Celebrating Almaz's Birthday

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Almaz turns five today! I don't have a birth story but the story of when we first met Almaz is seared in my brain. This is how Almaz tells the story, "and I cried and I cried and I cried." 


When we adopted Alex it was at the very beginning of the program and the "meeting" part was completely haphazard. We got to the guest house/care center and Brian and Claire from Wisconsin said, "you're Tesfa's parents! We can show you where his crib is" and that was pretty much it. 


Two years later, the "meeting" portion was highly structured and planned. All the parents were driven over to the care center from the guest house (now two separate buildings instead of one). We all had to wait in a waiting room and each set of parents were brought in individually to the room where their child was waiting....all the time being followed by a man with a video camera. They had begun making Video Life Books for each child and this meeting was part of the Video Life Book...so precious. 


Since it felt like so much more of a production then our previous experience I think we were both pretty nervous. Almaz was sitting up on the floor playing with toys in the nursery where she had been staying with maybe 6 - 8 other babies. I swooped in instantly and picked her up. There was no warming up or letting her get use to me. 

After loving on her a few minutes Grant got his turn.

These pictures clearly show she wasn't too interested in us! Look how she is pushing away from Grant and can't even look at us....crazy white people. 


We had to leave the nursery so the next set of parents could go in. We went on little walk through the compound and every time someone familiar came by she reached for them and would smile. "get me away from these people!" 

Since we could both tell she was pretty uncomfortable with us Grant decided to try and make Almaz laugh. He used the same tactics that worked on Alex as a baby and made crazy funny faces. This didn't work with Almaz. Huge backfire on that one. 

"and I cried and I cried and I cried." 

After about a week she did start warming up to us, captured here in my favorite picture from Ethiopia. 

She was so mentally exhausted from her time with us in Ethiopia that she slept almost non-stop on the long trip home. 

Almaz wouldn't let me out of her sight for about six months after arriving home. Really. I couldn't even go to a different room without her screaming. 

Alex feeding Almaz, but her eyes were always on me. She fought for her place in our family and after a pretty rough transition is now a very confident, self-assured, happy, loving, sweet girl. 


Thank you for letting me share these memories with you! 


I think about Almaz's first mom often, but especially on days like mother's day, her birthday, and any big milestones. Not only do I want the very best for her but I want the very best for all of Ethiopia....that somehow Ethiopia would be lifted out of poverty. The problems are centuries old; with tribes fighting each other, corrupt government, clear cutting of forests causing soil erosion and more. It all seems overwhelming. But we can all do our part, however small or large it might be. 


Please consider giving $5 today to Mudula Water in honor of Almaz's 5th birthday. 

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