Emails from Ethiopia

If you missed any of the email updates- here they are:
Feb 2nd
So-
We are getting close- flying out Wednesday and will arrive in Addis on Friday night. Saturday morning we will meet Solomon! Can't believe that after 2 years, 1 month we are finally to this point. We will return to D.C. on Valentine's day, and fly back to the bay area Sunday, Feb 15th.

I plan to send out updates when I can- so if you don't want to receive updates- just respond to me with no thanks and I will remove you. I don't want to give anyone unwanted email. And hopefully we will have some pictures to share too.

You can also find some updates on our blog- www.stoutshoutout.blogspot.com.

Thanks to everyone for their support in this process. We couldn't have done this without the support of everyone around us, be it financial, encouragement, etc. Special thanks to those who have run errands, given us helpful stuff to take, and especially those who have helped with Kylia.

Our biggest prayer is for our visa- I will update if we find out it is cleared, but as of today the embassy has not received our paperwork. It should be there soon- but if it doesn't get processed by next Monday (a week from today) we could be stuck in Addis an extra week! Which would not be ideal.

Please pray for Kylia as this will be a challenging traveling experience for her, and I think a little intense in a different culture (even though everyone will look like her!). We are excited she will see some of the nannies who took care of her as well. Pray for Solomon, and his adjustment into our family. Pray that he thinks Wes is funny, because that will make life easier for everyone. :)
And for health- not worried about minor things but I have had big sinus problems and am a little worried about plane flights and being at 8,000 feet in Addis. Meanwhile, I am on medication that has been helping and getting me in better shape for travel. And hopefully Kylia will not get anything big and we will all be in good shape for the 19 hour plane ride on the way back.

Thanks- curriculum is done for the next 7 weeks and we are pretty much packed. So of course now we just want to get on the plane and get on with it...

Hope everyone is doing well- will email next from Ethiopia- unless we get good news about Solomon's visa.

Kristin

Feb 7^th

Hi Everyone-

So what were we stressed about? Something to do with visas, health issues and being united with our son. All in the past now!

We flew to Frankfurt, spent a day and night there, and then flew to Addis on Friday. Frankfurt was cold and wet, but good pastries and very friendly people. Those are my people. Kylia slept most of the second flight and our friend Micael was there to greet us at the airport. We spent the night at the Hilton, and then, finally, the day we have been waiting for...

We got up this morning (you know at 5:00- I love jet lag), and eventually found a ride to our orphanage around 8:00. I'm not sure I really slept last night- but I know the other two did because I was jealous of them the whole night. We got to Horizon House, unoladed ALL of the luggage, and went in and said hi to him as a family. It was great, felt very natural and of course we are now parents of another super cute Stout! Solomon smiles, especially at daddy, and loves to watch big sister do just about anything. We are learning about his personality and so far he seems pretty laid back, following in the Wes tradition. It is wonderful to be able to play with him, feed him, and then give him back to the nannies. We will transition very slowly with this whole thing. I realize that every adoption is very different, we are not first time parents, Solomon is older, we have Kylia to think about, etc. But for now it just feels great to get to hold him and kiss him. He seems to be doing really well- aside from the usual stuff like a very robust cough.

Our travel group is wondeful, 9 very interesting families staying together for a week. Kylia has been a great traveler and is now in heaven with all of the babies and people around. She is a little taken aback by the hugs and kisses she has received from guards, hotel staff, and people at the orphanage. And everyone speaks to her in Amharic. There is another four year old boy at Horizon House and they have fun playing too.

Sorry if this sounds a little disjointed, running on very little sleep. :) Thanks again for all of the support- we will give more updates about the personality of our new little one as we get to know him, for those who are interested in those fun details (ok- so mostly the grandparents).

Love to all from the Roof of the World-

Kristin

Feb 8^th

Hi All-

I am somewhat glad that the internet didn't work yesterday, today is the first day I feel like I had a good night's sleep. Kylia has been wide awake at 2:30 each night, and I have been there with her. If I wrote yesterday, I would have said "whose idea was it to bring Kylia?" But today is a different story- she slept a solid 8 hours and we are new people!

