11/25/09 - November Update

Each month, until we pass court, our agency will send us updates about the boys: general health updates, eating/health issues, development/physical assessments, personality notes, answers to our five questions, and best of all, NEW PICTURES!

I am able to share some of the details:

* Both boys have gained weight and our youngest, Ryan, has gained five pounds - praise God!

* Ryan is getting over the chicken pox - our poor baby!

* Both boys like eating pasta, macaroni, rice, injera (Ethiopian flat, circular bread, looks like a giant tortilla, meats/soups are served on it), bread, vegetables, meat, eggs, and fruit - hopefully they will like all these things American style!

* Both are running, jumping, and hopping. They also sing the ABCs after the nannies!

* We are told John likes to play with cars (yeah, as friends are giving us their two sons' matchbox car collection after we get home!) and Ryan likes children's music (not a problem! We have lots of CDs and musical instruments, including a piano!).

We learned their reaction to learning about us: "We [the nannies at the Transition House where the boys are in Addis Ababa] think they understand being adopted because they have seen their friends leaving with their adoptive families and when one of the nannies explained this in their language [John] smiled! (We so hope they were smiling when they saw pictures of us in their care packages!!!) We also learned that they speak Welayta, a language common to southern Ethiopia, and can understand some common Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, words.

We didn't expect the update to come until next Monday, the last day of the month! What a TREMENDOUS BLESSING it was to receive it today!!!!