Mesgana Dancers

Here is a video from the website for the Mesgana Dancers, which is a group of adorable Ethiopian girls who do a dance tour every year in the U.S. The dancers are affiliated with the Children of Ethiopia Education Fund (COEEF) which is aimed at improving the lives and futures of girls in Ethiopia through education. It is an great video and undoubtedly a great cause! Many people in our local Ethiopian adoption group are planning to go see them and so are we. We feel spoiled because it appears as though they only have a half a dozen stops in the US and two are in our area! Probably because there is a huge Ethiopian population here. Can't wait to see them. For those of you who have already been to Ethiopia and perhaps dined at Fasika, the dancing will remind you a bit of the evening there!!!! :) Good memories...

4th of July at the Beach!!

We took the girls to the Jersey Shore for a little time at the beach, thanks to the Brophy's incredible hospitality. We all had a great time! The weather didn't cooperate the first few days-raining. But, we managed to find many things to do: shopping, relaxing, eating a lot of yummy seafood and everything else, pedicures, etc... The last few days were nice and sunny and all of the kids seemed to really enojy the beach. Reese loved playing in the sand and building sand castles. The ocean water was FREEZING and quite rough some days, but you'd never know watching the way the kids loved the ocean. Especially Eyerus (pronounced Ye-rus with a long U). This is the charming young girl that the Brophy's are hosting through Gladney's Bright Futures Camp. She was incredibly adventurous in the ocean! She is such a little sweet heart. Reese called her "Roos," "Roost" and a few times even called her "Rooster." Reese has this funny thing with giving people nick names. She also calls a neighbor's son, 'Trouble,' when his name is actually Trevor. She also calls my friend Matt's son, Ian, 'Ant' or 'Int.' She is crazy for sure. We really enjoyed our time with Eyerus; being with her reminded us of how sweet the Ethiopian children were when we were there. Oh, and Lilly's little' boyfriend,' Ashenafi, is doing great and as cute as ever! (As you can see in the photos). I got to hold him and feed him his bottle one day after his nap while everyone else was still at the beach, and I enjoyed every minute of it. What a little heart-breaker!

Here's a cute pic of daddy and Reese on the beach:

I am so proud of brave little Reese---she rode her first Roller Coaster at the board walk! That's right, at age 2! It was pretty fast and definitely had some scary drops and turns...it wasn't one of those baby ones, I assure you. She took it like a champ! :)

Eyerus and Reese getting onto the helicopter ride. Eyerus really took great care of Reese all week...taking on the role of big sis.

The Delp and Brophy family at the beach (on the boardwalk one rainy evening):

This last pic is of crazy Reese when I went to get her after her nap one afternoon. She was wearing clothes when I put her down, and when I returned, she was asleep and wearing Lilly's bathing suit (yep, that's right, Lilly is 2 full years younger than her--it was tight) and then she had her own bikini bottom over top of it! The messed-up pig tails just makes the image complete:

Crawling, Teething, Laughing...

So, our little Elizabeth is finally crawling (see video), and over the past few weeks she has become quite an expert at it. Though she's moving at a leisurely pace in the video, she can cruise. We also think that she has great form! :) Reese also crawled for the first time at 10 months old. She had her own "special" technique, though. It resembled the 'butterfly' when swimming: both arms, both legs, both arms, both legs. It was funny, but it got her from point A to point B. Elizabeth's (we are calling her Lilly as a nickname) is a more traditional crawl.

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Elizabeth also had 4 teeth cut through all at the same time! (top 2 & bottom 2). Poor thing...she seemed a bit uncomfortable with it, but it has produced an even cuter little smile. She is laughing A LOT, clapping and says "hi" and waves all of the time! She has also added "mama" to her vocabulary of three words --- dada, mama, hi!!! Reese daily says to her, "Say Reese-IE, Reesie. Can you say that Liz-a-Beff, Reese-IE!?!?!?" Reese is such a good big sister. She holds Elizabeth's hand in the car and calls her "my baby." She says, "I need to check on my baby..." and comforts her, saying "It's okay Liz-a-Beff!" Very sweet. They really seem to love each other. Here are a few pics during the nighttime routine, after baths and before bed. As you can see, Elizabeth can even stand when leaning against something or holding onto tables. She is very strong, at least we think so. We are gearing up for a few much-needed summer vacations. The first one is next week and is an Ethiopia-reunion of sorts: a couple, the Brophy's, who traveled with us to Ethiopia and picked up their son, has so kindly invited us to join them at their beach house for the 4th of July holiday!!We are so excited to get the former Gladney buddies together again. The Brophy's are also hosting a young girl through Gladney's Bright Future's Camp, so we'll get quality time with her also. Oh, and on Tuesday, before leaving town we have our first post-adoption follow up appointment with our social worker. Last week it was three months since we arrived back home.

