone a couple times on the one at home. This week we are back to wearing pants.

Noah still wears diapers at bed time but from the time he wakes up in the morning until the time he gets in jammies he is in undies. So proud of my little "big" man.

2 1/2, Keeping it Real,Anything goes.

2011-01-23T20:07:00.002-05:00

OK so I have been meaning to blog and I have had all these great topics in my head but I don't sit down and type out any of them because really I don't make time. I get LAZY. That's right at the end of the day my old self is worn out from a certain 2 1/2 year old and I don't want to do anything but sleep. So what is the cheeky monkey up to now? Well we are half way thru the 2's. Really more then half way because in 3 days he'll be 2 years 7 months. And we are surviving yep that's how I put it because some days that all I feel like we are doing..just gettin by..sliding along...surviving. Noah Tamirat is super smart, cute and funny. He knows his colors, letters , #'s and all kinds of things. Just recently he has started singing the alphabet , he can count to 10 easily as high as 20 if he concentrates. If the #'s are written down he can tell you what they are. He can tell you his full name, how old he is and that he is from Africa,more specifically Ethiopia and he can recognize his name if its written down.
Below is a picture of the sit and spin that he got for Ethiopian christmas. I know its not a gift giving holiday for them but he got that and a new ethiopian outfit because really we can't help giving him gifts we just love it.All dressed up to go out and celebrate Ethiopian Christmas.

Maybe someday I'll post on here that he is potty trained but right now...NOPE. He's stubborn, I get angry and do the complete wrong thing and I yell and put him back in diapers. Yup this is the part where i'm keepin it real . I need alot of work in the parenting department to be a more laid back , calm mommy. Or maybe I just need a really really long vacation some place warm and tropical so I can come back all refresed and relaxed. Yeah thats not happening how about a fews hours kid free....can I pray for that? Son i'll never be perfect and i'm gonna screw up alot but one thing you can be sure I love you to the moon and back and you'll always be my favorite little boy in the whole wide world.
That's just how we roll in our tv. watching, fast food eating, loud plastic battery operated lights and sound toys household. And somehow we are surviving.

Just look at the joy on that face. He knows mommy is close behind.

Christmas at Home.

2010-12-28T11:10:00.003-05:00

This year instead of traveling for Christmas we decided to stay at home. We told my family that we wouldn't be coming to New York but we would love for them to join us here. How blessed we were that my parents and my brother and his family could join us. My oldest brother wasn't able to come but it was nice for the rest of the family to be here.
My parents arrived the Sunday before Christmas and left the Monday after(they stayed with us). My brother and his family arrived the day before christmas and left the day after(stayed at a nearby hotel). This year we were able to take Noah to his first christmas at Hershey Park and it was so much fun to be able to take my parents as well. My child ate 7 tiny pieces of chocolate and was wound for the rest of the night. I'm not sure he even felt the cold. I couldn't belive my baby was not only big enough to go on rides by himself but was willing to. We have had some issues this month with him being clingy to momma.
The Stockings are hung. My niece and nephews stocking join Noah's and Honey's on christmas eve in hopes that Santa will come. Noah with one of his stocking gifts.

Where Noah spent a good amount of time watching his new movies

The cousins in front of the tree.

My parents with all their grandchildren.

Christmas morning was everything I had hoped it would be. We woke up at 7am and heard Noah Tamirat in his room so we turned on the living room lights and the video camara and then let him out to discover everything from santa. As he was opening his stocking my parents woke up and they were ready to take pictures and enjoy watching him open all his gifts from santa. My brother and his family arrived soon after Noah had opened his gifts so my niece and nephew opened their stockings and gifts from their parents and then all the kids got the gifts from my parents. Noah opened gifts from his aunt and uncle and cousins and gave them the gifts from us. My niece loved her ethiopian scarf and her ugandan bead necklace. It was a busy day but so nice to have family here and be in our own home so Noah could play with ALL his toys and not just a few.

December already?

2010-12-02T11:29:00.003-05:00

Wow am I a bad blogger or what? No blog posts at all for the month of November you would think we were hibernating. It was a bit of a crazy month I guess. Noah and I spent our first time apart and not by choice since I spent 3 1/2 days in the hospital with an ecoli infection in my kidneys. Sean brought noah to visit me in the morning and then again in the afternoon for a couple hours at a time but a 2 year old and hospital room just don't mix.

Noah also got his first big injury. We had Jake over to play and the boys were hugging goodbye when they tipped over into the entertainment center. Noah Tamirat cut open the back of his head and got 3 staples and Jake banged up his face. A little to much trauma for this momma lets hope we don't do that again soon.

We traveled to Florida for thanksgiving this year and its clear that Noah is no longer a good traveler in the car. Before coming home we purchased a new portable dvd player and it ran non stop from all the way home.

Christmas will be at our house this year so we are busy decorating and getting ready for company..

Happy Halloween.

2010-10-31T14:39:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we took Noah to the trick or treat event at our local mall. We got there to late for most of the festivites due to nap time but Noah did get to play the duck pond game ( I was so worried he was gonna flop down in the baby pool and I would have had a soaking wet otter). And of course we got to do some trick or treating. Outside for the games and to get our treat bags.

Having crackers before we get started.

The most Adorable sea otter baby.

Dumping out the goodie bags at home. Two bags one from the regular trick or treating and one from the mall kids club.

Some cool new pumpkin shades.

A record of growth thru pumpkin patch pictures.

2010-10-13T10:14:00.003-04:00

Ok so it was requested that I show some pictures of this year and last year to show how much Noah has grown and because I don't want to let down my fans. (Kim this is for you). I have posted pictures of Noah last year and then this year in the same or close to the same spot.

Enjoy.

2nd Annual Albright Family pumpkin patch trip.

2010-10-12T20:15:00.004-04:00

Last Saturday we made our trip the pumpkin patch. We went back to the same place we took Noah last year and again he had a great time. After spending 2 hours Noah was getting cranky so it was time to leave and get a nap but I'm sure once he is past napping age we will be spending many more hours there. Here are a few pictures..there are more on Face book for those of you that follow us there. The corn cave a favorite from last year.

A couple of the pirate ship. He was to small for this last year.

The gravel pit(new this year). A little boys dream he would have spent all day here.

The red tractor. We have a picture of him on the same one last year.

Duck race game (new this year). Anything that involves playing in water is fun.

Big barrel slides I think these were new this year to..Noah loved them.

Riding the pedal cars. You have to be 8 yrs old to ride by yourself but Noah really wanted to go on them so Daddy drove. I love how daddy is worn out and Noah is all relaxed with his drink.

In the pumpkin patch finding the perfect pumpkins.

Hay ride back to the barn. We have our pumpkins its time to go home.

Man they grow to fast.

2010-09-23T20:07:00.002-04:00

Are you ready for some football? This picture was taken just after he kicked the football.

These pictures kill me because my "baby" looks so much older the 2. I think I need to keep the longer hair it makes him look younger.

*UPDATE* For those wondering how switching to the big boy bed was going I have one word *AMAZING*. Noah gets in bed and we cover him up and he goes to sleep without a problem and has since the first bed time. He has a shelf next to his bed now that we put some books on and when I wake up in the morning and go in to get him he's just sitting in bed reading books. I hardly ever wake up to crying, screaming or the sound of 'momma" over the monitor. He loves his "cars" bed. On the potty training I decided not to push it to much yet since we are traveling in November for thanksgiving we will let Noah go on his own time schedule until Dec and then we will step it up with the big boy undies . He is starting now to tell us when he has to go. Sometimes he makes it sometimes I think he's telling me as he's going or just after he's done but its a small step in the right direction.

September-A month of Change

2010-09-06T11:13:00.004-04:00

September rolls around again. Weather is changing and fall is in the air. When did this little guy

Who slept here

And here

Turn into this big boy

that napped here

And will now sleep here.

Last September we started sleeping thru the night in the crib and got rid of bottles..this september we ditched the crib and we are going to start working a little harder at losing those diapers.

2 months of being 2.

2010-08-26T11:08:00.002-04:00

So today we are 2 months into age 2. I have to say the first month I didn't notice anything different. And then the traveling started. As most of you probable know Noah and I flew to TN at the end of July for the big AGCI picnic. After a couple days there we rode to Texas and spent a week with another agci family. We then boarded a plane home to Maryland and after spending two days at home we were back in the car for a road trip to Ohio for a couple days. All that has left me feeling like I never want to leave home overnight again because the behavior has gone off the charts.
I don't know if its the result of all the travel and being away from Daddy or if this is just a new phase we are going thru but its not pretty. A lot of hitting, pushing, screaming mostly directed at momma. If something isn't working the way Noah wants it to he seems to think its my fault. At times he thinks we should feed him his meals or else he doesn't eat there has also been food throwing. Noah Tamirat seems to do much better when he is on a routine. Not to say that we can't alter his day here and there because we can and we do but for the two weeks we were traveling his routine was completely blown up and that was not good. I will say that since we have been home he has been doing great sleeping in his crib all night and his naps are now consistently 2 hours. He still takes his nap from 11-1 so much earlier then others his age. So yes I'm thrilled that the sleep is happening because we all know how much I love my sleep but the behavior seriously needs adjusting. Honestly if I could choose I would go back to less sleep and better behavior.
So how am I dealing with outbursts. I would love to say that I'm patient and calm and that I never lose my temper but I'll keep it real. I'm doing my best to stay calm and patient because I think he responds better to this but there are days when I swear if he pushes one more button he won't make it to 3. I know that I need to work on being a better mom. I'm certainly not perfect and I try to do a little better today then I did yesterday. I know that someday we'll look back and think man the two's were easy can we have those days back. But until then we'll do our best to help little man deal with the growing pains of being two. His language skills are getting better and we continue to encourage him to "use his words" to let us know what he needs or what is wrong. Nobody said parenting was easy but with each hug, kiss ,snuggle and I love you we know that its totally worth it.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-08-25T11:01:00.003-04:00

Back from our adventure.

2010-08-18T20:11:00.002-04:00

Hey its me Noah Tamirat. Momma and I are back from our big adventure to Tennesee and Texas. I enjoyed seeing all my AGCI buddies but boy did I miss Daddy. I don't think I understood that he wasn't coming until he left us at the airport and I had a bit of a melt down (sorry momma). The airplane was good once we got in the air and mommy gave me toys. Here are some pictures of the fun. The AGCI picnic had lots of water fun.

And a big ball to play with. There was a playground and a bounce house to so maybe mom will post more pictures from the picnic another time. Some of the pictures in this post were taken by other families.

While we were in TN we stayed with my old hannah's hope roomate Silas and his family.

Here's me and my Buddy Si Si at a playground near his house.

This is Si and I with Olivia. She was at Hannah's Hope with us and her family stayed with Silas's for the weekend to. Mom where is my shirt I feel underdressed. Silas I miss you bud we need to hang out again sometime.

After spending a couple days in TN we took a very long roadtrip to Texas with another Hannah's Hope roomie Fin and his family.

This is me, Mekele and Fin on the porch at cracker barrel waiting to go eat.

Finny and I watching his brother Tucker play video games.

Nothing like a wagon ride with your buddie.

Finny and Asher. Asher lives in Texas and he came to visit us at Fin's house. We enjoyed our time in Texas with the exception of that earache I got the first day there and all that medicine mommy and Fin's mom kept making me take. I liked the pool and I miss Finny and Asher. I miss Fin's brothers and sister to.
We came home from Texas a few days earlier then planned. Mommy and I missed Daddy and I'm pretty sure he missed us to.

On the plane going home to dada.

Boom Boom came on the big trip with us.

It was great to be back home but we quickly followed it up with a roadtrip to Ohio. My pap pap had to have surgery but he's doing good now and we are back home. While we were there I got to meet my cousin Caylin (baby Cay) and see my Aunt Kera (Akey). Mimi, Aunt Tammy, Uncle Terry and cousins Angel and Stephanie were there to. I'm hoping we don't travel again soon. I like being home to sleep in my own bed and play with all my toys.

Going on an Adventure.

2010-07-29T11:04:00.003-04:00

Hey its Noah here just wanted to let everyone know whats up. Last week my Uncle Frank came to see me and hang out for a couple days. I was totally off schedule but its all good.We went to see some big firetrucks in Baltimore. I wish I could have climbed on them.I had to wear my Ethiopian shirt and hat cuz its cool .We took Uncle Frankie out for EP(Ethiopian food). He liked it alot and I even ate some this time. I did pretty good scooping up tibs with my injera. After Uncle Frank left on Saturday we went over to my buddy Jake's house for dinner. It was to hot to play in his super cool playhouse so we'll do that again in cooler weather but we had a pool party .

Tomorrow Mommy and I are going on an airplane to TN. Check out my cool new backpack for the trip. I'm stylin right? I'm very excited because mom says we get to see alot of my buddies from Hannah's Hope. That's where I lived in Ethiopia for 4 months while I waited for momma & daddy to come and get me. We will stay in TN for a couple days and then head to Texas to my buddie Finny's house . I hear he has a pool so I can't wait to hang out with him. I"m gonna miss Dad and I"m sure momma will to but it will be fun to hang with all our AGCI family.

