Last minute flurry of excitement as we prepare for an early morning departure. Our oh-so-cool friends, led by colluder-in-chief Rebecca Bailey, decided to throw us a party. It was super nice. We ate and drank and laughed, and it was a very nice distraction from the task at hand.
We got a very nice poster signed by everyone along with some nice gifts for Tommy. It was so great seeing everyone else so excited about bringing him home soon. Talked to my brother J and my sister La tonight too. Very anxious to introduce the Philly family to him.
Departure 6:40 am. Arrival in Addis sometime Thursday. Here we come buddy boy!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
With less than 72 hours to go...
Just under three days till we leave for Africa and what are we up to?
Nope, We're painting the boys' room! That's right, painting the boys room, as in stripping wallpaper, spackling holes, sanding, painting and re-hanging Morgan's 10,000 wall doodads!
OK, yes, this would have been a great project to have gotten done 3 months ago, or even 1 month ago, but not us! No, we'd rather wait until the almost last second to get the room ready! So scrape and spackle and sand and paint and hang we did!....all day long!
The old room:
- Are we completing last minute paperwork? Heck no, that's what Monday morning's for!
- Are we packing? My gosh no, we'll do that Tuesday!
- Are we discussing transition plans? Are you kidding? 23 hour plane ride!!!
- Are we making sure the kids' week is planned? NOT! (sorry Gramom!)
Nope, We're painting the boys' room! That's right, painting the boys room, as in stripping wallpaper, spackling holes, sanding, painting and re-hanging Morgan's 10,000 wall doodads!
OK, yes, this would have been a great project to have gotten done 3 months ago, or even 1 month ago, but not us! No, we'd rather wait until the almost last second to get the room ready! So scrape and spackle and sand and paint and hang we did!....all day long!
The old room:
The process:
Friday, March 18, 2011
Leaving in 5 days
This last week has been a bit of a jumble, first waiting to hear something from Holt, then being told that indeed they scheduled us for the embassy March 28th, but are actually expecting us in Addis on the 24th. So, we had to jump through some hoops to get plane tickets. There has been an unbelievable amount of turmoil in the Middle East and Africa over the last 6 months, and I really didn't want to risk a stop anywhere in between here and there. God bless Erle at Azumano Travel, who managed to find us what might have been the last set of tickets on a non-stop flight from the US to Ethiopia. So, we're leaving Wednesday morning and get to Addis Thursday morning.
So, here we are at the five days and counting mark. If I said everything was packed, that Jenny and I are ready to go, that we're not the least bit nervous, I'd be lying. Truth is, I'm nervous about several things:
So, here we are at the five days and counting mark. If I said everything was packed, that Jenny and I are ready to go, that we're not the least bit nervous, I'd be lying. Truth is, I'm nervous about several things:
- Despite not flying through Egypt, Libya, Israel, or even Japan, I'm very nervous about the flight. This will be only about the third or fourth time since we've been married that Jen & I are on the same plane at the same time. We've made a habit of flying places separately to avoid the potential for making our kids orphans in the event of an accident. For some reason, it seems less appropriate when we're flying more than 24 hours away. Still not sure it's a good idea.
- The other kids' nervousness is showing itself as skepticism and even rejection of the idea of adoption. This late in the game, we're pretty sure it's mostly anxiety-related. Still, it's hard to reassure them enough that each time we've added a kid to our lives, the result has been more love, more fun, more life, more God in our home.
- Didn't get done all the finance-related maneuvers I wanted to finish since Christmas. We got our trust in place and we're pretty sure we're covered in case of an accident, but I just can't feel completely confident the kids will be ok if something happens to Jenny & me.
- The US Embassy could still be a problem, or we could have forgotten a piece of paper that slows down the process or even stops it.
- Traveling back from ET for about 23 hours with a 4 year old that might be a little shell shocked.
- How Tommy will feel about our dog, cat, turtle and fish; Ethiopians generally don't keep domestic animals, and he's certainly not had one at the care center.
- That adopting a young boy from Ethiopia is the right thing to do; in general and for our family.
- Whether, and how we'll love Tommy. We just will. In fact, we already do.
- How Tommy will feel about us, the kids and joining our family.
- Getting his medical and physical condition addressed. It'll take some time and major effort, but we'll get him going on the process and just continue to work on it like we did with Madi's neurological problems and like I do with my MS every day.
- Communicating with Tommy; based on our last visit, we think he's pretty good at it.
- Tommy's cognitive ability; he is a smart boy.
- My parents watching the kids for a week.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Leaving....quickly!
Word yesterday that we must be on the ground in ET next Thursday. That means we're leaving in 7 days! Ahhhhhhhhhh!
Lots to do!
Lots to do!
Saturday, March 12, 2011
The news has finally arrived!
We got word last night from Holt (click here):
Dear Romano Family, I wanted to let you know that today we received word from the US Embassy in Addis today that your case has been cleared to be seen for a Visa Interview! Our staff on the ground in Ethiopia has let us know that they will be requesting a visa interview for your family during the week of March 28, 2011. We hope to hear from the U.S. Embassy that they can receive you during this time by the beginning of next week.
That means in 13 days....
