Brown Family Update

Check out these handsome boys! A friend was just in Ethiopia picking up his beautiful little girl and snapped this pic for us. He was able to tell the boys we loved them and would come get them as soon as we could. He said they were doing great.

We have had a little bit of a set back in our process. We found out a couple weeks ago that our home study(a document that summarizes our lives and approves us to adopt in the US) had ran out. I got confused, thinking it ran out in 24 months(which was the old standard), but it was actually 18 months. Our home study agency did not catch this either. Along with our home study running out, we also had to update since Zoey is home. All of this means that our home study had to basically be done completely over again. Thankfully, we have finished that part. Next, we have to be approved again by USCIS(United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). I spoke to someone yesterday who explained that we had to start over with this process as well. There is no real way to expidite the process, but she asked that I send the application to her attention. She said she would fit it in her current cases and try to get it done as fast as possible. In a normal circumstance, our application would sit on a shelf and wait for an officer to have an opening. I am very grateful for her willingness to help. I was very worried since friends have not had the best experience when asking USCIS for a speedy process. I sent everything yesterday and it should get there by Monday morning. I don't know why, but you send everything to Texas and it then has to be sent to another location. I have no idea how long it will take to get to the officer I spoke to. We are hoping for March, although we have no real idea how long it will actually take.
Its been such a long process to bring the boys home. Every step of the way has been full of unexpected bumps. Adoption requires so much faith and trust in God. Everytime we get discouraged, we try to remind ourselves that there is a reason for everything. It is of course still hard, but the fact that God is in control gives us hope.

Happy New Year!

This is going to be a long one! I am still processing yesterday, so I may ramble or be overly detailed.

Zoey started the New Year off with a bang! She started the New Year's Eve off with her first sleep over with my mom. She did great. She slept and ate good and had tons of fun playing. I was worried because she doesn't always sleep well in new places, but everything went really well. We were proud of her for being such a big girl.

We picked her up late morning and mom was a little worried that she seemed to have a little chest congestion. When we got home, I took her temperature and it was a little high. I took it again to make sure it was right and it had actually increase by a degree in that short amount of time. I didn't think much of it and gave her some tylenol. Since it was her nap time anyway, we left her in her crib. I heard a really loud and strange sound come from her. I didn't go in immediately, but something told me I needed to check on her. When I did, I saw that she was awake. I picked her up and at first thought she was just really sleepy. Her eyes were open, but she was unresponsive and totally limp. Her eyes were slowly shifting front to back. I immediately felt that something wasn't right. Justin came in and took her as we decided to take her to the emergency room. As he was taking her out to the car, he ran back in because he realized she wasn't breathing. Her lips were no longer pink and were now dark and dull. At this point, it was obvious that she had a seizure. Our neighbor Amy is a nurse and Justin ran to get her. I gave Zoey two rescue breaths and decided I would go to our other neighbor's who is a fireman. While I was running I had another neighbor call EMS. As I was running to get Scott, I felt her muscles strengthen back up and I hear her make a sound. It was the most wonderful sound ever! Scott was not home, so we went back to our house where Justin was frantically looking for us with Amy. Amy thought she was having a febrile seizure since she also had a fever. Since she was responsive now, we decided to just take her downtown ourselves. In the card ride, she was groggy, but more herself again.
Thankfully, Kosair was not crowded and they saw us immediately. They all agreed that it was a febrile seizure and was not a big deal at all. It was not long, probably two minutes at the most and she came out of it really fast. Since they said it was okay, we let Zoey take a nap, which she desperately wanted to do. When she woke up, she was her happy squealing self. The nurse told us "If she is this happy when she is sick, I can't imagine what she is like when she's well!"

We had to have a few tests run to see what what was causing the fever, but she tested negative for everything. Their conclusion is that she has a very minor viral illness. She seemed like she was fighting something all week, I guess it finally hit her. It was nice to know that we didn't have to worry about some horrible, highly contagious illness. I hadn't planned on giving the flu shot to her, but it looks like we are getting it now!

