Ramsey Family Korea Adoption

Our good friends the Ramseys have recently begun the pursuit of adopting a girl from Korea!  They're such a wonderful family, and have HUGE compassionate hearts for orphans.  Check-out the blog they've recently launched, and don't miss their first fundraiser with an iPod give-away!

Home & Together

We're home!  I wasn't able to post again before leaving Ethiopia since the Internet was so sketchy and slow.  So this is a little after-the-trip update.  


We spent the last few days in Ethiopia mostly hanging out at the guest house with Ellie.  There was a lot of getting-to-know-you that needed to happen, and it was good.  She typically needed feeding 2 times per night, which wasn't too bad.  
On Friday we toured the Robera Coffee Factory.  That was pretty cool to say the least, but Amber and Eleora weren't digging it too much.  Amber hates coffee, both in smell and taste.  Ellie hates loud noises.  I did manage to haul away 40 kg of roasted coffee to bring back home.  Awesome!


The flights home were pretty grueling, but we were blessed in a few big ways.  First of all, we weren't sick.  Amber and I were feeling really ill the day before leaving.  We were worried that we'd both be ill with a baby on a plane for 21 hours or more.  We were feeling good on travel day!  Despite making a trip to the Emirates office in Addis Ababa to secure seating, a bassinet, and a hotel voucher for our stay in Dubai, we were denied all of the above.  We ended up being granted all these needs along the way!  Finally, Eleora was a really good baby.  She ate and slept without a lot of drama for the whole trip.  I love how God provides for needs as they come up.  I only wish He'd give me forward notice that it's all taken care of so I wouldn't worry.  I guess that's where faith comes in.


We're dealing with the jet lag now, which isn't pleasant.  Even still it's nice to spend time as a newly expanded family.  I'm back to work tomorrow.  Time to experience the normalizing of our 5 person group!


This morning I uploaded a final collection of pictures from the trip to the album on SmugMug.  It's especially nice if you use the "slideshow" feature.  I hope you enjoy it.

Giving

We spent most of yesterday at our guest house. With 5 newly adopted
kids and a lots of families present here, it was pretty lively in the
lobby all day. We did make one trip out of the house to the Emirates
office in town. That turned out to be an ordeal of sorts. Our
objective was to get seating assignments and a bassinet for Ellie on
the long Dubai-to-San-Francisco leg of the trip on Saturday. We were
told that we were too late for seating in general, and that all
bassinets have been spoken for for some time already. Also, the hotel
is full on Saturday so we won't have a room to go to. While we were
getting this news, Ellie decided to unleash a major load in her pants.
Actually, it was all the way up to her shoulders. The bathroom key
was missing, so we had to undress her and change her in the drafty
hall. Awesome. The best event of the day was that our friend Missy
was able to take a flight home last night with her sick little girl
Quilla. Their story is long, but Quilla really needs to get home to
her family so she can receive some good care. It was excellent to see
how God was able to make her adoption and quick departure happen much
faster than anyone expected.

Today we were able to visit the Kids Care orphanage to deliver half of
the donations that we brought along on this trip. The first half was
donated to the AWAA transition home that Eleora came from. It wasn't
really much of an event or experience since all the donations are
given to the storehouse manager, who catalogs it all and stores it
away. Today was somewhat similar in that we unloaded the orphanage
donations to the ladies who organize their storehouse. But we were
also able to distribute lots of goodies directly to the kids in the
open courtyard. It was so neat to see their faces and excitement!
Thanks again to all the contributors who gave goods (or money for
goods). Both the transition home and the orphanage were very
grateful!

Some of the ladies of the orphanage prepared a traditional coffee
ceremony for us in the oraphanage courtyard. This included the
roasting of the beans, grinding, brewing in a ceramic pitcher, the
burning of incense. Everything is cooked over little charcoal
burners. The coffee is served in little ceramic cups, and salted
popcorn is offered on the side. Compared to drip coffee, this was
more mild and smoky. The burning incense and charcoal creates part of
the atmosphere. It was really something!