Oh and i'm sure there will be lots of pictures when we get back August 13th.

Crazy adoption conversation.

2010-07-18T11:56:00.003-04:00

Yesterday Sean and I both needed haircuts. This means that we have to go one at a time while the other person keeps Noah busy. I let Sean go first and I sat and gave Noah a lolly pop. While I'm waiting the other girls were discussing who gets the next customer and the girl with purple bangs and a bazillion piercings says oh I do..great. Now I'm sitting watching the door praying that someone comes in before Sean's haircut is done so that this girl doesn't cut my hair...because let me just say I'm paranoid about haircuts and if you hair looks crazy then I'm not sure i want you near mine. So yeah nobody comes in apparently God wants me to trust this girl with my hair because after you already said it doesn't matter who cuts it you can't nicely say anyone but the purple hair girl. So Sean is done I hand off Tamirat and go to sit down..I'm all settled in the seat and the conversation starts a little something like this.
Purple hair girl - Is that your son you were holding
me- yes
phg- oh he's adopted
me- yes
phg- I'm adopted to that's how i knew
Ummm what you knew he was adopted not because he's brown and his parents are white but because you are also adopted?? I'm sorry nobody told me my child had a sensor in him that could detect other adopted people.
OK so I didn't say that part i think i muttered "oh cool" or something like that because i was baffled.
We then go on and start talking about names. She asked his Ethiopian name and then asked what name we gave him so I told her Noah. Her response to this ...are you ready for it....OK here it goes she said " Was that because you had to travel to get him?
Again my jaw dropped and my mind was spinning. I have no idea what the name Noah has to do with going to Ethiopia to get our son and if anyone has a clue please explain it to me.. I"m pretty sure we took a plane not an ark. Finally the haircut was over and I thought OK let me get Noah we can pay and leave all insane comments are over. So I'm standing there holding Tamirat when she comes over and starts touching his head and then rubs his arm and announces to everyone what soft skin he has..meanwhile Noah is curling into me to get away and I'm ready to just smack this girl and then run for the door.

Emotional.

2010-07-14T19:42:00.004-04:00

So today I got rather emotional and I'm not really sure why. I sat down to rock Noah before nap and as I held him and rocked him the tears started to flow. He sat up and gave me a sweet kiss and then laid his head back down and the tears kept coming. I had no idea what started them but in that moment I thought about the first time I held him and the last time his birth mom held him and I was overwhelmed with how much I love him and how blessed I am. He sat up and wanted to go in his crib and I almost hated to put him down. It was one of those times when I wished he would fall asleep in my arms because I just wanted to hold him and not let go. Maybe his birth mom is thinking about him today and crying for her baby boy. Perhaps our hearts are connected by the love we share for this precious child and I was feeling her pain. Whatever the reason its real, its raw, its emotion , its love and it didn't take shared DNA to create it.

Noah at 2.

2010-07-13T11:07:00.003-04:00

18 month checkup - 30.2lbs , 30 1/2 inches long
2 year old checkup- 31.2lbs. 34 1/2 inches long
At 2 years old it is becoming clear to me that not only is Noah Tamirat not a baby but he's also not my chunky toddler. He starting to look long and lean like he did in the very first pictures we saw of him. Right now he is very much the typical 2 year old. All those things we started doing at 16-17 months old so that they would become habit such as cleaning up toys, and putting clothes in the hamper are now becoming a battle to the point that sometimes he loses a toy for the next day because he wouldn't clean up at night. Noah has gone to bed without dinner because he chose not to sit properly at the table and eat nicely. He's testing and pushing, learning and growing. As much as it drives me nuts on some days I embrace this stage of his life. And in ways I envy him because who among us doesn't some times wish we could just throw a fit because we can't do what we want or because things aren't working the way we wish they would. We all have the skills to better cope with things so we don't throw those tantrums and some day Noah T will have those skills to. As parents we just need to help him learn a better way. No "terrible" two's here. Its just another stage of life that will go by all to fast and we will wonder when he stopped being two.
Noah's language skills are really starting to develop and if you compare him to kids that are his age he might be behind but if you set his age back 10 months then I'm sure he would be right on track.
We love you beautiful Noah Tamirat and can't wait to explore the rest of the two's with you.

4th of July

2010-07-12T11:02:00.002-04:00

On the 4Th of July we decided to take Noah Tamirat to Busch Gardens to meet Elmo and as a special treat to have dinner with Elmo and his friends. Here are some highlight pictures of the day.The entrance to Sesame Street. Noah's first "big ride". He's been on a carousel before but this was his first amusement park trip.Second big ride.Water fun.And of course one of the highlights..meeting "la la". Noah actually said Elmo for the 1st time and switched back and forth between that and la la all day depending on his excitement level.
Dinner with Elmo & Friends was a HUGE hit. We don't have as many pictures of the day as we may have liked but it was fun to see it all without a camara blocking things. The joy and wonder in his eyes is something i'll never forget. It was a very long day (left the house at 6am got home at 2am) and we were so proud of our boy all day for handling the heat, waiting in line, disrupted sleep and nap etc etc. Noah really was a champ and did far better then we expected. A great day of family fun for his first amusement park visit.

Happy 2nd Birthday Noah Tamirat

2010-06-29T11:10:00.002-04:00

Noah on his first birthday Noah on his second Birthday.

So Saturday my baby boy turned 2. Some of you probable know that we didn't do alot for Noah's first birthday because he hadn't been home long and we felt it would be to much to have a big party. Well we decided to make up for it with birthday #2. On Friday my parents and my niece and nephew came and Noah enjoyed seeing them again. I think for a little while he forgot to say momma every two seconds. Friday night after noah was in bed we went into party mode. Presents got wrapped or put togeather and laid out for Noah to find in the morning. Balloons got blown up (lots of them) and as soon as we knew Noah was asleep we snuck in and tossed them all over his bedroom floor. He was very excited in the morning and it made getting anything (diaper changed and getting dressed) in his room near impossible because he just wanted to run around and kick the balloons. He got all his presents from Mommy & Daddy and his cousins and grandparents on saturday so he had fun playing with all of those. On Sunday was his first real birthday party. We had the party at a local bounce place and everyone invited adults included had fun. I don't know how people do parties where they have to do all the set up and clean up and plan activities because I didn't do any of that and I was exhausted at the end of the day. Over all Noah had a great 2nd birthday and if you on facebook there are 2 albums of pictures you can enjoy.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-23T11:22:00.001-04:00

Ethiopian families get togeather.

2010-06-20T13:20:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was a busy day. First order of business was to get Noah a haircut. He'll be 2 next weekend and we wanted him to have a new haircut for his big day. Not to mention its getting hot here and he sweats "alot". He handled this 3rd haircut like a champ.
After the haircut it was time to head to the park where we would be meeting up with other families that have or are adopting from Ethiopia. There was a playground and a big field for the kids to run and kick balls or throw frisbees and then a beach for digging in the sand and swimming. We didn't get many pictures and none of the swimming but here are the few we did get. Noah was very nervous about the water but warmed up to it by the end of the day...he loves baths and pools but water that moves is scary. My little man with his new "haircut" playing ball.

Playing with the giant frisbee

Two Tamirats.

T&T playing ball..a little fuzzy but it warms my heart. So many cute kids and awesome families.

Next month Noah and I will be flying to TN for a gathering of families from our adoption agency. You can bet there will be a ton of pictures of Ethiopian sweeties that I will post when we get home.

An Early birthday present.

2010-06-18T09:39:00.006-04:00

Noah got an early birthday present in the mail this week. He loves his bubbles and his new book.

Memorial Day weekend.

2010-06-01T12:12:00.004-04:00

So we didn't spend our weekend with parades and barbeques and all the typical holiday weekend things . We did lots of errands and yard work. Noah helping daddy.

Picking up pinecones.

Playing under the pine trees.

On Monday we managed to have some fun time. We bought Noah a soccer ball and took him to the park

Hanging out in the goal.

SCORE.

Noah loves the swings.

I really think he could spend all day there.

So blessed that this beautiful boy is my son.

Almost 23 Months old.

2010-05-23T11:50:00.005-04:00

Our "little" Noah Tamirat will be 23 months old in just 3 days. He's growing like a weed. In Feb we had to buy him new sneakers because he outgrew his old ones..at the time he was a size 7. Yesterday we had to go and buy him new ones and he's now a size 8. These are his new sneakers. A size 9 because its hard to find an 8 1/2 wide width sneaker that ties instead of Velcro.

Noah also decided he likes sunglasses so we bought him 2 pairs.

And he got some new "la la" Elmo shoes. Doesn't he just think he's the cutest.

Hanging out on his couch with his elephants and his monster truck.

Come on all the cool kids are rockin the shades and Elmo shoes with their pj's.

Noah is into everything he can get his hands on. His new favorite thing to do is jump which he has mastered in the last month. How quickly we are sneaking up on birthday # 2...The plans are all made just waiting on the big day.

What's new in the Albright house?

2010-05-11T11:43:00.004-04:00

Busy time around here. May rolls in with Mother's Day, Our anniversary and my birthday. My amazing men got me a Kindle and took me to Olive Garden I'm so blessed to have them both. I tried to get a good picture of Noah Tamirat and I on my 2ND mother's day..here's what happened. But mom my tooth hurts. Noah has tooth #20 on its way. It's making very slow progress and being very painful at times.

I think Honey is looking to play cars and Noah wants to be on the go.

So he sits on his couch but won't look at the camera.

Let me go mom.

A quick kiss.

A little hug.

Oh my beautiful boy.

Look how big your getting.

You own my heart little man.

I remember when Noah had to stand on tip toes and could still barely see out this window. Now he loves to watch the birds and squirrels at the feeders outside and helps Daddy keep them filled.

I can't believe my baby will be 2 years old next month. We booked his birthday party at a bounce place and I can't wait to celebrate my sweet little man. Last year was just momma & daddy with some cake and presents because we hadn't been hope that long so this year will be fun to have a real party with family and friends.

Excuse me now while I go and have a good cry that my boy is almost 2.

A new bath towel

2010-04-28T12:23:00.003-04:00

So the old hooded towel is to small for Noah and I have been wanting to see some new ones because I just think they are to stinkin cute. I found this one at target and had to bring it home. Most adorable Ethiopian sea creature ever.

Just seconds before he dropped the towel..

Home at Last.

2010-04-25T11:21:00.002-04:00

On Friday April 24Th 2009 We arrive back in the United States as a family of 3. Dulles was our home airport so we arrive around 8:30 am. We didn't have a huge greeting committee with cameras and video cameras and all the fanfare that alot of families seem to have. Here is what we did have. Two very anxious, excited grandparents watching the screen and groaning at every change in our flight arrival time. They made friends with people in the waiting area and told them all about the new edition to the family that they couldn't wait to meet. They held up a sign that said welcome home mom ,dad & Noah. Nope there aren't any pictures of us coming thru the doorway and them seeing him for the first time because in their excitement and our tiredness no cameras were out. But there were smiles and tears and a cold Pepsi waiting for me in the car because I didn't know that I would get Pepsi in Ethiopia. With that first sip I knew I was back in America and I missed Ethiopian Pepsi. Noah's first ride in the car seat on the way home from the airport. He did really well and continues to love riding in the car. What a blessing that is.

Our front porch when we returned home. Balloons and a sign that say welcome home.

Here is the sign lovingly made by my dad that my parents were holding at the airport.

Unloading luggage at home.

Noah meeting the dog. Ignore the dazed and confused looks on our faces. Jet lag will do this to you. Any of the pictures of us from the first week home are likely to prove it.
They that for the first month or so home that you should stay home and bond as a family but I wouldn't change a thing about our homecoming. My parents were here for the first week we were home and helped with everything from cooking meals to doing yard work. And yes they did briefly get to hold their new grandson and I don't think that in anyway hurt our bonding process. It was a blessing to have them here.

Happy 1st family Day

2010-04-20T10:15:00.004-04:00

April 2009

April 2010

Happy 1st family day Noah Tamirat. Words cannot express how much we love you and how blessed we are to be your Momma & Daddy.

An awesome day with my two favorite guys.

2010-04-18T11:46:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we headed to the beach for the day. Its still to cold to swim but we walked the trail and found pine cones and sticks. We saw the wild horses and we played in the sand for hours. Here are just a couple of my favorite pictures from the day.A beautiful tiny footprint in the sand.My favorite guys.Precious little brown hand and foot covered in sand.He should be a model. Love this one.Oh so cute.Cheezin on the way home in his new LA LA (Elmo) sweatshirt.

Where was mommy in all this fun. Lounging on the blanket and taking pictures. It was a blast just watching Noah run around and have fun playing in the sand with daddy.

For those of you on Face book there are many more pictures over there.

I'll do it when I'm ready.

