June 4

June 4 marked the day that we brought Mebira home exactly one year ago.  I'll be posting a bit more in the future about how things have changed, but here are a few pictures from then and now.

The amazing friends and family who came to greet us at the airport

FINALLY a family of 5.  Our first picture together!

The girls were so excited to take her inside and show her around.

One whole year in Canada - she wore a Canada shirt on this day although I'm not sure if that was intentional or not

My three beautiful girls...a rushed picture before school started...

12 years ago...

Twelve years ago today was a perfect day.  I remember waking up, taking a look outside at the beautiful blue sky and breathing a prayer of thanks.  I had a long soak in my parent's huge bath tub, and anxiously thought about every detail in the day to come.  My wedding day had finally arrived and I couldn't have been happier.  I was marrying my best friend, about to go on a honeymoon to Hawaii, and would then move into a house we had just built.  We both had full time jobs as electrical engineers, and life was looking great.

Twelve years later, I am a very happily married woman.  We have had some bumps in our marriage for sure, but it has been the easiest relationship in my life - mostly due to the fact that Arvid is incredibly easy going and easy to please.  We have been blessed with two beautiful biological girls, and our amazing girl from Ethiopia. 

We had a fun family night on Friday night - we thought it would be fun to celebrate a few things at once...Mebira honoured me on Mother's Day and is busy preparing for Father's Day at school...we wanted to find a day to also acknowledge her birth parents, as well as celebrate that she has been with us for one year.  So we had our family's favourite supper (cobb salad), baked a chocolate cake, said a few words of thanks about Mebira's Wolayta Mom and Wolayta Dad and sang "Happy Family Day to us".  Then we spent the evening watching the first few moments when we met Mebira, followed by watching our wedding video.

What amazed me the most was to see how many people have passed away since that time.  A lot can change in 12 years.  However, with those sad moments watching those who are no longer with us we also had some fun moments.  We had an especially good time watching my adorable niece and nephew walk down the aisle - boy were they cute!  It was also heartwarming to hear the toast to the bride from my brother Ron, hear him sing a song, hear both of my brother's play their violin and cello, and listen to the speeches from my sister-in-law and brother-in-law.  We laughed at our slide show, as well as how cheesy the wedding video was - technology has changed a lot in 12 years, too.

Yes, we were younger, yes we had new, young love, but I am just as in love with my husband now as I was back then.  Actually, what am I thinking...I love my husband more now than ever.  I have come to learn so much more about him and appreciate his many amazing qualities.  He is hard working, smart, generous, easy to talk to, non judgmental, easy going, positive, God honouring, loving, and the thing I appreciate the most is that he is still my best friend.  We went from lab partners at University to partners for life.  I am truly blessed.

Happy Family Day to us!

This was us then...12 years ago! Sadly, I don't think anyone had digital cameras way back then...I scanned these in today instead.

We took pictures at the University - where we first met, became best friends and fell in love

 

I thought it would be fun to try on my wedding dress today for the first time in 12 years.  It fit all the way until it hit my rib cage.  I'd like to think that it's because I'm voluptuous now but it's actually because I think my rib cage expanded through pregnancy...and maybe a little back fat, too.  :-)  The flowers are a dried bridesmaid bouquet from my sister-in-law Angie's wedding.

Excuse the hair - I had just gotten back from an 8k run.  :-)  Don't I have a good husband to humor me with this?  And he was even hangry at the time (grumpiness brought on by hunger).  :-)

We picked her up one year ago today!

Hard to believe we only picked up Mebira one year ago.  One year ago today we got her from the Transition Home.  She was quiet and shy and reserved...and one year later she is none of those things!

Our first view of her

She wasn't so sure at first and kept fiddling with the tags on her new stuffy

Warming up a little bit

First picture with Dad

Saying goodbye

Joy at finding lots of new toys we brought

Practicing letters outside

So happy to see some friends from the Transition Home.  Check out her belly. :-)

These videos are out of order and I'm having difficulty moving them - look at the bottom one first.  It's a video of when she first came to us.  The video above is while we were visiting with her still at the Transition House.

Happy Mother's Day to me!

So yes, this post is a bit late.  There's a reason for it, though.  Call me selfish, but by the time we go to church and then have lunch with my family so that we can honour my mom and my grandma on Mother's Day as well, there's not much time left for me!  So for years and years we have celebrated my Mother's Day on a different day...usually the Saturday before.  This year Arvid had meetings on the Saturday so we decided to celebrate my Mother's Day the following weekend, which so happened to coincide with a trip to Banff that we had planned for the long weekend.