Happy 5th Anniversary to Us!

5 Years! What an adventure it has been!! Since we've been together, Mike and I have been busy, we've:

• Added 2 incredible little girls to our family
• Run 2 marathons together (Mike has run more w/o me)
• Purchased and completely renovated 2 homes
• Begun new careers
• Traveled on many vacations to beaches, mountains, overseas, etc...
• Built many friendships and memories together... and on & on

I feel so blessed to be able to live life with my best friend. We share so many dreams and goals together. It's hard to believe how fast this year has flown by! Really Really flown by---to think that it was a year ago to the day that we decided to proceed with adopting from Ethiopia (but, we didn't start the paperwork until October) and now we have our little Ethiopian princess here with us! What a year.

settling in at home!

time is flying. two months home already! elizabeth is 9 and a 1/2 months old. we are all settling in to being a family of 4. in fact, we love it! reese often counts the number of girls and boys in the room, and it is always 3 to 1; sorry mike. we love our little girls. they are doing great. they love each other SO much. we are so proud of the way that both of them are handling this new transition in life. i can hardly believe how well elizabeth has adjusted. she quickly recognized her new name (turns when called); she definitely knows who mommy and daddy and big sister are. she laughs hysterically when reese kisses her and smiles all day long at her daddy. it is safe to say that this little lady has also stolen our hearts.

family and friends have been super welcoming to elizabeth with a welcome baby party and many visits and gifts and meals, and lots and lots of love! we even got to attend a local ethiopian adoption potluck and show her off shortly after we returned. very fun. :)

great news-two couples that we know are now planning to also adopt from ethiopia: a couple whom we know through church and a couple who live nearby! yea! we are so excited about this because (1) since we wanted to take all of the little kids home with us from the orphanage, but obviously couldn't; at least we can see more of them find wonderful new homes, (2) we LOVE the idea of elizabeth having more friends who are also adopted from ethiopia---ESPECIALLY if they live in our neighborhood and (3) this has been such an amazing experience for us, that we can't help but hope that others will have the same great journey.

we got to meet the bottomly family in person and their CUTE CUTE CUTE little boy, silas, when they came through DC on the way back from ethiopia. they had a horrible experience traveling home, but we enjoyed meeting them if only for a moment and reuniting silas and elizabeth. their beds were right across from one another in the gladney home and i got to hold silas a bit back in march when we were there. they are a super sweet family and we are so grateful to have built a new friendship with people half way across the country through this common experience that we share! the internet is so great for adoptive families! :) i am also so impressed by amy's vulnerability and the way that she shares so much about her adoptive experience with the world. impressive and helpful to other families, like us!

in the past two months, we received elizabeth's green card in the mail (sweet...she can get a job now! just kidding, obviously). we will start the re-adoption process here soon. going to try to do it without a lawyer. we have taken her to the doctor several times, and had blood work re-run and submitted stool samples (YUCKO) and she appears to be healthy as a horse! it's a amazing, really: no parasites, blood work looks great...everything is great! we feel fortunate for sure. she is on a great sleeping schedule...we had to teach her to get through the nights, because we feel confident that in the gladney home all the babies woke each other up and since elizabeth isn't into pacifiers, she probably got a few extra (probably not needed) bottles. so, that habit has been officially broken now. she is sleeping 12 long hours at night and two 2 hour naps during the day. YES! we have also been to 2 doctors regarding her sorta flat head. poor thing. we aren't sure if we'll be doing one of those helmet/bands yet because she is just on the edge of the normal/abnormal range and of course, insurance is making this decision harder by refusing to pay anything. lovely. they apparently only cover medical conditions that we'll never have, b/c they tend to deny a lot! frustrating.