2010-04-15T20:34:00.002-04:00

So many months ago I posted how Noah just sat down and started doing his ring stacker toy like he had always known how after many months of it being put away because all he did was throw the rings. Well yesterday he pulled another trick out of his hat. He has always enjoyed taking the shapes out of the end of the shape sorter and putting them back in the same way. Never showing an interest in putting them thru the correct holes. After nap time I watched in amazement as he sat for a half hour or more taking shapes out and putting them back in the holes they belong in. He's going to be one of those kids that do things on his own time when you don't think he knows how. I think we are seeing this with talking because i'm sure he can say more words then he lets on to.

Noah's 1st Easter (lots of pictures)

2010-04-07T11:12:00.003-04:00

Noah had a great 1st Easter and we are so happy that this year we were able to stop and enjoy it with him since last year we were in that last minute dash to get things done before bringing him home. Although my boy had croup and ended up at the doctors the day before Easter we still had some fun.
We colored eggs. Daddy what are we going to do with all this stuff??

Oh I see.

I'm so cheeky.

Pretty egg.

We put stickers on eggs.

A pretty pink egg for momma.

We hunted for Easter eggs.

I got my basket where's the eggs?

Look mom I found one.
Easter presents.

A new grill .

A basket and lots of other goodies.

In the afternoon we took Noah to the park near the airport to walk, watch airplanes land and play on the playground and then we came home to dinner of stuffed peppers. Nope not your traditional Easter dinner but we aren't your traditional family .

Noah meets the Easter Bunny.

2010-03-29T10:57:00.004-04:00

Yesterday we decided to take Noah for his first visit with the Easter bunny. We were fully prepared to make this a family photo if we needed to. When we took him to meet Santa we weren't prepared to be in the picture so I made sure we had nicer clothes on yesterday. We waved at the bunny while waiting in line and then Noah started to get fussy and I got nervous about how this was all gonna go down. When it was our turn I walked up to the bunny , Noah gave him high fives and fist bumps and then I sat him on the bunnies lap and stepped just a little bit away. The photographer snapped the picture and half a second later Noah wanted to get down. I thought a family photo was in the works but this is what we got. The lady taking pictures said to me well he's kind of serious but at least he's not screaming. Yeah we are used to some serious shots and I absolutely love his first Easter bunny picture. And I'm thrilled that we didn't have to be in it with him. Oh and how funny that one of the ladies working there remembered us from Christmas. I guess they don't get many white couples with handsome brown baby boys.
I do question why there are never any brown Easter bunnies at the mall and why people don't dress their kids up a little nicer to meet the Easter Bunny. Those pictures aren't cheap you would think you would want the kid in nice clothes. Unless you think a sweatsuit counts who knows.

21 Month old/11 months home

2010-03-26T11:05:00.004-04:00

So we are sneaking up on the one year home mark. I still can't believe it I remember so well this time last year waiting for our approaching court date. Praying the we would pass along with the other families that had dates near ours. There was so much anxiety and hopefulness. Our hearts were still guarded that something could go wrong at the last minute and this child that we had been preparing for might not become our son. Noah Tamirat continues to grow and thrive. His 18th tooth is almost completely in and I can't wait until teething is over it tends to be his roughest time. We are so happy that spring is here and we are getting some nice days in between the rainy ones. Noah loves to be outside. Just last weekend we spent 3 1/2 hours at a park. Eating lunch, playing on the playground, chasing the ball and just walking. Little Mr. Independence loves to be allowed to walk even if it means holding hands.

At this point we are dealing with the typical toddler struggle of communication. Noah clearly has his own opinions and knows what he wants but he doesn't always have the words to express it. I'm waiting for that day when something explodes and all those words we know he has in his head start to come out. He knows the signs for please, more and milk so this helps a lot along with the words he does say. Some things are still a guessing game like when he comes to you and says please or more but you don't know what he's asking for. Other times its more clear when he brings his cup and says please because its empty and he wants more. This is a step up from when he would just bring the cup and drop it in your lap. He does need to learn that just saying please doesn't always mean you get what you want but we are happy he's on his way to having manners.

A dinner/playdate

2010-03-16T11:07:00.006-04:00

On Saturday we finally got to have another playdate with Jake. Kelly (Jake's mommy) and I have been trying to get the boys togeather since the end of January but every Friday something from illness to snowstorms have gotten in the way. So Saturday they invited us over for dinner and some play time for the boys. Following are some pictures of the cuteness.Noah trying to steal jake's hat. Enjoying a little dessert.

If you could only hear the screams.

The boys played really well togeather and we all had a great time

Independence

2010-03-08T11:14:00.004-05:00

Its a fact of life that children grow and become more independent. Is that a good thing? Yes. Is that also a bad thing well my answer to that is also yes. After waiting many many years to become a parent I'm enjoying watching my son grow and change and learn to do things on his own. Noah being more independent gives me more time to do things for myself so that's nice right because who doesn't want to be able to sit and eat a meal once in a while. But its also hard because he's been with us for 10 months and to me a 10 month old still needs his mommy to do a lot of things which he did in the beginning. The time of his life that I missed seems to be high lighted by how fast he's growing now.
Typically when we were out some where Noah had two options

1. sit in the stroller/ shopping cart depending on where we were or

2. be carried by mommy or daddy

Recently we have added an option #3 He can get down and walk holding our hand. We are working on this and definitely haven't perfected it yet. He sometimes will see something that excites him and he pulls free to go and examine it. When this happens he immediately gets put back to option 1 or 2. These are his only options we will not use a child leash/harness call it what you will. Now just to clarify I'm not trying to cause a debate because like the whole co sleep or don't co sleep issue if you do it and it works for your family then bravo have at it. We have discussed it and its not for us case closed.
Option 3 is a great in comparison to option 2. When we were handed a 20lb baby in Ethiopia it was hard..10lbs later I have built up some strength but it's still very tiring to carry him everywhere. Which brings me to the realization that as much as I love holding him he's growing up and I need to embrace that and give him some freedom. The holding and cuddling can still be done at home in the rocking chair or on the couch.
And with that growing up Noah is starting to learn to drink from a cup.

Aren't these cute. They came in a pack of 4. Two of each color. Until he gets the hang of it he only gets a little bit of water at a time and typically only in the kitchen so its easy clean up when he spills which he does because he doesn't understand the concept of drinking and then tipping the cup back down again. He's used to sippy or straw cups.

Take your independence son but please take it slowly know that momma is here watching you learn to fly and trying not to cry as a little bit of my heart breaks and soars with you all at the same time.

A day at the Aquarium

2010-03-01T11:46:00.004-05:00

Pictures from our afternoon at the aquarium yesterday. Hello octopus. Daddy this walkway is moving uphill.

Fish I choose you-for dinner. Is it wrong that he had a fish sandwich for dinner last night haha.

Noah loved these bubble tubes.

I can do the stairs on my own.

Room to run.

What should I build?

This is what I destroyed.

Hello down there

No pictures Dad.

20 Months/10 months

2010-02-26T10:58:00.002-05:00

Today Noah is 20 months old. As of the 20th he has been with us 10 months. That magical time when he has been with us longer then he was without us. I won't say I feel like he's always been with us because it doesnt. Very clearly I remember the days, weeks, months and years of longing for a child and how painful that time in my life was. I remember feeling like Sean and I were a couple and not a family and how part of me felt empty.
However I can also remember like it was yesterday walking thru those gates and seeing Noah for the first time ( a little puff of curls over the top of a bouncy seat). I watched someones "gotcha video" last night and held my breath as I saw them walk that path and stand outside those gates. Our son has changed us in many ways and we will forever be greatful for what he he brings to our life.
Noah now has 17 teeth and #18 is on its way. We have started introducing him to potty training and its going great. He doesnt know how to tell us when he has to go but he will sit on the potty and pee if we ask him if he wants to. He is doing a great job riding the bike he got for christmas. He loves balls, books, cars, tools and blocks.
Happy 20 month birthday Noah Tamirat you are my joy and I can't belive you have been with us half your little life.

Postplacement visits.

2010-02-18T11:59:00.003-05:00

Saturday is our last postplacement visit. There are no words to describe how happy I am to be done with these. We still have to write yearly reports until Noah Tamirat is 18 but we will no longer have a social worker coming in and judging us as a family. I feel so much better prepared for this last visit. Because of the timeing of when they need to be done to get to our agency and then to Ethiopia in time ours have actually been done at 1 month, 4 months and now 10 months home. They are 3, 6 and 12 month reports. When we did our 3 month report I felt lost. We barely knew this child, there was no schedule or routine , lord only knows when we last had a good nights sleep. The questions felt overwhelming and I wondered what our SW would write about us as a family. The 6 month report was only slightly better because we were still very sleep deprived and still very much getting to know our son. The routine /schedule was a little bit closer to being established but not there yet. I was feeling like a failure. And some how she still wrote it was in Noah's best interest to stay in our family..Really , wow thats good to know.

At this stage I think we are much more prepared. We have a schedule and most importantly we have been getting sleep. Ten months with Noah have allowed us to see more of his personality and become more of a family. The questions that we are asked shouldn't be a problem to answer and I don't feel as lost and won't feel like as much of a failure. Here's hopeing she still finds it in Noah's best interest to be part of our family because we aren't letting him go I think we are kind of attached.

Friday photo Fun

2010-02-12T11:06:00.005-05:00

The Blizzard of 2010?

2010-02-06T11:57:00.004-05:00

8:30 am. 23 inches and still coming down hard.

How Noah entertains himself on a snowy day.

Ethiopian treasures.

2010-02-04T10:58:00.003-05:00

This post is a long time coming but I thought I would finally post a picture of some of the treasure we brought home from Ethiopia. In some of my older posts you'll see pictures of the two outfits we bought for Noah, the wooden stool, the drum and the hat. But these are things we have never posted pictures of. Our greatest treasure..see I lied we always post pictures of this one..but now for the unseen.

Wooden goblet..it has a giraffe on one side and an elephant on the other.

Carved wooden elephant candlestick.

I couldn't get a good picture of this beautiful soapstone coaster set.

A little cup and dish.

The painting we bought at the italian restaurant/art gallery. A soapstone rhino and a wooden zebra.

An English/Amharic bible(new testament only) two necklaces and a keychain that we will give to Noah when he's older. The keychain will probable be a gift when he gets his drivers license or first new car or something so we have ALONG TIME before he get that.

A Snow Day.

2010-01-30T20:48:00.004-05:00

It snowed again today. Noah and I have both been sick all week but I was feeling the need to get out of the house and since Sean didn't want to go and run errands in the storm it was out into the snow we went. This is the first time Noah has been out in the snowpants and boots and gloves so he wasn't real sure what to do. We didn't stay out long because I didn't want him to get anymore sick but we had fun trudging thru the lawn. Figuring out how to walk.

Mommom I fell down and got my gloves wet.

Hey its not snowing under here. Noah hides under the deck.

Look mom no snow. And its easier to walk.

Back out into the white stuff.

Noah and Mommom

Noah kept going in circles under one side of the deck and out the other. I'm pretty sure he would have stayed out longer if we let him. He had fun as long as he didn't fall down.

19 month old, Sickness and a mommy FAIL.

2010-01-26T11:04:00.004-05:00

Noah Tamirat is 19 month old today..all I can say is where is the time going? The months are just flying by and I"m wishing I could slow it down just a little.

Mommy and Noah are both sick. However in the unfairness of life mom has no energy and little man still seems to have plenty which leads me to the mommy fail. This morning Noah was playing in the living room as I laid on the couch watching cartoons. Apprently I dozed off because I woke to find him sitting on the end table in a pool of Dr. Pepper. After a change of clothes for him I went into our bathroom to get some medicine for me and in the couple seconds that took I heard him fussing. He had managed to crawl into the dog kennel and lock himself in. Just last week he was playing in there and we knew he could unlock it because he once let the dog out but now we know he can lock it from the inside. Maybe I should have left him in there and napped haha.

I'll leave you with some fun pictures from last week if you didn't already see them on facebook.

Trying to catch up.

2010-01-21T08:34:00.002-05:00

So there is a lot I haven't blogged about. Like Christmas, our first as a family. I tried several times to post video from Christmas morning because we have no pictures but for some reason I can't get them to post so I gave up. Christmas morning was not everything I had hoped it would be so I guess I chose to not post about it.
Noah did really well with the car rides but everything else went completely off any kind of schedule and we are still trying to get back on track.
Yesterday marks 9 months that Tamirat has been part of our family and in a few short days he will be 19 months old. Saturday we are hoping to meet some local adoptive families for Ethiopian food. We haven't had it since August so I'm pretty excited.
Monday Noah had his 18 month check up at the doctor. My boy is growing so fast. He has 16 teeth, weighs 30.2 lbs, 30 1.2 inches long and has a head circumference of 49 1/2. The doctor didn't comment on his weight other then to say that he must love his food so I guess she has figured out he is just going to remain on the upper level of the growth chart in weight and the lower end for height. She did said his head size is good whatever that means. Overall she seemed pleased with his development.

I"m still trying to get videos on here so if anyone has any suggestions let me know. I know that you blog savy folks post videos. In the meantime I'll try to extract some still pictures from the video so I have something exciting for my next post.

