the Wilkeys

Local Adventures

2011-12-07T12:32:00.000-08:00

This past weekend my parents came up and gave my sister and I our favorite birthday gift to date: an excursion on the Cincinnati Dinner Train. If you haven't heard of it, that's because they don't do much advertising. They rely on word of mouth, and I was so impressed I wanted to blog about it. The train trip was a blast for Amy and I for a few reasons: one any time with the fam is wonderful, and two - my dad is a big train enthusiast, and so we have been around trains - real and pretend ones - our whole lives. Food and trains sounded like the perfect night out for our family!

Fuzzy dinner train pic of Mike, Paul, Amy, Christine. You get the idea, though. It is CLASSY.

Little did I know that I would also get to learn some cool stuff about our city as well. Learning about Cincinnati has become a little side interest of Justin and I, and I think we are getting inspired to do a little more fun exploring around here.

The dinner train basically follows Red Bank Road for a few miles after leaving from the BBQ Revue on Madison Rd. However, first you go eastward and cross over the I-71 bridge, which has been tagged by a graffiti artist as "Heaven's Gate." I think they may have spelled "heaven" wrong, though. Anyway, this is their way to advertise the train - if you see it you instantly wonder why the heck a beautiful silver passenger train from the 1940s is over the highway. Great advertising.

After heading west again and following the Red Bank path, the line turns west and then follows Eastern Ave/Riverside Dr. until you get to the Montgomery Inn Boathouse, and then the engine pushes the train back to its starting point. There were two historical sights along the way that we didn't know about before, so we visited them again the next day and got some photos. FUN STUFF.

#1: The Pioneer Cemetery. On the train, all we could get a good glimpse of was the single tall Corinthian column that stands at the highest point of the small graveyard. We were told that some of the earliest colonists in Hamilton County (late 1700s) were buried there. The Corinthian Column came from the Old Cincinnati Post Office (the date escapes me). They put it there as a monument to those early Pioneers. We found the place by looking at the maps app on Justin's phone. We were watching our location on the map throughout the train ride (thank you modern technology), and so we knew it was by Lunken Airport. The train ride was in the dark, so we didn't know exactly how close it was to the airport. When we found it, we realized it is RIGHT THERE by the Lunken Terminal/Sky Galley building. What the hey?! It is on the right side of the road just before you reach the parking lot. I guess I'm usually watching airplanes and I miss it every time. Here's some pics.

Walking up the Hill from Lunken Airport towards the train tracks.

Many of the grave markers are for men who served in the Revolutionary War.

The Bottom of the Corinthian Column

Can you tell I just downloaded Instagram? Any boring cemetery pic is cool after a few clicks! Oh, and the tracks are just beyond the shrubs you see in the background.

Cool bench at cemetery - note that Samara is still in her pjs and is not wearing shoes. Oops! We decided to go exploring after waking up and immediately going to breakfast at Amy and Paul's. I bet she would have enjoyed the journey more if we had let her walk around in those socks...

The other historical treasure takes a little more explaining. I'll do it in quick bullet points, because I don't want to drag this out too long.

There used to be a train station at Torrence St. and Eastern Ave. It got torn down in 1933 when they built Union Terminal. Its claim to fame was having an elevator so that Mrs. William Howard Taft wouldn't have to climb stairs. They lived up the hill back then.
Meanwhile, in 1897 or so, there was a huge train station being built in Philadelphia called the Broad Street Station. To decorate the station, a famous terra-cotta artist named Bitter was commissioned to make 10 huge relief sculptures representing the 10 largest cities the station served. Cincinnati was one of the cities, and had a terra cotta representing it. It depicted two settlers arriving in the Columbia-Tusculum area.
At some time around 1914 or so (I think), the Broad Street Station burned down. However, the terracottas were saved and each given to its corresponding city. Cincinnati placed theirs in the Torrence Station in Columbia-Tusculum. Makes sense.
When the station was abandoned, the retaining walls and the base of the station were left in place, INCLUDING THE TERRACOTTA! What?! Yes, folks, it is STILL THERE. The guy who owns the dinner train researched this, found the spot where the terracotta should be (right by the tracks - you would see it as you boarded your train), and took a chainsaw to the shrubberies and weeds, and VOILA! The terracotta, albeit badly damaged.

When we drove by this during our train journey, the conductor hopped off the train and grabbed a floodlight to illuminate the thing as we passed it. Unreal. It even says CINCINNATI across the bottom in bold caps. We had to go back and see it again. Here's the shots:

As you go east on Eastern Ave, you see a little abandoned street by St. Rose church. We parked at the top of the little hill here. I took the pic facing West. St. Rose is behind me and to my left.

The foundation of the Torrence station was on our left as we drove up that little hill. The windows and door are all bricked up.

After we climbed the hill and turned back east, BAM. There was the retaining wall and the relief. Wow. There were two sets of tracks, and in this pic you can see the set that are no longer in use.

Justin in front of the terracotta relief.

Isn't it BIG?

It was really fun to explore these tracks with everyone. Justin even climbed up to the top of the relief, but didn't see a whole lot.

Dad and Amy admiring St. Rose Church (mid-1800s), which can be seen with your back to the relief.

What a cool cloudy day.

All my peeps checking out the relief - I'm on the other side of the tracks over by where that elevator must have been. I didn't find much, but it is very thickly overgrown.

Here is a link to a blog that includes a good pic of the original station. After this bit of exploring, I am looking forward to finding more interesting places like this and investigating our city more, learning about its history. I'll take suggestions if anyone knows of somewhere we should try and check out.

And as a reward for getting through this post - here's a crazy cute pic of Samara, thanks to my sis in law Christine Beyer! And yes, that's Santa, magnetically stuck to her earlobe.

Night Away

2011-03-25T18:54:00.000-07:00

Last night Justin and I had our first night away since the arrival of Samara! Amy and Paul kept her, so I felt 100% comfortable. I got a new outfit and all (no pics of that, sorry folks), and we went to BELTERRA CASINO in Indiana!! I got Justin a web deal for Christmas - a room and a $100 gift card to any restaurant or shop for $90 total. What a steal, huh? So we headed out and arrived in time for dinner - its a one hour drive from here. It is this huge tower of craziness in the middle of absolutely nowhere. We ate at the Jeff Ruby steakhouse they have - and wow. Even for a girl who "doesn't like red meat" it was amazing. I had a fillet mignon topped with crab and asparagus and bernaise sauce. YUM. It was a super-relaxing meal, wine and bread with truffle butter and all that. We sat side-by-side in one of those semi-circle booths - very romantic. Anyway, I loved it - what a treat. We hadn't had a nice nice dinner like that in ages. Next up - Justin wanted to try some black jack. He was still learning the rules and so forth, and we were really at the best table for that. The other folks there were friendly and offered him lots of advice, and the dealer was really nice too - it was because we were in Indiana, I'm sure. Anyway, he did an amazing job of staying in the game for about 90 minutes - I chatted with everyone at the table and watched Butler beat Wisconsin - (YEAH!). It was awesome because we had a huge small world moment with the people sitting with us - we had some very close common friends.

P.S. I have only been to two casinos in my life - the "Casino Aztar" in Evansville and now this one. They are odd places. The high-pitched hum of the slot machines was very other-worldly and slightly disturbing. Justin and I each blew a dollar on the "Pompeii" slot machine game. Zero winnings, sorry to report (it was fun to see the large number of classically-themed slots, however). I did greatly enjoy the limitless free soda - stations at both ends of the casino.

This morning was the best part of the trip though. We went to Vevay, Indiana about 7 miles away to have breakfast. We found a diner that was very rustic in the "downtown" strip. We ate biscuits and gravy, various breakfast meats, a pancake, eggs, geez. A LOT of food. The best though, were all the old people, especially the old man who walked in with a TINY little girl (3 yrs? 4?), announced that he brought his "best girl" with him, and ordered her a chocolate milk and a french toast. Everyone was doting on this girl, she was just the definition of precious. She didn't say much, but smiled and smiled. Minutes later, another cute fuzzy old man walks in, and then everyone is all "now your grandpa AND your great grandpa are here!" You just can't beat small town America. I'd be lying if I said I didn't tear up. On the way out we discovered we were in the official "4th coolest small town in America:"

Next, we stopped at the nearby Lock and Dam as we headed home. I love visiting these things, not sure why. There were two barges coming in from opposite directions, but it was a little too cold to wait for them.

Finally, a failed self-portrait at the dam. A shame too, because Justin is looking really cute here. At the very end of our journey, we visited a friend who just had a baby (YAY) and then went to pick up Samara.

It was great to have a change of pace and time to just talk and have fun. I'm so thankful to my sis and bro-in-law for being so willing to take care of Samara. And now, its only Friday, so we still have a whole weekend of fun ahead of us.

Hair Experimentation: Week 3

2011-03-24T10:19:00.000-07:00

This week I did 9 little braids. I am not awesome at braiding, so it was good to practice. I did this on Monday and it is staying in very well (today is Thursday). Next week, I want to try to start french braiding. I don't know how that will go, I've never done it. Maybe I should practice on an adult first. Hmmm...

Excited because tonight Justin and I have our first "getaway" since having Samara! Steak and Jeff Ruby's and a full night's sleep at Belterra! I think Justin may try his hand at blackjack, but I'll just watch. :-) Amy and Paul and Urban will take great care of her, we know it.

Anniversary

2011-03-16T10:53:00.000-07:00

One year ago today - March 16 - Justin and I learned of and saw a photo of Samara for the first time. It was such a surprise. Weird, because although we had been waiting two years, Justin thought our contact person at the agency was calling about a change in adoption policy in Ethiopia. However, she called to tell us we had been matched! He rushed home from work and we called her back to hear the news. Then came the email with photos. It is very surreal to see your child in a photograph and have no idea what she is really like. These past months it has been a blast getting to know her.

We made the decision to accept the referral before we told anyone about her, so you all heard about her existence a few days later. What a year it has been! She's the most wonderful little girl, and is the biggest blessing we could ever imagine. She is funny, loving, and fascinated by the world. Snuggly and giggly.

To celebrate, enjoy a look at the original referral photos, followed by a couple I took today. I wanted her to lie on the floor in a denim jumper like the March 2010 version, but her denim collection consists of jeans alone. Nevertheless, I put her in a dress today and put her on the patterned rug for the most similar shot I could come up with. I think she looks kinda funny lying on the floor - both then and now.

March 2010:

March 2011:

HAIR!

2011-03-14T18:26:00.000-07:00

To say I have been intimidated about Samara's hair is a bit of an understatement. Luckily for many months it looked great in little puffs or just loose in a big curly cloud around her head. A couple of times I have been able to put it in a single ponytail (bangs free), which I think is completely adorable. Anyway, with the encouragement of the BEST.BLOG.EVER, Happy Girl Hair, I FINALLY have started to try some more complicated styles and to learn how to care for these fantastic curls of hers. I've decided that Monday will be fun new hairstyle day.

Here's last Monday - rope twists with parts in a brick pattern:

She liked to pull the bands out but they were easy to put back in so I didn't mind too much.

We were able to keep this style in for three days! If she would be able to leave her sleep cap on at night, it probably would have lasted longer. But she thinks it is a fun toy and likes to pull it over her face. Not too safe, so we're leaving it off until we can explain its use to her better.

And for today: I tried two-strand twists without any bands at all. This was very tricky because it was so random, I had a hard time regulating the size of the twists and some of them are a little scraggly. These pics were all taken right after I finished, so keep in mind that things dried some and calmed down too after a few hours and a nap.

I'll post other pics soon so you can get a better feel for it. I think I may improve on these over time. They definitely looked better at bedtime. These pics make her look a little Medusa-ish.

Anyway, I am really having fun with this. Samara has been really good during these sessions too - of course I play cartoons on tv and give her snacks in front of it, not a usual occurrence around here but I suppose we are slaves to fashion! :-)

We'll Miss You, GRANDMA

2011-03-14T18:11:00.000-07:00

It was a wild February, to say the least. This past Friday evening our Grandma Betty died. This was Samara's only great-grandparent. The story is a really beautiful one, though, even though we are sad she is no longer with us.

Grandma Betty and Grandpa Jim have always lived far away - in Wisconsin and in Wyoming. We had a family visit out to WY around the year 2000, just the 5 of us, before anyone got married. It was an excruciating drive, 5 big adults and a dog in a small-size SUV that we rented. Lots of fun, though. Then Justin and I had a really fun road trip out there the summer after we got married - that would have been June or so, 2004. We have a great photo of Justin drinking a beer with them at a bar in Dubois, WY that we keep on our mantel. In 2008, Grandpa died, and Grandma wasn't too great health-wise. Now we decided to have a big family trip/vacation to go and bring her back to Indiana to stay in a retirement home near my parents. Justin and I, Amy and Paul, and Mike and Christine flew out there with Mom and Dad. We landed in Jackson Hole and got everyone in the family on horses (!) for a gorgeous ride that first day, and after another day of sightseeing there we would drive down to Dubois to see Grandma. However, that first night we received word that Grandma was very ill and was taken to a hospital a couple of hours away. Her town was too small to have a hospital! We drove through the night to go see her, and she was NOT good. Thankfully, though, she recovered. She couldn't come home with us on that trip, but Dad was eventually able to fly out there and get her home to Indiana. Read a little about those adventures here. We will always remember the fun first day and groan about the rest of that trip. What a family bonding experience. Thankfully we made it through - fights, digestive issues, drama and all.

Grandma lived in Evansville, from 2008 until last week, when she passed away in her retirement home. She got to see her first two great-grandchildren! She had three Christmases with us, two with little Urban, and one with Samara. It is weird to think that our adoption paperwork was submitted just before that 2008 trip to Wyoming, and then Grandma finally got to meet Samara at Christmas 2010! When I look back at those photos from our 08 trip, it seems like so long ago.

Anyway, Grandma had various ailments, and she told me at Christmas that she wouldn't be around much longer. I went home with Samara to Evansville to see her and mom and dad while Justin went to Salt Lake City to ski, hang out with old friends, and to tear his ACL. Anyway, I drove home late Saturday night and on Sunday we were getting ready for a visit with the retirement home called to say that grandma Betty was having a rough day. She was asleep and they had only woken her once to eat a late breakfast/early lunch. We went anyway, and sure enough, we could not wake her. We tickled her feet, called her name, etc. Her vitals were good, so we were worried, but not too worried. The next day she was awake. We went to see her asap. She was in pain and scared, and her vitals were starting to decline. They told us before we left home that they had called for hospice services.

