As of this morning, my family has arrived back in the good ol’ US of A! They are spending 2 days in DC before making the final leg of the trip on Friday night.

About the trip… All Sage said so far is that is was, “Completely Awful!” Duh. She did say Frezer did REALLY good compared to the “other” little girl who was on the same flight who screamed the whole time. Ouch. Sage also mentioned that Frezer is REALLY social… especially if your skin is dark like hers. Sage called her an “Amharic Mommy Shopper”. That’s okay… Maya is a mommy AND a daddy shopper. We’re used to that.

… I’ll keep you posted as I here more. Now that they are Stateside, I’m sure I’ll talk to Sage at least 10 times today. We’re already at 3 and counting.

- Steve

Now this is interesting… Sage, Avery and Ethan, and Grandma Jackie went to visit Frezer’s grandparents over the weekend… And that’s about all I can tell you because I haven’t been “filled in” yet.

However, somehow Sage was able to email 8 scanned photos of Frezer as a younger child… and some photos of (I think) Frezer’s birth mother. Looks like there is a few shots of her grandparents, and maybe even some aunts in there too. Since I really can’t tell you who all these people are, you’re just going to have to wait for Sage to get back and update her blog herself.

… On another note, they are leaving Ethiopia on TUESDAY (tomorrow)! They will land in DC and spend the rest of the week there. And then they will be hom at 7:59pm on Friday. I’m counting down the minutes.

Here’s the photos… wasn’t she a cute baby?

Frezers Family	Cute baby!	Frezers Family
Not so happy	Frezers Family	Not too happy
Frezers Family	Younger Frezer	Frezers Family
Frezers Family	Cute hair!

… Okay, so I can’t update my own (Steve) blog, but since my wife is in Ethiopia I figured I can at least update hers.

So I have Sage’s login information for her Yahoo Groups. Holy cow… I can’t even begin to describe the mob scene Yahoo Groups is… Not for the faint of heart (or men in general for that matter) but I decided to “troll” anyway.

I came accross a post from a lady who had met Frezer in October… and posted a bunch of pictures of her! And now I’m sharing her note to Sage (through the group) and the photos she took. But, only because I know all you stalkers are starved for something to look at regarding this whole adoption thing.

The note:

Hello,

My name is Vanessa and I am one of the flight attendant volunteers that make deliveries to Ahope. I meet Fraser last year and wanted to share some pictures with you. We taught her the Macaraina and I thought you emjoy to see the pics.
Thank You So very much for adopting Fraser. She is an AWESOME kid and she is always in our thoughts and prayers!
I can only send 3 at a time so there will be multiple messages with pics.
Enjoy the pics!

… and the pics.

Frezer - October 2008	Frezer - October 2008	Frezer - October 2008
Frezer and Nesa - October 2008	Frezer and Nesa - October 2008	Frezer and Nesa - October 2008
Frezer and Nesa - October 2008	Frezer and Nesa - October 2008	Frezer and Nesa - October 2008

This is Steve reporting again about my wife’s travels in Ethiopia. Apparently, Frezer doesn’t like to hang out at the Internet Cafe while Sage sends emails and updates her Yahoo Groups and this Blog… So that is why their has been a 9 day delay between posts.

… But it has been an exciting 9 days!

Frezer had head lice… she’s being treated now and should be good to go. Sage THOUGHT she had lice but didn’t… WHEEEEW! I guess it is harder to get lice than we all think.

Sage went to the Embassy appointment on the 11th… Today is the 19th. Between the 11th and the 19th there were two weekend days and a holiday (Monday was President’s Day), so there have been 4 actual business days for the Embassy to work on Frezer’s health waiver. I guess we set some sort of record for a waiver turn around because FREZER’S WAIVER CAME BACK YESTERDAY! She is free to leave the country any time and come home! I guess the old record was 5 days… but we’ve heard an average of 10-14 days is standard. So we feel pretty pleased at the moment.

Now, Sage probably would hop on the next flight back (her return ticket is for the 27th) if it wasn’t for the fact that Avery, Ethan and Sage’s mother arrived in Ethiopia YESTERDAY.

So, they are going to see a few sights. They may leave Ethiopia a day or three early anyway (if they can get a flight) and then spend some time in Rome or Washington DC before coming back on the 27th as scheduled. So, even though they CAN come home early, they won’t be.

I’ll keep you posted if anything changes with their travel plans. Woo hoo!

This is an email my wife sent last night - just to keep all you blogstalkers happy. - Steve

Today started at 4:30am…. last night Frazer stayed with me! What a hoot… she just feels so right. Like she has always been in my life. Anyhoo, she wasn’t excited about going to bed… so I just turned out the lights and closed my eyes… the next thing I know she is laying as far away as she can, but I hear heavy breathing! She’s out… it was a ruff night but we made it through!

The day started a 4:30 am so we hung out until the sun came up. Then we walked past the dogs… Frazer is terribly afraid of dogs… We got to the orphanage at 6:30. Everyone was up and ready for school… they all cheered and sang to Frazer.

At around 9am I was allowed to go to a medical visit with like 10 other kids. The ride to the med. was LONG… HOT… AND DIRTY !!! I have to say that the Ethiopian children are much better at waiting than me! We sat in tiny room for over an hour. There was nothing for the kids to do it was RUFF.

We had an incredible experience… this young women came in and sat down neer Frazer and started taking to her and kissing her. I thought, “oh crap, is this her family… are we going to have this family visit HERE??!!” After she loved on Frazer (while Frazer got more and more upset) the young woman told me her family lives near Frazer’s. She had cared for Frazer, bathed her, fed her, and looked after her. She really loved Frazer and kept calling Frazer her “baby”. Frazer was a real mess… wouldn’t look at this young woman and wouldn’t answer her. She gave me her phone number and her name. Apparently, she lives in the US now… I think in Indianapolis??

Now here is the really deep stuff… so after about 1 1/2 hours Frazer and this new little guy (so wonderful) were finally called back. Now, I really had no idea what was about to happen. I’m thinking it was just a doc. exam? Well, each child is given a piece of paper… when Frazer got hers she immediately started crying! Ah, they were getting blood drawn… this should be interesting. The whole walk down the hall, the other little guy kept telling Frazer that it would be OK… in Amharic. Well it wasn’t ok… Frazer started freaking out… screaming and FREAKING OUT!!! Then it was his turn… he was so brave until the needle was on his arm.

Watching this made me think of how unfair this life is. That kids like this (from no fault of there own) have to feel PAIN. They feel the loss of family, that I’m sure hurts forever but then they have to go throug such REAL physical pain too!!! I want to take away the hurt…

I wanted to say how grateful I am that I live in the USA!!! That no matter what anyone thinks, we have CLEAN water coming out of the faucets. We have good air quality… we are aware of the environment that makes up this WHOLE world! Enough…

Frezer

TWO MORE DAYS!!!!