Wednesday, December 29, 2010
the long awaited envelope!
Monday, December 27, 2010
the 2nd best christmas gift ever
Saturday, December 25, 2010
merry christmas!!!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
a hard day of goodbyes
Well, we are now sitting in the Addis Ababa airport and waiting to board our 17+ hour direct flight back to the States. It has been a hard day, just because of saying all our goodbyes but we know that God is good! We aren't looking forward to traveling for the next 28 hours, but what a wonderful trip this has been for our growing family. We have loved every second of being in Ethiopia and would not have traded this trip for anything. The country, the people, and Greer {of course} are all so beautiful and we could not have asked for more this Christmas. Yesterday and today we spent most of our day at the transition house loving on and getting to know our son more and more. He is a little pistol for sure and we definitely know that we will have our hands full when we bring him home!! He slept in his new nursery room at night but we got to play with him during the day whenever we wanted. He is only 1 of 2 babies in his new room, instead of 1 of 15 like he was at the orphanage. It was really neat to hear all the nannies telling him in Amharic that we are his mommy and daddy {enat and ababa}, and we didn't mind reminding him too!! He was pretty cold to us on Tuesday when he first arrived at the transition house but I'm pretty sure it was just because he had a traumatic day. He had been at the same orphanage since he was 5 days old, so add in a completely new environment and a 2 hour car ride, and that's enough to throw any one for a loop. However, when we walked in his room on Wednesday morning, he was all smiles! He reached for me immediately and didn't want us to put him down. We had our battles throughout the day, as he's very quick to throw a fit if he doesn't get his way, but overall, our time together was perfect. Today we spent some time with him in our room and it was really sweet to get some alone time together. He's doing really well adjusting to his new environment and we could not ask for a better place to leave our son. The nannies and all the transition home staff already know his name, and frequently pop in his room just to visit and tell him hello. He's had a bit of stomach trouble since arriving though and was also coughing quite a bit today. We talked with the on-site nurse about our concerns, and she gave him some medicine and assured us that she'd take good care of him while we're gone. She also told us that she would make sure they fattened him up a bit before we come back to get him. She said he'd look like Santa Claus next time we saw him! I don't know if we want him to look exactly like Santa, but we'll be glad to see him out of 3-6 month clothes finally!! Saying goodbye was one of the hardest things I have ever done. To know that he's finally our son but still have to leave him is torture. After a wonderful day together, it nearly broke our hearts to say "ciao" to him. When we finally got around to it, both Ryan and I were crying, and I'm sure Natty could sense that something was going on. When we handed him over to his nanny, he cried and reached for us. That was very hard to see, but we are also thankful that in our 5 days together, he's recognizing our love for him more and more. He is definitely the best gift we've ever received and we are praying for a quick trip back to bring him home!! Well, it is time for us to begin boarding so I better cut this short. We are sad to leave but are excited to finally be back on US soil by 7:30 a.m. tomorrow. Blessings to you all and Merry Christmas from the Sweeney family of almost 4 :) |
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
We PASSED!!!
How can we even begin to put into words how good it feels to finally call Nathanel our son! What a gift from God he is to us. We cannot wait to continue to get to know him better and to bring him home hopefully sometime in February!! Here's how it all unfolded… Today did not go as originally planned, but instead went much better! This morning we planned to go shopping and arrive at the courthouse around 1:00 p.m. to wait our turn with the judge. However, around 10:30 we got the call from Woudneh {our adoption agency's In-Country Director} to come to court right away. Thankfully, we were driving to a shop not too far from the court so we were able to make it very quickly. When we got to court we were told that our cases would be heard early. The waiting room was packed with other adoptive families and also birth families waiting to relinquish their rights. Not but about 5 or 10 minutes after we arrived, we heard Nathanel's orphanage get called and saw a group of birth parents go back to meet with the judge. We immediately began speculating if Natty's birth mom might be in the group, and picked out one young woman in particular that we thought it might be. A few minutes later, after the birth parents were dismissed, our names were called along with 2 other families from our agency. We went back together to meet with the judge and had our court interview together in a group. This was a surprise to us because we hadn't heard of the judge doing this before. {Turns out she had a 1:00 p.m. meeting that popped up so she needed to finish her cases early so she decided to hold group interviews for the first time.} We were asked about 5 yes or no questions, and the judge said that she would receive a report later in the day to finish our adoptions. We all left the room a little confused and disappointed. We were under the impression that we did not pass yet but were still waiting on some paperwork. After the rest of our agency's families were called back, Woudneh told us that we were finished. As we all walked down the hall long-faced, Woudneh asked us what was wrong and we said that we weren't sure if we had passed court or not. He immediately got a huge smile on his face and assured us that we had passed!! He said that the judge just had to write up her final report and send it on later in the day, but the kids were ours. SUCH A RELIEF!!! Tears definitely flowed and we knew that it was finally time to celebrate. After we left the courthouse, we were taken to a local branch of Natty's orphanage and were told that we would have a chance to meet his birth mom there. Two other families were also