While it was rough to see her declining like that, I wanted to talk about how amazing it was to see Samara interact with her. At first she was a bit scared and hesitant to go up to grandma, but with me sitting on the bed next to her, she did climb into my lap and gave grandma all kinds of hugs and smooches. We sang songs and Samara did the motions. Grandma sang too. She giggled at Samara's smiles and went on and on at how cute she was. It was so touching to see someone at the end of their life, who was very childlike really, be so moved and cheered by a person at the beginning of their life. It was one of the neatest moments I have experienced since becoming a mom. I was SO GLAD that her great-grandchildren could provide such comfort in this part of her life.

We saw her again Monday night, and on Tuesday morning she did not remember that we had come the night before. Tuesday was the last time we saw grandma. We had to head back home (and we really didn't know how much longer she would have). Grandma was in and out of wakefulness the rest of the week, and didn't eat much if anything at all. She passed around 6pm Friday night. Grandma had requested that there not be a funeral, but on the following weekend all us siblings got together at mom and dad's - great-grandkids too - and we spent lots of time remembering and honoring grandma. It was good.

SMILES

2011-03-03T10:26:00.000-08:00

Samara's vocabulary, personality, and adorableness are growing daily. I just have to share my favorite pic today. I've got some blog posts started and saved, and hopefully I'll add to those later and get them up. Life is good. I'm having a blast with her and feel like I'm in a rhythm of mothering now.

Word List

2010-12-01T08:20:00.000-08:00

Things are moving along rapidly at Casa Wilkey. For starters, today was our last post-placement visit with our social worker! Tomorrow is our court date for Samara's re-adoption in Ohio. Then she will no longer just be a "permanent resident," but a US Citizen! Woo! Exciting times. I feel the end of massive paperwork coming quickly, which is fantastic.

Today the social worker asked me what words Samara knows. It was tough to think of them all at once, there are quite a few. Here is a quick list.

MAMA
DADDY (sounds like Daaa-DEEE)
Bye Bye
uh-oh
Hi
Done
Hat
Dog
Ball
Baby
MO (for "more")
BUB-TEE (I think she uses this for her cousin Urban, belly button, pumpkin, and also monkey)
Teeth
Eye
Oof! (from the children's book "Ten in the Bed")

(Justin, am I forgetting anything??)

Fun stories about a couple of her words:

Do you know the book "I love you Stinky Face?" Well, Samara loves it. Each little section of it starts with the kid saying "But MAMA, BUT MAMA!" Samara picked up the book today and said "MAMA."

She also has a wonderful little book called "Global Babies." It has photos of adorable little babies from all over the world in the traditional garb of their country. There is a little white baby for USA who is wearing a fleece coat and hat. Samara looked at that particular page yesterday and said "BUB-TEE!" She definitely thought it was Urban. Sweetness.

Here is a darling photo of her with her twin cousins Abigail and Addison. Matching outfits! They loved hanging out with her at Thanksgiving, and I think she is completely captivated by them too. (click to view larger)

And this one does a good job of capturing the energy of two nearly four-year olds and a 15month old!

REUNION

2010-11-22T12:28:00.000-08:00

We had such a wonderful day yesterday. When we traveled to Ethiopia to bring Samara home, we got to experience the entire journey with a group of fantastic families. It was so wild, because some of the most profound and intimate moments for our family were shared with nearly complete strangers! Of course, over the week we got to know each other so much better, sharing meals, a bus, and close quarters at our guest house. We went to the embassy together, we ate an authentic Ethiopian meal together (where some of us danced), laughed over games and silly kid moments, and we cried with each other during the tough parts. We all went our separate ways (to all corners of the US) on June 24, but we have stayed in touch over email and the ever-useful Facebook.

Well - yesterday had a REUNION with one of the families on our trip! YAY! The Judkins family were in Ohio visiting friends this weekend, so we made a trip just north of Columbus to see them. (And we'd like to add a HUGE thanks to the Judkins' friend Carrie and her beautiful family for letting us crash at their house for the day!) It was awesome to see them and their Ethiopian daughter, Faith. It was great to see her healthy fitting so well into her new family. We got to meet their other kids (two adorable boys). It was great to catch up on all the details of transition and on what it is like to be a multi-racial family now. We can't wait for future reunions - perhaps this summer we will get to see them again along with some other families. What a blessing to be able to stay in touch!!

Here are some pics of Faith and Samara being adorable, as usual.

Just after we arrived, here they are "sharing" a light saber.

Soccer balls for everyone!

Sitting at the kids' table.

Best Friends!

I know I joke about them being BFFs, but in all seriousness, these two knew each other before any of us were in the picture at all, as we have seen them in photos together from the care center in Addis Ababa. It is crazy to think about. I wonder if they recognized each other?

Yay for wonderful Sundays! Samara is totally POOPED today. She loved running around and checking out all the kids and playing with their toys. Now on to an exciting week of Thanksgiving travel, family portraits, and other holiday fun. YAY!

Good Times

2010-11-16T05:08:00.000-08:00

Today is Amy's and my birthday! The big celebration was Saturday, organized by our truly awesome husbands. They organized a surprise day of fun for Amy and I. Amy, Paul, and their son Urban arrived for breakfast (Justin's delicious crepes), and we were presented with an itinerary. They were watching the kids - and Amo and I had a list of places to enjoy. This included a luxurious hour or so at the knitting store in Newport. Seriously, go to Knit On! if you like yarn and stuff. It was fun to take the time to browse and plan for potential projects without the usual rush-in-rush-out that you do with a kid in tow. We even stopped at dairy queen and split a Blizzard! Then the guys thought we would miss the kids, so they planned a stop at Sawyer Point so we could hang out with them a bit. Urban and Samara LOVED running through the grass and climbing on the steps, as well as pointing at helicopters and barges. Then we browsed at the bookstore until our dinner reservation at Dee Felice. This was delicious and so much fun. We couldn't remember ever going out to a supernice dinner before - just the two of us. I had jambalaya and Amy had crawfish etouffe. We even tried blackberry cobbler for dessert. Meanwhile, the guys put the kids to bed and ordered pizza.

So much fun. Here we are about to leave for our day of shopping and eating! Thanks Justin and Paul!

Fall!

2010-10-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

Wow, after that week o 90-degree weather, fall has hit and I don't think I'm ready. Brrr. Luckily the past couple of days have had warm afternoons with some sunshine. I think I realized right away on Monday how much dreary weather affects my mood.

One huge positive about the cool weather is the fact that I can dig out the snuggly outfits Samara has for fall. Justin's work had a shower for us a few weeks ago and she got lots of sweet leggings and snuggly shirts. Here's an example from today's ensemble:

She is also so super snuggly in footed pajamas and sweatshirts, and she is adorable in jeans with a onesie. It is so much fun to dress a little girl!

Justin and I were looking at photos from her first birthday party in August and we could not BELIEVE how much older she looks now. It is staggering, really. Two more teeth, a few more words, and lots and lots of walking. She has even learned the sign for "more," and asked for more peas all throughout lunch today. What could make a mom happier than a child asking for more vegetables?!

We went to the library for story time this morning. It was 30 minutes of songs, a few stories, and even a little craft. We glued a paper sailboat to a piece of paper! I was surprised by how outgoing Samara was. She didn't want to sit in my lap much. She loved checking out the other kids and tried to take toys and things from them! This gives me hope for the childcare at church someday soon. The other moms at the library (there was one dad too), seemed nice, but everyone already knew each other, and I didn't introduce myself or anything. I kinda felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb. Arg! It's like going back to gradeschool! Why do I feel shy at times like this? We all know I am NOT shy. Anyway, I guess it was the first time I felt weird about being an adoptive mom. For a moment I felt like I'm not as legitimately a mom like those moms (and dad!) were, since I've only been one for just over 3 months. I haven't been through all those things that happen in the early months of life (nighttime feedings, first smiles, etc.). I know that is obviously wrong, that I'm totally a "real" mom and all that, but it was a somewhat weird moment. I'm glad we went, and I'll go back again, and maybe the other adoptive moms from the neighborhood that I know will be there.

ROAD TRIP

2010-09-22T11:08:00.000-07:00

BUSY! That is the theme of September. Aside from the usual day-to-day stuff that goes on around here, we did take our first road trip with the gal. We went to Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Justin was recruiting there for his company. It was a great first travel experience. We had no agenda except for learning how to pack and feed a kid while based in a hotel room. It was amazingly successful (well, after the barfing in the car one hour into the journey part). She slept great in the room (although we didn't) and seemed to find staying in a hotel room quite hilarious. She loved kissing herself in the full-length mirror. Justin bought her some PU spiritwear when we were there. As much as it pains me to admit,* this pic of them in their garb is freaking adorable.

*For those who do not know, I'm an Indiana University grad - Purdue's archrival.

Birthday Fun Part Three

2010-08-28T07:09:00.000-07:00

The PARTY!

Since my nephew Urban's birthday is just six days after Samara's, we had a combo birthday party for both little ones. What a blast! We invited a bunch of family and bible study friends to come to the little "tot lot" park two doors down from Amy and Paul's for hotdogs, yummy sides, and lots of cupcakes and cakes for the kiddoes, homemade by us twins. Making those made for a late evening of fun, madness, and some loopyness on our part, but it was totally worth it and the results were delicious.

Anyway, the kids could all play on the playground, and there was tons of room for food and lawn chairs. The kids plowing through their cakes was the highlight. Check out these pics by Justin.

Birthday Fun Part Two

2010-08-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

PRESENTS!

The neighbors left some balloons on the porch for her. Awesome. She was amazed. I guess a one year old doesn't really understand the concepts of helium, gravity, etc. At one point one of the balloons made its way into our stairwell with the string hanging down to about eye level. She still looks up at the ceiling when we go down the steps to see if it is there. Cute.

Yovie sent a package to be opened on her birth day. She hasn't quite gotten down the concept of gift opening yet, but Frank was a huge help. He loves presents! (photos below by Amy Owens)

This book is beautiful. It is called "He's got the whole world in his hands." The illustrations are gorgeous, and the text is basically the words to the song. The next day, it was lying on the floor and Samara crawled up to it and kissed the boy on the cover. Sweetness. Below, Frank helps her with another book.

Birthday Fun Part One

2010-08-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

Samara had her first birthday on August 17. It was a weekday, and her party was scheduled for the weekend, so to celebrate we went to our favorite restaurant (of course), El Pueblo! We did tell our waiter that it was her birthday - implying that we just wanted the staff to sing to her and place the ceremonial sombrero on her head, but they also brought us YUMMY fried ice cream! She cried at the end of the song, but loved the ice cream, her first!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMARA SITOTA WILKEY!

2010-08-17T03:31:00.000-07:00

Today she is ONE! She woke up at 5am and was perfectly adorable. She is such a morning person, which means she fits in pretty well around here!

Here are some more tidbits about her at 12 months:

She's a great eater. Her favorite solids are: wheat toast, waffles, yogurt and sweet potatoes, along with peaches and kiwi. Oh, and CHEESE (again, she fits in VERY WELL around here!).
She is standing on her own, and alllmost walking. She likes some toys okay (or should I say TOWYS, Mom), but would prefer to spend her time walking around holding the furniture and climbing on mom and dad.
Favorite toys: the clear plastic cap from her bottle, an Advil container filled with rice for shaking, and plastic keys. Oh, and books. And the wooden farm animals puzzle from Grandma Kathleen.
She is a great imitator. Make the kissing sound at her during dinner, and you can spend minutes going back and forth with little kissies. She will try any facial expression you give her, and can almost wink with one eye.
Vocabulary: she can clearly say "Hiiii!" and "Daddy." That last one was said clearly for the first time on Sunday. I cried. Not because it wasn't "Mamma," but because it just sounded so sweet!
She loves to show off for strangers. Lots of smiles and flirts. She REALLY flirted with a teenage neighbor boy that came over yesterday for some Latin help. That worried me a bit.
She loves hugs and kisses and snuggles. Sometimes she is just so sweet and loveable that I get a little teary and just can't believe that she is a part of our family. We are some seriously blessed people.

Here's a pic of her yesterday in the most seriously cute dress I have ever seen. I can't remember who gave this to us, but if you are out there reading this, THANK YOU, it is so cute!

And finally, here she is just moments after meeting her cousin Evan! We are at the weenie dog races. Evan loved her.

Such a Big Girl!

2010-08-11T16:36:00.000-07:00

Wow, I was just downloading a few pics for my mom and I realized that WOW. She is getting so big! She looks like a little girl here, not a baby. We bought a couple of headbands online for her (thanks for the tip, Sonya!) and they have opened up a whole new level of cuteness. She is going to be ONE YEAR OLD (!) next week. I can't wait. Both Justin's and my families are coming into town to celebrate. We have probably mentioned this here before, but - blessing of all blessings - Samara is six days older than my nephew Urban! Needless to say, we are going to celebrate together. We are so excited that they are the same age and will have so much fun together over the years. And we also have fun birthday consolidation across the board - Amy and I on the same day of course, and then Urban and Samara are 6 days apart, and Paul and Justin have birthdays 10 days apart! So we will get to have celebrations in August, November, and March. Hooray!

Samara is still adjusting well and is a blast to be around. Like a normal kiddo, she is really getting into things and has learned the word "no." She actually starts shaking her head no as she approaches something she is not supposed to get into - like the dvd player or the fireplace. It makes me want to laugh instead of tell her no, but alas. That's parenting I guess. :-)

You can see a little bit of drool coming out of her mouth here. She is ONE DROOLY kiddo! I caught a glimpse of her gums today and she is extremely close to cutting two new teeth on either side of her front chompers. She is pretty much obsessed with her teeth and grabs onto stuff with them and loves to bite off pieces of food. She also will gnaw on anything in sight, especially buttons on my shirt.

Beautiful Day

2010-08-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

Samara is an absolute JOY. Her personality has just been blossoming lately. She can now come to stand all by herself without holding onto anything. She knows this is very exciting, and usually comes to a stand, looks at me or Justin and squeals, and then PLOPS down on her bottom. Quite hilarious. We have watched her get better and better at it each day. Now she just wants to stand stand stand all day, and hold onto furniture and walk around. It is so cute. She also LOVES her voice, and screams and shrieks alot. Noisy, yet adorable.

At the doctor last week we learned that she gained 2+ lbs! We were so excited. She hasn't added anything to her height yet, but she's definitely filling out.