We had a wonderful time in Banff! We stayed at our favourite hotel (when we have the kids) - the Douglas Fir resort.  We had lots of time in the pool and playpace, relaxed in our hotel room, shopped in Banff (a highlight for the girls...we've come so far!) and ate out.  My favourite part, though?  Mother's Day! 

The day started out with yummy waffles and fresh fruit put together mostly by Arvid with a bit of help from the girls.  I then got to open my present (2 running magazines, a candle, air freshener, chocolate and...ahem...some Pomegranate Lemonade coolers).  Next we went swimming and I got to stay in the hot tub the whole time!  After some lunch we went for a beautiful hike up Tunnel Mountain.  I don't remember having done that one in absolutely ages, and never with the kids so it was super fun.  Of course when we were done the girls deserved some ice cream (and I deserved some coffee), and then after relaxing in our room for a bit we went to Earl's for supper.  And to finish the night off, we finished watching The Sound of Music.  It's so fun to have girls!  :-)

Here are some pictures - first of Mother's Day celebrations at home and then of our wonderful weekend away...

The Kindergarten class put on a Mother's Day Tea.  They sang for us, served us cake and tea and gave us presents that they had made!

My Mother's Day gift from Mebira

The four mothers on Mother's Day. I'm blessed with amazing sister-in-laws on both sides, and with the world's best mother (no really! It's true!), and such an amazing heritage from my Oma!

Four generations!  Oma (Grandma) in her 90s and I still can't keep up with her, my mom, me and the girls

A silly picture just for the girls...

Just spending some time doing nail art - flowers, stripes and patterns

My Mother's Day breakfast...in our pj's.  :-)

It's so nice the girls can actually take pictures now...and our heads aren't even cut off!

This is E's and my favourite mountain

The girls!

Yup, this is pretty much it...the four of us bunched up together, fighting over who gets to hold Mom's hand...and Dad off in the distance somewhere.  It feels good to be loved!  :-)

Our second hike - Grassi Lakes in Canmore

So happy to be married to such an amazing man!

Happy Family!  :-)

One year

I bet a lot of you were thinking I was going to post that we have been home for one year with Mebira now.  Well, that post is yet to come...a few more weeks away.

Unfortunately, today is the day, one year ago, that we received a terrible phone call.  I had just returned late at night from a girl's weekend in Phoenix and could hardly contain my excitement as we had just received the visa to pick up Mebira.  I just had to finish up some things at work and was going to spend the next few days packing for Ethiopia and doing a last bit of organizing at home.  But those plans changed in an instant when Arvid called to tell me that his dad had had a brain aneurysm.

Those next few days were tough.  Every minute was agonizing and I remember waiting anxiously at the hospital to hear from the doctors on how he was doing.  Ten days later we left him in ICU, stable but not responding, and went to Ethiopia.  It was so hard to leave...our hearts were so torn between wanting to stay with him and mourning what had happened, but yet anxious to pick up our daughter and full of joy that we could finally do so.

I don't know how we made it through that summer.  Arvid was super busy at work...so stressed...he visited the hospital so much and yet felt the pressure to be home and bond with his new daughter.  I am amazed at how well he handled everything...pressure at work...pressure to be at the hospital...pressure to be home.  His dad had moments of alertness but spent most of his days sleeping.  Thankfully, Arvid was able to have a few visits with him where he was alert.  Unfortunately, that July his dad passed away.  And a lot has happened since then.  Death changes families and it has left its mark on ours.  But by God's grace we have made it through this first year.

Today, I remember Arvid's dad and celebrate the man he was:
- I miss how supportive he was - he was so positive when we shared our plans with him.
- I miss his easy going personality and servant heart - he was always willing to lend a hand to anyone.
- I miss family dinners together with him
- I miss his love for our kids and that he was a good grandpa.
- I miss his outlook on life - he went through so much hardship and yet picked himself up each time.
- I miss not being able to share Mebira with him, and I am sad that she missed out on knowing him.


It is so sad to sit down and remember what was and could have been.  But I cling to the hope that we will be reunited again one day.  There will be a day with no more tears!!  And while I don't understand why it happened or what has happened since then, I will continue to find refuge, hope and peace in my Lord.

There are so many more things I should write and would like to write...but my procrastination really has to come to an end and I need to start on my work!!

Happy Hair Day!!

