And tonght's gonna be a good, good night!

Doesn't he look upset? Well, at least we managed to get Eric's cap on him so his head wouldn't get soaked.
Here's Joseph standing outside in the rain waiting for his brother and sister to come home from school and play with him. Unfortunately, this was taken at ten in the morning and they weren't going to be home for hours. He was so angry that I wouldn't go out and play with him and that I finally made him come in the house.




Yep, the three little bears are all tucked in for the night and I'm finally starting to feel human again after arriving back from Ethiopia with Joseph. Sigh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The trip was evidently more stressful on our bodies than we imagined it would be and upon arriving home Eric promptly got sick and each and every day felt worse until he was ready to go to the travel doctor and find out what was wrong. I, on the other hand, was just totally exhausted.

Even though we had read and heard on several sites that you don't need to take Malarone in Addis due to its high climate and the fact that there aren't that many mosquitos at that elevation, and the ones that are there don't carry malaria, we still decided to take Malarone. Eric was bitten by a mosquito on the second day there. I know this because I squashed it on our hotel wall and it was bloody and Eric had the welt to prove it. It was then that we broke out the Malarone and decided to start taking it. I have no idea why we didn't start taking it 2-3 days before our trip as the directions suggested, but we didn't. Maybe we believed all of those Internet posts. We weren't planning on giving it to friends for Christmas if we didn't use it. It must have been some of the nasty side effects that scared us at first. Anyway, we came to our senses and took it for at least 3 or 4 doses total. Not the 2-3 days before your trip, while on your trip, and for seven days after you return from your trip as directed. Why they even put directions on medicines prescribed to us I'll never know. The good news is that Eric doesn't have malaria and he's on the mend. Nowhere near normal, but much better.

The time change affected us all and we were thinking that it would be Joseph who had the hardest time with it, but that's not true. Eric and I went to bed at 8:00 p.m. the first week home and would have slept until morning if Joseph's stomach would have cooperated.

We took Joseph to the pediatrician three days after returning home and he went through a battery of blood work, vaccinations and screenings. I'm so proud of how well he did. We received the results back from the doctor today (he called me personally....when is the last time a doctor called you??????) Bottom line is that Joseph is 'better on paper than the doctor could have hoped' which is fantastic news. He has had a nasty bout of diarrhea ever since we met him and the doctor thinks it's because of a lactose intolerance and an allergy to dairy. So, we're making necessary dietary changes and will check back with the doctor in a couple of weeks, or sooner, if it doesn't get better.

We've started the re-adoption process which means Joseph's name will officially be changed to Joseph Duane Lockhart from Yosef and he'll be able to obtain a copy of his birth certificate through our state office instead of through Ethiopia. We'll also get everything updated such as social security card, bank account, birth certificate, passport, medical records, etc. with his name as Joseph.

Tomorrow I'm taking Luke and Joseph for passport pictures. Luke's passport is set to expire in a couple of weeks and Joseph needs to apply for a US passport. That way we'll be ready to travel on a moments notice. Joseph is a US citizen because of our finalizing his adoption so he is eligible for a US passport. I still want to keep his Ethiopian passport for him to look at later just like we have Anna's from Guatemala. It's cool to look at now.

Work has most certainly been moved to the back-burner and everything is done with a 'just-in-time' mentality. I hate to have it this way, but Joseph is our number one concern right now and him fitting in with the family and attaching take precedence over bills.

As you can probably tell our lives are so different from a few short weeks ago when I was online blogging more than I should have been and now I'm not on that much and friends and family are wanting updates. If tonight is a sign of things to come, I should be back to at least 1/30th speed within a month. ha.

Here's a quick movie from tonight of the kids playing around. Can you tell they adore each other?! I was proud of how well the night went. I made dinner, cleaned up after dinner, gave baths and got Joseph to sleep before Eric came home. It felt like a major accomplishment. If only I would have had time to take my clothes off the clothes line that are soaking wet and will stay soaking wet through the night and through tomorrow until they dry. Pray for sun and wind. Lots of wind!!