She turns one in less than two weeks. This is just staggering for me to think of. I can't believe we missed all those adorable baby months, but we are so thankful for the wonderful care she received before we met her. I am also endlessly thankful that I am able to stay home with her. I loved my job, but after missing so many months of Samara's life, I just don't think I could put her with a sitter all day. I love hanging out with her all day and watching her explore the world. Justin totally rocks for being the working dad and coming home with lots of smiles and energy for Samara. He also handles many morning feedings so I can continue teaching spin at the Y and go on a few jogs in the morning. I love it.

Here's a pic of her eating some quinoa grains at dinner. I think this may be one of my all-time favorite photos of her.

And finally - you are all invited to the wiener dog races at River Downs on August 14. After the day of horse racing, they set up a mini-course and do 10 heats of weenie dog races. Awesome free entertainment. Everyone brings their dogs too, so it is great for kids who love animals. Frank is already registered. Last time we went he made the finals! Warning: you may laugh harder than you have in ages. And you may hear my sister burst a blood vessel in her brain like she did here. Below you can see Frank with Samara and a little stuffed weenie ("mini-Frank") our friend Corina gave her. Frank was a feeling a little bit like he was being replaced, but we had a little talk and now he welcomes the new pet quite nicely. Samara is mostly interested in the tag, anyway.

Samara's First Reds Game!

2010-07-27T16:27:00.000-07:00

Last week Wednesday Samara saw her first Reds game! Jason, Chrissy, and Maggy brought us along for a game against the Nationals that we lost solidly. Something about some hot shot pitcher they have. Whatever. We had fun anyway! We stayed about 4.5 or 5 innings. We are so glad she had fun! We hope this is the start of many fun seasons of game watching. Here's Justin, Chrissy, and the girls:

Samara sat in our arms and seemed to enjoy the action. She got lots of looks of "HOW CUTE!" from strangers. It is a really different feeling to walk around now with a child. People LOVE babies. It is also interesting because she is so obviously adopted. We have had neighbors on streets a couple of blocks away that we have never spoken to announce loudly "DID YOU GUYS ADOPT! I SEE YOU ALL WALKING YOUR DOG WITH HER ALL THE TIME! I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!!!" It is an interesting way to experience the world.

I am also still adjusting to taking a self-portrait with three people instead of two. It will take me awhile, I'm afraid.

One really neat thing they do at the ball park is print out a personalized certificate for kids when they attend their first game! We were very excited to have paper documentation of the event. We also bought her a baseball and she was REALLY interested in the plastic wrapper. We were a little late to get it signed by Dusty, but there is always next time.

Montage

2010-07-24T03:10:00.000-07:00

I know a few of you saw the title and immediately started imagining Rocky doing vertical sit ups hanging from the rafter of a barn deep in Siberia, but really it's titled for the amazing video and photo montage Jenn put together. Check it out here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YTdVjVDxBQ

This is definitely a testament to the Mac, she said this took her 3 naps to put together... that's not a lot of time.

-Justin

PROGRESS

2010-07-19T19:37:00.000-07:00

Samara had a few feeding issues when she came into our care. These included:
1) Only knowing how to drink formula from a cup
2) Not wanting to eat solids from a spoon
3) Eating those "poof" things exclusively (except formula)

Gradually these have all been overcome! Eugepae (that's Latin for "hooray" - I gotta keep up my skills if I ever want to teach again someday)!

Justin helped her drink from a bottle again while we were still in Ethiopia. He's a genius.

Over the last weeks (almost a month now!) she has started taking solids that she could feed herself. This is a huge relief! She still loves her bottles, and that is cool with us because they are good for attachment and such. Tonight at dinner she had lots of little pieces of steamed sweet potato and apple along with brown rice and fresh avocado. She ate ALOT. We are very pleased.

Not to get into much detail, but we are currently dealing with the result of ingesting so much food before going to bed. I know my friend Bert can't handle such discussion, and we wouldn't want to embarrass her when she's older, so I'll just say that Justin is putting her back to bed after a dramatic event that necessitated two clothing changes (for me and her), one load of laundry, and Jenn calling out 'CODE RED'** over the baby monitor. EEeeew.

** Special thanks to A. and R. for this bit of parenting advice. The phrase has served us well. :-)

super proud of her hair today for some reason

2010-07-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

she just has the most amazing soft curls. and SO much of it! She's really like her momma in the quantity of hair category. off to our first grocery store visit! Wish me luck.

week 3 at home

2010-07-14T11:36:00.001-07:00

Hello! Things are still going well. It is hard to know that though, because i have nothing to compare it to, and I cannot ask her how she feels yet. We took a couple of days off from visitors - she wasn't sleeping well and we had a cranky day or two. She slept well last night and is actually having a restful nap right now (of course she does wake up alot but has been going back down with encouragement), so I'm excited for a good afternoon of playing! Now I'm a little off on sleep so I'm trying to nap a little (which I am HORRIBLE at).

Here is a wonderful pic my friend Chrissy took of us. I absolutely love it. Expect copies in the mail, grandmas! It shows her hilarious and adorable personality, and her wonderfully expressive eyebrows.

Here's a pic of Samara meeting her BFF, Maggy. Can't you tell they are going to have so much fun together?!?!

< I don't think I have blogged about how we have now added Frank back into the family. Well, he came this past Friday night after a couple of weeks with Grandma and Grandpa Wilkey. He came back a more chilled doggie, somehow. Part of us wonders if he is depressed that he is no longer hanging out all day with Grandpa Wilkey. Frank LOVES them, and LOVES their comfy house and he LOVES going on camping trips with them on the weekends! Nevertheless, we brought Frank in after Samara went to sleep, and he gave the house a good sniff. I think he knew he had been replaced as the baby of the house. He and she get along fine. He gives her a sniff here and there, she gives him a pat, maybe a giggle. She is most interested in putting his doggie tags in her mouth, though. As a result he has not been wearing his collar in the house, making him into a cute "naked" doggie. Here's a pic from this am. My two kiddoes chillin on a blankie.

And finally, Justin took this one on Sunday.

Plugging Along

2010-07-09T06:43:00.001-07:00

So we are nearing the end of my first week (albeit a 4-day week) as a stay at home mom. I really really like not having to worry about work. I am so thankful I'm able to stay home. Even though there is much to get done, I don't feel distracted about whether I am covering adjectives properly or what I have to iron to wear for the next day. Friends have brought meals too, which has really helped me to just focus on her completely, which must be helping her with attachment. Thanks everyone! Also, thanks for being patient, those of you who haven't met her yet! She seems fine with visitors, but I think they tire us both out, so spacing people out is working well.

Tonight Justin's mom and dad are arriving for a visit! They saw us at the airport, but we were preoccupied with her health status at that point, so now the second set of grandparents will have a proper visit! They are also bringing Frank, who hasn't met her yet. We are missing that little booger quite a bit, so it should be fun to be reunited. Hopefully Samara will like him and we will be a little harmonious family. However, I am betting it will be wild for a bit until we all settle in. I also think Grandpa and Grandma Wikey will miss having him around! He's great for keeping your lap warm while reading, watching tv, camping, etc.

Here's a pic after Samara's bath today! She's so snuggly!

the Lasts become Firsts

2010-07-06T18:11:00.000-07:00

Justin drove me crazy the morning we left for Ethiopia. He kept taking out the Flip camera and pushing record, saying "this is the last morning we wake up as a couple without a kid," or "now we are leaving the driveway for the last time before becoming parents," etc. Now that I look back on all those video moments (including one on the plane while landing in Ethiopia), I think they are pretty cute, and I do appreciate his video-obsessiveness (yeah, you're right, I'm admitting it Justin).

Well now those lasts are turning into firsts, which is really fun. First ride in the car, first trip to the doctor, first time meeting the grandparents, first time in the high chair, first PRESENTS (thanks grandma Yovie). Today was my first day as a Stay at Home Mom. Justin had to return to work, sadly. It was so nice to have him home, and Samara loved it too. Here's a pic of them sharing a moment while he is dressed in work clothes.

The first day was fun. Pretty uneventful. We went to the bank to meet the manager who notarized approximately 275 documents for our adoption paperwork, and to 10,000 Villages to buy a toy bin. Then we just played and ate and slept a little and visited with a friend and her adorable daughter. I'm exhausted! Tomorrow my aunt Jackie is coming for a short visit! I'll keep you posted.

I'm so thankful for all her smiles. And her sillyness. Here she is playing with some plastic keys. Always a blast for a 10-month old. People ask how attachment is going. It seems very good. She smiles at me, she makes eye contact, she seems happy. We don't know what is going on in that little head of hers, though, as my mom put it today. I'm praying she feels safe and loved here.

El Pueblo

2010-07-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

Our favorite restaurant in Cincinnati is El Pueblo. Of course the food is fabulous and the service is amazingly fast and courteous, but I think it is our favorite because of all the memories that go with it. Once our church did a series of sermons and a bible study to go with it on money management, getting out of debt, etc. Once someone in our small group mentioned that we they "wasted" money too often on going out for meals with friends. Our small group leader said something to the effect that money is well spent in these circumstances - that sharing meals in order have fellowship with others is one thing he doesn't like to skimp on. (Or perhaps it is worth it to skimp on other things to make this sort of thing a priority.) This comment started a phenomenon our friends and us like to call "fellowship eating." Almost every Sunday night after church (our service meets Sundays at 6.30pm), someone asks "Fellowship Eating?!?" and no one can resist. 9 times out of 10 we "fellowship eat" at El Pueblo. Having mexican food at 8.30pm on Sunday night may not be the best idea for one's digestive system, but it is always a great time with good friends. And those friends have listened and listened to our adoption story. It was at El Pueblo that we both vented about the tough times and also shared the good news that we were matched with Samara! We went to El Pueblo the Sunday night before left for Ethiopia, and we were a little nostalgic because we knew that with the wonderful arrival of the baby we also would not be going out for late night dinners anymore. Well, today two of our friends were off for the holiday and so we were able to introduce Samara to El Pueblo with them! For lunch! She really loved it. She cooed, slapped the table, ate some cheerios, and flirted with Jen from behind a table sign. Jonathan showed her the table where we announced that we were traveling to go get her! Someday maybe we'll let her try their food too.

One Week Home!

2010-07-03T17:29:00.000-07:00

Amazingly, Samara has been home ONE WEEK! It's pretty hard to wrap my brain around the fact that I'm SOMEBODY'S MOM. The week went extremely fast, and while it seemed pretty simple, lots of things did happen. Here's a little recap of some of the highlights:

Friday: Plane lands in Indy, we have a warm greeting from Justin's family but Samara sleeps through it and we head directly to Children's. Zero sleep for something like 48 hours (!?).

Saturday: home from Children's in the early afternoon. Finally, she's taking formula from the bottle like a champ. Yvonne (Jenn's mom) arrives to meet her first granddaughter!

Sunday: Urban (Samara's cousin) and Samara meet! He seems a little underwhelmed, and she pats his head a few times. The moment is precious, though, and in true Beyer family style, we take about 7,000 photos. Jenn's friend Jen meets Samara! Chipotle was eaten by all. Yum.

Monday: Mom heads back to Evansville early.11.00am: follow up appointment with Dr. Staat at a satellite campus for Children's. Lots of blood tests (SUPER TRAUMATIC, Samara cried a river, and Jenn, an ocean), and various screenings for various illnesses. TB skin test. We ask the doctor to look at a little tiny lump on her head. They think it could be ringworm. The doctor sticks her finger on it and POP, it squirts all over the doctor's face. We're still waiting on the results for that one.

Tuesday: Justin's first solo fathering experience while Jenn attended a baby shower for a dear friend. Samara starts NOT wanting to go down for naps (because we are SO much fun, right?). Lots of poo. Lots of clothing changes and lots of laundry! (That's Samara making the poo, btw.) Burgie stops by for a visit and a mini photo shoot (see facebook). He rocks.

Wednesday: Back to Children's to have TB test read. She had a little reaction, so we had to have a chest x-ray. Traumatic, but not as bad as blood work! Her lungs are clear! Hooray! We are still waiting on some of the blood tests, and because her little veins were hard to tap, she has to have some more next week. That will be really rough. We are still dealing with jetlag. Justin has been going to sleep early and waking up EARLY! Samara is sleeping like a champ. 10+ hours at night!

Thursday: Jenn started coming down with a miserable cold at the hospital on Saturday. After much encouragement from Justin, she went and got some antibiotic at the doctor and feels a MILLION times better now. Justin returned to work for a couple of hours to catch up on email. Blah. He prefers being a stay at home dad. Who wouldn't with such a cute baby?

Friday: Justin runs errands (we already needed diapers and formula!), and stops by work. In the afternoon, we take a little walk up to the local pub and meet some dear friends for a drink. Samara was all snuggled in the wrap at first, but later she came out and charmed everyone with her giggles and smiles!

Saturday: Yovie (Mom) is back in Cincinnati! Justin grilled some delicious chicken for dinner and April came for a visit! Urban keeps stealing Samara's toys, and she still doesn't mind (just like the report from the Care Center told us months ago!). Check out that giraffe print outfit! (Thanks bffaeae!).

In the evenings, we have been trying to stay awake, but we usually fall asleep by 9pm or earlier. Samara usually wakes by 6, except that one morning when she woke at 3am and was ready for the day! She is doing amazingly well. I am so very in love with her and her sweet sweet personality. She loves to play with toys, but I would say that her favorite activities are cooing and babbling, sitting on laps, holding hands with mom or dad and sharing lots of little kisses and smiles. She sits still when I fix her hair, she ADORES eating cheerios, and she loves her bottles. She is NOT excited about eating pureed foods from a spoon. But what we feed her (and how we feed her) is MUCH different than the ways of her old care center in Ethiopia, so we are taking it slow and trying to make food fun and at her pace.

Thanks for being patient, everyone who is still waiting to meet her! We just want to introduce her to new folks slowly. She takes awhile to warm up, and seems to get overwhelmed a little by larger groups.

She is one amazing kiddo. I have been known this week to burst into tears because I just can't believe how blessed we are to have her - such an amazing, beautiful, loving little girl. So many thanks to everyone who has been praying for us during our long and sometimes bumpy journey to parenthood.

ok, more pics

2010-06-29T12:49:00.001-07:00

Several have requested more pictures so here ya go. (PS- Blogger sucks to post pics)

Here's a pic of us eating my mom's lasagna the night we finally got home. Yum.