Continuing with Kylia- we saw two of her nannies yesterday (from when she was a baby at Horizon House), Bezunesh and Amarech. They were overjoyed to see her and we gave them pictures of her now and pictures of her with them as a baby. They totally remember her and were so excited that we are now Solomon's parents- since they have been taking care of him too! Yesterday we took Kylia to a lion zoo and too a children's amusement park- she rode on a Santa sleigh ride pulled by reindeer, in the summer weather in Ethiopia. Go figure. It was great to get out though. We are excited to show her more of the city this week.

Now, lest you think we are suffering over here, I am telling you, this is the way to expand your family. Kylia loves playing with the kids and helping the nannies in the infant room, and we have basically a staff of 20 to drive us places, cook us great food, and take care of Solomon whenever we need help. I think reentry to the U.S. will be harder. People here talk a lot about when you take "custody" of your child- meaning you move a bed into your room and start meeting all of the needs. Since Solomon is older, and Kylia is with us, we are taking this very slowly. Plus, if we want to go anywhere outside of the compound, we must leave him behind. This is especially tough because we have so many friends here who want to meet him. But at least they get to see Kylia.

Solomon updates- yesterday a nanny showed us his first tooth that just popped up! We are excited to be here for that milestone. He is a huge smiler- loves to interact with people and is a pretty mellow guy. This should be helpful for the plane ride home. He LOVES his big sister and wants to watch whatever she does. We learned that another nickname for him is Nagoose (means king). He responds to this name too. Oh great, they are already giving him a big head. He also likes to be tickled on his tummy and Wes discovered yesterday that he laughs when you blow in his face. We are still learning his personality- he gives a little cry when hungry or needs a new diaper, but otherwise is pretty content. He is extremely responsive to the nannies and guards and everyone who works here, you can tell that they love him and love to interact with him. He is getting more responsive to us, and we look forward to that recognition of being mom and dad. He fell asleep on Wes yesterday which was great. And he definitely talks- has something to say. Wes says that he has "crazy eyes"- he has this way of staring with really wide eyes and looking a little crazy- I will agree.

We will have our first night with our new guy in a few nights- we want to check out his routine here before we get on the plane and completely screw it up for awhile. of course the nannies have a great schedule for the little ones and we are trying to keep up with it. Today is our embassy appointment- praise God that we have our papers in order to get our visa. Our travel group continues to be great- you really get to know people when you are hanging out bonding with your babies and children. One family is from Berkeley and is adopting a boy a little younger than Solomon. That will be great when we return too.

We are doing great- but prayer is appreciated for continued health- especially Solomon. He has the congested cough that all the babies have here. Pray for the trip home, it has been really easy for both of us to take care of Kylia and Solomon, but as you can see, we have a great deal of help. The plane ride will be interesting. Pray for Kylia- she is doing great but sleep has been a challenge and everything is a little new and overwhelming at times.

And yes- PICTURES! We will work on that- might try a hotel tomorrow to see if we can upload some. Thanks for the support- we love hearing from people-

Kristin, Wes, and Kylia

Feb 11^th

Hi All-

I knew that I could not send another update without visuals. So go ahead and look at them first...

The picture of Kylia with Solomon is within the first 10 minutes of meeting him. In the family photos Solomon has curls in one and shaved head in the other. For some reason, when we go to the embassy to get visas, they like to have the kids look their best. We liked the curls, but they will grow back.

Solomon- is a huge sweetheart. He is a total flirt and loves to smile at everyone. Wes made him laugh for the first time yesterday with a combination of face acrobatics and sound. His giggle is fabulous. He likes to talk quite a bit and seems to have much more interest in toys than Kylia did. I know I am a second time international adoptive mom (that is a mouthful) because I am not at all concerned by the run of the mill cough and rashes that I know will all clear up once we get home. We are having him sleep with us for the first time tonight because we want to see his schedule for two nights before we completely screw it up traveling home. That should be interesting.

