Going with the Flow

If you follow any of the intercountry adoption news, you may have heard rumors about changes in the Ethiopia program. We learned today that Ethiopia is indeed changing the process and will begin requiring families to travel to Ethiopia twice. At this point, we do not think that this is going to effect us since we already have a scheduled court date. The change is good on a number of levels -- it means that Ethiopia is committed to ethical, truthful, legal adoptions and is taking steps to insure that. The change is that they want adoptive parents to meet their child/children and be present for the court date. Adoptive parents would travel to Ethiopia for about 5-7 days for the court date, return to their home, and then return to Ethiopia several weeks later to bring home their child/children. For those who will be impacted without much notice, it could make things very challenging financially. We should know more tomorrow and in the coming days but so far, all indications are that our court date should happen as planned next week. Thus the title of my post ... going with the flow. We have known all along that intercountry adoption can be unpredictable. This is one of the moments that is proving this to be true! Thank you for your good thoughts and prayers for us to pass court the first time around next Wednesday, March 17.

Now, on a lighter note ... we have had a blank space above our living room couch for a long time. We just weren't sure what to do with the space. Well, for Christmas this year, Mark ordered a banana leaf art calendar for me from Ethiopia. I love banana leaf art! The style and the natural look of it really draws me in. So we had the idea to take the calendar apart and frame some of our favorite pictures. Here are the results:



I also love it because it brings some of Simon's culture and heritage into our home. This banana leaf art is from the town of Jima or Jimma which is in the same region where Simon is from. We have two other framed pieces in the house too. (Told you I love it!)



And on an even lighter note ... Mark put together Simon's Radio Flyer tricycle this week! It didn't take too long to put it together.



Isn't it cute?! I love the bell! I can't wait to see Simon riding it down the driveway this summer.



And of course, the big kid in the house had to give it a spin. In case you ever wondered why I titled the blog "The Antics of Ailors" -- here is proof of our, I mean Mark's, antics. It really flies on the dining room and kitchen floors! (Thank you again, Renee, Dave, Rachel and Sam!)



So that's the latest from here. We're trying hard to set aside our anxiety about the changes and our court date. Please keep our friends the Mroczek's in your thoughts and prayers, too. They are waiting for their court date and should have news any day now. Both of our families are really ready to meet our children!