.

Here's a pic when she was meeting Urban

With Aunt Amy and Urban

This is us trying to take my legendary facebook profile pic. She didn't quite understand it.

Cool pic with Mommy

Trying out some organic "o" s.

She likes the puzzle from Grandma Wilkey

Silly time

2010-06-27T05:58:00.001-07:00

I think she just might like us a little. Or grandma is just that funny.

The pics I couldn't post

2010-06-27T03:38:00.000-07:00

We'll take another blog post to rehash the last few days events at some point. We're still a bit tired but I thought I'd post a few pics that I wasn't able to add in Ethiopia due to the connection.

The pic above is the first one we could take when we brought her into our care at the guest house.

This is a view from the patio of the guest house. The care center where Samara was staying the last few months is in the upper left corner with all the windows. You can see all the construction that is going on around just the small area where we were located.

Just hanging out before we had to take her back to the care center. This is the first time we were able to get her to smile with us. Her tongue is blocking the smiel.

HOME!

2010-06-26T15:44:00.001-07:00

Shoo. We are home! She is sleeping more than I like considering last night, but I'll just assume this is shock and mixing up days and nights. After dinner we will be trying to get her up for a diaper change and some more orientation to the Wilkey house! Thanks for all the well wishes!

Hopefully Home Soon!

2010-06-26T09:14:00.000-07:00

So, our little Samara Sitota seems to be on the mend. She is still very snotty and pretty sleepy, but she has been AWAKE for a couple of hours today and has taken some formula three times! She is no longer instantly falling back asleep! We talked to Liz the infectious disease doc here and it seems that it really may have just been a reallllly icky virus that just compounded with the travel and so forth. We will be seeing Dr. Staat later today and maybe we will be discharged! Thanks for all the prayers everyone. We are feeling very touched.

Quick update

2010-06-26T02:52:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update, I finally have wifi here at the hospital but my battery is low on the netbook and I don't know where the power cord is right now.

It's about 6am on Saturday and Samara is awake and has been for a few minutes... only because they were trying to get some blood but we're taking the opportunity to play a bit which is something she has not done for 36 hours.

We don't completely know what's going on but from talking with the ER doc last night "good" in this situation would be she just emerges from this endless sleepiness and we will assume that she just had a virus that it took her body a lot to fight off. All their work here is being spent testing all the possible conditions and ruling them out. The fact that she is up right now and has been for 30 minutes or so is definitely encouragement for us.

We definitely have an A team here working on her (Thanks Liz S!!) and it's a little weird or ironic. 4 days ago she was seemingly in good health minus a cold, etc. That was when she had 1/5 of a nannie attending her. Now I think there might be 5 to 1 nurses and doctors working on her. There is a constant flow of different teams coming in to do various things.

The few folks that have called/texted have asked what you can do. Honestly, the only thing is prayer right now. Many of you were already meeting our needs and wants as part of her just coming home so we don't think we need anything. Probably the biggest thing is that we have gotten zero sleep ourselves. Thankfully, but annoyingly at the same time, we just got the fold out bed in our room fixed so we can now lay down. We need some rest. I'm wondering if this post is comprehensible right now. I'm pacing at about 6-8 hours total since I woke up Wednesday morning. Jenn is not much more than that.

home. well, kind of.

2010-06-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

Samara. Sleeping. On the car ride home.

HI All. Amy here - Samara Sitota's aunt. Jenn and Justin have arrived home to Cincinnati, but unfortunately they did not yet make it to the Wilkey house. They are currently at Children's Hospital. Samara is sick, and they needed to get her checked out asap. As you may have read in previous posts, Samara had some tummy issues before leaving Ethiopia and also started refusing food. After screaming her head off for an hour waiting to board the 15 hour flight, she slept the entire two flights and drive home from Indianapolis. She refused food and only swallowed a few gulps of water and pedialyte, some of which she threw up. She is extremely lethargic. After calling the doctor they suggested they bring here in right away. I met them at the hospital and got to meet my adorable niece. She is more beautiful than I could have imagined. Jenn and Justin are amazing parents already.

There are three incredible doctors working on Samara's case, and we are confident she is in the absolute best of care. The initial tests showed that she was only mildly dehydrated, did not show signs of having a bacterial infection, but did show signs of having a virus. They still do not know what is causing her to be so extremely sleepy (I only saw her eyes open a couple of times) so more tests have been ordered. She is going to be admitted for the night.

As you can imagine, Jenn and Justin are not in the best shape. They were already sleep deprived before boarding the crazy long flight. They are beyond tired and have another sleepless night ahead of them. They are doing AMAZINGLY well despite the circumstances, but, they need your prayers. Big time.

home soon

2010-06-24T04:18:00.001-07:00

hi friends. in three hours we have to go and pick up our paperwork for immigration, then board the bus with the kiddoes on our laps and head for the AIRPORT! Then four hours of waiting, then a 15 hr flight, then a 4-hr layover, then a 1.5 hr flight, then a 2 hour drive from Indy! We're practically home! or something like that.

Sitota is well, sleeping in the Ergo (thanks aim) at the moment while i type. Justin is on a walk/shopping spree with some of the dads and the favorite uncle of the trip. i think his goal is kleenex for sitota's runny snout. She has thrown up two more times since my last post. we have tried some pedialyte which has stayed down. she also had some of the funky smelling ethiopian stew for lunch. Hmmm... so far so good. We have been trying antibiotics for the cold, but those keep getting yakked up. now we are trying amoxcicilin (sp?). Good thing one of the moms is a doctor!

We are really just hoping not to have too much vomit and poo on the other passengers by the time the flight is over. Sitota still is in good spirits though. She really is a content child. The info the agency sent said that she was a "cute child whose personality brings out more of her cuteness." SOO true.

Today we had a demonstration on Ethiopian cooking. Sadly, I think injera will be too complicated to replicate at home, but I think I coudl handle the stews. WOW. YUMMMMMY. We also had coffee ceremony after lunch, we took lots of video!

Send some prayers for an uneventful trip. We can't wait to get HOME!!! Love to all!

We're Still Alive...Just Soaked

2010-06-23T11:31:00.001-07:00

Hello all! The computer and web connection here are extremely slow, so as soon as things got busy here with the kids, we just stopping having patience for the computer. Samara Sitota is awesome. She has gotten used to us enough that she has started letting her personality show. It rocks. She loves to smile and babble and smack the dining room table with her hands. Sofie the giraffe and the plastic rings are her favorite toys. She loves to drool and secrete other bodily fluids. For instance, right after Justin was going ON AND ON at dinner about how much of an easy baby she was, suddenly (I was holding her) I felt a HUGE rumble in her diaper, then wetness – yup. It went through her pants AND my pants. Awesome. After a quick diaper change for her, I took a shower (just changing the poo-soaked pants wasn’t enough)and returned to the dining room where Justin was feeding her a bottle. When he was done, we gave her a dose of antibiotic (she has a cold and maybe an ear infection). She HATES that stuff, by the way. About 2 seconds later, she sits up and PROJECTILE VOMITS everything she has eaten in the last 3 days all over Justin’s pants. Needless to say, we felt terrible that she missed the antibiotic dose AND dinner. She didn’t seem to care too much. She is fast asleep now, and Jenn has insomnia. Nothing new here!

p.s. She is officially a PERMANENT RESIDENT of the US now! The Embassy Appointment yesterday was a piece of cake!
p.p.s So many stories...so little time to type...we promise to catch you up on all the details later. we are SSOOO excited to get home to our own house and plenty of laundry facilities. We have really enjoyed the Ethiopian people and the other adoptive families. It has been quite a trip.

Quick shopping story- couldn't sleep this morning

2010-06-19T19:13:00.000-07:00

Jenn came to bed last night after posting the last post for me and told me it was a bit of a Debbie downer. I’m not really sorry about that as parts of this process are very downerific but we’ll keep those posts at a minimum. We really are very excited and enjoying this experience.

Forgot to mention a really funny cool thing that happened when we were “shopping.” I keep putting that in quotes as it was the typical souvenir type shacks you see in many countries, shirts, rick rack, etc. Not real shopping. Anyway, we were in one store paying up and an Ethiopian woman walked in with a “I “heart” Cincinnati” shirt. I told her that’s where we lived and she said she did too. I asked where in Cincinnati and she said “Queen City Four Towers” or something like that. There was a slight language barrier so I wasn’t sure what she was saying. I assume she was talking about an apartment complex… anyone recognize it. I told her we live in Pleasant Ridge and got a blank look but when I asked her if she new Emanu restaurant she recognized that. It was fun.

We saw her a few minutes later in another shop and she bought us key chains. So sweet. Nati love everywhere. Go Reds, merph, I have no idea how they’re doing right now.

Day Two

2010-06-19T10:34:00.000-07:00

Today we spent time with Samara and then went into the city to do a bit of “shopping.” Samara was definitely less freaked out by us but still no smiley crawling baby that we have seen in the pictures. This is actually very typical so we’re not worried. We don’t really do much right now other than hold her and shake toys in front of her face. Jenn did feed her lunch which was some kind of porridge. We’re definitely ready to get her under just our care as we were in this weird in between world of responsibility. The nannies still have responsibility yet we’re trying to do everything. It’s hard to explain but I think it’s prepping us well for Monday when we bring her back to the guest house with us for half a day instead of at the care center so we will be completely on our own with her.

Last night I got some sleep but woke up with my mind racing and I decided to capture my thoughts so feel free to quit reading here. It’s a bit of a ramble.
__
The amount of experiential impact that has occurred over such a short period of time is frightening to me. We’re really just scratching the surface too as we are contained in this very contrived and controlled adoption world. The excitement of meeting Samara had really overshadowed the travel experience of this trip. Just the diversity and disparity in the neighborhood we’re staying is peculiar. Mansions, literally, that rival American mansions in Malibu amongst corrugated metal shacks. I’m stunned by the amount of construction and development that seems to be going on. I know we’re in a city so my view may change after tomorrow when we travel south but this is a very developed place. Decent roads, reasonable traffic patterns, it gives me the sense that this country is on the verge of emerging from a poverty stricken status. I guess time will tell.
One of the main things I’m remembered of is the emotion that we dealt with many months ago. Our joy right now is counteracted by other’s tragedy. No matter how you slice it, and I think this is why I get a little annoyed when people think we are doing something good, a child becoming an orphan is never a good thing. Whether it be death, poverty, stigmatization, disease, it’s always something awful and that is being reiterated to me now. It is compounded by the fact we are seeing this with others as well. After the video time yesterday it was apparent that another couple had just watched some pretty heavy information on their daughter. Samara’s background wasn’t a bouquet of flowers , but seeing them have a difficult time with the information just reminded me of the pain involved with this for so many people. There is just something wrong with the whole situation. A busload of Americans come in and spend their time not immersing in the culture and then takes the country’s children away. Although this is a seemingly happy occasion, it must be enjoyed solemnly and humbly.
Another emotion I’ve had, and this has been before this trip and it really irks me is that I’m just reminded how completely off balance our culture in America is to not understand true tragedy. I think it’s why I have a hard time asking for prayer requests very often. Even the most dire circumstances in our society are oodles above the struggles most of the world experience. I think I get further annoyed that in our society many tragedies occur due to poor decisions… drugs, crime, laziness, and yet we feel we are entitled to so much, a nice place to live, clothes, money for frivolities, a rewarding job. God has blessed our culture so much and we seem to just fall into being more pains in the butts. Let me be clear, I’m including myself is this soliloquy. Anyway, enough ranting.
We’re traveling to the rural area tomorrow which will be a pretty full and taxing day. 2 hours each way on surely rough roads and the trip is mainly for the families to meet the birth families. That will be high on the emotional side.

Yup, she’s cuter in person.

2010-06-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

Today was quite a full day. We woke up and had breakfast and headed over to the “care center” where our kids are currently staying. When I say “we” I mean the us and the 7 other families that are on this trip with us adopting from our orphanage. It’s quite strange sharing this experience with people that we have never met until 24 hours ago. They are from all over the counrty, from DC to Arizona. The age range of the adoptions is from 4 months to 5 years old and some sibling groups.

So, after breakfast we took a very quick bus ride up to the care center. We can see the care center just across the ravine on the backside of the guest house so it’s very close. It’s an interesting area as we seem to be located in the midst of several embassies… Iran, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Tanzania to name a few. It seems like we’re in the Beverly Hills of Ethiopia. The care center used to be a mansion and you can tell. Quite fancy.

Once at the care center we had a quick orientation and then we were escorted one at a time upstairs to meet our children. They had a photographer and a videographer so it’s all captured and will be given to us. The walk up the stairs took forever. It didn’t help that I slept about 2 hours last night and I started feeling a little dizzy walking up the 3 flights of stairs to the nursery.

Once in the room there were ~10 kids, 3 nannies and a couple of social workers… plus the videographer. It took a second to pick her out but after a couple of glances I spotted her, sitting in that Bumbo chair we saw in the social report pictures. One of the nannies went to pick her up to hand her to us but she was stuck in the chair so I had to assist. They handed her to Jenn and she wasn’t too happy but eventually calmed down and clutched on to her shirt for dear life. I tried a short stint holding her but that definitely didn’t go over well and I handed her back. She likes the boobies I suppose. I do think she is a bit upset that they dressed her in a plaid jumper with a long sleeved, bold striped shirt. Faux pas.

We spent the rest of the morning just holding her and trying to play with her. She likes Sophie the Giraffe for the most part as she is teething a bit. She does have 2 top and 2 bottom teeth. Her hair is so soft, and it is gathered up in little bundles around her head.

We then had lunch and went for some meetings where they showed us a video they had prepared that documents her life thus far, including interviews. We’ll remain vague there as it is her story to share someday but it was pretty cool and I’m starting to see what our agency does well.

After that meeting we then got to go back to the care center where we played and her for awhile longer. The social worker told us that she is a very serious baby, and she definitely is. She has not cracked a smile yet. Hopefully that comes before we leave. She has a little bit of a cold which is expected under the circumstance so I’m hoping once she feels a little better she’ll get a little more smiley and giggly like some of the pictures we have.

Weather here is chillier than I expected. Really need long sleeves but since I over packed short sleeved options I’ll deal. It rained most of the day so hopefully we get some sun soon and I’ll start rattling off some pictures. Sorry, no pics allowed at the care center so we can’t share any right now. Once we bring her back to the guest house with us which is on Monday we might snap a few and I’ll try to upload them on the dial up connection.

