As some of you are aware, I am involved in a Charity called Chance For Change International Outreach. Currently there is a major food crisis in the horn of Africa, and Chance For Change wants to help. If you are interested in knowing about this crisis or donating to help us bring aid to some of the 4.5 million Ethiopians affected, please read the link.
Ethiopian Food Crisis - What We Are Doing.....
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
June has been busy!
The month of June has been a busy one.
It started with a Gotcha Day celebration. The weekend before the 1 year anniversary of meeting Tegegn we had 2 of the families that we traveled to Ethiopia with over. It is always nice to catch up, and reminisce of the time we spent in Ethiopia and watch the children grow up. One year ago there was 2 babies and one very small shy toddler. Today there is 2 toddlers and 1 almost 5 year old little man.
Next was a trip to the dentist. Tegegn had some pretty major problems with his teeth when he came home from Ethiopia. Malnourishment and no dental care can rot your teeth very quickly. We knew that he would have to have surgery to correct the problems, but we wanted to wait until he was secure within our family before we made him go under again. Going under anesthetic after he broke his arm was not a good experience for him nor I. June was the month we decided on, after 3 failed attempts at the dentist. He did amazing. After the X-rays, we realized the damage to his teeth was even worse than we originally thought (he wouldn't let us do X-rays previously). Here is a recap of what he had done:
3 front teeth removed (one was so bad that there was almost no root left)
1 root canal
1 abscess
all top molars are capped
all bottom molars are filled from cavities
Thank you for insurance!!! It was a big bill. I spoke in great length to the dentist after the procedure. My main question was "how is it possible that he wasn't in any pain". Tegegn had never once said or implied that his teeth hurt or we would have brought him in for surgery sooner. The dentist explained that there was no way he wasn't, however he probably lived with it his whole life, so the pain was normal. That sentence broke my heart. The fact that children have to live in pain and deal with it is heartbreaking to me. I have never had a cavity, but my husband has and he tells me that the smallest cavity shoots pain up the tooth with every bite of something cold. I regret not doing the surgery sooner.
Gotcha Day was great. We spent it at the Guelph Multicultural Festival. I had a booth there to sell our products for Chance For Change so my friends volunteered to watch my booth so that I could have dinner and spend some time with my family. All day I kept looking at Tegegn thinking WOW, your here. It was such a long hard road to this point, and it's like it never happened. It feels like he has always been with us. Tegegn is a normal adjusted 4 year old Canadian. The only time he shows any signs of insecurities is when he is around other children of colour (people with brown skin as he says). That is when I have to reassure him that he is part of our family and that he isn't going anywhere.
Last weekend we had another Chance For Change event at the KW Multicultural Festival. We did great. We have had amazing support from the Ethiopian Community. They are all very happy that we are helping "their country".
Chance For Change is doing great. I have recently received an e-mail saying that we have raised and sent enough money to Ethiopia for the washroom facility at our sponsor school to begin ( Our Goals for 2011)
It's incredible to think that by selling some scarves and jewelry in Canada we are able to provide basic sanitation to 1215 students in Ethiopia. Thank you for all the support you have all given our organization.
Well, the month isn't over yet. Today I go for surgery. This is stemming from an injury in 2009. It is a day surgery, so should hurt to bad. My hope is that this will be the last one and I can put the memory of my injury in the past. Here's hoping. We have decided to take a short 5 day vacation up to our cottage after, so we are going to celebrate Canada Day on the beach. Not a bad place to recover from Surgery I think! I will keep you posted and upload some more pic's soon.
If you get a chance check out Chance For Change on our website.....
Chance for Change
It started with a Gotcha Day celebration. The weekend before the 1 year anniversary of meeting Tegegn we had 2 of the families that we traveled to Ethiopia with over. It is always nice to catch up, and reminisce of the time we spent in Ethiopia and watch the children grow up. One year ago there was 2 babies and one very small shy toddler. Today there is 2 toddlers and 1 almost 5 year old little man.
