Back to School

The girls returned to school this morning. They were all excited but a little nervous. I was not looking forward to this day because it was so nice to have them home over the summer, so I'm a little sad right now.

At one time in my life, I thrived on routine. I craved routine when school started up each fall.

But now, I am not so thrilled about routine, school, school work, signing permission forms, correcting Math homework (especially not excited about this - Math has never been my strength=-), more events on the calendar, getting all the kids up each morning at the crack of dawn, the rat race of getting ready for the school day, driving them to school, dropping them off, returning home to gather something one of the girls forgot and delivering it to school, and all the other hassles that start with the school year.

No, I was not ready to be thrown into a routine but the start of the school year comes whether we like it or not. So, I learn to adjust to a new mindset and a new schedule. I'll survive but still, this is hard...

We've accomplished it!

Potty Trained!!

Distance does make the heart grow fonder

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to accompany my daughter Lauren on a youth group trip. I was away from home for three days, the longest I've ever been apart from Samson. I don't like being apart from my kids like this and I did worry what this would mean for my relationship with Samson.

I called home a couple time to check in and talked to Steve and each of the kids. Everything seemed to be going just fine. However, Steve did mention that Samson was a little out of sorts. I knew this trip would be hard on him but it was also very hard on mom to hear this and not be able to hold and comfort my little man.

When Lauren and I arrived home, the garage door was open and Samson was standing there in a full Barney costume, stuffed with pillows. When he saw me, he began to cry and tried walking toward me but stumbled and fell, rolling around in his costume.

I went right to him, picked up my wobbly, pillow filled Barney and just held him tight.

He continued to cry as we held each other as tight as we could manage until I could free him from his costume.

I kept asking him, "Did you miss mommy?"
No answer. But I told him how much I missed him and loved him.
Then I asked him, "Do you love mommy?"
No answer. Not even eye contact. But we continued to hold each other tight and his tears eventually turned into laughter. He was then happy but still no eye contact.

Later in the day, I asked him again, "Did you miss mommy?" Still no answer. Still no eye contact.

Then on Monday, after I was home for two days, unsolicited, he turned to me with his beautiful smile and said, "I love you Mommy! (long pause)...and I missed you!"

Man do I love this boy!!

Maybe you shouldn't let a three year old

   manage a kite on his own...

unless you want to watch the kite fly through the air when he decides he's tired of hanging onto it and lets go;

unless you want some exercise running after the kite's string as the wind lifts it higher and higher in the air;

unless you want to watch the kite go through an evergreen thinking for a second that there is hope of rescuing it;

unless you want to watch the kite be carried through the evergreen to the power lines;

unless you want to watch the kite string get caught in the power line while the kite continues to fly high;

No, it's probably not a good idea to let a three year old manage a kite...

unless you want your blood pressure to go up while watching the kite fly over a very busy road as the string is still attached to the power line, praying that the kite doesn't take a nose dive right into an on coming car or motorcyclist, causing an accident;

not unless you want to call the local power company and wait impatiently until they get to the scene;

not unless you want to watch nervously the employee from the power company be raised in the bucket to untangle the kite string from the power line and whip the string across the road hoping not to hit a car;

not unless you want to watch your husband dodge traffic to fetch the kite that landed on the roof of the assistant living place.

Luckily nobody got hurt and the kite seemed to have survived as well. But enough drama for one day!

117!!!

Yeah!!!

117 Drawn From Water T-shirts sold!!

We are blown away and very encouraged by this number!

If you haven't purchased yours yet, go to their STORE and purchase your very own. I have one in each color and they have become my "uniform" for the summer.

Not only do these T-shirts strike up conversations and help spread the word about this amazing organization but hey are light weight, great for the summer but also great for layering over a long sleeve shirt in the Fall and Winter seasons.

Oh, and I'll let you in on a little known secret:  a little bird shared with me that there is another item coming to the store soon for only a limited time!

More details to follow!! I'll share once I know all the details but what I know so far, I guarantee you will love it!

Another new endeavor

I have so much to blog about, that I don't know where to begin. A lot of changes have happened in our family over the summer, lots of decisions have been made and still need to be made. I have so much to share but for this post, I'll share how Steve's work world has been changing.

Several months ago, Steve was approached by a friend who owns a banner printing business. This friend was interested in taking Steve on as a partner to grow the business. After much prayer and consideration, Steve is now transitioning into his entrepreneur position from his CFO position.

When our family returned home from Ethiopia last August, our friends welcomed us home with this Banner placed in our front lawn:

(P.S. Ignore my attempt to take our last name off the banner through Paint.)

Being part-owner in a business has always been Steve's dream. We know there are risks involved in "going on your own" but we just felt like the time and opportunity were right for Steve and our family.

