She can ride a two-wheeler

Wow. We spent some time looking through videos of the last 3.5 months. It's hard to think Mebira has only been home us for 3.5 months. I love her like I love G&E, and it feels like she's been around for way longer than 3.5 months.

Arvid decided he didn't want to deal with training wheels this summer, so he just ran with her on a big girl bike. I laughed at him because I think it was more about him being cheap and not wanting to buy the training wheels than anything else, but his plan actually worked. We haven't been super diligent about getting the kids on the bikes, but he has taken them out occasionally. I haven't gone with them for a while, but tonight we went to my parent's house (about 1.5 km away) and she rode the whole way there and back. She has a bit of difficulty starting, and stops every once and awhile if she goes crazy but I can't believe she can already ride a 2-wheeler!

The other amazing thing is seeing her in the water. She LOVES it and is going to be swimming in no time. She is fearless and tries so hard to swim without her water wings. She can probably make it a foot or so, but most of the time her little bum just comes up and she stays in the same spot. It's adorable.

I continue to be amazed at how well everything is going. She is such a happy kid who sleeps well, eats well, plays well, obeys well, cleans well...we are truly blessed. I know we'll have some issues in the future, but we are soaking up every minute now!

Our trip

Well, I've been slacking...I haven't posted in a while due to our trip. And then it's intimidating to start again because it feels like there is so much to write about. The best way to do it is through pictures, so I think I'll do it that way. Here goes...

This picture was taken the day before we left, just before church. We're getting great photo op's on Sundays! The girls came down in matching dresses. Aren't they cute? I had someone post once and tell me how often she noticed that the adopted child ends up looking almost like a biological girl, colour aside. I totally notice it in this picture...if you could "paint" them both the same colour, they would almost look like biological sisters! :-)

We were VERY lazy on this trip but it's exactly what we needed. We rented a timeshare in Fairmont, BC. We had an adjoining suite to my parent's suite, which was very convenient. After the crazy activity in the summer with bringing Mebira home and saying good-bye to Arvid's dad, we totally needed a relaxing break and that's exactly what we got. We were in bed by 10 almost every night, and spent the majority of the day just sitting around and relaxing (when we weren't in the pool with the kids). This is a rare moment of activity - we hiked to the hoodoos and enjoyed the view.
Almost every night we had some down time and watched some or all of a Disney movie. We got them at the library before we left (FREE!), and had so much fun either watching with the girls, or enjoying the freedom while they watched. This particular evening I thoroughly enjoyed the snuggle. Check out Mebira's sleeping cap - she ties it on every night and it has done wonders in keeping down the fuzz. Not to mention that she looks just like a tiny Ethiopian woman when she has it on - so cute!
Of course we had to indulge in lots of good BC fruit. Mebira is quite creative and was able to accessorize with some cherries. She is definitely a girly-girl. She loves to wear jewelry and pretty things, and still plays with her doll every day. G&E haven't ever been into jewelry or babies much, so it's fun to have a really girl-girl in the house.
We went swimming with the kids for a few hours every day. The timeshare has a FANTASTIC outdoor pool and the weather was great 6 of the 7 days we were there. This was a rare opportunity to sit by the pool and read. I LOVED it!
As mentioned, the kids loved the pool. They swam and swam and swam and giggled and shrieked. We loved the sun and the exercise and the fresh air, as well as the beautiful mountain views all around.
These two get along really well and almost never fight.
The scenery and flowers there are beautiful. Here is a picture of my flower. :-)
Mebira is still a fantastic eater. She has gained 1.5 pounds in the last 2.5 months. Our two bio girls do not love to eat, and almost every meal but breakfast is a battle. It is SO refreshing to have a kid who exclaims at almost every meal "DELICIOUS"! She also thanks God for the food every night in her bedtime prayer. She has obviously gone without food in her past and is enjoying every crumb she gets from here on out. This day she decided to come up with her own creation...Mac 'n Cheese, crumbled egg and chopped up spinach. She devoured it!
Another picture of our three GEMs. We had just gone out for supper at the golf course. We brought pictionary along and played it while we waited for our food. Mebira's pictures are hilarious. If you guess what she's drawing she still has to completely finish the picture before she moves on. And she usually had a picture of Moses or Jesus in there somewhere, too. :-)
We really enjoyed the time with my parents, as well. They tell us they are honoured we'd invite them along. Well, I think total strangers would love to have my parents around. My mom did more than half the cooking, always kept her door open for any available granddaughter to pop over and colour or do crafts, and also swam with the kids in the pool each day. Here is a picture of my mom with her three granddaughters.
A nice family picture.
A silly family picture.
Elizabeth thought Daddy would look good with her dress on his head, like the Ethiopian women do.
That pretty much sums up our trip. Since we've been home we've had a lot of appointments. Hair tomorrow, 4 hour doctor appointment last week, 3 stool collections (total of 9 now!), and the dentist today. More on that later...I'm pooped!

