Monday, August 30, 2010

Schoolhouse is Open for business!




First Day of homeschool!
Hayden is officially a Kindergartner!
Teacher Mommy and hayden (photo by Jack, age 3)
Jack and Mommy (bedhead and all!) photo by Hayden-mommy looks kinda tired!!
School table- I love this old blue-green canning jar!
Learning new words with scrabble tiles (much cheaper than banana grams. I bought at a garage sale for 50 cents!)

Mama's book of Lesson Plans and Instruction guides (I just can't live with a plain white binder. CAN'T. It says, Learning, Laughing, Loving, Living on it.)
Hayden's binder-He is OBSESSED with riding this quad, so he loves this pic of himself!
I added little tabbed dividers for his worksheets and writing so we can keep it all in one place.

We started school today. It was overall, good. We started our day praying together and reading a Bible story, which I loved. We did some language arts, and worked on some new words. Hayden had fun making -AT words with old scrabble tiles. It was fun to see him put together the concept of changing just one letter makes a whole new word. Last summer I bought this really raggedy scrabble game for 50 cents at a garage sale, knowing I could use those tiles for something! They came in handy for this activity of spelling new words by changing out the first letter.  Then he was able to read me a story about Pat, the Fat Rat :) He was quite proud, and so was I! My baby can read! We did a few other activities, math, history, science, and played at the park. Great day! We tackled school activities during Lucy's naps, which worked well for today. I think the boys will both be fresher in the mornings, but Math + snack was a good combo. They counted marshmallows while doing worksheets and were happy as can be this afternoon. They were a little tired, but that worked well for some quiet read-aloud time of me reading to them.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

"I go to the sea to breathe"- Maryanne Rademacher Hershey

This is a rambler, I'll just warn you. Get out now. My brain is about to spill and spew my week of painting and thinking about the Sea.

Paint. I like it. Spray, latex, acrylic, all of it. Since we've been home for the majority of the last 3 months, I've been staring at my walls, over analyzing their colors. My furniture. My picture frames...you name it, I've thought about painting it.

Our recent decision to homeschool this year, gave me the last bit of justification I wanted needed to go for it. I ripped up nasty stained carpet in our family room. We had discussed it, but it was one of those days where I was feeling a little stir crazy. Matt was gone for a few hours, and when he came home, the carpet and padding was rolled up in the garage. He came in and said, "Um, so we're going for it, huh?" My sweet husband. He tolerates loves me and my hairbrained ideas. You see, our carpet has been ugly since we moved in. Our precious children nastified the light beige carpet in about 3.2 months of living here (3 years ago). We knew there was concrete under it, which we fantasized about staining. We had fairytale dreams of lovely coffee color stained concrete...beautifully finished. Fast forward to the day I ripped up the carpet. The dudes who did the remodeling of our home (before we owned it) thought that the middle of this concrete floor would be the perfect place to spray paint the trim for the house. So, there was some lovely white stripes in the center of the floor. My hubby scraped, sanded, stripped...for HOURS. About 12 hours total. And, they were still there. As were the cracks, chips and the like from the carpet tack strips that were nailed into the floor. So, after many attempts at beautifying it (and failing) we went to Home Depot and bought a $27 gallon of concrete floor paint in chocolate brown. 2 hours later, we're calling it done. We know our little hellions angels aren't done thrashing our home, so for now it's much easier to clean than beige carpet and it's now our school room/dining room.

For which we needed a new bigger table. Since we have virtually no budget for new furnishings, I bought a $20 craigslist table. Which needed ...you guessed it, PAINT! And an armoire for the computer/office, to PAINT.

And now that you mention it, with the brown couches now in our "eucalyptus" colored living room, the black accent furniture doesn't really go, and it seems pretty dark in there. I should freshen that up too...white, i think. Oh, but shoot, my picture frames are all black...so those'll need a quick shot of spray paint too.  Oh, and that frame sitting empty in the closet, we should really put some new art in there....blah blah blah.

My hands and feet have perma white droplets on them from all the primering and painting I did this week. Still have some loose ends to tie up, but all in the name of homeschool, I've been on a mini rampage to get our house "settled" and ready for school. My friend recently told me, "you're a project girl". Yes, yes, i am. I like quick, easy to reap the rewards of my effort. PROJECTS.

