Our Family Adventure

2009-06-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

We went to a beautiful beach last weekend. The sun was shining and we had a great picnic. Ayana decided that she wanted her own blanket and started to lay it out.

As we were right beside the ocean, there was quite a breeze and laying the blanket flat proved to be a challenge. Ayana is a determined young lady and she refused help....it was actually really funny to watch as she battled with this blanket.

She was however victorious in the end and lay in the sun for a well earned rest:)

2009-05-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We recently enjoyed a beautiful sunny day at the park with our special friend, C.

Ahhh, is summer finally here?

2009-05-15T19:01:00.000-07:00

Playdate Fun!

My dear friend Sandie came over the other day and the kids all had so much fun together. This is her 3 month old baby boy...smiling and laughing the whole time. He is such a cutie! I got LOTS of cuddle time with him :)

Here are Ayana and Moses playing with their little friend J. He is a.d.o.r.a.b.l.e! They had fun being Batman, racing round on bikes and trikes, watching a movie and doing puzzles.
And here is baby L with his mummy, my friend Sandie :) We had fun chatting, drinking tea, cuddling L and lots of laughs...

I felt a little sad as they drove away, I am going to miss my friends when I move to Africa. I am already missing my dear friends L and S and of course little M because they moved to Calgary.

I need to make the most of my time here, spend lots of quality time with great people and store up memories of our time together for those days in Africa when I am lonely and homesick.

So, my dearest friends..you all know who you are....let's plan some playdates :)

2009-05-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Joshua!!
It was Joshua's birthday last weekend. We started with a lovely breakfast of cinnamon buns and fruit. Dave then took Josh up to play tennis for an hour and we went for a "special" drink (aka strawberries and cream at Starbucks. Amazingly, Starbucks had not ordered enough cream and couldn't make his special drink :( A Stewarts limeade had to suffice :) )

After a delicious inside picnic of sandwiches and juice all spread out on Mexican blankets in the living room, we went out to Best Buy where Josh chose some new movies etc with his birthday money. Probably the highlight of the day though was heading into Vancouver for a birthday dinner and then onto one of Stanley Parks beaches to play frisbee and light sparklers in the dark. Happy Birthday Joshua, you are an amazing and fabulous guy :) Love you soooooo much.

Here we are at the beach...

2009-04-07T11:57:00.000-07:00

You Have To Say Goodbye....

Following up my last post re sponsor children and how important we are to them. This is one of Erin's little sponsor boys saying goodbye to her as she left. Erin said his shirt was soaked with tears and he was sobbing as he said goodbye. (She was sobbing too!)

I think this is such a profound picture, full of love and sadness at the same time....

2009-03-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

We matter to them.

I don't know how many of you sponsor a child or a few children. I don't know if you think it is important (if you do sponsor) to stay in touch or not...is it just a few dollars a month and that's it?

Well, a while ago I did a post on "A Goat For

Christmas" and I talked about the teenaged boy in Kibaale Uganda that I absolutely have a heart for and really connected with. I actually don't sponsor him as he is already sponsored....BUT I treat him as though I sponsor him. I write to him regularly. I send him gifts and baskets of food for his family. Get this....he "thinks" I am his sponsor. (This shows him playing soccer, he is an awesome soccer player.)

I am not saying all this to say..look at me..aren't I great...NOT AT ALL.

I am saying that these kids really love having regular communication and building relationship with people. You are SO SPECIAL to them if you sponsor (or in this case with me, if you take the time to build relationship) It is such an important

responsibility. Am I preaching? Don't mean to be, but let me tell you a couple of stories that will get my point across without being annoying:) Hopefully. :)

As Erin was just in Kibaale, she was able to play, laugh, dance, walk alongside, and visit them homes of her sponsor kids. Erin has two sponsor children and she adores them.

She has fundraised for them in order to build them new houses, get pit latrines built for their families, provide essential food baskets etc etc In these pictures, you can see Erin beside the vehicle with her little kids (a girl and a boy...all the kids have their heads shaved) before she went and visited them in their homes.

Erin said that as she entered Jackie's home, there was not much in it, nothing to decorate etc...except a little picture on the wall. They all pointed at the picture smiling and as she looked, she saw that it was a picture that she had sent of... our family. In pride of place. In a home made frame made out of banana leaves, up on the wall. She started to cry. Thousands of miles away in the middle of rural Africa, there is a little family living in abject poverty

that has our family picture framed up on the wall.

We matter to them.

They pray for us.

That is incredibly, overwhelmingly humbling.

There is another picture here of Erin stood with Jackie as she recieves a gift that her mother sent for Erin . Jackie walked all the way back to the school

with a basket on her head with some fruit in it for Erin. On another day, Jackie's mum walked to the school, sat waiting for Erin and gave her a home made craft.

We matter to them.

