End of the Year Party

 Yesterday was Julia's last day of Kindergarten. It was an absolutely positive experience, mostly I'm sure because she had a really great teacher that has taught for 40 years. Honestly, I wish I had put her in the beginning of the year; I think it would have been in her best interest and would have helped me be farther along with the homeschooling children. I have several weeks left of school with some children in some subjects, much because of the attention that Julia demanded for the majority of the school year. 


Since Julia started school towards the end of the year, she is getting to go to three weeks of Phonics instruction this summer. The bad part is that she misses three full weeks of swim team; I decided reading is more important than swimming, but it's still bittersweet. They also start earlier, so I'm not sure how that whole schedule is going to work with my three shifts of swimmers. 


Elijah and I went to Julia's K picnic this week. Elijah was very excited and kept asking me if he looked big enough to be a Kindergartner; it's so funny how he considers five and six year olds as "big." Life is all about perspective.

Julia and Ms. Peyton - 

The K wing opens straight to this nice fenced outside area. Julia learned hop-scotch, jump rope and hula hoop much better than my kids at home have. It made me feel guilty and I will be purchasing some jump ropes in the near future. 

It was all good until the chips, then it spiraled down hill quickly. In an effort to not make a scene, I let Julia trade her cookie in for a second bag of chips (she will do anything for chips!) She then decided that she wanted a third bag and when I refused, we had to wait in line to sign out, walk through the entire school and the parking lot with her screaming for chips. At moments like that, I am still totally baffled at some of her behavior. I'm pretty sure others were as well. I certainly hope that some of it she will outgrow and the rest we can figure out how to improve. 

This is Julia's first day of summer and I have typed the majority of this post with her wrapped around my neck, not just on my lap, but wrapped tightly around my neck. Any wisdom, anyone?

James the Builder

 Maybe it's just me, but I have some really ugly areas of the house that I stop noticing after years of passing. This little corner of the kitchen was definitely one of them.  I bought this ugly little cart way back when Gabriel and Alei were little for their art supplies. For at least 16 years it has moved from home to home, kitchen to kitchen, and held the art supplies that the kids use regularly. For many months I looked for a more visually appealing replacement at thrift stores and found nothing, so when we went to Ikea, I bought a little wooden chest that was only $30.

It has been sitting in the box (adding to the messy corner) for a few months until James asked if he could put it together. He is quite gifted at building things and had helped the girls assemble their Ikea furniture, so I let him do it. 

After he had successfully built it, he asked if he could paint it, so I let him do that as well. There were a few other kids who really wanted to paint it, but I let James do the job solo since he built it. (Later he asked if I was going to pay him, but I'm ignoring that part of the story.)

Now, doesn't that look better? All for $30 and left-over paint. Good job, James.

While We Wait...

 I am waiting for word that Selah's smudged paper got re-submitted to court so that I am legally able to post pictures of her. By the time I exhaust the pictures I took of her, hopefully Bella's case will be heard and pass and I can move on to the pictures I took of her. 


Until then, I'm going to admit that I had never eaten Ethiopian food. I know this may be shocking (and even my parents had been to an Ethiopian restaurant), but we never had. We will now, as we found out how delicious it is. This was our first night there and in between eating, the traditional Ethiopian dancers came and taught us how to dance. I was so tired, and it was so late and dark in the restaurant, that I would occasionally almost doze off, then they would be back for me to dance again. Don't you wish I would post that video? It's not going to happen!

The other thing I found so interesting was how the horses stand in the middle of the highway with whizzing cars going by on both sides of them at 60 MPH or more. They said that the horses do that because they found out that it keeps the flies off of them. 

While we found that entertaining the first day, I was pretty sad to find out the next day that they are actually stray horses that have been abandoned by their owners because they are too old to work. The horses just graze along side of the road and stand in the road. Every country has such unusual characteristics and it was really neat to see the vast differences between Ethiopia and Liberia. 

Prepare for lots of pictures of Selah Kalki as soon as I get the email!

Fun at Home

If you are wondering what exciting wonders were awaiting me at home, here is what I've done.


Tori's hair on Saturday, along with the usual unpacking and grocery shopping.

 Julia's hair on Sunday, after church. I think that was my last round of corn-rowing Julia's hair since I'm going to start putting in locs. (The back of hers looks just like Tori's above.) 

Tomorrow begins Julia's last week of school, then we switch to morning swim team practice as well. I am going to evaluate how much I have left with my homeschoolers since my mother was the instructor all last week. While we have finished some books, I fear we have a few weeks left in others!

