The Donations Journey

Before we left for our second trip to Ethiopia we put out a request for donations for Acacia Village. Acacia Village is the facility in Addis Ababa where Tizita and many other children wait for their adoptive parents to take them home. Donations such as these help ease the cost of maintaining the home.

The response to our post was amazing! People from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Idaho and Alaska send diapers, clothing, formula and money to give to the orphanage. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We were so proud to be able to bring such a sizable amount of supplies on behalf of the friends and family of the Rudstroms. It was especially amazing considering that people had to first ship them to Brevig Mission somewhere near the edge of the Earth so they could make their way over to the other edge of the Earth.



The folks at Bering Air were generous enough to waive the extra baggage fees for the donated supplies. Alaska Airlines was equally as kind. Alaskans are just kind of nice that way.



The donations got a little driving tour of Washington D.C. during our layover on the way out. No one seemed to wonder what we were up to in Alaska, D.C. was another story. The taxi drivers and hotel staff were a little more curious about our diaper boxes and rubber maid totes.



We used some of the money that was donated to buy formula in D.C. Turns out formula eats up money at an astounding rate. We spent $200 on formula and decided to save the other $120 of donated money for excess baggage on Ethiopian Airlines if they weren't willing to waive the fee.

The day of our flight, we stepped up to the counter of Ethiopian Airlines and asked if they would be willing to cover the extra baggage for a good cause. The agent checking us in didn't say a word, he just shook his head "no" sternly. He didn't seem like the kind of guy to argue with so we just let it go. It was right about then that C.O. pointed it out to me that extra baggage cost $150 per bag. We were allowed two check in bags each which meant we had two extra pieces that would be charged. $300 was quite a lot to add to the cost of transporting these items. I was feeling a little sick to my stomach but had no choice but to accept Ethiopian Airline's policy.

When the ticketing agent finished checking us in, we waited for him to ask for payment. Instead, he handed over our boarding passes and said, "Have a nice flight," and sent us on our way.  Bless his heart and what a relief! God put just the right person in that place at that time.



The donations made it to their final destination at Acacia Village in Addis Ababa. The remaining $120 that wasn't used on excess baggage costs will be sent to the home to be used for day to day expenses.

Again thank you to everyone who had it in their hearts to give to children halfway around the world and to ease the cost for the families who are waiting to take them home.

~AnnMarie

The Waiting Game

Once again we are thankful to have received photos of Tizita growing and thriving at Acacia Village. Today's batch was tons of fun.



She now has four teeth! Two on top and two on the bottom.



She looks so strong and about ready to take off on her own two feet.



Some of her facial expressions are great. I anxious to experience more of them first hand.


As for the business end of the adoption, we received an e-mail from the United States embassy yesterday notifying us that our paperwork had arrived at their office. They said we must wait five business days before contacting them about the status of our case. We should know more about our case sometime next week.

Our hope and prayer is that our next contact with the embassy will be a positive one. There's always the chance they will ask for more information or will find something wrong with our paperwork BUT if all goes well, we could be on our way back to Ethiopia in about three weeks. This is the best case scenario and we pray it is in God's plan for her to be home sooner rather than later.

Thank you everyone for your support and prayers! It means so much to us. Tizita will be part of an amazing network of loving, generous people.

~AnnMarie

Tizita's Ethiopian Christmas

During our visit to Acacia Village we heard about a generous donation given to the home. The donor specified that the money was to be used to purchase Christmas gifts for the children. On Ethiopian Christmas Day, January 7th, Tizita opened her presents.

One of those gifts was a traditional Ethiopian dress.



I think she's the most beautiful girl in the world.



In other news, we received Tizita's birth certificate last week.  I think it's pretty cool to have a bilingual certificate with information in English and Amharic. She also has two different birth dates noted. One is based on our calendar and the other is based on the Ge'ez calendar used in Ethiopia. It's currently the year 2004 over there right now.

Currently her full name is written as Tizita Charles Rudstrom. They automatically make the father's name the middle name. Amusing? Yes. But we plan to change her name when we adopt her in the United States. Her middle name will be a little more on the feminine side.

We continue to wait for the Embassy dates in order to complete the adoption process and take Tizita home. I hope and pray it will be soon. My heart aches more every day that we are apart. Cheesy but true.

~AnnMarie

Tizita's Growing

The staff at the transitional house where Tizita is staying e-mail us photos every other week or so. They sent us a few pictures of our little girl today. I can't believe how much she has grown and filled out in less than four weeks!

~AnnMarie

Introducing Tizita

We passed our court hearing on Monday, January 2nd making our daughter Tizita officially a Rudstrom. Unfortunately it takes about 2 to 4 months for the U.S. embassy to issue her a passport and travel visa. So, we still have a bit of a wait until we are able to take the munchkin home.

Let's spend a little time getting to know the little darling shall we?

