Merry Christmas!

We are back and thank-you

We are home! We landed in San Francisco 10 days ago today. Their was a snow storm and our flight was cancelled out of San Francisco so we drove to Sacramento spent the night and then drove to Reno in the morning.

Anyways, you don't go to Ethiopia with one days notice without a little help. Their are multiple people who helped make it possible.........

Kirsten who drove us to the airport and would have picked us up if our flight hadn't been cancelled from San Fransisco to Reno. She made sure we had groceries in the house when we came home and when we weren't able to get home on Saturday she came and picked up Lulu and took her to her house for the night. Thank-you Kirsten I don't know what we would do without you!

Shelley who has been on standby for us. She house sat and took care of the dogs and Maggie the cat.

Dr Morgan who covered Deven's call schedule.

Sunny, Anu and Mummy in Sacramento took us in when we arrived in San Fran and found out our flight was cancelled to Reno . They ran out and got us all the supplies we needed and had a nice dinner waiting for us.

And finally, my Mom who came as soon as we got home to help us out.

And now here are some pictures from our trip.........

Tarik is great! He is usually pretty easy going unless he is hungry. Then he gets so grumpy and mad. he has two little teeth coming in so he chews and drools like crazy.

We Leave Tomorrow!!

We just received a call asking us if we could leave for Ethiopia tomorrow. We of course said yes. Mira will now be able to travel with us!! We are so excited! So much to do. Next time I post we will be home with our little boy.

Travel Date

We received our official travel date today to pick up Tarik. It was bitter sweet news. We had really been hoping for a Dec 1st travel date. However, we had to get our fingerprints redone and immigration took a long time to update them in the system. It's a long frustrating story so I will leave it at that.

Our new travel date is Dec. 15th. We get home Christmas Day. The worst part of all this is that Mira can't come to Ethiopia with us as she will be with her Mom for Christmas. We really wanted her to be a part of this experience. We will have to take her there when Tarik is old enough. On the upside we finally get to buy plane tickets and bring our baby home. A Christmas Day we will never forget.

Birth Certificate!

We received Tarik's birth certificate yesterday!

This means we are one step closer to bringing him home!

Also, his big sister got her report card and it is awesome! We are very proud of her. She works so hard.

All About Tarik and Where We Are In The Process

Tarik….

- Tarik's birthday is actually May 28th, 2009. Not June 7th, 2009 as previously thought. This means he shares his birthday with his cousin Mika.

- Tarik is a calm and peaceful child. He doesn’t mind the company of strangers. Though he stares at them at first, he gets excited when they play with him.

- - Tarik has the habit of making a fist and sucking his hand. He is a peaceful child and doesn’t cry easily.

- He watches his surrounding very carefully. He enjoys being hugged, soothed, and cuddled. He coos and gurgles a lot.

Brief outline of where we are in the process:

1. Case is approved; we are the legal parents of Tarik (**we are here)
2. When this decision is granted, the written court order is drafted, a letter of support is requested from the MOWA office
3. Once the MOWA letter is received, the birth certificate is issued – this usually takes about two weeks
4. When the birth certificate is issued, we will receive a scanned copy of it and we will verify that the information is correct.
5. Our adoption agency advises Ethiopia staff that the birth certificate information is correct and they will proceed to obtain the child’s Ethiopian passport, Embassy medical exam and will prepare the final paperwork to submit to the Embassy.
6. Once it is verified that Tarik has completed the visa medical exam and that the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa has all of the documentation that they need for our case, we will be advised of a travel date

Tarik Mihretu

We passed court today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While we wait....

I thought I would write about where Mr. T is from.

Mr. T was born in a village called Megesa. I can’t find any information about this village but this is what I have found.

Megesa is a village in the south region/state of Ethiopia known as the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR).

Flag of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region
Map of Ethiopia highlighting the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region in red
Capital	Awasa
Area	112.343,19 km²
Population	14.901.990 (2005)
Population density	133 inhabitants/km² (2005)

The SNNPR borders Kenya to the south, the Ilemi Triangle (a region claimed by Ethiopia, Kenya, and Sudan) to the southwest, Sudan to the west, the Ethiopian region of Gambela to the north, and the Ethiopian region of Oromia to the north and east.

The SNNPR has an estimated total population of 15,042,531.

89.72% of the population is estimated to be rural inhabitants, while 10.28% are urban; this makes the SNNPR Ethiopia's most rural region.

55.5% of inhabitants are Protestants, 19.9% Orthodox Christians, 14.1% Muslim, 6.6% followers of traditional religions, 2.4% Roman Catholics and 1.5% all other religious affiliations.

In August 2008, the availability of drinkable water in this Region was 63.6%.

The Regional infant mortality rate is 85 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, which is greater than the nationwide average of 77; at least half of these deaths occurred in the infants’ first month of life. Our Mr. T was brought to the orphanage at 1 month.

In 2004-2005 100,338 tons of coffee was produced in the SNNPR. This represents 44.2% of the total production in Ethiopia.

More specifically Mr. T is from the Kembata Alaba and Tembaro (KAT) zone in the (SNNPR).

In 2005 this zone had an estimated total population of 1,045,138.

The five largest ethnic groups reported in this Zone were the Kambata (55.21%), the Alaba (13.78%), the Timbaro (10.95%), the Silte (8.52%) and the Hadiya (5.47%); all other ethnic groups made up 6.07% of the population. Mr. T’s family is Timbaro

2% of the inhabitants of KAT have access to electricity.

73% of all eligible children are enrolled in primary school, and 23% in secondary schools.

Even more specifically Mr. T is from a town called Mudula. Mudula is a town in located in the Kembata Tembaro Zone with an elevation of 2100 meters above sea level.

Many in the area are malnourished, and are prone to Malaria.

Mudula has an estimated total population of 5,195.

It is within Mudula that Mr. T’s village of Megesa is located.

I like this website. Not only does it seem like an awesome organization it also has pictures of the region where Mr. T is from http://www.kmgselfhelp.org/akce_flip_main.html

Update

Mr. T had a recent bout of bronchitis/pneumonia and was in the hospital for a few days. He is now in the care center and doing better. As you can imagine, this was an extreme stress on us as we felt helpless beyond words. To complicate matters, our court date was delayed to October 22 and consequently our travel date will likely be impacted. As best as we can estimate, our travel date will be in late November or early December (assuming we pass court). At this time, we don't want to take anything for granted.

Deven

Court Date!

We found out our court date today. October 7th! We will travel 4-6 weeks after that if we pass. 

Waiting......

We are still waiting for our court date in Ethiopia. We were hoping it would be before

the courts closed for the month of September.  But it looks like we will have to wait until they re-open in October which means we won't be able to travel until November. But we are keeping ourselves busy...........

The Nursery is done.....

Mira has been doing quality control......

Yep, we are ready!

Referral

Referral

This blog is to share our journey to Ethiopia where we will complete our family.  We have been waiting 14 months to write our first post. Yesterday, July 15th, 2009, we received the call that will forever change our lives.  Our case worker called at 11:55 with the news. We are now the parents and Mira is a big sister to a healthy, 5 1/2 week old boy. The Ethiopian government won't let us post pictures or give his name until after our court day. So on our blog we will refer to him as Mr T. and you will just have to take our word for it that he is absolutely beautiful. We are so in love with him.We are so lucky.......