We have arrived!

2010-06-17T12:11:00.003-07:00

Hello friends. We have arrived safe and sound. It was a heck of a flight – 15 hours or so including a 1hr stop in Rome. Shoo. Some of us thought it would never end. We got through customs and so forth with no troubles. We have met many of the families who are also using our agency and staying in the guest house while we were on the flight. There were 8 families from just our agency on the plane, and several from other agencies. Basically, if you were white and on the flight, you were a missionary or adoptive family. That trip home will be interesting! Jenn is exhausted, but Justin is feeling energized, or something that isn’t exhausted. I’m going to sleep. Tomorrow we meet our daughter – around 9 am here, so check the sidebar for the Ethiopia time. The guesthouse is Spartan but very snug and cozy. One double bed and a teeny toddler bed.

We met one family using our agency on the way in from the airport who is friends with Justin’s old roommate Scott. SMALL WORLD!

This is a dialup connection – so expect sporadic postings. We will do our best.

Take care everyone!

New netbook

2010-06-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

The new netbook is working well. In the Indy Airport right now.

Agenda

2010-06-15T20:17:00.000-07:00

(Justin here) I'm waiting on all my podcasts to download for the uber long plane ride so I thought I'd outline the rough agenda for the next several days.

Wednesday, we take off from Indy in the afternoon.
Thursday (night) we'll land in Addis Ababa
Friday - Orientation, meet Samara briefly, then bunches of meetings
Saturday - Visit Samara, shopping and then a dinner show
Sunday - Travel to the southern part of Ethiopia... no Samara :-(
Monday - Spend the morning with Samara and her nannies to learn her routine, afternoon of site seeing
Tuesday-Visit Samara in the morning and have a going away celebration. Take Samara with us (Forever!!!) and go to the US Embassy for the visa interview.
Wednesday-Hang out at the guest house, including a hair braiding class. I hope my hair is long enough.
Thursday - Pack up and leave in the afternoon for the airport
Friday - get back to Indy

We'll really have ~2 solid days with her before we get on the plane for 20 some hours. That doesn't sound so bad. Right?

Preparations

2010-06-15T19:08:00.000-07:00

As you can see, we have three suitcases filled to the brim, and then some. This entire past week (from Tuesday to Tuesday) I have been preparing for travel. Preparing Samara's room. Preparing the house for her arrival. Let's hope we have thought of the essentials, at least! I have moments clarity where I am beyond excited to meet her, but also moments were I think "What the HECK am I thinking? How do I take care of a baby?" Luckily, those thoughts fade fast. We are smart people, we'll improvise!

So it is all good. We need to do one last check through our various checklists, then a few minutes to chill, then we are off on our adventure. Phew! We greatly appreciate your thoughts and prayers, so keep them coming! We would really appreciate prayers of comfort for Samara as she goes through a HUGE transition. We would like prayers also - especially that we will be creative in thinking of ways to make her feel safe and loved. And let's face it, we are first time parents. Pray for wisdom!

Tonight we headed to Emanu in Pleasant Ridge for some Ethiopian food before our departure (awesome - we'll let you know how the stuff tastes when on Ethiopian soil). Thanks to Burgie, April, and Bert for showing up on short notice! It was great to sit and laugh with good friends about Big Butter Jesus and to NOT think about packing for a little while. You guys rock.

We aren't too sure what the internet status will look like over there. They have one computer with dialup, and about 10 families will be staying at the guest house with us. We hope to get a post or two in, so bear with us. If we don't get much time to post while we are there, be ready for a flood of posts when we return!

We can't wait to meet Samara. We have waited for her for so long. Praise God! See you all soon.

Confirmed

2010-06-12T04:21:00.000-07:00

(Justin here)

As was expected, we were confirmed by the embassy yesterday for our appointment. No stopping us now except for political unrest, terrorist attacks or volcanoes.

Not scrambling as Jenn has been off and taking care of stuff but definitely feels like a lot to do now. The goal is to be packed this weekend so there are no worries.

Practice!

2010-06-11T06:30:00.000-07:00

Preparations are going well for the big trip and the big transition. Amy has been a huge help, since she has a 9-month old already. Secondly, I have a friend who is an adoptive parent with a sweet boy from Ethiopia. We are using the same agency, and so she can share alot about the specifics. She has been a HUGE help with what advice on what to expect, what to pack, etc. The baby room is looking great. I have washed all the clothes and stored them in her drawers. All the bottles have been sanitized. The sippy cups are clean. I have taken tags off toys and put them in a cute bin under the crib (thanks for the cute bin, Ashley!). I have made endless lists. Now to get everything crossed off!

We're a little worried about the transition of the doggie. Poor little Frank. He's such a lover, and so needy. He only wants to be in somebody's lap 100% of the time. I read an interesting strategy online: carrying around a doll and giving it more attention than you give the dog. Sounds easy enough. I'm giving that a try today while I pace around the house and clean, pack, think, get butterflies in my stomach, etc. Frank tried to chew up this doll yesterday (oops), so I think it will be appropriate to carry it around to show that it means something to the adults in the house. P.S. Thanks for the cute doll, Mom!

Still Tentative

2010-06-10T10:11:00.000-07:00

(Justin here) Still haven't heard true confirmation from the Embassy that we're on for our appointment that will have us leaving next week. We're supposed to know today or tomorrow. Today has passed in Ethiopia so it's tomorrow I suppose. No big whoop although if it changes, which would likely be 2 weeks later, we'd be out $500.

Anyway, I've been obsessing about flights. For those interested, here is the link to the flight schedules with ET Air.

http://www.ethiopianairlines.com/en/booking/timetable.aspx

We'll be flight 500 from Addis Ababa to Washington Dulles. If you have trouble with the time change math it translates to leaving Addis at 10pm and landing at Dulles at 8am which is 16 hours of flight time including a stop, not a layover, in Rome to refuel.

That is going to be one heck of a flight. I hope they have some good movies.

Hopefully I'll be able to make a stop at the Ooze bar air and space museum just outside the airport during one of our layovers at Dulles.

http://www.nasm.si.edu/udvarhazy/

Crafty

2010-06-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how having a travel date motivates you to finish all those little projects you had hanging over your head. Check out my latest masterpiece:

Yesterday and today I made liners for the baskets in the changing table. We only needed three curtain panels for the room and you had to buy them in packs of 2, so I now have some fun extra fabric for stuff like this. Below you can see the two baskets in their home.

Finally, I want to share a pic of some cool gifts we have received.

Here you can see some of the adorable dolls and stuffed animals we have been given, plus two super neat frames that Amy filled with two prints that she designed herself! I can't wait to get them out of the packaging and onto the wall. Note the little zebra in the bottom right corner - Amy made him too! Out of socks! Amazing.

TRAAAAAVEL DAAAATE!!!!

2010-06-07T11:43:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone. Ahem. We have a tentative TRAVEL DATE. Yes. As in, traveling to Ethiopia to bring home Ms. Samara Sitota Wilkey. We are tentatively leaving on June 16, returning June 25. Yes, we are in a MAD RUSH to get all the preparations taken care of. Its awesome. We're making appointments and making lists. Gotta run, I must go sort baby clothes! Yippeeee! Here's a pic of me GRINNING as I take care of phone calls. Hey look! There's a BABY TOY in the background. Hooray!

Birth Certificate

2010-06-01T18:24:00.000-07:00

Hey folks. On today, June 1, we were finally issued a birth certificate for Samara Sitota Wilkey! Except it says her name is "Sitota Justin Wilkey." Never fear, we are not naming her after Justin. This is just traditional practice. They put the birth parent name in there for her middle name and then we re-name her when we "re-adopt" in the U.S. Weird, but that's how it goes. So we are ONE LEEETLE step closer now. No travel date yet. Their official word was that she will first have to get medical clearance (a formality). They say this can take 2-3 weeks MINIMUM to process. Then they can issue an embassy appointment and and then a travel date. We are still holding onto hope that we will leave the first week in July. We'll see.

Meanwhile, Jenn (me) has finished up teaching, and has served her first day of JURY DUTY. I did indeed get put on a jury this afternoon, so I'll be booked at least until the end of the week. It is actually kind of interesting, and it feels good to do my civic duty. But I can't talk about the case until it is over - so don't ask. :-) The not cool part of this is that school is still in session - I'm missing exam week. Not bad really, but without being there, my motivation to grade projects and exams is VERY LOW.

STILL WAITING

2010-05-25T07:43:00.000-07:00

It has been quite awhile since our "rollercoaster" post. We have no new news to share regarding the issue of a birth certificate, embassy date, or travel date. While this does make us nervous, they have also said that because of recent elections in Ethiopia, all other official business has slowed down. We are still holding onto hope that we could travel in late June (less likely) or early July (more likely, and also would be nice because Justin would have an extra vacation day on the 4th). She is legally ours, but we sure would like some more info, updates, and assurance soon!

Meanwhile, my mom threw me (Jenn) a beautiful baby shower on Saturday. My aunts and some cousins and old friends who are in Evansville were there. It was so much fun. Mom had such beautiful food, my aunt made white chocolate treats with pink sprinkles, and my sister in law made cupcakes with adorable flowers on top. There were fair trade door prizes for all guests. Adorable! The gifts were so generous and amazing, and ADORABLE. Girls' clothing these days is so precious.

Since our last post, we also had Mother's day! Justin got me some books on how to care for African hair, and a beautiful necklace that says "mother" in Amharic! Check it out. Justin is officially the most thoughtful and creative gift-giver ever.

When I got to work today, one of my Seniors came in the Latin room and gave me a gift! Look! A hooded towel with "Samara" embroidered between the shapes of Africa and America. So thoughtful and sweet. Here's a pic of it all folded up:

We are constantly feeling overwhelmed and blessed by the generosity and love of others.

Good thing we love “The Beast”

2010-05-07T13:54:00.000-07:00

For folks that know us they know that Jenn and I love the rollercoaster “The Beast.” I’m not sure that love adequately translates to the roller coaster that we have been on the last couple weeks but hopefully the phone call I received this morning is equivalent to that final circular tunnel pass on “The Beast” and caps off this ride.

It’s with unbelievable joy, and that is not cliche, and I have not experienced joy like this ever, that we are now the proud, excited, exuberant parents of Samara Sitota Wilkey.

Yup... WHAT!?!?! I got a phone call this morning from our agency saying that our court hearing went through yesterday and we passed. Apparently while we were debating whether to release the referral, they were taking care of business and that business wasn’t as involved as we had previously thought it would be! Even our agency was/is surprised. It’s hard to explain in detail. There will be a thorough critique of our agency later and why this roller coaster should have never happened but for now I honestly don’t give a shamalamadingdong. We are parents. She is our daughter. Now we just need to go get her.

So, I’m sure there’s lots of questions. Here are the best answers I have to the obvious ones.

When will we get her?

-2 main things happen next. She gets issued a birth certificate. That will take ~3 weeks. Once that happens, along with some other stuff, we will be scheduled an appointment at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa and that will set the date of when we travel to get her. Probably 3-4 weeks after the BC... so call it 7 weeks if things go well. Let’s be honest, things haven’t gone well so far so our expectations are low.

When can we see pictures of her?

-Most of you probably saw the pictures from her referral packet. That’s all we had.... until this morning. Another significant document called the Social Report was sent today that has oodles of pictures and talks in detail of her demeanor and health. She seems to be doing great developmentally and we will post some of those pictures shortly. We have always been reluctant to share much broadly, especially on the web, since she was not officially ours. She is ours now so let the floodgates open.

What the merph happened this past week?

-Yup, pretty messy. Unfortunately, you will all be left in the dark on the details of her background until she is old enough to share them with you, if she wants to. There is definitely a large piece of this that is poor communication, driven by different cultures but in my opinion is an opportunity area for our stateside agency. I’ll be giving them the feedback. In our mind she was clearly no longer going to be our child so the pain we felt was very real. I can’t even begin to express how excited we are right now. The thought of moving on to another child was destroying us. God has provided and more abundantly than we could have expected.

The hiccup turned into a throw up

2010-05-03T17:25:00.000-07:00

I’m trying to make light of this a bit as a coping mechanism. As mentioned in the previous post some information came forward on our potential daughter’s adoption information that held up the legal process in Ethiopia for her adoption to move forward. Unfortunately, after working with our agency it’s apparent that there is no indication of when it could be resolved... weeks? months? forever? So, we are going to release her and be put back on the waiting list. I can’t say I know what it feels like but I’m guessing this is similar to wait many families deal with when they have a miscarriage. As you all know we were tremendously excited and although she wasn’t out daughter yet, we certainly were thinking of her as such. We hope and pray that she’ll be placed quickly with her forever family because as much as it stinks for us, there’s a little girl that has been without parents for many months now and that is the real tragedy. While we are frustrated with this it is good and necessary that all pieces of her situation are researched and understood so that her adoption is ethical.

Just to explain a bit for those that don’t understand all these international adoption rules. After our referral in March we were then processed into the Ethiopian court system where we were assigned a court date of May 6th where she would have officially been adopted by us in Ethiopia. We were not traveling to Ethiopia for that as we got in just before the new rule (court date posts) We will now reset to where we were about 7 weeks ago. We’ll be first in line with our agency for a referral which could take days, or weeks.... not likely months. We’ll then have to travel for the court date where he or she will officially become ours. That will probably occur a couple months after the referral. As we have developed wisdom through this process, I would imagine we will keep our news of a new referral quiet until after the court date. It’s just a little rough to have to renege on our great news as we are doing now. There will be plenty of time to celebrate later.

We appreciate your prayers... and honestly we could use them right now. However please keep Sitota, that’s her Ethiopian name, first and foremost in your prayers as she is the one that deserves a home so hopefully she is back on the referral list quickly. We will be okay. Frank is keeping us cheery.

FYI, good chance we'll be deleting old posts in the near future.

HICCUP

2010-04-27T16:44:00.000-07:00

Today brought some weird/sad/disappointing news. Our agency told us that there was some new information that came to them about Samara's case. At this time it does not appear that the information changes her orphan status or changes the fact that she needs a family, but it does change her paperwork status. The folks in Ethiopia will have to rewrite the information that we got in our referral, then they will have to re-issue the referral to us, and then re-assign a court date to our case. Our agency had no information for us on how long this would take. I think that a good way to say it is that our referral is being "reset." Since we got the referral six weeks ago, we are expecting at least a six-week delay from this. We don't feel like celebrating her arrival with baby showers until our case has passed court, so they are postponed for now. We would appreciate prayers for calm, for Samara's health and happiness, and for a quick resolution of the situation in the Ethiopian bureaucracy.