I've also been inspired recently (probably since we've been home. ALOT.) that I wanted our home to reflect us a little more. I'm cheap thrifty. I rarely pay full price for anything. Heck, I rarely buy anything for our home that is NEW. Craigslist and Goodwill are my two favorite places to shop (which probably reflects in my fashion or lack thereof). So, I paint. Initially, I painted most things black. Black hides alot of ugly. But, main living area was starting to feel dark. We aren't dark people. We love the outdoors, we love LOVE the beach. Now, I don't exactly want our home to scream "beach house", but I crave for our home to be a soothing and comforting place to land. I grew up vacationing at the beach, several times a year. One of the first moments in my own journey of faith was at the beach. Matt and I's first date was at the beach. We continue to go the beach often. I realized through this adoption process, when things are hard, and I feel like I can't breathe, I go to the beach. And then I can. Breathe in, Breathe out. And the world seems right again. As soon as my lungs catch my first breath of beachy salty air and the sound of the ocean hits my ears, I can feel the weight of the world lifting off me. ....all that to say, I want a little of that in my house. So...this week, I've been rearranging furniture, painting, lightening up our world. Trying to get some of that sweet sense of freshness in my living room. So, I'm thinking natural, sea like colors. The color of sea glass, sand, grass in the dunes, ocean foam, driftwood. It's like therapy for me, only a lot cheaper, because I found most of it on craigslist or goodwill :)

in all my gusto, I didn't take any before pictures, but I will post some afters. You would think being home for 3months, my house would be all neat and orderly. The reality of 3 kids, and really not a ton of routine in our life (other than nap schedules and bed times), our house been been a disaster zone. Matt going back to work and school starting was the kick in the rear I needed to get out of "adjustment" zone, and back into "structure" zone. We aren't super structured people, we are pretty easy going and laid back, but we are creatures of habit. We like our routine. I'm actually really looking forward to school starting up and getting back into somewhat of a "normal" feeling life. The HUGE downside is, Matt is back to work (which, is good, of course). But, he's been home for almost 3 months with us, every day. I love that part of him being a teacher, and this year, it was absolutely divine timing for our life. It's been so fantastic just being together for the summer. He started back to work this week, and I realized on Tuesday, something just seemed off. Then it hit me...I missed my MAN. We really hadn't been apart for MONTHS! We've never ever had that before. Usually he picks up a summer job and keeps working off an on all summer. It's been FANTASTIC. We truly love hanging out together. We LIKE each other. Heck, we LOVE each other :) I am going to miss you, honey!

OK, that turned into one really long, rambling post, without even a fun picture to break it up. Ok, I'll throw one in, it's what I'm framing on my wall. Cannon Beach, Oregon...a really cool driftwood bench that is near our favorite little coffee shop. CB is our favorite beach town. It kinda feels like home, every time we go there. I took this picture in April, when we went down to breathe when we found out we didn't get through MOWA for our court date. I felt like I was suffocating in adoption land (dramatic, I know. People have had it far worse than us).  But, good ol' CB ocean air, togetherness, and some time soaking up the Lord's creation was just what we needed. Now on the other side of that, I want to remember how far the Lord has brought us. How perfect his timing is, and how joyful we are that he is in control, not us.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Day 10- Orphanage visits, heading home

I forgot to journal this day...it was a blur.

We spent a bit of time in the morning visiting a few Addis orphanages. That's not something I'll soon forget. I can't post pics of the little ones at the orphanages, but this will give you the idea of what it's like.

One of things I can't stop thinking about is this baby room. Full, FULL of babies. Babies in wet diapers, babies with bottles propped up. There had to be over 35-40 babies, some two or more to a bed. Two ladies doing their darndest to keep up with diapers and bathing. I can still see the sweet, tiny little faces. Who knows how old any of them were, but I spent a while looking at this little one, trying to coax a smile that never came. She seemed sick, glossy eyed, and coughing. I don't think these precious babes ever really get held or nurtured. They are always in their cribs unless being changed or bathed (which is probably not often with only two ladies to care for them all). Matt stood for 5 minutes trying to coax a smile from a sweet little girl on the changing station, waiting her turn for a new diaper. He seriously tickled her feet for 5 minutes before he got half a smile. These sweet babes just don't know how to engage. They don't really fuss or cry, because I doesn't really do them any good.

