Updated Pictures

The Fair and Camano

Our family went to the fair on Friday. Luke loved looking at all of the animals...they are all "Annies"...the name of our cat. We didn't last long but it was a fun few hours.

We then took off for Camano Island for 2 nights. Luke slept pretty well there (we weren't sure if it was the smartest thing to take him). He LOVE LOVED the water and sand and gas (birds). This kid sure enjoys the outdoors. If he isn't outside, then he is standing at the window or door gazing out. He can usually get a brother or sister to oblige and take him out.

Cameron had an accident with a piece of drift wood impaling his calf while at Camano. We spent hours at Madrona with the doctor probing out pieces of drift wood on Sunday. It was so gross and he was in A LOT of pain. We felt so bad for him since he is out of football for a while. He's pretty depressed. The doctors are worried about infection so he has to sit with the leg propped up all the time.

Cameron is going to post some new pictures!

We have decided to home school Bryce for many reasons. We want Luke and Bryce to form a special bond since they are the closest in age, it will save us lots of money, he already knows how to read and write and do math, and he WANTS to be! He says he is the luckiest boy since he has Mrs. Muljat for a teacher! WOW.

Luke Update

As most of you know, sometime last week, Luke was determined to have active TB (tuberculosis). He spent 2 nights in the hospital trying to get a sample from his gut of the 'bad bugs' (we heard today that it most likely did not work). We have spent hours on the phone with doctors and public health nurses and doctors trying to figure out the best way to treat him. It has been an exhausting 5 days. Once again, we have been ASSURED that Luke is NOT contagious in any way. Children are not transmitters of TB, adults are. Children are unable to cough deep enough down into their lungs to cough up any speutum besides, Luke has NO upper respiratory symptoms at all. You would never know this little boy had this slow growing bacteria inside of him. As we have been told, in children, tb can manifest itself in different parts of the body and come out all of a sudden as something big and bad which is why it is so important to treat it right away. Apparently, he was treated in Ethiopia but ineffectively...we just received records today. He started a 6 month drug treatment today, taking 4 different drugs on a daily basis then possibly reducing the number of drugs/treatments as time goes on depending how he reacts to them. The public health nurse is my new best friend since she comes on a daily basis to administer the medication. Our main prayers are that his body has not become immune to any of the drugs and that they can better figure out what type of TB it is so they can treat him most effectively.

The wonderful Sonlight women's prayer group gave him the most darling elephant quilt you have ever laid your eyes upon. He love loves it and enjoys pointing to each bright elephant. He brought that to the hospital and felt very loved. That was the most special present ever! June is quite the incredible quilter! We feel so blessed to have such an incredible group of women praying for him!

Day one at the hospital went relatively well all things considering then day 2 was HORRIBLE. When they tried to shove the feeding tube down his nose, he couldn't breathe for a bit then proceeded to throw up and cough up blood. He was quite traumatized (Troy and Luke). My wonderful husband spent both nights at the hospital with our precious little guy. We ended up refusing to do night number 3! I was having back issues from holding 26 pounds all the time when I haven't been used to it. The thought of a hospital bed was over the top.

On to more fun things....Luke is such a crack up! He is always looking for a laugh. Speaking of his laugh, it is this hilarious sinister little laugh that goes on and on. Lynda Burke prayed for a long laugh for Luke and boy did we get it! When we ask him to say 'mommy and daddy,' he'll say 'mommy and puppy' then he'll say 'daddy and puppy' then laugh hysterically. He love LOVES his daddy. When daddy gets home from work, he runs to him with arms up yelling 'daddy daddy' then he'll turn around and look at me and say, 'bye'. Really makes a mommy feel special. He loves for daddy to chase him around the couch then catch him and throw him into the air or onto the couch. Very fun to watch him laughing so much. When Cameron got home from football tonight, he ran up to Cameron with his arms out wanting a big hug. Cameron gave him about 25 hugs, he couldn't get enough. So sweet. He is still not calling the kids anything yet but definitely knows each of their names.

Luke can be a little spoiled pill sometimes and has had quite a few time outs for his tantrums. We figure in the orphanage, all of the little girls gave him what he wanted when he wanted it. So funny to think of a spoiled orphanage kid. He does NOT like his time outs and pretty much screams the whole time. Cameron gets VERY concerned that he won't like us. It's pretty funny. He's DEFINITELY two! He is extremely busy and into everything.