meeting their birth families at the same place and their birth families were already at the orphanage when we arrived. However, Nathanel's birth mom was not. We began to worry that she was not going to show up and were both pretty disappointed until we heard a knock at the gate about 15 minutes later. As the gate opened, we saw the same beautiful, young woman that we thought could possibly be his mom from court. Our translator greeted her and told her who we were, and we had several hugs and lots of tears. We thanked her and she thanked us, and it was a moment that we will cherish forever! We were able to get some photos of her and hope to be able to share as much as possible about her with Nathanel as he grows up. As we had expected, she is very young but also a very wonderful person! We loved getting to spend time with her and wished it was easier to communicate to her our love and adoration for her. We gave her the photo album we put together of pictures of Nathanel and ourselves, and she cried as she thumbed through the pages. I don't think she was expecting it at all so I'm so glad we came prepared! After finishing up our meeting with her, our group loaded back in the van and headed to the beautiful restaurant in the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Addis for a celebratory lunch. Everyone was so thrilled and it was just a great time to talk about how grateful we are for God's provision and direction throughout this crazy process. Plus, we couldn't ask for a better group of people to be experiencing this with! We had a great lunch, were able to call home, and update facebook with the good news. We were so thrilled, but were even more excited knowing that Nathanel was on his way to the transition home as we were having lunch. When we finished up, we continued a little bit more of our shopping but we were much more anxious to finally make it back to the transition house to see the kids. When we got back to the transition house where we are staying, our little guy was hanging out in his new {temporary!!} crib waiting for us to come for a visit. He even brought us a present…our first stinky diaper J After a quick, and very grumpy, bath, he was ready to visit for a while. Ryan and I took turns passing him back and forth, and we were excited to see that his disposition eventually changed and he seemed much more relaxed with us. We know we have a long way to go with attachment when we get him home, but we can't wait to get started! We already love him so much and can't wait for him to fully understand that we are his forever mommy and daddy. We said good night to him and left him with his new nanny for bedtime and were whisked away to a traditional Ethiopian meal at a local restaurant. The restaurant was complete with a lot of traditional dancing and singing so we had quite the cultural experience! We are now back at the transition house and ready for some much needed sleep. Tomorrow and Thursday, our main priority is to get as much time as possible in with our sweet son before heading home. He is such a sweet baby and we are so proud to finally and officially be able to call him our son!! Attached are some pictures from the last few days… Thanks again for all your prayers, love and encouragement. We love you and will be seeing you soon. Welcome to the family, Greer Nathanel Sweeney!! ~Ryan & Lesli |
Monday, December 20, 2010
Ready for court tomorrow!
Hey again from Ethiopia. Ryan and I are back at the transition house tonight in Addis Ababa, and are anxiously awaiting our day in court tomorrow. We got to see our little Greer again today for about 2.5 hours and it was definitely a much needed time with our little man. He seemed to recognized us and even fell asleep in our arms today as we rocked him. We got to play with him on the floor and he was definitely a mover and a shaker. He crawled around on the floor and was fascinated with our water bottles. He was much more smiley today but we were disappointed because the orphanage would not allow us to take any pictures :( After our time was up at the orphanage, we made the 2 hour trip back to Addis. We met up with the rest of our group and went to the market to buy some souvenirs. We got quite a few gifts for Greer so we can give him a little something from Ethiopia on each of his Gotcha Days (the anniversary of his adoption). Ryan had a great time haggling for good deals and made several friends with various shop keepers!! Tonight we came back to the transition home and had dinner, then a wonderful coffee ceremony with all the other adoptive families. We can't wait to post lots of pictures when we get home and have a better internet connection! Anyway, we have been prepped by our adoption agency about what to expect tomorrow at court and we definitely feel more ready. Greer's birth mom is required to appear in court during the morning and we are required to come around noon. We could be at court as long as 4 hours waiting for our turn which usually only lasts about 5 minutes. Your prayers are coveted and we will do our best to update everyone as soon as possible about the outcome. If we pass court tomorrow, Greer will be moved from Nazaret to Addis Ababa to live at the transition house where we are staying so our last few days we will get lots of extra time with him. There are also 4 other families from our same agency here with us going to court tomorrow, so please remember them too!! We love you guys and appreciate you sharing in our joy with this experience. Blessings! ~Ryan & Lesli |
Sunday, December 19, 2010
meeting our boy
