This post is for all you adoptive families out there...
1. Books- We are putting together a registry that we will share with family and
friends as soon as we "pass" court. We want to put some specific books on
there.
QUESTION: What is your or your child(ren's) absolutely favorite children's book in the adoption/ connection/ belonging-yet-being-yourself genre?
2. Court trip packing list- We are finalizing our 'what to pack for court trip'
list, and we thought we'd ask those of you who can say "Been there, done that!"
QUESTION: What is one must pack item and one item you might as well have left at home?
3. Travel Musts- We will have four days in Ethiopia after our court date to do
some traveling.
QUESTION: What do you recommend as "must-do" and "must-see" as
far as cultural/historical as well as eco/nature type places?
Thank you for any insight you can share!
--MB, J and (soon) Sweet M
I shared some of my thoughts on the agency listserv, but just wanted to say here that this is a great little exercise! I'm so glad you're at the point where you can plan for your trip to see your Sweet M.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kelly. Thank you!
DeleteSo grateful that you have been part of our journey thus far.
I'll repost my answers here, in case someone not on the listserve is reading this:
ReplyDelete1. A Mother for Choco and The Red Thread are Ayub's favorite adoption books.
Although Red Thread is about Chinese adoption, it really resonates with him for
some reason. I really like Tsion's Life, especially for a baby who won't
remember what things in Ethiopia were like. Although, disclaimer, Tsion's life
if very different than what most of our kids would have experienced had they
stayed in Ethiopia.
2. Must pack: earplugs, hand sanitizer, tiny packs of tissues, and an empty
water bottle (to fill up at Horizon House, where they have a water cooler).
3. In Addis, we liked Mount Entoto and the National Museum. If you want to
travel a bit, the Awash National Park is about a 4-hour drive and we absolutely
LOVED it. There are comfortable accommodations to stay overnight and you can go
on a safari and see the Awash River Falls. GORGEOUS.
I saw someone else post on the Ethnographic Museum. I forgot about that one and would add to the must-see list. They do a really good job of showing things from all parts of Ethiopia.
1. Our little one doesn't have the attention span yet (about to turn 1 yr old) to sit and listen to books, so we don't have a favorite yet. My wife really likes "A Mother for Chaco" though.
ReplyDelete2. You don't "pack" this, but if you have a smart phone, I would suggest getting the Viber app. It allows you to use wifi to make international calls with others that have Viber. So you'll want your friends and family at home to get Viber as well. Most guest houses have Wifi now and we really enjoyed being able to talk to friends and family at home and let them know how things were going.
3. There are quite a few things to see in Addis - the lion zoo, the museum at the Addis Ababa University (formerly the palace of Haile Selassie), the church and Menelik's palace on top of Entoto, the Sabahar Silk Factory. You can take a day trip south to Kuriftu Resort at Debre Zeit which is a nice getaway where you can kayak on the little crater lake and relax. If you want to really get out of Addis, I would thoroughly recommend flying to Lalibela and spending a day there touring the churches. You can fly there in the morning, see everything in one day, spend the night, then fly back to Addis the next morning. It is amazing!
Thank you each of you!. It is so great to have the first hand advice.
ReplyDelete