Losing ground

It is very late as my days are fuller than my blogging time. I will have to catch up some when I get home. The important meeting with Brooke is delayed until tomorrow. We will also enroll her in English school. She will go everyday when high school gets out at lunch. 

We were able to visit two orphanages today for two seperate reasons. It was a blessing to see the new one that I had never visited before.

I am going to leave you with a picture from the teff shop. Teff is the grain used to make injura, the standard Ethiopian bread that doubles as silverwear. They were loading the second camel, the first camel and donkeys were loaded and ready. 

Have too much to say

Today was very full and tomorrow promises to be even fuller. I will just tell about the big event of the day, which was Brooke's dental visit. She had an extra eye tooth which needed to be removed. We were told that an appointment was unnecessary. When we arrived at the very small, but nice, hospital, there was a full waiting room. We paid $2 for a dental exam and there was no paperwork to be filled out. We barely sat down and were called back. I do not know if our lack of a wait was due to foreign privilege or we really were the only dental patients in the waiting room. Back in the room, the dentist spoke excellent English, which seems like such a treat when you become accustomed to having everything translated and are often concerned what may become lost in translation. 

She agreed the tooth needed to be removed and told us to come back at 2:00. Of course I verified that she meant that very day and she did. We went on a picnic lunch in the countryside (pictures above and below) and headed back. 

The cost of the Novocain and extraction was $7.50. Filling the antibiotics and pain meds at the pharmacy was $25. The irony is that we asked the driver to help us find her soft food and juice, so she could have something on her stomach for the medicine. He stopped at an actual grocery store. Let me tell you, we would all be much thinner if Walmart had these prices! The cost of a small package of soft cookie/bread and a small juice was $9. These were both Dollar Tree packages in America. This is why most Ethiopians will never set foot in an actual grocery store in their life time. It was a first for Brooke and probably a last for me.

So, the end result is in Ethiopia, snacks are more costly than dental work -

something to think about! 

Finally, here is a quick shot of my view during the dental procedure. I must comment that Debs and I both found it a little surprising that in the hospital bathroom, the only soap choice was Windex. If you tip a birr (5 cents), they will

squirt it on your hands for you! 

Please say a prayer for us tomorrow, we are going to the official area adoption office for an appointment that I did not request. Two years ago, I requested and begged and was denied. I just ask for clear direction and clear answers tomorrow for Brooke and I!

  Jenny

Frankfurt

I  successfully found my way from the airport to the subway, and then into the general station for the hop on/hop off bus tour. The tour was rather disappointing as they gave random facts, but most of the tour time was in silence. They also ignored the Jewish ghetto wall and museum that I was most interested in. It was still more interesting than sitting in the airport however, so I'm happy I did it. 

I would go broke living in the land of water closets! They are $1 for each potty stop and always required carrying my suitcase down a flight of stairs. Where I bought lunch, I thought I might get a break, but it was still a flight of stairs and fifty cents. (I guess technically, that's a bit of a break!) I'm back at the airport to begin the all night flight to Ethiopia; I'm tired. 

Oh, No, No, No

The night before last, as I was preparing for my early morning trip to DC, Alei made a surprise visit home. I heard her voice from the kitchen as she came through the living room. When she rounded the corner, however, all I could say was, "no, no, no - I leave for Ethiopia this weekend!" Alei, holding a beagle, quickly assured me that she was going to take care of this stray. This doggie showed up at a friends neighbor's house and had been living in a kennel in the backyard for six weeks while they unsuccessfully tried to find her previous family. Alei felt so sorry for her that she volunteered to take her.

Elijah photo bombed my picture, then looked at it and said, "uh, lets' try that again without the glasses"

 Alei gave her a bath, borrowed a kennel, and took the pitiful,  nervous dog home. Alei isn't going to keep her, as beagles need a fenced yard and a more available owner, but she will be a nice pet for someone as she appears to be  house broken. Alei, being a softy, let her sleep next to her bed, rather than in the kennel. 

I tried to name her Gladys but Alei didn't love it; it's better if we don't name her anyway!

                                                                               Jenny 

Blog Book and Boys

For several years I have planned on printing this blog into books for the kids to look back and read like a scrap book. Unfortunately, I also have an older blog out in blog land (on Xanga) that I can not figure out how to do anything with since the book companies do not service them. While I contemplate some solution for that, I printed the first one from Our Plans Multiplied. I hoped to do the entire year of 2010 in one book, but the max pages only got me through nine months. I am planning on ordering a book from time to time when they have a good sale. The kids have enjoyed looking at it, although there are posts about the struggles of raising some of them that concern me to have them read. (This post will be one of them.)

