Esias' first painting!

Love that tongue out!!!

This is what Zi Zi does during the games...

Esias basically eats dirt and plays in the dirt and throws dirt during Eden's games. He sometimes takes a break to dance.

Rookie

Eden is playing in NLYSB Rookie League again, it's really a great fit for her. The team is full of great girls with nice parents, so it makes the whole experience a good one--which we want for her first sports experience. This video is for Papa! Notice at the end, Brynn and I trying to catch Esias as he was falling in the "crack" of the bleachers! That kid is a climber...ya take your eyes off of him for a second!

Happy Birthday, Jaren Mikiyas!

Monday, May 24th, 2010 Jaren Mikiyas turns 2. I love you baby boy, my son!

Trip Down Memory Lane, Ethiopia Style

We're nearing a year home with Esias. Some friends of ours just got back from Addis Ababa. Dan is planning a trip there in September with our church. All this has me nostalgic about our adventures in Ethiopia. I thought I'd post a photo recap of our trip there, last year the first week of June 2009.

Our last picture as a family of four. Also Eden's last day of Kindergarten!

Dan and I in Cleveland Airport, I think. Waiting to fly to JFK and then to Dubai!

Flight to Dubai, I think?

On the flight from Dubai to Addis, we had to fill out this form to enter the country. We also got bumped to business class, and they gave us a nice little flower with our meal :)


Finally on Saturday, June 6, 2009, we met our son! Woo hoo!

This is one of his nannies.

Another of his nannies.


Now, with his mama! Sleepy boy had a rough day.

First time bottle feeding my son. I treasured it!

We spent the rest of the trip falling in love. Wasn't hard to do.



We are shocked at his size now but at the time we didn't think he looked too bad!



We met some amazing people.

Birtukan and Nesibu are dear dear friends now.

We took some legendary pictures...or at least Lindsay did!

Like this one...

And we entertained a one year old on a 20 hour flight! Wowzers!!!

A few pics...

This is a common site around the house these days-- Esias and Luke are learning to "share."

The lovies again.

Eden has been doing great at softball. That's her on first.

Esias plays in the dirt while we watch Eden play.

This is one of the most adorable sites I see these days...E-man loving on sissy. And notice he is eating a CRACKER! I found some great graham crackers that are easy for him to chew and swallow. He feels like a big boy!

Good job, Zi Zi!

And my Cuddle Fish. She is something.

The Happy Couple.

Elly (4.5) and Marcus (almost 3.5) with Elly's baby Obadiah.

So we have this problem. Marcus loves Elly and and Elly loves Marcus. Almost everytime they are together, they talk about getting married. It is adorable. I think Brynn and Will and Dan and I have separately had conversations with each of them about how it's great they love each other but that they will marry someone who is not related to them when the time comes! Today, they were talking about it again and this is how the conversation went:

Marcus and Elly, swinging.

Marcus: Elly, I can marry you.
Elly: No you can't Marcus, because I have to marry someone I don't know!
[Marcus gets sad]
Me: Elly it's not that you can't marry him because you know him, it's because you are cousins. But Marcus, you can still love each other and be best friends.
Marcus: But I want to marry her!
Me: Well, it's ok to marry her when you are a little boy. But when you grow up, then you'll have to marry someone you aren't related to.
Marcus: But I can't stop growing! I was a baby and now I am big!

Good News at the GI clinic!

Good news at the doctor's office today. I took Esias in because he was getting some granulation tissue around his stoma (the hole in his stomach where the tube goes in). This is kind of normal but can be bothersome to the kids and make it leak and bleed. So they saw him today. When we were talking in the beginning of the visit, the doc and i were talking about how much weight he's gained. He was 29 lbs today! TWENTY NINE. That was fully clothed and with a cloth diaper on, but STILL. He has gained 10 lbs since being tube fed (Nov.). And 15 lbs since we brought him home. He has more than doubled his coming-home weight! I think she said it was 75% for weight! And 90% for height! Wowzers! So I asked her, how much longer will we need this tube? We've been cleared for liquids, though he can't chew correctly, he can still eat almost everything except hard foods. He can now eat small pieces of meat and other foods as long as they are cut small. So she said we could wait til his two-year appt. and if the doctor approves, we can discontinue overnight feeds - if he doesn't lose weight and continues to grow, he can have the tube removed in four months! YAY! So in September, he might be done with this! Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!

