Showers and School and Packing and....

It's whirlwind time around here! The countdown has begun and we leave in five days!!! <--HOLY CRAP!! I'll answer the usual questions: No, I have not packed yet. No, Lia's room is not completely ready. And, no, we're not ready. But we will be. I work best under pressure and I'm a procrastinator of the highest form. (As you can see, here I am blogging when I'm sure there are other things I could be doing.)

Anyway... last week my sweet friends had a little shower for Baby Lia!! And - they actually surprised me, which is not easy because, in our group, I'm the planner. I plan everything. They were smart and had the shower on our Book Sharing Club night. (We don't have rules about reading one book - we just bring books to share and talk about - it's fun and no commitments!) So while I was sending out emails to remind everyone that our BSC was coming up, they were planning on a surprise.

I wish I could say I had a ton of cute pictures from that night... but I don't. I did take a picture of the beautiful cake though - it says, "Welcome Baby" in Amharic.


Hmmm... that set up looks vaguely familiar...

Oh wait, wrong party. (But seriously - check out that cake that Kevin made for us. He is pretty amazing.)

I do have Lia's bed put together. We inherited a brand new bedding set a while back from my friend Christina. It's adorable.


We also inherited a car seat from my friend Dawn. (She's a very trusted source and it is nowhere near expiring, so it's safe.) The car seat had a blue cover so I searched for a cute cover to make it a bit more girly. I found this one and I love it. Even though it took me thirty minutes and a good sense of humor to put on...


And amidst all of this crazy, Micah had his last day of regular school. (He starts summer school while we're in Ethiopia - poor little guy.)

Micah with one of his teachers. Is that not adorable??

Okay, that's all I have time for this morning (behind schedule already). But, I have more so hopefully I'll have a chance to post this week before we LEAVE!!!

And the Winner is....

We have a winner for the Love is Not a Color tee!! We decided to do this contest the fun way and pick out of a hat...

We had over 21 entries because I also counted people who posted on facebook who didn't comment on the blog. I remembered who they were (miraculous, I know) and added their names into the hat. Micah agreed to pick (after trying to put the hat and all of it's contents on his head....
He picked...
My friend Sandi!! I can't link to her blog because she's a facebook friend, but she's a wonderful person who has FIVE kids of her own (and is younger than I am!) and has been a HUGE supporter of our adoption! Yay Sandi!!!

Tee shirt sales will continue until tomorrow and 100% of my cut will go directly towards orphanage donations!! Vitamins, crib sheets, cloth diapers - that sort of thing.

And, speaking of donations - my sister is this super amazing woman who also happens to be a midwife. This is Bonnie -
Hah. Sorry. I couldn't help myself. That actually is her, but from her Ultimate Frisbee team pic. This is her looking more like my sister (and I know, we look exactly alike).

She is working on her master's degree and is doing some work this summer at a birthing center in Haiti. The center is in desperate need of medical supplies and she is collecting donations to take down to Haiti. If you would like to help, you can donate to her fund here. I know I've asked a lot lately, so please know that I'm just posting this for people who are interested in a creative way to help mamas in Haiti. I'm really proud of my sis and all she has done (have I mentioned she spent a year in Zimbabwe working with women's groups?) and I want to support her in all she plans to do. I can't wait for her to get to Haiti and come home with amazing and heart-lifting stories. Hmm... maybe she'll even do a guest blog post?

Oh, and again, since you're here... How about some news? If you didn't hear my sigh of relief, our travel has been confirmed! We leave next week!! I can't wait to smooch on my baby girl. Can't. Wait.

Baby Doll

I am pretty excited. Lia Makebe's first baby doll came in the mail today. She's a mini Coco doll by blabla. I love her. My plan was for it to be "from Micah," but he really could care less about Coco right now.

Cute, right? Back when I met Tiny and her Coco, I knew I wanted one some day for our baby girl. I also want one of these...

~made by this mama

Cute again. Lots of cute going on with these baby dolls.

And, I have to give a big SHOUT OUT to the store that sent our Coco doll - Sprout Soup! I had included in my notes that I wanted this by June 1 to take to our daughter. I very briefly mentioned that we were adopting. That was that. Today, I took Coco out of the package and realized there was something else in there. I reached in and found a sweet pair of organic baby legs! On the front it says, "Congratulations on your adoption!" How awesome is that? Also, they have a brick&mortar store in Columbus, OH - I'm definitely planning a visit for the next time we make it up that way.

Now, let's just hope the dogs don't eat Coco.

PS - More baby cuteness at Amy's blog - Baby Africa necklaces from Junkposse!

