What? No Play-by-Play?

So, I know a lot of adoption bloggers give accounts of their trip, which I totally love to read and have learned so much from. And I thought we would do the same, too. But in case you've been wondering, I've decided against it. I barely have enough time and strength (yes, strength... it's an emotional journey, as we all know) to write in his journal. Plus, I really think Nigel's story is his own to tell. Ok, just wanted to say that.

My Ethiopia journey sorta continues tomorrow when I go back to the travel clinic to get my final dose of Hep shot. I was covered in Ethio, but if I wanna be OK forever I have to suck up the pain one last time.

Nigel sat unassisted again today for closer to a minute. I'm not sure how he's supposed to get to the seated position on his own, but for now I just place him between my legs on the floor and let go. - Sarah

Guess Which FIVE MONTH OLD Is A Permanent Resident Now?

Today Nigel turned 5 months. In honor of his birthday, he tried peaches for the first time, carrots for the second. Plus, he sat unassisted for a few seconds. Oh, and we took the infant insert out of his carseat because he was getting a little cramped. And as if that wasn't enough, the good 'ole government sent him his permanent residence card (I guess it's what is referred to as a green card since the back is green)!

adventures in bathing

This night as I was getting ready to give nigel his bath Sarah asked me when I last changed Nigel's diaper. it was at 4 and it then being 6 Sarah was concerned that Nigel had not done a #1 in a while but had had stomach issues due to the introduction of rice cereal. Since Nigel was already in the water for the bath I did not want to discuss this, but Nigel made it a moot point by peeing in the tub. So we change bath water and start over. half way thru baby poops in tub. remove baby spend ten minutes cleaning baby tub then resume bath. almost finished Nigel poops again in tub. repeat earlier process. bath time took 45 minutes.

Bottles are for Babies

Nigel had his first taste of solid food today.... organic brown rice cereal. It smelled pretty gross to me, but he ate the entire bowl.





We went to the international adoption clinic at our local university on Thursday. Nigel had SIX vials of blood taken. All indications are he's one heck of a healthy boy.

daddy's first post

I am adjusting to my new role well i think. my body is finally starting to adapt to getting up at 3:30 every morning for a feeding and then we take a short jog around the nieghborhood. (I used to go swimming in the morning but have not had a chance to do that yet with Nigel's current sleeping pattern.) We went to the doctors yesterday for VCU's international adoption clinic. Nigel did fine until the doctor checked out the spot on his arm that was infected. she popped the infection and took a swab. he was not to hip on this. then we had to get some blood work done. they filled 7 vials. i thought they would take all of his blood. Needless to say he was not to happy about this either. We got to the doctors office around 12:30 and the doctor did not come in to see us until 2:30 and we did not leave until 3:45. Nigel missed his afternoon nap while also getting blood work done. I hope he forgives us. Nigel i think is going to be a swimmer because he loves bath time and acts just like a little tadpole. well i will leave you with some pictures.

I USED to have Insomnia

Things are great here as our family of three adjusts to being back on EST and gets to know each other better. I'm too exhausted to go into details at the moment, so I'll cheat and leave you with some pictures. - Sarah


This is one of Tim's favorite pictures of Nigel. It was taken in Ethiopia.


Nigel had his first doctors appointment yesterday. He got one vaccination and was dubbed a healthy boy. We're going to the international adoption clinic here in town next week.


All snuggly in a towel after his first bath as a McDonald.

We're Home!

It's surreal, but we're home. More to come, but I leave you with Nigel's (yep that's Baby M's proper American name.... Nigel Quinn Demisse, actually) first car ride in a proper car seat! No autographs, please. - Sarah