An Army of Thousands

We have been home from Ethiopia for almost 10 months and I am still unable to completely digest what that experience taught me. People say a baby changes everything and they are right, but what if your baby comes from a part of the world that feels forgotten. This will also change everything. I look at my daughter's face and realize she could have been one of the forgotten. Now I understand the huge efforts of the many Charities working in all parts of Africa, yet the suffering continues. I tell people about what I saw and about what I have since learned through books and research, but it doesn't seem to impact them in the same way it has me. Is this because I have an invisible and forever tie to Africa through my daughter? Maybe so.
I am unsure how to process all of this, what do I do next? how can I help? how can I be a good example to my daughter that we cannot sit back and let this continue?
Why is it that mothers in Ethiopia are dying after child birth because of lack of food and water. Yes, we can adopt these now motherless children, but the problem will just persist. I have to believe there is another way!
I have to believe that we ALL, all of us families adopting from Africa, are adopting for a bigger reason. I know the saying, "I may not be able to change the world, but I can change the world for one child", but why can't we also try and change the world? We are now An Army of Thousands, thousands of families who have or are adopting from Africa. One may not be able to change the world, but what about THOUSANDS????????

No!!!!!

Thanks everyone who gave their thoughts on the, "name thing". We have decided to keep her birth name Banchigize. Someone commented that her name was all her birth mother could give her and that is how we feel. If her birth mother gave her the name Banchigize, we should give it the honor it deserves.
Nothing too exciting going on here. We have been going to lots of play groups, the library for music class and of course still working with my IAN families.
Gabre is getting some molars and we had one rough week of sleeping issues and just plain bad mood issues. It only lasted one week and then we seem to have turned a corner. What we are still dealing with is lots of hitting. Gabre will hit us, the dogs, my computer and even herself, whatever is closest. We started time out and she has no problem serving her time. If Scott or I tell her she needs to go to time out, she just walks herself to the dinning room corner and sits down. It is really funny!
As good as she is about going to time out it has not helped with the hitting. As soon as Gabre hears the word NO the hands start going, not hard but still not good. I guess this is the terrible 16 months????

Here are a few more cute picture from the last few weeks.

It's all in the NAME

Well, recently Scott and I have been feeling bad about changing Gabre's name. Her birth mother gave her the name Banchigize. At first we could not even say her name and felt this was not the best name for a child in the US school system. We didn't think twice about changing it to Gabre because Gabre is an Ethiopian name. The caretakers at her orphanage called her Bunchin. I primarily call her Bunchin and so does Scott.
This weekend we had a talk about keeping her name Banchigize because it was the name given to her at birth, plus we now find it to be a really beautiful name. We are thinking about naming her Banchigize Gabre Mira Reeves. We would still call her Gabre as a child and then she can decide as a young adult what name she wants to go by. I have never been a person who really likes the 3+ name thing, but what are you going to do.
Has anyone else struggled with this????

what Ethiopia Taught me.......

AIDS, STARVATION, CHILD SOLDIERS, GENOCIDES, ORPHANS....
*These are the IMAGES that come to mind when I think of AFRICA
*HOW can I Help?
*HOW can I make a DIFFERENCE
*I THINK....... I am NEEDED HERE....
*They have so little....AND I have so MUCH
*often there is a LEVEL of SUFFERING here that is UNIMAGINABLE
*But it is hard to reconcile the CHALLENGES many Africans FACE
*with the JOY I see in The People
*but the IMAGES spilling out of my T.V. showed ONLY MISERY and I was FOOLED
*I BOUGHT into the LIE....that CIRCUMSTANCES defines HAPPINESS
*in Places where Despair SHOULD thrive....I found adults DANCING and SINGING
CHILDREN playing soccer with a ball TIED of TRASH
*RELATIONSHIPS and FAITH provide JOY
*my NEW REALITY....my JOY should have NO regards for my CIRCUMSTANCES

I want what I have learned to trickle down from my head to my HEART

I NO longer want to NEED the "NEXT THING" to have JOY

Africa NEEDS our EFFORTS and PARTNERSHIP

Because it is Africa that has TAUGHT me that POSSESSIONS in my Hands.....
will NEVER be as VALUABLE as PEACE in my HEART

for ME......

