Ethiopia Restaraunt

Today we went and met Scott and Courtney Himes (www.scotthimes.com/) at Abyssinia Restaurant (www.abyssiniarestaurant.com/) for lunch. I (Aaron) met Scott at a prayer meeting in Indy (http://www.coraprayer.com/). They adopted their son Noah back in June from Ethiopia. I have eaten Ethiopian food once before while in Nairobi, Kenya, but this was Shelli's first experience. Isabel and Sydney came along as well to experience the unique food and the great company.



We ate traditional Ethiopian food (see pic on right; this is similar to what we ate but i forgot to take a pic before we ate it all) that is served "family style" on a large plate covered with Injera. Injera is a large spongy pancake-like bread made from teff (an ethiopian grain). It has an almost shammy like consistancy but a very sour bread taste. On top of the Injera are placed various meats, vegetables, and beans. Everyone eats with their hands by tearing off a piece of the injera and scooping up some of the meat or veggies. We ordered a variety of tibbs (meats) and wett (stews) that I (Shelli) found delicious. My favorite was the lamb tibbs. I was expecting an Indian influence but of the 5 or so dishes we
shared, all had their own flavor marked by various
spices. Bland, it is not, but likewise not extremely spicy or overwhelming.

This was actually our plate on the right after we ate most of the food. The brown circle on the white plate is the injera.

Often times, the meal is served on a stand like this one at the restaraunt, but we ate at a regular table covered in beautiful white embroidered table clothes and chair covers (you can see in the background on left).

Sydney and Isabel both tried most of the food. Syd loved it all (one of the beef dishes was a bit
spicy and she made a funny face) and Isabel
enjoyed most of it.

We also had a yummy pastry

for dessert that Sydney especially enjoyed! I think she ate 3 of them. I don't know what it was called but it was layered pastry and cream filling. It looked like a tiramasu but tasted like a cream horn.

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We had a lot of fun today and are looking forward to visiting again soon.

Interesting facts about Ethiopia

Here are a few facts we found interesting:

1. Did you know that the oldest human skeleton was found in Ethiopia. "Selam" is a skeleton of a 3 year old girl that carbon dates back 3.3 million years. Also, the famous skeleton of "Lucy" was discovered in Ethiopia and remains there still today.

2. Ethiopia still uses the Julian calander which has 13 months and is almost 8 years behind our Gregorian calendar (they just celebrated the new milenium Sept. 11th this year).

3. Ethiopia is the birth place of coffee, whose origins trace back over 1000 years to the Ethiopian city of Caffa.

4. Did you know that a large portion of the Ethiopian population claims descent from King Solomon of Jerusalem and Makeda, the queen of Sheba (an Ethiopian queen)? And that they converted to Judaism after the son of Makeda was born, and claim that the final resting place of the Ark of the covenant is at a chapel in the holy city of Aksum.

5. Did you know that, for many years, Ethiopa's rulers were female? And that Alexander the Great stopped in his conquest at the border of Ethiopia because he did not want to be defeated by the woman ruling at the time.

6. Did you know that, in contrast to what we think of when we imagine Ethiopia, it is a land full of lush green pastures, forests, and lakes? And that it has one of the world's tallest waterfalls, and is the source of the blue nile?

7. The Jamaican rastafarian movement originated in Ethiopia. Some Jamaicans believe that former emporer Haile Selassie (born as Tafari Makonnen and later called Ras "leader" Tafari) was God incarnate based upon his status as the only African leader of an independent nation in the 1930's. Currently 10% of Jamaicans consider themselves Rastafarians.

8. Ethiopia is one of the worlds oldest nations and the second most populated country in Africa.

I-600 Snag

I got an envelope in the mail today from the Department of Homeland Security, which I was pretty sure had to do with our adoption since no one I know is part of any terrorist cell. Anyway, news from them is never good. They only contact you with bad news or when they want money. Fortunately the news wasn't all bad, it seems our homestudy agency sent in a copy of our homestudy instead of an original and our lovely government agency was notifying me that I had 3 weeks to get an original sent in or my petition for adoption would be denied. Fun stuff, especially considering it is the holiday season and noone is around at the agency until after New Year. I am sure it will get taken care of, and in all honesty it doesn't really affect us (that is unless they deny us) in terms of waiting. Fortunately Ethiopia (unlike most other countries) does not require your I-600 to be approved before you start your waiting process (which is where we currently are). So, just pray our homestudy agency gets the correct things sent in a timely manner and we should be good to go.

