Watoto

We had the privilege of seeing the Watoto choir again on Saturday night. The last few years we have attended and dreamed of the day we could bring our Ethiopian child...and we were thrilled go this year and show Mebira. She seemed to enjoy it quite a bit although she seemed a bit uncomfortable at times. I'm not sure if it was because they all looked like her and she was surrounded by a bunch of caucasians and maybe didn't feel like she was a part of either group...or if it was because the children openly talked about having lost their parents and it brought back memories for her.

In any case, if you haven't seen them they are touring across Canada right now. I love the choir and highly recommend checking them out. An earlier version of the choir sang with Chris Tomlin on his Hello Love cd. You can find more info here

I've pasted one of my favourite songs that they sing below:

Reflecting

As we passed court and Mebira legally became our daughter 1 year ago today (yah!) we recently had a meeting with our social worker to write up our post placement report. (These reports are sent to Ethiopia...3 in the first 15 months and yearly on our court date thereafter).

Anyway, it was a great chance to see how far we have come in the nine months that we have been home. When she did our first post placement report in the summer we still had it pretty good, but we were dealing with learning the language, some behavioral issues, trying to figure each other out and teach her our family expectations and boundaries, and of course we were dealing with Arvid's dad's aneurysm.

Our social worker asked us a whole bunch of questions...does she sleep through the night? (yes) always? (yes) has she ever been sick? (no) does she eat well? (yes) does she eat meat? (yes) veggies? (yes) fruit? (yes) how does she get along with her sisters? (awesome!) does she bond well with Arvid, too? (yes) is she affectionate? (yes) how is she when you do her hair? (great) how is her English (great, and she can read most 3 letter words now) how has she done now that you're back at work? (good - haven't noticed a difference) what is she like? (almost always happy)...anyway, you get the picture. At one point I was almost worried that she wouldn't believe us and that we were making things up to cover up what is really going on. :-)

We know this probably isn't typical but we are definitely counting our blessings. We tried to prepare for the worst and hope for the best...we read enough adoption books to scare me half to death, but we felt that this is a path that God was directing us down and that He would provide the strength to make it through. Neither of us are huge kid people...and with dealing with Arvid's dad's death and issues therein I don't know how we would have had the bandwidth to have a totally traumatized child on our hands. We are soooo thankful that things have gone smoothly so far!

I have recently had such a desire to pause life right now. G is turning 10 in September...and she's already turning into a little mini adult...M and E are at such a cute stage...I wish I could just pause it and park out here for a while longer. Wouldn't it be nice to have a remote control for life? How fun to skip through those hard stages and to pause life when it's good...and Arvid and my personal favourite - one we wish for almost every day - to have a volume button!! Three giggling girls (or screaming girls) can make a lot of noise! :-)

Anyway, for now, I plan to soak up the days...especially this next week of Spring Break!

Rock Star

A few weekends ago we had the privilege of having one of my nephews over for the evening on Friday night, and my four nieces over for a sleepover the following night. I didn't have many cousins close to my age and always wanted our girls to be close to their cousins. We have the most amazing nieces and nephews. They are all awesome with our GEMs - the girls are always super thrilled when their cousins are around and I always enjoy spending time with them, too.

We decided to play Lego Rock Band Wii with our nieces the night they slept over. We were all a bit nervous about being the singer and belting it out in front of everyone...except for Mebira. She is fearless and fun-loving and jumped right in even though she didn't know the songs or the words. I love the picture below...it totally sums up her personality.

Twist Out

After about 6 weeks of yarn braids I decided to take them out. Unfortunately, as I was taking the yarn out I could see I would be in trouble. About a quarter to a third of the twists had totally fused together near the top. I think it's because the product that I used to hold the twist all gathered together in a clump at that spot and the hair was pretty much fused together.

Anyway, before I took the yarn out I co-washed her hair in the tub, which made it super easy to take the yarn out and left the cutest little ringlets. Because it had just been conditioned quite well, I was able to leave the twistout for a few days (3?) .

After enjoying her hair down I bit the bullet and decided to try to really detangle it. What a nightmare! The fused parts took me forever to get out and I was terrified that I was causing breakage in trying to detangle. Plus, because she had her hair in twists for so long, the naturally shed hair finally had a chance to come loose...and although I knew it was just naturally shed hair I was freaked that she would go bald. :-)

Anyway, after about 1.5 hours of detangling, I finally finished. I clearly did not think it through properly because it was a Sunday and I had to still style her hair because I started work the next day...what a long day!

Here are a few pics of her twist-out:

1.5 weeks in

I've been back to work for 1.5 weeks now. I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised with how well it's going. I enjoy the work and the time flies by while I'm there. And Mebira has adjusted super well...to be perfectly honest, I don't even know if she has noticed. Since I'm only working 12ish hours, I do the majority of the work while she's at school, and my mom watches her for one afternoon a week. During the afternoon that my mom watches her they do painting and pottery and crafts and read books and bake and colour...I'm surprised she wants to come home at all. :-)

I have definitely noticed that I have 12 fewer hours each week...and my house is the first thing to show it. However, we all (fortunately or unfortunately) have a pretty high tolerance for mess so I can't say it stresses us out too much.