Cameron was asking if he himself was this much work when he was 2 and after I gave him a definite YES, he decided he would not be having children. After thinking for a bit, he changed his mind and said he would have children but his wife would have to take care of them. Oh dear. We have some work to do.

I think the hardest thing about having 5 children will be not forgetting one of them somewhere....seeing as that has almost happened a few times now!

We have so VERY much to be thankful for. Our little boy is HOME and can be treated in the U.S. and for his wonderful transition into our family. God is so good! Thank you for your continued prayers!

p.s. Troy is wondering if anyone can answer Marissa's question after going to the fair of, "What is the Bulls job again daddy?" Yikes.

More Pics

A few more fun pictures!

Fun Pictures

WOOOOO HOOOOO!!!! Luke slept for 9 hours last night! We just saw the light at the end of the tunnel.

Funny enough, he told us "ca ca" (which means poop) yesterday and started pulling his overalls off. We helped him take his overalls off then he sat on the little potty and proceeded to poop. We are wondering if he is potty trained and we didn't know it.

Happy Birthday Luke!!!

Today is Luke's 2nd birthday! He got to spend it at the doctor. He got a TB test and blood drawn to check for parasites....fun! The Myhre family brought him some very fun cupcakes that spelled out "Happy Birthday Luke." Fun Auntie Lynda (Burke) brought him some injera yesterday that he got last night and will have tonight as well. Bryce of all people loved injera. He asked if he could have it instead of fruit. We are going to try having him sleep in Bryce's room tonight. Bryce is very excited. Marissa is the best helper ever! I asked her today if she wanted to be homeschooled so she could be my special helper...she thought that was a great idea then Bryce and Chloe did too. Cameron made sure he was NOT included in that idea. Last night the kids thought Luke really needed to see "The Lion King"...he danced to the music. We decided he will definitely be the one with all the dance 'moves' in the family.

Day 3, Day 4, trip home and Days 1 and 2 at home

Day 3

We saw the Ethiopian doctor today….apparently he does not have scabies, he has some fungus rash. So much for self diagnosis! We met with Zelalem (director of Hosanna orphanage he spent 15 months at) today to learn more about Luke’s history. God is so good for providing such a resource for us! He really loved Luke, which makes us so happy! We learned he is from the Wolaita area in the town of Soddo. His uncle brought him to a missionary woman named Dr. Mary (she lives with the Wolaita people). She then brought him to a small Wolaita orphanage where he spent a few weeks then eventually he came to the orphanage in Hosanna. The Wolaita people are the largest of the Ethiopians. We asked what an average man’s height is and they said 1 meter 90 which Troy converted on the Ipod to 6’2”. The men are very big and strong which is why the Ethiopian government choose all of their soldiers from this tribe. Zelalem was quite sure Luke would be the star of the basketball team….we laughed and said….ooooh not in the U.S….maybe football! Luke apparently has the exact “look” of a true Wolaitu. He had a best friend at the orphanage named Bereket. Bereket was just adopted 2 weeks ago to a family in Boulder, CO. We are going to try to make contact with them so the boys could keep in contact. Luke and Bereket were the only 2 babies in the orphanage for a few months. We asked if Luke cried very much and he said only when he was hungry. We haven’t seen Luke cry yet from getting hurt…he is very tough and has a few orphanage battle wounds to prove it! We were very thankful to make contact with this man! Luke was very dear to him and we said we would send pictures.

In the evening, we went to the Thomas Center transitional house for a good-bye celebration. All of the kids sang lots of songs, danced and clapped. We drank pop, ate popcorn and some other Ethiopian snacks. The kids all loved having their pictures taken….it was so nice knowing all of the kids in this home had a family coming to get them soon. It was very sweet to watch. Abdissa (CHI director) then busted into an hour long sermon. It was a VERY nice sermon on faith but so unexpected on our part and difficult to sit through with a 2 year old! We then had a cake cutting ceremony with our family and the other CHI family and they gave us all Ethiopian outfits to put on and one for each child at home. Luke looked hilarious in his outfit! I couldn’t stop laughing (I’m sure that was highly inappropriate). By this point it was 8:00 at night and we were READY to head home but off we were to Hebur, an authentic Ethiopian restaurant with live dancing of 4 different Ethiopian tribes. It was a very cultural experience. I had dreaded this moment, having to Ethiopian food in front of Ethiopian people…..Abdissa helped us order our food. I picked at the meat unable to stomach any injera (their bread they eat with EVERYTHING). I fed most of my meal to Luke so it looked like I ate quite a bit. Now we were really ready to get home and into bed since the next night we would be leaving for AMERICA! Too bad my stomach felt like a fireball all night long from the little bit of meat I ate! Pepto Bismol didn’t even touch what Berr Berr (their spice on everything) did to me.