Baby Room Update

2010-04-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

Last night Justin and I finally unrolled the (light green- you can barely tell here) area rug for Samara's room. We have the curtains hung, but I really need to take them down and hem them, tricky for me because they are lined (good for the curtains, extra headache for my hemming abilities). I think my dear Mom-in-law will be helping me there. In other decorating dilemmas, we are thrilled with our second-hand furniture, but I am NOT thrilled with the faded and worn blue denim cushions. In some weird marketing strategy, glider companies do NOT sell replacement cushions. How crazy is that? I have not found anything suitable on ebay or etsy to replace them. Anyone know a good/affordable seamstress? If all else fails I will throw a blanket over it and forget about it.

Oh, and just to clarify - at the moment we do not have to travel for the court date. So confusing!

Whoa Nelly!!

2010-04-19T04:06:00.000-07:00

(This is Justin posting, not Jenn... just feel I should preface that)

We were doing a little calendar math the past few days as Amy was/is trying to schedule the shower for Samara. That made us realize that in a best case scenario we could be traveling in June. We're not really calibrating ourselves to that timing, we're still sticking with August-October, but there is a chance.

Well that sorta pulled the shower date earlier than we were anticipating and with our schedules over the next couple weeks it meant we needed to get registered. Holy Merph!! I had no idea what that entailed!!! Amy came with us to Babies R Us and I don't know what we would have done without her. I manned the scanner and my hand is still stuck in that weird cramping claw position. (I'd take a picture but Jenn has the camera, if only I had my own DSLR - hint hint Babe) I didn't know there were so many pieces of fabric and cloth specially designed for specific uses. I think I had the expectation that with a blanket, some Vaseline and a little twine we'd be able to get by.

Oops! Nevermind.

2010-04-13T16:25:00.000-07:00

Now it seems they are back to a May 9 date as the cutoff for two trips. Hee! That is how it goes! There is still a chance this could change - court dates frequently get moved back...

Still rolling on that coaster!

Court Date...Yay?

2010-04-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

So, we have been tentatively assigned a court date...May 6. My first thought was "Shoo! That is before May 9 so we don't have to get rush tickets to Ethiopia," but then immediately we got an email from our specialist saying that court dates after May 1 have to travel twice. Yikes! However, she said she is not sure how this will work in our particular case - maybe the court date will go on without us, but we may have to show up twice anyway...thus and such so on and so forth. Basically they all have no idea what is going to happen - we are CAUGHT in this crazy mess of figuring out a new system. To be clear, we do not think it is a bad idea to require two trips (and we would LOVE to see Samara as soon as POSSIBLE!), but it is particularly stinky to be in the middle of the transition. Gurrrg. We'll keep ya posted.

weekend news

2010-04-06T04:27:00.000-07:00

On Thursday evening April 2, we learned that Samara had been hospitalized on March 31 and was released on April 1 due to pneumonia. They treated her, she improved, and she was returned to the care center. We were pretty shocked and upset, but then consulted our trusty adoptive families web forum, and we got lots of responses. It seems that very many families' children were hospitalized in ET (Ethiopia) for the same reason before they brought them home. It seems that they diagnose pneumonia fairly frequently (sometimes instead of calling it the common cold), and we learned from a doctor friend (thanks LIZ) that pneumonia is the most common reason for hospitalization of children before age 1. So it sounds like she had a nasty bout of something, and got care for it, which is great. However, it is still weird that our daughter is a world away and we cannot take care of her or offer her fabulous western medical services when something like this happens.

LET'S HEAR SOMETHING ABOUT THAT COURT DATE SOON, PEOPLE!

Rollercoaster!

2010-04-02T05:34:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here enjoying my coffee, catching up online, and staring at Samara's photo on the FIRST DAY OF SPRING BREAK! Exciting. Here's the latest: last week on the conference call our agency said that the "two trip rule" for Ethiopia was suspended temporarily until some key officials could be present for a meeting to discuss details and such. Apparently that meeting happened this week, because yesterday we heard some new details. Now the situation looks like this: cases that get scheduled for court BEFORE May 9 will not require adoptive parents to be in attendance. Sounds great, right? We should get scheduled before then, right? Well, we've been keeping an eye on our Ethiopia Adoption web forum all week, and families with referrals that went out the same time as ours OR AFTER are getting court dates right and left, with dates as late as APRIL 28. Court dates for each agency happen only once a week, so of course we are wondering when ours will be scheduled and whether there are any dates left for us in April. And why is our case taking so long to schedule? Did we do something? Is there an issue with our case? Did our specialist in MN delay things? While we are trying not to obsess too much over the process, these are the kinds of things that run through our heads.

Enough of that. It will happen, and we have dealt with uncertainty before! This past week has been neat in many ways because of cards, notes, and little gifts from friends and family that remind us of all the awesome support we have and about how excited our family & community is for this little one! Thanks everyone!

off to the post office

2010-03-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone! We are still keeping our fingers crossed for a court date appointment SOON. You can join us in that! Meanwhile, here's our little care package I'm sending out in a few minutes, I MUST GET OUT OF WORK! Reviewing the types of Gladiators for Latin 3 tomorrow can wait.

Update

2010-03-26T06:33:00.000-07:00

Last night we had our monthly conference call with our agency - this is just a time for them to answer questions that people email or type in about any stage of the process. They told us that Ethiopia is still trying to work out the kinks in their plan to require families to travel twice, and so they have suspended the court date travel requirement for the time being. This means that we will probably travel just once - that would be to bring Samara home in 4-6 mos. I am not surprised that it changed and will not be surprised if it changes again soon! That is how this business goes. I am of two minds about the latest news - while the expense to go twice would be huge - we would have been able to meet her sooner!

So we continue to keep our fingers crossed for that court date to come very soon, and are praying for the health and happiness of our little girl.

wall art and next steps

2010-03-23T04:06:00.000-07:00

here's some close-ups of the wall art on the walls.

I'm very proud of this stuff, if you haven't noticed.

Meanwhile, you may be wondering what our next step is in this process. So are we! The day before we received our referral, Ethiopia changed one of its rules for completing international adoptions. Previously, parents made one trip to Ethiopia, during which they had an appointment at the embassy to complete the American side of things, and then they could bring their child home. Now the parents must be present for the Ethiopian court case (usually 2 months or so after referral) AND for the Embassy appointment (4-6 months after the referral). We are trying to be positive about the two trips and all the uncertainty. Even though we will have the added expense of two intercontinental flights, we will get to see Samara sooner, but then we will have to leave her. Previously our agency had a very organized and regimented plan for how things would go after referral and for the week in Addis Ababa, but now they have to reconstruct how they will take care of families taking two trips. We aren't sure how any of it will pan out, or when we'll find out when our first trip will be. We may get news later this week, I hope! We will keep you posted. Now on to find another place to print those photos for our book for Samara - Walgreens suspected they were taken by a PROFESSIONAL photographer and refused to print them. Sigh.

Care Package

2010-03-22T06:47:00.000-07:00

Our first activities now that we have been matched with Samara are to 1) make a little care package to send her and 2) to FINISH THE ROOM!

For the care package, our agency recommends sending a little album of photos of the people she will see every day (mom, dad, caretakers), pets, and the inside and outside of our home. Thanks go to Brian for taking our photos Saturday night for this (see the top right hand column for one of those pics). It is so cool to think that she just might see those photos alot and may recognize us when we do get to see her for the first time.

We've had several aspects of the room done for quite some time. We got some beautiful furniture second-hand (I love the changing table + storage thing), supplemented it with some ikea stuff, had the room painted, and ordered some blik stickers for the walls. Justin hung blinds and curtains the last two weekends, making him a huge champ because that is a really stinky job. Here are two pics of the wall decals. I think they are so cute and subtle and playful. These aren't zoomed in very well, I'll try and post better ones soon.

It is so exciting to get this space ready for her. Next step: ordering a rug. I'll try and get a pic up of the curtains soon. They are really cute.

Referral!

2010-03-21T09:05:00.000-07:00

As of Tuesday, March 16, we have been officially "matched" with a little girl in Ethiopia! She is a darling little 7-month old. We are going to name her Samara. She is very healthy and seems to be doing very well. Hopefully we will be able to bring her home in 4-6 months. Unfortunately, we are not going to be able to post her photo until she is officially ours - after our cases passes through court in Addis Ababa. this will probably be in the next two or three months. We have been toting the picture with us wherever we go, so if you see us you can be sure we will be shoving it in your face. Now, on to hanging the curtains in the baby room! More info to come.

When Justin is out of town...

2009-09-15T17:20:00.000-07:00

I make weird vegetarian meals every night...

THis one was particularly yummy. Even better than last night's, which Justin did eat too, before he left for PU recruiting for his work.

Ahem. Is this thing on?

2009-09-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!
So the summer was great. We are BLESSED! Hosting the shower for Amy was a blast, then we went on our super exciting Spain vacation, then school started and Amy gave birth. Needless to say, life is moving at the speed of light. I started blogging with my students also, which has taken alot of out me. Teaching 14 year olds to use blogger is not as easy as it may sound. You can see what the students are coming up with here and here. I'm excited for what they are going to be able to do with these.

Other updates:
Spain = awesome. I'm friends with most of you on Fb so you know about it and have seen the pics.
My nephew Urban = adorable. Here's a little pic.

Aaand, our little trip last weekend to Chicago was perfect. Here's Justin and I before the show, which I think is the best pic we have taken in ages. The show was so outstanding, they really did play their hearts out.

And we are still waiting for the adoption! We just told the folks at the agency that we would like a younger age child (0-12mos) instead of an older (0-24mos). We anticipate that this will increase our wait time, but after seeing little Urban, we were assured that we wanted a little baby! The idea of adopting a toddler for our first child was a little daunting! We are feeling good about the decision and have PLENTY of house projects to do while we wait...

Vacation!

2009-07-28T19:49:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we leave for Barcelona, Madrid, and Segovia (small town a 2-hr bus ride from Madrid, I discussed it here). We are pumped. Hopefully Justin's tweaked back gets better asap (damn waterskiing) and we have a great last vacay before KIDS! Woo. That is crazy to think about. Anyway, I took a few pics of my front yard flowers. I am very proud of them this year. We buy our flowers at Evers on Langdon Farm. They are the nicest. Hopefully we can post from Spain - we will see. The Wilkeys have not yet moved into the iPhone age yet...

WE MISS FRANK

2009-07-27T14:47:00.000-07:00

My dear mother-in-law is watching Frank for us while we go on vacay. He's been there since Saturday, and I don't think she will mind if I post her funny email below. She is a great storyteller.
___________________________________________________________________

Frankie is perfect. We did have a little something funny. He slept with us, but must have decided to get off the foot of the bed at some time. Keep in mind the he was under the sheets and the sheets and the blanket were tucked in tight.

Basically he felt off the bed, but the sheets held him in so he didn’t fall. Dad woke up and we couldn’t find Frank. He was sound asleep about six inches off the foot of the bed suspended in the sheets.

Here it goes again

2009-07-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

Last night I had my first "school is starting soon" nightmare. I had a class of about 30 kids who were all talking at once. Oh the talking. I was screaming at them to shut up. Then I physically tackled a kid who asked to go to the bathroom. Sigh.

Thus and Such

2009-07-20T18:54:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to deal with an ongoing annoyance in my blog life - the fact that my google account could not get me into my personal blog. For some reason I set it up with my yahoo, and it was driving me nuts, I had to log out of gmail to get to my blog, etc., etc. So I just exported and re-imported my blog to a slightly different name (actually the grammatically correct name, as "stercus" is a neuter noun and needed to be modified by an "-um" adjective and not an "-us" one, but I digress). Thank you for changing over to becoming a member of this slightly newer blog. My next step in the blog world is to think about assigning blogs to my kids for part of the term grades. We will see how it pans out. This new format is nice because I can have multiple blogs on my gmail account now. Shoo. I may have to create teaching blogs for both Latin I and II... I want the girls to blog about the "fun" parts of Latin class, culture assignments, archaeological research, linking the classical past to Cincinnati and our general world today...I have a whole list of assignments. I'll let you know how it goes. The bummer thing is that I can't make my profile different for each blog, so I can't be as "witty" as I may be on a personal private blog. I gotta give that some thought.

You May Be Tired of Him, But...

2009-07-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

I cannot resist. When Amo and I went home for the first of three baby showers (see below for a little on the one I hosted) we dug out our old MJ Thriller album. I love listening to songs on vinyl. Prego ladies dancing are always awesome, btw:

p.s. the "no" person is mom, and her dog Cerby, is NOT sniffing my crotch, but the leg of my shorts. I must have smelled like Frank.

Projects

2009-07-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

I hosted a baby shower for my sister this past weekend at our house. We had 25 women (loud ones, really) squished into my living room while Amy opened gifts. Generous generous gifts from some really sweet people. Anyway, I took advantage of the shower as an excuse to clean clean clean and to do a project or two around the house. First of all, I spruced up a bare window with this curtain getup, which worked out quite well, considering I had no pattern or real plan of action. The materials were cheap, and the craftsmanship was a little shoddy, but I consider this a temporary fix until we really figure out what we want up there. Justin also hung two framed photos, you can see the one on the right there. The gorgeous flowers are from one of Amy's friends. She made three arrangements for the event. Wow. They make me really happy.

I also made some similar beige curtains for the window in the stairway. I'll post a pic when I finish the tiebacks, which I have not yet started. Sigh. We also hung Ikea curtains in the spare bedroom, but I still need to hem them. Always something to do! My sister in law was the official shower photographer, so I'll add one or two of her shots once they arrive on facebook. :-)

Overall, the shower was a BLAST and I love thinking about my new nephew on the way. I'm so excited. The pic below appeared on the invitation. Aren't they cute?

Text Message

2009-07-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

Random text I just got:

Texter:
hey evry1, my friend invited me to newport to see harry potter tomorrow night at 630 and said i culd invite whoever i want! can anyone go??

Me:
Do I know you??

Texter:
oops im sorry! i accidentallly sent this to the wrong person. this is **freshman ursula student**. i had to put ur name in here from latin convention bc of my health issue.

Me:
Hi **student's name**!
No worries, enjoy HP.
_____________
HEE!
The moral of the story: DON'T SEND MASS TEXT MESSAGES. ALWAYS DANGEROUS.