Life has been pretty busy lately with going back to work and just managing life in general.   Plus, I started back at GE on contract again and have over 80 dwgs to modify by Friday.  Needless to say, I've been putting in some late nights working once the kids are in bed and tonight will be the same.

The highlight of my week so far was this afternoon.  I took Mebi to a lady who put extensions in her hair.  She charged $70 and did an AMAZING job.  Now, to some of you, spending $70 on hair for a just about six year old may seem like a lot.  It was actually my Mother's Day present to myself and you'll see why soon.  :-)

My weekly hair routine for her takes me anywhere from 1.5-3 hours.  It is taking longer and longer to detangle, and she usually needs a new style every week or she turns into the fuzzy wuzzy bear.  If I put yarn braids in her hair it can take me anywhere from 6-8 hours until I am totally done, whereas this only took the hair stylist 3.5 hours.  (I actually tried to include the video I took but I think the file is too large...I can't believe how fast she can braid.  Arvid thought it was on fast forward when I showed him and then he said her hands look like little spiders!)

The biggest bonus is that I won't have to do hair for at least 2 months now which is perfect timing...especially in this busy season.  And when I figure out that I worked on my drawings the whole time Mebi got her hair done it just seems like a no brainer.

Well, without further delay I will include some pictures...

A "before" picture...she's holding a beautiful painting she painted for me for Mother's Day

During...she sat and watched movies and was happy as could be for over 3 hours.  The scalp is more obvious on her head with the flash on...it's not this noticeable in person.

This picture scares me a bit.  Doesn't she look old?  It feels like a flash to the future.

So cute from the back, too.

What a gorgeous girl!  :-)

Thoughts on three

Now that I've been almost a full calendar year as a mother of three I've been reflecting on how things were before, and how they've changed since Mebira has come into our lives.  I was often told how going from one to two isn't hard, but going from two to three is way more difficult.  Granted, we didn't start from the newborn phase as Mebira came to us when she was almost 5, but I was always skeptical about how difficult it could be going from two to three.  I often had the girls' friends over and would end up with anywhere from three to seven kids in our house so I thought it wouldn't be much harder than that.  However, there is definitely a difference between a playdate and 24 hour-a-day life.

Things I find harder about three:

• Honestly, just getting used to it is hard.  I am finally, (FINALLY!) remembering to set the table for five instead of four, but still mess up sometimes if we're having other families over.  I often do the math really quick in my head...we have two, they have two, that's four kids.  Whoops! Thankfully no one has caught on to this yet and I can usually slide another plate on without too much attention.  :-)
• Shopping, walking, being out...I am blessed to have three girls who love me and always want to hold my hand/sit by me, etc.  Unfortunately, as I only have two hands someone usually gets left out.  When we're sitting on the couch watching our latest favourite show together (Canada's Got Talent) we have a simple solution - one on my left, one on my right and one on my lap and they rotate each commercial break.  :-)
• More relationships...no longer can I just separate the two girls or have them work it out. Now if there is an issue there are so many more dynamics involved...this girl feels left out, etc.  Instead of there being 12 relationship dynamics to keep track of (my relationship with each member of my family and each of their relationships to the other members in the family) there are now 20 relationship dynamics to keep track of. And if you include the dynamics of doubling up (G&M vs. E), it gets even more complicated!
• Traveling, eating out...the world really is made for a family of four.  Tables in fast food restaurants, hotels, etc. are so much easier to find when there are only four!
• Keeping track of field trips, permission slips, who needs to practice what.  There have been a few times this year that I was positive I had already filled out a form for one of my girls because it felt like I had filled a million of them out already for the other two...but nope, I found that blank form, unsigned, in my kitchen.

Things I find easier about three:

• Decisions are WAY easier.  No more "I want to watch this movie (or play this) but she wants to watch that movie (or play that)".  Now there is ALWAYS a tiebreaker!
• The girls play sooo much better than before.  A few years ago we got them a great, springfree trampoline.  They played on it a bit, but not much just the two of them and usually only when their friends came over.  I don't know what it is, but when you have three or more, the games are way more fun on the trampoline.  They have invented a ton of games and are out there for hours each day. 
• If one girl is away at a birthday party or playdate or something, the other one doesn't feel as left out and still has someone fun at home to play with.  The same goes if someone wants to play on the trampoline and her sister doesn't.  In the past, it would die right there.  But now there's one more person for her to ask to join in...and more often than not one of the two is willing to go.

I may just add more to the list as the time goes by.  For now, we are in a great phase.  Our house is peaceful and full of laughter and fun and I am LOVING it!!