After much discussion, not unusual in these instances, and the test driving of new names each week, we have settled on the perfect (naturally, we think so!) name for our Ethiopian princess:
Miriam Arline Manas
Miriam is a Hebrew name, used by many Africans too. It has a few meanings, though our favorite, and especially appropriate, is "wished for child" -- how perfect is that!
Arline was the name of Eric's grandmother who passed away a couple years ago.
We simply cannot wait to be able to share her photo with everyone! We are of course biased but several slightly less biased admirers agree, she may just be the most beautful baby ever, for real!
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
2,517 Days Later........
So as to comply with that old adage of journalism "don't bury the lead" . . . We received a referral for a beautiful baby girl, born just west of Addis Ababa on or about August 17th.
The call came late on Tuesday, October 29. I had drifted off to sleep while Eric lay awake next to me reading. I briefly opened my eyes and he casually mentioned that my phone had been ringing downstairs. I don't get many calls, especially at 10pm I immediately jumped up sure it was an emergency. I went downstairs saw that the missed call was from Randi and was trying to listen to the voicemail while yelling to Eric "RANDI CALLED"! I realized that the Ipad was downstairs....so down I went again. Finally we called Randi back and she said the words we have waited so long to hear...."Congratualtions, it's a girl!" We chatted for a few minutes and then got off the phone to just read over the documents and stare at the pictures we had. I sometimes worried about what it would feel like to see her face for the first time, will I know this is our girl? . . . OMG YES, she is the most beautiful little lady I have ever seen and we both fell in love immediately. There was not much sleeping that night as we were just too excited, and couldn't wait to share the news with our family, who have been waiting as long as we have.
We cannot publicly share pictures until we officially become her parents but here is just a glimpse.
This song by Tracy Champan makes me think of our little lady in Ethiopia...
The call came late on Tuesday, October 29. I had drifted off to sleep while Eric lay awake next to me reading. I briefly opened my eyes and he casually mentioned that my phone had been ringing downstairs. I don't get many calls, especially at 10pm I immediately jumped up sure it was an emergency. I went downstairs saw that the missed call was from Randi and was trying to listen to the voicemail while yelling to Eric "RANDI CALLED"! I realized that the Ipad was downstairs....so down I went again. Finally we called Randi back and she said the words we have waited so long to hear...."Congratualtions, it's a girl!" We chatted for a few minutes and then got off the phone to just read over the documents and stare at the pictures we had. I sometimes worried about what it would feel like to see her face for the first time, will I know this is our girl? . . . OMG YES, she is the most beautiful little lady I have ever seen and we both fell in love immediately. There was not much sleeping that night as we were just too excited, and couldn't wait to share the news with our family, who have been waiting as long as we have.
We cannot publicly share pictures until we officially become her parents but here is just a glimpse.
Now we wait for a call informing of that we have a court date in Ethiopia, just a few short months to go now, in fact a few weeks have already quickly passed.
Thank you to everyone who has walked beside us during this journey....we are almost at the finish line!
This song by Tracy Champan makes me think of our little lady in Ethiopia...
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Peaches!!
Couple cute shots from taking our nephews Peach Picking this weekend.
Can't wait for a cool crisp fall day to go Apple Picking!
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Pulling the Plug!
The Manas' have decided to make a big change in our lives.....and I am a liitle nervous! Effective this Friday, we will no longer have TV in our house. Well, at least not cable television! Or satellite TV! This has been in the works for a few weeks but finally, today, I was able to put on my big girl panties and pull the plug, literally!
Some of you know us and we like shows. Well, good shows. Or at least what we consider good shows! Not just your ABC, NBC, CBS shows but what I call the real shows: United States of Tara, Dexter, Homeland, The Newsroom, Girls, True Blood...and the list goes on and on. It has taken over our lives! So, we pulled the plug.
We have decided to keep the internet (that is a must) and purchase a Roku Box, purchase a couple antenna's and see how long we can survive. I will admit that I just said to Eric yesterday, should we AT LEAST buy the NFL ticket for football season?! I mean what am I suppose to do while I eat my vegan chili on a cool Sunday afternoon...read a book :) ??!!
I know we will survive and what I am hoping is that we spend the time talking more, laughing more, reading more, cooking together more and just being without that most insidious and American of distractions, T V.
Yes, by making this big change we will be saving about $150/month or $1800 per year and get to give a great big middle finger to those bastards at Comcast and Verizon.
Some of you know us and we like shows. Well, good shows. Or at least what we consider good shows! Not just your ABC, NBC, CBS shows but what I call the real shows: United States of Tara, Dexter, Homeland, The Newsroom, Girls, True Blood...and the list goes on and on. It has taken over our lives! So, we pulled the plug.
We have decided to keep the internet (that is a must) and purchase a Roku Box, purchase a couple antenna's and see how long we can survive. I will admit that I just said to Eric yesterday, should we AT LEAST buy the NFL ticket for football season?! I mean what am I suppose to do while I eat my vegan chili on a cool Sunday afternoon...read a book :) ??!!
I know we will survive and what I am hoping is that we spend the time talking more, laughing more, reading more, cooking together more and just being without that most insidious and American of distractions, T V.
Yes, by making this big change we will be saving about $150/month or $1800 per year and get to give a great big middle finger to those bastards at Comcast and Verizon.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
One Year Later......
We are still waiting.