We're back!!!

Well, we are back from a week in beautiful Fairmont, BC. I didn't post while we were gone because the internet there is brutal (and I forgot my power cord), nor do I like to announce to the general public that we are away and our house is empty for a week!

We had a wonderful time and I will post more in the coming days. Just wanted to say that we are still alive and doing well!

Last few weeks in pics

(Above) We had kids camp at our church and I helped in Mebira's class. She LOVED it and is still singing the songs. I haven't mentioned anything about her singing yet. She is perfectly in tune when she sings, and has the sweetest little voice. She sings quite a bit and it's always a joy to hear.
(Above) Here is a picture of Mebira and her cousin, Ethan, at kids camp. They both loved the games. She can run like the wind and had so much fun running around that it was hard to stop her! :-)
(Above) It took her a while to get into it, but she eventually did the actions while singing. The was generally a move or two behind, but it was so cute to see. I am not sure yet if she has the "African Dancing Gene"...so far she looks about as co-ordinated as G&E! :-)
(Above) We took the kids to a huge playground and splashpark. They had so much fun!
(Above) She loved the splash park. She has no fear of water and loves to have it splash all over her body, head and face. It was so fun to watch her excitement.
(Above) This was my first attempt at cornrows. I braided the top and left the back loose. I'm not an expert by any means, and I'll probably look back at this picture one day and think it wasn't so good, but for my first attempt I was pretty proud. :-) Check out her colouring - she does such a good job!
(Above) Her latest obsession is baby dolls. She holds them and plays with them all day. She brings them in the car with her, too, and last week at church she asked if she could take one into church. Since she still sits with us in the service I thought it would be fine and would help keep her quiet. Well, when she got into church, she used her scarf (this is a dress I bought her on our first trip to Ethiopia) and tied the baby up behind her back and walked around like that all morning. It was ADORABLE!
(Above) I'm surprised it took that long, but it took almost two months for her to braid her sisters' hair. She did such a cute job and works so quickly but she did give them each only 6 braids before she moved onto another activity.
(Above) One of the highlights of the last few weeks was getting together with family who were in town for the funeral. We had such a nice time with Arvid's aunts one night, and with the extended family the next. Here is a picture of Arvid with his cousins. Over the years they are not just family members but friends as well...although I confess I sometimes am still intimidated by how good looking they all are! :-) Arvid is in the middle (obviously) and his sister Lynelle is on the way right.
(Above) Before the funeral we decided to take some family pictures since we were all dressed up. It is hard to get 5 people to smile at the same time, but these are the best ones. Mebira doesn't seem to want to smile for the camera much...from what I understand, this is normal for children from Ethiopia. It's not like she's had 5 years of training and posing. I did show her the pictures, though...how everyone was smiling in the 15 pictures we took and she looked so serious. She thought it was funny...so maybe next time around she'll smile. :-)
(Above) A sad day, but has made me realize how much I treasure Arvid and what an amazing husband and best friend I have.
(Above) We kind of got a smile from her...this is her fake smile, I guess and only came out when we offered a candy bribe. :-)
(Above) Aren't my girls cute? They are my GEMs! (Grace, Elizabeth and Mebira)
(Above) After the funeral we drove to Red Deer and got a hotel with a pool and waterslide. The internment was the next day, about 2.5 hours away and this was a nice way to break up the trip and have some fun on such a sad day. We went out for supper, went swimming that night and the next morning before the internment, and had some good times with the kids. One of my favourite moments was at night when the kids all piled into our bed and we lay there for 5 minutes all snuggled together.
(Above) As I said, Mebira has no fear of the water. Here Arvid was throwing her up in the air and she'd come splashing down hard. E & M are so cute together - they have so much in common and had a blast going down the waterslides and being thrown in the air. G was much more calm on the other end, practicing the swimming. And yes, I'll confess, I watched from the hot tub as I've never felt a pool so cold and didn't make it in past my knees. :-)

OK, that's it for now...thanks for sharing along with us!

Whirlwind week

I don't even know where to start. The last week has been so busy. From the day that Arvid's dad passed away to the funeral it has been a blur. I can't even remember what we did...only that the days were very full.