Melkin Yedidet Beaal -Merry Christmas

2010-01-07T11:05:00.002-05:00

Last year a tiny little 6month old baby boy was spending his first Christmas at Hannah's Hope. He was fairly new there and no doubt wondering where his momma went and when she would come back. I'm sure he was scared in his new surroundings and grieving some loss. I'm also sure that his momma wasn't celebrating on this day as she had her own grief at the loss of her baby boy.
Neither of them knew that just a day before two people thousands of miles away had seen a picture and heard about a little boy named Tamirat in Ethiopia. They were already falling in love and praying this child would be their son. You see they wanted nothing more in the world then to be parents.

This year Noah Tamirat is spending his 2ND Christmas in a much different place. He is being raised to know his birth mom and how much she loves him. He is comfortable in his surroundings and we hope he has let go of some of the grief. I hope this year his birth mom can celebrate and know in her heart that her son is loved and taken care of with two people that are incredible blessed to be his parents and will never forget the amazing woman that gave him life.

*just a note this outfit has matching pants but we waited to long to have him wear it and now the pants are to short*.

Goodbye 2009 and a referral anniversary.

2010-01-05T20:35:00.004-05:00

One year ago we went to bed knowing that we were #1 for a baby boy. Oh how hard it was to sleep that night and I can still feel the ache in my stomach like it was yesterday. How much anxiety January 6th held not knowing if our call would come or if we would get the call that we were officially #1 and we would wait some more.

Around 3:30 in the afternoon we got the call that rocked our world there was a beautiful little boy in Ethiopia waiting for parents. This is our first look at our little boy.

By far the most adorable boy we had ever seen. I can't believe it's been a year since we saw this sweet picture.

2009 was an amazing blessed year for our family. We saw our boys face for the first time in pictures on january 6th.

on feb 6th we got the call that we had been assigned a court date in Ethiopia for March 31st.

April 1st we got the call that Noah Tamirat was legally an Albright

April 20th we became a family as we held our little boy in our arms for the very first time.

I can't wait to see what is in store for us in 2010 as we watch Noah grow into our family. He is everything we dreamed of and more.

Noah's 1st haircut.

2010-01-01T20:05:00.004-05:00

So today I finally took the plunge and got Noah's haircut. I thought I was ready until we got there . Trust me these pictures don't even show the half of how stressful this was for him. A before picture taken christmas day.

Mommom I don't like this please take me out of the chair.

I don't want elmo I want to leave.

Holding him in the chair with his chewy.

Still not happy.

The new look.

I"m not gonna smile mom i'm still mad at you.

Nope not gonna look at you.

Forget it.

Finally smiling..in his football stance.

A Hannah's Hope reunion.

2009-12-30T14:40:00.005-05:00

The tuesday before Christmas we were able to meet up with Maria and her sweet kids. Noah and "baby girl" were housemates at Hannah's Hope and she came home to florida a couple weeks before Noah came home to Maryland. We hope these two cuties can stay in touch always and someday we will be sending out invites for their wedding. I wish we could have spent more time with Maria and her cuties but Enjoy just a few pics of their "date" Proud mommies with their Ethiopian cuties.

One of my favs...Noah just loved Maria's oldest daughter "bug" and she loved him to.

How sweet are they?

Noah either blowing kisses or stuffing food in his mouth.

Giving "baby girl" her christmas present..everyone see that hand holding action?

All the precious kids.

I see love in her eyes.

Look at this. Noah has all 3 of these girls charmed.

Maria and my sweet boy. He really wanted to get down and run.

There are plenty more pictures on fb if you just havent gotten enough.

Fluffy white stuff.

2009-12-19T16:26:00.004-05:00

Pictures from today's big snow...it hasn't stopped yet.

Noah looking out the front door not sure what to make of it.

The back yard.

The umbrella from Noah's picnic table /sandbox.

Our cars.

A little Friday cuteness.

2009-12-18T11:34:00.002-05:00

The morning cute ness.

Just went in to cover him up for his nap and this is what i found..my precious angel and his favorite blanket.

A Pre-Christmas package for Noah T.

2009-12-17T20:01:00.005-05:00

A pre-christmas package for Noah. Because some things ya just need before Christmas.

Like christmas ducks and books and dishes.

Thank you grandma and grandpa for all the neat stuff.

Noah's first snow

2009-12-13T11:55:00.004-05:00

One year ago.

2009-12-05T12:12:00.003-05:00

A year ago today my blog post was a flurry of excitement. Our offical Dec # was 7. Unoffically on this day were knew we were #5 and most likely #3. Oh how we prayed that we would see our sweet boy's face by christmas. My house had minimal christmas decorations and I didn't even want to bother celebrating I was tired of being without a child for the holidays I just needed to be a mom.

Today I sit here with my sweet boy snuggled in his crib napping, snow falling outside my window, the house is decorated and I can't wait until christmas day. This christmas I am a mom money is tight this year but we will squeeze every penny to make it a great 1st christmas for Noah. What is on my christmas list? Nothing i have the best gift ever and can't wait to see him open his presents.

This afternoon after nap and lunch we will bundle up and go experience his first snow. Noah Tamirat we love you so much and life is so much better with you in it.

Christmas is coming.

2009-12-02T11:03:00.004-05:00

Last year I was in total scrooge mood and wanted Nothing to do with Christmas. We did put up our tree but that was about it for decorations. I was sad that another Christmas was going by without us being a "family". This year I'm so excited for Christmas because we have our sweet boy and I just want to make this the best 1st Christmas ever for him. Here are a few pictures of Christmas so far.Noah in his Reindeer chair. A hug for the reindeer.
This ornament was purchased and hung on our tree last year. We care do you? Noah's 1st Christmas. Yes we know that technically its his second Christmas but they don't do Christmas in Ethiopia like we do so we are choosing to celebrate this as his first and he will just be a year behind on his ornaments.Look mommy I found Mickey Mouse.

Noah's First Thankgiving.

2009-11-27T11:32:00.005-05:00

We were very blessed this year to have good friends invite us to share thanksgiving with them when they heard we wouldn't be traveling to be with family. Noah did lots of eating and definitly enjoyed his first thanksgiving. Thank you Monica, John, Cathy and Cayla we had a great day. And Noah thanks all your diggies (doggies ) to for running and playing with him. Now on to some holiday cuteness..We just got a new camara so now my blog posts will contain more of what everyone loves. Thanksgiving cuteness.

Here mom take my cup.

Digging for Blocks.

Ahh time for the feast.

Noah seriously enjoys his food.

We hope everyone enjoyed their holiday and took time to remember how blessed we all are.

A visit with Santa.

2009-11-24T18:28:00.003-05:00

Today Noah had his first visit with Santa. We saw one in the mall on Saturday and he waved and blew kisses but we didn't stop to visit. Today Sean was home from work and decided we should take Noah Tamirat for his 1st picture with the big man. He did great walked right up to Santa and touched him after waving and blowing kisses. And then the jolly not so fat guy went to pick him up and little man decided that wasn't cool and he turned and ran back to daddy. Sean and I weren't planning on having a family photo with Santa but Noah was not going to sit on his lap. Boy its been a long time since I sat next to Santa. Enjoy our family photo. We came home to eat a nice dinner of pot roast that had been cooking in the crock pot all day. Noah Tamirat was so happy to have daddy home all day he's going to enjoy this week of daddy on vacation.

My awesome boy.

2009-11-13T20:11:00.003-05:00

I find myself constantly in awe of Noah Tamirat. Each new thing he learns to do, how he just does things that we didn't know he could do I just watch in amazement as this little boy learns and grows and does new things everyday. When Noah came home my parents bought him a ring stacking toy but all he wanted to do was bang the rings on things and throw them around the room so along with some other toys the ring stacker got put away after several attempts to teach him the right way to use it. At 10 months old he didn't know how to "play" with toys. Today after a diaper change he grabbed the ring stacker off the shelf in his bedroom and carried it to the living room. I sat with him on the floor and dumped all the rings off and handed him the 1st one intending to reshow him what to do with them..well my son taught me something. For the next half hour he sat there and put the rings on and took them back off without needing any help from me. As if he has always known how to do this or had been doing it for months. He didn't always put them on in the proper order but thats ok. In the last couple months he has really started to "play" with toys in the way they were intended and I couldn't be more proud.
Other new tricks including wiping his face, helping put toys away, putting his dirty clothes in the hamper and helping turn lights off and on. My little boy is getting more independent and becoming my little helper. I'm so blessed to have this awesome little boy that calls me mommom.

Adoption is on peoples radar..

2009-11-09T11:23:00.003-05:00

So Saturday night Sean and I went out to do some Christmas shopping with Noah. We stopped at 5 guys for dinner and while Sean was getting the food I got us a table and put little man in a high chair. Not surprisingly the strap on the chair was broken and Noah was getting hungry (momma ran out of puffs in the diaper bag ..a big nono) so he was a little fussy and squirming around. An older lady that worked there was out cleaning tables and came over to talk to him . She was asking if he was unhappy in the chair at which point I explained that no he was just hungry and not patient about waiting for food. She asked how old he was to which i replied 16 months old At this point she asked if he had been with us since birth? I wasn't sure I heard her correctly so I asked her what and she came around to the side of the table I was on and asked if he had been with us long. To which I replied no he has only been with us 6 months he came home from Ethiopia at 10 months old. At this point she got a huge smile on her face and asked if we had gone over there to get him. I explained that we did indeed go to bring him home and stayed for 4 days and that it was a wonderful experience. She asked how he was doing since coming home and said that she loves to watch "Adoption Story" and see families traveling over seas and bring their little ones home.
I'm going to admit here that I just naturally thought people seeing me with Noah would assume that my husband must be black..how AWESOME that this woman's first thought went to adoption. How cool that shows like "adoption story" can bring a greater understanding and awareness to people. Not to mention that show is what put us in touch with AGCI ( the agency we used to bring Noah home).
November is National Adoption month so spread the word and do your part to help the worlds orphans.

A playdate.

2009-11-07T12:33:00.003-05:00

You may remember back in the summer Noah would have playdates at the baseball games with his "buddy" Jake. Well yesterday we got these two cuties togeather again. Jake and his mom came over to visit and see how the boys did togeather with actual toys involved. With two only children the sharing takes some work and Jake needs to prepare for daycare. Here are some pictures of the "fun" Hey Noah that chair looks comfy.

What do you see outside Noah?

Two little cuties.

Poor Jake. Noah didn't want to share his chair.

Overall I think it went ok. The typical toy snatching happened but everyone survived. We hope Jake will come and play again soon.

Our little Giraffe

2009-11-03T20:22:00.003-05:00

Our precious little Noah Tamirat on Halloween. I have waited along time for this and I got tears in my eyes when i saw him in his costume. We went trick or treating at a near by mall on Saturday afternoon so we didn't have to worry about the weather, being out after bedtime and the chance of bad candy. Not sure what he thought of trick or treating but he didn't seem to mind being a giraffe.

Wordless Wednesday & does anyone read this anymore?

2009-10-28T13:50:00.002-04:00

Pumpkin patch pictures.

2009-10-27T11:32:00.009-04:00

Finally the pumpkin patch pictures.

Heading for the fun.The toddler hay maze. Momma's lil punkin.

Saying hi to the bunnies. The Corn cave.

Chickens.

Noah thinks its great when the cow is licking him.

Driving the tractor.

Not ready for school yet.

The hay tunnel. Noah would have played in here all day.

The first hayride on our way out to the pumpkin patch.

I've got my pumpkin i'm ready to go.

6 months-Half a year.

2009-10-20T11:39:00.004-04:00

Wow is all I can say today. Noah Tamirat has been with us for 6months..half of a year. Its that magical time in the adoption world where they say everything should have fallen in place. I think for us things didn't just turn on like a switch overnight but they have been slowly progressing and right now I think we work well as a family. Noah knows the rules and takes great delight in breaking them and then smiling at you. Yeah we need to work on finding a method of discipline that will work for him. He's just to darn cute and he knows it.
Today also marks the day that our boy has been with us for as long as he was with his birth mom. She is never far from our minds and always in our hearts. I often wonder as I watch Noah Tamirat play or discover something new what would his birthmom think if she could see him now? Would she be happy and proud of the job we are doing raising him? I look at his precious face and see his birth mom reflected back at me its awesome that he will be able to grow up knowing who he looks like. How painful would it be for me if I had to let Noah go tomorrow? There are no words to describe how broken she must have been yet she had the strength to do what she must for her son. We know he was loved and wanted long before his birth not only by us but by his birth mom. What greater show of love then to give him a name that means "miracle"? He is definitely that to his daddy and both of his mommies. Saying goodnight and blowing kisses to a picture of his birth mom is part of his nightly routine and we will continue to tell him as he grows how much he was loved during his time with her.

Family Traditions.

