Emirates out of LAX!!*

I've been doing a bit more research...and I think I've figured out our travel!!

Emirates Air starts flying non-stop to Dubai from LAX soon (they don't yet, but I think they start October 1st). By November (when we'll travel) there are flights available on this 'luxury' airline for great prices!! All we'd have to do is drive down to LA (which is way easy) and Sister can drive up from San Diego. We can go from 'home' all the way to Dubai. We've heard Dubai is a wonderful and safe city, with a hotel *in* the airport that rents by the hour...so we can rest. Then non-stop to Addis.

(On December 1st, Emirates starts flying their brand new, super big, aircrafts out of San Francisco non-stop to Dubai!! - but we'll hopefully be gone and back by then).

One stop on the total flight! And when we get off the plane after a long (long, long, long...) trip...we're essentially home! We could stay in LA with family for a few days to 'recover' and then they can drive with us back - or maybe *drive us* :o) - home!! This is a drive we do all the time...and it'll be much easier than changing planes in NYC or Washington DC...

I'm thinking that Emirates out of LAX to Addis via Dubai (non-stop) will be our itinerary.

*the picture is first class...and clearly we're not flying first class. I mean, *business class* (i.e. below first class) would cost $60,000 for us!! But isn't it beautiful?

How to get there...the flight, the airline, comfort and safety

So did you hear about the Quantas Aircraft loaded with 346 passengers...having a very dramatic landing as their plane fell apart because it was 17 years-old?

"One hour into the flight there was a big bang, then the plane started going down,"

The 346 passengers were cruising at 29,000 feet Friday when an explosive bang shook the Qantas jumbo jet. The plane descended rapidly. Oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling as debris flew through the cabin from a hole that had suddenly appeared in the floor.
The eerie scene aboard Flight QF 30, captured on a passenger's cell phone video-camera, showed a tense quiet punctuated only by a baby's cries as passengers sat with oxygen masks on their faces. The jerky footage showed a woman holding tightly to the seat in front of her as rapidly approaching land appeared through a window. Loud applause and relieved laughter went up as the plane touched down.

What they found was a stunning sight. A 9-foot-wide hole gaped at the joint where the front of the right wing attaches to the plane. Luggage from the cargo hold strained against the webbing used to keep it from shifting during a flight.

The probe into the 17-year-old aircraft was likely to be lengthy, Verdier said, and the Boeing team expects to interview the crew and examine the structure of the plane, among other things.

Union engineers — who have held several strikes this year to demand pay raises — say that safety is being compromised by low wages and overtime work.

As of December 2007, Qantas was operating 216 aircraft flying to 140 destinations in 37 countries, though in recent months it has announced it will retire some aircraft and cancel some routes — as well as cutting 1,500 jobs worldwide — due to skyrocketing fuel prices.

Consider this by Bloomberg:

Trend One: The service on your airplanes, bad as it may be, is going to get much worse.
Once upon a time these straight ladies and gay men sought to please fliers; now they treat fliers like criminals.

Trend Two: Your time will be treated as ever-less valuable. You think it's an outrage that planes are now flying more slowly to save fuel? Wait until you find yourself en route from New York to Los Angeles, and stop unexpectedly in Denver until the headwind slows.

Trend Three: Your planes will be ever-more likely to have an accident.
After all, these people who run the airlines have every expense under their microscope
***

I'm thinking I'm gonna have to choose another airline from the top 10 list:

Maybe...Emirates. "Consistently cited as one of the world's best airlines, Emirates is the largest Middle Eastern Airline. Based in Dubai, most of its flight attendants are recruited from overseas. Website: http://www.emirates.com/"

They fly from JFK and Houston to Addis via Dubai.

And domestically...you just can't beat Jetblue.

These airlines (Emirates, Southwest, Jetblue) have new planes (because they are young), great safety records...and provide the type of service that United and American Airlines have long since abandoned in favor of cheap. They give you water, food, a movie, and nice flight attendants.

I don't want peanuts and water (how is that even safe, anyway...with all the allergies out there?); nor do I want to pay for bag (just charge all tickets what's needed to cover the cost of the bags), a coke, or be weighed to see how much my ticket should be. I want to at least have the option to watch a movie. I don't want the paint on the wing to be peeling, or the hand-rail to be broken. I don't want the decor to be dated (because that makes me think that the plane is old...and the metal may fatigue and fall off at 30,000 feet)...and I don't want to be without my luggage.

These airlines should just raise their prices to cover these costs...oh,...and the cost of paying the employees (the flight attendants, pilots, the people who fix the plane, who paint the plane, who clean the plane...)

Tsk, tsk, tsk...
...I wish I were rich enough to afford a private jet!!

Our Court Date is...

October 7th.

We've been assigned a court date of October 7th!! (because the Ethiopian court closes from August 6th - September 30th). Usually baby is ready to travel about one month after passing court. So...

Hopefully we'll pass court on the first time - at which time Baby Sister is legally our daughter!!

It takes a few weeks (3-5) for her papers to be gathered (visas, passports, new birth certificates, medical clearance, etc). After that's completed, we'll have a US Embassy appointment.

