It's been a year,

a whole year, since we laid eyes on the face of our beautiful boy. I just can't believe that was a year ago. Some people in the adoption world call it the referralaversary, the anniversary of their referral. About this time a year ago we got a call that changed our lives forever and an e-mail that both broke our hearts and filled it with the most joy and excitement we had ever known.

Our favorite referral picture of M - Sooo beautiful and sweet

Sometimes at night I see this face in the Melkamu that I now know. For a long time it puzzled me, why rocking him at night reminded me of this picture. I eventually figured it out, I think. My little guy is always moving and talking and so expressive with his face. It's not until right before he falls asleep that I see this quiet, still, relaxed little face gazing up at me.

Melkamu with his daddy a few weeks ago, in front of one of our new trees.

19 Months...

...and full of spunk.

I didn't fully appreciate it until I was back home.

Although I was super excited about our vacation, I didn't fully realize just how exquisite it was until we were back home to the cool, gray, wet Northwest. We did have a great time, even with a sick kid, a visit to the ER, and antibiotics. We stayed in a little one room cabin up in the hills ( it was cheap), and it was the perfect space for Melkamu to gallop around. We were about 20 minutes or so from the beach, and took day adventures to different areas. Daniel and I took turns snorkeling and swimming, while Melkamu played in the sand and surf. We learned that there is no lounging on the beach, relaxing and reading a book, when you have a toddler. But, it wasn't until I got home and it was cold and rainy that it hit me, I just got to spend a week in Hawaii with sunshine and 80 degree weather! We are lucky for sure, and still have lots of airline awards to use up in the future.

February 15th, 2011

It's now March 15th, we have been home with our sweet Melkamu for 7 months...7 months! That is unbelievable to me. I wanted to post on Tuesday, February 15th - which was a big milestone - 6 months home with our lovely son. Obviously this post didn't happen, so I'll reflect on that day now. Talking about that day, kinda gives a picture of how we were feeling at 6 months home and at 7 months home.

The day of our 6 month anniversary home with Melkamu is also the day we left on a vacation to Hawaii. And while we adore our sweet, cute little boy, we were a bit nervous to fly with him...6 hours on a flight with a super active toddler...hmmm, could be interesting. Well indeed it was!

Our flight was scheduled to leave on Tuesday afternoon. Monday Melkamu felt a little warm to me, but he wasn't complaining and was acting normal. I was a bit concerned as we were traveling the next day, but he seemed okay. Monday night, the boy who usually sleeps all night long, was up 3 or more times crying and unhappy. He ended up in our bed tossing, turning and restless and up early, like at five in the morning. We got about 3 hours of sleep that night. But Melke, ate breakfast and ran around all morning playing as usual. We proudly watched our resilient son up to his usual antics and decided to continue with our trip plans. In the airport, Melke excitedly walked and ran around the airport doing his favorite things - waving at people and saying "hi". He couldn't have been happier, as he was surrounded by wheeled objects (suitcases) to push and pull and marvel at other passerby's wheeled suitcases. So exciting!! Daniel and I took turns following him around the hall and gate area and smiled at each other as our son did all kinds of cute things.

Our first flight was short and Melke was thoroughly entertained. Again in another airport, surrounded by people and exciting new things, he engaged others and waved and said "hi" and played with his toys. We got the usual smiles and "he's so cute" comments that this boy brings everywhere he goes. We ate dinner in the airport, and then he threw up all over the place minutes before we had to get on our second and longer flight. Maybe he just ate too fast or choked on a bite of food. We scramble to clean him up and get on the plane. We are seated in a row of three seats, with a woman near the window and then Daniel and I with Melke on our laps. Before we take off he throws up again. Starting to panic, I wonder if there is any way we can get off the plane, but I try to remain calm. Ever try to catch toddler vomit in a plastic grocery sack? On a very crowded plane? Well, it doesn't work so well. After about the third time of being spit up on, I no longer worried about my only jeans and fleece having vomit on them. We worked hard to keep vomit from our seat neighbor, and at least we were successful in that. We reeked of vomit...I could hardly stand the smell. Poor seat neighbors... We spent six hours, trying to hold and comfort a restlessly sleeping little guy, who would wake every so often to throw up. You can imagine our excitement at the start of our vacation! We weren't smiling at each other anymore.

Of course, like every time we fly, after we were off the plane, people who apparently were seated around us, said, "He is such a good traveler! He did so good!" - Ummm, were you sitting near us? It was a nightmare! But in the baggage claim, Melke must have been feeling better and was his usual excited self, busily waving to people and saying hello. Again, bringing lots of smiles our way.

At 6 and 7 Months Home:

• We are proud parents

• We think we have absolutely the cutest son ever

• Melke is continuing to grow fast

• M is super social (but appropriately so, staying close to his mama and dada and taking time to warm up to people)
  

• Melkamu is a usually happy guy, we love his laugh and giggle

• M is super busy and active all day long

• We feel like a family of three

• Melkamu is very attentive of his environment - notices everything

• We love Melkamu

• M is well attached to us

• We can't believe M is our son, how did we get so lucky

• We love being parents to this guy

• M brings us so much joy and love

This is reality, really - warm and fuzzy and beautiful, but there's another reality too:

• Parenting is really, really hard

• Melkamu does not sit still

• Melkamu does not stop making noise

• Our efforts to be gentle, affirming parents is pushed to it's limits

• We lose our patience

• Sometime we yell...at our super sweet little boy (isn't that HORRIBLE)

• I don't like waking up in the night and/or early in the morning - it makes me angry sometimes

• M is going through a stage were he throws himself to the ground and yells and kicks (this can be amusing, but mostly it's annoying)
  

• M has more energy than both of us combined, times two

• We get tired - sometimes when I get off work Daniel throws on his jacket and runs out of the house, sometimes when Daniel comes home after being away for a little while I run away and hide
  

• We have realized that parenting does not stop...ever...