Kebebe Tsehai infant room

I wish we could have done this visit earlier in the week, so I could have gone back for a second visit with my wits about me. The first time was honestly overwhelming. I didn't quite know how to respond to it. I was fighting back tears most of the time.

Here is a toddler room at the same place.
We also visited Kolfe Boys Home. This place felt hopeful to me...good stuff happening there. More could be done...we were amazed at the amount of Shiro and Injera it took to feed these boys lunch.
this seems a little decieving, think the size of a family size pizza, that's how big one injera is.
cafeteria at Kolfe
soccer field at Kolfe
We had lunch with a few of the families at Island Breeze, which was delish. really good food, wished we'd gone there earlier in the week. Then we headed back to the Bejoe to finish packing and say our goodbyes.
Bettie, Lucy's Gladney caregiver for the week
The Bejoe Guest House- our room was on the bottom left
Lucy's crib at the Bejoe
Our golden bed at the Bejoe (with our luggage)

We headed to the airport for our long journey home...first leg was to Dubai. We spent a few hours there trying to sleep unsuccessfully in our hotel room, and then another 16 hours to LA. Then, we layed over for a couple hours, and a two hour ride to PDX. LOOOONG ride home, but so very worth it!
yikes. Mama looks tired already, and we haven't even boarded the plane!
Us, Mark and Heidi (middle), and Travis and Lisa...waiting to board the Emirates flight to Dubai!


Previous travel posts:
Day 1-Hello From Addis!
Day 2- Gondar 
     I also had two jet lagged attempts at blogging Gondar, if you care to read)
Day 3- Lucy Day!
Day 4- Family Bonding Day
Day 4-Life with Lucy Melat
Day 5- Gladney Care Center Visit and Top View
Day 5-Life with Lucy part 2
Day 6-U.S. Embassy , Holy Trinity Church, & Fasika
Day 7- Birth Family Meeting 
Day 8- Souvenir Shopping and Resort Dinner
Day 9- Shopping and sightseeing

Day 9- Museum, Zoo, Entoto Mountain

from my journal:
Today we left Melat with a caregiver (so hard to do, but nice to get out of the walls of the guesthouse!)
Abiey and Matt
Abeiy and I at Entoto Mountain

Our driver took us all around Addis to Entoto Mountain, the Lion Zoo, and the National Museum, some classic Addis tourist stops. Entoto Mountain had a great view of the city and the fresh air alone made it worth the quick trip up there (Addis is very polluted with diesel fumes and dirty dusty air).  It was only about 20 minutes from the Bejoe Guesthouse.

The National Museum is home to "Lucy" the famous human skeleton. She had nothing to do with our picking "lucy" for our girls name, but we thought it was a must see. It was neat to see some of the Ethiopian relics and historical artifacts, although we found it a bummer that it is all so poorly preserved. Lots of neat art to see, and the thrones of the Emperor/Empress and traditional clothing.

The Lion Zoo is home to Abyssinian Lions, unique to Ethiopia we were told. Our driver, Abeiy was quite proud of the zoo, and showed us around to all the animals there. It was not quite like our Oregon Zoo, but was interesting and fun to go somewhere our friend/driver wanted to show us.

Rodeo Addis :)
roadside stand
We picked up a few more souvenirs and had lunch at a spot Abeiy thought we'd like, Rodeo Addis, A Texas Style restaurant. They played american country music and we ate yummy cheeseburgers. We have yet to use our cipro, so we were feeling brave and went for the beef! Abeiy knew we like country music, and though this place would be up our alley! It was pretty awesome, and at a time when we were craving an "american" meal, it tasted pretty darn good.