Next was a trip to the dentist. Tegegn had some pretty major problems with his teeth when he came home from Ethiopia. Malnourishment and no dental care can rot your teeth very quickly. We knew that he would have to have surgery to correct the problems, but we wanted to wait until he was secure within our family before we made him go under again. Going under anesthetic after he broke his arm was not a good experience for him nor I. June was the month we decided on, after 3 failed attempts at the dentist. He did amazing. After the X-rays, we realized the damage to his teeth was even worse than we originally thought (he wouldn't let us do X-rays previously). Here is a recap of what he had done:
3 front teeth removed (one was so bad that there was almost no root left)
1 root canal
1 abscess
all top molars are capped
all bottom molars are filled from cavities
Thank you for insurance!!! It was a big bill. I spoke in great length to the dentist after the procedure. My main question was "how is it possible that he wasn't in any pain". Tegegn had never once said or implied that his teeth hurt or we would have brought him in for surgery sooner. The dentist explained that there was no way he wasn't, however he probably lived with it his whole life, so the pain was normal. That sentence broke my heart. The fact that children have to live in pain and deal with it is heartbreaking to me. I have never had a cavity, but my husband has and he tells me that the smallest cavity shoots pain up the tooth with every bite of something cold. I regret not doing the surgery sooner.
Gotcha Day was great. We spent it at the Guelph Multicultural Festival. I had a booth there to sell our products for Chance For Change so my friends volunteered to watch my booth so that I could have dinner and spend some time with my family. All day I kept looking at Tegegn thinking WOW, your here. It was such a long hard road to this point, and it's like it never happened. It feels like he has always been with us. Tegegn is a normal adjusted 4 year old Canadian. The only time he shows any signs of insecurities is when he is around other children of colour (people with brown skin as he says). That is when I have to reassure him that he is part of our family and that he isn't going anywhere.
Last weekend we had another Chance For Change event at the KW Multicultural Festival. We did great. We have had amazing support from the Ethiopian Community. They are all very happy that we are helping "their country".
Chance For Change is doing great. I have recently received an e-mail saying that we have raised and sent enough money to Ethiopia for the washroom facility at our sponsor school to begin ( Our Goals for 2011)
It's incredible to think that by selling some scarves and jewelry in Canada we are able to provide basic sanitation to 1215 students in Ethiopia. Thank you for all the support you have all given our organization.
Well, the month isn't over yet. Today I go for surgery. This is stemming from an injury in 2009. It is a day surgery, so should hurt to bad. My hope is that this will be the last one and I can put the memory of my injury in the past. Here's hoping. We have decided to take a short 5 day vacation up to our cottage after, so we are going to celebrate Canada Day on the beach. Not a bad place to recover from Surgery I think! I will keep you posted and upload some more pic's soon.
If you get a chance check out Chance For Change on our website.....
Chance for Change
Friday, June 10, 2011
One Year Ago
We ended up going to Ethiopia one year ago tomorrow (June 11, 2010) with a great group of people that we had never met. One of these people made an amazing video about their time there. I need to share it.
Thanks Rob
Facebook: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Thanks Rob
Facebook: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Our First Family Vacation With Tegegn
We spent 9 days in Florida and it was a blast. We didn't do much but relax and hang out. Tegegn had so much fun. He decided that he doesn't love the brown water (ocean) and that it tastes icky. It took us about 2 days to explain to him the concept of keeping his mouth closed while swimming. After that he liked it a little more and decided that he really liked the wave. Here are some of the best pics.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Reflections - One year later
One year ago today......
-I had booked our plane tickets to travel to Ethiopia to pick up Tegegn. He didn't yet have his VISA and we had no idea how long I would be in Ethiopia.
-I didn't know who my son was. I had no idea that he loves to sing and dance, gives the best hug, has amazing balance, is very busy and has a great sense of humour.
-I had no idea that Celine would open her heart and end up being the best big sister ever. I didn't know that she would love to teach him and watch out for him and that she would never wish we hadn't adopted him.
- I didn't know that traveling to Ethiopia would make me want to start a charity. I had no idea that my evenings and weekends would be filled with planning and attending events to try to raise money to support a school in Africa.
- I thought I wanted 3 children. I wasn't aware that Tegegn would make me feel like our family was whole.
- I thought that I had a great life. I had no idea just how good it was going to get.
