Ethiopian Adoption

Our Referral

danielle — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 15:19:19 -0400

Referral information received on Sept 23, 2005.

Celebration!

danielle — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:41:21 -0400

Celebrations are always better with friends!
We are blessed to have a great and GROWING group of families who have or are adopting from Ethiopia in our region. Yesterday, Ethioguatemama and Ethioguatepapa, of Casa de Chaos, opened their home to all of us to celebrate the Ethiopian New Year, Enkutatash. We had lots of new members in attendance... I think I counted 13 families, 6 families have their child(ren) home from Ethiopia. People drove from 2-3 hours from two different directions to converge together. We were able to share photos, items, food, and stories. The few dozen kids played together and had a blast!!

Coffeybunny was there with SJ and B. Easties were there. The A Team was there. The M family was there with their new daughter Rusie. We were able to meet Robyn and the Inmans for the first time, along with a half dozen other new families who don't have blogs.

Really and truly, I can't tell you how much of a blessing this group is. We have been home with Miriam almost three years (making our family the first ET adoption of the group) and only in the last 9 months have we had these connections. It feels so good to finally have the physical, real life connections. Now if we just didn't have to drive 2 hours. :) If you're in East/ East central TN,adopting from Ethiopia, and you're looking for a group come join us.

Looking to buy some Ethiopian items?

danielle — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:07:59 -0400

Looking to buy Ethiopian items and help out a good cause? Check out this little online store. They have clothing, jewlery, toys, decor, and other Ethiopian items. All proceeds go to benefit Ethiopian Orphan Relief. Check it out.

More connections

danielle — Fri, 16 May 2008 17:19:25 -0400

One of the harder things about living where we do is that as far as I have been able to tell, we are the only family with an Ethiopian born child in the immediate area. We have to drive hour and a half to get to the nearest group. Which, as I talked about here, we have started doing. The wonderful thing is that I know of two other families in process who live much closer... and even BETTER, last night we were able to have supper with a third family who is seriously considering Ethiopian adoption.

Getting connected.

danielle — Sat, 10 May 2008 23:46:48 -0400

Well, today we had the awesome opportunity to attend the FIRST ever meeting of the East Tennessee Ethiopian Adoption group. We had six families in attendance with a total of 5 children home from Ethiopia. It was so fun to see so many little Ethiopian-Americans together at once. Hopefully the next time we meet even more people will be able to attend.

Ethiopia Adoption Links

danielle — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 22:28:06 -0400

Adoption Links

CHSFS (our adoption agency)
CHSFS Forum (great forum for CHSFS families)
Ethiopia Adopt Yahoo group (for all interested in ET adoption)
Ethiopia Adoption FAQ (mainly a CHSFS family site but good info)
East Tennessee Ethiopia Adoption Yahoo Group (for families in Eastern TN)

Ethiopian Timeline

danielle — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:11:12 -0400

Please keep in mind that our timeline was in 2005! A lot has changed in Ethiopian adoption since then.

APRIL 2005
After much prayer and thought we make the decision to adopt from
Ethiopia in late March - early April. The rest of the month of April
was spend contacting agencies and interviewing people to decide which
agency was best for us.

MAY 2005

Ethiopian Adoption (Miriam's Story)

admin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:25:46 -0400

Stay tuned!

packing

danielle — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 19:45:36 -0500

Well, the last few days have been a whirl of activity as we get all the paperwork in order, pack for the two different climates (Kenya and Ethiopia), and trying to figure out what we will need for a 5 month old with no Walmart near by. :-)
We are 36 hours out from starting our trip and the beds are covered with "stuff" I have laid out to pack. Brian has been running around getting last minute things, finding tax returns, calling people to set up house sitters and rides.

Miriam's birth certificate

brian — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 17:36:53 -0400

Today we got a scan of Miriam's birth certificate. It lists us as the adoptive parents, with her name created by the usual Ethiopian formula: the first name is Tideg, which they gave her at the care center, but the middle name comes from her father's first name. So the full name on her birth certificate is Tideg Brian $%^&. Very odd. Her legal name will be changed to the name on this website after we get to the states. Anyway, here is the picture of her from the birth certificate, a "mugshot" of sorts.