Kylia is doing great, she is shy with many Ethiopians but continues to play with all of the traveling families and help with all of the babies. It is hard not to be self-conscious about her being back in her country and all of the people wanting to greet her and see what she is like. With little sleep, gaining a new sibling, and living in a completely different culture, she has been alternately cranky, shy, stubborn, you fill in the blank. We went to dinner last night and she fell asleep on the bus and stayed asleep through a two hour dinner with Ethiopian friends- it was quite pleasant for us. :) She finally got 11 hours of sleep last night and that should help. She has been great with Solomon- checks on him in the nursery and tells us when he is awake and such. She doesn't seem to mind either of us holding him, and although we are teaching her to be gentle, 7 month olds are much more resiliant than newborns so that helps. Lastly, she is just ready to go home- and in a way we are too. But it has been a relaxing week after all of the stress and preparation.

Monday was very stressful. We went to the embassy to get our visas, which should be routine- and one family was initally denied. Something about the child appearing older than the birth certificate. Won't go into details but it was very scary, we felt like none of us had our visas until all of us did. All in all we were at the embassy for 5 hours, and they finally got the visa. We were all so relieved. That was really the last hurdle. The rest of the week we have been sight seeing- going to a lion zoo, amusement park, museum and the Sheraton- which is how we got these pictures to you. We had to find a card reader and then put them on a thumb drive. Complicated. And for those HOPE Enterprise fans- we did see Zenebe and will have dinner with Dr. Minas and his family Thur. night.

Our travel group continues to be great- Kylia loves to interact with everyone- big surprise there. Most of the people see us as veterans with expertise since this is my 4th trip to Addis and we are on our second adoption. We are happy to be helpful with information about what to see and how things work- but I don't think we know as much as people think we know. But I do like the role of being more comfortable and helping others to navigate the many aspects of international adoption. We have really been thankful for our driver Micael who goes everywhere with us and helps us to navigate the city. He also acts as a third chaperone for Kylia.

Might send one more update- or wait until we get home. Hope everyone is well.

Kristin, Wes, and Kylia

Feb. 23^rd

I meant to send this before we left Ethiopia- then right when we got home. You know how it goes. I still feel like 2 pm is 2 am and I want a full meal by 3 am each night. I think all four of us are on totally different schedules- with Solomon doing the best of course.

I will do updates by category so if something interests you more you can skip to it- after this update I will just do the blog- and will let you know when I change the name (still not topping my priorities). I will put more pics there as well. Sorry it is a little long but think of it as 3 updates rolled into one...

End of the week in Ethiopia- we had a good time seeing sights and people- although Kylia continued to wake up super early and crash at some point during the day. My favorite was when she sat down in the middle of a museum and refused to move, saying she wanted to go home. Or maybe it was the airport Friday night when she would not wake up and a security person had to carry her through the security checkpoint. She definitely figured out some coping mechanisms.

The week in Ethiopia had its ups and downs- at first I was sad because Solomon would get fussy with us and then change to happy and playful as soon as he returned to the nursery- even if he wasn't with a nanny. But by the end of the week he fussed when we put him in the nursery and looked very happy to see us. So that was encouraging. At times the trip felt like a vacation- after all the work we had lots of people taking care of us and got to get out and enjoy Addis. Others in our travel group said it felt like camp- people staying in the same house and talking at all hours.

The hardest part of leaving is saying goodbye to families who were strangers but who all shared the same experience and are now very close friends. 6 of us live on the West Coast so we hope to see each other (one is in Berkeley!). The other really hard part is the nannies- the fact that they get so emotional when saying goodbye to Solomon shows you the depth of love that they feel for each child, but what a tough thing to do weekly or biweekly. One of the nannies was also Kylia's nanny- and we took lots of pictures of her and the others with Solomon. And just like Kylia, we had them speak in Amharic to him on video. Solomon was also in the orphanage much longer than Kylia- and there is no way to thank them for the love they gave him while he waited for us.