One year ago this was our family!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Mother's Day - the good, bad and painful
Today is the day that we celebrate mother's. I am lucky enough to have an amazing mother. One who always stands by me, loves me and tells me to follow my dreams. I am also fortunate enough to have a great step mother and mother in law. Both of whom I am very close to and admire a great deal.
Today like always I celebrate the day with my mother gardening. Yes, I put my mother to work on mother's day, but it has always been a day that we enjoy. I woke up with two little children yelling"happy mommy's day" in my ear, followed by many wonderful crafts, cards and special surprises that they made me. We then had a great breakfast and my mom came over for the gardening to begin. Now when I say gardening, I don't mean we plant a few flowers. I mean we dig up grass, move huge rocks and shovel wheelbarrels of dirt, all in the hopes that we can create some privacy in our backyard which is lined with chain link fence (yuck). We are exhausted by the end of the day, but we always have a wonderful meal that my husband prepares (or at least most of it).This year was a very special year as you can all imagine, because beside me were my 2 children helping. They dug, watered and of course stopped a lot to play on the trampoline.
By now our probably thinking where is the bad and the painful that the title refers to. Well that is about all the other mother's that I have been thinking about the past few days. The mothers that out of selfless love gave up their rights to their children so that they could have a better life, and the women who are mothers in their hearts. You see it was only last year, and the 3 before that I like many others spent mother's day in pain. Yes I had my wonderful daughter that I enjoyed so much and never took for granted, but there was a void, something missing. For many of my friends they went through this day with the pain I felt for many years. You see adoption and infertility robs you of this day. It is a reminder that you don't have what you long for so much. I can't speak about infertility because I fortunately never had to go through the heartache of the tests after tests, treatment after treatment and days of wondering if it will ever be, but I can speak to adoption. Like I have said so many times before on this blog, waiting adoptive parents are most often forgotten. People outside of the adoption world don't understand that from the minute we sign those adoption papers and are considered "waiting parents" in our minds and hearts we are parents already, just as when I women finds out she is pregnant. We have already fallen in love with the child in our hearts, with the one(s) we long to see the face(s) of. I have many friends in this situation as well as some battling infertility. So I guess to all mothers, and those who are mothers in their hearts already I say Happy Mothers Day!
Today like always I celebrate the day with my mother gardening. Yes, I put my mother to work on mother's day, but it has always been a day that we enjoy. I woke up with two little children yelling"happy mommy's day" in my ear, followed by many wonderful crafts, cards and special surprises that they made me. We then had a great breakfast and my mom came over for the gardening to begin. Now when I say gardening, I don't mean we plant a few flowers. I mean we dig up grass, move huge rocks and shovel wheelbarrels of dirt, all in the hopes that we can create some privacy in our backyard which is lined with chain link fence (yuck). We are exhausted by the end of the day, but we always have a wonderful meal that my husband prepares (or at least most of it).This year was a very special year as you can all imagine, because beside me were my 2 children helping. They dug, watered and of course stopped a lot to play on the trampoline.
By now our probably thinking where is the bad and the painful that the title refers to. Well that is about all the other mother's that I have been thinking about the past few days. The mothers that out of selfless love gave up their rights to their children so that they could have a better life, and the women who are mothers in their hearts. You see it was only last year, and the 3 before that I like many others spent mother's day in pain. Yes I had my wonderful daughter that I enjoyed so much and never took for granted, but there was a void, something missing. For many of my friends they went through this day with the pain I felt for many years. You see adoption and infertility robs you of this day. It is a reminder that you don't have what you long for so much. I can't speak about infertility because I fortunately never had to go through the heartache of the tests after tests, treatment after treatment and days of wondering if it will ever be, but I can speak to adoption. Like I have said so many times before on this blog, waiting adoptive parents are most often forgotten. People outside of the adoption world don't understand that from the minute we sign those adoption papers and are considered "waiting parents" in our minds and hearts we are parents already, just as when I women finds out she is pregnant. We have already fallen in love with the child in our hearts, with the one(s) we long to see the face(s) of. I have many friends in this situation as well as some battling infertility. So I guess to all mothers, and those who are mothers in their hearts already I say Happy Mothers Day!
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