Happy Friday the Thirteenth , everyone! I am not a supersticious person, so I've mostly been going about my business, but two very interesting things have happened to me today that I want to share. (No, it wasn't watching CinderElmo, though I have to say that both Oliver Platt and Kathy Najimy's performances were spectacular. Not to mention Bert & Ernie as the Town Tinkers.)
Earlier today Rose and I visited the Betty Brinn Children's Museum, where we met three other moms who have adopted children from Ethiopia and one who was in the process still. I was a little unsure of what to expect, you never really know from meeting people online what they will be like in person, but I had a really nice time. I particularly connected with one woman, who I have quite a bit in common with, includung a women's studies degree from UW-Madison. I was worried because we went during the time Rose would normally be napping, but she had a great time, too! She is at that stage where she doesn't really play directly with other kids, but rather is doing the "parallel play" thing where she plays next to the other kids. But they were all so cute together!
The other notable thing that happened was that a few weeks ago, Charles and I hired a private detective in Ethiopia to find out a bit more about Rose's birth family. An agency that was recommended by other folks on the adoption forum I visit online. And today we got some information. It's Rose's story, so I'm not going to share it all on a public website, but many of the details we were told by our adoption agency were confirmed, but one huge difference showed up: her name.
One of the reasons we decided to change Rose's name was because we were kind of suspicious about her name to begin with. The name we were told was hers, Bizunesh, was, coincidentally, the same name as the person who did her intake at the Care Center. And it is an Amharic name, and Rose's people did not speak Amharic. It's also common for the Care Center folks to change or give names if they don't know the child's name. So we didn't feel like we'd be erasing her past to change this name that we weren't sure was hers anyway.
Her given name was Birhannesh Desalegn Ersimo.
Pretty amazing. I can't really describe all of my thoughts right now. We also now have pictures of her uncle and cousins and the house she was born in.
Hello,
My name is Susanna and I am fifteen years old. My family, too, is adopting from Ethiopia- we are currently waiting for the referral of a baby of either gender up to age 16 mos (my blog, if you’re interested, is http://www.bigsisdiaries.blogspot.com) Your little girl sounds adorable. Good luck…and I look forward to reading more!