When children have febrile seizures, they are likely to get another one. Good times. Even though we now know that they are not a big deal at all, I can't imagine seeing that again. Many of the adults and kids I work with have seizure disorders, so I am pretty used to seeing them. I have had a few clients that have died after having a seizure, so when I realized she was having one, I was pretty scared. Turns out, febrile seizures are not anywhere near as bad as the seizure most of my clients have. They do not last long, and the babies recover from them really fast. It is very rare that a child would have any brain damage from a febrile seizure. We have some medicine to give her in the rare case a seizure lasts 10 minutes. Now, all we can do is try to be aware of her temperature. But, since it is usually a reaction to a sudden fever, they are very hard to prevent.

It was a rough night worrying about every little sound she makes and constantly checking her temperature, but we made it. She is doing great today. She has a slight fever, but it is controlled since we are giving her medicine to keep it down. She is having a fabulous day eating her favorite foods and doing her favorite things. You really wouldn't know she was sick at all. We are very thankful that this scary event is really not a big deal if it happens again. We are of course praying that it never happens again!

Thank you to our neighbors Amy J, Amy H, Gary and Lisa for your calm presence as we were flipping out!

Pictures from Ethiopia

Here are some pictures from our trip. Since we are at the transition house, we are able to take pictures of the kids. All of them have been adopted. They are in very random orders, sorry.

Christmas Card

Christmas Card is complete! Check out our first complete family photo. I will post more pics from our trip soon.

Pop Art Ornaments Christmas

Personalize your Christmas photo cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Last Update

Today was a great day. We picked the boys up this morning and took them to the Zoo and out to lunch. It was nice to get them away. Although we love being around all the kids, many of the younger ones are very needy and want all pf  our attention while we are trying to get to know the boys.

The main attraction at the Zoo was the lions. They had multiple cages with lots of lion pairs. You can get lot closer to them here than you can get in the US. It was neat, but said becuase all the animals were in pretty small cages. There were also a few monkeys, birds, a gessel, and a little deer tied to a string.

There was a little amusment park and playground at the Zoo as well. This was Chera and Kenenisa's favorite thing to do. They road a few rides and played on a playground. I can't wait until we take them to an amusment park or the fair. Pretty interesting, a maintinance man was welding metal, right in the middle of the walking path. Justin wanted to take Zoey's stroller off road to go around it and our driver could not figure out why. She told us "No big deal, can't hurt you!" Hopefully he wasn't welding a part for one of the rides the boys were on!

Good bye to the boys was hard, but we know we will see them soon. Hopefully, we will receive an embassy date late January or early February.

 We have to go now, off to the airport. Thanks for all the prayers! 

Donna Brown MM, MT-BC
Louisville Music Therapy, LLC
(502)376-9064
DonnaMT@insightbb.com
www.louisvillemusictherapy.com
www.justinanddonna.blogspot.com

Update

We had another wonderful day today. I brought coloring books, notepads, and crayons to the orphanage. This was a big hit for all the kids. They all enjoyed coloring and drawing. The coloring books were Mickey  Mouse and almost all the kids new exactly who he was!

The boys are getting more and more comfortable with us. Both times we went today there were waiting for us at the courtyard gate with big smiles. Both boys initiated interaction with Hiwot more today. Kenenisa wanted to feed her and Chera wanted to sit with her while he was coloring. Most of you have seen the ergo carrier that I carry Zoey in. Everytime I put it on, Chera wants to help me. Today while he was helping, a toddler(who is kind of a wild kid) ran up and started touching Zoey. Chera protectively put himself between the toddler and Zoey. I know the little boy meant no harm to Zoey at all, but it was sweet to see how protective Chera was of his sister.

It seems that the orphanage has done their best to explain what will be happening. While they were drawing, Chera drew a plane. Justin asked if he wanted to go on a plane to come home with us in a few months and he said yes. Later, he drew a plane and wrote 

 MDCKH(Mommy, Daddy, Chera, Kenenisa, Hiwot) inside of it. Very sweet. I am very happy that they have tried to explain things. I know it will still be scary, but at least they will have some idea of what is going to happen.
Zoey is doing very well. I am proud of how she is handling such a hectic schedule. I am so happy that we brought her. It has made the nannies so happy to see that she is doing good. The first question I get is: Have you taken her to the doctor? They are always very excited when I tell them that she has multiple doctors.