Chunkalove

Just some new Lia sweetness...

First off, YAY! for tummy-time!! When Micah came home I would lie him on his tummy and he would just lie face-down and SCREAM! He was not a fan. Looks like Lia is an old pro! And, how about those cheeks?! You want to smooch them too, right? I know. If all goes well (pleasepleaseplease) we'll be smooching those chunks-a-love in 2 weeks and 3 days. EEEP!

PS - Her shirt says "Input" pointing to her mouth, and "Output" pointing to her bum. NIIIIICE. :)

(Don't forget to enter the contest for a free tee shirt!! My first Give-away!)

My First Give-away!!

I won, you win! Last week a Kim held a contest to win this awesome tee shirt...

The only thing I had to do to enter was repost this video... (I probably would have re-posted it anyway, because I love it.)

And... I won! But, I had already purchased my shirt! So, you win! Giveaway! All you have to do to be entered is re-post the video with a link back to my blog. For the next week, I'll be selling the "Love is Not a Color" tees here on my blog to help raise funds for our trip and lots and lots of orphanage donations. Kim is SUPER AMAZING and is allowing us to do this and is basically doing all the work! Thank you Kim!!!

So, here's how to win:
1. Post the video & link to this blog on twitter, FB, or on your blog
2. Let me know about it with a link to your tweet or blog or FB post in the comments here! (Please only tell me in the comments here to make it easy for me - we're leaving for Ethiopia SOON and I get confused easily.)
*Tip: For those of you on twitter - just click on the date/time stamp of your tweet and it will show you the tweet on a separate link.

I'll draw from the entries next Wednesday the 26th, so you'll have until noon that day to enter!! Good luck! Tee shirt sales for fundraising will go through Thursday, May 27th.

And, if you have a favorite quote about LOVE, leave that in the comments too! I'll post some when we announce the winner!

Speaking of LOVE....


**Update: I've had two people say, "Your shirt will not fit me!" so I want to point out that you will get to pick the shirt size if you win! I don't actually have the shirt in-hand, so don't worry! And, Kim has mentioned that the sizes run really small on the women's shirts - so order BIG if you buy a tee!
**Also, you'll get one entry for every place you post, so if you blog and FB about it, that's two entries! Blog, FB, tweet - three entries! Yay!

For The Other Somes

Okay, so... we've probably all posted about this before - the "Why Not Adopt From Here?" post. But, I've been thinking.... So, grab yourself a glass of wine and sit back if you're not too scared of what my come out of my... erm... keyboard.

What really grinds my gears (<--Family Guy reference!) initially about this stuff is the whole ethno-centric idea that is behind it. It's the same idea behind the facebook groups with names like, "I shouldn't have to press 1 for English when we're in America," crap. Yeah, I said it. It's crap. Don't even get me started on the status update about "Why are we helping people in other countries when people need help here." *shakes head, rolls eyes*

I don't know about you, but last time I checked we were ALL HUMAN. Regardless of the language spoken, or country of birth, or color of skin. And if you're a spiritual person (like myself) then maybe you also believe that we're all God's children. Just because I was born in America doesn't make me more deserving of privilege.

Okay, but I'm not here to talk politics, so let's turn back to adoption, shall we?

Here's the thing. I've been thinking about how some people adopt from "here" and some from "there" and some adopt older children and some adopt infants. And the somes question the other somes for not doing it their way. (Not all the somes, mind you, just some of the somes.) And there is shame involved. "Shame on you for not adopting from here. Those kids need homes too," or "Shame on you for not adopting an older child, they need homes most." And then there's even the, "Why adopt a white baby when there are so many children of color who need homes," question. It's never-ending.

And here is what I think. Adoption is very personal. You have to know what your family can handle. This isn't easy stuff we're talking about. You have to attempt to be mentally and emotionally prepared for things that you can never truly be mentally and emotionally prepared for.

So, why would anyone ever shame a family for choosing their own adoption path? Would anyone really want a family to choose to adopt trans-racially, even if they felt like they couldn't handle it? Only because there are more children of color who need homes? I know I wouldn't. Would anyone really want a family who feels unprepared for the challenges of emotional and behavioral disorders to take the chance of adopting a child with those issues - just because they felt like they should? And what about the children? Think about that.

Alas, this post isn't really for the readers of this blog. I know you all are with me on most of this stuff. I know that you've all been there, done that with the "Why not here?" question. But sometimes I've just got to get these thoughts out. Maybe start a discussion of something? I'm open to hear your thoughts - even if you're not with me on this stuff. It's good to disagree and I welcome your ideas!