This Child

This Child
by Susan Aglukark

This child my fellow human being
This child let me walk with you
This child afraid to be alone
This child let me be with you.

This (wo)man searching for the truth
This child finding her way home
This song soaring in my heart
This land a journey still unknown.

Journey your trail my only hope
Hope is all that I can find
Child you’ll never be alone
I’m forever by your side.

Adoption Update

We met with Helen, our social worker, last Thursday to update our home study and review what documents we need to replace/update. I was glad to find out that she had our original fingerprint card, so we don't have to get them taken again!

We will have to get new Interpol/RCMP checks, local police checks, medicals, references (only 2), new copies of birth & marriage certificates, and our passports need renewing. Our goal is to complete our dossier in 4 weeks. (Helen suggested 6, but I am optimistic!). Still not sure if we'll beat Ethiopia's court closure ... but we might as well go for it!

Will keep you posted!

Cross-Species Adoptions - Dog & Squirrel

For about as long as she can remember, Debby Cantlon says, friends and strangers have brought her animals in need. So it wasn't much of a surprise when someone asked her if she'd care for a newborn squirrel found at the base of a tree somewhere near Renton.

When Cantlon took in the tiny creature and began caring for him, she found herself with an unlikely nurse's aide: her pregnant Papillon, Mademoiselle Giselle. Finnegan was resting in a nest in a cage just days before Giselle was due to deliver her puppies. Cantlon and her husband watched as the dog dragged the squirrel's cage twice to her own bedside before she gave birth. Cantlon was concerned, yet ultimately decided to allow the squirrel out and the inter-species bonding began.

Two days after giving birth, mama dog Giselle allowed Finnegan to nurse; family photos and a videotape show her encouraging him to suckle alongside her litter of five pups. Now, Finnegan mostly uses a bottle, but still snuggles with his "siblings" in a mosh pit of puppies, rolling atop their bodies and sinking in deeply for a nap.

I want THIS job!

SICHUAN , China -- One zoo in southwest China has its hands full with 16 baby pandas. The Sichuan Wolong Panda Protection and Breed Center is dealing with the results of a breeding boom -- 16 pandas have been born since July, 2006. The brood includes five sets of twins. The cubs are weighed and measured every five days. The heaviest tips the scale at just over 24 pounds, while the lightest weighs about 11 pounds. The pandas are due to stop suckling by February, 2007 - just about the time they'll start learning to walk. Once weaned, the panda cubs will attend panda kindergarten. In the meantime, more little ones are expected at the center since 38 giant pandas were artificially impregnated.

Cross-Species Adoptions: Cat & Skunks

One week after being born, six baby skunks were abandoned by their mother. Luckily, we had just weaned five kittens off of our resident farm cat a day before and hoped that perhaps she might take them on as her own. She was reluctant at first, but she let them nurse - a positive sign. Two weeks have gone by and the six little "Stinkers" are thriving and their new mom couldn't be happier. She has become quite devoted to them and even carries them around to show them off to visitors.

Cross-Species Friendship: Deer & Hare

Two of the world's most renowned shy and timid creatures have found each other in safe companionship.....through the lens of Tanja Askani, Alberta, Canada.

Cross-Species Adoptions - Hippo & Tortoise

I was wading through my Inbox and found a number of emails with stories and pictures of cross-species adoption in the animal world ... Thought I'd share.

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa , officials said.

The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean , then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him. "It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP."After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added. "The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added.

"The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years," he explained.

One of my favourite "teachings" ...

A Cherokee elder was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me...It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, pride and superiority. The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside of you and every other person too."

They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied..."The one I feed."

E is for Ethiopia

I just ordered this book on-line. We have a similar book, C is for China - and I thought this might be useful in helping Mei Le understand where Little Sister is coming from.

It's written by a Canadian couple that spent two years in Ethiopia with VSO. Cost: $12 + shipping. Visit their web site for more info: http://members.shaw.ca/eisforethiopia/

Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.

- Rabbinical saying

Adoption Update

Here's where we are. Last Thursday I took the plunge and emailed the adoption agency we were dealing with for our Chinese adoption, to tell them of our decision to seek Little Sister in Ethiopia. Sadly, this means cancelling (aborting?) the Chinese adoption, as the ON govt will not allow us to be seeking two adoptions at once. So much for my little plan to adopt NOW (OK - soon!) from Ethiopia, and still meet the minimum 18 mo requirement to adopt the child from China when the proposal (finally!) came through. Sigh.

It was a hard thing to do - as part of me feels that once we had submitted our file, the stars (or whatever) were aligning themselves to bring us and Chinese Little Sister together.

I also asked this agency to forward our dossier to the new Agency for review, to tell us what we need (other than the homestudy update). No news yet, so today I will follow up. I don't want to lose any time, as the Ethiopian court system closes down for July-August and no adoptions are processed at that time. I'd like to beat the closure, if I can.

Will keep you posted!

Legacy of an Adopted Child

Once there were two women
Who never knew each other.
One you do not remember,
The other you call "Mother."

One gave you a nationality,
The other gave you a name.
One gave you the seed of talent,
The other gave you an aim.

Two different lives shaped
to make yours one;
One became your guiding star,
The other became your sun.

One gave you emotions,
The other calmed your fears.
One saw your first sweet smile,
The other dried your tears.

The first gave you life,
The second taught you to live it.
The first gave you a need for love,
And the second was there to give it.

One gave you up,
It was all she could do.
The other prayed for a child,
And God led her straight to you.

And now you ask me through your tears,
The age old question through the years;
Heredity or environment - which are you a product of?
Neither my darling, neither;
Just two different kinds of love.

-Author unknown

A Coincidence? Perhaps not ...

I was driving (somewhere) a couple of days ago, listening (as I always do) to CBC Radio One, and enjoying a song (in an unknown language) that the announcer later identified as "GiGi, from her self-titled album."

Fast-forward to today. As I explore the EthioWorld.com web site, looking for general country info, I see the tab marked "Music", click on it, and wouldn't you know it: GiGi is Ethiopian!

Do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do ....

The Ethiopian Flag

Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world that has no history of colonization. Upon their independence, many African countries adopted the colors of the Ethiopian flag - green, yellow and red - that became known as the Pan-African colors.

The official flag of Ethiopia consists of three equal and horizontal bands of green (top), yellow, and red with a yellow pentagram and single yellow rays emanating from the angles between the points on a light blue disk centered on the three bands.

The yellow pentagram on the blue disk, also known as the National Coat of Arms, is a symbol of the current government; it is intended to reflect the desire of the nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia, as well as of its religious communities, to live together in unity and equality.

(From www.ethioworld.com)

Getting Started

Well, here's my first stab at a blog. I was inspired by the blogs of several other families in the process of adopting internationally. Their sites were so helpful and beautiful that I was struck by how useful this would be to keep family and friends informed of our adoption journey(s). It will also provide an online log for our children as to how the adoption process unfolded, how they came into our lives, how special they are and how they have changed all of us for the better.

So, as we begin anew the process of seeking "Little Sister" - now in Ethiopia -- I will use this site to compile my discoveries about this new country, to share the adoption process, and (mostly) to help fill the time while we wait!

Thanks for sharing the ride with us!