best friends

Best friends. It must run in the family but from the very first day Eden has wanted a lovey and her thumb to fall asleep, just like Parker. I took this toy to Ethiopia intending to give it to the orphanage but the first night she held him to fall asleep and I knew I'd never be able to give him away. He's just a green stuffed dog but just like Parker with his "Rabbie" (who also happens to be green) she likes to stroke his soft ears. And also like her big brother she sucks her thumb. Just as we suspected, it's a family trait.

link to our pictures

http://photos2.walmart.com/walmart/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3609791004/a=3390549_3390549/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=walmart/

This is a link to some of our pictures from Ethiopia. Enjoy!

progress

We are constantly amazed at our little girl. She is growing and changing already. When we picked her up she wasn't able to sit up unsupported. I also noticed she didn't really want to stand. I would put her in a standing position but her legs were like spaghetti. I'd pull her arms up but she wouldn't stiffen them to pull herself up. So we figured she was a little behind but we didn't worry too much about it. We could tell that the transition home had given them lots of tummy time but probably didn't have as much time to work one on one with the babies. By the time we left on Saturday we noticed she would occasionally make her legs stiff when she was in a standing position but she still couldn't straighten her back. She was also sitting better with support. Well, after being home a week she is sitting all by herself and loves to pull herself up into a standing position. She's also learned to make kisses. This is her newest skill, about 24 hours ago she first did this for Grandma, who is very proud of this fact. She is constantly studying our faces and finds them much more interesting than toys. We are so blessed!

names names names

Ok, well for those of you who read yesterdays post early in the afternoon, REWIND. Yep, we changed her name again...I am usually not that indecisive. But hopefully this is our final version. Eden (an Ethiopian name meaning paradise), Kayin (means long awaited child and my middle name is Kay), Netsanet (Ethiopian name meaning freedom, this name signifies the first 6 months of her life), Harrison. So here it is Eden Kayin Netsanet Harrison. We might just use Kayin for awhile. The kids got really comfortable calling her that while we were procrastinating on the rest of her name and it seems to work for her.

home

Well, we are finally home...We had the opportunity a couple times to check email in Ethiopia but I needed to unplug for awhile so I haven't had a chance to post in awhile. The break was welcome but now I will start posting our update.

Our trip was amazing. It was great to interact with our daughter's culture and get to know more about it. We saw things we will never be able to forget and emotions on both extremes so it's hard to put into a blog post all that happened. But here are the highlights and some pictures.

We arrived Monday evening so we met her on Tuesday morning. I was nervous before we met her and fidgety but when the nanny brought her in it felt so natural. I thought for sure I'd go into that ugly cry but I didn't. I'm sure it helped that we got a smile from her first thing. And it was a big smile too. It was as if she had known us all along. In fact the whole first 24 hours was mostly smiles. She even gave Duane her first coo a few hours later. He is very proud of that fact. BTW, it may come as a surprise to some of you but Duane is a natural with babies. He held her as much as I did in the beginning and within a day you could tell that she recognized that he was the guy to play with. She would scream at him and watch his face for a response. They are too cute together.

The other thing that helped was that I think the emotions of this are coming on slowly. At first I was distracted with checking her out and getting to know her, "counting all her 10 toes." During the day we were busy with other families and activities but I often found myself waking up in the middle of the night and processing what was going on during the day.

As well as our visa appointment we had time to do some cultural activities while we were there as well. Ethiopia is an amazing culture. It boasts some of the oldest artifacts in the world, they have a history they can trace back to the 3rd and 4th century. They are very proud of their roots with the beginnings of Christianity, Judiasm, and Islam. The food of course was amazing. The people are very kind and generous, we were well taken care of at our guest house.

Here are some pictures of my lovely assistants. I know Parker looks bored out of his mind but they literally fight about whose turn it is to hold her, feed her, etc... And since babies love other kids it has worked out well for both parties so far. She eats up their attention.

almost there

I had the neatest experience this evening. As I'm running around getting kids in the bath I glanced out our bedroom window and saw a butterfly. It was the prettiest yellow color with black trim, almost like the one in this picture. It made me stop in my tracks and watch it for a moment. It was a little breezy outside so I watched it try to fly against the wind, trying to get to a tree branch. Finally after about a minute it reached a branch and I stopped watching. But it left me with a lingering feeling of contentment. I'm not sure if there is another meaning I'm supposed to be searching for but I'm satisified with this, the promise of contentment. There are times in life I don't value contentment. I feel if I'm content than I must not be growing and I'm not challenged. But then there are times in this journey that life feels so chaotic and busy that a little contentment is my highest hope. This would be one of those times, when life has felt a little nuts. So here's the latest...

We had more drama last week but I won't review all the details. Basically the local USCIS agency made a little mistake that has caused me a great deal of stress :) BUT the good news is that it has all been resolved and we are set to travel on Sunday. In some ways I can't believe we are so close. After waiting for something for so long and putting so many hours of time and into all the requirements, to finally be here, ready to travel, is a little unbelievable.

But before we get there, Bella has her dance recital this weekend too. She's in a ballet class that she loves. I always wished I had dance lessons when I was little and it's so fun to see your child excell in something. I can see the core body strength and poise that practicing has given her. I am so proud and can't wait to see the production.