Sunday, March 6, 2011
The last nine yards
This week has been hard; much harder than the last four. A summary of our email and the forums shows that bringing home an orphan has become substantially more difficult in the last six months. It seems the international pressure against US adoption of foreign-born orphans has ramped up, causing the US posture to become especially fraud wary.
In their effort to thwart fraudulent adoptions, the US embassy has taken the position that "all adoptions are fraudulent until proven otherwise." That means the screeners at the embassy are requesting more documentation than previously; in some cases, documentation that doesn't exist. For example, in especially rural locations, there may be nothing that documents an uncle assuming responsibility for his nephew when both the child's parents have died. If that uncle subsequently relinquishes the child to an orphanage, the documentation typically begins with his "official" release to the orphanage, which could have taken place years after the death of the parents. The embassy demanding the finding of such non-existent documents has slowed down the process substantially.
At the same time, through a series of reports from our agency, we've discovered the doctors in ET have been treating Tommy with some medicines that make us a little nervous. Worse yet, through a series of communication challenges, although he's been on these medicines for several months, we've only now become aware of it. Treating a serious neurological condition like Tommy's can be very tricky. The medicines that are often used in neurology can be very useful, but they ALWAYS come with substantial risks.
Our biggest concern is that the doctors there, in an effort to get him better, introduce a therapy that creates a new hazard for Tommy's long term rehabilitation. We don't believe the medical staff in Ethiopia are bad (meaning either evil/mean or poorly trained), we just know that under THE BEST of circumstances, you have to watch out for side effects from neuro meds, and they can be affected by who manufactured the medicine, dosage and frequency of administration, the attention of the administrator, and MANY, MANY other issues. We just believe Ethiopia is not the place to start unproven or risky therapies. If such treatment is warranted, after Tommy's been evaluated and diagnosed here, by our high quality medical advisory team, with the best of today's technology and testing, then we can begin that therapy and monitor it closely. Most importantly, our team has the skill, experience and tools necessary to respond appropriately if a reactive problem develops.
It's as much a tracking and reporting issue as anything else. We want to be sure we're giving his American medical team as accurate and detailed a description of his treatment as possible, and the fact that we've had difficulty getting the truth indicates that making more changes at this point could complicate and stymie those efforts. For this reason, we've asked our agency to use their influence to intervene with the Ethiopian medical staff. We've asked them, if they can, to propose not starting any new chronic therapy before we return to bring Tommy home.
To be clear, we don't think the information was purposely hidden from us. We think it's more likely due to the infrequent and not timely medical reports, not-so-great communication between different medical personnel in ET, and mediocre documentation; all things we attribute to conditions on the ground, which we totally understand based on our in-person appraisal of what it's like to live and work in ET. So, we're not mad at anybody for this situation; it's just that now, more than ever before, we want to get over there and BRING TOMMY HOME NOW!
In their effort to thwart fraudulent adoptions, the US embassy has taken the position that "all adoptions are fraudulent until proven otherwise." That means the screeners at the embassy are requesting more documentation than previously; in some cases, documentation that doesn't exist. For example, in especially rural locations, there may be nothing that documents an uncle assuming responsibility for his nephew when both the child's parents have died. If that uncle subsequently relinquishes the child to an orphanage, the documentation typically begins with his "official" release to the orphanage, which could have taken place years after the death of the parents. The embassy demanding the finding of such non-existent documents has slowed down the process substantially.
At the same time, through a series of reports from our agency, we've discovered the doctors in ET have been treating Tommy with some medicines that make us a little nervous. Worse yet, through a series of communication challenges, although he's been on these medicines for several months, we've only now become aware of it. Treating a serious neurological condition like Tommy's can be very tricky. The medicines that are often used in neurology can be very useful, but they ALWAYS come with substantial risks.
Our biggest concern is that the doctors there, in an effort to get him better, introduce a therapy that creates a new hazard for Tommy's long term rehabilitation. We don't believe the medical staff in Ethiopia are bad (meaning either evil/mean or poorly trained), we just know that under THE BEST of circumstances, you have to watch out for side effects from neuro meds, and they can be affected by who manufactured the medicine, dosage and frequency of administration, the attention of the administrator, and MANY, MANY other issues. We just believe Ethiopia is not the place to start unproven or risky therapies. If such treatment is warranted, after Tommy's been evaluated and diagnosed here, by our high quality medical advisory team, with the best of today's technology and testing, then we can begin that therapy and monitor it closely. Most importantly, our team has the skill, experience and tools necessary to respond appropriately if a reactive problem develops.
It's as much a tracking and reporting issue as anything else. We want to be sure we're giving his American medical team as accurate and detailed a description of his treatment as possible, and the fact that we've had difficulty getting the truth indicates that making more changes at this point could complicate and stymie those efforts. For this reason, we've asked our agency to use their influence to intervene with the Ethiopian medical staff. We've asked them, if they can, to propose not starting any new chronic therapy before we return to bring Tommy home.
To be clear, we don't think the information was purposely hidden from us. We think it's more likely due to the infrequent and not timely medical reports, not-so-great communication between different medical personnel in ET, and mediocre documentation; all things we attribute to conditions on the ground, which we totally understand based on our in-person appraisal of what it's like to live and work in ET. So, we're not mad at anybody for this situation; it's just that now, more than ever before, we want to get over there and BRING TOMMY HOME NOW!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)