 

Here is what has stuck with me after flipping through and reading different posts - February 02, 2010 - "Discouraged in the Land of Parenting Little Boys." I don't want to quote the whole thing but it listed the frustrations of living with James and Ben for one week. It consisted of Ben pulling the fire alarm at the Y, resulting in 250 people being evacuated (150 from the swim team). It went on to the tales of stolen food, including sandwich bags packed with rice, that resulted in one boy getting sick and the other just making a mess on the carpet. The concluding story was James leading and LOSING his little sisters in the woods and Ben swinging a large shovel and gashing James' eye brow open. Ben then came in and started school like nothing happened while James came back to the door with his face covered in blood requiring medical attention.

Since this was almost exactly six years ago, when the boys were 8 and 9, you would think we could look back and laugh; but honestly, things aren't much different. Day after day we are still dealing with impulsive actions carried out with little regard to the consequences. Stolen food would be a daily issue if I didn't have a locked storage room for the high theft items. At the age of 14 and 15, the boys require supervision. We do not leave them home alone, nor would ever put them in charge of a younger sibling. There are a variety of reasons they suffer from the challenges they face, all related to the traumatic beginnings  - one in foster care in VA and the other in the Bush of Liberia. Unfortunately, I could frequently write a new blog post and title it - "Discouraged in the Land of Parenting Big Boys." And if I am going to be perfectly honest,  it is more concerning and more discouraging to me six years later that we are still here.

"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." - Galatians 6:9

Early Birthday Because Momma is Leaving the Country!

 We celebrated Tori's birthday a little early this year, because I am actually going to be in Ethiopia on her real birthday.  My sister and I am leaving next weekend to spend a week with Brooke at her orphanage. Due to how the schedule had to work, I am actually gone for both Tori and Bella's birthdays. So, we had a party for Tori yesterday and I am scheduling a combo. party for Bella and a few others when I get back home. JD will be in charge of pizza and presents on the real days, (which means I need to buy and wrap them this week!) 

We had a nice get together with dinner, cake and some s'more making around the campfire.

Happy 11th birthday Tori-bug!

Garage Update

 It's been a long time since I've shown the garage progress; it has been very slow the last few months. We are picking back up courtesy of another loan, (sigh). Here is the monstrosity from the front porch -

We have siders hired that worked one day before Christmas,but should be back full time in the next few days until it is done.

Here is the enclosed walkway from garage to house that the county required of us; if we had not, the garage apartment would have been considered a separate house.

I'm ok with how the outside is going to look, but I'm super excited about the inside practicality. The room on the upper level is going to be the shoe room, where all shoes will live in harmony and not come in the house. There will be ceiling to floor shelves and each person will have their own section.

These are the stairs going down from the shoe room to the "breezeway" below the garage. That is going to be the boot room, where all rain and mud boots live in harmony and don't come up the stairs!

 Here is the first stall of the garage where JD is, for the first time in 25 years of marriage, actually fixing a car in a garage. The Escape is rather a money pit, but it's also our only 4 wheel drive vehicle, the perfect animal feed and straw hatch-back, and Moriah's preferred drive to work, so we are once again dumping nearly two grand into it.

Second and third stalls of the garage, filled with siding and wood.

There will be a separate tool room in the back of the garage along with a bonus 1/2 bath.

Here is the stairwell to the upstairs apartment; it has a separate entrance from the back side of the garage.

going up -

The upstairs is one large open kitchen, dining area and living room.

The back is divided into two bedrooms and a bathroom. 

Here's the view from the sliding glass door and future deck - our unfinished cow pasture. One day...

25 Years!

 December 29th was our 25th anniversary. Our trip a few months ago to Maine was in honor of our anniversary, but we are still going to do a short get away next month.

So, we did the second best thing on an anniversary - family bowling. Actually, it was Gabriel's idea since it was supposed to be his last night home for a while. His work schedule three hours away changed, however, and he came back the very next day.



Moriah's new side-kick's name in Chris

\

It was an enjoyable evening; Selah and Bella were out visiting an Afghan family that has little girls, so they missed this round. We will have to go again soon; it is very affordable on the base and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

NEW Year Pictures

 

Since I successfully posted the family picture on the header, I'm going to post a few more from our session. The awesome photographer took nearly 900 pictures and I came home with 100. We also got all new individual pictures to update the kids photos over the stairs for the first time in 3-4 years. It's a lot of work to coordinate and photograph 16 people, but it was worth it.

 

The little family in the big family -

The four big girls -

Mimi and Granddad with Nathan -

The boys -

Candid Moriah -