We're in Ethiopia!!!

Hello. This is Erin posting for Anna and Nathanael.

We arrived in Ethiopia and met Amilia yesterday. She is very beautiful, healthy, and thriving. We had her with us for about 3 hours. She is also extremely active and crawling already! We were happy that she didn't cry when we held her and that we were able to get her giggling. When we don't have her she is well taken care of by loving nannies at the care center.

Today we took an eight hour trip south to meet Amilia's birthfamily. We spoke with them for 1/2 an hour and took a couple of pictures. We are so thankful that we had this experience and will be able to share it with Amilia when she is older. The people of Ethiopia have been kind to us. We are amazed at how gracious everyone has been even though so many live in extreme poverty.

Back to Erin: At this point, Anna's phone minutes ran out. She was calling from a roof top. We cannot wait for them to come home and to finally meet precious Amilia. We know that you are all excited as well.

The boys are enjoying their time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They are keeping us all very busy! My parents took them to the cabin this weekend. They will be going to Grandpa and Grandma Bailey's house on Tuesday.

The Storm... before the calm

Believe it or not, I am throughly looking forward to the day long journey to Amilia. Sittting on the plane sipping pop, reading books, and snoozing sounds wonderful to me. The last week has been a whirl-wind. Our packing list has gone from 4 pages to 1/2 page. The donations for the school in Ethiopia were bought and packed. OUr boys are ready to go!! (not with us of course, but to grandma and grandpas house) The paperwork is completed. Our house is somewhat clean. The last minute errnads have been made. The wash is caught up. Sheets are fresh. Our fridge is empty. (hum- that reminds me- what's for dinner- ????- how abount pancakes)
The picture posted here was just taken on monday. We are bringing it framed to the birth mother. It is crazy that everyone is smiling and looking at the camera- This has never happened before.
I am really starting to ache for Amilia- it is so close and I just want to hold her.
Thanks so much for your support and prayers! We love you all!

SO SOON....... IN MY ARMS

We just received our birth certificate for Amilia. This is the photo on it. She has hair now, and the most beautiful eyes! In two short days we will begin our journey to her. We also got an updated weight and height. 13.2 pounds and 25 inches. She is rolling over, and scooting!! I have got to get Isaac from school, but I will post more later today!

Travel Details

Hey everyone!!! The last two days have been a blur. We have so much to get done. We booked our flight today, but not without a little scare. We were put on a wiat list for our flight home- and didn't get a confirmed flight until today! We fly out of MSP on Thursday night at 6:50 and arrive in D.C. around ten. We will stay over night there, and then take a direct flight on Ethiopia Airlines Friday morning at 9:45. We will arrrive in Addis Ababa 8;15 am their time. We stop in Rome for fuel, but we don't get off the plane. Bummer!! I think they are 8 hours ahead of us. We we arrive at the airport, we will apply for our Visa's- and someone from the orphange will be their to pick us up. We will meet Amilia sometime on Saturday. On Sunday we get to travel to her birthland and possibly meet her birth mother and some other relatives. WOW!!!! Aside from meeting Amilia, this is what I am most excited for. I am not quite sure what we will be doing the rest of the week. One day we have to go to the Embassy and present some paperwork for Amilia's Visa. I think we will also go shopping sometime during the week. Amilia will be in our care from the beginning of the week on. They really bundle the babies there - even though it is very warm. Here are some pictures I found on-line-
Thanks everyone who has leaft comments- I love to know who is reading these posts!!

10 days until.....

We can hardly believe it, but it is a mere 10 days until we are on are way to Ethiopia to pick up Amilia. Today Nathanael received a phone call from agency around noon. Our adoption went through the courts with no delays. We were not expecting a phone call for awhile still. At the very earliest we were hoping for was the second week of May. I was gone all morning long, and didn't even have the cell phone on to receive a call. We were totally shocked.
So the next 10 days will be a whirlwind. We have to finish the last set of paperwork to obtain her Visa. Along with packing and getting the house organized. We will be heading down to the cities next Thursday morning. The children aren't traveling with us. Both sets of grandparents are taking care of them. We fly out of MSP at 6:45 on Thursday, April 26th, and arrive in D.C. where we will stay the night. Friday morning we are flying Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Abba, the capital city. We stop in Rome for fuel, but don't get off the plane. BUMMER!!!
We haven't gotten any new information about her, we still are looking at the same pictures. We are thinking she will be around 12 pounds (pretty tiny for 8 months.) In her referral picture (the one posted here) she doesn't have any hair. We think they shaved her head when she came to the orphanage for sanitary reasons. I hope we will recognize her when we see her!!!
I will post more later about the detail of our trip.

Amilia Abera Leigh Bailey's Nursery

So after a week long search for the perfect name for our baby girl- we have finally decided. It is Amilia Abera Leigh Bailey, and we will probably call her Lia. Whew- it feels good to have that decided. It has consumed my thoughts for the last week. Lia is african and means, bringer of the gospel.

Ok, so this is my first girl! I have been dreaming about decorating her nursery for five years. I started with one adorable crib bumper from pottery barn (clearance of course:)) and let my imagination run wild. Here are some pictures of the finished product.

The picture on the wall is in her native language and says "Praise God."