After seeing so much need everywhere, it was really great to provide
such a large amount donated goods to the transition home and the
orphanage. Saturday we plan to give our collection of soccer balls to
the street kids ministry.

I've posted a fresh crop of photos on the SmugMug album, too.

http://bryanbooy.smugmug.com/Travel/Ethiopia-Getting-Eleora/12963734_RNZTN#943537234_GE7LV

--
Bryan

Gotcha Day

Today was "Gotcha Day", the day we finally took Eleora home with us!  Yesterday was "Metcha Day", the day we met her for the first time ever.  Unfortunately it was only a 2 hour visit, and we weren't allowed to take her home with us.  But today was different.  Today we visited for a couple of hours and then left with her on Amber's lap!  Since we haven't had Internet access for a couple days, there's a lot to recap.  Here goes.

We started off Sunday with breakfast at the guest house where we're staying.  Personally, I've fallen in love with the fried potatoe pancake thingies that taste a little like Lefse.  Most of us attended church at the International Evangelical Church.  The pastor there is from the US, but the congregation is very multi-national, including people from Europe, Australia, China, America, and other African countries.  Afterward we had Italian food at Makush.  This restaurant is also an art gallery, and showcases some really good work from Ethiopian artists.  Afterwards, most of the families went to the Transition Home to spend time with their kids.  For reasons unknown to us, only "court families" could meet their kids.  "Embassy Families" had to wait until Monday before meeting their kids for the first time.  We are an "embassy family", meaning we're here for an embassy appointment so we can take home our child home for good.  Court families are here for their first court visit, where they officially declare their intention to adopt their child.  Anyway, Amber and I opted to visit the National Museum instead.  It was pretty cool.  We saw a number of historical artifacts, especially from the days when Ethiopia was a kingdom.  We also got to see Lucy's bones (the prehistoric hominid, not the lovable red-head).  Pizza dinner was back at the guest house.  We also ventured out as a small group onto the local streets near the guest house.  There was definitely a tension between us and many of the Ethiopians crowding the rough sidewalks.  It was also heartbreaking to encounter the homeless women and babies begging for food or money on every street corner.  

Monday was "Metcha Day".  It started off with a couple hours spent at the Hilton filling out all the immigration paperwork for our appointment at the embassy on Wednesday.  After some lunch at the Hilton we left for our first encounter with Eleora at the transition home.  We were the first family to be united with our child, so we handed our cameras off to another family so the moment could be photographed well.  We waiting in the front courtyard, and Eleora was brought out to us by one of the nannies.  It was a little awkward, because it started to rain hard at the exact same time, and Ellie didn't exactly like that.  We stepped under the awning of the front porch and things were fine.  It was one of those moments you never forget, similar to experiencing the birth of a biologically born child.  We had conversations with the staff psychologist and physician, where we learned as much as we could about her.  When the time came, we had to leave her with the nannies and walk away.  That wasn't easy, but it was okay knowing that we'd be back the next day to get her for good.  The entire crew headed to a traditional Ethiopian restaurant for dinner.  It was really fun!  We ate some really great stuff using Ingera to grab handfulls of lamb and chickpeas.  The honey wine was way different (better) than what we've tasted in the US.  This restaurant offered a great live show, wich included traditional music and dancing.  All I have to say is that Ethiopian dancing is all about the shoulder-action.   

Tuesday (today) was "Gotcha Day".  But before getting Ellie, we got to do a little shopping.  Thankfully, our driver/guides took us right to a small collection of shops that offered the best stuff for good prices.  Compared to all the other shops I had poked my head into so far, these definitely were a step above.  We pretty much dropped all the cash we had on souvenirs.  After we get Ellie, we won't be able to shop or be seen in public in general, so this was our one chance.  We had another lunch at Makush before heading to get Ellie.  It was great to be reunited with her, especially knowing that we won't be giving her up again!  We brought all the intended transition home donations along with us, so thanks again to everyone who contributed!  This only included half of the donations, since the other half will be going to the orphanage on Thursday.  We changed Ellie into the clothes we brought for her, and left her orphanage clothes behind for other kids to wear.  She was good on the bumpy drive home.  The rest of the evening was spent hanging with all the other families.  There were 3 other kids that got to come home with us today, so the lobby was a fun place to be as a group!

