We are home!

We made it for Thanksgiving. What a whirlwind trip, that will forever change our lives. Since returning home I have not felt well so that is why it has taken me so long to post anything. The boys are adjusting better than I could have imagined. Just to tie you over until tomorrow here are a couple of pictures of our sons.

Last Update from Addis

Here is the e-mail I received from Wendy this morning at 7:03 a.m. Wisconsin time:

Well, in 27 hours we will be leaving for the airport! To me, it is overwhelming. We are leaving Ethiopia -- the boys' home, their culture and the people that adore their children. On the other hand, I am extremely excited to be going home. Tonight we will be packing and enjoying the last night at the Sidama Lodge. The people here are wonderful and they now have internet access. We could not have asked for anything better.

We miss you all and will see you soon.

Mark, Wendy, Char and the boys

Update from Addis

Here is what Wendy has to say -

Hello all,

The last several days have been extremely hectic and exhausting. On Wednesday, I was sick (must have been something I ate) which left Char and Mark to care for the boys. Since the last e-mail, things have not been going as smoothly as we would have liked it to go with Kaleab. On Tuesday night, he screamed 2 1/2 hours straight until I took him to the front desk so that the doorman and Alex could calm him down. However, as soon as I got him back upstairs, he started to cry all over again. Now we are on a first name basis with the staff at the Sidama Lodge and they come up almost every night to help us with Kaleab. We can tell that it will be a very hard transition for him -- so when we get home, do not feel bad if he will not come to you for it may take a while - hopefully by then Mark and I will be able to comfort him.

Other than that, everything else is going better. We went to the orphanage today to meet Kaleab's dad and unfortunately he did not show. We also found out that our boys never received our care packages that we sent. (Marissa, don't worry about your children, we were there when they opened their care packages.) Also, at the orphanage today Mark handed out a banana & orange to every child there and to the caretakes as well.

I should be going for now.

See you all soon.

Wendy, Mark, Char and the boys

We made it to Addis and have out little boys

Yeah!!! I heard from them. Here is the e-mail I received from Wendy & Mark:

Hello from Addis:

We made it, there is no doubt that the flight was very long. We still have not 100% adjusted to the time zone but are getting there. The Sidama Lodge is wonderful and has only been open 7 weeks. The staff has been excellent. There are a few minor inconveniences of staying here - one being the internet. They have wireless Internet which is great if you bring a laptop, so it has not been the easiest thing to deal with. The other downfall is that there are not too many restaurants nearby so we have to order our food which is OK. I think Mark and I will lose a little bit of weight before we get home.

We went to pick up the boys yesterday at the orphanage and experienced our first traditional coffee ceremony. We have the boys with us. In the first 24 hours, Mark and I have experienced the Ethiopian "blow out". Let me tell you nothing will prepare you for them. We definitely have our poop stories.

Kaleab is very shy and the only way he would come near us is for us to give him candy. Kaleab likes beep beeps (cars) and balls and he sticks his tongue out all the time. (Remind you of someone, mom?) Isaac is a very good natured baby and only cries when he is hundry or wants to get up. He is definitely close to crawling. He can get up on all fours and he likes to talk. Besides that, Isaac tries to put everything in his mouth.

We definitely estimated sizes wrong. Kaleab should be wearing 18 months and size 6 or 7 for shoes. Isaac should probably be wearing 3-6 months but he will grow into the 6-9 months that we have.

There is so much to say but we want to get back to the boys. We will definitely hug and kiss them for all of you. Please keep us in your prayers.

Hopefully we will be able to e-mail on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

Thank you all for taking this journey with us.

Love,

Wendy, Mark and Char

In Ethiopia

Wendy and Mark should be in Ethiopia and should have already seen Kaleab and Isaac. I have not heard a thing and it is killing me. I was suppose to be there with them but about a month ago my dad's health was failing and I did not want to chance being in Ethiopia if something happened to him.

Now that my dad is doing better, I wish I was in Ethiopia. Oh well, let's assume that the boys are with their new mom, dad and grandma. Mark's mom went with them. I'm sure they were probably pretty busy today and they are probably getting some much needed sleep. I am so anxious to hear how the boys are.

