Answers to JJ's Questions

JJ posted some questions in the comments section of our last post that I thought you might all like to know the answers to so I'm making it into a post.  Here it is:

When do they tell the kids? Would they know now what you know... that the process is really starting for them? Or do they wait until after the court proceedings in Ethiopia?

The kids do not know yet.  The way it works in our agency is that after our placement agreement is signed - it's currently sitting on our dining room table with my signatures complete, waiting for Brent to sign - we prepare a "welcome bag" for the kids.  In the bag we are supposed to include a T-Shirt that somehow announces that they are part of our family, a small photo album (pictures of our home, pets, and anything else they might need to start imagining what their new home will be like), a letter, and small gifts.  I just found out that since they are at different orphanages, the social worker in Ethiopia will bring them both to our agency's orphanage (another orphanage in Addis Ababa) so they can meet each other and receive their welcome bags together.  Once we have put the welcome bags together, we will send them to our agency (in the Seattle area) and they will send them along with the next staff member or adoptive family that travels to Ethiopia.  We will get pictures of them opening their bags.  After they receive them, we are allowed to write to them.  Also, we can request pictures from other families that travel to their orphanages to pick up their own kids before us.  So, despite the distance, we will get a surprising amount of contact with Elsa and Asegre while we wait to travel for court and then bring them home.

Can you describe how to pronouce Asegre in your next post? 

This is a funny question because we are not entirely sure ourselves.  We haven't heard anyone say his name.  To make matters more confusing, his name is actually spelled two different ways on his various reports: Asegre and Ashagre.  This is pretty common in Ethiopia.  I have looked the pronunciation up in our Amharic phrase book, but since his native language is not Amharic, I don't know how useful that is.  Here is how we are pronouncing it until we learn something different.

A (short a)-SEG (like in "segment")-RAY