HOPE: For those of you familiar with HOPE through visits or connections through church, we got to visit a few people. We saw Zenebe at the Hope school and walked around. One of the adopting families came with us and enjoyed the visit too. We also saw Dr. Minas on Thur. and went out to the HOPE college site. We saw the progress of the contruction. Then we had dinner with Dr. Minas and his family and three kids which was great. Wes especially enjoyed walking around the contruction site and seeing the progress.

Travel Home: We meant to have Solomon stay with us the last few nights to see his schedule- but Wed. his chest cough got worse and we decided it wouldn't help anyone if we laid awake all night listening to him try to breathe. So we took custody of him Friday after we packed and he would nap on our chests- I think it helped him breathe better. Then Friday night at 7:00 we began the 22 hour journey to D.C. As I said Kylia- made it until about 8:30 at the airport and then became dead weight- but the good part was that she and Solomon slept the first 7-8 hours of the ride.

The flight wasn't too bad- lots of people from our group were there so Kylia could go visit people- and Solomon was fine if we walked around when he fussed. He continued to sleep on and off. Special thanks to Theresa who put together wrapped presents for Kylia to open- we had enough for the plane ride there, some in Ethiopia- and some on the way back! A wonderful gift when Kylia was having trouble. We were so relieved to get to D.C. (at 8:00 in the morning)- and my mom and our family friends met us at the airport and drove us to the hotel. Wes collapsed pretty quickly but I made it until about 6:00- the kids both collapsed about 3:00. Both were up for the day at 2 am so that was super helpful. :) My mom was so great- she took care of the kids Sat. afternoon and helped a lot on the plane ride back. Kylia refused to sleep for the whole 6 hour flight- until the last 10 minutes. Gary and Bea met us at SFO and drove us home. I think the rest of Sunday is a blur- but my parents and Wes' mom were there to greet us, as well as a few others who stopped by.

Sleep: Continues to be elusive- I think we were all up from 11-2 last night- and Solomon and Kylia want to sleep at different times. Hopefully it will start to come back soon. But after 2 weeks of strange sleep and not much of it, the jet lag on this end is really taking a toll. I keep napping and waking up and having to figure out how many kids I have, where they are, and what city I am in. My brain still needs to catch up a little.

Health: We go to the clinic tomorrow to get a very thorough work up for Solomon, but he seems to be in better shape than Kylia. I thought she had a fever, and she was complaining about her throat. Took her in today and she has strep! Sorry to the few of you who came on Sunday- but hopefully no one else will catch it. I would have loved for her to get to preschool and have a normal week, but thank goodness my mom has the week off and can help out. Kylia should be better soon- I was thinking she was amazing since she spent the week helping to take care of a bunch of sick babies, but her immunity does have its limits.

Solomon- Such a cutie. He is doing great- eating really well and getting on a schedule. He is sleeping in our room at the moment but once we get our schedules back I think he will do just fine in Kylia's room. Kylia continues to be a wondeful big sister- she imitates what we do with him which is fun to watch. And he loves to watch her all the time. He is much more interested in toys and exploring things than Kylia was, so many of her toys are in mint condition and he is having fun playing with them. He is so smiley and we love to find new ways to make him giggle. He can clap and likes to say "da." He traveled really well, especially with the chest cough and runny nose, and those seem to be getting better. He is taking everything in stride, since it is all new, and we are feeling more bonded with him (nothing like a 17 hour plane flight to help with that). We are really looking forward to introducing him to everyone, but are also enjoying this time to get to know him better and help him to get healthy.

That is about it- thanks for following us on our journey and for all of your support. We are thrilled to be home although my head is still traveling and I have to remind myself that we are actually here now and the travel is over.

Love to everyone-
Kristin, Wes, Kylia, and Solomon

Solomon Oscar Stout

We are happy to introduce Solomon Oscar Stout, who is now officially our son! We found out today (Jan 12th) that we passed the court process and have a travel date of Feb. 6th. We are super excited, and as is normal in this process, we were suffering through the wait and now everything is happening earlier than expected and we are trying to figure out all the details.
The first photo is the referral one that we got in Oct (of Solomon in Aug) and the other two are recent ones.