WANTED: A LITTLE MORE ESTROGEN

The last year has been wonderful! In a nutshell:

• we brought home Mekebo in March 2008,
• moved from Madison in June 2008,
• lived with my parents for a month and a half,
• and then moved again into a house in small-town USA in August 2008.

It was a nice transition especially since I didn't have to punch in my time card every day. Oh...the life of the unemployed! However, I slowly came to the realization that a little time away from home would keep my brain from losing all of its matter (I tend to lose it if I don't use it). So, in May of 2009 I went back to work? I pose that as a question because I don't really know if I should call it work. I am working in LaCrosse (about 45 minutes away) at Express Care as a Nurse Practitioner. I see patients with minor illnesses: sore throats, ear infections, rashes, etc. Now the kicker... I get to choose when I work. Some months I could work 8-10 shifts and some I could choose to work 1 shift. It is a great gig for a mom like me.

Now on to the joys of my life: my three boys. Brian is working from home and it is such a blessing for our family. Even though we don't see him much during the day it is nice to have him home.

Elijah (Mekebo calls him "Wahwee") is 3 years old. He is such a fun guy. He can be the sweetest boy and the craziest boy. In June 2009 he was doing 360 jumps off of our fireplace and cut open his head. Eight stitches later he has forever souvenir on his forehead. Eli is in swimming lessons and Park and Rec this summer. It takes him a while to acclimate to new kids (that is saying it nice), but he is working on it. He just got his first "real bat" and he loves playing baseball. Mekebo and Eli are best buddies. I can't imagine what they would do without each other.

Mekebo is starting to vocalize his dislikes with "No, I don't want to" and his likes with "Moree". We are working on the pleases and thank yous. When I shaved his hair for summertime he just stared at the beautiful curls lying on the floor and looked at me and said "What's that"? He is obsessed with Papa's tractors and screams when he doesn't get a ride. His hypertension is under control with daily medications. God sure knew what he was doing when he placed Mekebo into our family...I can't imagine life without him.

ALL WE NEED IS A LITTLE MORE ESTROGEN- We have been officially waiting for our little baby girl since December 27, 2008. We are going through the same agency as we did with Mekebo: Children's Home Society and Family Services in Minneapolis. The wait is said to be 14-18 months until referral. The whole adoption process will probably take twice as long as it did with Mekebo. God has blessed us with patience and I feel at peace with the wait. Of course we are planning on new sleeping arrangements and a new vehicle (why can't the Corolla fit 3 car seats in the back?).

We are also SO excited because my sister, Pam, and her husband, Brian, have also made the decision to adopt a little girl from Ethiopia. It will so much fun to watch all of the kids grow up together.

New Home

It has been a long time since we last posted. We finally closed on our new home on August 18th. We are lucky that the house fell through. The new house was where we were meant to be. We are in the process of starting the adoption process again. I cannot wait to get back to Ethiopia. Jill, Eli, and Mamush are doing great. Jill loves being a stay at home mom, while the boys like to be stay at home children. Viroqua is a change, but it is a change for the better. I get to work from home, and get to give the family a quick smooch during break times.

-Until next time....Brian

We sold our home in Cottage Grove...but the house at S3753 Woodland Rd in Viroqua is a different story

Good morning everyone. Jill and I successfully closed on our property on 4435 Baxter Rd in Cottage Grove on July 1st. The attempted closing of our "new" property on July 1st at S3754 Woodland Rd in Viroqua was a different story. During the final walk through we encountered mold, and wet carpeting in my new office. To make a long story short, the relocation company who currently owns the property (that has been vacant for close to 10 months) decided to pull out of the transaction, which obviously slightly irritated since it appears they walked away from a binding agreement, which gives a number of legal options to reclaim expenses that we lost with the property. The entire offer process with the company was unprofessional/quite trying; 1. Less than a week (5-days I think) notice for closing (after I contacted them directly to get a time/date), 2. Water/mold issue (saturated carpet/mold that sat unattended for a month and a half), 3. Company dealing with mold (they do not have a good understanding as to the scale of the damage (more than one location in the basement, haven't removed based boards in some locations, nor addressed saturation in some locations even though they supposedly "started"). 4. Broken inoperable furnace (required new part to work). 5. Rotten window/more mold? 6. No timeline to address issues, nor do I feel that the issue will be handled correctly. The whole process has been full of incompetence. When buying a house, it should not be this difficult, especially who you are supposedly dealing with companies that are suppose to specialize in the process. As you can see we have moved forward and are currently in the process of acquiring another property. In the meantime, we have been "homeless" for the last 25 day, and have been shuffling between family and friends in Madison, Lake Mills, and V-Town.

Till we talk again. The next post will have some new pics of Mekebo, and the new house.

We are home...

Good morning from windy Wisconsin. The weather is quite different than what we encountered in Ethiopia (80-90 each day without a cloud in the sky).

We made it back home on Friday evening around 7pm. The airlines tried to make it as hard as possible to get home, but surprisingly we were only an hour late from our scheduled itinerary. It was an amazing journey. Words cannot express what we experienced, and the emotions that we felt while in Ethiopia.