So, here is a shameless plug for Steve's new endeavor:

If you are looking for a banner, for your business, reunion, birthday, any kind of celebration, flags (Ethiopian? hint! hint!) or whatever, go to

http://www.banners.com/

They ship everywhere in the US!!

(Print a Welcome Home banner for your friends!)

One Year Ago - Our Family of Six (cont.)

First of all, sorry for not posting my recaps of one year ago in consecutive days. I was so proud of myself for recalling many memories of the events of Samson joining our family our first days in Ethiopia. But then failed to continue.

I have a good excuse - I have been away from my computer for four days, chaperoning a youth event out of town. I did plan to have the rest of my posts complete and scheduled to post automatically while I was gone, but time got away from me.

This post will be a recap of our time after Samson joined our family on August 11th to our homecoming.

On Wednesday, August 12th, we hung out with our children at the guest house. Then, during the afternoon naps, a few of us parents renting a taxi and went shopping for the second time. Our agency took us shopping one of the first days, but we only had a small window of time and I felt rushed.

Our first shopping trip, I spent more time bargaining with the merchants than actually looking. Thinking back, it would have been a much more productive shopping trip if I would have just paid what ever price they quoted me. Everything was so inexpensive to begin with and what I saved in bargaining amounted to only a couple dollars.

During our second shopping trip, we stopped at the Leper Colony gift shop. I did not mind paying full price for their beautiful items. I bought table linens, bedding, leather and cotton woven purses, t-shirts and other miscellaneous items. Then, the taxi brought us to the same market we shopped a few days earlier. It was here that I purchased more bags of coffee and some other small items.

Random pictures:

The guest house we stayed in served as the care center at one time. During the farewell ceremony, the kids put their hand print on this wall.

His first morning waking up to our family:

Cooking classes with the guest house cooks:

On Thursday, August 13, our family prepared for our flight home to the US. But before we left, our guest house manager walked a couple of us to another orphanage - AHOPE. It was here that I met my friend Bonnie's beautiful son. He joined his forever family several months after our visit:

Back at the guest house, we said our last goodbyes to many new friends, loaded the bus one last time and proceeded on to the airport. We had an interesting experience at the airport and I wrote about it here. Because of this experience, we are now involved in this.

Our time at the airport got even more interesting after we learned that they were repairing a crack in the wing of our plane coming from Khartoum. We spent an extra 6 hours in the Addis airport waiting for the plane with the repaired crack, which made us miss our connecting flight out of Amsterdam.

Despite our unexpected delay, we remained fairly positive throughout the flight home. The kids, including Samson, were amazingly cooperative and never complained.

After over 30 hours of traveling, we landed at the Minneapolis airport and were greeted by family and friends:

He Joins Our Family

This day was the Farewell Ceremony at the Care Center.

We all sat in chairs along the outside wall in the main gathering  room. The older children sat in rows of chairs in a room overlooking us. Then, one by one, the nannys paraded down the staircase with our children dressed in traditional Ethiopian clothes. The older children chanted the names of each child as they descended the stairs.

When it came time for the nannys to hand our children over to us, Samson resisted once again. His nanny handed him off to me and he began to cry and was inconsolable at first. I held him tight and whispered ishi ishi (it will be OK) over and over again in his ear. I also told him "I love you" in Amharic. He also wasn't feeling well. Many of the children at the Care Center had colds and runny noses. At one time when I was holding him, his snotty nose wiped across my teeth. I was continuously wiping his nose so that would not happen again.

This is a picture our agency took of our family, not sure at what point of the ceremony but it looks like we are a little more excited than Samson is about this event.

Samson's crying didn't last long, he soon settled down and appeared to be at ease with our family.

The Farewell Ceremony included prayer time, beautiful singing from the older children and heartbreaking goodbyes. The nannys really bond with the children and care for them and love them very much. Not surprisingly, saying goodbye was not easy for them.

The Ceremony also included a traditional cake cutting event by the oldest boy and girl being adopted in the group. Samson got to cut the cake with his special friend Meazi. (Hi Meazi!! We've enjoyed your mom's blogging!!)

Loading on the bus to head back to the guest house:

This is one of my favorite pictures of my kids:

We could not take our cameras inside the Care Center but as our bus pulled away, I quick snapped one of this balcony. If you look closely, you can see the potty chairs lined up inside the (not code) wrought iron rails. This is where the toddlers had "potty time". The first day we met Samson, he blew our family a kiss from his potty chair while we were getting ready to pull out with the bus.

We not only celebrated this day as our first day as a family but also Samson's half birthday. So that evening, we got out the bubbles and balloons and partied in our room until late at night. By this time, Samson had relaxed a lot and was taking it all in.