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.

Eight Months

We have been on the waitlist for 8 months as of today!  The months seem to be moving along pretty quickly and we can't wait for the day our phone rings with the news that there is a baby girl waiting for us to love!  Until then we are enjoying what is hopefully our last summer of a family of two...well three counting Mabel!

The Farmer's Wife - Girls only project!

Ok, so I follow this really great blog and right now she is doing a pretty amazing girls only project.  I am going to quote from her blog (I hope that is ok in blog land!):

"When a young girl starts blossoming into womanhood, it's a scary, awkward, exciting, embarrasing time.



Remembering those years, I can't fathom going through them as an orphan.


I have been praying about what to bring with us to donate to the orphanages in Uganda on our trip in the next couple of months. I spoke with an American friend of mine who is living there and working with an orphanage. I asked what the greatest need was at this orphanage. Her answer shocked me, but made perfect sense.


Panties
Bras
Ibuprofen
Maxi pads


25 young ladies in this orphanage are in need of these basic things every girl should have. I've heard stories of girls missing school, using scraps of cloth or even trash while on their periods.


No girl should have to do such things.


I thought of the girls at the remand centers where Sixty Feet works. I knew without even asking that they needed these things, too. I talked to Shelly who said YES, that this was definitely a need there. About 30 girls at the remand centers currently go without these same basic hygeine supplies.


It is my heart's desire to get a kit into the hands of each girl containing at least one bra, three pairs of panties, and 5 cloth maxi pads.


Disposable maxis are not a practical choice, being that a suitcase full of them would be gone in a month. But cloth ones can be washed and reused in the same way as cloth diapers.


I did some research on purchasing cloth pads, and manufactured ones would cost close to $40 per girl. Yikes!


Then a remembered a little cloth diapering trick. When in a pinch, a microfiber cleaning cloth can work as a cloth diaper insert. They are soft and highly absorbent. Flannel fabrics can be used to cover the microfiber insert to make the pads comfortable."

I am determined to help and I am asking readers of this blog (and shocking there are some) to help as well! 

Here is what we can do (again taken from this blog):

1. Share this post on your blog, Facebook, or Twitter.


2. Donate. For $15, we can supply one girl with three pairs of panties, one bra, and 5 cloth maxi pads.

3. Collect new cotton panties (mostly women's sizes small and medium) or gently- used bras (training bras and cup sizes A-C , 32-36 band sizes.) E-mail me for directions if you would like to mail in a donation.

4. Sew cloth pads. Don't be intimidated; I've put together a mediocre fantastic little photo-tutorial below. (If you can sew a square, you can make these pads.) For even more fun, invite some friends over for a "pad party!" If you want to sew pads to donate, please email me so we can make arrangements for shipping and quantities.

Oh, and one more thing. I don't have an exact date of departure, but we're sort of "on-call" anytime from early August on to pack up and jump on a plane. I know this makes a project of this magnitude a little challenging. Let's just assume I need all panties, bras, and pads by August 5. Three weeks isn't long, I know, but I want to make sure I have time to put the kits together before leaving.

That's it!

The need is there. What can you do to help these precious girls?

The Farmers Wife would like to come up with 275 microfiber cloths....165 pairs of panties and 55 bras buy August 5!!  I think we can do it!  You can read her post here - she has some directions on making the microfiber cloths and how to send in donations.

First I plan to convince my mommy to help make the microfiber cloths and then I am heading out shopping this weekend! 

Happy weekend everyone!

Mother's Day

I wanted to write this post yesterday and well...we were busy.  There is a song by one of my favorite singers, Kasey Chambers, called "This Flower" and I have wanted to put it on a cd for my mother for long time and never have gotten around to it.  As I was walking the lake the other day it came on my Ipod, and I started to cry.  Our adoption from Ethiopia is so much of a blessing for us and we try to make sure everyone is aware of how very thankful we are to the woman who will be giving birth to our daughter and trusting us to raise her.  The words to the song is exactly how I feel and would love for her to know it. 

So on this Mother's Day I am listening to this song and thinking of not only my wonderful mother but the woman who will be changing my life forever.

This Flower



Well this flower is my soul

But it's not half of what I owe

I should give you every rose that I ever grew

But take this one here for a start

And you can keep it in your heart

I have everything I need because of you

Well if my life was long enough

to pack up everything I love

I would do just that and give it all to you

But it's impossible to pay

All the things that you gave away

So this flower I give will have to do

All the flowers growing wild

For ten thousand lonely miles

It's not near enough to give you what I should

So I will owe you for a while

Maybe longer than my time

I would give you all the world if I could

Give Water for Mother's Day

Many of you know that one of my and Eric's favorite charities is water.org.  It just so happens that Water.org was recently recognized on the TIME 100 List!

I think any Mother out there would apprecaite a gift that will change someone else's life for the better.  I have blogged about this before BUT a donation of only $25...yes that is right $25 will give someone WATER FOR LIFE!  Take a moment and think, if I don't go out to dinner 1 time.....If I don't get a manicure or pedicure 1 time.....not buy that shirt that will hang in my closet 1 time...that I would be ABLE to give someone in need water, is there any better gift?


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 I challange everyone to bring fresh clean water to someone this Mother's Day!

Live FasionABLE - For Mother's Day!

So, as Mother's Day approaches I am always on the lookout for gift ideas.  The best gifts I think are ones that help bring happiness and love to someone else!  This is just what Live fashionABLE does!

Live fashionABLE scarves help create a sustainable business for the women of Africa.  You can read stories from these women here.

Time to Start Posting Again!

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The Manas' have been quiet for awhile now.  There were and still are so many things going on in the Ethiopian Adoption World that we decided to take a break...but now we are back!

As of April 2nd we have been on the waitlist for four months - hard to believe.  Time is kinda flying by and it is not as hard as I thought it would be.  I know it will happen and we just have to be patient.  To pass the time we have re-done the kitchen!  Here are a couple photos of the new and improved Manas Kitchen:

 We have so many cookbooks!  We picked a few lucky ones to display on our new shelf!



Believe it or not we REDID these cabinets using this fantastic product! 

We made a chalkboard wall!

The man of the family turned the big 4-0 and we went to NYC to celebrate! 

NYC is the mecca of Vegan food

Oh yeah....we did the most farthest thing from what is the norm for us and picked out a H-U-G-E new TV:



It is OK to be jealous :)

We have purchased a few cute items and have been given some fantastic little darling girl things!  My personal favorite item purchased so far is this cute onesie:

SERIOUSLY, is this not the cutest thing ever!  You can get one here.

There is so much more to blog about but I will save it for another post!