On another note, we are getting ready to move the girls into the same room (say a prayer for that). I am sure they will not fall asleep before midnight the first few nights. They have wanted to share a room for quite some time and we want to start putting a nursery together for our son while keeping a guest room. We found a cool bunk bed for the girls so decided the time was right. Guess what I am going to be doing in the next few weeks.... that right.... painting!

Lets hope for the best...

We just got an email from our adoption agency who is now listing the current wait time at 6-9 months. Not a major change, just a few months more, but with my (shelli's) sister getting married sometime in late summer or early fall we could hit issues. Especially since Aaron is officiating the wedding, I am the maid of honor, and both our girls are flower girls. Hope for the best... could be worse. We have friends adopting from Columbia who are at 3 years of waiting, and counting..

There will be no hiding from Big Brother now!

Well, we went downtown on Tuesday to the Department of Homeland Security to be fingerprinted. On the way home Aaron made a comment about how we are now in "the system"... guess we will really have to watch ourselves from now on (and I had so many crazy things planned for the new year, oh well)! Overall it was a pretty painless process. The hard part was just getting there. I had to stop by and pick Aaron up on my way downtown from his work but was a bit late in getting there. The road out of the front of our neighborhood has been closed for months and I was so excited to find out it had reopened after I arrived home from my week in Guatemala. Unfortunately they reduced the speed limit down to 20 (it was originally 45mph) apparently due to continuing construction. I found this out after I got pulled over. But... you gotta love the small towns as the officer who pulled me over is good friends with my former next door neighbor (who is the shift manager of the officer) and I got away with a warning (for doing 43 in a 20). Not sure how I do it, but that makes the 11Th time I have been pulled over and only 1 ticket! Anyway, I was a bit late picking Aaron up but all went well and we made it downtown for fingerprinting. It was a quick process. You place your hand on a glass tray connected to a computer and it scans your prints... that is all there is to it! We did have to get "wanded" as I refer to it, but no big deal. Even our little 4 year old was searched with a wand (you never know what kids are hiding these days). Beats my pat down in a Guatemalan prison last week... but that is a whole other story!

Off to Ethiopia....

No, not us. But our dossier is! Today our dossier was reviewed and accepted by our adoption agency which means it is now headed to Ethiopia. And it also means we are officially on the waiting list for adoptions! We are so excited! Now the waiting begins!

It's official... there is no turning back!

Well, it is official. I just got back from the post office where I mailed out our Dossier for adoption. I think the clerk at the post office thought I was a nut as I was trying to explain to her that I needed about every "extra" confirmation item (certified, proof of signature, delivery confirmation, etc) added to the package because the packet I was mailing represented countless hours and thousands of dollars of work over the past four months and was practically irreplaceble. She really couldn't have cared less. Oh well, just say a little prayer that the package will make it there in a timely and safe fashion. Due to the holiday on Monday it should arrive at the office of CHSFS on Tuesday and then be reviewed by our social worker within a few days. That means by the end of next week we will be officially on the waiting list for adoption. I just can't relay how relieved I am to be done with all that paperwork! About the only thing we have left (besides 4-6 months of waiting and MANY more checks to write) is to procure our plane tickets- which we can't do until we have a referral. It just feels so good to have the bulk of the work done!

Welcome to our Adoption Blog

Welcome to the Elliott's (Aaron and Shelli) adoption blog. We are the proud parents of Isabel (almost 5) and Sydney (just turned 2), and are currently in process of adopting a little boy from Ethiopia. It is here on this blog that we plan to keep people updated on what is happening in our process of adopting. We also will document some of the things we are learning about Ethiopia, adoption, and other interesting facts related to our adoption.