Hey everyone, To say that today was amazing would be a complete understatement! We had a full day of activity but by far the best part was finally meeting the sweet boy we've been staring out in pictures for the last 3 months. After a pretty good night of sleep, we woke up early this morning and made the 2 hour journey to the Nazaret, Ethiopia. Our little man has lived in Nazaret his whole short life and we were thrilled to get to see his original hometown with our own eyes. The scenery alone to Nazaret also made the trip very worth the drive. It was funny to be driving along the road in a large, modern van and then pass a herd of goats or a man on a donkey pulled cart. It felt like we had stepped back in time! When we finally made it to Natty's orphanage, we were both immediately tearful just from seeing the orphanage's name printed on the gate. After what seemed like a lifetime, the guard opened the gate and both of our hearts began racing knowing that we were finally so close. We were then led on a tour of the orphanage with our final stop being the infant room. The room's walls were lined with cribs which held around 15 babies. At first we were led to a crib of a little baby boy who we thought they were saying was our baby. The more we looked at him, the more we realized that this was not our Nathanel!! We were starting to get a little worried that we had been given the wrong referral picture or that there was some drastic mistake but then one of the nannies walked in with our freshly bathed little guy. We realized that our tour guide was just showing us one of the cute boys in the room, not trying to tell us it was Nathanel! They were just waiting for our little guy to finish getting ready for our special meeting :) When the nanny brought him in the room, she walked him over to put him in his crib and he just stood there looking at us. He was {of course} wearing his favorite color, pink, and looked just like his pictures!! We scooped him up and didn't let go for the rest of the time we were there! He was a little fussy at first but as soon as the nanny brought his bottle over, he was perfectly content. Ryan and I took turns feeding him his lunch and he seemed a little confused about who we were, but that is to be expected since we just met! After he drank his bottle, we sat outside passing him back and forth and giving him all the hugs and kisses we've been waiting to give for months now. He was pretty serious the whole time but we were determined to get a smile out of him before we left. We finally found a tickle spot and saw his smile and heard his sweet laugh for the first time. It was definitely music to this mommy and daddy's ears! After about an hour, we took him around with us so we could pass out candy and a couple soccer balls to the rest of the kids in the orphanage because we were told that our time was drawing near. All the kids were preparing for nap time so they were in their beds spread out over about 4 rooms. In the bigger kids' rooms, almost all the kids slept 2 to a small bed, with a few sleeping 3 to a bed. Despite their circumstances, the kids were so sweet and gave us the biggest smiles when we handed out the candy. Nathanel was a trooper and went along with us on our hip and seemed content to walk around visiting with the other kids. After passing out the candy, we took Natty back to his room so he could lay down for a nap. We weren't sure if we'd be able to visit with him again today or not so we gave him kisses and promised to be back soon. We left and were on cloud 9 pretty much for the rest of the day! After the orphanage, we had a great lunch at the hotel where we are staying tonight in Nazaret. We sat outside a the hotel's restaurant next to the pool and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day {70 degrees sounds a lot better than the 27 degrees in KY today}! It was definitely a surreal experience to be eating next to a lush swimming pool, especially after what we have experienced so far on the trip but we were thankful for a mental and emotional break. Later today, Hannah, from our adoption agency, and our driver, Yonas, took us to a park in Nazaret to feed the wild monkeys. Before going to the park we stopped to buy 7 kgs of bananas, and it only cost us only about $2.50 for all those bananas!! We were definitely shocked by the price. At the park, the monkeys were everywhere and pretty much swarmed when they realized that we were handing out goodies. Some of them would come right up to us and eat the bananas out of our hands so obviously they are used to a lot of visitors! After hanging out at the park for awhile, we headed back to Nathanel's orphanage to pick up another couple so we got to see him for a few more minutes. When we got back to his room, he was standing in his crib and we put him on the floor for a few minutes of playtime. He crawled around a little bit but we were most impressed when he grabbed onto a plastic chair, pulled up on it, and started walking around the room pushing it. He seems so little to be cruising already but we forget that he's already over 13 months old! We kissed him goodbye again and are now settled into our hotel room for the night. The hotel's accommodations are very nice to say the least, and Ryan loved the price...only 365 birr {equivalent to about 21.00 USD}/night!!! We will get to go back to the orphanage again in the morning for one last visit with our little man before heading back to Addis tomorrow afternoon, since we have to appear in court on Tuesday. We can't wait to spend more time with our little guy tomorrow and will update again as soon as we can. We also hope to send and post some pictures of our growing family if and when we pass court Tuesday!! Thanks again for all your prayers, sweet emails and support!!!! We are overjoyed and can't wait to bring Nathanel {Greer} home soon to introduce him to everyone. Blessings to you all from the beautiful Ethiopia! ~Ryan & Lesli |
Saturday, December 18, 2010
we are here!!
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Friday, December 17, 2010
About to board
We are about to board our flight from Washington DC to Addis!! It's been a very smooth trip so far and we cannot wait to be in the same country as our boy!!!!! I hope to be able to post and send email updates from Ethiopia but we will be at the mercy of our guesthouse's Internet. Thanks for your prayers! They are definitely sustaining us.
Anyway, much love from us! We can't wait to get our eyes on our boy at last :)
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
2 more sleeps!!
a call from R
i know i've been pretty tight lipped about R & P the last several weeks. mostly it's because there has not really been any thing to say. ryan and i have been dealing with the realization that the relationship we were hoping and praying to have with the boys is not a reality, and it may never be. while we both still think of them and talk about them often, our contact with the boys has been extremely limited since they went back with their mom...but not for our lack of trying.
Monday, December 13, 2010
we're having a baby...
Thursday, December 9, 2010
a poll
i'm taking a poll. do you think baby s is a little bows and tutus kind of girl or a little dump truck and dirt type of boy?