Now we're relaxing, enjoying our last afternoon at the Bejoe. We also had coffee and chocolate croissants at La Parisienne. I wish I'd known about this place sooner, it was SO GOOD! the macchiatos were amazing and the croissants (with CHOCOLATE, which we've had a very hard time finding in ET) were sooooo tasty!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Day 8-Shopping, Coffee, & fancy dinner


Daddy and his sweet girl

from my journal:

We spent the morning at a local church bazaar doing some souvenir shopping. It's on the last Saturday of the month, from 8am-12pm at the evangelical church. All the vendors are african non profits, benefitting various causes. It was so great to get handmade items and know our money was going to a good cause. We bought most of our souvenirs there. We got these really cool wooden salad tongs/bowls, coffee ceremony items, a few toys, and a clay nativity set.

We did a little more shopping at some souvenir shops for a few more items, like silver crosses, tshirts, other Ethiopian goodies. We also went to Tamoca again, and got some coffee beans for home as well as a few macciatos. Delish.


The three of us!
one of the suites at the resort  

In the afternoon, we headed out in a van with the other families and Travis to a resort for dinner. I can't for the life of me remember the name of it (it wasn't Dreamland). It was beautiful, delicious, and so nice to relax, breathe fresh air and enjoy some good company. I would love to spend a few days there someday! It was about an hour drive out of Addis, but the van we rode in had A/C which was SO nice! It was really really nice, the food was excellent and about 450birr per couple.

Previous posts on our trip, in case you missed them!


Day 1-Hello From Addis!
Day 2- Gondar 
     I also had two jet lagged attempts at blogging Gondar, if you care to read)
Day 3- Lucy Day!
Day 4- Family Bonding Day
Day 4-Life with Lucy Melat
Day 5- Gladney Care Center Visit and Top View
Day 5-Life with Lucy part 2
Day 6-U.S. Embassy , Holy Trinity Church, & Fasika
Day 7- Birth Family Meeting 
Day 8- Souvenir Shopping and Resort Dinner

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Day 7- Birth Family Meeting

From my journal:
This morning we met Melat's maternal Aunt. She seemed very very happy to see Melat, although baby girl didn't seem to remember her at all. She hadn't seen her since her relinquishment in November, 6 months ago. She traveled all the way from Sudan to meet us and say goodbye to Melat. She was returning immediately to her work in Sudan on a plantation.
Melat was very nervous to be out of my arms!

She seemed much younger than we expected. She seemed like a teenager to us, although our paperwork said otherwise. She seemed to love Melat so much. She said Melat had her mother's nose. We think she also has the family feet, because her Aunt had the same long narrow feet Melat has.

(I am editing some here, becuase there's just some of the story we feel is just to private to publish for the world to read).

We spent the remainder of the day relaxing and recovering from the morning family meeting. It was wonderful and hard. So glad we had the opportunity, but it was exhausting. So much life our little one has already been through.

We made a quick stop to the Kechene girls shop and the Gladney care center to snap a few photos of one more babe. Turns out, he was in Melat's old room, and the caregivers, in their very broken english, asked me who's mother I was. I said, "Melat" and they lit up and said, "May-lie, Oh, May-lie!" and made kissing noises, and I got the gist that they wanted me to give her their love. They obviously had loved her well, which makes my heart so full.
one of Melat's former caregivers
another one of Melat's caregivers...she was especially giving the kisses and loves to her!


Our little girl is so sweet- a little bundle of sunshine. She's so smiley and happy, we are totally enjoying getting to know her.

previous posts:



Day 1-Hello From Addis!
Day 2- Gondar 
     I also had two jet lagged attempts at blogging Gondar, if you care to read)
Day 3- Lucy Day!
Day 4- Family Bonding Day
Day 4-Life with Lucy Melat
Day 5- Gladney Care Center Visit and Top View
Day 5-Life with Lucy part 2
Day 6-U.S. Embassy, Holy Trinity Church, and Fasika

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Day 6- U.S. Embassy, Holy Trinity Church, & Dinner at Fasika

Notes from my journal (it was a full day):

We got up early to depart for the US Embassy. We arrived there at 7:30am and the place was already filling up. They started calling folks from our group just after 8am. I think we were the 2nd or 3rd family and we went upstairs about 8:30. The Embassy office reminded me of the DMV only with security check points. We went up to a window with an american agent behind the glass who asked us to raise our right hand and swear to tell the truth (like what I've seen on court tv :) A few questions and we were on our way. We were asked where Lucy was born, how she became an orphan, who relinquished her, basic stuff about her story.  We were at the window 5-10 minutes. We had decided that I would be the one to answer the questions, since I practically had the paperwork memorized. I got incredibly nervous for some reason, once a the window. My hands started to sweat and shake. I kept thinking, "THIS is the final official thing! Stop shaking, or he's going to think something fishy is going on!" But, he was cool...I'm sure I wasn't the first goofy adoptive mom to stand in his window.