It is so humbling.

Back to "my" boy. Actually, my group of boys. Erin is stood with two of them here in the picture. I see that they are holding the letters we sent and their t.shirt gifts.

When we were there, we really connected with this little gang of teenaged

boys, we are under no illusion that they are angels, but we love them and we believe that they love us back.

Here are a couple of excerpts from the letters that they gave Erin to bring back for us:

"I am so happy that you love me, I will be very happy when you come back to Kibaale. That will be a fun day. I pray you are happy."

"I thank you Auntie Lesley and Uncle David for sending me gifts, you are

my special friends. I pray for you"

"My life is Ok, but every day I remember when you here and I cry. I thank God for you. Thank you for your gifts to me, It makes my mind know that you love me so much"

"I do not have anything to send to you but let me send my heart to you. Always on my mind. I love so much" this letter was signed with the boys name and then

he put our name after his...he associates himself with our family.

We matter to them.

They pray for us.

It is so humbling.

Oh I love getting their letters, their English and grammer are actually funny, but their love shines through. As I said, we do not officially sponsor any of them, (we sponsor other kids there ) but we have such a relationship with them.

Isn't that what it's all about?

Of course, Erin came home with a new little sponsor daughter for us, how could she go and not come back with another little girl for us to love? Here she is playing with some Duplo blocks that were sent over for the Primary classes from the Primary classes of P.A.

So, hopefully, if you don't sponsor, you will maybe think about it?

If you don't know where to start, may I suggest Kibbaale Community Centre?

The link is www.paoutreach.net and then click on sponsorship.

100% of your money goes directly to

the project. It really is worth it.

We matter to them.

2009-03-19T16:14:00.000-07:00

Erin is in Uganda!!!

Erin has been in Kibaale, Southern Uganda for almost a week.

She is on an outreach team with P.A. High School. Right now she is at Kibaale Community Centre and in this picture you can see her speaking at the Primary Chapel.

Erin L.O.V.E.S. Kibaale and I can tell from this picture that she is soooo happy. She has raised funds for two sponsor children's homes to be built as well as put a lot of her hard earned babysitting money into sponsoring them monthly, getting them gift baskets and food parcels, buying them livestock at Christmas and sending money for clothes.

On Tuesday she got the chance to go and visit the homes that she had had built for her sponsor families. She said it was going to be one of her life's highlights to sit in their homes and talk (via translator) with the mothers of her sponsor kids. I can't wait to hear how it went.

If you go onto...

www.kibaale.blogspot.com

...you can see lots of pictures of the whole team, the center, the kids and just read up on this fabulous place. We visited as a family in 2005 and Erin fell in love with it then, (as did our whole family) so this trip back is a dream come true for her.

She will be back on March 28th and although I can not W.A.I.T to see her, hug her, hear all the stories, see the pictures and watch the videos...I don't want the trip to end for her because I know she is in her element and will be SO sad to come back.

I think this is where Erin hopes to live full time in a few years. A couple of weeks ago she GOT ACCEPTED AT TRINITY WESTERN UNIVERSITY and is intending to take education/teaching. (She also got a fantastic scholarship based on her marks...good for her...she is a clever girl!)

She will come to Africa with us for two years and defer her Uni entry, but after her teaching degree, she has said she wants to go back to teach...probably at Kibaale.

I said to Dave last night that although it will feel like half of me is missing when she leaves home, if she ends up in Kibaale full time, I will be content because I know that is where she wants to be and we have prayed for a global servant heart for her since she was a tiny baby.

BUT that is skipping ahead of myself, she is still with us for a couple of years, thank goodness, and she is at Kibaale even if it's only for a couple of weeks right now and that means that she is happy :) and so I am happy.

2009-03-11T13:24:00.000-07:00

Confused?

Just overheard Ayana and Moses have a conversation that is soooo funny. They are obviously confused.....I think we have done too good a job of raising global awareness. they KNOW they are from Ethiopia but this is what I heard.

(Kallie is Ayana's nickname)

Moses: Where are you from Kallie?

Ayana: I'm from Ethiopia, Uganda, Africa, China, England and Canada.

Moses: Oh! Where am I from?

Ayana: Africa I think.

Moses: No, I think I'm from China.

Ayana: JUST China??

Moses: Yep.

Ayana: Oh.

2009-02-10T14:29:00.000-08:00

My girls....goofing around.

2009-01-23T09:17:00.000-08:00

Brothers!

Joshua and Moses have an incredible bond. They truly love each other and Moses idolises Joshua. These two boys stick together!

When we got our referral, Joshua was 9 years old and when he heard that one of his siblings was going to be a little brother, he ran around the house shouting "I'm going to be his hero, I'm going to be his hero" It was sooo funny.

As it turns out, he was right :)

(P.S How Moses lost his front tooth is another post for another day:) )

2009-01-21T12:14:00.000-08:00

For our special friend M.