This is our cute son 6 months and a few days after coming home.
Isn't he the cutest thing ever! We adore him!

January

I am still trying to catch up on my blogging. So, January... the new year brought Daniel's parents out for a visit. Melkamu was delighted to spend so much time with adoring grandparents, and Melke's nanny was probably happy to have a week off. This visit with Melkamu's grandparents included his first trip to the snow, which I posted about here.

Also in January, Melkamu's "re-adoption" in the state of Oregon was finalized!! Yippe! He received his Oregon birth certificate and his social security number and card. Mostly, this makes me jump for joy, because it's one more step closer to being done with annoying and redundant paperwork and expensive fees. But don't get too excited, we are not finished, there is still the certificate of citizenship. (Maybe I'll put this on the to do list for next month. I found the previously mentioned processes traumatic enough I needed to take a break.)

(If you notice duct tape on our child, just know it was medically recommended...
we're still battling mulluscum.)

Perhaps our son's biggest day in January was his baptism. I was quite nervous about this event for a multitude of reasons, but everything seemed to go smoothly. It was nice to celebrate our little guy with family and friends, and it was the first time I "officially" heard Melkamu's full name. We ended up not doing a court ceremony for Melke's re-adoption, so his baptism felt like a debut of his "final" name. He had his birth name - Melkamu B---, and then the name that was used after his adoption was official in Ethiopia. Which was his first name and then his daddies first and last name, as his middle and last name - Melkamu Daniel ---. I realize all this is very confusing if you haven't adopted from Ethiopia, but alas we have, Melkamu Essien ---. All of this to say, it was special to hear our son's name spoken out in an official manner for all to hear... Melkamu Essien ---.

Getting ready with Grandma Judy


Sitting with his Greats and Grandma Nuttbrock

Melkamu Essien


Hanging out with Seblee and Yarid, Melke's friends

Us

And Genna...

We were able to celebrate Ethiopian Christmas with the Ethiopian adoption community in our area. One night a large group of families met for dinner at a local Ethiopian restaurant. The next night, Melke and I attended a Genna celebration hosted by a wonderful Ethiopian couple in the community. The celebration was complete with a prayer and blessing from an Ethiopian priest, and dancing from handsome, young Ethiopian men and women. They demonstrated music and dancing from different regions of Ethiopia. I was so busy running after my active boy, I didn't get many pictures.

His cute little Ethiopian shirt.

The boy LOVES music and LOVES to dance.
He insisted on dancing right in front of the booming speakers.

(If you wonder why I am posting about this two months late...it's in my effort to catch up.)

What...February Already!?!

I had planned to post a few pics from Christmas and Genna before January was over. Time just flies by so fast. I can't believe it's February today. Wait a second, It's MARCH Already!?!

I started this post, as you can tell, at the start of February, and now it's already the middle of March! Crazy... I have had a hard time sitting in front of the computer to blog, even just to throw a few pictures up. It's kinda like going to the gym, once you miss a few days and get out of the habit, it takes a great feat to get back into it.

The last few months have had lots of exciting activity and milestones to post about. I had wanted to post some pics of Christmas and when that never happened, I just got stuck, and then there was so much to blog about, I didn't know where to start.

So, maybe if I post some pictures from the holidays, my blog will start rolling again. My dear, far away friend is desperate to see some pictures of little Melke, so hopefully this will get me going and I won't disappoint her.

The holidays were tough for my little family, for lots of reasons... One being our whiny, clinging child. I always jump to adoption/bonding/grief issues whenever the little guys is out of sorts...although he has never really exhibited a great deal of issues related to the above and not really at all since the first few months we were home. Turns out he had a double ear infection. Every time this kid is unhappy and not his usual silly self, it turns out to be an ear infection. We've had an ear infection (by we, I mean Melke) for about every month we have been a family of three. The December ear infection landed us a referral to the pediatric ENT. Fortunately, his hearing is awesome and he was so cute during the hearing test. I had been wondering for weeks how they test the hearing of a young toddler...it was interesting. We decided to put off tubes for awhile, and thought we had made the right choice, as there was no ear infection in January. But, February and March have brought along the monthly ear infection and antibiotics.

Anyhoo...

Christmas Eve at my parents house, Melke got to meet his cousins Chloe and Kennedy for the first time. Kennedy and Melke (in this picture) were born three days apart.

Melkamu was not too keen on sitting still with his cousins.

Christmas morning at my sisters


Grandpa and Melke


Hmmm...Why didn't we take a picture of everyone? Grandma & Grandpa and Wayne and Gail are missing (for future reference).


Below: Melkamu and Kennedy seemed to enjoy chasing each other around our house.

Except here, where she is trying to strangle him (I also have experienced this urge, but only rarely).


Trying on shoes


And here, they are trying to escape. I don't blame them. This was about the fourth or fifth family holiday event we were at.


And below, I just think these pictures are cute!