2009-10-11T10:43:00.003-04:00

When I was younger thanksgiving and Christmas looked very different then they do now. In my married life our holidays are split between families and I have never cooked a holiday meal because we aren't home. I feel we don't really have any traditions because the way our families do things at the holidays are a little different then each other. I truly want Noah to have things he can look back on in his life and say "I did this every year with mommy & daddy". Things other then a drive to new york or Florida to visit extended family. Well yesterday I think our first family tradition was born. A visit to the pumpkin patch. I have heard other families talk about doing this and how fun it was so we decided we should take Noah to get his first pumpkin. Sean looked online and found a great place about a half hour away so after nap time yesterday we set out to the pumpkin patch. It was windy and starting to rain a little as we left so we grabbed the umbrella and bundled up good. By the time we got there all we had to deal with was the wind and it was even starting to warm up a bit.
They had some great things for kids of all ages and Noah loved being able to just run around and be free. I do take him outside to play but our yard just isn't that big so yesterday was awesome for him. And for a kid that hates hats he didn't even fuss about having his hood up all day. He played in the hay bale maze, the hay tunnel, the corn cave, the big slide and the hay jump pit. We fed goats, OK just one goat because he was rather aggressive and tried to eat us ha ha. We saw pigs, bunnies, a turkey, chickens, ducks, sheep, alpacas and baby cows. The turkey and Noah were trying to talk to each other but I'm not sure if they came to an understanding or not. Noah almost got licked in the head by the calf and thought it was great when the cow licked his hand. For some reason the cow wanted to pull my hand into his mouth. If you know our boy you know how much he likes to bang things so we were amazed at how well he did with the animals and he didn't even try to bang on the cages. By the time we got on the hayride out to the pumpkin patch Noah was getting worn out. He quickly found a pumpkin he could lift ( and roll and bounce) . Yes there was a little pumpkin abuse but only to the one that came home with us. He tried to bring a bigger one home but after grunting and groaning decided he couldn't lift it so there for he couldn't have it. Back to the barn to pay for the pumpkin and we were homeward bound. I think Noah was asleep before we got out of the parking lot. Grass stains on the knees and lots of dirt on the boy. It was an awesome day.

How does this happen?

2009-10-04T11:40:00.003-04:00

Before we left for Ethiopia we made a trip to BJ's and bought lots of baby and children's Motrin and Tylenol. Most of it went to Hannah's hope for donations but we did keep two bottles of Motrin and 1 of Tylenol for our use. While in Ethiopia that bottle of infant Motrin became a good friend. Noah had a cold and was also teething. Back home at some point bottle #1 got used up so knowing how good a friend it was you would think it immediately gets replaced. Not the case half way thru bottle #2 it was in my mind to get more on the next trip to bj's because you can get a pack of two and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Well you never seem to remember what ya need when your actually at the store right? So here we are 5 months and 6 teeth later and little man is screaming so momma comes running Daddy is nursing the last of the Motrin out of the bottle..ARE YOU KIDDING..what kind of parents are we that we ran out of our friend? So there we stand with the bottle tipped to the child's lips so he can get out the last remaining drops to sooth the pain and then off daddy goes to the drugstore and pays $10 for 1 bottle while mommy stays home to rock screaming child who by the way wanted mommy until the minute daddy walked out the door..Then guess who he wanted. Next time we go to BJ's guess what will be on the top of the list sweet friend Motrin we will never run out of you again I swear.

Some cheese to go with that Whine??

2009-10-02T13:46:00.003-04:00

Ok so now that nighttimes are awesome i'm wondering what happened to the days when I used to know that Noah was awake from a nap because I heard him playing and talking in his crib. I would walk in the room and when he noticed me he would reach up for me with a smile and a giggle. Now everyday I know he's awake by the screams and cries coming from his room. Needless to say i'm not happy about this little turn of events.
For the second day in a row he is increasingly whiny(perhaps a delayed reaction to his shots?) and has refused to eat lunch..no big deal He had breakfast we'll try again at dinner I won't be a parent that forces my child to eat. But please please please stop the whineing..he's now in the living room in his playpen while mommy has a time out in the bedroom..
Oh how i miss that sweet smiley face after bedtime.

15 months old ,5 months home

2009-09-26T12:10:00.003-04:00

Noah is 15 months old today. He has been home 5 months as of Thursday. So many changes for us and him and in such a short time but we are all doing amazingly well. Noah is now sleeping 10-10 1/2 hours a night and is down to 1 nap a day anywhere from 1-2 hours long. We have said goodbye to bottles and baby food. We are also in the process of getting tooth #12 ...fun times. Our boy is teaching us just as much as we are teaching him and everyday is just a new adventure as we journey from infant to toddlerhood. He brings more joy to our home and family then we ever thought possible.

*still no camara but hopefully soon we will be able to get one and have more new pictures of our handsome little man*

Sleep is a beautiful thing and say goodbye to babas.

2009-09-13T11:52:00.003-04:00

Since I don't have a camara right now there won't be any new pictures to post but I wanted to let everyone know whats new in our world. SLEEP. Yes thats right I said sleep. We are all getting more of it in the past week and its making us all happier people . How are we getting more sleep ? We have introduced noah to the sleep sense program. Instead of us rocking him to sleep at night with a bottle and then putting him in his crib he now goes in his crib and falls asleep in there with us in the room. We have been doing this program for 6 nights now gradually moving our chair further from his crib and he's doing awesome. Last night he slept for 10 hours straight which trust me is a beautiful thing.
He is also got tooth #10 half way in and we think #11 might not be far behind..yeah fun times. And huge news that would make his ped very happy we said goodbye to the babas. When we started the sleep program we realized that the only time he got a bottle was at nap or bed time and if he couldnt fall asleep with one then we might as well just say goodbye to them forever so for a week now we haven't had one and I think he's ok with that now. Its on to straight sippy cups and straw cups and time to pack up the bottles and send them to some babies in need. Perhaps they will find their way to Ethiopia to hannah's hope.

Wordless Wednesday.

2009-09-02T11:16:00.003-04:00

September already?

2009-09-01T10:30:00.004-04:00

So I look at the calender and its already Sept 1st, where did this summer go? The 4 months since we have been home from Ethiopia have flown by and I certainly didn't sleep them away. My baby is no more, Noah Tamirat is very much a toddler,a little boy, when and how did that happen? I touched on this briefly in my last post but when our company was here a couple weeks ago we took everyone out for Ethiopian food on Saturday. It was Sean's parents and grampy, my parents and niece and nephew and then Sean and I with Noah. Other then Sean, Noah and I none of them had any experience with Ethiopian food other then seeing pictures and here us talk about it. Most of them aren't very adventurous eaters and a couple are borderline picky eaters. I"m happy to say that everyone enjoyed their dinner and I'm so proud of my niece and nephew for going out of their comfort zone and giving it a try. Here are a few pictures.Mimi, Papap,Grandpa, Derek,Brandi, Mommom, Noah and Grampy.Grandpa, Grandma, Derek , Brandi, Mommom, Noah and GrampyNoah enjoying some lamb perhaps?

Enjoying Injera.

Noah ate everything he was given including spicy stuff and seemed to enjoy it all. I'm sure we will be going for Ethiopian food more often and hopefully we will be able to meet up with the local adoption group that gets togeather here every other month.

14 Months old

2009-08-26T10:34:00.005-04:00

Noah Tamirat is 14 months old today. My baby is becoming a big boy. Last week was a busy one for us. My parents and my niece and nephew were here for the week and then Sean's parents and grampy came on Saturday for a few hours. We went to the zoo,a baseball game, the ocean, washington DC and we took everyone out for Ethiopian food on Saturday night. Now we are trying to get back to normal. Noah has been very cuddly with mommy the past two days. Noah loved loved loved his cousins they had a great time playing togeather all week. It was great for him to see his grandparents again and to meet his mimi, pappap and grampy. He did very well with all the new faces and all the activity of the week. I"m sharing a few of our fav pictures if your on facebook there are three albums full for you to enjoy. Not sure why this is sideways because I flipped it on my computer

What can we say about Noah Tamirat that hasn't already been said. He is smart, funny, sweet, beautiful, loving. He makes me laugh and smile everyday, He also tires me out. Noah loves to explore and test the limits. He is loved by everyone that meets him. We love every thing about him and most of all the fact that he is our Son. Happy 14 month birthday to my little big man.

4 amazing months.

2009-08-20T09:05:00.004-04:00

April 20th,2009 August 19,2009

4 Months ago we became a family of three. We have come so far in such a short time and can't wait to see where the rest of this journey leads us. Noah has now officially been with us longer then he was at Hannah's Hope. Happy 4 month family day Noah Tamirat words can't describe how much of a blessing you are to our family.

A not so nice comment.

2009-08-12T15:04:00.004-04:00

So you knew it had to happen. It was brought to my attention that my post awhile back about the ignorant people at the zoo received a rude comment. I guess one of those people found my blog or maybe its just some other ignorant person that found what I said offensive. And of course they didn't leave their name but I would love for them to come back and explain how they came up with their ideas from reading my blog because clearly they can't read and they don't know me at all. So here is there comment.

Anonymous said...
Its clear you want a lot of attention and then complain when you get it!Other children are just as good as yours so don't run us over with your stroller.God bless your child but shame on you.
July 30, 2009 11:08 PM
And now for my reply. First off anyone that knows me and anyone that read and understood that post knows that the last thing I want is lots of attention...perhaps it wasn't clear that I asked for advice on how to handle UNWANTED attention. I"m in incredible shy person and keep to myself. If my blog is somehow mistaken for a way to "get attention" You can rest assured that this blog is for my son. Its the story of our journey to him and I continue to blog because others in the process might find some of what I write about to be useful in their own lives. I keep it real I don't gloss things over. Second of all I never implied that my child was better then anyone else's in fact the point of the post was that my son should be able to enjoy the exhibits at the zoo in a manner he was comfortable with. He shouldn't have to be touched or stared at or have his view obstructed by others. And yes God did bless my child but rest assured he also bless my husband and I beyond measure with the gift of our son.

And just so everyone knows I didn't write this because the comment was offensive or upsetting to me I did so because I found it funny.

In other news my parents are coming on Friday with my niece and nephew. I can't wait for my parents to see how much Noah has grown and changed since he's been home and I know my niece and nephew can't wait to meet the "baby cousin" they have been waiting for years to have. Sean's parents and grampy will be coming to town right after my family leaves so it will be nice for Noah to meet his Mimi and Pappap and his only great grandparent. The rest of this month will be busy busy busy.

Our busy weekend.

2009-08-03T10:57:00.004-04:00

As most of August will be busy we started the month out no different. Wait is it August already?? Where had the summer gone.
On Saturday we took Noah to his first football training camp. GO RAVENS Noah and Daddy rockin the purple.

Watching some football and checkin out the crowd.

Daddy watches while noah picks (eats) grass.

That intense look. He probable had some grass in his mouth or about to go in.

Daddy and Noah with Capt D Fence.

Sunday evening we went to a birthday party for Inta who is being adopted from Latvia by good friends of ours. Noah got his first experience swimming and he loved it.

Just the legs and a little splashing.

Swimming with Jen. He did great considering he had only met her once before in what can only be termed an overwhelming time for him. No fussing here but he did keep an eye on mommy or daddy.

Noah with Inta (birthday girl). Two lives that will forever be changed by the miracle of adoption.

More splashing

Trying to drink the water.

He would have stayed in that pool all night if we let him. I only wish we had a place closer to take him swimming.

What a busy and fun summer weekend.

A really good day.

2009-07-29T10:11:00.005-04:00

Sometimes my posts are all about the trying times so today I want to post a happy one. Yesterday was a really really fun day with Noah Tamirat. From 1:30am to 7am he slept without waking up. Yes 5 1/2 hours of uninterrupted sleep we have NEVER gotten that before and i'm sure we won't get it again soon but it was awesome. He was very cute and cuddly all morning, the kind of morning that makes daddy hate to leave for work.

We had a delightfully messy breakfast which included his first graham crackers. This was followed up with a bottle and a two hour nap.

We played peek a boo with the blanket He really enjoyed this game. He ate lunch and took an afternoon nap of about an hour and a half.

Mommom had to peek in on her sleeping angel. You can't tell really well in this picture but he was holding the handle of his photo album as he slept. This is the photo album we sent to Ethiopia for him and it was always in his crib. Now it stays in his crib at home.

And this is what I found when I went to get him out of his crib after nap time. He had been sitting looking at his photo album and he got up with a huge smile when he saw me.

I think I need to lower my expectations of Noah Tamirat when things seem to be going badly. I need to remember that although he is 13 months old he has only been with us for 3 months and things are probable going alot better then we think they are. Its always nice when people comment on how well he seems to be adjusting and how happy he looks. I think sometimes we get lost in what we think should be happening and we miss out on how well we are doing as a family.

The Zoo

2009-07-24T10:47:00.006-04:00

Ok so after my last post I think I left people thinking we had a terrible day at the zoo which isn't true it wasn't all bad. Noah did sleep thru alot of the zoo, it was hot, flat counters are not changing stations and rude people are no fun but there is some good in all of it. Before Noah fell asleep he got to see a cow, donkeys, goats (starting to feel like Ethiopia?). He also saw llamas, lions, tigers (fell asleep before the bears), elephants, orangutans, prairie dogs and turtles. These pictures are for you grandpa. Noah Tamirat pets his first cow.

