Melkam Addis Amet

Happy Ethiopian New Year! 

Did you know Ethiopia is 7 years behind us?  It is because Ethiopia uses the Orthodox Julian calendar versus the Western or Gregorian calendar which consists of 12 months of 30 days and a 13th month, Pagume, of five or six days, depending on whether or not it is a leap year.  Interesting isn't it? 

Today our good friends invited us over for a traditional Ethiopian dinner.  They did an amazing job and the food was truly amazing.


Thank you Evan and Teri-Lee!

The girls had fun playing too (well when they weren't fighting and acting like sisters).  Makenna also really enjoyed herself and had a spell of constant laughter.  I really enjoyed watching her chase the girls.

All 3 girls wore their traditional Ethiopian dresses tonight.  We didn't even plan it but apparently we both thought alike.  The girls really looked beautiful.  I tried getting a picture of Maya and Makenna before we left the house and ended up with this one.  Not too bad.

And I wanted a picture of all the girls together but settled for a picture of Makenna with Wren as well as a photo of Maya with Wren.  I am finding getting a nice picture of a 3 year old is next to impossible these days. 

 

What a great evening with good friends. 

Melkam Addis Amet!

Picture of the Day

 
Makenna is getting cuter and cuter by the day.  She has really started to blossom.  It is amazing how happy she can be without being in so much pain.  Poor thing is recovering from a double ear infection.  Makenna is walking, I mean running, and is super playful.  She loves to play kitchen and climb all over us including Maya.  She also loves kisses and snuggles especially before going to bed at night.  Makenna is also saying a few words as well as signing specifically "more" and "all done".  Let's not forget about her adorable wave and blowing kisses.  Like I said, Makenna is truly blossoming.

Fall

Labor Day has come and gone with the colder temperatures settling in.  It is an indication of summer being over and winter soon to be arriving.  Normally this time of year makes me very sad and remorseful of all the things I had planned to do during the summer months.  However this year is different.  I am no longer sad or remorseful.  I am actually excited.  Crazy isn't it?

I guess I am looking forward to the upcoming weeks and months.  I am already planning out our social calendar and thinking about the upcoming holidays.  This year will be even better than last year as Makenna will be with us. 

Still wondering why I am excited?  Here are 10 reasons why (and in no particular order):

1. Gymnastics and skating lessons for Maya
2. Pumpkin carving, Pumpkin Patch, and of course trick-or-treating
3. College football - GO BISON!
4. Lounging in sweat pants watching my favorite shows
5. Not feeling guilty for staying inside all day
6. Fall clothing shopping for the girls
7. Many family and friends birthdays including mine and Dave's
8. Awesome fun ideas flowing through my head on activities for Maya and myself - may even start a kids craft camp
9. Ice skating across our street - great weekend activity
10. Indoor house projects - crazy I know but I love decorating my house

So I wonder - am I the only one excited?  Are you excited for fall?  If so, what are you looking forward to the most?

ZOO

What a great day we had as a family.  We had a MUCH better morning than the other day so we decided to treat the girls (mostly Maya) to a trip to the zoo.  We drove 45 minutes south to a much better zoo and saw all sorts of animals and also rode on the carousel.  What a great way to spend our Saturday of Labor Day weekend!

And really - who doesn't like watching monkeys "monkey around"? 


I tried taking many pictures of Maya and finally got one. 
 

And we couldn't leave without a ride or two on the carousel. Even Makenna enjoyed a ride with daddy.

Hopefully anyone reading this not so exciting post for anyone besides us and the Grandmas are having a great Labor Day weekend!

Terrible Morning

I have many bad mornings or mornings that just didn't go as planned.  Today wasn't a bad morning.  Today was a terrible morning.

If you read my earlier post about mornings, you know that I dream of a morning without any debates, tears, and back talking.  Today I got all of it and more.  Maya is becoming impossible to get out of bed and out the door.  She refuses to listen and cooperate.  We must argue over every single detail such as what to wear, how to style her hair, brushing her teeth, and what shoes to wear.  

I try so hard to give her the independence she needs.  I try to let her make choices but sometimes her choices are not practical.  She can't wear long dark leggings when it is 90 degrees out or short shorts when it is 64 degrees out.  I must intervene and tell her "no".  The clothes is a big issue in the morning.  I try to ensure we pick out her outfit the night before that we both agree on.  It worked to a point.  Many days she refuses to wear what we picked out so what do we do?  We go back and forth.  Once the outfit is picked out, I must constantly tell her to get dressed.  From there, we continue to battle in the bathroom and then downstairs getting shoes put on.  I am frustrated.
 