<a href="http://bryanbooy.smugmug.com/Travel/Ethiopia-Getting-Eleora/12963734_RNZTN#937638751_68rWW-A-LB"><img src="http://bryanbooy.smugmug.com/Travel/Ethiopia-Getting-Eleora/DSC0003006/937638751_68rWW-M.jpg"></a>

--
Bryan

Steps 2-26: Get to Ethiopia and Do a Ton of Stuff

It turns out the Internet was more elusive during our travels than I was hoping.  So this is my first post since San Franciso a few days ago.  A lot has happened since then.  

Our flight from San Fran to Dubai was exceptionally good.  We were way back in the tail, where there were fewer chairs and a little more room.  The on-plane entertainment system was really good, but I found myself glued to a channel that displayed all kinds of trip data and on-plane cameras.  For the first few hours we saw a ton of cool stuff outside, including Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Shasta, Crater Lake.  It was like having an aerial tour of CA/OR/WA.  I don't think the pilots intended it, but it was amazing!

Dubai was pretty interesting.  The airport is POSH for sure.  We had a forced layover overnight, so we were given hotel and meal vouchers.  It was a good experience.  We caught one more flight to Addis Ababa yesterday morning.  Once again it was a nice comfortable experience.  Emirates is definitely a good airline to go with for such a long trip.

We arrived earlier than scheduled and breezed through the visa and customs process.  The airport is pretty rough as airports go.

I'm out of time again, so I'll try to post more later.  Here's a link to a batch of photos I uploaded to SmugMug last night.  Enjoy!

Ethiopia Photos

--
Bryan

Step 1: Go to San Francisco and Wait

The flight to SF was a good one. It was a really small plane, but we
didn't experience any turbulence. Thanks to Dacer for dropping us off
this morning.

Packed

Packing is such an ordeal.  Even with weeks to prepare, the final day is a lot of work.  Actually, it's not the act of putting items in a bag that is so hard. It's all the mind-racking and list checking to make sure you've got it all.  Amber actually did a lot of prep-work for the last several days, getting all the donations arranged into the 4 big bags, and making sure we have all the baby supplies.  I can't tell you how many times we've weighed each bag with one of those handy bag scales.  Each of our four bags is somewhere in the neighborhood of 50.3 lbs each.  We figure as long as we can round down to the nearest pound we should meet the 50 lb per bag limit, right?!  It's an ugly obsession.  

What's uglier is the tighter restrictions on baggage that all airlines have imposed.  Emirates (our airline) only allows ONE carry-on.  By carry-on they don't mean what most of us think of, one of those smallish suitcases that you can get enough stuff into for a weekend.  No, this is more like a messenger bag's worth.  Oh, and it can't weigh more that 15 lbs.  Let's see here, my notebook weighs about 7 lbs, so I'm halfway there just with that.  I initially figured that Emirates probably won't actually weigh my carry on, right?  Well, other travelers we've heard from say that they actually DO weigh it.  I will be that guy walking to the gate wearing extra clothing, jackets, electronics, headphones, neck pillow, etc. just to circumvent the carry-on weight restrictions.  It's all about getting as many donations to Ethiopia as possible!
--
Bryan

Testing Testing 1-2-3

I've read numerous reports that it is rather difficult to post to Blogspot/Blogger from Ethiopia.  I figure if I can't actually log into our blog then I can at least post to it via email.  So this post is a test run of such a post.  If I can at least get to Gmail, I can still post to the blog.