Day 4

Today we visited the AWOP orphanage Luke spent 4 ½ months at in Addis Ababa. WOW….what an experience. We pulled up and the van was surrounded by children all wanting to kiss and hug and hold Luke. He was a popular little guy…especially with the 8-10 year old little girl crowd. Now I see why the molluscum warts spread so rapidly on the face there….all the kissing! Since we had arrived in Addis Ababa, I had been on the hunt for the picture book we had shipped over to him. I had spent a lot of time making this for Luke and wanted to show him pictures of the family on our way home. No one knew where this picture book was so this was my last ditch effort to ask. I asked the orphanage director and he had no idea. A little 10 year old girl overheard me asking and said….picture book?....I know where is. She ran off up the stairs and brought back the picture book!!! We couldn’t believe it! She reminded me so much of my Chloe….always knowing what is going on and so aware of her surroundings. One little 2 or 3 year old girl followed us around with her arms up in the air just wanting to be held. She had so much sadness in her eyes, I am crying thinking about it. None of these kids had homes to go to. Troy and I took turns holding her (since the older girls still were mauling Luke). The kids were so dirty and grimy….heartbreaking. We just couldn’t believe this was the “nicer” orphanage! The poverty is devastating. They showed us where Luke slept…a tiny room with 4 cribs…his was small and pink! Bryce was horribly offended at this news!

We met a precious man named Bereket (not to be confused with best friend Bereket) who took us into his office and proceeded to tell us he was a Wolaitu and knew Luke’s relatives….they live way out in a remote Wailutu village. He exchanged emails with us and was SO proud of Luke and was so happy we were going to email him pictures. He thought Luke would return to Ethiopia one day and make his people proud. He promised to email pictures of Wailutu and was going to try to email pics of his relatives!!!! He confirmed that both Luke’s mom and dad were dead. WOW…what a gift!

Traveling Home

We got to the airport at 7:15 pm (day 4) and our plane was leaving at 10:30 pm. We hung out with 4 other families from the guest house that were also leaving that evening. One other family was on our flight to Amsterdam. Efa (sick little 9 pound 6 month old) was heading home also! He had switched formula to a hypoallergenic one and was doing much better…Praise God! They were heading straight to the emergency room at a Children’s hospital when they got home. The first leg of the trip was an absolute nightmare…Luke screaming non-stop. Diarrhea diapers. WOW….what a test. One gift was an Ethiopian young man sitting next to us….he was the baby whisperer! He whispered to Luke in Amharic and he would stop crying. He was a blessing yet at the same time, it is a horrible feeling watching some stranger be able to comfort your child and you can’t. Because of so many different factors, I cried silently the entire 25 hours of flying /layover time . I’m sure everyone around me thought I was an absolute psycho. On our second leg, Amsterdam to Seattle, we had the rudest flight attendants on the face of the earth. In my fragile condition, I was REALLY sobbing by this point. We decided it was racism….I thought it wouldn’t bother me to be a conspicuous family but I can say it HURT that these women were treating us so poorly for no reason at all. The only thing that helped was a dear woman sitting behind us who told me she was writing a letter to Northwest about the treatment we (and she) received from these awful people. Troy and Luke really bonded during this time since I was kind of uncapable of taking care of him in my condition. By the end of the flight, I was nauseous…thinking I was just overtired or something. I was sooooooo excited to get home to see my kids!!!

Troy’s dear parents picked us up from the airport…we breezed through customs/immigration. We had been warned that it could take up to 2 hours so that was nice! Luke loved sitting in his carseat and looking out the window…we had been nervous about the carseat situation since he had never been in one. He babbled all the way home! We were in awe that he never fell asleep. Troy and I were too tired to keep our eyes open but talked with his parents with them closed. It was so painful.

We had the most warm welcome home ever! We felt so loved! There were Ethiopian balloons, wonderful signs, floweres, a fabulous Ethiopia cake and my precious mom had the house sparkling clean and ORGANIZED….labels and all! Wow! Can I just say Luke is SO lucky to have the BEST brothers and sisters EVER! They just loved him up the moment they saw him. They love to show him new things, pick him up and just play with him! He is so used to older kids that none of it bothered him.