Today she used silver nitrate to remove the granulation tissue and I, yes, I removed the old Mic-Key and placed a new one, while the docs were there to assist me and hold him down. He did AMAZING. Hardly cried and was so brave. I was so proud of him!! The site looks much better now. Pray for no more granulation tissue for E-man!

Meaningful Words

This post was written by a friend of mine and fellow adoptive mother. She has an 8 year old daughter from Ethiopia and a 4 (I think) year old daughter from South Korea. I loved her post on Mother's Day. If you are adopting a child older than an infant, and even if you are adopting an infant, this post is a must-read. Though to us adoption is a miracle, is does not occur without loss and hurt. In a perfect world, we would not have our adopted children, but their first moms would.

On Hair and Mother's Day
by Holly Kladder of Life Onward

Yesterday morning I woke up ready to be celebrated by my husband and daughters... fully aware that I share the title of Mother to my daughters with other women, but looking forward to the little cards and gifts I knew were coming and lunch at The Omelette Shoppe (my choice) after church.

When my daughters hugged me and shouted their "Happy Mother's Day" proclamations, I knew I was the most blessed mama around to have these two hooligans to call my own. In that moment I really didn't dwell on their other mothers...after all, it wasn't "Mothers Day" in S. Korea or in Ethiopia, so what did it matter if I alone was celebrated this day?

It did matter; it does matter. My oldest was on edge all morning... she was thrilled to give me a card and gift, but she was dealing with some mixed emotions.

Hair time can be quite the battleground around here; not always, but more frequent than I thought possible. Not because I find it hard to take care of her hair... in fact, I don't think it's hard... it's just time-consuming. Not because she doesn't want her hair done... she DOES, and only by ME. And I'm glad. BUT. It is a battle. Hair time reminds her that her hair is different than the rest of ours. Hair time reminds her of another mom who took care of her hair, who had hair just like hers, just like her sister's. Hair time reminds her that there are things she wishes were different, but has no control over them whatsoever, and that is some vile tasting medicine.

It was a battle yesterday. I accidentally dripped some hair detangling lotion onto her arm... it was a much bigger deal than it should have been. She was angry; not satisfied with my apology, and took her arm and wiped the hair goop across the front of my shirt, in the typical 'I'll show you' fashion she perfected that first year home and still occasionally demonstrates. I was a little more upset than I should have been... for the love of your mother, it's Mother's Day... be nice to your mother. When Bereket feels bad, often times instead of apologizing, she makes up an owie for herself... attempts to lick wounds that aren't there... to hide the real wounds that ARE there. In this case, her skirt was wet... I had got lotion water on her skirt and she needed a napkin cuz it was soaking wet. It was more dry than thrice dried laundry, and in fact nothing had dripped or spilled on it. She carried on and on and on about her wet (dry) skirt.

Later when we talked about what happened she said she had been upset about the lotion on her arm, was upset that she had reacted by wiping it on me, angry that her hair was different and she couldn't flip and shake it like girls with long straight hair, and so she had made up the wet skirt bit.

Fast forward to today. Hair time was a breeze (you just never know) and she wanted to talk about D (her Ethiopian mom). She talked and talked and talked. Then:

Mom, can I call D mama too?
Of course you can, she IS your mama too.
Mom, some day when we go to visit her in Ethiopia... oops (sheepishly)...
What? You're allowed to want to visit some day!
Some day when we go to visit her in Ethiopia, I would like her to braid my hair again. But I would like you to brush it first, and then she can braid it. But I would like us to bring some nice hair ties with us, because she doesn't have any.