We miss you M. Thank you for phoning and for sending us pictures. Thank you for being such a great friend. We miss laughing with you and dancing to cool music.

We love the Cars bed, it looks sooo good in our room. When you come and visit, we can show you!

Love from A & M

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

2009-01-20T11:24:00.000-08:00

An Historic Day!

What an incredible day. I felt privileged to watch as an African American man was sworn in as President of the United States of America. Incredible.

I think he is a brilliant orator and a very dignified and composed man. Very exciting to watch.

Of course, as Moses turned off the TV at the precise moment when he went forward to take his oath, I had to watch that on the computer later, but it was still very exciting.

Only time will tell about how his administration handles the pressures and challenges of leadership, but for now, I am just enjoying the pomp and ceremony of it all.

Congratulations Mr. President!!

2009-01-19T23:23:00.000-08:00

Moses quotes.

Moses makes me laugh.

Two things that he recently said to me. He is either BRILLIANT (only just turned three), watches too much T.V with his older brother :) or is just plain f.u.n.n.y.

As a very good parent, it has to be either the first or the third option above. AND look how adorably cute he is too!

1)The other day as we were driving along, he said,

"You and me mama, ...together we will save the day"

2) We were going into a store and he looked up, patted his pocket and said,

"Don't worry, I've got this covered"

After I had stopped laughing I asked him what he could buy with no money.

"It's pretend money for pretend toys" with the teenage eye roll to complete the picture.

He makes me laugh every single day.

2009-01-19T12:38:00.000-08:00

"Three Cheers For my mum. Hip Hip...."

Here is my mum (with Erin and Megan) visiting us from UK last September. She is healthy and vibrant and full of energy.

She returned back to UK with promises to soon return...we always miss her so much when she leaves. When she got back home, she called and said she had a good flight, she was settled in etc.

Imagine my horror when she phoned only three days later to say that she had been out walking her dog and they had been attacked by a boxer dog. It knocked my mum to the ground, bit her all over her arms and legs and also viciously attacked her little Schnauzer dog.

After being in the hospital to get checked out and tetanus shots etc, she seemed OK, although her back was really sore.

To cut a l.o.o.o.n.g. story short, (lots of tests, lots of bloodwork, lots of x-rays, an MRI scan, fainting episodes ) three weeks later she was still in agony and they discovered that she had actually broken her back!! (OK, don't even get me started on incompetent dr's. How does it take three weeks to find a broken back...????)

When she was knocked down by that s.t.u.p.i.d. dog, she broke her back!

Here we are in January, four months later and she is doing really well, she is up and mobile. She is still in pain with her back, but there is really nothing they can do about that now. She goes to a chiropractor/physio, she has regular checkups etc, but her back will always be a bit stiff and sore.

Oh, and the dog? The one that attacked my mum and her dog? Well, after she heard that the owners were still letting it run around without a leash (even though legally they had to muzzle it after it had attacked), she actually got the police involved and charged the guy. I'm still waiting to hear what comes of that.

So, she's alright, she's doing very well.

In fact, she has just been on the phone and telling me about a conference she will be speaking at in China in April and making plans to come out and visit us before we leave for Africa. She is a strong and brave woman.

"Three cheers for my mum! Hooray...."

2009-01-14T15:16:00.000-08:00

I'm making a New Year Resolution...

I will write in this blog regularly and put in lots of pictures.

I often make New Year resolutions.

Sometimes I keep them.

Most times I don't.

I'll try and keep this one.....promise :)

Maybe I'll even do a trendy little email notification when I have updates...

Lesley

2008-11-18T23:30:00.000-08:00

Joshua & Ayana

Love this picture, just a random shot of them sat together waiting for us after church a couple of weeks ago.

2008-11-07T13:09:00.001-08:00

Mr President??

Today I showed Moses the picture of Obama and said, "Look at his lovely brown skin. Just like yours" Moses looked up at me and nodded.

"His daddy was from Africa."

Moses nodded.

"Do you remember I told you he will be President?"

Moses nodded.

"That means he is like the boss"

Moses nodded.

"You could grow up and be President or ANYTHING you want to be. Just like Obama. Isn't that cool.?"

Moses looked up at me.." No. I don't want be President. I just want lunch"

(Picture above is Moses, with Ayana in the background, being Superman on Halloween...saving the world in his own way! One candy at a time.

2008-11-05T14:42:00.000-08:00

This is a little clip of George from Hands At Work in South Africa.
Just to give you an idea of what we are talking about when I say we need to go......
(second post today by the way.....!!)

2008-11-05T09:50:00.000-08:00

Something to think about...

2008-10-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

Cross Country Meet.

