Honeybee met her sister for the first time (in her memory) when her family came to say goodbye.

We left for Ethiopia last year in late July and although I had good intentions, I didn’t manage to write much about our trip at all. A week ago I had some serious panic when the external hard drive I had stored our photos on failed and I spent 48 hours thinking I may have lost them all. I hope to share photos and some observations over the next few weeks.

Adding four children to our family expanded us in other ways as well. We now have a deep connection with our children’s birthfamilies. We have been blessed to visit relatives of all four of our children. Eby and Little Man were adopted through an agency that not only discouraged contact with birthfamilies but they actually forbade it. In contrast, Adoption Advocates International, the agency we used for our girls’ adoptions, supported us and made significant efforts to help us meet their families.

The AAI staff in Ethiopia contacted Honeybee’s family who traveled by bus to Addis to meet us. As soon as we are able to return to Ethiopia, we hope to take Honeybee to visit her family in Jimma.

Honeybee’s grandmother told me that she was entrusting Honeybee to my care and she spontaneously and lovingly committed her to me, as you can see in the picture below.

Honeybee and her aunt

After learning Honeybee’s family history, we walked to a local pastry shop.

Honeybee’s grandmother gave us a great treasure. Tucked inside a pocket of folded newspapers were family photos, including one of Honeybee’s mother holding her and a wedding picture of her parents. There were also numerous small photos of uncles and aunts. Not long ago I printed copies of them for Honeybee. Next to her bed she keeps the photo of herself as a baby in her mother’s arms. They were both so beautiful.

(Note: In the attachment and trauma realm, we had a good day today!)

More soon.

~Lisa