last call!

I need to finalize the photobook this week... so if haven't sent any photos and would like to contribute some, please comment or email me (mgrkej @ yahoo. com) by tomorrow night! Thanks to all who have provided pictures - I think the staff in Ethiopia will love seeing all of your families!!

in love

... how could you not be?



does this mean he likes us?





yup, those are my folks


...not sure about the dog though...


...I guess it's cool...


A huge (HUGE) thank you to the wonderful Jess and Chris, who brought a small package to Simon Alemayehu for us and took all these great pictures! We are so grateful.

And p.s., Jess says that she thinks Simon already digs EJ... we hope she's right!

don't forget!

We're still collecting pictures for the photobook for the Gladney Ethiopia staff. Thanks so much to all those who have already contributed pictures - I think the staff is going to love seeing all the beautiful families!

In order to finish the book before we leave, we'll need pictures by August 25, so if you're a Gladney family (forever family, waiting to travel, waiting for a referral...) and you'd like to contribute to the book, leave a comment with your contact details or email us at mgrkej @ yahoo .com

EJ's already given me his picture... you should too!

Living on the ej: i do(g)th protest!

I'm going to apologize up front. My shrink Stella is on vacation in the Hampton's (so is everyone else in Manhattan except us), so I'm a little out of it. But Ry said writing can be cathartic, so here goes...

I get it. The crib. The clothes. The toys I can't touch. I've seen the photos of the little pipsqueak. And I know what's coming next - the cooing, the crying, the drooling, and the smells... I guess it was inevitable, but I was holding out some small shred of hope that this whole adoption thing wasn't really happening - Stella says this is called, "Floating down De-Nial." Whatever. I'm not a fan of water anyway.

But I mean really, do we need any more cuteness in this house? Aren't I enough? And what's all the excitement about? Congratulations Guys - we'll never sleep soundly again! This is so great, we're so happy for you - time to consolidate all your stuff to make room for a mountain of baby items - Great! Being a parent is going to change your life - Uh, DUHHH!

What about my daily dose of belly rubs? What about fetch? What about the 3 of us lounging on the couch dozing off to reality tv in peace?

Stella says I am priming myself for feelings of resentment towards Simon. I say, I'm way past resentment sister. We're talking about belly rubs. Belly rubs are my life.

So I've been watching the Olympics, and the Serbian guy who lost to Phelps by .01 in the 100m fly gave me an idea:

I am hereby protesting the result of this adoption on the grounds that it infringes on my rights as king of this domicile.

I did not authorize this process. That social worker person back last November didn't ask me how I would feel about this or if I thought Mer and Ry were equipped to be good parents of a child. And aren't I in the best position to know?

And what if he doesn't like dogs? I saw the development checklist. He makes eye contact, he laughs, he cries, yeah yeah, but where were the Plays Well With Dogs results? Where was Doesn't Steal Bones? Either the agency didn't run the tests or they are conspiring to conceal the results! Either way, I'm on to you guys. I demand a hearing! I PROTEST!!!

STELLLLAAAA! Arf!

ej

project photobook

Thanks to everyone for all your emails and comments regarding the photobook (see post below if you don't know what I'm talking about yet). I'm really excited about making the book and I am so grateful that so many of you want to contribute - I think the Gladney staff will really love this!

If you've left a message or sent an email and I haven't gotten back to you yet, I promise that I will. In the meantime, I thought I'd do a quick post to better explain my plan and to answer a few questions that I've gotten....

My idea for the book is to include pictures not only of the Ethiopian children adopted through Gladney, but also pictures of their forever families and even pictures of those of you who are waiting for your referral (we are all Gladney families!). So please feel free to send me pictures of your kids, yourselves, your families... You can send 1 to 5 pictures, as I'll try to give each family 1/2 or 1 page in the book. When you send the pictures, just let me know how you'd like me to label the page in the book with your photos (e.g. first names only, the "xxx" family, etc... you can include the city/state where you live too). I don't want to put any personal info in the book that anyone is not comfortable with, so it's totally up to each of you how (or if) your pics are labeled.

The service I'm using allows me to share an online version of the book with others, so once I'm done, I will send everyone who contributed a link to the book so you can see how it looks.

Thanks again for all your support... and keep the pictures coming!