Here's a test link to my SmugMug Site.

And hopefully this new picture of Ellie I just attached looks okay on this post, too. 

--
Bryan

Travel Dates are Here

Some skilled guys and gals will be piloting us to Ethiopia real soon from a cockpit like this.  We have an appointment at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 6/21/2010.  This is huge.

Amber has been on the phone for 2 days with numerous travel agents, trying to find the best and cheapest itinerary possible.  Unfortunately, we're traveling in probably one of the biggest vacation months there is.  The rainy season is just getting started, and those who can are getting out of the country for a few months.  The quotes we have so far are pushing $3k per person.  We're also learning that additional baggage charges are prohibitively expensive, especially if you're originating a flight out of most of Europe for some reason.  I think we're probably looking at leaving on the 17th, returning on the 25th.  Please pray for a good flight itinerary on a good airline for an unbelievably cheap price to come together for us.

Donations for the orphanage and transition home are starting to collect, which is really great.  We fully intend to pack as light as possible for ourselves so we can bring as much as we possibly can to Ethiopia with us.  There's a donation-collection-party being organized by Amber's sister Brittany this week.  That's so cool.

We got to share a little at church this morning.  We were interviewed for about 10 minutes, while an Eleora slide show rolled on the screens.  I hope it was encouraging to somebody today.  Amber did a great job expressing all the important things about our adoption story and how God has really stretched us through it all.

Burden Me

The past couple weeks have seen more than their share of drama.  In a nutshell, we learned that our fingerprint paperwork for our Chinese adoption ended up at the US Embassy in Ethiopia.  It took almost two weeks of constant emails and phone calls to the USCIS, the NVC, Senator Boxer, Senator Feinstein, and Congressman Campbell, but the issue finally got resolved.  Of course, Amber did nearly all of the legwork.  She even had to drive to the USCIS office in LA and spend a day giving stone-cold office workers the guilt-trip showing them pictures of our little girl who can come home to us if only they would DO THEIR JOB.  It worked.  The right paperwork reached Ethiopia days later.  Awesome!

Now for the real topic of this post.  We want you to burden us.  Burden us down with donations to hand carry to Ethiopia.  Donations to meet real needs of real orphans.  We will hopefully be traveling to Ethiopia in a few weeks, and we plan to take as much cargo as we can handle with us.  It's way cheaper and way more reliable to be a "mule" and pay the extra luggage fees to get donations to the orphanages and transition home than it is to ship donations.  So this is a call for donations to take with us.  There are some specific needs that have been expressed by our agency:

• TOOTHPASTE (we already have over 150 toothbrushes)
• DEODORANT
• HAND SOAP
• CLOTHES PINS
• BOY'S UNDERWEAR (sizes 6 and under specifically)
• TODDLER-10 YEAR OLD UNDERWEAR (boys & girls)
• SIZE SMALL SCRUBS FOR NANNIES ("5 for 10" stores have deals)
• BABY WIPES
• SOCCER BALLS & PUMPS (for the street kids)
• BABY BOUNCER SEATS

It would be a great problem to have if we had more donations than we could possibly manage.  If you're interested in dropping off some donations, please drop me (Bryan) a line so we can work out the details.  

Introducing Eleora Marije Booy

Our adoption petition passed the court process in Ethiopia last night!  She is now legally our new daughter!  We've chosen the name Eleora Marije Booy.  Check out the little slideshow we put togheter last weekend.  I'll post more details later, but it looks like we might travel to get her sometime in July or August.


Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

THE CALL

Yes indeed.  Every parent that has already experienced the international adoption process knows what I'm talking about.  One of the biggest milestones in the entire adoption process is the day when you get that call from your agency to announce the details of your child referral.  Today was that day for us! 
Our coordinator called Amber first, then the two of them called me.  When I got the call, I was in the midst of another super-busy afternoon.  I hit the answer button on my phone, and initially thought, "D'oh!  I don't recognize that phone number.  I should have just let that go to voicemail. Oh well, I have to answer it now."  I was immediately hit with the significance of the call when I heard the lady's voice on the line congratulating me that this is my referral call.
Our coordinator gave us the essentials.  Amber had the presence of mind to ask a few good questions.  I mostly just listened and took notes.  Afterward, Amber and I chatted.  She was so blown away she had to stop baking the cookies she was working on.  She couldn't work the oven timer any more!  All my office mates were watching me take the call the whole time.  I felt like I was on stage.  Weird.  It was cool to share the moment with them though.  We're pretty tight.
Unfortunately (and this pains me to say) we can't divulge most of the details of the referral.  I know!  That stinks, right?!  Privacy laws are strict, and I don't want to do anything to endanger the adoption process for us or her by being stupid on the Internet.  I can share that she is a really healthy 2 month old baby Ethiopian girl.  We do have 2 pictures of her, and she is SUPER CUTE.  I'm being objective, and you'll have to trust me on this for now.  We have all kinds of medical reports that all say she has no health issues, which is awesome.  She's obviously being fed WELL. :D
I'm pretty floored that she is so young!  I was totally expecting a referral for a child near the older end of our requested age range since young babies are in higher demand.  We'll be getting her just at that baby sweet spot (from a dad's point of view), when they're beyond that boring infant stage when they just eat and sleep.  Sure infants are cute, but dad's like to INTERACT!  I can't wait to share more details about her, but I'll have to wait a few weeks.  Travel dates are dependent on a lot of variables still, but let's just say 2-4 more months for now.  Totally stoked!  Thank you, Jesus.

We are ON DECK!

This is a really good sign!  We received an email from our adoption agency last Friday, officially putting us "on-deck".  What that means is that our family "could receive a referral within the next one to three months".  Yes, they're giving themselves a lot of latitude, and we're trying not to get too excited, but we have had numerous friends who received their referrals within days of receiving an "on-deck" email.

We're noticing quite a few referrals for kids from our agency once again.  That's good to see, because it says that a lot of the weirdness we saw in the weeks following the Haiti earthquake seem to be behind us now.  Unfortunately we're almost definitely going to have to travel twice, but at least adoptions are moving forward.

Stuff is feeling even more real now.

-bryan

Tortuga Reviewed on "Take It From Me"

Our hat company, "Tortuga Clothing" has generally gone through cycles of interest and activity.  Right now it seems to be hitting a high point in both.  We are currently participating in a product review / giveaway with the blog "Take It From Me".  They kindly invited us into the deal, and we're very pleased with all the feedback and interest.  Even though I managed to add about 30 new hats to the Etsy shop, there are still another 40 or so to post.  I really should market that shop better than I do.  Maybe this will give me more incentive to do just that, as well as the other fundraiser idea...T-SHIRTS.

I've already started talking with a silkscreener, but the initial momentum has died away.  If any of you wants to try their hand at a t-shirt design, feel free to contact me.

New Releases at Tortuga Clothing

tortugastyle.com

I'm finally getting around to posting new stock on our Etsy store for Tortuga Clothing.  I actually took new photos for all the new hats some time ago, but life gets complicated and the next thing you know...too much time passes.  So without further adieu, we're releasing a few new designs that we think you'll love.  

My personal fave is the Cali Beanie, which we have several color / stripe combinations to offer.  

We're also introducing Kitty Mitts to complement the Audrey Beanie.  These fingerless gloves are constructed of the same yarn as the Audreys, so they make a good combo.  

You'll notice in the new photos that we actually have heads modeling the new designs.  Each of the 3 heads was hand painted by either Amber, Audrey, or Halina.  I also added an actual banner design to the Etsy store.  It's not exactly what I had in mind, but I struggled a bit with the free online design tools.  Don't get me wrong, I think Aviary is great.  I just don't have a lot of skill with it yet.

I'm hoping the weather stays cool for a while longer to inspire the world to wear our beanies and support our adoptions.  