This trip we have both been very aware of the mental health issues and disabilities of people on the streets. We have seen many people with obvious mental impairment and horrible physical disabilities. We have been told that there is very little help for people in this situation.  Its impossible to imagine what it would be like to live here with any special need or what it's like to have a child with special needs. I saw a girl who did not have use of her legs pulling herself with her arms down the street. I couldn't help but think that this could have been Zoey's life if she wasn't given the chance to live in a place with good medical care. I am very grateful that God has brought her into our lives.

Tomorrow is out last day. We will leave late tomorrow night. Tomorrow morning we are going to be able to take Chera and Kenenisa to the Zoo. Afterwards we are going to go to a traditional Ethiopian restaurant. We are pretty excited. It's going to be a lot of fun. Now, off to sleep!

Donna Brown MM, MT-BC
Louisville Music Therapy, LLC
(502)376-9064
DonnaMT@insightbb.com
www.louisvillemusictherapy.com
www.justinanddonna.blogspot.com

We passed!

We passed court this morning! We went to the courthouse this morning and waited in a large room with all the other couples. There were quite a few families from our orphanage there. We have gotten to know all of them through hanging out at the transisition house with our kids. They called us back one by one to the hearing room to aswer a few questions. It really only took 5 minutes. It was basically for them to establish that you knew that these would be your children and you were responsible for them. They asked a few questions about Zoey and that was it. At the end she said: "They are yours." After all we have been through waiting and fearing that we would not even be able to adopt them, hearing that was the most wonderful thing we had ever heard. It would have been nice if they boys had been there with us, but I doubt they would have understood any of it and we may have scared them with our crying.

After court we went shopping.  This was a fabulous shopping trip. Our driver Ayni took us. It was great to have her their to transate and let us know where was the best place to buy things. We got some really cute traditional outfits for the boys, some decor for home, gifts, and a necklace for Zoey when she gets older. In Ethiopia, the Orthadox Christians and many Protestant Christans wear wooden Coptic crosses. Chera had mentioned he liked crosses so we bought a few for all the older kids in the transition house(only about 11). It was amazing to see how excited all these kids got for these tiny little inexpensive neclaces. Everytime we have brought anything for them; bubbles, stickers, suckers, it's like they hit the lottery. As I have mentioned before, all the kids want to make sure that everyone got one. It is sweet to see how they look out for one another.

We had a good day with the boys. We played some soccer, passed the ball and spinned the boys around. Our close friend Haley made the boys a book with pictures of her and her brother, our house, church, us, Zoey and soccer. I thought they would like it, but I had no idea how much they would like it! All the kids gathered around and watched as Justin read it to them and Anyi translated. We read it a few more times and Chera has it memorized now! Haley-thank you so much for making the book for the boys. I took pictures and I have a video of them saying thank you to you and Nathan!

After hanging out at the orphanage we came back to the hotel for some dinner. Justin  went ahead to get us a table at the restaurant and Zoey and I were going to meet him there after we changed his diaper. We were comming down the elevator to the restaurant when it jarred and went completely dark. I knew this was just a power outage becuase it happens all the time. Thankfully our hotel has a generator so it does not last long. Zoey started screaming and I couldnt see which button to press to call for help. I just hit every button that was on the wall. I started banging on the door and yelling for help. I heard someone bang back at me and casually say in an Ethiopian accent: Don't sweat, its alright" For those of you who have been to Ethiopia, you know that nothing  to big of a deal big deal. It only lasted for a few minutes, but its hard not to sweat when you are in a pitch black elevator with a screaming baby! At least it is an interesting story for us to tell.