Be still my soul.... be still my heart...
Baby girl, some day I would love to come with you to visit D, if you'll let me. I would love to anoint your head with oil and tears, together with your other mama, love to brush out your hair while we all sit together. Love to watch D's fingers work through your hair, parting and braiding, ending with pretty hair ties that you picked out. Let it be so.


Over the past year and a half I have reassured Bereket many times that D will always be her mommy too, have spoken of her as such, encouraged Bereket to speak of her as such.... but still she needed to hear it again, that even on Mother's Day, it's okay to love two mamas.

---

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to you!

My sweet children brought me several gifts this week. Elly made me a bookmark and an adorable handprint poem at preschool (thanks Connie) and Eden wrote me an acrostic poem. Here is the poem:

M om I love you
O ne and Only Mom
T he mom that's perfect
H ow do you do it?
E, is children
R ight

I especially like the "r" one. :0)

I am so blessed beyond measure with my little ones. Sure they keep me busy and baffled and laughing and tired. They are so worth it.

I also have an amazing mom, myself. She comes from a long line of self-sacrificing mothers. I love you Mom! I am glad I get to see you on Mother's Day this year.

Mother's Day is bittersweet for Dan. He is good at spoiling me, so he likes to do that. But I know his heart aches just a little when we wants to pick up that phone and call Dian. It will be five years in July. Please, if your mother is still with us here on earth, call her, give her a hug, take her to lunch, or just sit with her and be.

Happy Mother's Day!

Somehow I missed it!

Somehow amidst all the craziness around here, I forgot to mention a very important anniversary- the day Yabetse Tesfaye became Yabetse Daniel Grimes, our boy! Confusing, I know, since we call him Esias Tesfaye, but that is his legal Ethiopian name until further notice.

Happy Court Passing on May 4th! After 6 tries, you became our son! And not a moment too soon!

Why Do These Things Always Happen at McDonald's?

Why oh why do all the weird things happen at McDonalds? So today we had a lovely playdate with some friends (Rechkemmers who I watch and Lumbs, my new vertiginous friend), and since it was getting close to lunch time and we were still 20+ minutes from home, I decided to take the kids to McDonald's on the way home. We went in because I needed to change E's diaper and thought that would be more relaxing than tossing nuggets over my shoulder and hoping Elly caught them. So we went in and I was SuperMom carrying tray and Esias and drink and pushing the high chair to our table...ok that has nothing to do with my story but I just feel proud of myself when I do that :) Anyhoo...after we were all done, I promised Elly if she used her manners, she could stand in line and ask for a different mermaid toy. She was waiting in line and Esias was sort of making a circle around and around the others in line. He caught the eye of a 70ish lady who patted his head and tried to get a smile out of him. Originally he was wearing a onesie with a jacket over it but we got warm so he was only wearing pants and a tight onesie. The next lap around the lady leaned over to him, grabbed at him and intentionally pulled on his feeding tube (that sticks out of his shirt) and said, "What's that under there, hmmm?" in a baby voice, as if to play with him. She literally pulled on it. I quickly leaned down and said, "He has as feeding tube!" and she stopped, and said, "Well that's not a plaything, is it?" It was very awkward! I was glad it didn't hurt Esias because I know she would have felt awful (and so would he) but still...note to the public- don't pull on appendages of children who aren't your own! That could have been a big disaster had the G-tube decided to come out!

Newest Pics of the kids

Esias looking preciously drooly in the sunshine.

Yogurt beard.

Eden is a jump-ropin'-maniac.

We got a call last night from our neighbors: Rainbow Alert! she said. Sure enough, there it was. Gotta love neighbors like that.

My beauties right before the American Girl Fashion Show. Some sweet person donated tickets and two dolls (!) to our children. It was amazing! They were so excited!

All the girls. Below- the girls at home with their new dolls!