2 years ago, Joshua had been sick for 2 weeks with strep throat and decided to run in the cross country meet on his first day back at school. Although we tried to persuade him not to, he was determined to run. He was VERY upset when he came in 110th out of 200 boys his age. He cried. He begged me never to make him do cross country again. (Hello? I tried to persuade you NOT to run in the race)

So, last year he didn't run because he was in a play.

This year he once again decided to go into the meet. I have to say I was nervous for him. I reminded him that he had hated the last meet, cried, begged me not to "let" him do another one. No, he was adamant. he wanted to redeem himself!

I also told him that his three good friends were all exceptional runners and they would probably beat him...would he be OK with that? Yep. His goal was to be in the top 50. Out of 200. Pretty good goal.

So, he ran.

I was DELIGHTED to see him running across the finish line in one of the top groups. He was placed 29th! Out of over 200 boys! He was in the top 30.

Wow...that was such an amazing improvement over the last race. He redeemed himself. Pride intact again!! He was over the moon, absolutely exhilarated, pumping the air for joy.

(His three friends? 1st place, 2nd place and 4th place but Joshua was just delighted for them and for himself.)

Before he ran I told him he was fantastic no matter where he came in ("right mum, you have to say parenty things like that") that I didn't care about his placement and that he was a GREAT kid ("yeah yeah")

Well, he IS a great kid and I didn't care where he placed as long as he did his best, but I am so happy for him that he came in with such a good run.

Delighted after the race.
Here he is (on the left) with his ribbon proudly displayed...with his best friend (who came in 1st!)
Pre race anxiety...I actually felt sick with nerves for him.
With his best friend again and another friend (who came in 2nd!) Josh is on the right.

By the way..all the people who are asking me for posts and pictures...this is the third post today and....and...and...I have updated a couple of times recently. So, am I forgiven?

2008-10-29T12:14:00.000-07:00

More Pictures.

At a friend's recent birthday party, we went outside and the little ones played in the leaves and also had pictures taken in the beautiful Fall tree.

Erin and Megan here with a little friend :)
Dancing in the leaves. (I think Moses is breakdancing:) )
(Remember I told you in a previous post about Moses wearing the Quik Silver shorts and shirt everywhere with boots...well...here is the proof!)

2008-10-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

Fall Days...

Beautiful Fall Colours.

You can see how big Moses is getting...now I get asked EVEN MORE if they are twins. When I say "no", can you guess what people say?

"Are you sure?" :) :)

You have to laugh. Or else you would...

2008-10-25T16:13:00.000-07:00

Random Pictures..

Recently I went and bought coats and hats for Ayana and Moses. These kids LOVE new clothes, it's hilarious. For example, a friend picked up some Quik Silver shorts and a shirt (end of summer sale) for Moses and he has insisted on wearing them EVERY day since. Even on cold days. Even when he has to wear boots with them :) (Yes I take him out with shorts and boots on in the cold. Yes, people look at me like I am one of "those" parents who can not dress their children well and appropriately for the weather. No, I don't care :) )

So, back to the coats and hats. I went out and when I came back, Erin had done a "model photo shoot" with them and I have to say, the pictures are soooo adorable.

2008-09-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

Summer Picture.

This is our most recent family picture, taken in beautiful Victoria BC this July. Notice Moses bald head...I went a little crazy and shaved off all his hair for the summer. The older kids would say to him, "Moses, come here. Can I kiss your little bald head?" and he would say either yes and bend his head for a kiss or no and run away, so funny. (S, you must be proud that my haircutting skills are getting so advanced!) Anyway, his hair is all grown in again and is very curly, very cute.

Ayana's hair is very long now when it's not braided and I have to say I mostly keep it braided as it is a lot of work when "Au natural".

OK...news about Africa. We will be moving to South Africa in Fall 2009 to work with a Christian based agency called Hands At Work which works with widows and orphans affected and afflicted with HIV/AIDS. Once we have acclimatised to life in Africa and been established in their main base in S. Africa, we will move out to one of their more rural centres to continue the work. They currently work in 7 African countries and are actually African initiated and based which we love. They go into rural communities and work alongside local leadership and churches and ask how they can support and strengthen the community and mobilise the widows (already affected by AIDS of course) to take care of the many orphaned children. They give training, offer medical assistance and practical help and provisions. They run community centres where little ones can be dropped off while their older sibs finally get a chance to go to school. They have youth programs where youth that have never had a chance to go to school as they were taking care of dying parents and little siblings, now can get some life training and vocational skills. The list goes on and on, this is one awesome organisation that is spreading fast. I like that.

Our heart is for Eastern Africa and we feel that we will be moving up to either Uganda or Ethiopia at some point when we are settled into the way that things work.

