Mer's new favorite outfit...

Worried about the ant on the sidewalk... she said she didn't want him to climb up her dress

This is her "Americ@'s Ne.xt Top Mode.l" pose...

We've been having a great time today, Mer and I. We're waiting for word on if Nathan passed his test; he's testing for his 5th Degree Blackbelt in taekwondo today. I'm a little nervous, and glad I don't have to watch... especially since I know what they will be doing to him. My least favorite part is when he has to put his feet on one chair and his head on another and let them break cement bricks on his chest. Hoping he comes home relatively unscathed....
Since I live with him, I forget how incredibly amazing his skills are. I mean, after a while I just expect him to be able to kick an apple off the tip of a sword (also part of his exam. Sigh). But I'm really so very, very proud. Plus, judging by these pictures, these skills will come in handy when Mer turns about 12 or so. I'm all for having a big, scary, muscly dude answer the door for all potential suitors. ;-)

It's a GIRL! And a BOY!

So, I have to confess. I've been holding out on people. A week after we got word that we wouldn't be able to adopt Y and S, we got a new referral. It was... crazy. They wouldn't let us accept right away because the clinic that does HIV testing got really backed up and they didn't have those test results yet, so I didn't really want to announce anything until it was official. Plus, we needed more time to process everything than I thought we would. It was so hard to still be grieving, but trying to make such a major decision for our family. So, we only told a couple of people... mostly people who we needed to talk things through with.
The girl (her name starts with a Y and means "she is mine") is officially 25 months, but looks much older. Like, Meron's age or maybe 6 months older. The boy (his name starts with an M and means "he has returned") is officially 13 months, but looks about 20 months. They are from the Sidama-Dale region in Ethiopia, which is a very poor, very rural area. It is almost in Kenya, and almost in Sudan. They are beautiful. In all of the first pictures we got of them they are together. She always has him half way behind her, and looks like she is trying so hard to protect him. He is holding onto her like she is his life line. They break my heart. We just got some new pictures this weekend, and they are so great. She is smiling and lovely. He has pink socks on and is walking around on the floor.
We went back and forth about if this was the right thing for our family, for Meron, and for these two sweet kids. Their ages are not what we were expecting. Actually, we have no idea what their ages really are.... but they are for sure a lot younger than we were expecting.
After talking with our homestudy social worker and the agency's social worker and asking endless questions, we've decided to accept this referral. All of the information we received came down to the fact that, while it could be very difficult for Meron and for Y if they end up being very close to the same age, it will be okay after a while. A lot depends on how well their personalities mesh, and in this area, it is a leap of faith. But parenthood, no matter how it comes about, is always a leap of faith. It is a situation in which we must tread carefully, but not one which is not inherently awful. We have gotten a lot of advice from social workers, family members, parents of kids who are 'artificially twinned' and even behavioral therapists at work, and all say the same thing... you need to be careful, but it can be done and can be wonderful.
So... here we are. Waiting for a court date again. We don't anticipate making it before courts close for the rainy season (from early August to mid September) so are anticipating a court date in late September or early October. We are hoping they are home by Christmas.

In which Mer spends the weekend at the Mehaber and Como Zoo and her Mama takes a completely ridiculous number of pictures

First, the EKC Summer Mehaber.
It was great... even better this year than last year. I especially loved the Mercato, and bought some things I wished I would have purchased while we were in Ethiopia last time. The location, the International Bazaar at the state fair grounds was fantastic.

A little photo shoot in a garden on the state fair grounds...

Proving once again that Meron was meant for a life upon the stage, she turned the patio next to my sister's building into a performance space. We all had to take turns performing. Here she is enjoying her Papa's rendition of the "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers speech" from Henry the V.

Meron during one of her many performances...

A rousing game of "ring around the rosie."

A little extended family love...

Mer and my mom checking out the flamingos the next day at Como Zoo...

I decided that we need to take a picture of Mer with this turtle at the Como Zoo every time we come... just so we can make a comparison. This is last year's picture and then this year. Wow.

We saw water lilies and butterflies...

And Meron rode on the carousel (which I don't have pictures of, because I was standing next to her horse). She absolutely LOVED the carousel; she giggled and squealed the whole time... although she needed to have one arm wrapped around my neck to feel secure.... which meant that when the horse went up, I almost had to jump to let her stay on the horse and keep her death grip around my neck.
She also rode the train, which she thought was super cool, and the tea cups, in which she proved once again that she is an adrenaline junky.

Seriously big fun. I mean... LOTS of fun. And one very, very tired girl (and, dare I say, equally tired parents). Is it just me, or does the girl look like she's 5? Also... my mom will probably hate that there are so many pictures of her in this post. Sorry, Mom, but if you want to stay out of blog postings, you'll need to make Meron like you less so that she isn't glued to your hip at all times. It's up to you. ;-)

My new favorite picture of Meron...

