Conversations with Mebira

The majority of Mebira's conversations consist of the future. "When I'm a Mom..." or "When I marry...". We have spent hours and hours on these topics. I have enjoyed my mornings when the kids are in school (although there is never a shortage of things to do - field trips, volunteering in school, laundry, grocery shopping, helping out at church, etc.) but a special part of my day is in the afternoon when G&E are back at school and Mebira and I are alone together. This is the time when she loves to talk about who she is going to marry, what it will be like when she has babies, etc. Some highlights:

• It changes daily as to WHO she is going to marry. Now she's not proposing to anyone yet, but she is really obsessed with the colour of her future husband's skin. "Will I marry a peach man or a brown man? I don't know." One day it's a "peach man", the next it's a "brown man". I am trying to highlight what is most important - that she marries a man who loves God and who loves her, and she will often repeat that after she has made her daily colour pronouncement.
• This morning at breakfast she said, "When I am married, I'm going to marry a man with an ipad". I'm glad all those talks about priorities have been paying off...or not. :-)
• She is trying to determine where to live when she is older. The latest plan was to live in a house right next to us, but this morning she decided she wanted to live in a house right next to the church so she could walk there instead of drive.
• I am trying to encourage her to also plan for some sort of a career. I'm all for being a stay-at-home mom (or in my case, a mostly stay-at-home mom as I will be back at 12 hours a week shortly) but I also would like her to study something in case her plan of husband and babies doesn't work out. Currently, she's planning on being a doctor. And today she told me that I can stay with her babies, she will give me a bottle (since my "tootles" don't have anymore milk, she said) and she will go to work. I'm not trying to wish my life away, but MAN I'm excited to have some cute little Ethiopian baby grandkids. I'm sure Mebi was an adorable baby and I'm sad I missed out on that and can't wait to enjoy it as a grandmother. :-)
  
• We've had an AMAZING winter so far. SO warm...I don't remember ever having one like it. We had a huge streak of days above zero and also broke numerous records. (The only downside is that there is no snow, although whether that's a negative or not is debatable). Anyway, Mebira still thinks it's too cold out. The other day she told me, "When I'm a Mom, I'm going to live in the summer!" Ahhh...if only it was that easy!