I took a break from writing as so much has happened to Eric and I in the last year that I did not know when, or if, I wanted to blog about them. But this is our journey and every twist and turn will lead us to the child(ren) that are meant to be ours.
Last September we were approached by a young woman who was only 12 weeks pregnant, had 3 other children, an abusive boyfriend, and no family. She said that she could not care for this child. Being "baby crazy" of course we pursued this situation. The journey with this birthmom had highs and had lows but, despite our doubts and with our eyes wide open we steeled ourselves and saw it through to the end. I knew that the lows were normal, that this is a HUGE decision for any young woman, and I needed to respect that.
While patiently waiting for the first situation to come to fruition, for better or worse, we were approached, right around Christmas, by another young woman in our area who purportedly had made the decision to leave her baby with an appropriate State agency if she could not find a couple to adopt her by the due date of January 17th. She was supposedly determined then to leave the hospital without her child and let the State take care of it. After MUCH back and forth betwee Eric and I (remember, I am BABY CRAZY) we decided we could do it, or at the very least were not in a position to turn away any willing birthmother! We always thought we would have twins anyhow so it would be no problem. We got a lawyer for us, a lawyer for the BM and all was moving along. The day arrived and the beautiful little girl was born. We were told all was set, that tomorrow she is to be ours. Needless to say, there was plenty to do, but we were all set, had done our shopping, built her nursery, but tomorrow came and the little girl was not to be a Manas. We.Were.Crushed. There was nothing we could do, we had to power on knowing we would still be welcoming a little one to our family in April.
April came and this is when Eric and I realized again that we would not be parenting the child that we were anticipating for the last 7 months. The person we were trusting was actually a cold, calculating, heartless, ruthless, pathological liar, ultimately exhibiting sociopathic tendencies. She took our money, repeatedly lied to us, on the phone and in person, and in the end we believe, and have actual evidence that she never really intended to give this child up for adoption. Some may say I am mean, but if all the facts were laid out, you would feel the same way as me. She did not owe us a child, but she led us on without ever intending to do so, took every penny she could, then cut off all contact before the baby was born. No explanation.
When Eric and I decided to adopt from Ethiopia in June 2010, it was a decision that we both felt was the right way to grow our family. We have many decisions to make and plan to not publish, for now, the decision on how the Manas family will grow but we will not let the events of the last year stop us from trying. It has not been easy but we are finally beginning to move past what has happened. A week to ourselves on the beaches and cliffs of Jamaica helped too.
Eric is meant to be a father, I am meant to be a mother and I know this journey will lead us to the special little future Manas. I plan to continue to write about the goings on in our life and journey and hope that soon we will be a family of 4 (of course we count Mabel as 1)!!
I love Eric and am proud to be on this journey with him.
I took a break from writing as so much has happened to Eric and I in the last year that I did not know when, or if, I wanted to blog about them. But this is our journey and every twist and turn will lead us to the child(ren) that are meant to be ours.
Last September we were approached by a young woman who was only 12 weeks pregnant, had 3 other children, an abusive boyfriend, and no family. She said that she could not care for this child. Being "baby crazy" of course we pursued this situation. The journey with this birthmom had highs and had lows but, despite our doubts and with our eyes wide open we steeled ourselves and saw it through to the end. I knew that the lows were normal, that this is a HUGE decision for any young woman, and I needed to respect that.
While patiently waiting for the first situation to come to fruition, for better or worse, we were approached, right around Christmas, by another young woman in our area who purportedly had made the decision to leave her baby with an appropriate State agency if she could not find a couple to adopt her by the due date of January 17th. She was supposedly determined then to leave the hospital without her child and let the State take care of it. After MUCH back and forth betwee Eric and I (remember, I am BABY CRAZY) we decided we could do it, or at the very least were not in a position to turn away any willing birthmother! We always thought we would have twins anyhow so it would be no problem. We got a lawyer for us, a lawyer for the BM and all was moving along. The day arrived and the beautiful little girl was born. We were told all was set, that tomorrow she is to be ours. Needless to say, there was plenty to do, but we were all set, had done our shopping, built her nursery, but tomorrow came and the little girl was not to be a Manas. We.Were.Crushed. There was nothing we could do, we had to power on knowing we would still be welcoming a little one to our family in April.
April came and this is when Eric and I realized again that we would not be parenting the child that we were anticipating for the last 7 months. The person we were trusting was actually a cold, calculating, heartless, ruthless, pathological liar, ultimately exhibiting sociopathic tendencies. She took our money, repeatedly lied to us, on the phone and in person, and in the end we believe, and have actual evidence that she never really intended to give this child up for adoption. Some may say I am mean, but if all the facts were laid out, you would feel the same way as me. She did not owe us a child, but she led us on without ever intending to do so, took every penny she could, then cut off all contact before the baby was born. No explanation.
When Eric and I decided to adopt from Ethiopia in June 2010, it was a decision that we both felt was the right way to grow our family. We have many decisions to make and plan to not publish, for now, the decision on how the Manas family will grow but we will not let the events of the last year stop us from trying. It has not been easy but we are finally beginning to move past what has happened. A week to ourselves on the beaches and cliffs of Jamaica helped too.
Eric is meant to be a father, I am meant to be a mother and I know this journey will lead us to the special little future Manas. I plan to continue to write about the goings on in our life and journey and hope that soon we will be a family of 4 (of course we count Mabel as 1)!!
I love Eric and am proud to be on this journey with him.
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