Allison Yimegnushal Weber

The last step in our adoption journey was to finalize Allison's adoption in the State of Arizona, which also included her name change since she was adopted as Yimegnushal Anthony Weber. After all the paperwork of her adoption, we kind of let this step lag, but now it's done and we have her name change and Arizona birth certificate.

What It's LIke

Last night I put these jammies on Allison that we were given from another ET adoptive family. Already, most days the miracle of her adoption gets lost and forgotten about. We are a busy family of five, and already we are finding our new grove with three kids, regardless of how they came into our family. But last night as I was putting these pjs on her (probably for the last time because she's growing so fast) I looked at the map of Africa and it hit me about all that we went through and did to bring Alli into our family. We went to Ethiopia, twice. She was born on the other side of the world under circumstances that we may never know. We talked about ET and I let her play with the flag. We want her to always love Ethiopia because it will always be a part of who she is.

6 Months

Today marks 6 months since we came home with our sweet Allison. It's worth mentioning and celebrating here on our adoption blog, but I'll send you here for the update.

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Will You Pray?

I've come to the blog many times in the past to ask for you to pray, but most times it was for our own adoption and our own sweet Allison. The roller coaster of adoption threw us for many loops on our journey. But this is not about us.

There has been news flying in the adoption world that Ethiopia is going to cut their adoption program by 90% (you can read the article here). That's a huge number. Rather than processing 50 children each day, they are going to process 5. This decision is not haphazard. There are allegations of some agencies doing things unethically, and the extra time will be to make sure that all the "i"s are dotted and the "t"s are crossed, and that Ethiopia is not just in the baby business, but that each child is truly an orphan needing a family (the implications alone break my heart).

But my heart is also breaking for the many families, including many of my friends, who are waiting, and may now be waiting a lot longer.

So please pray that this mess gets cleaned up, and that every child is protected in their journey to a new home. And please pray for the waiting families as they wait.

adoption and HIV

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I used to watch the Today show daily, but I have now traded being informed about our world for the much gentler world of Mickey and his clubhouse. But today I just happened to turn on the news so that I try not to be completely naive about the goings on outside of our home.

This story made me stop mid-banana slicing (much to Allison's dismay) and brought tears to my eyes (after just doing my make-up), but I love that love and stories from Ethiopian families are coming into the mainstream. I am thankful for families like the Twietmeyers and for Jenna Bush and the Today Show for sharing their story.

You can find out more at http://www.projecthopeful.org/

Thank You Dr. King

Last year I posted that I had never thought much about World AIDS Day until we started the process that would bring our daughter to us from a country and continent torn at the seams by AIDS.

I also have to admit that until this year, MLK day was just another day off of school. Yes, I knew that he was a great man who did great things, but this year I can't help but think how he changed my life. If it hadn't been for him, there is no way that we would now have a society where color doesn't matter and that this white family has a black daughter, and my biggest concern is how to care for her hair. (And yes, I know that we may face other issues and a multi-racial family in the future, but for today it's about where are are now. The other details are for another post for another day.)

Megan and Emily learned about Dr. King in school last week, and it raised interesting discussions and disbelief that people had different (and not equal) privileges just because of their skin color. I am thankful for how far we have come as a nation.

Dr. King, I hope that God gives you a window from heaven to see that your dream is becoming reality.

I have a dream that... little black boys and black girls will join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.


I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.


Martin Luther King, Jr.