Archive for January, 2009

finding a place in the community

January 26, 2009 at 11:33 pm · Filed under Ethiopian community, Local Support Groups, Ohio

Once we come home from Ethiopia with our newest family member or members, it’s easy to become absorbed in day-to-day life.  As eager as we might be to find a larger community, it’s often simpler to get through each week’s roster of soccer games, dentist appointments and trips to the grocery store, forever moving ‘finding community’ to the back burner.  I know when we brought home our 5 month old in 2006, we were delighted to live in one of the largest Ethiopian communities in the U.S.  We had recently moved to the Bay Area, and were fortunate to meet with other Ethiopians, not just at restaurants or other Ethiopian owned businesses, but throughout our daily lives.  We were also lucky enough to become part of a large and well-established Ethiopian adoption community.  Even with so much Ethiopian goodness on our doorstep, I remained anxious that we do enough to foster authentic relationships with other Ethiopians.

A job transfer less than a year after my daughter came home sent us to Columbus Ohio.  Initially worried that we’d lose the opportunity for Astrid Meklit to move comfortably among other Ethiopians, we were thrilled to learn that Columbus has one of the larger Ethiopian communities in the Unites States.  Just as I was looking for ways to meet other Ethiopians, the Ethiopian community reached out to the adoptive families in the region.  We were invited to take part in every aspect of the cultural center, from classes and after school programs, to holiday celebrations and volunteer opportunities.  While it might have been  easier to wait to join the community until Meklit is older,  we hoped that by taking part today, Meklit will never remember a time when there weren’t other Ethiopians in our lives.

This afternoon was spent at my dining room table with the rest of the steering committee for 2009 Enqutatash celebration.  A volunteer at last year’s celebration, I was asked to join in the planning of this year’s celebration.  While I ran around this morning tidying and running the vacuum, Meklit asked me who was coming (not that I would be tempted to clean only because company was coming…).  When I told her that Seleshie and Seleshie (yes, there are two) and Judy were coming, she became very excited.  “Oh, we see Mama’s friends today.  The friends are coming!”  And really, that just says it all.  We see the Seleshies (and other community members) frequently, they’ve become our friends.

I hope that you all find community and friends within it.  According to the Embassy of Ethiopia (I called them today.  They were super nice about answering my questions) there are sizable Ethiopian communities in the Bay Area of California, Washington DC, Dallas, Minneapolis, Chicago, Denver, Boston, Portland and of course, Columbus.  Although the larger communities may have more to offer adoptive families in terms of classes, cultural events and places of worship, even the smaller communities will offer opportunities to come together.  I hope you’ll all take advantage of these opportunities.  I’m so very glad we do.

Paige

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Hanna Fanta Auction: “Forms” Painting by Tracy Stevens

January 20, 2009 at 11:36 pm · Filed under Hanna Fanta Fundraising

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Up for auction, we have a gorgeous painting entitled “Forms” by Denver artist Tracy Stevens. The painting is similar (but larger than) a similar painting donated by Ms. Stevens to EOR’s Art for Ethiopia event. This version is 3 foot x 4 foot in size, and oil paint on canvas.

The painting, a $300 value, will be awarded to the highest bidder as of Friday, January 30, 2009 at midnight (MST).

To bid, simply leave a comment with your name, your bid and the way you’d like to be contacted should you win (phone number or email address). If you’d prefer not to leave this information in a comment, please email us with your bid at info@ethiopianorphanrelief.org and we’ll post your name and the bid amount (with no contact info) so others know the current bid.

Starting Bid: $5 (please bid in whole dollar increments!)

Bid high, bid often and thank you!

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Hanna Fanta Auction: Adoptive Family Counseling/Consultation

January 20, 2009 at 11:28 pm · Filed under Hanna Fanta Fundraising

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100% of the proceeds from this auction will go to benefit Hanna Fanta, tireless founder of Children’s Heaven, because the gift certificate was an outright donation from an adoptive parent and adoption professional.