That means we'll likely travel mid November (maybe home in time for Turkey Day!!)

Facts and Figures - Ethiopia

Life expectancy: 42 years old

Population subsisting below $2/day - close to 80%
Average births per woman: 6.14
Deaths from pregnancy/abortion related: 1 in 7
Women dying from TB is 96 per 100,000

Children dying from AIDS: 1 in 16
Percentage of AIDS cases in the world: 7%

Female genital mutilation: >80%
Women experiencing rape: 25%

Newborns dying before age one - 1 in 10
Children dying before age 5 - 1 in 6
Orphans - 4 million
Children under 5 stunted from malnutrition - >50%

Literacy 41%
for women 26.4%
High school attendance for females 8.5%

-source

Donations. Travael info. Medical services.

According to the Ethiopian Orphan Relief, Inc.

The following is a list of physical donations currently needed at the Toukoul Orphanage.
Warm Blankets
Clothing (all children's sizes, gently used or new, boys and girls)
Jackets and Sweaters
Shoes
Books for the Library (hard bound and good quality)
School Supplies (pencils, crayons, paper, note books, educational activity books, flash cards, educational games that don't require batteries)
Sports/Play Equipment (soccer balls, playground balls, frisbees, bubbles, games that don't require batteries)
Please DO NOT send the following: medicine (prescription or over the counter), medical supplies, items that require batteries, candy or stuffed animals)

Ethiopian Orphan Relief’s Blog Partner Organization: Toukoul/SOS EE

So, I think I'll do the clothing...jackets/shoes. Maybe we can get some of our places of employment to donate the supplies - paper, pencils, notebooks, etc). I think we can give a ball or two as well.

But...I'm think *clothing* will be our thing...
***

AND, I found this website that has great information about traveling to Addis Ababa via United Nations Association of the USA at Cuppertino High School here in San Francisco. They don't go to Toukoul Orphanages...but the info is great nonetheless.
***

Here are some medical services offered in Addis Ababa to Americans via the US embassy.

Where is Baby Girl now? Information about Toukoul

From: Ethiopian Orphan Relief

The Toukoul Orphanages in Addis Ababa are part of the SOS/EE network of orphanages throughout Ethiopia. Toukoul works with the following American adoption agencies:

Adoption Avenues, AFAA and Dove Adoptions.

Toukoul 1 and Toukoul 2 house and care for children from age 0-14, while proposing them for adoption when fitting. 350 children are admitted per year. Currently there's approximately 200 infants in Toukoul 1 and 2 (which is 4x their comfortable capacity). Toukoul 3 houses and cares for children less than 2 years old who are HIV +. Approximately 25 children are cared for each year.

Other SOS/EE programs include a Vocational Training and Production Center for youth over 14 years old (children live in foster families, attend school and receive job training to help bring them financial independence), Aware Program (sponsors children and families, including job training for mothers and Kindergarten for children), Cereal Production Farm (admits youth after Vocational Training), Horticultural Farm (admits youth after Vocational Training) and the Garage (admits youth after Vocational Training).

SOS/EE also includes 18 satellite orphanages around Ethiopia that each house approximately 50 children who are in the process of being admitted to the main Toukoul orphanages in Addis Ababa. Children usually stay in these satellite orphanages for 3-4 weeks before being transferred to Addis Ababa. HIV + children over the age of 2 currently remain in the satellite orphanages, pending completion of the new, larger Toukoul 3.
***

From Road to Ethiopia

When Ives and Jaqueline Ferez, two french citizens arrived in Ethiopia in 1983, they witnessed the terrible death of parents and children because of drought and famine. After helping in a catholic orphanage before it was destroyed in a fire, the decided to help the children in their own home but they soon were overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problems affecting the country.

In 1990 they founded Toukoul orphanage, first as a small nursery to take care of 50 kids from 0 to 5 years of age, while slowly expanding to provide care to older children as well.

Today the orphanage is well organized in three different buildings: the main one or Toukoul 1 has two wards. Ward A is where the babies and little children are and it also has a kitchen and infirmary. There is another building, or ward B, where the older children up to 14 years old live, separated in three groups according to their age. Children 7 years and older attend school.

The second building or Toukoul 2 is located at about 500 meters from the main building and is a rented facility that is used to receive children from all over the country. Here the first medical check ups are done and also treatments are given if necessary. If the new child is healthy and doesn’t have any contagious disease, then the boy or girl is moved to Toukoul 1.

The third building or Toukoul 3 is located at approximately 2 km and here is where all the babies HIV positive under 2 years old are located, where they get the care they need and if after a while their condition is reverted, as sometimes happens, they are sent to Toukoul 1 to be adopted.

The orphanage takes very good care of the children, giving them not only food and education, but also lots of love and affection, and everything is precisely scheduled to keep things running smoothly. In Toukoul work nurses, baby sitters (24 hour service for the babies), pediatricians and maintenance personnel. The orphanage is funded by several french associations and other beneficiaries.