One thing is for sure, they are now dressed like little boys.

I'm not much help but I thought I would post something because you are all probably also on edge - knowing that soon this will be your journey.

Take care all of you and keep the Tanis family in your prayers.

Mom

They're off!!

This is Wendy's mom. They have boarded the plane in Washington, D.C., heading to Ethiopia at 7:30. They are really excited and, of course, so am I. I will be posting while they are away.

Thanks for all of your prayers.

Marge

1 day to go. . .

At this point everything seems very surreal. I can't believe tomorrow morning I will be getting up early to start our trip to Ethiopia. If everything goes well we will be holding our little boys on Monday when you all get up. Let's hope I remember to pack everything that we will need. Besides that I wanted to give you all of our flight information:

Saturday, November 10
Depart from Detroit at 2:30 pm
Arrive to Dulles at 4:06 pm

Depart from Dulles at 8:30 pm
Arrive in ETHIOPIA at 7:40 pm (Sunday, November 11)in EST 12:40 pm

Tuesday, November 20
Depart from Ethiopia at 10:15 pm

Wednesday, November 21
Arrive to Dulles at 7:20 am

Depart Dulles to Detroit on United flight number 7292 at 12:27 pm
Arrive in Detroit at 2:01 PM

I will try to post once more before we leave and then my mom will be posting for us while we are gone. Please keep us in our prayers throughout our trip.

Leaving in 6 days!!

I still can't believe I will be in Ethiopia in a week from now, FINALLY! Well we have made reservation at The Sidama Lodge this place was highly recommended by Alemu so hopefully it will be wonderful. We have booked a double room which means that there is 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a sitting area and a kitchen, I will give you all an update on what we think of the Sidama Lodge after we have stayed there a couple of days. I think it is right downtown, with lots of resturants & interent cafes within walking distance. I have received a couple of pictures of Sidama Lodge if you would like to see it however, I do not know what the rooms look like.

Besides that we were quite busy this weekend. My sister-in-laws and mother-in-laws threw me a shower on Saturday, they did a great job and I extermly enjoyed it. Thanks everyone! Of course the boys will be spoiled by everyone when they get home.

Saturday night Mark and I met up with the Doug and his wife (her name is escaping me right now), they adopted a little boy from the Mother Therasa Orphange in Ethiopia last February, he had some major health concerns but he is doing remarkable today. It was nice to talk about their trip and get pointers on several places that we have to see, and places to eat at. I have my list ready to go.

Today we ran some last minute errands and trying to put our house back in order before we leave.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend and is ready for the week to begin.

9 days and counting down . . . .

Ok, it is only 9 days until we travel and I am slightly stressing out. I received a call from Kurt today and it turns out that the New Flower Guesthouse is not located in a safe neighborhood and Alemu has security concerns. After seeing pictures of the neighborhood and talking it over with Mark we have cancelled our reservation at the New Flower Guesthouse. I feel a little guilty about this decision since I gave Helen my word that we were staying there and it is not easy for me to go back on my word however, at this point we have to do what is best for our family. The upside to all this is Alemu has found a couple of other options for us to stay at, whether they have room for us is the question. I will let you know where we will be staying as soon as I figure something out.

Besides that there is one upside of the day we received the boys adoption decree and birth certificates. Although I had no doubt that everything was legal, to see our names as parents on their birth certificate was amazing. The birth certificates contained birth dates of course they are estimated, maybe not for Kaleab's his may be his actually birthday. That was the good news for the day.

It is official, in January when I go back to work I will only be going back at part time. Mark and I knew this was coming since the housing market has not been that great for the last couple of years, but to tell you the truth I have never not worked full time. My boss is being very flexible about my schedule, I think I will be working M-TH 8-1, or 9-2. At the end of December Mark will be changing shifts so that he will be working nights (4pm -12 am) which will eliminate the need for daycare. The upside of this is that I will be able to spend more time with the boys which I am looking forward to.

Well, that's it for today. Hopefully by tomorrow night we will have a place to stay.