Up for auction, we have 3 hours of counseling/consultation with the Red Thread Counseling Center in Centennial, CO. The counseling/consultation may be used for phone consultations from anywhere in the world, or for in person counseling/consultations in Centennial, CO. It may be used by families considering adoption (i.e., where one spouse or another family member may need to talk through their concerns or get answers to their questions), families still in the adoption process (i.e., to review a referral and put together a mental health/attachment gameplan upon homecoming), for families newly home (i.e., to work on attachment)or for families who have been home for some time, but are now noticing areas where counseling could be of benefit.

The gift certificate, a $255 value, is valid until May 2009, and will be awarded to the highest bidder as of Friday, January 30, 2009 at midnight (MST).

The Red Thread Counseling Center is a place where families can come for counsel, support, therapy, and consultation for issues related to adoption, individual growth, and family dynamics. The counseling center team offers the following services:

  • Individual, Couple & Family Counseling
  • Attachment Therapy
  • Parenting Consultation
  • Support Groups
  • Child & Adolescent Counseling
  • Play Therapy
  • Phone Consultation
  • Attachment Assessment

To bid, simply leave a comment with your name, your bid and the way you’d like to be contacted should you win (phone number or email address). If you’d prefer not to leave this information in a comment, please email us with your bid at info@ethiopianorphanrelief.org and we’ll post your name and the bid amount (with no contact info) so others know the current bid.

Starting Bid: $5 (please bid in whole dollar increments!)

Bid high, bid often and thank you!

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Ideas for those left at home while you travel…

January 19, 2009 at 1:12 am · Filed under Board of Directors, Family, Food, Travel

Okay for those of you who know me this will come as no surprise, I am one “of those” people who try to make sure I have my basis covered for the “what if this happens” scerino.
When we planned our trip to Ethiopia to bring our daughter home we felt it was best if I traveled and my husband stayed home with our son who was almost seven years old. We felt it was best for him to stay in school and have a routine. I asked one of my sisters if she could travel with me and she was happy to come.
My son was very nervous about me leaving. I had only been away from him two nights in his life. I knew he was in perfect hands with my husband. He’s a very hands on kind of Dad and can handle any situation that comes up.
One thing that I did prior to leaving was purchased some little token type gifts, ie: playing cards, stickers, little comic books, gum, etc. I wrapped these individual gifts and labeled them with Day One, Day two, etc. I was going to be gone for 10 days so had one for each day. Each day I was away he couldn’t wait to see what surprise he would open. The first day was a little snow globe that had a place for you to insert a photo. I placed a photo of the two of us and said that if he ever felt sad while I was gone to just shake the snow globe and he would feel the love I had for him. I hear he carried it around with him often while I was away.
Another idea that helped keep things on a routine is I had a file folder for each day. In this folder was things as simple as “don’t forget trash day is tomorrow.” to “baseball game at 6pm, don’t forget his cleats.” They would look at the folder the night before to see was in store for the next day.
Having meals in the freezer and a stocked pantry were also helpful. Even though after I returned home not ONE of these meals had been consumed! They were taken care of by many friends and neighbors.
Setting a specific time to call home. I called home each morning which was evening in the Pacific NW.
Also notify your child’s school that you will be gone. That way if they need to contact you they can have a back up number.
Even though the “what if scerino” never happened. I felt better knowing I had left a few things at home for them to find comfort.
I will be again traveling to Ethiopia for another 10 days this summer and am already collecting “little tokens” to leave for each day.
Do you have any great ideas for ideas for those left at home while you traveled? We’d love to hear them.

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Urgent Plea for Help!

January 14, 2009 at 11:48 pm · Filed under Hanna Fanta Fundraising

Hanna Fanta, the director of Children’s Heaven, works tirelessly to provide care, support and love to orphaned teenage girls in Addis Ababa.  She receives no salary for her efforts, and 100% of the donations to Children’s Heaven otherwise go directly to the girls.  It has recently come to our attention that Hanna is experiencing some health issues, and has been ignoring her own health needs in order to continue supporting the children.  In an attempt to help, we have listed a beautiful hardcover book about Ethiopian adoption in our EOR Store. 100% of the profits from the sale of this book will go to providing Hanna with extra money to address her own health and sustenance needs, so that she can continue to devote her time and energy to the girls. The book is listed under the “stationary” category in the store. We’ll also be listing a couple silent auction items on Friday to benefit Hanna.
Thank you for your support!! And, please, if you would, post a link to this post on your blog and tell your various adoption support group members, family and friends!