Better go now, we all need to get some rest. Thank you so much for all the prayers regarding our courtdate. God has definitely worked throughout this process.
----- Original Message -----
From: Donna B Brown <donnamt@insightbb.com>
Date: Sunday, December 5, 2010 10:36
Subject: Update!
To: donaldparker@vzw.blackberry.net,lesleys@ariseforchildren.com>, susank.ariseforchildren@gmail.com,susancallander@gmail.com>, ronda.cosby@jefferson.kyschools.us,lupitacross@hotmail.com, rebecca.edney@yahoo.com,jessicanaber@yahoo.com, brittneyj.armstrong@gmail.com,<kdozier@sobmlegal.com>
Cc: drae48@insightbb.com>,donnamt.ethiopia@blogger.com,coram deo abf <coramdeoabf@yahoogroups.com

> Two seperate updates. I tried to send  the first one this
> morning but the internet wasn't working.
>
> Update 1
> We made it to our hotel last night at around 3:30 am. This was
> about 6 hours later than we expected. All of the flights except
> our flight from Louisville to Detroit had delays. One for snow,
> one for mechanical reasons, and one  becuase of another
> passengers medical needs. The snow was so bad in Amsterdam that
> the airport was shut down. Once it opened back up there was only
> one runway. We sat in the plane for around 3 hours waiting. The
> KLM staff were wonderful though. There was plenty to eat, drink,
> and lots of movies to watch. Zoey was great. she didn't sleep
> much, but was pretty happy most of the way. The only time she
> got cranky was after our stop in Sudan. It was only an hour trip
> from Sudan to Ethiopia, so it wasn't too bad.
>
> We only got around 5 hours of sleep so I am sure we will sleep
> good tonight. In a half hour we are going to go visit the boys!
> I am very nervous and excited. I just wonder how much they
> understand and what they will be thinking when they see us.
> Justin is ready to play some soccer with them. We even brought a
> ball with us.
>
> Please keep us in your prayers. I really want us all to stay
> healthy. Also, our court date is tomorrow afternoon. Which will
> be early in the morning your time.
>
> Brittney-Justin gave Jared your gifts. He liked them very much.
> We also gave him some paper and a pen so he can write a letter
> to you. We will take a little video of him as well.
>
> Haley-I will probably give the boys your book on Tuesday after
> we know how the court date went! I know they are going to love
> it!
>
> Update 2
> We spent a lot of time with the boys today! They have already
> been moved to the transition house. This is where all the kids
> that are close to coming home go. When we got there, they were
> both napping. It took them a little while to warm up to us since
> they had just woke up from a nap, but that changed quickly. We
> were having fun and were covered in stickers in no time! 
> Both said they remembered us from our previous trip
> Words can't describe how beautiful these boys are! Its just so
> amazing to actually get to know them after only looking at
> pictures for so long. Justin took his football(soccer for you
> Americans!) and played with all the kids. Suprisingly they also
> like basketball. Not sure if they have played with an actual
> basket, but they like to dribble and pass. Justin had such a
> great time coaching them, it was fun to watch. I video taped
> them with our flip and both boys cracked up watching themselves.
> I have  a feeling we will be doing that a lot!
> We brought dum-dums for all the kids. Big Hit! I learned today
> that it makes the caretakers happy to get the candy as well.
> They were very appreciative to get some candy. Chera wanted to
> make sure everyone got a sucker. He asked for extras and took
> them to staff who hadn't gotten any yet. I was very proud of
> him. There are many negative behaviors that come from living in
> the orphanage, but I think there are just as many if not more
> positive behaviors. All the kids are looking out for each other
> and love to share with others.
> Zoey did great. The response when the nannies saw her was worth
> any trouble that it took to get her here. They were so happy to
> see her doing well. When we walked in the gates we heard many
> high pitched exclamations that "Hiwot is here"!
>
> Going to eat dinner now. Ready for some Ethiopian food! Then, a
> lot of sleep! 
>
>
>
>  
>
>  Donna Brown MM, MT-BC
> Louisville Music Therapy, LLC
> (502)376-9064
> DonnaMT@insightbb.com
> www.louisvillemusictherapy.com
> www.justinanddonna.blogspot.com
>

Donna Brown MM, MT-BC
Louisville Music Therapy, LLC
(502)376-9064
DonnaMT@insightbb.com
www.louisvillemusictherapy.com
www.justinanddonna.blogspot.com