weekend away

This past weekend Dave and I went away together before chaos comes to our house. We hope to travel early August to gather our sons from Ethiopia. I think I posted that they/we passed the court date on the first time around. Yea!!!

So, anyway, the girls spent the weekend with Grampa and Gram. Had a great time! They both ended the last of their swimming lessons for the season too.

Dave and I went to Denver. Had a great do nothing sort of day Saturday. Stayed downtown, had a nice walk on 16th Street Mall. Went to a picnic for families who have or are in process of an Ethiopian adoption. Strange to be the new person, but good to see others "like us". It was fun to pick out all the little boys who seem about the size of our boys.

Sunday we went to the Ethiopian Evangelical Church in Denver. It was a WONDERFUL experience. I think we will make a good effort to go there once a month or so from now on. We are unlikely to ever understand Amharic well enough to not need a translation. ( I did pick out familiar sounding phrases. Incentive to learn them. ) But, these wonderful people know that and are equipped with a little box with ear phones that you can listen to a translation with. The woman translating had the most beautiful annunciation and smooth voice. The service was so wonderful and uplifting and full of the truth of God and the Bible. It was just exactly what we needed at that time. God has a way of doing that! It will be a wonderful way to stay in touch with Ethiopia and what God is doing there. It is in Aurora so it is only about 45 min from home. I love to hear the languages of earth worshiping the one true God. In heaven I hope to hear all of them at once, but be able to understand every single thing. Oh, how wonderful it will be. I have to say, though, if there is a Heavenly language, which I don't think there is, it should be Amharic. That is one very very beautiful language. I love the tones, the sounds, the inflection. Beautiful. And the music. Not one song tune I ever heard before, but all that beautiful Ethiopian smooth, emotion infused music. I LOVE IT. East Africa is VERY different from West Africa. The translator gave us the words. They were almost straight out of the Psalms. Anyway, it was a very worshipful Sunday morning for us.
A funny thing..... they ask for first time visitors to stand up in the service to introduce them selves. Ok, we were the only white people there (feranji) so, it was obvious that we were visitors and they all were wondering what brought us in. Of course adoption is a logical answer. They were very happy to hear of this and the pastor said "bless you for this good and needed thing you are doing. Your sons will grow up to look like these beautiful people around you. " Yes in deed a very beautiful and handsome people. I was glad that they were glad for us to adopt "their" children. Ethiopians tend to claim all Ethiopian national children as "theirs". The village thing. A nice woman talked with us after the service and told us how to say the boys' names correctly. This was good as we have not been saying them correctly. I have to say, that in general I tend to not notice "race" or color. So, being the only white people there was not in the least bit uncomfortable. The standing up was, and would be anywhere! However, lately, I have been noticing people who have Ethiopian characteristics.
This is a congregation larger than our home church. I would say there were about 500 people there. The service started at 10:30 and filled up until about 11. The web site said it ends at 12:30. 1:00 was more like it. And well worth it too.

We went to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant for lunch. There were a few customers at the bar to watch a soccer tournament. Big sport. We had Habesha. It was good. I ordered mild and it was hot, my lips were burning. Dave had medium. HOT. It was a lot like Korma, an Afghan dish. You eat it with the bread, which is not at all like Afghan nahn. It is spongy pancake. Tangy. A big part of this was to see if my system can handle Ethiopian food. I took all my meds afterwards. I think I will stick to "tasting" rather than eating Ethiopian food. I was not so well after. But, the effects were nothing like I expected. For that I am really really grateful. The owner has just opened a restaurant in Addis. So, we got his brochures. He said go here, it is clean and safe. :) That is a very good thing to know. These are friendly and warm people.

We also read a Scientific American article on gene mapping. Fascinating!!!!!! More evidence the human race starting out in Africa, the horn of Africa to be exact. That would be Ethiopia! The gene studies are so interesting to me. Good thing since I am married to a science guy.

Anyway, a great weekend together, meeting other families, a wonderful church, food experiment..........

All for now.

court date passed!

WOW! The court approved the adoption on the first try! No problems. Now we wait for the translation of the adoption decree and the new birth certificates to be issued. Then we will get a firm embassy date. We also are waiting for the immigration permission papers to come. They estimate a late July travel... maybe early August..... we will see. The boys will get photos of their new family and life next week sometime.

On the preparatory note.... we are waiting on an inspection for the basement tomorrow to pass. ALL the others have passed on the first try. This is the last one before drywall can go in. Please pray for that to go well. Then the drywall goes in and we are well on our way to a finished area.

Thank you for your prayers and outpouring of love for us all.
Jill and Dave and the girls

Adoption Shower

It's a shower to celebrate the upcoming adoption of Natenael and Kedus into the Khaliqi family!
Let's join together as they anticipate and prepare for the arrival of their sons from Ethiopia.

Forestgate is having an adoption shower for the Khaliqi family.
Tuesday evening, July 8th, 2008 , 7-9 PM at Forestgate. Families are welcome!

