Whirlwind Weekend!

So the whirlwind weekend is over! What a fun (exhausting) few days. My cousin Juli came (along with hubby Robert and son Brendan). Brendan is 3-years-old and holy cow! can that boy play. Nonstop, all day, full-out--but very well-behaved. Just busy, busy, busy. Whew! So the weekend was full of family and eating and shopping and reading.


Here is a great picture of what a 3-year-old thinks of a popcorn air-popper. Hmm...wonder what he would think of Jiffee Pop?

Here is my mom holding the first grandchild (my niece Madi) but not the oldest! Sorry Madi, your cousin is older than you...but you are bigger!

It was great to share the celebration of my referral with family...it was also nice to have the weekend full so I didn't just sit around and worry. Why worry, you ask? Now that I have a name and a face--it is a constant barrage of "what-ifs" running through my head. I guess this is probably a permanent state of being from now on!

I know, I know...you are saying "get on with the details." So here are a few more...my daughter is a little over 6 months old (birthdays in Ethiopia are not an exact science!) and pretty small for her age. I printed off growth charts and plotted her size. She is way under the graph for length and weight but the weight/length ratio is right at 50% so, while she is little for her age, it is a proportionate petiteness. In other words, she isn't emaciated (and in her picture she looks nice and well rounded--ohhh she is so cute!!). Her health examinations look pretty good and I think she will do fine.

So for a name...I have said all along that her given name would be kept as a middle name and I am very happy to say her name is Roza (which means Rose!). For her first name, I combined 2 of my favorite Ethiopian names (Amara--princess and Amira--beautiful/paradise) to make the name Amari (ah-mahr-ee). So Amari Roza has been named. She will probably be called Mari.

When will she come home? That is yet to be decided. I have to wait on a court date and an embassy appt. Courts are playing catch-up from their 2 month break, so Sharon said to expect to travel in about 3 months. So, while I would LOVE to travel before the end of the year, I'm shooting for January!