The last one is my favorite, but I kind of love them all...but I wish she didn't have a big mosquito bite under her eye.

Two YEARS- Referral Anniversary

Two years ago we saw this face:

In two years she has gone from that sweet, sad little face to

We love you SO MUCH, Mimi. You are without a doubt the most amazing person on the planet.

For your reading pleasure, a repeat of our story of 'the Call.'

It was a day that I went in to work late (back in the days when I worked from 8-4:30 and one night a week from 12:30-9) and I had just finished making myself a pita sandwich and sweet potato fries for lunch. That's when I heard it: Nathan's voice saying loudly and repeatedly "Hold on to your potatoes, lady, we're going for a ride!!" It was the ring tone that he had recorded for me one night when I really had no hope we would actually get a referral. It was the ring tone I had assigned to our adoption agency's phone number. My heart dropped into my stomach. I told myself it was probably just Toni calling about a paperwork issue or checking in on us. No need to get excited. Don't get excited. I knew as soon as I heard her voice, however that this was no routine phone call. She said, "Kate, do you have someplace you can sit down? I'd like to tell you about your referral. You are going to be so blessed." I immediately started shaking. She asked where Nathan was, because she wanted to conference him in. I panicked. "He's at work! You'll have to Page him! I don't know if he'll answer! I don't know if he's in class! She asked for his number and put me on hold. This was beyond cruel. It was the LONGEST wait on hold I've ever had. While on I was on hold on my cell phone, our home phone rang. It was my friend and office mate, Mary. She said, "Toni just called our office looking for you! Are you getting your referral!?" I said, "YES! She won't tell me anything until she finds Nathan! Find Nathan!!" Since Nathan, Mary and I all work at the same place, I was thinking maybe she could run find him... or page him herself... or SOMETHING BECAUSE I NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT OUR REFERRAL!!! I hung up with her and Nathan called on our home phone. I said, "Oh my GOD! Did Toni call you?!" He said, "No.... I just called to tell you what was for supper at the cafeteria tonight." "Oh my GOD! You have to get off the phone! Toni's going to have you paged! We're getting a referral!" Nathan said, "Really? Oh, okay. They're having tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches." "GET OFF THE PHONE!!!"
Finally, FINALLY, Toni got us both conferenced in. I was shaking uncontrollably. I grabbed a pen and paper to take notes (as if every second of that conversation isn't etched into my memory). Toni told us about the girl who would be our daughter. She was 8 months old, she said, and had a little smile in her referral photo. She said she was healthy, and beautiful and could sit up by herself. She told us about her history, and that she'd only been in the orphanage for 16 days. She said the doctors said she had a smiley face and that she was 14lbs 3 oz and 21.7 inches long. Her name was Tewabech. Toni said she'd e-mail us her picture and congratulated us.
I told Nathan, " You HAVE TO COME HOME SO WE CAN LOOK AT HER PICTURE TOGETHER! RIGHT NOW!" I then called one of the supervisors and blabbered something about Nathan NEEDING to come home. RIGHT NOW! RIGHT NOW! I'm sure she thought I was insane. I ran to the computer, thinking I'd get everything ready so that when Nathan got home we could just click on the file and download it. I called my mom to tell her the news and she started crying. Then, the unthinkable happened: my hotmail wouldn't open! It said hotmail service was unavailable! The whole point of hotmail is that it is ALWAYS AVAILABLE!!! I freaked out. I was already shaking and crying, as was mom, and I need to see her face. I NEEDED to see her. I asked mom to see if she could open it and gave her the password to my account. She was maybe a little flustered as well, as she insisted for about a minute that nowhere in hotmail or msn did it say she should sign in. She finally got into my e-mail and saw her picture. Mom gasped and screamed a little. "Oh KATE! She's so beautiful! She's so sweet! She has the most amazing eyes I've ever seen!" I couldn't stand it. I was literally pacing in little circles in the kitchen, almost spinning. Finally, my hotmail let me in. I opened the e-mail, intending to get the attachment to the point where I would just have to click on 'download' as soon as Nathan came in the door. And there it was. There SHE was. My daughter... with a little tiny hint of a smile on her face. Huge brown eyes. I felt like I was drowning. I have never been so happy/scared/in love/excited/terrified in my life. This girl? This perfect little sweet baby?! I wasn't good enough for this girl! There was no way I deserved this girl! Finally, Nathan got home. I showed him our daughter. We stared at her picture. We analyzed every detail of her face. We speculated about the hint of mischief in the face that we were sure meant she was going to be an exciting kid. We fell in love. We fell hard. Two months and one day later, we held her in our arms for the first time.