School Pictures

 I am about to make up for the lack of pictures accompanying my posts in Ethiopia. Since I still can't post pictures of my girls (Selah's approval should be any day), I am going to bless you with pictures of the kids at the school that I intend to take back-packs to. 

This was the K class outside - they are four and five years old.  

We then went to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade class rooms inside. I noticed some of the 3rd graders actually had a pencil and little note-book, so I think he was telling me that the school doesn't have any supplies to provide a pencil to the kids that don't have one. I don't think any of them had back-packs. I can't even imagine the excitement when they get their own!

Darling, darling little boys!

See the yellow sign on the wall? It says Grade 1 - male 26, female 29, total 55 - 

 I have videos of the classes singing also. 

 This shows a bit of the confusion in the adoption paperwork arena. Their year starts with September, so months on our paperwork is not the month that we naturally think.

 If you are wanting to be a celebrity, go to Africa and hang out with the kids. They are so excited when a "fringe" (white person) pays attention to them. 

Again, have you ever seen cuter little boy smiles?

JD worked on the art of hand-shaking and high-fives - 

I'll be back sweet kids...I'll be back and just as happy to see you!

School Visit

We visited a school yesterday right in the area that Bella was born and lived her first two years. The school was recently taken over by the adoption agency as one of their many charities. This school services 200 children from four until only 3rd grade. There was an average of 50 children per classroom. These children are 100% orphans, many, many are also HIV positive. They live in a very desperate area, lacking in even basic clean water. Here's the clincher....none of them are adoptable! They are not adoptable because their extended family or neighbors that care for them refuse to sign adoption papers mainly due to the fact that although they don't care for them adequately, they require them to work on their behalf. Many are working after school cleaning homes or selling products on the streets (remember, these are four to nine year old children; older ones than that work all day). Here's the other heart-breaking fact - these children are attending school without being fed due to the high cost of food in Ethiopia. (It is way, way expensive here - far more than America to buy any kind of food!) I found out upon leaving that they also have zero school supplies - ZERO; there is not even a pencil to be found in the school. 


My agency is working on a database of the children so that they can start being sponsored. It will provide them with one decent meal a day, two uniforms a year and hopefully some basic school supplies. Beyond that, medical care will probably fall to volunteers that come. I doubt that HIV meds. are even a remote possibility at this point. 


I have a dream...I want to bring 200 back-packs that have a few notebooks, pencils and crayons in each. My difficulty will obviously be transporting them, but I'm going to talk to Ethiopian air to see if they will not charge the extra baggage charges. We need good quality back-packs as it realistically will be the only one that these children have ever receive.


Here's one of the 200 sweet-hearts that broke my heart - 

Another Round

I brought the computer with me to dinner to continue a bit. There is really so much to tell that I don't even know where to begin. I may get brave and try to post a picture, but that can be such a long process that I risk losing a connection as it loads. 


We visited Selah's orphanage yesterday and Bella's today. As I said, Bella was turned in by her mother at around one month of age. After being in Ethiopia, I am so, so frustrated by things I read on the Ethiopian sites about babies being recruited for adoption, etc. While I'm sure that may happen in isolated incidents all over the globe, I have personally viewed abandoned babies and they are abundant. At different orphanages, I hear the same story over and over from different workers. Today they casually pointed to a one week old baby girl and commented that she was the little girl that someone had just found in a shed. I have stared at the TINY, tiny malnourished babies that they police have brought into the home we are staying at and am angry that people will spread the untruth that there are not babies that need adoption in Ethiopia. I would love to say so much more, but I will move on.


Selah and Bella are doing wonderfully and I think I understand their lives so much clearer. I am amazed at Bella's personality; she has been to the transition home about four times total because the orphanage would send her for better medication when she got sick over the last two years; she was moved for the last time within days of us claiming her (because they already loved her and wanted her there). She is the friendliest two year old and jabbers in her language at the workers when they pass. She politely kisses me on each cheek and turns for me to return the favor when we part. 


Selah has cried the last two times I have left her; while it makes me sad, it shows that she is attaching to us and really is a good sign. While Bella kisses on me, Selah puffs her face in a pout because we are leaving her. It's amazing how different they are, yet they sing and dance the same little number and it is so cute! I can't wait to post it on YouTube. 


It's kind of hard to leave tomorrow, but I really miss my crew at home also! I am hoping to get some sleep tonight after I attempt to wash pollution beyond America's comprehension out of my hair from spending five hours on the road to Nazaret and back. I am also hoping that there is Wifi at the airport because they are requiring us to be there early enough that I'm sure we will have sit around time and I can post.


