Michael's Birthday

Michael's birthday was about 2 weeks ago. We had a party at Jets Gymnastics for Michael and his friends. The kids did an obstacle course, parachute game, and had free play time. Michael's favorite activity was definitely jumping in the foam pit! It was great for me, too, because Jets did ALL the work. One of the best parts of the day was when one of our nieces came up and said "I love this place Auntie".

One more step....

Well, we have finally finished and sent in our "homework". I expect that our homestudy will begin soon. It will be nice to feel like we are moving forward again. For this post's tidbit on Ethiopia, I have populus information. Ethiopia is just under twice the size of Texas, with a population of about 77 million! The average life expectancy is about 50 (slightly older for women, younger for men) :-(. Only about 2.7% of the population is over age 65. There are about 5 births per woman, and about a 9% infant mortality rate. Wow. If we lived to only 50, many of us (in the U.S.) would not see our kids graduate from high school.......

Why fivemilliondollars?

This morning when I told Pete that our blog site was fivemilliondollars.blogspot.com, he said "Why?". Well, WAAAY back when I started to create this, that was a the big thing Michael was saying. If you asked how much something cost, how much money he had/wanted, etc. the answer was: "Five Million Dollars!"

Why was everything five million dollars? Let me know if you find out............

What else we've been doing...

The past 4 months have been very busy for us. We wrapped up September, and entered October moving both of my parents. Dad moved to Rochester, and mom moved to a new apartment in Bloomington. The sisters-in-law were awesome helpers for my last minute needs.

October found us waiting for all of our application information to make it back to the adoption agency. We passed the time by visiting the Curious George exhibit at the Minnesota Children's Museum. Michael also had a great time going trick or treating this halloween.

November was also a busy month. We were invited to, and attended PAC. Many thanks to Aunts, Grandma, and Grandpa who went out of there way to stay with Michael so that we could attend. All had a great time. After, we spent the night at a hotel and enjoyed swimming and visiting with our friends the Browns and extended family. The week after PAC, we had my side of the family down for Thanksgiving. I made a yummy turkey, but the best part was Pete's awesome gravy.

December, of course, brought preparations for Christmas. It just felt like a big whirlwind. We remember being busy, but it is hard to put our finger on just what it was we did.

And, welcome 2008. As I said in the other post, we spent New Year's Day celebrating Kwanzaa. We hope to finish our homework soon. Michael's birthday is rapidly approaching, and we are already getting ready for that. Four years old. We can hardly believe it!

Til next time....Have a happy and prosperous 2008!

Adoption....and more

After reading Barb's (Pete's sister) blog, I decided that I ought to give this another shot. I really liked her thought on sharing cultural information about Korea while they await their adoption and also what stage they are at.

As for the stage of our current adoption, we are still very early in the process. We have been to the PAC (Pre-adoption Class), and are working on our homework. Once we complete that, our homestudy will begin. When that is approved, we will need to complete a dossier. When the dossier is accepted, we will wait for a referral. Our child will come home 2-3 months after we accept a referral. In short, we have a long road ahead.

For us, I want to share tidbits on African-American culture and a bit about Ethiopia. I hope that this will be interesting information for our family and friends, and those friends who are on the adoptions journey with us.

On January 1st we celebrated Kwanzaa. For those of you who don't know, Kwanzaa is not a religious celebration, but a celebration of African heritage. Many people have commented to me on the fact that many of the African-American people they know don't celebrate Kwanzaa. We will continue to celebrate Kwanzaa to teach Michael (and our future child) about their rich heritage and build the positive self image they deserve. Anyhow, we had a wonderful time. We all tried our hand at making an African or African-American food to share so we ate very well. Some families wore traditional dress. A wonderful gentleman came and taught us about drumming, and how they were used to communicate. Then the children got to drum and play some traditional instruments. Everyone had such a great time, we can't wait until next year!

Now, onto Ethiopia. Ethiopia is a landlocked country on the horn of Africa. It is the second most populous nation in Africa. The capital is Adis Ababa. Ethiopia was the original source of the coffee bean, which remains its largest export. There are 84 indigenous languages (wow)! Approximately 61% of Ethiopians are Christian, followed by 32% Muslim, and the remainder recognize traditional faiths.