Adoption Video
I was asked to highlight some of the families in our church that have adopted for our Pastor’s message on Sunday. We are so thankful that our church was so supportive of our adoption of Addis and that he is able to grow up in a place that celebrates adoption.
Some of the referral pictures are blurred out because the families are still in the process of adopting.
Court Finally
We finally got on the ball and got the final documentation for Addis today. Well, mostly all of it. We still have to wait on a birth certificate and social security number, but we are very close. I freaked everyone out on Facebook by saying that we had to “readopt” Addis. It has a much more technical term, but I didn’t feel like sending out all the details with twitter. You only get 140 characters.
To be honest, we waited this long because we had no clue what we were supposed to do. If you don’t live in Texas, Gladney doesn’t have much for you. We found a great adoption lawyer in town for all of you NWA families that are in process. His name is Keith Morrison, and he was very helpful and has five adopted kids himself, so he knows the process first hand.
Here are all the kids waiting patiently in the hallway before our appointment.
Keith took Addis back to see Judge Mashburn first. Thankfully, Addis has never met a stranger so he was happy to go along.
Judge Mashburn has a picture with every adoptive family he has ever been able to approve in his career. He was a great man and was proud to be a part of our story.
As of today, he is officially Addis Zachary Yeabsera Kennedy.
(This morning, he was legally Yeabsera Zachary Kennedy.)
A Hair Update
It is getting crazy long, though you would never know it. When it gets wet, his brothers and sisters say he has girl hair because it goes down his back.
Gladney Family Gathering
So, we haven’t posted in a while. We really should be better about it, but I am still not really sure how to do this whole blogging thing. Zach always does it for me, and I pretend like it is from me. (Like right now, as I lie in bed and he sits at the computer typing what I say.)
This weekend, we traveled to the great state of Oklahoma for a Gladney Family Association gathering. We got to meet a few of the families we have been stalking on the internet through blogland. It is odd when people know your name and details about your life and you have never actually met in person.
We met the Bottomly crew. Addis and Silas were big buds. Actually, I am not sure they paid that much attention to each other, but they were really cute together. It was the referral pictures of Silas that first awakened the call in us to adopt, so it was really cool getting to see our sons together.
We also got to meet the Silvestri’s and Winter’s. Tara and Eric took pictures of Addis when they traveled to Ethiopia to pick up their son Malak, and we took pictures of Rebekah and Ben’s son Eli when we traveled to pick up Addis. It was awesome to see all of our boys together. It made us very excited for all of the families in Northwest Arkansas to bring home their babies.
Andrea (who did our home study), Natalie (Gladney), Nikki, Tara, Amy, me, Corrie (a NWA mom on the wait list), and Mary (Gladney).
Thanks Bottomly’s for letting us crash at your place. We hope to get together with all the Oklahoma families again soon. Maybe next time we will bring ALL the kids.
From Ashes to Africa
AJ and Sara sent me a copy of the Bottomly’s new book, From Ashes to Africa, for my birthday. I picked it up around 11:30 one night to read a few pages, and I turned the light off at 2:00 am after reading the whole thing. I kept thinking, one more chapter and I will go to bed.
What I appreciated most about the book was the raw honesty. I felt like I was reading my own journal as they detailed their experience while in Ethiopia. I only wish I could have read it before I left, as it would have prepared me for so many life altering experiences.
I had no idea what visiting the orphanages would do to me. I initially thought it would be fun to see the kids and play with them, bringing a smile for the day. I did not expect to see Addis’ eyes in theirs, an experience Amy describes in detail. She writes:
“I could see Silas at 10 years old, with holes in his jeans and lice in his hair. I could see him at 18, with no education, no marketable skill, and no job prospects. Through such glimpses I felt more full the gravity of our decision to adopt.”
I wish I could have been more prepared…
I had not processed what meeting Addis’ birth mother might be like. Ashes to Africa dives into the deep feelings that you don’t expect. Feelings of guilt and great sadness as you see the final goodbyes. Then the process your heart and mind go through in the hours after as feelings of gratitude and love flood back in.
“Part of me felt the rightness of adoption, the rightness of Hermela’s courage and sacrifice. The other part of me felt the the wrongness of adoption, the wrongness of broken families and abject poverty.”
I wish I could have been more prepared…
This memoir is so important to both the adoption community and the world of Christians who have no idea what it means to care for “the least of these.” If you are alive, you should read it. (I tried to condense this down to certain groups that should read it, but wasn’t successful, hence the all inclusive mandate.) Just make sure you start reading in the morning and not at 11:30 at night.