Today, I thought that I would write a quick little blog personally thanking all those individuals who provided the donations that we were able to take to Ethiopia. We have amazing friends and family. A special thank you goes out to our Church Family at New Life Church, as well as Kevin at Door Creek Pharmacy. The donations that we recieved will make a dramatic difference. We were able to bring over 150 lbs of donations to Ethiopia. The donations were given to the CHSFS (our agency) care center, as well as AHOPE, an AIDS orphanage in Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia is an amazing place. The people are proud even though poverty is obvious, and it is amazing how many warm smiles and God Bless you's one encounters while on the streets. We are truly priviliged to bring back a part of Ethiopia.

Sunday March 16th, 2008

Hi all! Happy Palm Sunday!

This morning we were up at 4am in order to travel to a city in southern Ethiopia called Hosanna. Today is the day that we were to meet Mekebo's birth family. Unfortunately, his birth family did not show up and we did not get to meet them. I know that there is a reason for this, but it has been hard for me to understand since I have been dreaming about this day for a long time. We were able to leave a picture of Mekebo and our family along with a letter written by us for his birth family. I cannot begin to fathom the love that they have for Mamush and the most difficult decision adoption has been for them. I pray for his birth family every night. They have given us the greatest gift...Mamush!

Tomorrow, in the morning, we get to bring Mamush to the Guest House that we are staying at. Starting on Tuesday we will get to keep him in our care for good! I am a little nervous since I have not fed or changed him yet. I forget what to do with little babies! Hopefully we will get to post some pictures tomorrow. We have not had the opportunity to post any pictures of Mamush because photographs are forbidden at the Care Center where he is at.

We are doing well. We continue to love the Ethiopian culture more and more each day. It is AMAZING! God bless...

A little update

"Well, where do we begin? As many of you know, our trip to Ethiopia to bring home our son, Mekebo James, has seemed like a long wait. Our paperwork was completed in May of 2007, we received the referral for Mekebo December 27, 2007, and we began our travel to Ethiopia on Saturday, March 8, 2008.

Our trip so far has been divided into two different parts: visiting the southern area (the country) of Ethiopia where Mekebo is from and meeting him/getting to know him at the orphanage (they call it the Care Center). The orphanage is located in the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa.

We arrived to Ethiopia last Sunday evening after a day and a half of traveling from Madison, Wisconsin to Ethiopia. The time in Ethiopia is seven hours ahead of Wisconsin time, but we didn’t seem to have a hard time adjusting.

From Monday morning until Thursday evening we had a wonderful time touring the southern region of Ethiopia. The farthest south we made it was halfway between Addis (which is in the center of Ethiopia) and the Kenyan border. We had our own driver and tour guide for these four days. It was great because we could ask as many (stupid) questions as we wanted.

The southern region is home to the poorest people of Ethiopia. But the people are definitely not poor in spirit! Ethiopian people are very kind and are very generous with what they have. The culture is amazing here…children are looked over by everyone. Children run in the street with no danger of being stolen. Ethiopian people are very hard working. Even toddlers carry heavy loads on their back or herd animals. The land and roads are shared evenly between animals and people (animals are their livelihood). They make amazing food with the resources they have.

Of course we did some tourist things…we toured through a wildlife park and saw lots of zebra, gazelle, birds (the colors are amazing), baboons, ostrich, and many other unique animals to this region of the world. We saw a lot of lakes (which are used for fishing and bathing) and also a hot spring (Brian burnt his finger…the children gasped as he put his finger in it).

Many of the places we stayed had wildlife outside our doors. Baboons and other monkeys were everywhere! I know that many people in the states think that mosquito nets over their beds are pretty cool looking, but we used them for necessity. Good thing for the malaria medication! I could write a novel about our time in the southern region, but I will continue on with our trip….

AND FOR THE BEST…

Friday morning (yesterday) we met Mamush. Most of you know that his birth name is Mamush Mekebo, but we will be changing his name to Mekebo James Anderson. The nannies call him Mamush with such a loving tone. They truly love him.

Meeting him for the first time was surreal. He is perfect in every way! He has long curly black hair, big plump lips, and eye lashes that you can get lost in. He has little legs with one roll at his thighs. He is 5 ½ months old now and not quite 12 pounds. The doctor told us today that he is in the 3^rd percentile for weight. He is our little peanut. He does have chronic ear infections and yesterday we noticed he started getting pink eye (this morning I woke up with a slightly matted eye J).

He is a cuddly baby! He will just snuggle up to you and fall asleep. We heard him cry for the first time this morning. We have been able to spend about 2-4 hours with him each day. On Tuesday he gets to start staying with us at the Guest House. I know that Eli will just love him.

Tomorrow we get to travel to hopefully meet some members of his birth family. That will be an emotionally draining day! On Tuesday we will be going to the Embassy to get his visa. Then on Thursday we will be leaving at 10:15pm.

Mom and Brian are doing well. This has been a great adventure for us and one that we will cherish forever. Thank you to Dan, Sheila, Jacob, Kaitlyn, and G-man for watching Eli. Thank you to Roy for bringing Eli to Lake Mills. I am sure he enjoys time with his papa. Thank you to Matt, Cathy, Noah and Haley for watching Eli this coming week. You are all truly a God send…without you we would not be able to feel comfortable being here. Please give my Ya-Ya a big hug and kiss and let him know that mommy and daddy will be home from Epeopea (that made my day Sheila) soon.

Sorry we have not been able to post much on our blog…I guess the Ethiopian government has some restrictions with blogs. So thank you to Kara for posting this for us. Please keep us in your prayers. We can’t wait to see you all soon!

Love, Jill"