To add to this fabulous morning, I decided to leave Maya's hair down or what I call "natural".  Maya finally allowed me to comb her hair (this happens every other day if I am lucky) so I decided to just comb it, put some product in it, and let it be.  My thoughts are "it looks fine and I will style it tonight before bed".  Maya seemed to be okay with it and I was relieve we conquered the second battle of the morning.

Off we went to daycare.  Upon walking through the front doors, we were greeted by a 4 year old girl.  She asked Maya if she got a hair cut.  Maya replied "no, this is just my hair.  My mom did it".  We continued to Maya's class room where we were greeted by another parent who happen to arrive at the same time as us outside in the parking lot.  This mother informed me that her child said Maya's hair is messy today.   She then went on to say "that's okay, sometimes my child's hair is messy too". 

GRRRR!!!!!  I clearly was not thinking straight when I justified why Maya's hair was "down" and not styled.  I should have said "Maya's hair is not messy.  It is down and natural and beautiful".  Instead I justified it and blamed myself for sending her to school with messy hair.  Shame on me.  Shame on me for not saying the correct thing.  Shame on me for not sticking up for Maya's natural hair which I think is beautiful by the way.  Yes, it is crazy but it is her hair.

Today was just a bad morning.  Tomorrow has to be better, right?

Day 7 - Maya's Anniversary Week

We're home!

We made it home okay. My mom, sister, and her family met us at the airport. It was so good to be home and to see familiar faces! Maya did extremely well on the flight home. We left Addis about 2 hours late on Friday which landed us in DC 2 hours late. We had to hurry in DC in order to make our connection. Let's just say we barely made it.

Our flight to DC went very well. We had brought Maya a seat which ended up being the best thing we could have done. Maya slept until we reached Rome which was about 8 hours. She then spent the rest of the trip sleeping, eating, playing, and flirting with those around her. The flight attendants were so great. There were at least a half a dozen families that were adopting on our flight and 3 of them are from our agency. We really liked having other families we knew on our flight. At one point I took Maya on a little walk and we went to visit another family. Well...this nice Ethiopian woman (who lives in the USA) stopped me and just took Maya from me. She just thought Maya was the cutest thing ever and had to hold her. It is Ethiopian culture to help care for all babies and to kiss stranger's babies whenever. In the Addis airport another woman came up to Maya and gave her some kisses. It is strange at first but then you realize it is just the culture. Maya loves strangers so it didn't bother her one bit.

On our flight from DC to Chicago, Maya slept. Dave and I watched some tv as we were trying hard not to fall asleep. We wanted to stay up as late as possible to help get us back on American time. When we reached Chicago, we ran into a family that we spent the week with in Addis. It was so good to see them. Their little one and Maya were in the same room at the care center and shared the same nannies. We spent some time with them while we waited for our connection to Fargo. On our Fargo flight Maya played and played. She must have exhausted herself and she just fell right to asleep in my arms at the end of the flight.

Hope you enjoyed reading about our week 3 years ago. It seems like yesterday in so many ways. Happy Forever Anniversary to us an everyone we traveled with. Thank you for the great memories.

Day 6 - Maya's Anniversary Week

FYI - I realize I am off on my dates as we arrived home today 3 years ago!  We have chosen to celebrate our forever home anniversary today.  Love my girl.

Day 6 - Thursday

We had Maya with us all night last night.  She did so well and slept through most of the night.  We did have to wake her at 10:00 for her medication and we woke her again at 1:00 to eat.  She is sleeping in this little crib next to Dave.  We would have let her sleep through the night but she was becoming very restless and probably would have woken up on her own.  She is an amazing little girl.  We haven't had luck feeding her through the bottle but she does love eating from a cup.  We have a cup from the care center that we are using.  About an hour ago, she just had approximately 6 oz of formula.  She is a happy girl right now. 

**Okay, just has our first poopy diaper.  Wow - I'm not used to that smell.

Today we had breakfast at the other guest house.  There are two guest houses and 11 couples.  Three couples are in the traditional guest house and the remaining couples are in the modern guest house.  Let's just say we got the short end of the stick as we are in the traditional guest house.  The food is prepared in the modern guest house so we must venture over there for our 3 meals.  It is a short walk but a muddy one as the roads are not paved.  Since it is the raining season, the roads are mostly water potholes and muddy.  I guess I could have left my flip flops back home. 

After breakfast a few couples went shopping.  We brought Maya along and she did very well.  She really likes car rides and fell asleep instantly.  Dave carried her in the baby Bjorn which seemed to work well.  After shopping we headed back to the modern guest house for lunch.  I finally was able to eat and it tasted very good.

We are now back at our guest house relaxing and spending time with Maya.  We are also going to start to pack our things as we head back tomorrow night.  It will be nice to get home as we are missing our dogs, a warm shower, and our bed.  Of course it will be sad to say good-bye to the other couples we have met as well as to the city where our girl spent the last six months.