Last week I still managed to work out four times, bake muffins, cook home cooked meals each day (including trying out two new recipes), have a quiet time (every?) day, and stay on top of groceries and laundry. So it actually felt like I got most major things accomplished. The other thing that I noticed is that I appreciated the kids a lot more. The first day at work was really tough and I did shed a few tears. However, nothing beat coming home at the end of the day and having their big welcoming hugs and kisses. It also seems like we had more quality time together last week than some (many?) of the weeks that I had not been working. It's funny how I often feel like I'm with the kids all the time, but the time isn't really quality time unless I'm intentional about not turning on the computer, texting, reading a book or magazine, etc.

OK, off to make supper and then to AWANA...

Change is a-coming

This week has been great. A two day week - I could get used to that! The girls have Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off of school and other than a few minor things each day we don't have much planned. I was really looking forward to sleeping in today...and made it until 7:30. What? That is not like me at all!

I suppose I have a lot going through my head. I go back to work on Monday and will admit that I'm quite nervous about it. Granted, it's only 12 hours a week, but I have for the first time in ages felt relatively in balance, and 12 hours is likely to upset that balance at least for the first while. Thankfully my mom will help out with watching Mebira one afternoon a week, and the other times I will be working while she's at school.

My job itself is pretty good...the staff at church is awesome and I generally like what I do. Our Senior Pastor is really flexible and supportive and understanding so I've been able to set my hours and times. However, I'm not able to just leave work at work very well, and when things get stressful there I am definitely not good at leaving it there. I feel bad admitting this, but I've definitely noticed that my patience (and tolerance?) for Mebira really goes down as soon as I feel stressed. I think it's probably because she's at home with me each afternoon alone and needs more attention than when G&E come home. But I do wonder how my busy-ness will affect our attachment, and how I'm going to get everything done!

I've been debating this whole work thing a lot in the last while. To work or not to work. Although we have been blessed financially in so many ways, we obviously still have debt and I wonder if I shouldn't help bring that down a bit. Plus, raising three kids is quite expensive! And the kids will all be in school "full-time" in September. It would be different if I was homeschooling, maybe I wouldn't feel as "guilty" for staying home. I've been reading Dr. Kevin Leman's latest book, "It's Your Kid, Not a Gerbil" and it has been challenging me a bit. There are so many things we think our kids NEED, or so many things that we sign them up for that we think will enrich their lives. He challenges many of those viewpoints and it has made me stop and think.

Anyway, on that note, G needs help with piano so I will run. I'm curious as to how other people came to the work decision that is right for your family, if you'd be willing to share.

Last few weeks

We've had a good couple of weeks of getting back into the groove after our awesome DW trip. It is always nice to come home knowing that long weekends are not far away. I always need to have something small to look forward to, and with Family Day weekend last weekend and Teacher's Convention next weekend it has been really fun.

Some highlights of the last few weeks:

• Valentine's Day. We were invited to a $500 a plate fundraiser Valentine's Gala, can you believe it? Thankfully the cost was covered, as well as the tux rental for Arvid. The last time he wore a tux was at our wedding nearly 12 years ago...I wore a little black dress and borrowed some cute little silver sandals (thanks, B!). After some champagne when we arrived, we feasted on sushi and california rolls as an appetizer. The main course was a very moist and delicious beef with mashed potatoes and root vegetables, and dessert was a chocolate cake with green tea ice cream. With every course they brought out a new bottle of wine (because really, how could the white wine paired with the appetizer go with the beef in the main course? haha). The Opera performed a little operetta, and various dignitaries (mayor, premier, etc.) gave some speeches. At one point they broke into a "For they are jolly good fellows..." song. It was nice to see how the other side lives for an evening, but I tend to like things a little bit more low key.
• Valentine's Celebration - A few days before V-day, Arvid and I had a quiet evening at home. We made a killer good from scratch caesar salad, WHITE (a rare treat) french bread with oil and balsamic vinegar, a tomato cream sausage pasta and decadent brownies with raspberries for dessert. YUM! That was just the two of us...later on in the week we had our annual chocolate fondue with the girls. I ended up forgetting about half of the fruit so we had it again the next night and brought out the other half of the fruit. :-)
• Family Day weekend - we had a wonderfully relaxing weekend. I don't know if it's my age or the age of the kids, but we are appreciating simple weekends at home more and more. Arvid and I spent a lot of hours sitting on the couch and talking. The kids did a ton of playing and colouring, and we enjoyed our time catching up with my side of the family. We also played family games, went skating and watched a movie as a family. Pretty much a perfect weekend and our first Family Day as a family of 5!

Before I sign off I'll attach a few pictures...

(Below) Our fancy night out

(Below) Our annual Valentine's Day chocolate fondue

(Below) Just a small sampling...YUM! :-)