Kids are Great - Mom and Dad Both Sick

So it looks like Eric and I returned from Ethiopia with more than just our beautiful girl. Thankfully it is not too serious. I have strep throat which I haven't had since I was 8 years old and I forgot how painful it is. Eric has a nasty spider bite which is infected with strep (I like to share) and he also has a sinus infection. We both went to the doctor today and are on antibiotics so hopefully it will clear up quickly.

The kids seem to be fine. We took Mia to the doctor as soon as we came home and she is on three different medications for a parasite, a fungal infection and a nasty ear infection which actually left a hole in her ear drum! She still is a remarkable girl. Her adjustment is going perfectly. She is really enjoying exploring her world now. She is crawling up a storm and can go really fast. She already calls me mama - which is so cute. She recognizes her name. She loves the dogs. She is definitely a mama's girl which I don't mind at all. She will go to people for a second but then wants to come back to me. She is very sweet and loving but is also very active and gets into everything!

Aiden is adjusting well to being a big brother. He keeps saying how she is much smaller than he expected and also says she is a lot cuter than her picture. We let him push her stroller when we took our dogs for a walk. He was being the proud big brother and showing Mia off to all of his little friends. We have had some slight issues with him sleeping. He keeps getting up in the middle of the night and wandering around the house. We find him on our floor, in Mia's room on the floor or on the dog's bed! Because he is not sleeping well he is exhausted at night and falls asleep before we even get a chance to give him a bath. I think that he is just excited and eventually he will get a good nights sleep again.

Our trip to Ethiopia was one we will never forget. It was truly an amazing experience. Getting to see where our daughter came from and having the chance to meet her mother was extraordinary. We realize now how much we take for granted in our every day life. This adoption experience was more than I could have ever dreamed of and we have a beautiful daughter to boot - jackpot!

We Are Home

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Leaving On A Jet Plane

We are sitting in the airport waiting to board our first flight. So far our first flight to Houston is already delayed and we probably will not make our connection to London - oh what fun!

We also are having technical difficulties with downloading pictures. We took Eric's laptop with us and it doesn't have a place for us to load in the memory card! We do have our cord for the camera but it seems to go through the steps to load it onto the computer but then we can't find where it is???? We are hoping to figure things out but we might not be able to share pictures with you until we get home - bummer!

Family Day Celebrations

So since we will be in Ethiopia for Aiden's family day (the day we took custody of him and officially became his parents) we decided to celebrate this past weekend. We got him a couple of surprises, took him to Chuck E Cheese and then ended the night at Cold Stone Creamery. We had a blast! Happy 4th Family Day Aiden - we love you!

Our final preparations are being made for our big trip. We are pretty much packed. We ended up having 4 bags and two carry-ons each. I must say this was a hard trip to pack for. Holt told us to kind of think of it like we are packing for a camping trip. That actually helped and once I thought like that I was able to decide better what to bring.

On our conference call with Holt on Thursday we found out a little more about our trip. We will be able to meet Mia Zinash on Friday morning. Saturday will be spent with her as well. We learned that we can even help and watch the nannies give her a bath and put her to bed to learn her routine if we would like. Sunday we will be making the trip to Durame. It will be an overnight trip. We will return to Addis on Monday and spend more time with Mia Zinash. On Tuesday after our visa appointment we will be able to bring Mia Zinash back to our hotel where she will stay with us the rest of the time until we leave Ethiopia on Thursday night.

My parents arrived today with a billion of the cutest little outfits! This little girl has a ton of clothes. I may have to change her 3 times a day so she can get to wear all her cute little outfits.



As you can see we signed up for Twitter and we are going to try to Tweet from Ethiopia. We will do our best to blog and tweet so you all can follow us on this exciting journey to our daughter.