02.02.2010

Thanks for the comments and emails regarding my last post. I am okay. It was nice to write a “real” post. I’ll try to keep it up.

My counselor has me journaling. I’ve actually kept a journal for a really long time, blogging took over for a while and know I’ve ventured back the pen and paper. In an attempt to clean my room last weekend I shifted my old journals around and got distracted and started reading some entries from 2002.

Several people have asked me “why Ethiopia”.  I don’t always have an answer that seems to be “the answer”.  I’ve just known I would adopt from there or be involved there, somehow.  I know there are millions of orphans and there is an AIDS crisis in Africa. I don’t know where the awareness came from or really where is started, I’ve just always had Ethiopia on my heart.

I have an answer now.

On October 9, 2002 I wrote this in my journal. “Just watched Bono and Christ Tucker. Lord, are you calling me to serve in Ethiopia?”

This is the first time I think I’ve seen Ethiopia in my journal.  I’ll have to keep looking back through older entries-but I’m pretty sure this is it.

Of course after reading this last weekend. I got on google and searched for Bono, Chris Tucker, October 2002.  I found some YouTube videos of MTV show that I’m certain that I watched. I can only find segments of it. It was one of the MTV Diary Shows called: Bono and Chris Tucker: Aiding Africa.

U2’s Bono, actor Chris Tucker and U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill visit Africa, where they learn about the impact of poverty and AIDS.

Here’s a small clip of Ethiopia from the show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2trhUbzrHA

So much to ponder here. Feeling a “call” from an MTV show. Ethiopia. AIDS. Still feeling the “call” 8 years later. Adopting an HIV+ child. Still feeling the “call”. Seeing other tragedies in other areas of the world, but not sensing the same feeling or “calling”as I have for Ethiopia.

01.19.2010

I feel like I have so much to say and I don’ t even know where to begin posting on this blog anymore.  This blog really started as a place to update family and friends about our adoptions. It was also a place to document what happened in those adoptions. I struggle now to write about our life.

On March 4, we will be home for a year.  It’s unreal. I keep going through receipts for the adoptions for taxes and it’s taken me by surprise that 2009 is gone. So much happened for us in 2009, it seemed to take forever to get there and then it flew by.

I knew that I needed to lower my expectations before we finally brought Afton and Mastewal home.  I thought that I had. The last year has been insane for me.  I’ve struggled and still struggle with anxiety and depression (and have always) but have not had an outlet for it. I guess in previous years I’ve used work as a coping mechanism and it was great, because I worked with other “counseling type” professional people.  Then again, maybe it just helped to have someone outside of my home to talk to on a daily basis.  It seems that I’ve gotten everything I wanted and asked and prayed for and now can’t seem to be happy with it all. I traveled to Ethiopia about 6 months after we were home with all three children.  I talked about wanting to see the Awassa Childrens Project, my friend’s baby Eyob and Emily. I really just wanted a break from everything (even though I did all three of the mentioned). Many times over the last year, I’ve used the word “stuck” to describe how I feel.  I wake up everyday and think about what is going to be next, what am I going to do. This is a difficult season for me.  Waiting. Doing the daily stuff. Living. Putting one foot in front of the other.

It’s taken me a week to get this post out and it’s kind of crappy. I’m trying to put some new things in place for myself and maybe I can get back on the blogging routine. I think I’ll feel a little better getting some of this “stuff” out there.

01.08.2010

Ethiopian Christmas Plan=Success

I got my new boots in the mail yesterday, right in time to head out the the store before the snow started.

The store was packed!

We got our groceries.

Got home-Myer and Afton played. Mastewal helped wash and tear the kale for gomen. I prepared the shiro and started to warm the injera.

We enjoyed our little celebration as planned.

It was a White Christmas!

We ended the celebration by getting our automated phone call that school would be canceled for Friday.  Cheers all around!

01.07.2010: Merry Christmas

Today in Ethiopia, Christmas is being celebrated.

Today we are going to have our own little celebration. When I told Mastewal that it was Christmas in Ethiopia today, I honestly thought she’d ask me for a present. Instead, she said: “Good you can cook Ethiopian food”.  This was major for me.  1) She didn’t want to celebrate with gifts or presents 2) She actually thinks I can cook Ethiopian food to her satisfaction (or she would not have requested it, I’m sure).  So today we will hopefully run to store if the weather permits and all three children can cooperate.  I will pick up a few items and make a very minimal Ethiopian meal. Actually, it will be a vegetarian meal because I’m just doing shiro and gomen. I am also making a “Christmas Cake” with some leftover funfetti cake mix.  We’ll put out our Ethiopian tablecloth and the children will dress in their traditional clothes while we eat.  We’ll serve the cake with Addis Tea and Ethiopian Coffee. Sounds pretty good to me.  The kids get excited for a party and it’s a fun way to spend the day-snowed in-planning a little celebration and keeping their traditions alive.

Pictures to follow, if all goes well enough.

01.06.2010: Snow Day #2

So much for the “school routine”. We’ve only been to school one day this week–Monday.  Yesterday, we waited for Seth to get home from work and we headed over to a little sledding area. It was perfect for the kids. The loved their first sledding experience.

12.26.09-01.02.2010

I took the kids to Kentucky the day after Christmas.

• We celebrated Christmas with Uncle Derrick and Aunt Beth
• We went with cousin Cortney to see Alvin and the Chipmunks
• Seth joined us on Wednesday evening
• We had the kids pictures taken for the first time
• Mastewal and Afton spent the afternoon with Aunt Jeanette
• My mom made new hooded towels for all three children
• My mom made Mastewal two aprons
• Seth and I went to see Invictus

We traveled back home on Saturday so we’d have time to get unpacked and back in the “school routine”.

12.25.2009: Afton

I really haven’t been giving much insight on this blog for a while now. I’m not really saying that I’m starting now-but I am going to mention something that gave me great joy at Christmas.

AFTON

I truly believe he had the best time opening his gifts. He really enjoyed everything that he got and it was so fun to see his face and excitement after every gift that he opened.  I tried to capture him (in the last post of pics) opening his dinosaur, which was the one thing he’d asked Santa for—he loved it.  He also loved the puzzles, firetrucks, cars and everything.

He loved his stocking and stocking stuffers.  Like Halloween he stopped to enjoy some candy before continuing to open his other “stuffers”.

I’m not saying that it wasn’t fun to see both childrens’ excitement for their first Christmas, but Afton really made my day.

12.25.2009: Christmas

12.24.2009: Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we went to our church service. The children dressed up. When we returned home they opened their gift of pajamas and prepared for Santa to arrive. They decorated cookies and had a tea party with Tesfa.

12.23.2009: Get Together

On December 23rd we got together with friends and cooked some Ethiopian food. We enjoyed the food and fun.

Our spread