I NEED AFRICA MORE THAN AFRICA NEEDS ME

CLICK HERE to learn more.

Happy 2009!

Well, new year another adoption.....just a joke. We are hoping to start another adoption from Ethiopia in this new year. The when is still unknown. What we do know is that we love our baby girl from Ethiopia and would love another. I know this year will bring lots of fun times as Gabre grows. She will get more teeth, learn to talk, start to run, loose the bottle, have her 2nd birthday and much much more. We are so looking forward to 2009!

Our Fist Christmas

Our Christmas started with Scott dressing up like Santa, this was a surprise for me as well. I think he scared me and the dogs more than Gabre. She will let almost anyone hold her and Santa was no different.
After Scott removed the Santa costume, and the dogs finally calmed down, Gabre and the dogs opened gifts. Just as we thought, Gabre opened her gifts and was on her way to other things.

After Presents

After presents we went to the Barton Creek Spa and Resort for a breakfast buffet. Gabre loved the gingerbread pancakes. We took lost of picture, about 60, and just a few turned out. Gabre was not in the mood for family pictures. I would say her favorite part of Christmas was walking back and forth in this huge hallway at the hotel, as you can see from the Big smile on her face in the first picture. Overall Gabre had a Wonderful 1st Christmas with her Mommy and Daddy!

Merry Christmas!

Ethiopia Girl!

Merry Christmas Eve! We had planned to stay at a nice resort tonight for Gabre's 1st Christmas, but we have dogs and no sitter with short notice.
We plan to go for a big breakfast buffet at a very nice resort tomorrow for Christmas morning. When we finish Gabre and the dogs will open presents.
The Ethiopian dress Gabre has on in this picture was given to her by her BFF Lidya, who was at Hope for the Abandoned with Gabre. It came from a great organization called, Ethiopian Orphan Relief. If you have not checked it out you should here

Baby Gap!

This is one of Gabre's Christmas pictures. Doesn't she looks like an add for Baby Gap?
We are staying home for Christmas. We think she is going to enjoy opening gifts, although she will like the bows and paper better than the gifts this year.
Gabre is finally walking, but still goes back to crawling when she wants to get somewhere fast. She loves to go go go.

Hope

Yesterday was a huge step for America. Our Country's original Constitution did not give African Americans ANY rights, to a Country that just elected their first African American President. It does not matter if you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent, we should all be proud that our Country has come so far. I hope this is a sign that our daughter's future in America will be that much better.

Fuzzy Wuzzy Wuz a Bear

I have been tagged

Two soon to be Ethiopia adoption mamas, Erin and Chistina, tagged me.
1)I have been a vegetarian since middle school.
2)I went to the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.
3)I prefer a landscape of Sky scrapers to Mountains. My favorite is NYC, of course.
4)My husband's nickname for me is Pumpkin.
5)I adopted my first dog from the CCAA in NYC and she was half bald, but I loved her anyway, my Madison.
6)Currently I only watch CNN.
7)My red hair is real!

I tag.........
Lisa
Lory
Shawn
Kelly
Steph
Chantelle
Mindy

Our Journey to Ethiopia

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Fun in Denver

Gabre and I went to Denver a few weekends ago. Gabre got to meet her cousin Maci for the first time and see some of her Ethiopian buddies. The pictures say it all.


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Party Girl!!!!

Saturday was Gabre's Birthday party. Who knew a 1 year old's Birthday party could be so much work. It took my mom and I three days to pull off this party. We had catered Ethiopian food, PB&J for the kids, a candy buffet, elephant and giraffe cupcakes. I will say we had a few laughs Friday night trying to make the cupcakes actually look like elephants and giraffes. It took us all night with a late night run to the grocery store by Scott.
I also made a Happy Birthday sign in Amharic. It was so windy at the park that the sign lasted about 5 minutes. As you will see it took Scott getting on top of the car to hang the sign for that 5 minutes.
We had a petting zoo come for the last hour. Gabre and all the kids loved the baby animals.....so cute. It was a Birthday to remember.