See the llama's behind that fence. Noah thought it was cute to spit at them. I had to warn my dear sweet child that mama loves llamas and has never been spit on by one but if they choose to spit back at him I was going to leave him in that llama pen for the rest of the day haha.

Transitions update and so much more.

2009-07-21T10:08:00.004-04:00

So many things to write about all in one post. First I will start with an update on my last post. As I said we are going thru alot of transitions for Noah Tamirat. At this point he is completly off formula and drinking milk from the bottle. We went against only doing milk in the sippy cup as the docter suggested because we don't think he's ready to give up the bottle at nap and bed times. He is drinking water mainly from a sippy cup during the day occasionally from the bottle. He also gets water in the bottle in the middle of the night if he wants it. We are doing a pretty equal split right now of baby food and table food. We moved him up to stage three foods to get him used to more textures and he is doing very well. Noah will eat pretty much anything you put in front of him. Even carrots and peas which he hated in the stage 1 baby foods he will now eat in the stage 3 or table food. We seem to have taken a step backwards in the napping and sleeping for some reason so we will work our way back to better nights again at some point.
Here are a couple pictures as promised of Noah at his friend Victoria's first birthday party and a few at the duck pond.

Hating the birthday hat.Stealing the birthday girl's shoe.

Eating the bread that is supposed to be for the ducks. Noah Tamirat loves the slide.

And sometimes enjoys the swings.

And now a Public Service Announcement for the people at the zoo.

1. We are just a family no different from anyone else so feel free to stare at all those animals in cages and ignore us. After all aren't the animals what you paid money to see.

2.For the man in the elephant house who thought it was ok to ask his daughter if she wanted to hold Noah's hand and then proceeded to move closer and rub her arm against his hand. 1) Maybe its not ok with me if your child is touching mine and 2) everytime you do that he's pulling his hand away so clearly he doesnt want to be touched. Now move away and let us get back to enjoying the elephants.

3.To the child who stepped in front of the stroller at the tortoise exhibit I asked you nicely to move so please don't feel it necessary to whine to you parent so that they can shoot me dirty looks. To the adult that stepped in front of the stroller at the same exhibit I hope the tire mark on your ankle reminds you how rude you were I'm sure you could have seen the exhibit without blocking my son's view.

4. To the lady who found it necessary to stare at us while we were enjoying our ice cream and the baby was sleeping. I'm not sure what your issue was maybe you were jealous that you didn't have ice cream, maybe you were lonely,,maybe you thought we had stolen this child (because we would definitly do that and then sit around the zoo eating ice cream waiting to see if we got caught). Whatever your issue I feel sad that your so ignorant that you would sit and stare at a family just trying to enjoy their time togeather.

5. To the family behind us in line at the panda exhibit. First of all its HOT stand back and give others some breathing room. Your stroller up my butt is not going to get you into the panda house any quicker. Secondly it's clear i'm trying to keep my stroller moving so that I can get my child to nap its not ok for you to let your child keep creeping up around me to the point i have to stop moving my stroller so she can gawk at my child. Perhaps I should have went about what I was doing and hit her with the wheels and then you would have stopped worrying so much about who was spilling the popcorn and paid more attention to your child bothering others. She'll never learn about boundries and personal space from you thats clear.

6. To the family who let your child come charging up to the front of our stroller and then just stand there again I should have run over your child. Not because I don't like children but because someone needs to teach them not to be rude and if you don't then I will gladly do so.

So that about sums it up for today. It was hot at the zoo and lots of hills made me tired and perhaps a little grouchy. For just one day I wanted to be a family and not the side show for someone's circus. I'm not a person that likes alot of attention so the staring and comments when we are out in public bother me probable more then they do Sean. So for you other adoptive mom's & dad's with your beautiful Ethiopian children..How do you handle it day after day because I know your going thru this as well. Leave me a comment or email me PLEASE.

Transitions.

2009-07-13T11:13:00.004-04:00

So what's new in our world? Well we are going thru some transitions with Noah. We have cut him down from 5-6 bottles of formula a day to 3. Starting today we are working on going from formula to whole milk so we are doing half & half in those 3 bottles until we run out of formula. It was suggested that we start him on the whole milk in the sippy cup but I don't think we are ready to give up the bottle at nap and bedtimes yet. We are doing water in the sippy cup during the day and we will give him water in a bottle at night if he needs something after the formula.
We are also trying to cut out baby foods and go completly to table foods. This is going well considering that up until the time he came home with us ( a little over two months ago ) the only thing he was eating was formula and some rice cereal. The sleep thing at night still isn't consistent but we are getting some good sleep nights mixed in with the not so good so we have definitly seen enough progress to keep us from being in total despair.
Noah is definitly showing signs of being comfortable in his home and testing his limits, we have also seen good signs that he is attached to us which other people have noticed as well.
So thats it for our crazy life right now. Soon I will have pictures of Noah at the first birthday party he has attended. My friends little girl turned 1 on Saturday.

Our holiday weekend.

2009-07-06T15:20:00.004-04:00

We stayed home for the 4th of July but we did see fireworks on the 3rd at the baysox game. Here is mommy & Noah riding the carousel at the baysox.

On Sunday Noah got to meet more of his relatives. Aunt Kera, Uncle Ryan and his cousins Christian and Camden came for a visit. Unfortunetly we didn't get any pictures of Aunt Kera and Uncle Ryan with Noah.
One of the many attempts at a photo of the cousins.

Noah Tamirat and Camden Cheesin for the camara.

Camden is a couple months younger then Noah so it will be fun to watch them play togeather as they grow up.

* An update on my last post*. We have had a couple really good sleep night and a couple not so good. For now we are just keeping some advice in mind other advice we have laughed at and we will just do what we feel is best. The couple really good nights have given us hope that we can keep going without trying to cry it out which I know i'm not ready for and I don't think Noah is either.

Busy day ,Horrible night.

2009-07-02T09:54:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was a busy day. It was time for Noah Tamirat's 1 year check up at the docter which we knew would include more shots. Before the doctor Sean came home and we went over to his job so all his co-workers could meet Noah. This was a big deal since his co-workers had a shower for us and Noah has been in the company newletter twice already they were all excited to meet him. Of course Noah loved all the attention and even let people hold him for short amounts of time never taking his eyes off mommy or daddy. All to soon it was off to the doctors.

Noah is growing very well and appears to be healthy. All his lab work came back fine and the shots he had in Ethiopia are fine so thats 3 less shots he is going to need here. Yesterday's visit however did include two. He cried thru both which broke my heart and I had to grab a lollypop on the way out ( stressful for momma). Of course his doctor wants us to put him on whole milk as soon as we finish the formula we have and also to start getting him off bottles. We have been trying him out with sippy cups but so far not much progress. Another thing she said is no more formula bottle at night at his age he doesn't need it if he wakes up give him a bottle of water. Ok no problem the bottle might just be for comfort so we can switch to water easy peasy lemon squeezy right?? WRONG. Yes big fat capital letters WRONG.

About quarter to 2 Noah woke up so I went in and handed him the bottle of water, layed him back down and rubbed his tummy for a minute then put the blanket on him and left the room. Before I was even back in bed he was standing in the crib crying. So I went and took him out of the crib and changed his diaper, put him back in layed him down with the bottle of water, rubbed his tummy covered him up and left the room. Lets keep in mind with a bottle of formula this is all I need to do and then he falls back to sleep. I get in bed he's screaming and whailing again. Sean is awake so we said lets see if he'll work it out on his own. We waited, he screamed, we waited , he screamed..momma started crying..it was gettin ugly..I couldn't do it any longer. I got up and took him out onto the couch and layed him in my arms with the bottle. He would just about fall asleep and then wake up crying again. I tried bringing him in bed to see if the comfort of being near us would help..no go still screaming at this point its about 2:30 in the morning and he was very upset(so was momma). I gave up I went and made him a bottle of formula and brought it back to bed with us. Noah drank about 6 oz' and fell back to sleep at which time sean carried him to his crib and layed him down and all was right in his little world. Momma was left feeling horrible. Clearly the kid was hungry and I let him cry and scream because the doctor said he doesn't need a bottle in the middle of the night. How is this good for bonding to not give him what he needs?

So years from now when you see me on Nanny 911 still rocking or holding Noah while he falls asleep and still giving him a bottle in the middle of the night , still not sleeping for more then 3 hours in a row remember this post. I don't think cry it out will ever happen in this house i'm not strong enough and i'll gladly give up sleep for my son to be happy. And now i'm gonna leave you with a picture because pictures make us all feel better.

Birthday Pictures.

2009-06-28T11:45:00.004-04:00

Time to share a few pictures of Noah's birthday. For those of you on Facebook there are a ton of pictures there to check out. These are just a few of my favorites. Noah Tamirat's birthday was friday but we didn't do cake and presents until Saturday. Friday in his traditional Ethiopian outfit with his stool from Ethiopia.Sandbox fun. This has a picnic table attached and was his big present from momma & daddy. He spent about an hour in this and loved it. New car purchased with birthday money from Mimi, PapPap and grampy.

Fun with cake.

Noah Tamirat had a great first birthday with Mommy and Daddy. Maybe next year we'll have a bigger party with family and friends but I think this was the best choice for birthday #1.

Happy 1st Birthday.

2009-06-26T10:08:00.002-04:00

Today is Noah Tamirat's first birthday.

One year ago today Sean and I were on our way home from a fun vacation in Tennesee. We were praying that our homestudy would be waiting in our mailbox so we could mail our dossier to AGCI and finally get a spot on that waitlist. It seemed so long ago that we had signed contracts with them. Our case manager had told us before we left to try not to think about things and just enjoy our vacation but our son was never far from our mind. We wondered about him and his birth mom constantly. Little did we know that on the day we were traveling home to Maryland he was being born in Ethiopia. Did his mom have any idea at this time that her son would be raised far away in a different country?

We are so blessed to have been given the gift of Noah Tamirat. He is our joy.

12 things about Noah

1. He is very strong willed & determined. I hope this serves him well later in life

2. He is very curious. We are hoping this leads him to amazing discoveries and not into trouble

3. He is a good eater. Noah is still eating mainly formula and baby food but he also eats some table food and we haven't found anything he won't eat. He likes chicken, olives, grapefruit, cheese, oranges..

4. He loves his bathtime and we can't wait to see how he likes his pool.

5. He is a happy & loud boy

6. He is already becoming a baseball fan. We turn the tv on to the orioles game and he screams..not sure if they are cheers or screams of frustration. He wouldn't be the first orioles fan to scream in frustration i'm sure.

7. He is very loving. We cuddle alot and he gives kisses more freely.

8. He loves mommy & daddy. He might go to others for a brief time but he doesn't want mom or dad out of his sight for long.

9. He has grown so much in the 2 short months he's been with us.

10. He took his first steps on May 18th just a couple days short of 11 months old and 2 days short of being with us for a month. I told Almaz it wouldn't be long

11. He is so loved by everyone that meets him

12. He is our beautiful, determined,strong willed, loving, ,happy, excitable, wonderful little big man

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOAH TAMIRAT we can't wait to celebrate many more with you.

A playdate at the Baysox.

2009-06-22T10:39:00.009-04:00

We don't have many friends with children Noah's age so since he left Hannah's Hope he hasn't played with many kids. However we are lucky enough to have some friends we met at the baseball stadium so Noah gets a playdate with his new buddy Jake. I hope these guys grow up to be good friends and love baseball. The following is what happens when you try to get two active little boys to pose for a picture. Jake checkin out Noah.

Where's Jake?

Noah what are you doing down there?

Jake come and eat this book with me.

I think there are some pretty cute pictures here. We will keep trying for that perfect pose.

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-21T08:46:00.005-04:00

I want to wish a happy Father's day to all the special men that have been and are in Noah Tamirat's life. And a happy fathers day to two of my fav guys my dad and my husband. I'll leave you with a few pictures..because everyone loves pictures.A Couple people from Hannah's Hope that were very special to Noah Tamirat.Noah's first picture with Grandpa (my dad).
Noah and Daddy at a baseball game. Happy 1st fathers day babe love you. Daddy happy fathers day don't know how many this is but hope you have many more. And happy fathers day to the men at Hannah's Hope who love our children but don't always get the recognition and thanks that the special mommies get.

From Ethiopia to America. What a difference a couple months makes.

2009-06-19T14:49:00.004-04:00

I'm sure this post doesn't need much explanation. Tomorrow will be two months since we held Noah Tamirat for the first time. As you can see he was very serious.

At home our very smily fun loving little boy.

All Gods Children International.

2009-06-16T13:35:00.005-04:00

"The greatest experience, the one which shakes a soul with hope and fear,the results of which are never ending and incidentally, the one which pays the biggest dividends, is to be found in the adoption of children"

Ok so i'm doing this post now for a couple reasons
1. I don't think I have ever done a post about our agency or how we choose them
2. I have received alot of questions about AGCI on other website
3. Someone left me a blog post asking about them but didn't leave me a way to get back to them so i'm hoping they will come back and read this post.