The funeral was on Tuesday at Ellerslie Baptist Church. We are so thankful to the church for opening their building for the funeral, as well as to the caterer who changed her plans in order to help provide food. There were probably about 600 people in attendance - and it meant so much to have so many people come out. Thanks for those of you who sent cards, emails, e-cards, and for those who attended and were able to express their condolences in person. We are also so thankful for the many friends who brought baking. Arvid's dad had planned a lot of the funeral in advance...and two themes that kept repeating were "Keep it short!!!" and "Lots of food!!" so we were so glad that so many of you brought such delicious treats!

Grieving can bring out the worst in people, or the best. We've had such an amazing show of support from so many of you. For instance, one of our adoption friends (who we've actually only seen in person two times!!) sent us a beautiful card with a $75 gift card to BP's as they thought we wouldn't be in the mood for cooking. I'm never in the mood for cooking and it was such a sweet thing - thanks A&C!! Another person who really stood out is my mom - she baked, took the girls for us on numerous occasions, and even offered to drive 5 hours round trip to the internment just so that she could help watch Mebira during that part as she knew I wasn't sure how she would handle that. We told her not to bother, that I would just walk around with her if it seemed too much, and I'm happy to report that it didn't seem to phase her too much. She was so thrilled to be with her cousins that I don't think she cared about much else.

The other two people who have really stood out over the last few weeks have been Arvid and his sister, Lynelle. Often people think of the spouse left behind and minimize the loss of the kids as they have their "own" families. I can understand this a bit, as the devastation for that spouse left behind is huge, but the children grieve so much as well. Arvid and Lynelle have now lost both of their parents, both to brain aneurysms. Their mom, about 16ish years ago, and their dad last week. They have been AMAZING! They are obviously grieving and hurting, but they handled everything thrown at them with such maturity and wisdom. I am thoroughly impressed with them. I asked Arvid a few days ago if he was angry at God for allowing this. He responded that he struggled a lot when his mom died, but he now knows that it doesn't help anything and he's choosing not to go that way. They are both so strong and their faith is unwavering. Arvid, I am reminded more and more each day how fantastic of a man you are and Lynelle, I am so blessed to have gotten you as a sister-in-law and great friend.

On the note of aneurysms, we found out that not only did Arvid's parents both die of that, but his grandfather as well and within the last few weeks Arvid's dad's cousin also had an aneurysm. Thankfully, Arvid just had an MRI this week so they are able to keep an eye on him in the years to come.

OK, I need to grab a snack for the kids...I'll post more soon...

So sad

We are so sad to say that Arvid's dad passed away last night. After his brain aneurysm on May 17, he recovered enough for the family to spend time with him and to be able to communicate with him for over 2 months. Unfortunately, as time went on, his condition continued to deteriorate.

We were there as a family on Friday afternoon, the kids were updating him on kids camp and the lrt ride, and although we knew he was going downhill, we didn't expect he would be gone just 4 days later. His breathing became quite laboured, and it was so hard to see him gasping for every breath yesterday. We are glad the end didn't drag out and that he was surrounded by family and friends. One of the sweetest things was to hear three of Dad's sisters sing hymn after hymn by his side. They sang so beautifully, and it was such a peaceful and comforting thing to do for him and for those of us who were too choked up to join in. I will treasure that memory and the love for him in that room.

As Christians, although we are sad to see him go, we know he is in a better place. He will no longer be in pain, immobile, unable to talk. Mebira's middle name is Hope. We named her that not only because we hoped for her, but as Christians, we celebrate that we have hope!! We know we will see him again and be reunited with him. One of my favourite songs is by Jeremy Camp - and it played yesterday on the radio. I've posted it once on my blog here. The words are just so amazing..."There will be a day with no more tears!!"...and I can't wait for that day!

Arvid's dad was a very amazing man. He went through a lot of hardship in his life, losing his parents at a young age, then losing his wife (Arvid's mom) to a brain aneurysm about 16 years ago. Through it all, he maintained such a positive attitude, faith in God and easy going spirit. He wasn't anyone who craved the limelight but loved to serve and help in behind the scenes. I think Arvid is a lot like his Dad...and if he continues to follow in his footsteps then I am a very lucky woman.

I've attached a picture of him from before. Right now it hurts to look at this picture, to remember how things were and to reconcile that with how we saw him yesterday, but we know that we will soon be able to look back at this picture and celebrate the man we all knew and loved.

Heavy Heart

It is with a heavy heart that I write that Arvid's dad is no longer on support and the end is near (likely 3 hours to 3 weeks). Although we knew his condition was deteriorating, it is still quite a shock that it's official, and there is a lot to process.

Arvid was able to talk to his Dad tonight and tell him how much he loved him. For that, we are very thankful.

For those of you who pray, please lift up Arvid, his sister Lynelle and their step-mom Brenda in prayer at this time. This family has gone through a lot.