New weights

This is the email reply from the Dr. in Ethiopia. I don't know why the difference but i'm happy and it sounds like they are doing great.

Hi Ty and Annabelle. Here are new measurements that were taken via a request over Fetene's weight. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Here is Dr. Selam's reply:-

"Fetene's current measurement(February-10-2009).
Weight-3.45kg
Head circumference-37.5cm
Height-53cm

Wesagn's measurement
Wt-3.77 kg
Height-55cm
Head circumference-38.5cm

Both are doing well."

here are the English conversions

Fetene

weight 7.59 lbs

height 20.9 in

Wesagn

weight 8.29 lbs

Height 21.7

Good news

We heard back for the Dr in Ethiopia This is the message:
Fetene was seen by pediatric surgeon who said that Fetene has no Torticolis.

Dr Selam

I also took the weight charts to our pediatrician and the info about the torticolis before the exam. Our Dr. was concerned with him only gaining 3oz. he likes to see the weight gain for the 2ND month about 1 1/2 lbs. Max gained 3lbs 4 oz. Our agency tells us that Ethiopian babies gain weight a little slower and they typically see between a 1/2 lb to a lb. So he is not gaining weight that well. I wonder if they got mixed up on the weighing either the first or the second weighing as according to them he seems fairly healthy and eating well. It is a little nerve racking not being in control and not being able to see and know what is happening. We wont get any more pictures until we pass court unfortunately just the monthly weight and height chart as well as any time they are sick so no news is good news i guess.

weight update

We got their weights for the 2nd month and they are
Fetene(the first one)
12/30/08 3.00 kg 49cm
2/1/09 3.09 kg 51.5 cm that translates to 6.8 lbs and 20.3 in

Wesegn
12/30/08 2.85kg 51 cm
2/1/09 3.54kg 53 cm that translates to 7.79 lbs and 20.9 in

I emailed them about the weight gain as i was concerned about lack of weight. My specialist emailed the doctor about it and also that typical ethiopian babies gain 1/2 to 1 pound. The doctor emailed her back this: Fetene Petros is taking his milk well. He is healthy that is he doesn't have diarrhoea or other illness. I was going to e-mail you about the problem he has. He tilts his head towards left side and he is going to be evaluated for torticolis by pediatric surgeon. I will let you know the conclusion. Dr Selam
Here is a link on it
Torticollis
I also took the info to our pediatrician who didn't seem to concerned about the torticolis but a little concerned about the lack of weight gain.

Lalibela

I found a interesting article about a town in northern Ethiopia. They celebrate Chistmas on Jan 7th. This town is pretty cool with the churches dug down below the surface and made out of solid rock. Anyway here is the link
Christmas in Lalibela

Here is another slide show and story from this years celebration
Audio slideshow:

Enjoy

Tentative Court Date

We just found out today that we have a tentative court date of April 3rd. If all goes well it'll be 3-4 weeks after that we'll be traveling to get them. From what I understand It doesn't always go through the first time. I guess what they do in court is review all of the documents. The mountain of paperwork that Ann and I did, Our agency out of Minnesota CHSFS, Our local social workers home study report. Then they review the Ethiopian orphanage paperwork and the CHSFS over there. They also have to review reports on the birth family. I've recently heard that quite often the birth family is sometimes required to appear in court. After reviewing this The court will then declare them orphaned. And the rest of the paperwork starts Birth Certificate and U.S. stuff.
Needless to say a lot can go wrong. Just today, There was a group that was supposed to go through court (7 from our agency) and apparently a government office MOWA is moving and is shutting down for this week. They have now been rescheduled for March 19th. I also heard that there are just 2 judges hearing the cases and 1 is out on maternity leave.
This is from a message board that someone who was part of the group that was rescheduled said
From what I can tell, there are at least three well-known agencies (Holt, Gladney, CHSFS) that have communicated to adopting parents that they should *expect* to be unsuccessful in their first court appearance, and plan on a new court date approximately six weeks later. From what I can tell, the new court dates for people who failed to pass court today have been rescheduled six weeks later, which would jive with what has already been communicated. My impression has been that these delays are due to a shortage of judges hearing cases (one is alleged to be on maternity leave), as well as increased MOWA requirements, including asking for birth parents or family members to personally appear in court. Seems to me there are a lot of legitimate reasons for court delays besides a pending closure.
and someone else wrote this My court was also post poned. But this was due to the MOWA moving. Also what I understand is that one of the judges is on maternity leave, this leaves only one new judge to handle all the cases. Although this causes delays in our cases it also shows me that the government is taking this seriously and not just pushing cases through. We need to remember this is a different country who deals with many hardships we can not understand..power outages etc. I also heard today that they are considering more judges which would hopefully speed thing up.

As hard as it is to wait and as much as i feel the need to bond sooner i am glad that they are making sure everything is checked out and is on the up and up for all involved. I'll try to go back over the last year and a half of this process and kind of make a time line as to what was involved to date and what is left.

Meet the Twins!!!!!