SMALL WORLD

2009-07-09T05:23:00.000-07:00

Usually my small world encounters involve someone seeing me in a restaurant and then assuming I'm Amy, then explanations, laughter, etc etc. However, last night the world got a little smaller, but Justin was the person involved.

Our usually Wed. night gig got canceled, so Justin and I went down to the Party Source in KY for a little wine tasting. Five bucks gets you five generous samples, a 5% discount if you want to buy any of them, and cheese cubes. Oh, and a name tag.

There aren't that many tables outside where the event was held, but Justin and I took one of the few remaining empty ones, opting not to meet strangers just yet. After a few minutes we made room for a couple who turned out to be really fun and friendly. We chatted about all kinds of things - they were really into trying new food and wine (they were WAY more schooled in the wine dept. than us - we are true amateurs there), and were really funny.

Once when the guys were up getting more tastes of wine, the woman (Tracy) and I got to talking about how we ended up in Cincinnati, and OH MY GOODNESS! She is from PLAINFIELD INDIANA and went to PLAINFIELD HIGH SCHOOL - WHERE JUSTIN WENT!!

AMAZING. She had done one year at PU and then graduated from IU. We exchanged numbers and are going to meet for Ethiopian food in Pleasant Ridge soon. It was such a cool evening. I love doing random fun (inexpensive!) stuff in our city and meeting new and interesting people. Yay!

aqua, aquae, f. = water; duco, ducere = to lead

2009-06-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

Justin and I are going to be traveling to Segovia, Spain on our little trippy trip this summer. We want to see the Roman aqueduct (see derivation in title). Furthermore, it is a cute small town, also with a BIG castle and a BIG cathedral. What else do you need in a vacation spot?

We were zooming in on the town on Google Earth last night to find possible hotels and spotted the aqueduct in the satellite shot. Except you can't really experience the aqueduct in the photo since it is an arial view - all you see is a tiny strip about the width of a car. However, the sun was high and the skies were clear when that satellite took the photo, because YOU CAN SEE ITS SHADOW. AH-MAZE-ING. Don't you agree? Click the photo to see a larger view. It is a dramatically tall aqueduct, 2nd c. AD, with two "stories" of arches. You can click here to see a photo from the ground level.

Best Weekend Ever!

2009-06-15T18:39:00.000-07:00

I'll work my way back from Sunday to Friday. On Sunday Jen and Jonathan took us up in their airplane. We went to a little tiny grass airstrip called Lee Bottom where they were having a fly-in. The nearest town is Hanover, IN. Gorgeous area. right by the Ohio. Lots of trees and peace. There were tons of antique planes to look at and some home cooked food and root beer floats. It was cool to experience a whole different subculture.
Here we are approaching the landing on the grassy strip in the distance. Only slightly bumpier feeling than landing on pavement. It was a great experience. See the river to the left?
Saturday night I saw my FIRST NASCAR RACE! I went with Justin, Tyler, and Burgie. Jonathan and Jen did the pre-race FLYOVER, so they hooked us up with tickets. Here you can see everyone "tailgating" before the race - complete with cheap beer and koozies.
The flyover! It was cool. NASCAR races start off very patriotically. Its nice. Then the cars lined up and drove in circles for 200 laps! Well, not all of them made it that far, but lots of them did. It was way louder than I thought it would be. We decided to cheer for number 88 (the team of Dale Jr.) and although they didn't win, they had a good showing and made the race exciting. But I'll be honest, if it wasn't for the light board that told who was in what place, I would have no idea who was in the lead.
It was a cool experience. Yet another subculture experienced. I may not go again, but I really think it was the best possible first NASCAR race for me. Nighttime, gorgeous weather (i.e. NO SWEATING) , you could see the entire track from your seat (unlike INDY) and it was short race, so it kept my attention. Now I want to see an Indy Car race (or any sort of open-wheel race). I'm glad I went and it was fun and exciting! It was funny to watch the people too, of course. Especially the guy who was constantly "reeling in" the cars with his "air" fishing pole. One of the coolest revelations of the night for me was that CINCINNATI HAS IT ALL, PEOPLE. You can see great opera, symphony, visit a gorgeous museum, hike in a park, watch pro sports, shop in fancy malls, see quaint neighborhoods, eat yummy food, go to a great zoo or aquarium, or EVEN WATCH NASCAR.

Friday night was also great! We spent 3+ hours with some of our most fantastic friends at Andy's Mediterranean. ANDY even showed up at our table, sat and chatted for awhile, and then proceeded to treat us to a hookah. Mixed berry. That place is so fantastic.

So today was Monday and I got alot done. Taught spin at the Y, cleaned out the fridge (scrubbed it out, actually), tutored, filed papers, researched Spain, had a smoothie with friends. Hamburgers with AMO and PO. They are great cooks. Can't wait to meet that little nephew in August!

Thursday was cool, Friday will be great

2009-06-12T06:31:00.000-07:00

In my efforts to let the poison ivy heal, I took a day of doing zero yesterday. It was pretty cool. I sat around in my underwear like I didn't give a damn. It was great because pants and skirts mess with the big blotch of poison ivy. Grrr. Then we went out for mexican (I put pants on for that part). El Pueblo on Hunt Road in Blue Ash, for those of you who live around here, is OUTSTANDING, and you should go there asap. YUM. Jen and Jonathan took us, and they are a blast.

I spent the day researching and practicing my knitting stitches for Amy's KID's baby blanket. I am saying that here because I already spilled the beans on Facebook. I didn't know that every time you respond to a "private" message you respond to EVERYONE who was on the original distribution list. Oops. I bet she was expecting the KID to get a blanket from me anyway, so no big whup. I am very excited to start, but I am a perfectionist and I want to make something OUTSTANDING so the stressful part will be just getting it started. It's worth it for the awesome kid she is going to have. I can't wait to be an AUNT!!!!! I'm going to be the coolest Aunt. Like all my aunts have been. Mom, you have the coolest sisters. I love them very much.

Today Frank visited the vet and got a clean bill of health. He is starting to get old man salt n pepper hairs by his mouth. Adorable. Today I'm going to tutor Max and then hit the bookstore to get Rick Steves' SPAIN!!! Yes, folks, we are going to Barcelona at the end of July!! YIPPEEEE!!

Good Day and Where has My Pretty Layout Gone?

2009-06-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

i got up this am, went to my blog, and POOF, no more cute background. Wonder where it went. Guess I'll have to work on that.

Today was great. I went for a walk with amo at 7, ate breakfast at her house. Came home, showered, laundry, tutoring, then a near four-hour lunch with the girlfriends from work. SERIOUSLY this is what summer is all about. Hanging with great girlfriends for some excellent conversation.

Justin called at one point and we thought we had found a SWEET Delta deal for 600.00 tickets to SPAIN. We did some web research for cheap hotels, were ready to book, and then the prices had gone up about 200 bucks during the day. Poo. Back to ground zero for vacation ideas now. Let me know if you see any fun web deals.

Tonight: bible study with the usual peeps. Then we got ice cream. The only bad thing is that after a day of nearly no itchy feeling from the poison ivy rash - I am suddenly MISERABLE. ITCH ITCH ITCH. But no scratch. I have self control people. My left leg is significantly swollen. ARRRRGGGH! What to do.

Tomorrow is wide open. I hope to do the rest of the laundry and crafty.

SUMMER VACAY (aka COMP TIME)

2009-06-09T15:30:00.000-07:00

So I thought it may be time to re-instate the blog for the summer. I have lots of goals and projects for the summer, and I really really want to make some progress on them, so maybe blogging about it all will help keep me organized and keep the fam and friends updated...

#1 item for the summer: tutor Max, a family friend who is going to be taking Latin 3 next year and has taken the equivalent of Latin I. Let's hope I can get him through it!

#2: relax. I don't get much relaxation time in - I'm always scurrying around doing projects. Hopefully the LOST rewatch will help - some girlfriends and I are re-watching all 5 seasons of LOST in preparation for the final season. Tuesday nights we will try and catch 3 episodes.

#3: GET BETTER. My back is hurting again. WHY!?!?!?! Grrr. I'm not in critical pain, but I can tell its not just right. Just this dull ache as I try and accomplish daily tasks and when I try and exercise. Spin class seems fine, but could that be why it keeps bugging me?

#4: get ready for eventual KID. Clean the house, organize, and "nest." P.S. The eventual kid is still eventual, so don't ask. :-) We may hear from the adoption folks this winter with actual adoption in late winter or early spring.

#5: Learn alot about how to make my Latin I, II, and III classes more interactive, interesting, and accessible to kids of all ability levels. Hopefully this will involve technology. Next year I am not teaching AP, which will lighten the load, but I need to innovate some to make it engaging and not soul sucking for both me and the kids.

There's a lot more, including time just to sit and think. I'll get around to all that. I just want to make each day count. I want to learn, have fun, and get stuff done to make next year and all the future changes more smooth. Plus I want to really be there for friends and family. Shoo, there is lots to do!

I also want to watch lots of Reds games. I didn't grow up with baseball, so I have alot to learn, but I really like it. It is fun to watch with Justin, and it is fun to go with our friends who have really good seats and ask us to come with them because we are so fun. Heh.

PANIC! STRESS! ARRRGH!

2009-02-23T12:25:00.000-08:00

It seems they have re-blocked Facebook at work. Argh! This is EXTREMELY painful. Years ago, they used to block facebook all the time, which I totally bought into. Kids abuse facebook, put drunken party pics up there, cuss and swear, use poor grammar, etc. etc. But then the tech department decided that it would be a good idea to open up facebook at school so that kids in this one extra-curricular tech program could use a Facebook group to communicate. ya know, an ACADEMIC group and all. Riiiight. Well, they unblocked it, and then half of our staff discovered what a great procrastination tool facebook was, and people started joining right and left. It was awesome. We would use it all day to get a quick fix of the outside world between lectures and the usual stuff that happens at schools.

Today, however, every time anyone tries to even visit the login page, it shows an error message. It used to the be that the web filter would catch it and we could use a password to get in (a pain, but we dealt with it). But today, NOTHING. No filter message. I checked with Heidi - Facebook isn't down! BOOOOOO!

Now I guess I'll just update my blog instead. Speaking of which, I have recently fallen in love with Google Reader. You can enter all the urls of the blogs you read and it will tell you when they have been updated. I have it open all day on my browser, so I can see when all my friends have news. It rocks. I'm not sure if it tells you when private blogs (like mine) have been updated, but I guess I will find out when Erin goes private.

Anyway, I'm stuck here for a bit while students work on a club project, but when I get home I'll jump right onto Facebook to see how you all are doing. Miss you!

shut in

2009-01-27T11:34:00.000-08:00

there is nothing like a snow day. hooray! my car has not been scraped and i have only left the house to shovel the driveway and sprinkle salt. earlier today i made granola, reorganized the plastic ware drawer, and now i'm working on making a memory book for our kitchen rehab project. my blog basically tells the story (just click on "kitchen" below this post to see all the relevant pics and such), and it really helped me gather up the dates.

Frank has basically just been sitting by the vent to warm up. Can't blame the little guy.

Miscellaneous Atticness

2009-01-17T12:48:00.000-08:00

BRRRR. Today Justin is working hard on the house, what a great guy. We recently learned that our house leaks hot air like, well, something that leaks ALOT of air. We have obtained a very interesting and helpful plan of action from our friend the energy auditor that includes things like insulating the basement walls, blowing in foam insulation into our empty external walls, etc., etc. Because those are more "long-term plan" items, we are instead doing some cheaper things first: insulating our ductwork, adding cellulose insulation to the attic, and putting in a whole-house fan. We are looking forward to a less drafty house someday and hopefully lower energy bills!!

Ju

But it isn't all work and no play, tonight Justin and I are headed to the Cincinnati Symphony to hear a Mahler Symphony and a piano soloist and some other good stuff. This was our anniversary gift to each other - three trips to see the orchestra. Right now I'm dreading having to find a quasi-warm dressy outfit and going into the cold, but i know I'll love it when i get there. Last night we enjoyed a YUMMY meal at Asiana with Burgie. It was great, but the tiny one-room restaurant was SO cold every time someone opened the door to get a table or carry-out! I can't wait for the end of the cold snap...

I REALLY DO WANT TO BE A BLOGGER

2009-01-14T05:06:00.000-08:00

My student should be bringing me the next book in the Twilight series tomorrow (they are very very good), so I'll post now before it arrives...

Christmas, although almost 20 days ago now, was REALLY REALLY great. We got to see both families, and we had our usual crazy times. I love them all so much.
We did all the traditions, and then some, like the family puzzle and the red velvet cake photo shoot at the Beyers...

Hanging out with Frank and the twins at the Wilkeys...
Buying a NEW! 8x10 RUG! at Crate and Barrell, on sale for only 250 bucks. Retail was $1,000...
Helping AMO move into her NEW! Amo-Ink location...
Drinking Burgdorf's favorite drink, the Pink Bikini, on New Year's Eve...
Oh, and on New Year's eve, showing up at the Hyde Park Kroger at 6pm (bad idea)...
...showing up at IKEA before ANYONE ELSE did (we are a buncha dorks)...but coffee is FREE before 10 am!
...and other stuff like that. On a happy note, our KITCHEN IS FINISHED!!!!! Well, we need to do about 2 minutes of touch-up painting, but it is essentially D-O-N-E DONE. We are happy, but are quickly moving on to other projects. Namely, insulating and sealing up our house so it is less drafty and so our heating bills are cheaper. Brrrrr.

So that has been life in a nutshell. Very good, busy as usual, but good. Check in soon for more updates...

updates coming soon

2009-01-06T04:56:00.000-08:00

hello web friends. I really really want to post some updates on Christmas break, but I have started reading Twilight, and it is really taking up my time. Have any of you read this? WARNING: while it is teenage fiction about a romance with a vampire, it will SUCK YOU IN and you will get nothing done while reading it. Stay tuned.

Break was GREAT, I was in denial about returning, but its not so bad to be back in the swing of things.

the twins get haircuts

2008-12-23T05:52:00.000-08:00

when i said this blog contains the mundane details of my life, I MEANT IT, DAMMIT! Yesterday Amo and I got haircuts and we had a ball with April the Awesome. We had fun getting spruced up for Christmas. Amy got a super cool new do called "Disco 2." I think the name pretty much sums up Amy in general, so its a good fit for her.