If there is no more Internet, I will be home Friday afternoon. 

I tried very hard to post this morning, but the Internet went down. We are back home tonight after a long, long day in Nazaret where Bella is from. We visited the orphanage that has been her home the last two years; it turns out that she was turned in at the age of about one month! 


We also visited a school that is run by the adoption agency. I have had plenty of encounters with poverty the last week, but nothing broke my heart more than the 200 orphans, many HIV, that attend this school each day with no food! They can't afford to feed them at the moment, so most just are hungry. They also have ZERO school supplies. 


I'd love to keep going, but they are staring at me to go to dinner. I will try another update in about two hours.

Update from Ethiopia

The Internet works, but it's really too slow to attempt any pictures. I actually updated on FB last night, but was distracted before I got to the blog, so I'm going to try to sum up the last three days as efficiently as possible. The flight was uneventful and we arrived to our host just as the agency promised. After flying all night, they brought us to the guest house, but set us down to eat breakfast before we saw the girls. It was killing me, but I didn't want to appear like a crazy woman and run...plus you never are sure what traditions you may be violating. After eating, we met our new little girls. They were dressed up and completely understood that we were new momma and daddy. They both came to us and kissed us upon instruction from the nanny. Isabella is the most easy going child I have ever encountered. She always has a smile, is happy to see anyone that walks through the court-yard and is thrilled with the items we produced to play with, especially bubbles.


Selah cannot be five; she is barely taller than Bella and appears to interact as about three. She was even wearing a diaper the first day, but not the second. When I asked the agency director, he told me that "that  is only orphanage paperwork" and she is about 3.5. We will be getting a bone scan done, but I'm pretty sure I am the mother of three children three and under at the moment. Selah was thrilled with us, but was having some melt-downs about sharing with the other kids. She is pretty jealous of her mommy and daddy and isn't even sure about sharing them with Bella. The second morning we brought our girls up to the front porch and played ball and bubbles with just them, (until several other kids made their way around) she handled that much better! 


I'm anxious to get Selah American medical care. We are here with a nurse and we both think that her big belly is terrible parasites. She also has some skin issues and a mouth full of cavities. It's hard to imagine that so many children here live their entire lives with these conditions. 


Yesterday was court, we were among the first to arrive and were called pretty quickly for Selah's case. Our agency director brought up our need to be pre-approved for Bella's and it didn't appear to be going very well as the judge was speaking quickly and shaking her head no. Not understanding the language, we went on with Selah's case and came out of the court room with her as our legal 10th child. The agency director then explained that he would draft a letter and we will go back in about Bella. We waited until the very end, after many adopting couples from America, France, Germany and Israel until we were called again. We repeated the process and she pre-approved us as parents when Isabella's case come back to her. Since the birth mom's death certificate is already turned in to the court, we are hoping that it is only a few weeks. 


Legally, I am going to be able to show pictures of Selah in just a few days, but Bella's (God willing) will be in a few weeks. After court, we had a great time shopping. I have a very difficult time with the obviously sick begging children in the streets. I wasn't allowed to give them money (they turn it over to a "master" and don't get to keep it). Today I have my bag packed with Slim Jims and granola bars that I'm going to hand out and hope that we don't have the mobbing experience that I created in Liberia when I decided to hand out candy.


There is so much more I can say, but we are loving our time here. I am very excited to show Alyssa all we've seen and more since we are saving the trip to the wild hippos to go on with her. Today we are heading over to the orphanage that Selah was in, in town. I found out that she was turned into a Dire Dawa orphanage (where her mother still lives) and was moved to Addis when the orphanage got too full. We are also hoping to make the four hour round trip to the area that Isabella's mom lived and visit the orphanage that she was turned into. 


I will hope to update more tonight and maybe wait through one picture to upload. If you are a member of my family, can you please FB me a message about everything at home!

Leaving

Last Post from America...I sure hope to have Internet enough to post from Ethiopia. It's hard to believe that we're 15 hours away from African soil! So far things have been smooth. My backpack was snagged in security to be searched, but the most dangerous thing I had packed was chocolate. JD is currently in line trying to get seats next to each other instead of across the aisles. Due to the time change, it will be Sunday morning when we land (although it will only feel like 2:00a.m.) so we need to get some sleep on the flight, and I would rather fall over on JD than some stranger next to me. 


Thank you, everyone, who has supported us on this journey - it's one of the high-lights of our lives!