 

This is Tizita Rita Rudstrom. 

Tizita is the name given to her by the police who found her.

Tizita means "memory" or "to remember fondly" in Amharic.

Harold was the first to discover that Tizita has ticklish feet and that placing stuffed animals on her head also makes her smile.

She is a total cuddle bug (the opposite of Harold),

she yawns when she's tired,

and scratches her nose when it itches.

Tizita is very comfortable in her daddy's arms. In fact, when she babbles she says, "da, da, da, daddy". We will be working on associating "daddy" with C.O. first thing when we have her home.

And most news worth of all, Tizita has recently changed her relationship status from "single" to "family of four".

Adoption #2 : A Referral

About one week ago we received great news concerning our Ethiopian adoption. We have been matched up with a little girl. Finally!

Our paperwork has been in Ethiopia for over a year but we began the adoption process nearly two years ago.

It's been a long wait, but by the grace of God not unbearable.

At this point, we can't share any photos publicly, which is torture since she is BEAUTIFUL with the biggest, brownest eyes and adorable grin.

We cannot share any personal information either which makes sense since we have no legal connection to her at this point. It would be creepy and weird to start talking about and posting pictures of a kid that isn't ours. But not to worry, once she's home you'll be overwhelmed with "we think our kid is the cutest" photos.

We have been warned to guard our hearts concerning this particular child. Referrals are lost from time to time due to changes in circumstances.

If all goes well, it will be about 6 to 9 months when we are able to bring her home. We will be traveling before that point to meet her and appear in court to say we want to complete the adoption. Our best guess for the first trip is sometime in December.

I know many of you have been praying for us. We are so grateful and continue to ask for your prayers.

There's a long road ahead of us emotionally and financially. Also remember this dear little girl who's life will be turned upside down as she adjusts to a completely different environment and home life.

~AnnMarie

A Little Encouragement: An Adoption Update

It's been about a year and a half since we started the preliminary work on our second adoption from Ethiopia. Our paperwork is in Ethiopia now, we are in the process of being approved as adoptive parents and being matched with an orphan. The beginning phases of the process take longer for us than most people due to our remote location. And now that our case is in Ethiopia there has been a slow down in the referral process. Adoption cases do continue to move along and we are hopeful that they will pick up again soon.

One of the Christian World Adoption staff members recently traveled to Ethiopia to coordinate with the Ethiopian staff members. He came back with small gifts for each of the waiting families and a letter of encouragement. It was nice surprise to find these in our mailbox this week.

It has been and will continue to be a long journey. By the grace of God we are not anxious about our current wait but we do look forward to meeting our little girl someday soon. 

"But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, be patient! For it will surely take place. It will not be late by a single day." Habakkuk 2:3

~AnnMarie

Adoption #2

Did you know that today is Adoption Sunday? I really didn't either until this past week. I've started following an adoption advocate on Twitter, which is where I first heard about it. Perhaps some of your churches mentioned it this morning. Adoption Sunday a chance to bring to light the millions of children living without one or both of their parents and those that need a home and loving family to care for them. I hope that the information and stories that are shared across America today are touching people's hearts and moving some toward adoption or foster care.

Being that it is Adoption Sunday I thought it fitting that we share our exciting news publicly today.

The Rudstroms are adopting once again.

We've been thinking about starting our second adoption for quite some time. In fact, we had been saying, "as soon as Guatemala opens again, we'll start." Unfortunately, Guatemala is just not getting their ducks in a row and it looks like it'll be quite some time before the new adoption process will be complete. It would have been nice to have our kids from the same country so we could take them back more often, but it was obviously not meant to be. So, based on that information, we began looking for another country. We sorted through the information on a few different places and finally decided on Ethiopia.

Ethiopia was the best match for us for a couple reasons. Since we have the most perfect boy in the world, we would like to balance the household out in the gender area and get a little girl. There is a much higher need for boys to be given homes in the international adoption world so some countries don't allow couples to request girls. Ethiopia, however, does allow us to have a gender preference. We also want an infant that has been cared for in a quality system from birth until we take our baby home. Ethiopia has all of this, so . . . here we go. Our very first piece of paperwork will be sent on Monday along with the first agency fee.

We are trying not to get too excited at this point. The gestation period for adopting is a lot closer to that of an elephant than a human being. We won't be parents for the second time for 12 -1 8 months most likely.

It won't be an easy process. It will require much paperwork, a load of money and a lot of patience. And we also know full well that at any time something could go wrong. Adoptions from Ethiopia could be closed, something with US policies could change, etc. I could think of a million scenarios but we just go forward hoping for the best.

We are once again working with Christian World Adoption. They believe that God is in control of their agency and our adoption. We agree, whatever happens in these next few months, God is in control and has a plan for us and hopefully for a little girl in Ethiopia. We rest in that and look forward to sharing our ups and downs with you over the next year or so.

--AnnMarie