Jojo Day 2010

Today is Jojo day! We had Joseph in our arms two years ago, April 28th. In the adoption world this day is called "Gotcha Day!" I'm not sure whether we got him or he got us. This little boy sure has changed our life. We see things with a new perspective since he joined our family. Joseph sees everything and everyone as FUN!! He's full of life, always ready to run, jump, and explore! He doesn't stop for very long. Sometimes just long enough to watch Jungle Book 2 - another fun adoption story!

Every year we need to write a post placement report and include pictures. Here are the 12 pictures I included in the report:

Here's a slideshow of Jojo pics over the last year. It's been a year of transition. We've moved twice, traveled a lot, and added Faith to our family. We're thankful that the transitions are over and we can just enjoy being a family of four! Today we're especially thankful for Joseph!!

We're thankful for friends who celebrate this blessing with us.

We dressed the kids up in Ethiopian clothing before we went out for ice-cream to celebrate. Here's a couple pictures of our kids all dressed up:

Here's a short little video of Joseph saying, "Jojo Day!"

Jojo Day! from Tim and Jeni Saltzman on Vimeo.

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catching up

It has been a while since I've updated this adoption blog. Not much adoption news lately, I guess. I've been updated our family blog more. Check it out if you'd like! I'm not sure what I'll do with this blog...I'm still deciding. It's an adoption blog and our adoptions are complete. But, at the same time, I know our lives will always be about adoption...our kids are adopted and we love adoption!!!

Well, since we last updated, we celebrated Faith's first birthday.

Here's a slide show of her party! She sure is growing up fast! She already has two teeth and she loves to be on her feet! She's such a blessing!!

Tim's parents came out here to visit and we had such a great time with them! Here's a pic of all of us together:

We were excited to meet another family that lives close to us that has adopted two kids from Ethiopia. Here's a picture of their kids and our kids when we met them! We hope to see them again soon. They don't live far, but seeing them does involve a few hours in the car.

I've also been in touch with another family in a nearby city that is beginning their adoption journey! They've chosen to go with the same social worker and agency that we used...wow! It's so great to have more families like us that live close!

In other news...Faith's hair has been growing longer and longer. When Joseph's hair gets too long, we just cut it. I've been putting conditioner in her hair and I've even started putting it into pig tails! It's so cute! Here's a couple pics:

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Two Years Ago

Two years ago today, February 14th, we got a phone call. There was a baby boy waiting for us in Ethiopia. We fell in love with him at first sight!!! It came a little earlier than we expected, but we were thrilled! What a wonderful Valentine's Day gift it was!!

This is Joseph's referral picture:


This is what Joseph looks like now.

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First salon experience!

Today Faith had her first Salon experience! Her hair has definitely gotten long enough to start actually styling it. So, I took her to a great Ethiopian Hair Salon!! It was run by Ethiopians for Ethiopians...pretty cool!

Here's a few pictures of her before she got her hair styled:




Here's some hair style pics:





Here's a slide show of her fun hair style:

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Post Placement meeting

On Sunday we flew to Dubai to meet up with our social worker, Randy Barlow. He happened to be coming to Dubai to meet with some other families and we happened to need to take one last (I know we've said that before) visa hop...so it all worked out well!

We started out at 6:00 am and got home at 11:00 pm. It was a long day.

Here we are arriving into terminal 2. We had never flown into terminal 2 before.


We took a taxi to meet with Randy at his hotel. We left home with this single stroller that was in bad shape and came home with a new double stroller! (Some friends had given us a double stroller, but the wheel fell off...bummer!)


We took a couple pictures with Randy, but Joseph wasn't cooperating...ugh!



After our meeting with Randy, we went to one of our favorite restaurants! :)


Our kids really did enjoy the double stroller! Awww!

While we were at the airport Faith got the giggles. Here's a fun video of her laughing...

Giggling Girl from Tim and Jeni Saltzman on Vimeo.

They didn't sleep on the flight home, but they fell asleep 5 minutes before we got home! We were all tired when we walked through our door. We went straight to bed.

(They're so sweet when they're asleep!)

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Tomorrow we will meet with the Social Worker for a Post Placement Interview. I just finished filling out the questionnaire and pulling together some pictures. It's fun to look at her pictures...it's so obvious that she's doing really well! It feels so good to write that she is healthy, fully recovered from pneumonia, sleeping and eating well! This girl really is thriving. We're so blessed!

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Gotta love Nammy & Papa!

Adoring Grandparents from Tim and Jeni Saltzman on Vimeo.

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Second Week in Colorado

After spending two weeks in Albuquerque, we flew back to Colorado. We needed to get Faith's passport in Denver and then we stayed a little longer to enjoy Christmas Day at Jeni's parents' house.

We stayed in Denver for two nights and enjoyed some down time with Jeni's parents. It was nice. Our hotel was close to the passport agency, which was great! Joseph got some one-on-one time with Grandma and Grampa while we took Faith to go get her passport.

Here's one of my favorite pictures of my mom with Faith:


Faith was excited to get her passport!


Grampa loved being with Faith too.


We took Joseph to a fun indoor toddler play place. Joseph was totally in his element!


Once we got back to Longmont we got to see Tim's sister, Karla, and her family again!! Here's some more pictures with them:



It was starting to feel normal to have two sleeping kids in the back seat.


We met up with Ellen in Superior right before we had some professional pictures taken. Here she is playing Patty Cake with Faith in McDonalds.


Christmas Eve with cousins:



Christmas Day we hung out with lots of family.
In this picture Jojo is opening Nana's presents for her.


Two crazy Uncles!


Jojo had to show my Aunt Rosa how Arabs drink hot tea:


Uncle Ross got Joseph a Mr. Potato Head:


Faith loved sitting on Nana's lap:



The day after Christmas I got together with some of my Teacher Friends. We taught together when we lived in Denver. When we were teaching I was the only married one and now we are all married with kids. In the picture of the kiddos three kids are missing. Maybe next time we'll get all of the kids together.



Here's proof that we made it to Denver! I love the Denver skyline!


My Grandma (Joseph & Faith call her Nana) was so sweet with Faith:


Here's a picture of a very happy Grandma!

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