Hands At Work has huge dreams, something that attracted us from the beginning. For example, they are currently caring for over 20,000 children in their own communities and their goal is to be taking care of 100,000 orphaned children by 2010, in many countries. Interestingly, UNAIDS has also recommended that because of the huge number of children, that they need to be in their communities and not placed in orphanages as the need is so big. Now, don't get me wrong, there are many people doing incredible work in many orphanages all over Africa...BUT....there are so many children that residential care is just not a reality for most of them. So, we want to be part of the solution of taking care of these millions of children that will never be part of a residential program. A huge need. A huge goal. I like that.

We will be working alongside them in psycho-social care of orphaned children, and training and teaching local volunteers for going out to work in communities.

A lot of what I will be involved with is training volunteers in home based care which means going out into the rural communities and being with the people very sick and dying of AIDS and making sure that their children are/will be taken care of. As you are aware, there are so many orphaned children in Africa (and other parts of the world too of course) that children are taking care of children, there are SO MANY child led households. Dave and I are particularly interested in developing this aspect of the work; coming alongside the children and making sure that they have the means to get to school, that they have access to food and water, that little ones and girls are not preyed upon by men that offer protection and food for sex and slavery.

This will be a hard job, a thankless task, often depressing and heartbreaking BUT also a glorious job, a joyful task, humbling and renewing.

We need to raise full financial support to go and do this as all staff at Hands @ Work are supported, not salaried. (Not just a little stressful!)

We have to go through our entire house and sort through what we can take, what we can't. We have to go through the jungle of Canada revenue to figure out how to pay taxes when supported and living overseas. We have the enormous task of preparing all our children to move and live overseas in, let's face it, not a great environment. They are all on board with this by the way, we would not go ahead and force this huge life change on them...it is something we have talked about and prayed about for years. They have been very aware and part of each step in the process. (Not Ayana and Moses of course, I mean Erin, Meg and Joshua)

There are 600000000 more things to do and plan and organise but I can't even wrap my mind around them on most days.

Anyway, that is an overview of what we will be doing. I will be eventually transferring this blog over to another blog which will be detailing our prep time to go as well as family life, but for now, this is OK.

We will be keeping you up to date with life when we are there by face book and blogs. We will also send out a PowerPoint of everything that we are doing and hope to do, explaining things in more detail if people are interested and also if people want to help support us in this.........adventure! (Let me know :) )

I have to say, this huge and winding journey that we believe God is taking us on is terrifying and exhilarating at the same time...come alongside me and walk with me. I need people around me that care and that will encourage.

2008-09-01T17:24:00.000-07:00

So I'm thinking three months isn't too bad, especially when I have VERY BIG NEWS.

Three months since I posted? Hard to believe, time really does fly.

IS it REALLY September?

Are the kids REALLY going back to school tomorrow?

Is it REALLY Christmas in 16 and a bit weeks??? (that's scary)

Now for some very BIGGGGG news about our family (some of you may have heard) Nope...not adopting again (not yet anyway :) ) and nope, I'm not pregnant.

We will be moving.... nope not within Canada! Nope not to UK (although moving closer to my family would be awesome)

We are moving to AFRICA!

Oh my goodness, we are moving to SOUTH AFRICA in FALL of 2009!!

I will do another post which tells all the details of when and where and why and how. But I thought this would be a good jump start to my blog again. Do you agree?

Also another post will fill in with pictures about our summer and the incredibly fun time we all had.

2008-06-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

Ayana's Dance Recital.

Ayana has been taking dance for a year now. She loves it. She started by not following any particular instruction from the teachers, preferring to twirl and look at herself in the mirror. However, she has improved and now sometimes does what the rest of the class is doing!

On Saturday it was her recital and she didn't have any idea that it was a special day. When I dropped her off at the hall, she said "Oh, a different place for dance class today"

Here they are practising...

I was a tiny bit concerned that she would freeze when she came out on stage and saw everyone, but she was great!

Sooooo cute!!!!! The 3-5 yr class did a fairy lullaby to start...

...not sure if she is meant to be facing that way but at least she has her arms up!! Then the other age groups danced and the finale was a group dance. (This was during practice, hence the empty chairs.)

Afterwards, she was presented with a Dancing Certificate and then we gave her flowers. (Yellow of course, her favourite colour )

Two of Erin's friends run the little dance studio and I am so impressed with them. Ayana adores them both and sees them all the time when they are over hanging out with Erin, she is so comfortable with them. Here they are after the recital.So, all in all a success! At one point, Ayana was so busy looking at us and smiling, that she almost walked straight into the wall during her dance and another time she stopped dancing to correct a little wedgie, which was hilarious, but overall she did so well.

Where was Moses during the recital? On my knee, desperately trying to catch Ayana's attention and waving to her. We had to hold him back because he soooo wanted to be up there dancing. That boy can dance! He just loves music. So, when the teachers announced that they were opening a boy's hip hop class next Sep...well...I'll let you know what we decide. He would be way too young as it starts at 4 yr's old but the girls both love Moses and said he could come into the class early. We'll see!