Fun With Zombies

Amber and I had a little excursion to the Department of Homeland Security this morning.  Our fingerprints on file with them are only valid for a year, so had to go give them a fresh picture of our mitts.  At this point I've had more experience with government agencies than I ever really hoped to have in my life.  Still, time fades the memories of each experience, and I wasn't expecting for my patience to be put to the test like it was today.
We did remember that this particular branch does not allow mobile phones at all.  We later learned that this rule is completely arbitrary and was dictated by the DHS officer of that branch simply because she doesn't like people in her branch using mobile phones.  The stuff you learn when you get to chat-it-up with a bored security guard making $25/hr.  Yep, he shared that with us, too.
After filling out our paperwork, we had a lot of time to kill until being seen by the receptionist at "station 2".  Since I was without my iPhone and didn't have the forethought to bring anything paper to read, we tried to occupy our brains with some people watching.  Believe me, there's a lot to observe in that crowd.  Amber had a hard time controlling herself when I made a comment about how every employee in that office shuffled around like they were all on quaaludes.  I mean, they were completely listless and had no apparent awareness of the 40-50 people in the waiting area waiting to get fingerprinted.  Let's hope the zombies did a good job with our fingerprints and paperwork update.  We'll see them again next year I'm sure.
>bryan

Early Nesting

Being #1 on the unofficial list is kind of making us freak out a little.  Our adoptions have always seemed light-years away, so we've never really done anything to prepare the house to have a 2 yr old or younger kid in it.  I think Amber's feeling it the most now, so she's inspiring us to start some things to make the place a little more "together".  We're not exactly known for ever having our place together, and let's just say there are a lot of candidate projects.  I've decided the first one to take on is to paint the rest of the downstairs area.  Should be "fun". 
>bryan

Find Me, Follow Me

For those of you who started following our original "booygirls" blog over at Tumblr, THANK YOU FOR FINDING US HERE AT BLOGGER! Tumblr is really cool and simple, however it just had some limitations that we couldn't hang with. Blogger will enable us to provide more information, including cross-links to other adoptive families and orphan organizations that we'd like to shine a spotlight on.

As I mentioned on our previous blog...

So many people take the beginning of the new year to look back and look ahead.  I typically am not one of them.  But this year I have some positive things to look forward to, and I’m ready to get on with it.

At this time last year, Amber and I were feeling really glad to be rid of 2008.  There we deaths in our family, and a lot of pain and disappointment.  2009 was somewhat better, but there was another death and lots of frustrations, challenges, and disappointments.  Still, I can look back and see that God has (once again) come through for me and my family in really remarkable ways.  It’s that realization that really gives me a reason to have hope for 2010.  I’m not expecting it to be a cake-walk to be sure.  I just know that somehow God’s going to give me what I need when I need it on a day-by-day basis.

In 2009, Amber and I started the process of an Ethiopian adoption.  After several months of paper-chasing, our dossier was received and logged in on 8/14.  That’s’ our “date-to-Ethiopia” or DTE.  Other adoptive parents know this well.  That marks the beginning of waiting.  In some ways waiting is harder than the paper-chase.  Everything is out of our control.  We can only watch and wait for our turn to get a referral and travel.  The remarkable thing is that the rate of referrals has actually accelerated recently.  We’re now #3 on the “unofficial list” of adoptive parents for AWAA’s program.  One of those families ahead of us also seeking a baby girl, so in some ways we feel like we’re #2.

In all likelihood, 2010 will be the year that we get our 3rd daughter.  This will come after years of striving and waiting.  This is truly going to be an amazing change for our family, and I can’t wait.  Reality is starting to set in.  I almost feel like I should be packing my bags already, but we could still be waiting some months.  Remember, everything is still out of our control and a lot can happen to drag the timeline out.  But I can’t help but to feel optimistic and excited.  I’m ready for the adventure.  Bring it!

>bryan