I don't think we choose AGCI as much as I feel we were led to them. I first heard of them soon after we had started the discussion that we might need to adopt in order to complete our family. I was watching an episode of Adoption Story on TLC and a family was adopting a child from Guatamala thru AGCI. Everything about this episode drew me in so much that I thought for sure our child would be waiting for us in Guat and that this was the agency for us. I got on their website right away and requested an information packet. I joined adoption forums that related to Guatamala adoptions and started researching everything I could about that process. However it wasn't the right time for us to start the process. During the wait I continued to research I checked out one other agency that totally felt wrong (for very good reason ) we talked about domestic adoptions, we looked into foster care adopt none of these were right for us we knew international adoption was what we were being called to do. Around the time we were getting more serious I again contacted AGCI. I received another information packet in the mail and since my first contact with them they had started a new country program. There were many rumors about Guatamala shutting down so as we looked into what other programs AGCI had to offer their newest program Ethiopia seemed to be the perfect fit.

Thru this process is was made clear to me that none of this happens in our time, its god's timeing, his plan we just need to follow and be patient. He led us to AGCI not to adopt from Guatamala but to know our agency when the time came, He brought the Ethiopia program around at the time we were prepared to start our process , he knew from the start that our child would be waiting for us there. What an incredible ride it was and I"m so glad we choose to follow where we were being led.

Learning new things.

2009-06-14T21:59:00.004-04:00

Since bringing Noah Tamirat home our lives have changed alot in some way and not so much in others. I had experience with young children either nieces and nephews,friends children or ones I babysat for when I was younger so some stuff was new to me and some wasn't. Over all I think this mommy thing is going well.
I never knew that a baby's finger nails grow so much faster then an adults we cut them at least once if not twice a week. Kind of crazy. I never imagined that changing diapers wouldn't bother me..ok so i'm not saying its my favorite thing to do but really its not as bad as changing the diaper of a child thats not yours. I just want to do everything I can to make sure our son is happy and that includes changing stinky,wet diapers. If you want to become a parent for the first time take the patience you have for other children and multiply it by at least 3...if you can handle that much patience your well on your way to full time parenthood. Seriously everytime I'm almost at my limit somehow I look into his eyes and find a little bit more to give because I love him so much.

Noah Tamirat is growing and changing everyday and not a day goes by that he doesn't make me laugh. Of course there are also days he makes me want to cry and rip out my hair. He definitly knows right from wrong and is testing boundries on a daily basis. He will look right at your with his adorable smile as he's doing something you just told him 2 seconds ago not to do.

He's to stinkin cute and he knows it.

I think I expected us to get looks when we are out in public with him, I was even partially prepared for comments because lets face it two white parents and a african child is not your typical family make up. What I didn't expect is how much attention he would get. I know babies get attention ,women will glance at them or say they are cute sometimes but seriously we can't leave the house without being told several times how cute or beautiful he is..men, women, white, black makes no difference this kid draws them in like flys to the point that you almost want to disappear and just live as invisable people. Noah now says mama and dada but we still don't think he knows who he's supposed to say them to. He has pretty much said dada since we came home mama is new. We'll keep working on it. For now i'll leave you with a couple pictures of the boy who draws attention everywhere he goes.

Ethiopia Day 5 Our last day.

2009-06-09T21:14:00.002-04:00

Our last day in Ethiopia. Today we intended to hang out alot at the hotel and hope Noah Tamirat got some good naps in before the long journey to America. We were more then ready to get home and start our life as a family of 3 but did our little guy really have any idea what was about to happen today? We went over to Hannah's Hope for a little bit in the morning and this is what happened when one of the special mothers came outside and saw Tamirat.

She scooped him right up and took him inside. This is where Daddy found him when he went looking. One last time to play I really don't think he understood that he would never see them again.

About 5 minutes before we were leaving for the airport we walked back over to Hannah's Hope with another family in our travel group to get the traditional family picture in front of the gate that neither of us had gotten during the week. Thank you Allen & Sarah for taking our photo.

Here is a picture of Noah Tamirat with one of the drivers from Hannah's Hope Danny. We learned that these two had a very close bond. We were sitting on the steps at the hotel when Danny brought a couple people back from shopping and as soon as he saw us he called out to Tamirat. Its a good thing i had my arm around his waist because his little arms and legs started going and he was squealing in excitement. Danny jumped right out of the van and ran up the steps saying "tami tami tamirat" oh how happy my little guy was. We had to get this photo of Noah with his two favorite Danny's

When we were leaving for the airport and Danny said goodbye to Tamirat I think he finally realized that he was leaving and not going to see this place or these people again. He got the saddest look in his eyes and just started wailing. I recognized that look because it is the same one I saw in the eyes of his birthmom when she said goodbye to him. What a heartbreaking moment for our little guy and my heart was broken for him. The trip to the airport was a bit of a blur..Noah was asleep in my lap and I was just trying to take in our last moment in Ethiopia. All of a sudden we were there and unloading luggage, saying goodbye to johannes and making our way inside. After going thru security we made our way to the checkin desk and things slowly went down hill..let me remind you it was late so already well beyond the time that we were tired and just wanted to sleep. The baby woke up hungry and crabby from being sick and teething. I couldnt juggle him and luggage and a bottle so he pretty much had to cry until we could get rid of our bags and I could feed him. Yes this made me look like a horrible mom and I was getting lots of looks. But wait it gets even worse we got upstairs to our gate and went thru security there and they pulled Sean aside..apprently we had to much birr and we couldnt bring it all with us so there was a big to do and next thing i know someone is taking him away and all they said was "he come with us we be right back" I had no idea where they were taking him or why they were taking him away. I was hot and tired and the baby was having a melt down. He bit me several times and wouldn't stop crying and yes at this point I had a melt down I was scared and frustrated and left alone with a fussy baby and I am forever grateful to the couple that stepped in to help me out. I have no idea what their names were or what agency they were adopting thru but they truly were a god send. They sat with me until Sean came back . The ladies husband talked to the person at the ticket counter to find out where they would have taken him so he could calm me down, he walked with Noah to give me a break...I will most likely never see or hear from these people again but I hope they know how much I appreciate everything they did for me that night and I hope their lives are richly blessed for the kindness that they showed to me.

Sean did come back and we boarded that plane and never was I happier to be on my way home. Noah slept thru all take offs and landing and actually slept thru the entire layover in rome. When he was awake it was typical 10month old behavior of not wanting to be confined to a seat and wanting to yank out and toss everything in the seat backs. Over all I don't think he did bad on the flights. We were very jet lagged by the time we landed at Dulles on Friday and were very thankful for the quick trip thru immigration and happy to see my parents waiting for us.

Ethiopia day 4 Final post.

2009-06-04T11:21:00.006-04:00

The last post for Day 4 finally. I told you this was a busy day for us so I felt it needed many posts. Our last stop for the day was the cultural dinner. I will start by saying if this was just any dinner we probable would have skipped it due to the fact that Noah Tamirat had been congested all week and was now cutting two teeth so not in the best of moods. Not to mention this would go well into bedtime. However we felt that this was an important thing for us to experience with him to learn more about his culture and to taste the foods and we are so happy we went. I'll share some pictures from the eveningNoah Tamirat with Almaz. Sometime before he spilled her drink on the floor I guess. She did tell us he's a handful and a bit of a trouble maker. We could tell she was very fond of him .This beautiful woman worked at the restaurant. At one point I looked up and she was walking around with Noah Tamirat. Almaz assured me this was fine. The food. Not sure what it all was since Almaz ordered but it was all very tasty.

Noah Tamirat hanging out with Danny. He decided he was going to grab some injera and actually ate some later in the evening. He had a very close bond with Danny.
Mommy and Tamirat enjoying the music and Dancing.Some of the amazing dancers. We have most of it on video so we can show Noah as he grows up.

What an amazing evening. Tamirat fell asleep on the way to the hotel so we had to gently change him into jammies and lay him in bed.

*coming soon (hopefully) our last day in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia Day 4 part 2, Paperwork and saying goodbye to special mothers.

2009-06-03T14:05:00.005-04:00

Ok so this part of the day has been a long time coming to get posted. We had to be back at Hannah's Hope at 2pm to receive our children's passports and packet of paperwork that we would need at immigration and to get instructions on what to do with everything and more importantly what not to do (lose it or open it). We were told that we should come back to Hannah's Hope around 6pm because the nighttime special mothers really wanted a chance to say goodbye to the children and we would be leaving for our cultural dinner at 6:30.

Here are a few pictures of the amazing,beautiful women that loved Noah Tamirat for the 4 months that he was at Hannah's Hope. I am for ever grateful for all the love and care they gave him.

11 months old.

2009-05-27T08:55:00.002-04:00

Ok so I haven't forgotten that I need to finish my trip report I hope to get to that real soon. I also didn't forget that yesterday was the little prince's 11 month birthday. I had planned to do a blog post last night in honor of him but we had some throwing up issues at bedtime and he spent time sleeping on mommy and on the couch so I never got to it.

In the last two nights we have seem some improvement with sleep so we are hopeful that we are getting ready to turn that corner and get back to where we were the first couple weeks with him. He is slowly starting to stand and walk more but does still prefer the crawl. I have also noticed he is starting to turn the pages of books better and is getting the idea of how to play with certain toys other then just banging and throwing them so we are making some progress.
On Monday he had his first trip to the zoo and managed to see some animals before falling asleep. Being a mom is the bestest job in the world even when i'm completly exhausted I love this little guy more then anything in the world.

One month ago.

2009-05-20T08:21:00.006-04:00

Just one month ago we were in a very different place. We woke up at the Union in Addis Ababa Ethiopia knowing that our son was just a short distance away. This morning we woke up in our own (much more comfortable)bed at home in Maryland to the sound of our son in the next room. How long and short this past month has been. For a week or so Noah Tamirat has taken a step here and there but on Monday he officially became a walker he took several steps togeather. He doesn't like to do it when anyone is watching so no pictures or video and he still prefers the crawl. Here are pictures of some of our firsts. First car seat ride. Went rather well.Meeting the dog. First family photo. I think we look a bit dazed and confused. First time playing in his room.First sleep in the crib at home..he looks so tiny.First taste of baby food. (he had cereal in Ethiopia but thats it) he loves his bananas. The only things he seems to not like are peas and carrots. Any other veggie is fine and he loves fruits.First bath with momma & daddy. Yes this didn't take place until we got him home. The hot water situation in our room at the Union was unpredictable so he didn't get a real bath there. He loves bathtime.

First ride in the stroller.

There have been many other firsts for him and everything is new for us but we are doing well and slowly settling in to family life.

Ethiopia Day 4 part 1..the birthmom meeting.

2009-05-14T19:19:00.006-04:00

Ok so here we are on our next to last day in Ethiopia..Wednesday was an emotionally charged busy day. I have given alot of thought to how I would talk about this day on my blog and what pictures I would post. The first thing on our agenda today was of course the birthmom meeting and we have decided that we will not post any pictures of her online. We do have them in our house but other then that they are Noah Tamirats.

So when we arrived in Ethiopia we were given a schedule for the week. We were happy to see that we did indeed have a birthmom meeting scheduled as did a few other families from our agency. Our meeting was schedule for 11am so the morning was a little bit tense. Noah Tamirat fell asleep not long before it was time to leave for Hannah's Hope so we ended up carrying a sleeping baby down all those stairs and over the rocky path. When we got there nobody was outside (babies were all inside for naps) so we just sat out in the shade and waited. Almaz came out and said that she didn't know how things would go because of the two earlier meetings one birthmom showed up and the other one they waited for but she didn't come. I silently said a prayer that she would have the courage to come so that we could meet her and share more about her with Noah later on. Sean was walking around taking pictures and I had my back to the gate when he came over and said she is here lets go. We walked into Almaz' office and I had butterflies in my stomach. Noah was now awake and I just stood and waited for his birthmom to come in. I handed Noah Tamirat to her and he went without a fuss. I'm not sure if he remembered her or if it was just a brown face like his so he was ok but i'm so happy for her sake that she was able to hold him again. His birthmom is a beautiful young woman and I see alot of her in Tamirat . It was very clear how much she loved him by the look on her face.

Noah played on the floor while we asked our questions . We didn't get all the answers we wanted but we got the important ones and we can talk to him about those when he is old enough to understand. We could tell his mom wanted to know us and know our faces but she didn't want us to see her looking so we tried to focus on Almaz and on Noah. I was perfectly willing to let her study the faces of the family that would be raising her child. Almaz gave her the photo album we brought and read the letter we wrote and you could see her overwelming emotions. I held it togeather the best I could hoping it would make it easier on everyone if i wasn't a blubbering mess. After we had our questions answered we went outside and took pictures of Tamirat with his birthmom and then of all of us togeather. We went back into the office and hugged his birthmom and said goodbye I whispered thank you and we love you(not sure if she understood but I had to say something) and then waited as Almaz walked her to the gate. We know from another family that saw this it was a very emotional time for his birthmom. We will always keep this amazing woman in our prayers, we know that she loved Tamirat very much long before he was born . When we asked why she named him what she did we were told because he was her "miracle" it was always her dream to have a child. That was the first question she answered and it tore my heart out because I have also always dreamed of having a child and I can't imagine the pain it causes to give him up. Someday we hope to bring him back to Ethiopia to see his birthmom if he wants to..We know this is her dream as well. After the meeting was over we talked with Almaz a little bit and then left to go back to the hotel to unwind. Noah needed a nap and we needed to process everything that had happened. We had to be back at Hannah's Hope at 2 to go over more paperwork.