2008-05-14T20:19:00.000-07:00

Is It Just Me?

Just wondering...do things like this happen to other people? Dave says that he only has two truly embarassing stories in his life. I seem to have several a month. So, here is my embarassing story of the week. First of all though, look at this gorgeous little face...could he ever do anything naughty? Mmmmm, read on!

I had taken Ayana and Moses into Starbucks to get a treat and a drink because they had been very well behaved in a couple of stores.

They had sticky sugar all over them so we went into the bathroom to wash our hands. Of course, when in the bathroom, I took the opportunity of asking Ayana if she needed to go...yep...so she goes. Then I quickly jump onto the toilet myself before we head out and Moses decides to UNLOCK the door and RUN OUT!

NOOOOOO, COME BACK!

I jumped off the toilet, grabbing my pants with one hand and tried to chase Moses while Ayana, my three year old, is laughing at me. Quickly grabbed Moses, pull him back in and lock the door.

"Never open the door when we are in the bathroom Moses, never" I said.

Ayana tried to look very serious,

"Oh my goodness" she chimed in (mmm I guess I say that a lot)

I just had to laugh.

So, back to my original question...

"Is it just me?"

2008-05-01T19:50:00.000-07:00

Family Days On The Beach.

Recently we went on a trip to the beach after church. These pictures were the same time as our family picture of a few posts ago. As I explained then, Joshua, Ayana and Moses had been carrying the Ethiopian flag in a flag parade. (Explains why they are in Ethiopian dress)

Here they are, I was so proud of them!

(Isn't this cool? Ayana looks so serious and as if she is hugging her flag, I love it)

It was February time actually, a lovely day after being cooped up inside through the winter months. We just loved walking through the dunes, looking for crabs and we even saw several eagles. What a relaxing and dreamy family day.

My Girls Moses contemplating life.
Dave and Moses (one of my favourite pictures of all time)
Ayana running through the dunes.
Erin and Josh hanging out together.
(Thanks Erin for the special effects!)

2008-04-30T17:49:00.000-07:00

A Lovely Book.
This book was given to Ayana and Moses by a family member when we brought them home. The poems are beautiful and lyrical.

Here are two of my favourites:

Cherish Me:
I sprang up from mother earth
She clothed me in her own colours
I was nourished by father sun
He glazed the pottery of my skin
I am beautiful by design
The pattern of night in my hair
The pattern of music in my rhythm
As you would cherish a thing of beauty
Cherish me

Hide Me In The Cradle Of Your Love:
Oh hide me in the crevice of a rock
Some safe place
Hide me in the cradle
Of your love
In the nook of your warmest glance
On some healing shore of the sea of
Time.

Lovely!

2008-04-30T14:31:00.000-07:00

JOY!!
This is a quick and short post just showing you one of my favourite pictures from Erin's recent trip to India. I will show more another time...
This captures Erin (2nd from the right) and some of her team mates jumping in the Arabian Sea at sunset.
Isn't it gorgeous!

2008-04-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

The Doodle Bop Pledge:

Ayana and Moses LOVE the Doodle Bops. They are a bit American glitzy for me, but Ayana and Moses watch their show whenever I remember that it is on!

So, at the beginning they have a pledge where they pretend to blow trumpets and sing...

"We promise to share, we promise to care all together as a team. Just stick to it, we can do it, we can do anything. etc etc"

Then, they all dance around and one of them break dances on the floor...Ayana and Moses love this part of the show and one day I spotted them joining in with the pledge too. Hilarious! They blow their pretend trumpets and try to join in, then break dance etc. Hopefully these video clips are working...let me know!

Oh...and I do believe this is the second post today....!!!

2008-04-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

Snow Dancing!

This little video clip was taken one snowy day just days before Christmas. We were having lunch and it was all warm and cosy inside. I had some lovely Christmas music on and I noticed that Ayana was dancing to the music in her high chair...totally not prompted by me or anything. It is soooo funny. It shows her dramatic and expressive personality very well. I started to film her and then turned to see what Moses was doing and he was being his usual goofy self...also dancing in his own way. You can hear me laughing...

So here they are...this sums their funny personalities up so well!

2008-04-21T18:26:00.000-07:00

More Christmas time memories.

Four whole days since I posted. Here are some more picture memories of Christmas.

Setting up the tree....

Opening presents on Christmas morning...

Actually, a funny story about the presents. We don't give our kids that many presents. They get nice things, but not masses and masses. Anyway, after a few presents, Moses had had enough. He actually started running away whenever a present for him was pulled out from under the tree. He started crying and saying " Me no more presents" He ended up opening some a few days later!

Probably the only child on Christmas morning that was crying because he had to open more presents!