Degensh Abera

Last Tuesday, March 6th, I received the best phone call of my life. I had just finished painting our new babies room and was cleaning the brushes in the basement when the phone rang. It was our social worker!!! Let's just say she heard an earful. I screamed!!! It took awhile for me to calm down and let her tell me about our little Degenesh Abera. She was born on August 16th (my Grandma Tschetters birthday). Her mother relinquished her on February 15th. At that time she weighed 11.5 pounds and was 24 inches long. She is under the 3rd percentile for her height and weight. When taken into care she had pnemonia, but is now healthy. I wish that I could post a picture of her on the blog, but I can't yet because she isn't legally ours. Let's just say she is adorable. She has big brown eyes, beautiful dark skin, and no hair. :):) I think they shaved her head when she came to the orphanage.

The wait to travel is 8-12 weeks, so with one week down, we are getting busy!!! We will get 1-3 weeks notice before we leave. In preparation for our trip we got our travel shots on Friday. OUCH!!! I got six shots, and Nathanael got five!!! So if anyone needs an international travel companion for the next 10 years, our shots our taken care of!! Let's see- there was the flu shot, Hep A, yellow fever, meningitis, tetnus, polio!!!! And lets not forget the Malaria Medicine and antibiotic for diarrhea. And tomorrow we will start our live Typhoid pill vaccine.

Since things have really started moving on the adoption front, I will be posting more often.
Thanks all for going on this journey with us!!! We love you all!!!

Let's Catch Up!

Happy New Year! Wow- have we ever had a busy last month and a half. Apologies to those who check the blog often- I haven't had a lot of extra time to post. One of the main reasons for the delay was Nathanael was scheduled for a double hernia surgery on the 20th- but instead of just 2 hernias, the surgeon found 4! So, for about three weeks we were taking care of him!!
Two days before the surgery Isaac celebrated his 5th Birthday. And the best news of the season, Henry our Nephew arrived from Guatamala. I will dedicate a whole post to that wonderful news.
Then there was Christmas- we were crazy and went down to the Twin Cities to be with our families. Nathanael was a trooper, but still in a lot of pain. The day after Christmas, Nathanael needed a refill on pain meds, and the process of calling it in and dealing with the pharmacy took almost all day. So the girls decided to waste the extra time and go shopping.
Hope you had a great Christmas and New Year!!!

Three Loads a Day

I really wasn't being overly lazy. These things just catch up with you. My excuses were- Thanksgiving, Christmas shopping, sick children- blah blah blah-
Whatever the reasons, I contiued to throw laundry in the washer and dryer, but I had let it pile up clean on the basement floor. So, I am estimating about 5-7 days of laundry that hadn't been folded. I didn't count the dryer sheets, but I was folding for about 2 hours. (and I am lightning quick)
That is about 12 loads of laundry- some drawers were pretty close to empty. Poor Lincoln was wearing tight, short, dated Levi's.
The pictures chronical the process- Isaac took one, and Nathanael the other. I bet you can't guess who took what!

Henry is Coming Home

I am so very excited to share the news about my newest newphew. My sister and brother-in-law have been in the adoption process and just found out they will be traveling to Guatemala to pick up Henry. He will be five months old and I can honestly say he is one of the most adorable baby's I have ever seen. He will be home for Christmas, and we are all praising God.

Welcome Herbie!

I would like to invite you, family and friends, in welcoming our newest member to the Bailey Brood! No, the adoption of our little girl is not completed, but we have adopted a long haired white and orange kitty. He is absolutely adorable and very tolerant. The children
are in love with him already. Isaac is actually very gentle with him, and the other boys are learning quickly. Herbie and mommy are excellent teachers!

Why?

Well, some will call us crazy, but I was feeling our house was a bit empty and needed some more commotion. Actually, we have quite a mouse problem here, and after trying deal with it our way, I thought maybe we could try natures way. So, we turned him loose in the basement. He must have stirred something up down there, because I just noticed fresh mouse in a trap! Yeah Herbie!

The Wait has begun!

Well, we are officially waiting for our precious baby girl. We decided to start this blog to keep family and friends up to date on the process of our adoption. Here is where we are... (and what we have done to get to this point)

• For the last 3 years we have been thinking about adoption. After three difficult and dangerous pregnancies, we excitedly looked more into adoption.
• In July of 2006, we filled out our application for Children's Home Sociecty and Family Services.
• August - we attended Pre-adoption classes and decided officially on international adoption from Ethiopia
• September- Our hometudy and completion of dossier
• October 10- our dossier was accepted, and we officially began waiting for our referral

Where do we go from here-

• We understand the next phase is the hardest!! WE WAIT!!! The wait for a referral of a 0-12 month girl is 4-6 months (lately most referrals are around 6 months)
• Then we frantically get ready to travel and bring home our new baby- the wait to travel is 1-2 months.
• The plane ride to Ethiopia is a full day long expedition
• We are in Ethiopia for about 1 week

Why Ethiopia?

Good question. We had narrowed down our country options, and began to talk and pray about each one. We felt drawn to Ethiopia because Nathanael Grandma (HI NORMA- hope your reading this) was a missionary there for over 40 years.

I hope you enjoy this journey! Let us know if you have visited and write us a quick comment!!