Ethiopia!

We have decided to adopt from Ethiopia. Since we don't know much about the country or it's people we knew that we would have to research it. I've decided to blog some our learnings.

We are very excited about our decision as well as the oppourtunity to travel to Africa.

As you can see from the map Ethiopia lies in the horn of Africa. To the north it is bordered by Eritrea, their separation in 1993 left Ethiopia landlocked. To the northeast is Djibouti, to the east Somalia, to the south Kenya, and to the west Sudan.

Ethiopia has a very long history, human remains have been discovered there that date back 5.9 million years. It is the only African country that escaped European colonialism although it was occupied by the Italian military from 1936 to 1941. The majority of the population are Christian or Muslim although there are other faiths present. Ethiopia is thought to be the birth place of the Rastafari movement. I have read that Ethiopia is mentioned under a previous name (Kush) thirty-seven times in the King James Bible.

We are looking forward to visiting the many ruins, churches, and mosques.

Ethiopia seems to have as diverse a landscape as Canada. There are deserts, tropical rains forests, and extensive mountain ranges. In the north region, Lake Tana, is the source of the Blue Nile which after twisting and turning for some 1500 km flows into the Nile. It is called the Blue Nile because it's water are visibly pure. We are very interested in this area of Etiopia and are planning to visit it for some sightseeing. There are amazing waterfalls and magnificent rock formations.

Coffee originated in Ethiopia and it still holds as their main export. This suits Grant and I just fine and we are excited about drinking ourselves silly!! Coffee is "bun" or "buni" in Ethiopia and comes from the Kaffa region, an anglicized version of Kaffa bun might be coffee bean.

As for the cusine; I'm looking forward to finding out first hand. There is an Ethiopian restaurant in Cook Street Village and an Eastern African restaurant in Esquimalt. We have plans to check them both out. Give us a call if you are interested in join us!!

I used www.wikipedia.com and www.sweetmarias.com as references in writing this post.

Summer time!

It seem like a long time since I have sat down to write a post but we have been very busy...

Last Wednesday (July 18) Grant took the day off work and we spent it running "errands". Our first stop was our doctors office to have our medical forms filled out. She sent us off to have blood work done (this process is very thorough) The receptionist in the lab told Grant that she knows of quite a few Ethiopian people whom live in the area near there. This made us feel very happy!

We decided to treat ourselves to some authentic Ethiopian food, it seems appropriate for the day that we were having. But sadly, for us, the restaurant owners were on summer vacation. We have plans to go back when they open up again! Instead we went to a new Thai place and had our favourite meal of panang gai and phad thai.

Our next stop was the Ministy of Child and Family Development. They do checks on us to see if we were abused as children and that we haven't been accused of abusing children (at least that's my take on it!) We had to give them copies of our photo id and birth certificates. Thank goodness that this was an easy stop because the lady told us that the check expires after one month! I guess that we'll get to know here very well by the end!!

Our last stop for the day was our local RCMP detachment. They are running a criminal record check on us and we got finger printed. For me the finger printing was the best part of the day!

All the while we have been busy with our social worker, Iris. This past Sunday (July 22) exactly 3 months from our first meeting with her, we had our final visit. It was the in-our-home visit. We've spent most of the past month in major spring cleaning mode, we've sent a lot of clothes and items no longer used by us to a local charity. It's amazing how much bigger your house seems when all that's in it are the things you use!

As for what's next; On Monday (July 30) Grant and I will go to our doctors' to pick up our medical forms. And on Sunday August 5 we will meet with Iris to review our homestudy before we submit it to the agency. This will be the last time that we meet with Iris until after our child is placed with us. We will miss our meetings with her but look forward to seeing her again! Our homestuday has been a great experience for us. Through it Grant and I have grown closer. We have learned a lot about ourselves and each other. I am certain, now more than ever, that we are going to be good parents!