more updates later...

slideshow of our time in ethiopia

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

day 8 in ethiopia-our last full day; the time went so fast

WOW. It's hard to believe that this trip went so fast. We did some more shopping, had a few more macchiatos, spent time with some of the Christians from the church, and went to the pool for a bit. One brother from the church came all of the way across town to bring us gifts for our little girls-dresses. Berhanu also came to the hotel, as did the young woman who leads the women's ministry. They gave us gifts last night at midweek last night (Wednesday), too. What an unbelieveble show of love. There was no holding back the tears anymore. We are sincerely SO SAD to leave here. We had no idea that we'd fall in love with this country. There is a sweetness to this place. We cannot wait to come back one day with the girls when they are older. We'd love to get out into the country-side and see some of the historic churches and more of the culture. If only we didn't miss Reese so much, we would definitely stay longer here. We can't emphasize how much we love the adoption agency that we used-the Gladney Center. They took care of us from beginning to end. Again, big thanks to Ryan, Abby and Belay as well as the US Gladney team- especially Mary T. and Tonia. THANK YOU GLADNEY for our little angel! What an incredible journey....

day 7 in ethiopia-appointments at the us embassy in addis

Today we did some more shopping, went back to the Gladney home to particpate in a coffee ceremony (We LOVE how into coffee everyone is here---this place was made for the Delps!) and say goodbye to these incredible women who loved our children for so many months. We also visited a traditional Ethiopian Orthodox cathedral (where Emperor Hallie Salassie is buried) and had our appointments at the American embassy. I think that the ladies who worked at the embassy thought it was so cute that the two husbands were carrying the babies on their front in baby bjorns. They joked that Alem has one health concern that they wanted to discuss before granting her an immigrant visa- and that is that she's a little chubby and needs to have a "lifestyle modification!" So funny! Both Alem and Ashenafi's visas were approved!!! YEAHHHH! The proud daddies, Mike and Nick, did what Nick called the "first ever recorded post-visa approval daddy-baby chest bump," captured in the photo below. (Thanks for coining that phrase, Nick).

day 6 in ethiopia-traditional ethiopian food and dance

Today we stayed around the pool at the Shearton during the day, and spent quality time with Alem. We gave her a chance to get some good naps in and we snuck in a nap each as well.

We had dinner at a restaraunt called Fasika, with traditional Ethiopian food and traditional dance. It was amazing! The place serves traditional Ethiopian food and has a band and several dancers who perform songs/dances characteristic of different regions of the country. An outstanding experience. We have been fascinated by the richness of Ethiopian culture and history. Berhanu, the head minister from church, joined us again for dinner. It's great getting to know him.

day 5 in ethiopia- happy birthday to me!

Who would've ever guessed that I be spending my 32nd birthday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia while enjoying the company of my new baby girl? Not me. But, I couldn't have asked for a better birthday (well, actually if Reese had been there, that would've made it the best). It was a very special day, indeed. Sarah Marie and I spent the better part of the day shopping with one of the drivers, Anbes, and his fiance, Mytin. It was so much fun! We got some great jewlery (nice silver here in Addis), many kilos of coffee (yummy -- the coffee is outstanding), and some art work as well. We had lunch on the rooftop of an apartment building with an incredible view of the city.

For dinner, we went to an incredible Italian Restaraunt called Castelli's. Some people say that it is one of the best Italian Restaraunts in the world! The restaurant was recommended to us by a friend of the family who has traveled to Addis Ababa many times during his 25+ years with the IMF. Since he was born and raised in Rome, we figured he knows good Italian food, and so we took his advice and went. The meal was fabulous! And the owner (in pic with Mike) remembers Piero - small world!

For my birthday-- a few unexpected signs of kindess: one of the other couples, the Thorns, had flowers and a bottle of Ethiopian wine sent to our hotel room! Gouder is a brand of Ethiopian wine name, and it is definitely "gooder" than many other wines! :-) Abby and Ryan gave me a beautiful Ethiopian scarf. So nice of them to buy me a gift; when we feel forever indebted to THEM for facilitating this adoption. Then, we returned from dinner, Mytin (one of the driver's fiance) sent a beautiful cake and wine to our room (in pic above)! WOW. How sweet. I feel so loved.