If you want to see an aerial view of Toukoul Orphanage these are the coordinates you need to copy in Google Earth:
9° 1′9.21"N
38°48′24.34"E

And the videos are in my sidebar.

New blog links added...

....be sure to check out the new blog links added. * = similar timeline.

Waiting and preparing...

No news yet on the court date, but based on the comment St. Clair left (i.e. that she's with Adoption Avenues, accepted her referrals on June 13th, and just got a court date for October 3rd) it seems unlikley that our court date will come before hers. So I'm betting our court date will be sometime mid October...and baby ready to travel mid November.

Baby is almost 5 months now, and 8 pounds. So, in November she'll be 9 months old...and she'll likely weigh about 11-12 pounds if she gains weight now that she's eating regularly. That means her clothes size is 3-6 months (newborn clothes go up to 8 pounds, 3 months about 12 pounds, 6 months up to 15-16 pounds). So I've purchased some adorable infant clothing in sizes ranging from 3 months - 18 months (mostly 3-6 months and 6-9 months).

We've been busily 'fixing' up our home and creating more space. Haley's like "Mommy, we're getting everything new..." Not quite 'everything', but we *are* trying to complete some long-standing projects...both in preparation for Baby Sister, but also in preparation for a 10-12 day trip away from the house. Such as sprinkler installation, and updating the doggies vaccinations and securing the yard so they don't get out (just in case they start to get restless in our absence).

I've started assembling our medical travel pack.

Ian's wonderful daycare family has graciously 'saved' a spot for Baby Sister (so both kids can be together).

We've recruited at least one other recently adoptive family to hand down their baby daughter's stuff to us rather than simply throw it away.

I've started thinking about what to bring as donations to the orphanage. I wonder if we should bring clothing. I wonder if I could simply pack a box of the kids clothes that no longer fit...and donate those? Would they be offended if I brought used shoes? Should I get something for the adults taking care of the kids?

I think I've selected a travel agency.

I've sent the agency the last check (which was due when the referral is accepted).

I've informed my work that I'll need some time off...'but I'm not sure when exactly.' They were way cool...and said they'd help in whatever way they can. I'm realizing that lots of the partners travel to 3rd world countries and volunteer, or otherwise collect medical supplies and send them to various countries in need.

Hubby informed his work too, but as an employee, he gets FMLA, paternity leave, sick days, vacation, etc...so there was no problem there.

And Sister has gotten all her vaccinations and updated passport. She has notified her job of this planned trip...and is super excited to actually be planning a trip to Africa!!

Basically...we just getting ready...
...and waiting for a court date.

da...da...da...daaaaaa - We got a referral!!! :o)

For a beautiful 4.5 month old little girl...with big brown eyes...and soft (looking) curly hair...

It's been somewhat like a project, this adoption process. Gather this, send that, double-check this...fee for that, etc. etc...

...until today.

It's so amazing, the shift in my mind. This "project" went from being a series of 'things to do' and an 'idea', to our actual CHILD. When I look at her (looking at me), needing a home...needing ME...
...I feel as though, TRULY, she is already my child.

Very, very unexpected...but very, very real. I suddenly feel like...my child (and I have children so I know the feeling a mother feels when she looks at a picture of her child) is 'out there' and I feel a connection to her...

...that's such a great thing!!

Next step - getting a court date!!

Vaccinations complete.

So our vaccinations are complete. Hubby got both the last 'accelerated' HepA/HepB and MMR today. (apparently he only needed 3 HepA/B and MMR *can* be given at the same time).

We convinced her....

Sister agreed to come with us!! Yay!!

Now we feel...we have everything we need!!

Thanks Sister!! ;o)

Vaccine count...and update

Vaccine count:

Haley - in addition to all of her 'normal' childhood vax; got Hep A and typhoid (6/16)

I got - Hep A and typhoid (6/16) PLUS polio booster and MMR titers drawn today (7/1)

Hubby - has gotten Hep A and Hep B (accelerated, so 2 of each so far); Tdap; polio booster; and typhoid (6/16). He went back and got the second HepA and HepB combo shot (6/23). Had MMR titers drawn that indicated he only "borderline immune", so in early/mid August he will get MMR booster (since his 3rd HepA/HepB is due late July, and MMR should not be given within a month or so of HepA/HepB so that immunity will be maximized).

Ian - will get his typhoid and Hep A after we get a referral and subsequent court date (probably right around the time hubby is getting his MMR). Vax should be given at least a month before travel, and this will give us adequate time while still allowing him to avoid too much early exposure of multiple vaccinations.

Update: So I've continued my 'research' regarding vaccinations and the developing brain, immune system, etc. I'm kinda thinking that vaccinations are overrated...and I don't think I'll risk the adverse rxn of the vaccine with the low likelihood that we'll get something our bodies can't handle. So, I'm not getting Ian Hep A or typhoid (Hep A is pretty benign in kids and typhoid vaccine isn't that effective). He's gotten the first part of our crazy American vaccination schedule...

...and for now, that's enough.

So I'm done; Haley's done; Ian's done; and perhaps dad...well, I'll let him decide.

Check out this website and book.