Josh LOVES making pancakes, French toast, cookies etc. Here he is on Christmas morning making everyone a delicious French toast breakfast. It was SOOOOO good!

One of the presents that Moses wouldn't let out of his sight or reach that day was his digger truck! It even sat on his high chair tray with him :) It makes noises and has flashing lights. A childs dream. (Parents nightmare?)And here is Princess Ayana in her ballerina dress...what joy on her face when she opened this present from Oma.

Family dinner. (Notice the fork stuck in Moses's hair.) Really this was a fun family time...certainly a memory to cherish.One of the "whiplashy" things about having older children and little toddlers is that your older ones are going out to parties in beautiful dressy dresses while you are home watching Thomas The Tank Engine and the Wiggles with your babies....the whole time wondering if the older ones are OK and....are there boys at these banquets?? :) Here are my lovely girls after coming home from their youth banquet. They had a ton of fun and looked gorgeous...even if I say so as a proud parent.
So, that's it for today :) See you soon.....

2008-04-17T18:11:00.000-07:00

Onto December...

I know, I know. I am a devoted blogger and I am putting you all to shame. You can't keep up with the posts, they are fresh every day! :)

On with the frantic catch up. December rushed us into Christmas and all the prep and joy that goes with that. We did an AWESOME advent book with the kids called Jothams Journey which was a story that was read every day and taught about Hebrew history and the coming of Jesus. We really enjoyed it as the story was written like an adventure with cliffhangers almost every evening.

On Christmas Eve we went up to Grouse Mountain to their Winter Wonderland. It had live reindeer, a great Gospel choir, skating, hiking, Santa's Workshop etc. The scenery was spectacular and we decided that this will become a new Christmas Eve tradition because at that point we are finished with the commercial part of buying and rushing and we concentrate on family.

Here we are going up in the gondola. Moses has developed a funny little squinty , one eye closed grimace that is his version of a smile.

Here is Josh skating on the mountain top....
and Santa's Workshop (We didn't go in this time but we have before.......)

Moses sliding down a little hill...shrieking and screaming with laughter...

Hanging out with the reindeer...Enjoying hot chocolate in the snow...

Hiking and enjoying the gorgeous scenery. Moses having a temper tantrum and lying down...refusing to move...snow angels and shoulder rides. All part of a snowy day out.

I remember looking around and thinking how tranquil and peaceful it all was. How beautiful. We all left very content, stopped to catch a bit of the great Gospel choir and Moses fell asleep on the way down in the gondola. Total Exhaustion. Perfect Christmas Eve Day!

2008-04-16T21:43:00.000-07:00

Family Walks and Ayana's Third birthday :)

So, to continue with the theme of catch up, the next pictures show a couple of family pictures as we went walking on Thanksgiving (2 days after I got back from England) ...

...and then moving on to Ayana's third birthday. Here she is with a new Lego set...
...and with her kitchen set. This is cool. The tap makes water sounds and the cooking element makes sizzling sounds. Very fun to play with I have to say! :)
And a birthday hug from Oma.
Ayana had her princess birthday party the next week. The build up and anticipation was almost more than she (or any of us) could bear. Each day we heard "Is it my party today?" So, when the day actually arrived, she was SOOOOO excited. Here she is standing at the door ready to welcome guests.
And hanging out in the play tent and with mummy and Moses, waiting ...oh so patiently...for friends to arrive. (Note Moses is wearing his new England shirt!)

For the birthday craft we took individual pictures of Ayana with all her guests and then printed them off. Each little guest decorated a picture frame and then took home a party picture of themselves with the birthday girl. They loved doing this, and I loved cleaning up the glitter for the next few months. But it was worth it!

So, that is my little snapshot of October and November...I'm getting there. Only 41/2 more months to catch up.

2008-04-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

England (Part 2)

If any of you are Pride & Prejudice fans, you will remember the last movie with Kiera Knightley? Set in that lovely mansion with the fountains and gardens etc? Well, that was filmed in a little town called Bakewell which is super gorgeous and only about an hours drive from my mums house. It is one of our favourite places to go to for a day.

Here we are hanging out in Bakewell ...

When I was growing up in England, I always thought it was a bit boring. People would rave about the history and the scenery and I thought, "who cares?" Now when I go back, I rave about the history and the scenery too. I guess I am getting old!

Anyway, one day we went to this little church that has gravestones back to the 1500's and ancient woodwork inside. There are carvings or "graffiti" in the pews dating back to the 1700's! The setting is magnificent, right in the middle of the most glorious countryside. We walked here one day with my sisters...my older sister is a history buff and she had discovered all the little stories that went with the church so it was a really fun day out together.