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OREGON event

January 12, 2009 at 8:35 pm · Filed under "Lights of Hope" Auction, Adoption, Board of Directors, Current Events, Do Something!, Media, Oregon, Partner Organizations

Save the Date for Ethiopian Orphan Relief’s First Annual Dessert & Cocktail Auction, Saturday, May 9th at the North Star Ball Room in Portland, Oregon. This year’s event is called “Lights of Hope.” 

The proceeds from the event will help us provide supplies, infrastructure, and experience for some of the more then 4 million orphans in Ethiopia. Serving the needs of today’s orphaned youth in Ethiopia and providing them with alternatives to life on the streets creates an environment that benefits everyone: the children, their future children and their forever families, should they one day be adopted. Our current projects include playgrounds, sanitation systems, outreach facilities and orphanages.

This years “Lights of  Hope” auction will feature both oral and silent auction items. Guests will have the opportunity to bid on exotic international vacations, Portland Trail Blazer tickets, jewlery, art, celebrity appearances and much more. Reservations are required for the event and tickets are limited.

If you have a item you would like to donate to the auction please contact kim @ethiopianorphanrelief.org or visit www.ethiopianorphanrelief.org for more information.

  Kim

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The store is open once more!!!

January 12, 2009 at 4:32 pm · Filed under Ethiopian Shopping Donations, Shopping

Just a note to let you all know that the store is reopened for business.  I have a number of orders to ship out today, and will continue to ship orders withn 48 hours now that I’m back from vacation.

Although our stock of girls clothing is slim, we have plenty of boys clothes, decorative items, stationery, and of course, lots of items from our terrific independent vendors, including coffee, toys, and jewelry.

Your requests for items are not going unanswered.  Plenty of generous people have volunteered to purchase items for the store during their upcoming trips.  If you would like to help EOR keep the store stocked, we are always looking for people to act as sherpas–you can purchase items for the store as a donation, or for reimbursement.  Please email us if you’d like to ferry some things back to the US for us.

Paige

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Finding Balance

January 8, 2009 at 4:45 am · Filed under Adoption, Advisory Board Member, Family, Oregon

nichols-20472Since bringing our fourth child into our home (the fourth in as many years) I have worked to find a balance between spending time with the kids and keeping the house clean = a war that is waged by many a mother. The pendulum swings wide for me, from the house to all the kids. It is the middle ground that I can’t plant my feet firmly on.

Recently I have found a happy medium. Our part of Oregon was hit with snow and ice that paralyzed all outside activity for weeks. It was the kind of weather that makes you want to hunker down and drink hot cocoa. So that’s what I did. I hunkered instead of cleaning. The worst snow since 1968 called for a change of pace.

In those two weeks I found that no one became seriously  ill as the clean underwear pile shrunk and the dirty clothes piled up. Everyone coped just fine with blankets all over the floor, topped with pillows and another layer of blankets. Forts were built, magnificent Lego castles were erected and there was a lot of laughter.

All the laughter-THAT is why we rode the adoption roller coaster 4 times. How easy it is to forget sometimes. In fact, there are more than a few things I need to remember far more often than I do. The blessing of children, of friends and of being able to live without worry. Sure, there are little worries about what to fix for dinner or who will take the kids to pre-school but we are blessed to not have the worries that many parents around the world face daily. The worry about not what to fix for dinner, but will there be dinner?

I pray that in all the franticness of getting through the day that we don’t forget to stop and be thankful and to give back because of what we’ve been given. And the cleaning? Well, I’ll know when things need attention: it’s time to clean when my oldest says “Mama, I want the bubble bath up as high as the dirt in the tub.” And so I scrub with a happy heart, thankful to have a bathtub and for children to dirty it.

   Krista

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Tuberculosis…Part 1 “The Diagnosis”

January 1, 2009 at 11:43 pm · Filed under Adoption, Board of Directors, Oregon, Tuberculosis

Well…I must say that when we decided to adopt from Ethiopia we definitely knew that our daughter could have some serious health issues. We have all heard stories about the health issues that were discovered once the children came home iwth the adoptive families. Hepatitis B, Hydrocephaly, malnutrition, etc, etc, etc. We also feared and knew that our adoptive daughter could have HIV.  Anything was possible despite all the testing that was done in Ethiopia. I seem to remember that we asked for a “healthy”…or was it “moderately healthy”…female less then 12 months old.  Of course we knew that with any adoption, or pregnancy for that matter, that there are no guarantees.

