Ethiopian Family Day

The third week of June is a big one for our family, Father's Day, Kody's birthday and also now Elie's birthday, plus we celebrate their last days as well - so it is just one week long party.  There is one more day we celebrate this week, Ethiopian Family Day.  On June 22, 2010, we received final custody of Faith Shetu and she was placed into our arms forever.  The program in Ethiopia through our agency slowly transitions the children into their forever families over a four day period.  This gives the children a chance to get comfortable with their new family and to say good bye to the nannies who had cared for them.  It was an excruciating process for me, each day that we had to send her back to sleep at the orphanage felt like someone was physically cutting my heart with a knife.  But I know that it really was the best thing for our daughter.  The first time Faith saw us she was an absolute mess but after a few days began warming up to the idea of being with us.  She still was the loudest crier of the bunch when the day came to say good-bye, but we took hope in that also.  We knew that if she could still cry, then she still had some fight left in her.  

The top picture is from the day she officially became our daughter.  The care center had a good bye ceremony for all the children who were leaving.  Each child was given a traditional Ethiopian outfit to wear, they put their handprints in a special book, and gave us a beautiful letter for Faith to have as a keepsake.    Faith looked absolutely beautiful!!  This picture of us is horrible, but it is all we have and so I cherish it.  We were not allowed to bring our own cameras into the care center, so this picture was taken by the staff and it is all we have of that day. 

There are many ways that adoptive families celebrate, or do not celebrate, the day they received their child.  We celebrate her birthday on May 1st, which is the date that was given to us as her birthdate.  But we have no official records of her birth and really don't know for sure if that was her birthday or not.  We were not there and her birthday is somewhat bittersweet for me.  But June 22, that is a date that I know for sure.  It is something that is just for our family.  It is the day that our family became Ethiopian.  And so we celebrate it as our Ethiopian Family Day.  For us, this works and we will continue this tradition as long as it provides love and not pain for our family.  This year we watched some movies about Ethiopian culture, a special video given to us by Faith's care center with video of her while she was waiting for us and some footage of the town where she was born, and then we watched the video of us coming home at the airport.  It was fun to watch all this together and talk about it together.  We finished the day with dinner out at an Ethiopian restaurant with some very special friends.  Faith still loves Injera and all things spicy.  I have no idea what each new year will bring and how this tradition will change as our family changes, but for this year I have great memories of celebrating the end of a very long wait, for a very special girl.  

Some day these two are going to change the world.......