We figured out that we had grabbed the wrong suitcase in our overtired condition….turns out this poor man went on a cruise with no luggage! WE feel awful! Troy’s parents very kindly offered to remedy the situation the next day.

The kids and I gave Luke a bath….he loved that!

Day 1 at Home

OUCH…after being awake for 48 hours we were really wanting some sleep….not in the cards. He slept 4 hours. His diarrhea is getting worse. We’re old….wish I was 25 again. We are calling him “the Destructor”….he is into everything! The kids cleaned up after him at first but soon realized it was pointless. He is becoming afraid of his crib. He took a nap finally on our bed….it took A LOT to get him to sleep. We bought some lactose free milk and soy milk thinking maybe the milk was giving him the diarrhea. Neither seems to help…..excited to get to his doctor appointment on Monday. I am sick with the Ethiopian runs. Gross. We measured how tall Luke is on our official Muljat door jam. Bryce has grown 2 inches in 2 months! They all looked so tall when we got home! Bryce adores his Ethiopian outfit we brought him. He is asking if he can wear it to church. We said what the heck…go ahead. He is excited to match Luke. Bryce has expressed is disappointment….I didn’t know he would be so much like a baby!

Day 2 at Home

Luke slept 4 hours once again and now the diarrhea is intolerable. We are heading to the doctor today with a sample.

We are home from the doctor now and they almost put him in the hospital thinking E Coli. They decided not to because apparently the dangerous strain of E Coli that causes bloody diarrhea is a U.S. thing and the chances of him getting in 2 days of being here is so slim. Thank you Lord….that would have been such a set back for him attachment wise! They are culturing his stool and we have another appointment tomorrow. He is sleeping now……

Gotcha Day and Day 2

Gotcha Day

Well, it was our day for no power today.  Every other day we have no power because that’s what the government wants.  We rode over to the Thomas Center transition home with Abdissa (the director of CHI).  The pollution was THICK...you could taste it.  We pulled in to the Thomas Center and had NO idea that Luke would be standing there waiting for us!!!!  We didn’t have the video camera or camera ready or anything!  We were stunned!  It was very emotional seeing him standing there waiting for us with Abdissa’s wife (she runs the Thomas Center).  There were no other families doing it, just us.  He wasn’t too excited but let us hold him.  We toured the Thomas Center....so hard to see so many orphans!  We were stunned by how well behaved all the kids were.  They had them separated out by age and they chanted WELCOME to us.  It was sweet.  We saw Luke’s crib (it’s only been his crib for a few weeks...we go to his previous orphanage on Thursday).  Outside there were hundreds of little clothes drying EVERYWHERE (it was not raining).  

We then left and went to the CHI headquarters to fill out paperwork.  We were up in a room alone for a long time unsure what we were to do but we started getting to know our new son!  Troy then left to fill out the paperwork and Luke and I stayed in that room.  In that time I found out lots about him...he likes raisins (we soon learned he likes to eat ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING and a lot of it!!!)...he likes to color...he loves toy cars..he loves to go outside...he wears 18-24 month clothes.  We were kind of thinking that maybe he didn’t utter any words or noises or anything then all of a sudden he copied me after he picked up something from the ground, “yucky”.  I nearly fell over!  After we left we took him to a few places and he napped in our arms.  We took him to a little shop and the women working there were kissing and hugging him and wiping his boogars....Ethiopians LOVE their children.  The women then asked what his name was and we said Mamoosh (his African name) they told us that WAS NOT a name that just meant ‘little boy’.  We then said his American name was Luke and they were very dissatisfied with that and said we needed to name him Lazarus.  Too funny.  They then told us he looked African and not Ethiopian...whatever that means!  When we took him home he really started copying us saying, “mommy, daddy, puppy and other funny things!  It was so precious!  He loved his first bath until he pooped in it.  

It was bitter sweet today because one of the other families staying at the guest house got a 6 month old baby today and were told he was very sick and needed to go to the hospital.  He weighs 9 pounds and is severely malnourished!  We couldn’t sleep for a large chunk of the night and kept praying for little Efa.

Day 2

Luke only woke up once in the night and Troy patted his back for a while and he went back to sleep.  There was thunder in the night that shook all of Ethiopia....I literally thought we were being bombed.  Luke didn’t wake up!  He does have a cough thing going and coughed for a couple hours in his sleep.  He woke up happy and has been quite a kid today!  Smiling (Yes Lynda and Tammy...smiling!!!...I found his tickle spot), chuckling and getting into 2 year old mischief.  He loves to talk!  I decided to try feeding him a bottle (older kid formula) before nap and bed and he LOVED it.  He is very easy to put to bed.  It was our embassy appointment today which went without a hitch.  Another family in our guest home did not get their kids’ visas because they had a paper missing!  We are praying for them!  Little Efa continues to throw up and have diahrrhea and cries continually.  We keep praying.  They are next door to us so it should be a long night (we never sleep much anyway).  

