In Honour Of My Daughter.

Last week the end of year award ceremony was held at my eldest daughter's High School.

We had received a phone call that Erin was getting an award and to be there at the ceremony if we could.

So, on the right day and at the right time (amazingly enough!) there I was at the back of the auditorium with Ayana and Moses in their double stroller. Many many snacks and drinks had been packed!

Dave arrived from work and we wandered around at the back with the little ones, waiting for Erin's name to be called.

We waited and waited and basically, they came to the end of the awards and she had not been called out.

"Did we miss it?" we whispered to each other? It was possible that we had missed it as at one point, Dave was in the foyer while Moses had a temper tantrum because he wanted more fishy crackers. At the same time, I was hurrying after Ayana as she RAN to the front of the Auditorium because she had spotted her friend Bethlehem. (see earlier post about Bethlehem)

Then we heard the Principal start talking about the Overall Award of the Year. He said that this was an award that had a monetary prize attached to be used for an outreach trip next year. (Erin will go on an outreach trip to an African country, Israel or the Caribbean)

The student this year had been voted by the staff as having best overall character, co-operation and consideration among all her peers, had a very high academic standing, had participated in volunteering in her community and had a strong passion for missions and people around the world. I looked at Dave...could this award be going to Erin?

The couple that had donated the money for the award were called up on stage.

"And so, the award this year goes to......Erin W."

The whole place erupted in cheers and her friends were calling out and clapping, it was so cool.

I burst into tears of joy! I was SO EXCITED!!! I shouted and whistled and yelled "Way to go Erin! "

I am so proud of my girl.........and wanted to honour her with a special post :)

" Amazing Race"...With a Purpose.
Recently our church organised an Amazing Race for anyone that wanted to join in. You had to have a team of at least 5 people and preferably at least one child or youth...just to even things up.
Teams raced around the city, trying to beat the clock and be the first ones back at the starting house.
Each team had a camera and had to have at least $10 and was given assignments, clues and challenges.
Yes, there were the gross eating challenges (see Megan's picture of her trying to eat something disgusting without throwing up...yuck)
However, the brilliant part of the whole thing, (in my humble opinion) was that most of the tasks were designed to be helpful to someone else.
So, for example, each team would at some point arrive at a house of someone in the church community that was renovating and their task would be to pull all the nails out of the floor or rip up carpets.

Obviously, a great help to the people renovating to keep having teams of people arriving that were eager to work as fast as they could!

Another task was to go to any grocery store and see how many items of food you could purchase with the $10...you had to provide a receipt. The team closest to $10 got extra points in the final scoring. At the end, the items of food were all collected up and taken to the local HIV food bank, just a simple way of adding to their food shelves.

At the finish line, teams were given their time and then a technical genius put together a slide show of all the pictures that the various teams had taken. Everyone loved seeing other people struggling through the challenges of course, and it all finished with a BBQ and a swim...

Our team didn't win, but it was a great day, lots of fun and a great way to serve in community.

I wish Phil had been there stood on the mat offering a $1000000 prize at the end...Joshua may have worked a little harder...as you can see...he slacked off a little!

Just Chillin'
Yesterday Ayana and Moses both decided that they wanted to wear their little hats from Ethiopia.
Then Ayana ran to the bookshelf, with Moses running closely behind, and picked out her books. Moses has very definite ideas about which books he likes and so after a bit of guess work I picked the right ones for him too.
I gave them snacks and they both lay down on the floor, munching on snacks and "reading" their books. I could not resist taking pictures. They looked so comfy and content.

A Strange Little Visitor.

Yesterday afternoon I was coming downstairs when Erin suddenly called out, " Gross...what's that? Eww, It's coming inside"

OK. Something yuck is coming inside? What? Then I saw it..it wasn't fast but it was a little unusual and it was heading inside. Here it is.

Would you have been just a little freaked out? Especially as I had JUST finished reading in the local paper that there were an unusual amount of "exotic" animals escaping and the S.P.C.A. was inundated with calls. I was convinced from my viewpoint off the stairs that this was a baby crocodile!

Dave came running when he heard us shouting and it turned out to be a little salamander...not a baby crocodile.

Erin was brave enough to take a couple of pictures but we let Dave do the honours of catching and releasing it!

That is my exciting news for the day!

Braiding Hair and a New Friend...
Recently I discovered that there was an ESL student at our older kids school from Ethiopia, named Bethlehem.
We made contact with her and I asked her if she would be willing to come over and show me how to braid Ayana's hair. Of course, we also just wanted to get to know her.
She agreed and a couple of weeks ago she came round to our house (we were delighted to discover that she only lives three blocks from us) and played with Ayana and Moses and also braided Ayana's hair for us.
I try to watch and learn. I even video taped Bethlehem braiding so that I could play it back in slow motion. I took tons of pictures...but somehow I just can't get the feel for braiding Ayana's hair. I have no problem with Caucasian hair, I can do braids and french braids etc, but whenever I try to do cute little corn rows, what a disaster. Needless to say, Bethlehem was an expert. She deftly parted and expertly twisted and braided with such speed. I asked her to slow down to show me but I confused her and she had to start a row all over again. I eventually was just content to take photos and watch Ayana's hair being transformed into a cool design.
Ayana was in her element, all that attention! She also had so much fun as Bethlehem sang little songs in Amharic to her and let her play with her beautiful necklace and hair clips. (That reminds me, I have to replace her necklace because it got broken :( )
Bethlehem comes from Addis Ababa and so we chatted about that and she also offered to come and do a coffee ceremony for us . I think I'm going to ask if she can cook...mmmmm....that would be fun for all of us girls to do some cooking together.
We will definitely take her along to our favourite Ethiopian restaurant when we next go, she said she would love that.
















So, all in all a great experience.
Bethlehem has agreed to come over every couple of weeks and braid Ayana's hair for me. She will make a bit of money, Ayana will have awesome looking hair all the time and we have a new friend...win win!
What was Moses doing during the 2 hours that Ayana's hair was being done? Well, he was desperate to have his hair done too. So, when she had finished, Bethlehem kindly put a few little clips in his hair....he was so proud. It was very funny.
Here is Bethlehem with Ayana and Moses, just before she left. (Note Moses' cool hair accessories)