Map

I found a map today of the region where M. is from.  It is the Southern region of Ethiopia, written about in the most recent National Geographic article, The Burden of Thirst.

Good-bye, dossier

So I mailed the package off to Holt on Wednesday night.  It contained, in a jam-packed fed ex letter mailer, every hard-won piece of paper related to the adoption of one very small little girl.  In could remember, while putting the pieces together into one package, tapping them down against the counter gently to line up the edges, the context of each piece of paper.  I remembered feeling exasperated when the police station would only take cash ($2 each) for the notarized police letters - and then scouring the car for change, with two young boys essentially escaping into traffic.   I remember going to my doctor's office to pick up our doctor's letters, with above mentioned two young boys - the youngest of whom heavy, sleeping on my shoulder.  The bank letter: three boys and a long wait and no one to answer my questions.  Tax return: searching through 3 old computers.  Letters of reference: car trips to pick up from workplaces, painted mailboxes.  The homestudy report: numerous trips to our agency, cleaning for our home visit (and installing the fire extinguisher), adoption classes, frustration. It was the ultimate scavenger hunt!  It may be strange, but in some ways I miss it - the concrete evidence that we were working toward bringing our daughter home., a little something to do everyday.  Goodbye, dossier!