I got my usual cut trimmed up a bit, and April did a great job as usual.

CAROLS

2008-12-20T07:11:00.000-08:00

**special props to Heidi for knowing my movie quote in the last post. :-) My apologies for the delay in the special props, Heidi.**

So yesterday my kids and I went caroling around the school, yes, in Latin, to spread holiday cheer. Here we are during first bell (Latin IV/V Honors/AP) caroling for the business office. You can also see us on the school web page here.
We made a special effort to wear our best Christmas garb, cheesy sweaters, Santa hats, etc. It was a good time. Today I'm frantically trying to finish Christmas cards. Well, to get started and finish Christmas cards, I guess. Frank is whining and whining here at my feet, wanting me to hold him while sitting on a barstool filling out envelops. Ha. I hope he gives up soon.

projects

2008-12-16T18:05:00.000-08:00

so today we had a 1pm dismissal due to the habitually over hyped snow situation. since there was nothing on the ground when we woke up, and then we HAD to come to school today, the kids were pretty pissy in first bell. ugh. sixteen-year-olds. i have been feeling crummy today (first the back, now this, am I falling apart?), so it was a welcome treat to come home. I spent the time in various projects. #1: making yummy chicken noodle soup for a church gathering tomorrow. project #2: to update the blog design to help inspire me to keep posting. project #3: to keep knitting, knitting, knitting on the everlasting scarf. if you saw this pic on facebook, then you know about the scarf that sucked my will to live:*

Please ignore my booger. I don't own photoshop. I started making this scarf the SECOND WEEK OF MARCH LAST YEAR. Yes, when I took the Latin club to Columbus during the blizzard. Talk about white death!! Knitting his thing feverishly kept me sane. I wanted it to be the warmest, softest, snuggliest scarf the world has ever seen. I knitted on it ALL.YEAR.LONG. Then I tied it off on my birthday as Justin, Amo, and I were headed to the Bengals game so I would be all warm and cozy. Well, it was so big I felt like I had a neck brace on. Major bummer. I do need to be able to check my blind spot when driving, so over thanksgiving, I ripped it out (the HORROR!) and now I'm working on a narrower version. Here is the scarf, in "yarn ball" form:

Alas, now I have much less desire to knit a scarf THE SECOND TIME AROUND. But it is very cold out and I really want the thing, so I'll go get to work now. Maybe I'll have it done so I can wear it on Friday, when I take the latin students caroling around the school, singing in Latin, of course.

*special props to the person who gets this movie quote.

In the Mood

2008-12-06T12:58:00.000-08:00

It is beginning to look alot like Christmas at the Wilkeys' house. We have our tree up, and this week we also made gingerbread men with the Owens folks. Last night was the annual luminaria in Pleasant Ridge and I joined the neighbors in placing them all the way down our street. It was beautiful until I threw out my back grabbing the last candle. SNAP. I've been flat on the sofa all day with Justin serving me hand and foot. I have a sweet husband! Justin, Amy, and I all have occasional back drama. I'm hoping I recover asap - there is still so much to do!
Amy did the snowman, the IU guy, and the swirly one. I did the simple Smiley face with a tiny bit of white hair. Oh, and the cool red and green sprinkles one.
Check out Justin's PRODUCT RED cookie! He wanted it to say GINGERB(RED), but there wasn't enough room. Classy nonetheless.
Here Paul is making a Gingerbread Santa. Very nice.

Justin's cookies were the best for eating since they contained the largest amounts of frosting!!

new career?

2008-12-03T04:23:00.000-08:00

nah, I doubt it. But today I am teaching GYM. Crazy! One of our gym teachers here at school asked me to teach a spin class to her 4th bell. This happens to be my planning bell, so it works out perfectly. She has 20 students, which is hilarious because I have never taught that many people at once. Nor have I taught people that young - most of the people in my class are my age or 45-year old dudes. Heh. So, I created a fun mix of songs - some of them I know the kids like (they LOVE Don't Stop Believin' by Journey - I don't get it), but others will be new to them. The gym teacher warned me that they are NOT very athletic. Should be interesting! I hope to introduce them to a new kind of exercise that is NOT running. Many teenagers are terrified of running and therefore hate all things sporty. I bet many of them (including one kid I have in bell 1) will find me quite hilarious up there, being all peppy and stuff.

I made the class pretty hard, and I made the statement the other night at home that I hope I don't make anyone barf. Justin said that if I make a kid barf, he's taking me out to dinner. I'll keep you posted.

p.s. one of my friends found this online. Hilarious.

A Prarie Home Companion

2008-11-30T05:05:00.000-08:00

WOW! We had so much fun watching Garrison Keillor and his show A Prarie Home Companion last night. We had seats high up, but in the front of the gallery. It was a beautiful view of Music Hall and the gorgeous chandelier that I'm always afraid will fall on everyone. The show was FANTASTIC. He had a local bluegrass band on there along with a group of Celtic musicians that were stunning. The jokes were funny, and he gave SO MANY PROPS to Cincinnati! It was quite obvious he loves our town. And he had some REALLY funny jokes about P&G too. What a great evening of music with so many laughs. Its not too late - you can catch a replay of the show on WGUC today at noon (if you are out of town you can listen online, wguc.org). And the Enquirer entertainment writer posted a REALLY GREAT blog about it, which you can read here. ENJOY!

Fall Fun

2008-11-23T06:24:00.000-08:00

The weekend before our Birthday, Amy and PO and Justin and I went to Evansville for a surprise welcome home party for Grandma. It was lots of fun. We also stopped by Brian's house. He was hosting lots of Cincinnati folks at his parents' farm. On Saturday morning, Justin and Paul joined them for a little clay pigeon shooting. The cool thing was that they got to use the shotgun that they got from Grandpa after he passed away. Amy and I joined them briefly and got to shoot grandpa's old pistol. It sounded like a cap gun after hearing all the other fancy guns that others were shooting things like bowling balls and old fax machines with. Brian is quite the photographer, and he has some cool pics from the day (and of us) in a slideshow that can be found here. Make sure you scroll through them to find some hilarious shots of the four of us. I got a couple of pics that you can see below. Please note Justin's holster and the gorgeous fall day.

and one more step closer

2008-11-21T08:19:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone! Wow, life is so busy I am quite nearly insane. However, Justin finished tiling the kitchen, and we hope to GROUT soon! I'll of course post the final finished job too, but here is the current status, IT IS GORGEOUS!!!

so close

2008-11-01T08:32:00.000-07:00

today Justin is working on the LAST MAJOR KITCHEN PROJECT. Even though our kitchen has been usable for over a year(already!) we have been waiting to finish the tile until the funds were available for the super fun tiles we wanted. And then there were various setbacks as is common for house projects of any kind in our world. Every time I walk through the kitchen I do a little excited happy dance for the fun exciting place the kitchen is going to be - VERY SOON. Yippeee! Here is a preview.
TONIGHT: the ballet. Dracula. I'm so excited!

mini vacay

2008-10-26T07:02:00.000-07:00

Justin and I got home last night from our mini vacation to northern Ohio. It was relaxing and fun. Here are some pics. You can see have our B&B, and a few from the beach on Lake Erie, which we visited on Thursday morning. Yes folks, it is hard to believe this is Ohio. Boy was it cold! We stayed at the B&B in Painesville for two nights (during which we took a "wine tour," a great concept. Who knew people grew so many grapes in Ohio?). The B&B owners have owned this house for about 10 years, and they rent out 4 rooms and then live in the basement! They were really neat people. Constantly sharing their home with others - plus they each maintain a full-time job. Crazy! Finally, we went to visit the "Fujis," Brian and the Paperchick. Their kids are so adorable and sweet, and their new place is awesome. It was a fun and relaxing time. I hope Justin and I can be great parents like them someday. On the way home yesterday, we stopped at two different outlets to try and find winter clothes. Very fun. Now, off to finish grading all the exams I haven't finished. Tomorrow starts TERM TWO - which includes the first term of AP LATIN. Good times.

frank fun and misc. rodriguez

2008-10-21T06:42:00.000-07:00

people are always asking about the status of the adoption, and the story is, we are just waiting. and waiting. there are so many families willing to adopt children from Ethiopia these days that the wait times have increased a few months. We are hoping to receive a referral in june or july. after we accept a referral, we will wait for 3-4 months to fly over there. I know it seems like forever, but we are trying to keep busy. the long wait will just make the arrival of our little cutie so much more exciting! We are keeping busy by staying active with church stuff, and by working on the house (boy is that getting old!), and by enjoying our child-free time as much as possible. Justin has started mountain-biking again lately, which he loves but I don't think I will try because of my fear of knocking my teeth out. I have been sewing alot and just doing the general stuff that I do - teaching at the gym, exercise, etc, and of course we are enjoying Frank. Here are some cute pics of his adventures lately.
First, Frank trying to get the teeny crumbs out of the bottom of a bag of treats (thanks, Yovie! He loved them!):

Then, sitting in the warmth of the afternoon sun:

Finally, decked out in cobwebs from exploring the basement:
Tomorrow Justin and I are leaving for a bit of relaxation at a B&B in Northern Ohio (Painesville), where we hope to enjoy some local wineries. Then we are going to visit the Paperchick and her darling family. I am very excited to get away! I feel like we have worked very hard the last 10 weeks or so...

p.s. I think I'm going to call my car "Eleanor" ("Ellie" for short. I had a favorite professor at IU named Eleanor) the Machine Wilkey. EMW. To match the lic. plate.
p.p.s. Shameless Plug: If I haven't already hit you up, I am selling headbands again. They are cute and I have some new patterns of fabric for fall/winter. Let me know if you want the info!

Meet Ellie

2008-10-10T05:02:00.000-07:00

I'm really behind on my updates! I have yet to post about my new car. Yes, we sold JENNBUGG in August, and while I miss her, it was a good idea to move on for several reasons. #1: the warranty was up. Volkswagons, while supercute and superfun to drive, are not known for their reliability. We didn't want to have to pay for repairs like broken headlights, turn signals, and power windows. #2: KIDS ARE COMING (woohoo!)and so we were thinking that moving a kiddo in and out of a car seat in the back of a teeny 2-door car may not be the best idea. So we became SUV OWNERS. Yikes! Meet Ellie, our Honda Element. When I say or think the words "Honda Element," I always picture it in a Boston accent like the car guys on NPR. They are always pushing this car. It is FABULOUS. We can move the seats in and out or hang them from the interior walls to pack in a huge amount of plants or other home improvement items, and eventually, we will be able to fit children and strollers and their various stuff. This thing is so fun to drive, its cute, and it has a great radio. And a hookup for an ipod. The best part is that it is a 2003 model with only 13,000 miles on it. For the amazing find I have to thank Justin (again!) and his superior web hunting skills. We had to drive to Chicago to get her, but it was a fun trip overall, with a little visit to Mom and Dad Wilkey too. Here is a pic of Ellie from when I walked out of my haircut last week - a twin had parked right next to her! They had a fun little chat while I was getting trimmed. P.S. Mine is on the right, the other one had a little boo-boo on the front, poor thing.
And here I am, post-trim from April, the best hair-cutter around.

P.S. Ellie's new license plate is NOT a vanity plate (bummer) but it has the letters EMW on it. Obviously for "Ellie Wilkey," but she needs a middle name. Chrissy suggested "the MACHINE." Any other ideas? I'll put it to a vote.

Before and After

2008-10-09T14:12:00.000-07:00

it has looked alot like one of those home improvement shows ("Curb Appeal") around here lately. after the tree limb massacre from the windstorm, justin and I and his wonderful father re-landscaped the front yard! I'll give you the before and after.
before (note the DEAD tree on the left):

after (note the fabulous, seasonal mums also):

We want to give a BIIIG thanks to Justin's Dad, Don, and to the awesome landscape architect at the Natorp's outlet sale who heard what we were planning to do with the place, saw the pic of the house, and then quickly REDESIGNED the whole landscaping plan to make it NOT look like the work of amateur do-it-yourselfer plant ignoramuses. Wahoo!

FURTHERMORE, Justin has been working on an ENORMOUS project: getting the front porch to NOT leak. Unfortunately, cracks in the concrete porch had RUSTED OUT the metal (steel) floor joists in the basement. They were completely UN ATTACHED due to the rust from an enormous amount of water that had seeped in over the years. So, Justin and his buds put in new joists(this time of wood), then sealed the porch up with a gorgeous layer of slate tile. This project had additional twists and turns at every possible point, making it the World's Most Annoying Project. For instance, we had to strip the paint from the old concrete before we could tile over it, so the thinset would hold. This was long, stinky, and BACK BREAKING. Also, we had an approximately 15-step process of cleaning up the grout, of sealing the tile, etc. etc. etc. But here are the results:

Justin is DEFINITELY up for the Husband of the Year award after this!! :-)

surprise!

2008-09-28T07:56:00.000-07:00

Justin should be arriving home in about 30 minutes from attending the PU/Notre Dame game yesterday. To cheer him up after the tough loss, I painted the little wall in our kitchen. Look how well it matches the countertop! Thanks to the guys at Huber Lumber for matching the Lowe's color (we like Porter Paints the best - getting good paint really does help). The next and final step in finishing the kitchen is to tile the walls. We have the goods, we are just trying to carve some time out of our schedules to do it!

(p.s. I'm not going to say a word and just see how long it takes Justin to notice the wall...it will be a test of his observation skillz.)

UPDATE: For those of you waiting on the edge of your seats - Justin discovered the wall right away! He did a really cute double-take and he loved it. stay tuned for those finishing touches...maybe by November we will have this thing done!

erg. my blog is now private.

2008-09-24T19:05:00.000-07:00

I've been discovered. Some student found my blog and showed the World History teacher, who announced that he liked the title in front of additional students. blah! I deleted a ton of posts this afternoon about students, then realized I could make this thing private. If anyone wants access that you know, tell them to send me their email address and I can hook them up. There is just too much personal stuff that I want to share with friends and family and not the kiddoes. My apologies for this annoyance. :-)

Frank is a champion again! (updated with pics)

2008-09-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

Saturday Frank won his heat in the Oktoberfest Running of the Wieners! For the newspaper coverage, have a look here. He was actually on the cover of the Local section on Saturday! I also found out on Sunday that he was on CNN! They were doing some sort of "odd news" segment. Justin also took some pics at the event. Lots of thanks go out to Don, Justin's dad for helping to release Frank at the start line so he could run to his stuffed moose at the finish!