Moving along...

Things are still moving along fairly well. I almost feel guilty when I know what other people have to deal with. After the difficulty in our first week home, we've been trucking along quite well. I know that every child grieves in different times and in different ways and our time with her will still come, but until then we are enjoying this peace while it lasts!!

A few thoughts:

• The communication is coming along fairly well. Mebira understands most basic commands now (get dressed, put on pj's, wash your hands, come to the table, clean up, put your shoes on, get your jacket, let's go to the playground, we are walking, etc. etc.) and she is also starting to talk more and more. Some of her favourite words are television (she asks for this every day, but usually says tevelision), more, and I have to say that she is getting very good at saying "please, mommy" and "thank you, mommy". She even remembers to say thank you after each meal more than some other members in my family. It's cute because she will usually say "Say thank you, mommy". We would always teach her by telling her "Say..." so now she thinks that's part of it. :-)
• I'm trying to remember if I posted that we had her skype with a few of her friends from Ethiopia last week. These were friends with whom she was in the orphanage with. I thought she would be so thrilled to talk Amharic to them and finally have someone understand her. I couldn't believe that on the 3 occasions she did this with different friends, she only wanted to speak English. After much encouragement she spoke a little bit with one friend, but by the last one she refused. She told me she only wanted to speak English. Seeing as neither of the girls knew much English, they just repeated what they knew. They have "Hello. How are you?" and "I am fine thank you, how are you?" down very well. They would repeat it over and over and over. Very funny!
• We enjoy going for walks, and as the girls' school is just around the corner we often walk there if we are not on our way somewhere else, in which case we'll take the car. When we go to the girls' school (4 times a day as we get them for lunch) she will always ask if we're taking the car or walking. I will often answer "walk, walk, walk". One day she asked where Daddy is and I said "working". She asked, "walk, walk, walk?" and I said, "No - work". She didn't seem to get it and she said, "Daddy, walk, walk walk". I have a feeling she thinks Daddy leaves in the morning, walks around Edmonton all day and then comes home very tired at night. :-)
• Speaking of Daddy, I feel very bad for him. He is under a lot of pressure and stress at work, and then he feels pressure to be with his dad at the hospital (this isn't from anyone else, he wants to be there for his dad) but then he also feels pressure to be home (and yes, sometimes I help him feel the pressure). I totally feel bad for him because he has so much going on in his life, but it's hard sometimes when our days aren't going so well at home. Our adoption is going great, and so much better than it could be going, but it is still exhausting. I still need to keep a constant eye out for Mebira to ensure she's not getting into something she shouldn't be, to ensure the girls are all playing fairly, to comfort her when she's having a fit, to make sure she is always reassured that we have food and water available to her, etc, etc, etc. She also needs oral medicine twice a day, topical medicine twice a day, oil on her hair and lotion on her body once a day...it's a lot to keep track of with everything else going on. Needless to say that by the evening I am pooped...and even more so if Arvid works all day and then goes to the hospital (which is a good thing) on his way home.
• There are only 3 days left of school. I'm thrilled to not have to rush out of the house anymore, but a little bit nervous about having all 3 girls at home all summer. Having just G&E is no problem, and having just Mebira is working out well, too...but there tend to be more issues and more drama when it's all 3. This is the new normal, though, and I know it will definitely be a memorable summer.

Anyway, I need to sign off now. I will be posting a new post with some pictures soon. You can check out my very amateur attempts at her hair. :-)