"If you build it, he will come"

I think I have changed my mind on when I will do the baby's room. Right now it is a junk room/office/storage facility for our toilet for the bathroom I'm hoping my husband will finish. I had always told myself to not do the room until we get the referral and we know who we are painting it for. My plan was that it would keep me busy while I am going crazy waiting to be able to travel. The thing is, I'm going crazy now. Just joking, not quite yet. But, I do have time now and my referral will probably come in the fall when I'm busy in a new semester of teaching. I have four days off coming up plus two weeks off in August and my new plan is to do the baby's room early! I don't think I will go too crazy with decorating though, just painting and flooring.

We were at the picnic for "Families with Children from Africa" in Vancouver this week-end. It was so great to meet the people I always chat to online and and all the Ethiopian children were just too adorable (sorry no pictures, i didn't want to look too crazy photographing other people's children). Something about being there made me just want to start on the baby's room though.
I honestly think that if I build it our referral will come!!! Of course, that's probably because it's going to take awhile to do....

Three months!!!

(in honour of reaching the three month mark I thought I would post my very first picture of myself on the blog!!! And its me jumping!!! Woohoo!!! I'm on the far left, my friend Sharla is in the middle and my friend Lori is on the right).

I have to admit that this last week has been the most anxious and impatient of them all so far. Up until this point I have been pretty relaxed about the whole wait but I am officially starting to go a little crazy now. I think the reason why is that we started this process in September which means it has now been NINE MONTHS! I feel like I am ready to see my little boy's face and I want it to be soon!

But... I am happy today to know that we are at the three month point. I feel this small bit of hope that it could actually happen now that we are "in the window".... (the last timeline update said 3-6 months so I'm holding on to that). Of course, we know that it is more likely to take 6 months but I can always hope. And the sun is finally shining!

it won't stop raining...

It's June and I'm wearing winter clothes. I even turned on my fireplace today. Usually I don't feel that emotionally affected by the rain but it is starting to get to me. Maybe because today I was at a funeral and I just so badly want/need to see the sun. I was going to post a picture of miserable weather that I could find on google images but then I thought I would post some pictures in honour of John Faulkes (my brother-in-law's dad who just passed away) who was an amazing photographer.

So here they are.....




Oh how I can't wait to see some blue sky. I hate global warming! Ethiopia so desperately needs rain right now and we have had enough!

Food crisis in Ethiopia

Watching this video brought back some really vivid and difficult memories from when I worked in a care-home for severely malnourished children in the Philippines. I remember going out into villages looking for children that weren't just hungry, but were severely malnourished and near death. We found a few when we went out, but I can't imagine what it would be like to be in Ethiopia right now and have families swarming your clinic all desperate to save their child's life because they are starving and you have nothing to give them to eat. I think this video quotes that they are finding 10 kids an hour.


Sadly, sometimes Ethiopia still seems so far away to me, I can't wait till we travel there and can feel that sort of connection to a country that only comes from visiting it. For so many, it is just a sad news story and then we move on. But, I do think these kinds of images can impact people. I remember when our neighbour growing up brought over their massive collection of National Geographic magazines. I loved looking through them when I was little, and I loved making collages out of the pictures. I can completely remember the famine in the 80s because of National Geographic. The pictures disturbed me. Looking back now I think it is a good thing to expose children to such images even at a young age (just my opinion!).

I never forgot Ethiopia, and I was always fascinated by the country. In college I learned a bit about the early church in Ethiopia. Then when I was in university I took a political studies course on Third World Development. The professor went around the room and we all had to choose a country that we would focus on for the entire semester. When he called my name I just immediately blurted out "Ethiopia" without thinking. At the end of the semester I did my presentation and I showed graphs on the orphan crisis, the food crisis, etc, etc. And now we are preparing to travel there! I am so excited. I hope that it breaks my heart and that I never watch another newscast on Ethiopia with a feeling of distance or apathy.