Back at the hotel Daddy & Noah took naps. I was sitting looking out the window just thinking about his birthmom and the pain she must be feeling and it all became to much and I finally broke down. Sean was awake at this point and we just hugged and let me cry it out. I went to dry my eyes and then came back to the window as Sean was telling me to look out. Noah Tamirats birthmom was walking past our hotel. I truly belive this was a sign from god. He knew that I was thinking about her and my heart was hurting for her and to see her one more time as she walked past our hotel was a true blessing. Noah Tamirat's beautiful birthmom will always be part of our family.

*next up part 2. paperwork and some more amazing women that loved my son before I did.*

Ethiopia day 4. Shopping

2009-05-12T09:49:00.011-04:00

Ok what a wild night it was last night. Our first night with Noah Tamirat. We decided that for a couple different reasons the moses basket in the room wasnt going to work for him and he would have to sleep in bed with us. Well he's congested and would only let us get saline drops in one side of his nose(ok we could have pressed the issue but it was our first night with him and I didn't want him to feel tortured). He slept like a wild man all over the place. At one point he was sitting up and even crawling across the bed sound asleep.
Today is our shopping day. I'm excited about buying gifts for Noah Tamirat from him country but not happy about leaving him at Hannah's Hope for the day. I knew he would receive excellent care but how would he be when we picked him up? Would he be happy to be left there?
We walked over to Hannah's Hope and of course the special mothers were happy to get their hands back on these kids...they love them all so much. Almaz told me to just sit Noah down on a blanket and he started to crawl towards me and cry when I did. Broke my heart and I almost gave up the shopping trip to stay with him.
Have I told you how hot it is in Ethiopia..Seriously so much hotter then I thought it was going to be. So off we go to shop.Here is our travel group with Johannes at the art gallery/italian restaurant where we ate lunch after shopping. At this point I think alot of us just wanted to get back to Hannah's Hope and get our babies. I know I was completly exhausted and it was still early afternoon. The food was good and we did buy a small painting that maybe i'll post a picture of someday.
When we got back to Hannah's Hope we found Noah Tamirat already bathed and in jammies upstairs in a rocker.

How cute is he in his jammies back at the hotel with the new hat and drum that mommy& daddy bought him?

Hanging out with daddy before bed. They spent alot of time sitting in front of these huge windows just watching life go by. I think this is the night we all fell asleep around 5pm We woke up about an hour later and were able to get saline drops in his nose so he slept much better tonight.

*coming up day 5. Birthmom meeting, final paperwork meeting with almaz, saying goodbye to nighttime special mothers and cultural dinner.*

Happy Mother's Day.

2009-05-10T21:36:00.002-04:00

I have waited for many years to celebrate this day and today I did so with a heavy heart. Today is not just my first mothers day it is the first mothers day for my son's beautiful birthmom. The difference is there was no card and present for her, no hugs and kisses and smiles from her beautiful son. I'm not sure they celebrate Mother's day in Ethiopia but his birthmom was certainly in our thoughts and prayers today. Happy mother's day to me and to her and to all the special mommies at Hannah's Hope that love our children so much until they come home to us.

Ethiopia day 3 part 2

2009-05-07T20:41:00.005-04:00

So this is the walk we took after meeting you. This is the path from Hannah's Hope to the union hotel.

The gate to our hotel.The Union. We were on the 3rd floor room 305. Thats alot of stairs mommy and daddy climbed.Soon it was time to go back and get you for our embassy appointment from this time on you would be with us always. The walk back to Hannah's Hope is a bit of a blur. I was wondering how you would react to us now. The special mothers brought you out to us and you were a little fussy but Almaz said you needed a bottle and they would bring you one out. You were bottle #30. I took you over into the shade and Daddy got your bottle because I thought it best that you not see your special mommies again right away. The ride to the embassy appointment was an adventure for me. In america we can't just ride with babies on our laps and the driving in Ethiopia is a little scary. I held onto you for dear life. You were busy staring out the window at everything going on. Showing us your curious nature. The embassy appointment went smoothly and quickly and soon we were back at the hotel. We had the rest of the afternoon and evening to just hang out and get to know you.

Daddy gives you a baba..your world revolves around the baba.Kisses from Daddy. You seem to really love Daddy. He can make you smile and giggle.You enjoyed just being in a diaper and playing with toys. We enjoyed just watching you play amazed at how beautiful you are. After you fell asleep we went downstairs to eat some dinner. Mommy ate her first meal with a sleeping baby in her arms. We got to visit a little bit with some of our travel group which was fun because up to this point we hadn't had alot of time to get to know them.

Ethiopia day 3. Meeting Noah Tamirat.

2009-05-05T21:07:00.003-04:00

Taken from my travel journal written as notes to Noah Tamirat.

"We woke up this morning and couldn't wait for it to be time to meet you. From one of the windows in the hotel we could see the back side of Hannah's Hope so we knew it was just a short walk away. A view from the back window of our hotel. Hannah's Hope is on the right hand side sort of towards the top just above the tree line.
Almaz came around 9am to do some paperwork and go over the plans for the week. Our travel group doing paperwork.Sean completing our paperwork.

Finally it was time to take the walk to Hannah's Hope. I can't even describe how I felt in the moment. I just kept reminding myself to take deep breaths. I wanted to hold it togeather and not be a crying wreck when I met you. I think our whole travel group was full of nervous excitement. It was a very short walk and then we were here. We thought we would be the 3rd family in line since you were one of the oldest in our travel group. We watched two other families meet their children. One with two older boys (that are very fond of you). And one toddler. Those meetings were very emotional and those of us waiting for babies were already starting to tear up. Finally Almaz called us over to you.

This is our first glimpse of you. Ok actually our second because when we walked thru the gate my eyes were drawn to where all the babies were laying in the sun. I was searching for you but all I saw was curls sticking up above a rocker. Surprise it was you. Mommy and Daddy have waited so long for this moment and you are sound asleep. My heart overflowed with love for you and I just wanted to scoop you up and hold you.
Almaz said it was best not to wake you because you might fuss so we took our first family photo. Mommy sat next to you and touched you and whispered to you that we were here and we love you and please wake up.

One of your special mothers tried to help you along in the waking up process. They all loved you very much. After about 15-20 minutes you finally woke up and we are the first faces you saw. I asked you special mommy if I could pick you up and she nodded so I nervously unbuckled you and picked you up. What a shock to my arms at your heaviness. You were very serious just taking us in. This is a very common look for you. We told you over and over that we are your mommy & daddy and that we love you and were going to take you home. You never fussed until your special mommies started to call & sing to you and then you turned to them and started to cry. Daddy held you for a short time but all to soon it was time to leave you and go back to the hotel to prepare for our embassy appointment.

* Day three part 2 coming soon*

Where did my boy go?

2009-05-04T20:47:00.002-04:00

Ok so I seriously thought long and hard about posting this but I want to be real for everyone that might be going thru this and those that might go thru it later. Everyone has asked how are we doing, how is Noah, how is everyone adjusting. My answer for the past week as been that we are all doing fine and Noah seems to be adjusting rather well considering all the changes in his short life. Today I found myself wondering where the little boy I brought home from Ethiopia disappeared to. Sometime during the night my happy smiley boy was replaced with one that seems to be grieving. Yes I saw glimpses of that adorable smile today that melts my heart but I also spent a good portion of the day feeling like I was in combat. Everything was a battle with him today from eating, getting dressed, diaper change, napping all a battle of wills. A couple times while sitting on the floor playing he just started screaming and crying for no reason. When I went to pick him up and comfort him he would start thrashing and trying to push me away. Yes we were told this could happen and yes we read books but nothing and I mean NOTHING can prepare you for the moment when the child that you love so much seems scared and doesnt want you to touch him after two weeks of everything being ok. My heart broke for this child, my son because all I wanted to do was hold him and love him and it was a power struggle. I wasn't sure if I should hold him tighter or just let him go so I held on and I tried to talk to him over his tears and screaming to tell him that I knew he was sad and that was ok but I loved him and I wasn't going away. This mommy thing is tough. Throw an active 10 month old at any couple that doesn't have kids and I guarentee it will be hard. Add to that the journey to a foreign country and back and now the sadness and helplessness and it puts it at a whole new level. This will take time and we will get thru this but I ask today for your prayers. For Sean and I to have the patience it takes to help Noah Tamirat through this rough time. And for Noah for god to heal his heart and help him accept us as his parents. He has had many people in his short life that have loved him very much and I can't even imagine what he must be feeling.

From Dulles to Addis . Day's 1&2 of our Journey to Noah Tamirat

2009-05-04T10:33:00.003-04:00

Ok so after a week home i'm finally ready to start blogging about our trip. I kept a travel journal so some of this might come straight from there we shall see. First I want to say that i'm not gonna sugar coat things here..the travel for me on the way there was hard..I didn't sleep much on the plane and I was in rough shape when i arrived in Ethiopia.

Our plane sitting at the gate just waiting for us.

Day 1. Unlike alot of the families Dulles was our home airport. All day long I anxiously awaited the time that we would load the suitcases and drive to the airport to start our long journey. My parents drove us to the airport and we were at our gate and waiting by 6pm for our 8:30 flight. My stomach was already in knots and I sent sean in search of some crackers. We spent alot of time just checking out the other families and wondering which ones might be with AGCI. We knew that alot of us were on that flight and we actually picked out the families we thought might be in our group but we didn't approach any of them. We did meet a nice family that was traveling to adopt with another agency and spent time talking with them while we waited on our flight. We ended up leaving an hour late because we had to wait for some clearance or something. This was not fun since our plane had been sitting at the gate since we arrived and we were more then ready to get off the ground.

Mommy & Daddy awaiting takeoff. Lets get this plane in the air. *I can assure you we didn't look anywhere near this happy when we landed in Ethiopia and there will no pictures of us at that point*. Our travel group can attest to how rough we looked haha.

Day 2. Somewhere along the way Saturday turned into Sunday. There was no sleeping on the plane and the further we went the worse I felt. Excitement was building in my stomach and unfortunetly that wasn't the only thing. The layover in Rome was uneventful and we were on our way to Addis. I ate very little of each meal just to put something in my stomach. I will admit to grabbing for the airsickness bag on landing in addis and the flight attendant sitting right ahead of us(we were in the exit row) looked a little nervous that I might use it. Surely it wouldn't be the first they had seen. Once we landed we made our way to the escalator that takes you down to the visa area. Can I just say when you get to the bottom of the escalator move to the right quickly....don't just stop and stand there people go somewhere. I was feeling really sick and getting pushed and shoved from every direction. I at some point lost Sean in the crowd and finally found him again in time to get in the insanly long visa line. Not long after I was running for the bathroom where I promptly emptied my stomach into a wastebasket (huge hint for future travelers....use the bathroom before you get off the plane unless you know you can wait until you get to the hotel). Somehow we managed to drag ourselves thru the very unorganized line for visa, figure out which customs line to go in and then find our luggage and make our way out to where Johannes was waiting..I was so happy to see his smiling face(even at the very late hour of our arrival)and the sign that said AGCI families. Ahhh we are here. After we got all the families togeather it was off to the hotel. We took in as much as we could on the drive to the Union but honestly I just really wanted to get to bed. I was so scared that I would be sick the next day and Almaz wouldn't let us bring our son back to the hotel with us. The first person I met at the hotel was Dawn's husband Tim. Please forgive the blank stare & the couple seconds it took to answer you simple question of "Are you Renee" ummm yeah I should know that answer haha. Next Dawn came down the stairs into the garage area and it was so nice to finally meet her. We all went up into the lobby to check in and make our way to our rooms. We were on the 3rd floor (no elevators in the hotel) boy would I get a workout this week carrying 20lbs of baby up and down those stairs. I wish someone could have carried me upstairs as easily as they handled our luggage. It's very late and we have a baby to meet in the morning time to get some sleep.

And before I forget Sarah thank you again for being an angel and helping me with one of our suitcases at the airport it was very much needed and appreciated.

Home 1 week.

2009-05-01T14:16:00.003-04:00

Where has time gone. A week ago today we arrived home bleary eyed and disoriented..I would love to tell you all that has changed haha. No really we are adjusting fairly well. Noah T has done far better then I expected with all the changes at his age. He is usually a happy baby and his smile just melts my heart. He knows how cute he is and gives you that grin that lets ya know it. I will blog more about our time in Ethiopia very soon. To all of you who's babies I didn't get to see i'm very sorry. It was hard for us to spend much time at Hannah's Hope because our guy is very active and as Almaz said they aren't really set up for 1o month olds.

We are so in love with this little guy he has turned our lives upside down and we couldnt' be more pleased. We miss our travel group and hope everyone is doing well.