Reality check...

We have officially been parents for a little over 2 weeks now.   Week one was a piece of cake because we were living at the guest house where we were catered to with breakfast, lunch and dinner.  A clean room and no worries.  It was all about playing and having fun with Jayson and Jordan. 

REALITY set in heading to the airport the night of  Tuesday, February 15th to fly home....we were about to take these two little boys some where far away from what they have ever known.  I cried the whole way to the airport that night thinking to myself, "Who am I to take these little guys out of Ethiopia?  The place of their birth, where their biological family is from.  Leaving their friends at Tikuret and all the familiar sights, smells and sounds that they have known in their short lives.   At the same time thinking, wait until we get you home and you get to experience all of the wonderful things that we have planned and are waiting for you."  

While I was the emotional mess.....my two little boys that I was so worried about traveled across the world with no issues, they were troopers! (in typical Jim and Jasmin fashion we felt that the stork is overrated and our bundles of joy would arrive home via Boeing 777..... oh and since they are toddlers they would probably be a little heavy for the stork to fly with them on it's beak anyway).  ;)  

They were awesome on the plane (all 3 flights) 16 hours from Ethiopia to Washington DC, 1 hour from DC to Charlotte and 1 1/2 hours from Charlotte to Tampa and all 9 hours of layovers in between.  I will confess to the use of a small benadryl cocktail for the 10 hour portion of the 16 hour flight (after 6 hours we stopped in Rome to re-fuel and they were wide awake), my little friend "benadryl" was quite helpful.  :)

It is amazing how resilient these children are....think about yourself.  Could you just pick up and move to a totally different country?  Where you don't know anyone, don't know the language, the food is different, the people look different, sights, sounds and smells are all different....  I don't think I could.

I look at my kids a few times every day and wonder how I got so blessed.  I'm not saying it's easy....this is hard work, and there are moments when I think to myself  "What did I get myself into?"

But it's one of God's miracles how our family was formed.  The Puerto Rican Momma, American Poppa and 2 little Ethiopian boys equals the Atkinson Party of 4!  :) 

PS.  Next blog I'll fill you in on all of the antics that have already been happening at our house....kid antics and parental goof ups.

  

From VP of Programming to VP of Poop



I have a new job title for the next 12 weeks and it is VP of Poop.   Now......I thought that I had dealt with some "kha kha" (as my 2 year old says, after there is a mess in his diaper) as the VP of programming at HSN.  And there were definitely days at work that I had people with temper tantrums and thought I needed to put someone in time out but seriously.......my kids have no issues with their plumbing and going to the bathroom. 

I'm beginning to think my youngest might be part PEZ dispenser, food goes in one end and then something comes out the other.  The scarier part is that I know there is "kha kha" around some where as I can smell the fragrance from the other side of the house.

Jim will conveniently pull a "road runner", smoke coming off his heels and all and disappear...... 

I guess that's just part of the joys of motherhood.  :)     

For My Uncle

What a busy week this has been...and it's only Tuesday!  The last few weeks have been  very emotional not only have we been dealing with all the emotions of our adoption process issues but also the sadness of seeing my uncle lose his battle to cancer.    He put up quite a fight.....the man was working outside in the lawn care industry up until the very end.  Chemo, radiation....it didn't matter he was still out there!  We joke that we Puerto Ricans don't play......especially my uncle's and my father's generation....   

This past weekend when my sister and I were visiting him at Hospice and alone with him, we were talking that our family needed some "happy news".  I was sitting at his bed side and asked him, "If he could do me a favor and ask God to hurry up on our adoption process." 

He passed away Sunday night before 7pm, that night at 1am I get a call from Jim that he was at CWA's Ethiopia office filling out the balance of our paperwork because the Embassy had assigned our date and that I needed to be there this Thursday.  At 10am, I got the call from CWA US office with the same information and by noon I had my plane reservations.  

I'm convinced my Uncle Norby had something to do with this......Gracias Tio Norby!  We love you and will miss you!  Rest In Peace...... 

One Dollar...

The generosity of our family and friends through out our adoption journey has been unbelievable but there is one act of generosity that completely touched my heart....

In December, some of my co-workers threw me a baby shower (it was a total surprise...oh, they got me good).  There were a ton of gifts, toys and gift cards which I appreciate very much.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  :) 

This same group of  people also collected a monetary donation for our boys orphanage.  I was floored with the money in the envelope...I could buy the orphanage diapers, formula and all of the things that Sister Asayech told me they needed when we were there in November.  

As I went around to thank everyone, my friend Jen pulled me aside and said "I have something else for you".....You see, Jen had been telling her sons my story and about all the children in the world that don't have what children have here.  There are children without the basics like clothes, food and shoes.   The next morning  her son Sebastian, who is 7 years old came to her with the dollar from his piggy bank.  He told his Mommy that he wanted to give this dollar to help the children who didn't have anything.  I wanted to cry when she told me the story.......

Sebastian's dollar was added to the rest of the money and we bought 8 lbs of formula, 464 diapers, onesies, sippy cups, pacifiers, socks, t-shirts, shoes and classroom materials....in total we will have 8 bags when we go to Ethiopia between checked and carry on.  The good news is we won't come back with that many ( Jim took 4- poor guy.   I shipped him over there like one of those little Ethiopian pack mules...LOL)  See picture below of the "Ethiopian pack mule"...there is actually a mule underneath that stack of hay.

But this is how great God is....after buying all those things I still have Sebastian's dollar and his dollar along with the rest of the money that we have left will go with me to Ethiopia where I will give it directly to Sister Asayech at the Tikuret Orphanage.   We could really use more "Sebastian's" in the world.....look at all one dollar can do!