We met a man today that first was with Luke at his first orphanage and was with him for over a year.  He told us he has pictures of Luke and his good buddy that go way back.  WE were thrilled and are trying to figure out a way to meet with him.  There appears to be some weirdness because he no longer works for CHI and Abdissa is acting weird about it.  We are determined to meet with him though to get as much history as possible for Luke.  We ate an Ethiopian lunch with the one other CHI family adopting this week.  YUCK....I did my best to get some down.  I also drank a tiny cup of coffee...since we were in Ethiopia and all.  I found an Ethiopian nativity set I am so excited about...I had been searching for the past 2 days and no one even knew what I was talking about but I finally found a woman who knew!  Luke has scabies (yum) and we applied the medicine head to toe.  He is SO good about sitting still for stuff!  We also put stuff on the molluscum warts on his face.  He took another bath and was cracking up this time as he spilled water out of cups over his head....too cute.  Our little boy is So precious...molluscum warts and all!

Travel to Ethiopia and Day 1

Travel to Ethiopia and Day 1

Our Travel Day:

Our day started off challenging when our paid reservation for the shuttle to the airport was mysteriously lost.  We ended up taking a taxi and after much haggling getting them to pay for it since they were the ones responsible for booking our reservation.  When in line to get on the airplane, we met another couple who was adopting in Ethiopia who just so happened to be staying at the same place we were.  It was so nice to have someone else going through the same thing just as lost as we were.  The flight was great until we landed in Khartoum for refueling.  A very large Ethiopian woman (I had no idea those words could go hand in hand...large and Ethiopian) voiced her deep concern to me that we were landing in Khartoum.  Apparently there is much political unrest and a missing president and genocide, etc.  I prayed much and before we knew it we were in Ethiopia.  We had to wait for over 2 hours to get through the visa and immigration process.  Lots of pushing and shoving!  Our guest house picked us and our new adoption friends up at the airport (our new friends lost one of their pieces of luggage...another long wait).  We arrived at our guest house at 10:30pm and they had dinner for us...cold noodles and some sauce.  All of the meals have a certain spice called berr berr or something...I took a pepto bismol.  We unpacked, tired to take a shower (no water, the power was out) and went to bed.  Immediately mosquitoes were buzzing around us...we sprayed bug spray all over but trying to sleep was near impossible.  Then “it” started, the Muslim mosque chanting at 4:40 am and the wild dogs singing along.  UNFORTUNATELY my rainmaker broke while we were in Amsterdam...my lifesaver!  Major bummer.  Our guest house is behind a tall tin fence and barbed wire and has a gate with a man standing on watch.  They assure us this is all unnecessary....The men working at the guest house are VERY sweet and very protective of us.  One man, Akki, asked us right away if we were born again?  We said yes and he said he was too.  He said most Christians in Ethiopia are orthodox.  He had MWS playing in the car, very cute!


Day 1 – In Addis Ababa

We went to church with a couple doing some mission work here.  It was called International Evangelical Church and lots of missionaries go there and people all over the world.  It was awesome!  We loved singing VERY loudly to drown out all of that Mosque Muslim chanting and praying.  While we were there, a MASSIVE downpour occurred.  I could barely hear the pastor.  I thought maybe we should evacuate but no one there even batted an eyelid.  I sat next to an Ethiopian man who asked what brought us to Ethiopia, I told him we were adopting and he asked if we would adopt him also.  This was the third man who asked us this since coming.  Very sweet.  Many have a deep desire to see “America.”  After church we were bombarded with kids selling gum.  Lots of kids on the streets EVERYWHERE standing there mostly or shining shoes or begging.  Lots of moms holding babies coming up to the van asking for money to feed their baby.  So hard to see.  We are trying to go to a place today that sells meal tickets you can hand out to kids since you are not supposed to support the begging.  In front of our guest house there are always random goats, 3 legged donkeys and lots of cows (not to mention cats and dogs).  We went shopping and got our whole family Ethiopian outfits hoping to do a picture when we get home....Shona?:)  A few families at our guest house received their kids today which was super/emotional and draining to watch!  We are excited to meet our son!