We left the Embassy, and went over to the Gladney Care Center for a quick follow up visit with Dr. Mikiyos. He wanted to follow up on her ear infection and diarhea (I can never spell this right!). He told us to hold the course with the meds. Lucy was NOT happy to see him. I think she's been given many many shots while there. She has scars on both upper arms that he told us were from medications and immunizations being given by shot. He said everything is administered by shot, antibiotics, immunizations, etc.

Belay's Father is in the light colored uniform next to the Emperor
inside the church, beautiful paintings and art
Belay in memorial, his father is pictured 3rd from left, middle row (can you tell?)
art depicting the massacre of the former Imperial Government officials
We had a little down time at the Bejoe before we left Lucy with a caregiver for a few hours and went to the Holy Trinity Church for a tour with Belay. It was amazing to get a tour with Belay (the director of Gladney's in country program). His father was the Commander of the Royal Palace Guard (or something important like that) for the last Ethiopian Emperor in the 1970's. In the Holy Trinity Church is where the Emperor Haile Salassie and his wife are entombed. There is loads of history, and it was interesting to hear about the Ethiopian Orthodox church. Belay told us that church services last 3 hours, and the members stand the entire time, men separated from the women (so they don't get distracted from worship and prayer). The church is filled with beautiful stained glass windows (from Belgium, I believe) and depict various biblical and Ethiopian events. Following the tour of the church, Belay took us across the road to the memorial for the 60 ex-officials of the Imperial Government who were massacred by the Derg regime in 1974 (of whom his father was included). It was very special to be given such a personal tour by Belay.

Later that night, we had a night out at Fasika with the other families who were in our travel group, as well as Belay and Travis and Joanna Norwood (Gladney in country staff). I think this night may have been one of the most fun moments of our trip. We had a traditional Ethiopian meal (which we really liked) and some St. George (local beer) and watched some traditional Ethiopian dancers. The real laughs came as we all gave our go at traditional dancing, when the pretty lady came and "invited" us to give our try at the Ethiopian shoulder shimmy dancing. It was hilarious, and fun, and I have to say, everyone was a good sport about being put on the spot. I think we all knew we'd look ridiculous, so why not!?! Except Matt. He somehow positioned himself outside our circle to "photograph the dancing" and got out of showing his skills.
Our traditional Ethiopian Meal
traditional dancers

Men with their Abyssinian Lion Mane hats, getting their dance on
This girl was BEAUTIFUL. Her hair rocked! That's me on the right, getting my shoulder groove on. It's like a game of Ethiopian Simon Says...you copy her moves.
Awesome hair lady, groovin' with Travis, girl has some neck whipping power.
Belay, such a good sport. I'm sure the Gladney staff must get sick of this meal and dancing!
Seriously, this girl was rockin' the house with her moves. So fast, hair whipping, it was awesome.

We also got a little surprise. We thought Melat's biological aunt was out of the country and we wouldn't be meeting with her. BUT tonight, Travis casually said, "you guys are on at 11 for the family meeting".  Um, What?? We had thought she was in the Sudan. We are feeling a bit unprepared, but really excited to have the opportunity to meet her.

Stay tuned tomorrow for more posts! If you missed my earlier posts (like, a month ago) here's the links to them:
Day 1-Hello From Addis!
Day 2- Gondar 
     I also had two jet lagged attempts at blogging Gondar, if you care to read)
Day 3- Lucy Day!
Day 4- Family Bonding Day
Day 4-Life with Lucy Melat
Day 5- Gladney Care Center Visit and Top View
Day 5-Life with Lucy part 2
Day 6-U.S. Embassy , Holy Trinity Church, & Fasika
Day 7- Birth Family Meeting 
Day 8- Souvenir Shopping and Resort Dinner
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