We have included some gift ideas and information from Jill and helpful ways you can also contribute to the orphanage:
Jill has registered at Target, Wal-mart and Amazon. com. They are all listed under Jill Khaliqi as a baby registry. They can also be accessed on line.
Things they could really use are: pj's and pants (adjustable waist is preferred on pants) in size 3-5. Winter coats and fleece jackets in size 3 and 4. The booster seats for the table, the car seats and safety bed rails would be especially useful.
If anyone is interested in just giving a donation to the orphanage they would be very happy about that. Checks can be made to the church with Pennies for Orphans in the memo.
Another need that Jill has noted is that the orphanage appreciates receiving basic over the counter kids medications. They are not readily available there. Parents often take such donations when they go. If each family attending the shower can bring one over the counter medicine item: Tylenol, cold meds, eye drops, children's Benadryl, simethicone, immodium, Kaopectate, etc. it would greatly help the orphanage.

Kindly RSVP for the shower to Evelyn Ulsh, 548-8422, ejulsh@comcast.net.

great day

We just had a really great day. The girls are currently taking swimming lessons. Thursday and Friday had to be canceled due to a broken pipe. We are making up on Saturdays. Today we went to lessons, on the way we listened to Adventures in Odyssey. After swimming we went to the downtown library. Then to lunch and back to the pool. We swam until it began to thunder and rain. We then got a $5 pizza to eat at home and used their Baskin Robins coupons from the library reading program. Then we went home and ate pizza and watched a movie. Nanny McPhee. A good one in our opinion. The girls are playing a little, and playing very nicely. Off to bed soon to rest for another day. At every turn we thought, oh next summer we will have two more! Oh what a difference it will be. We notice all the children, especially boys who are between 2 and 5 years old. We wonder how old they really are. Hmmmm. We will see when it is time. Looking forward to finding out all about them!!

another update, court date

Hi family and friends,
We want to let you know that the court date for our boys in Ethiopia is this MONDAY June 23. Their Monday starts 9 hours before our Monday. So, when it is 11 pm on Sunday night it will be 7 am Monday morning in Ethiopia. This court procedure will finalize the adoption on the Ethiopian side. They have been reviewing all the papers for the boys and for us. At this court appointment things are settled or other papers are requested. Witnesses of the children's status as orphans are summoned, if any are available. After this (if it passes) then they issue birth certificates for the boys with the sur name changed to David Habib (this is how they do last names there). Incidentally, Dave's name is like they do it in Ethiopia, and much of the world. Your name, your dad's name, your grandfather's name. :) Along with the birth certificate a passport and visa will be obtained for each boy and all preparations will be made. The adoption at this point is final in Ethiopia and they are OURS! Then we will get an invitation for the US embassy appointment and we will go to Ethiopia to get them. One little catch among many possible.......... we have to have the immigration form called I 171 H in order to bring them home. We are still waiting for that. Pray for God's perfect timing in all these transactions. He knows the best time for all of this to come together.
Thanks!
Jill and Dave

progress

Hi,
We would like to update you on the adoption progress. Things have moved so fast. We got word today on the finalization of the boys who we will be adopting. Both are age 3 and should be 4 by the end of the year. The ministry is now reviewing the files of the boys and us. There is a court appointment set but we are not aware of the exact date as of yet. Please continue to pray for the following:
1. the health and safety of the boys
2. the speed of court and that they will pass on the first date
3. that the immigration papers (I171H) will come by the 18th of July.
4. that we will find the most affordable travel options available as cost of travel has increased a great deal.
5. that we will be prepared for the boys and them for us.

gift registries

Hi,
Church is going to be having a kid shower for us!! It will be either July 8 or 10. That is so thoughtful of them. If you are in the area and don't go to Forestgate and are not my relative (will be invited already) and you want to come that is WONDERFUL. You are invited!!!! Please send an email to Evelyn at ejulsh@comcast.net. She will send you details. I asked her to plan on this. So, consider yourself invited PLEASE!

I have put together three gift lists as is customary for showers.
Wal-mart
Target
Amazon.com
all are accessible on line or the ones which have stores in the store. The best list is on Amazon.

Of course if someone just wants to give a gift to the orphanage (Pennies for Orphans) we would be so happy with that. Checks can be written to the church. This is not for our adoption expenses at all.

Thanks!
Jill

Here is a web site that has a bunch of great articles n Ethiopian adoption. I enjoyed a bunch of them.

http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/ethiopia_adoption.php

So, we are waiting for a court date and final settlement on WHO we are adopting. I think we will know tomorrow or Tuesday on the WHO and I hope also the court date. We pray that they pass the court date the first time through. This is a time when the court of Ethiopia looks at the papers of the boys and sees that they are in order and they are adoptable. They look at the papers of the family who they are matched to and see that they are in order and a good family. Some things that would delay a court would be power outages, over booking, in correct papers, supplies running out, etc. So, we wait.

What do we do while we wait? Well, we take swimming lessons (with some friends), finish the basement, garden ( We put in 4 trees and I am reworking a few overgrown beds), work (Dave has big work in June with students and teachers) , read books, blogs, web sites, group email, learn all we can, try our hand at Amharic, go to a picnic with other families who adopted or are in process from Ethiopia, we went to see Prince Caspian (good), and we saw an African drum group at the Pikes Peak Center (interesting). I am also finding out what to do in Ethiopia, and hoping to get there for less than we have seen listed. :)

Well, waiting is not my strong suit. But we have lots to do. Still eager to hear good news from the land of our son's birth!