I remember the day we sat in from of the computer anxiously awaiting the email that contained Meron’s picture and health information. I was 30 weeks pregnant at the time. We had received our “referral call” about 5 days prior and COULD NOT WAIT to see her photograph.

She was adorable. I started crying and said to my husband…”I don’t care what the health info says.” Of course we read her medical history after the tears cleared a bit. She was small. I think maybe 6.5 pounds at 4.5 months.

After the referral the wait for court and travel is excruciating. Our wait became even more intense when we received a phone call from our agency that Meron was sick with pneumonia, apparently for the 2nd time since she was in the orphanage, on oxygen and had a IV placed in her head for fluids and antibiotics…WE NEED TO GET HER NOW!!! It was absolutely the most helpless I have ever felt. She was in a different country fighting for her life and I was stuck waiting for a court date and an OK to travel. WE NEED TO GET HER NOW!!!!

It was a week of torture, prayer and waiting as we received daily updates from the Doctor at her orphanage as to her status. Slowly she  improved, started eating more, and weaning off the oxygen.

She improved dramatically (as most kids do) in a short time. Actually, my agency staff and a few friends that were in Ethiopia picking up their children didn’t recognize her because “she looked so good.”

So we brought her home and took her to our adoption Doctor two days later. She was still small and adorable…12 lbs. 6 oz at 7.5 months. She definitely had some type of lung infection. I could feel it on my hands as I held her tight. She was wheezing and seemed congested. They started her on some antibiotics. This certainly improved her “cold.” We returned to the Doctor one week later for a follow up visit and full physical exam. It was on that day that they placed a PPD test. A very small needle is used to place the medication under the top layer of skin. It is a very non-invasive test (compared to the ones we dealt with later) The tuberculosis skin test (also know as the tuberculin test or PPD test) is a test used to determine if someone has developed an immune response to the bacterium that causes Tuberculosis (TB). I am a RN and noticed immediately the next day that my sweet Meron had a HUGE reaction on her forearm. Usually the test is read 48-72 hours after placement when a medical professional assesses the site by looking at it and running their fingers over the site to see if a bump as formed.  Sadly, I could see that Meron had a positive PPD test from across the room. The response can occur if someone currently has TB, if they were exposed to it in the past, or if they received the BCG vaccine against TB. I poured over Meron’s health records and was thrilled to see that she was given the BCG vaccine at her orphanage.

Armed with the knowledge that she had gotten this vaccination in Ethiopia, I was quite hopeful that her reaction was a false positive and that she was fine. Every person that has a positive PPD gets a chest xray to see if the lungs show signs of TB.

We received a phone call a few hours later. Her chest xray was positive. She had swollen glands (Hilar lumphadenoptahy) in her lungs that were consistent with TB.

That was June 2007…We continue to treat her with 4 different antibiotics every day.

I must say that there is a huge difference when you think of “your adoptive daughter” possibly having a illness compared to the intensity of knowing that your beautiful, loving, vibrant, daughter if fighting a illness that would have killed her without the medication and health insurance card that she is so lucky to have.

There were more than 9 million new cases of TB, and approximately 1.7 million deaths from the disease in 2006. The World Health Organization estimates that there are more then 14 million people world-wide living with TB.

Most TB cases occur in Southeast Asia and Africa. One-third of the number of new TB cases occurs in Southeast Asia, but the estimated incidence per capita is highest in Africa. In addition, Africa has the highest number of estimated deaths due to TB and the highest mortality per capita, with HIV leading to rapid increases in TB incidence in the region.

Tuberculosis–Part 2 will follow in February. Stay tuned for the exciting follow up stores on our treatment of Multi-Drug Resistant TB. If anyone if fighting the disease or has questions about this blog post please feel free to contact me at lauren@ethiopianorphanrelief.org

Remember—GET YOUR ADOPTIVE CHILDREN TESTED FOR TB!!!

   Happy New Year, Lauren

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