The other place of enormous historical interest is a Tudor country house, famous in UK, called Little Moreton Hall. Again, growing up with this building in my town and passing it almost every day was nothing special. When I go back now, I always visit because it is so cool. I love thinking about who lived there. Who walked in the gardens? What were their lives like? I enjoy going on the guided tour (have been on it many times now!) and hearing all about their lives and the intrigues of the time!

Some random shots of my hometown...

Of course, hanging out with friends and family was so awesome as I hadn't seen some people for a few years. I was really excited to see my nephew as he had just finished a tour of duty in Iraq with the British army. He has now left after doing his 4 years I am glad to say.

And my two favourite shots of my whole wonderful holiday? One of Mack, my mums dog, early on the morning of the day I was leaving. We were walking and the sun was just coming up and I was so heartsick sad to be leaving everyone but excited to be going home to see Dave and all the kids. One of the joys of moving to a different continent.

And then one of me and mum, absolutely dying laughing at some random joke. I was getting ready to take a picture of both of us and accidentally clicked the button and it captured us both laughing. I can not look at this picture without laughing out loud. It is not the most flattering shot of either of us, but it sums up the amount of fun we had together.

So...there you have it. My whirlwind tour of Northern England.

My next post will be updating you on family.

After all this effort, I think I need a LOT of positive comments...it will keep me going :)

2008-04-14T18:24:00.000-07:00

The update as promised. Starting with England 2007...

I went to UK in September of 2007 to celebrate my mum's birthday with her. She turned 70! She looks fantastic as you can see from the picture I took of her on her birthday morning! There was a huge cake and a celebration at her church too..

One of my favourite things to do while with my mum was to go walking with her and her adorable little Schnauzer, Mack. These pictures are taken in the local park...I remember being taken to play here when I was little.

And these are taken on walks around the countryside...this is so familiar to me. This is home to me. The canal walks are literally minutes from my mums house and you can see the ancient bridges. They twist over the top of the canal like that because the tow horses had to pull barges along and they would sometimes have to shift sides...having to walk up and over the the canal bridge. Men would lie on the barges and 'walk" the barge through the narrow bridges with their feet on the walls.

This is the house that I lived in from the time I was four years old until I left to get married and moved to Canada (with a few years out at University in North London) My brother and his wife bought the house from my mum when he got married. This is so cool as it means that the house is still in our family and has been my brothers home from the tender age of one! He now is raising his own children there. (That's me with my nephew and niece)

This is the town that I grew up in...it is a little market town and very lovely.

OK...that is enough for now. I have to go and put my little ones to bed.You see, I knew I wouldn't be able to just do this quickly. I have to tell you what's on all the pictures! Anyway, I have promised that I will fill you in on the last few months so I will just do long posts with lots of pictures like this every day until I am caught up! I will finish off England tomorrow and then my family news catch up.That is a promise...or a threat. Whichever way you want to take it. :)

2008-04-13T18:24:00.000-07:00

OK OK OK OK OK.........
I know that it has been SEVEN months since I posted. Terrible. Guilt inducing. Annoying to friends and family and all my fans world wide I have no doubt.
SO........I am going to post pictures to recap the last few months of silence. (My friend S. has done this very well on her blog...just zoomed through a picture show of two months and is now up to speed.)
I will do the same thing. I will post pictures of the kids to show you how big they are, what we are doing and what we have been doing lately.
Then...I won't feel so horribly guilty when I get emails from dear friends (thank you C for the kick in the pants) who tell me how many people are checking this blog and turning away weeping in frustration because I never post.
The picture above is a recent picture of us all on the beach...Moses and Ayana had been in a flag parade at church and so were in their traditional dress. (Not usual beach wear I assure you)
I will do my calendar of pictures either tonight or tomorrow...I accept this mission. I will do it.
(I will do a little section of UK pictures to honour those people who have HOUNDED me for them...in friendship of course...and to honour my beautiful England.)
So, watch this space!!
I promise you it is not a cruel joke where I will make you watch this space for seven months and nothing else happens.......or is it......

2007-09-22T08:47:00.000-07:00

Hi, yes it has been an age since I posted. I am currently in England visiting family (Dave is home with ALL the kids...what a star) and I am here seeing friends and family and celebrating mum's birthday.
So, am jet lagged right now, but will tell you all about the trip and post pictures soon.
:)
Bye for now....

2007-08-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

GOTCHA DAY...........

I can NOT believe that it is a whole year since we brought these little ones back to the hotel. I so remember every detail of that day. Getting into the van and driving out of the gates with Moses in my arms. Ayana snuggled up to Dave for reassurance. Looking at them and thinking, "We made it! Here you are! Let's go!"

I thought I would do a quick series of pictures to show then and now. Here are a couple of our referral pictures. Ayana looked so sad, so scared, it broke my heart.

This picture of them together was one of my favourites in those first few weeks after referral, they just seemed so vulnerable and I was desperate to get them.

Finally, we got to go and get them and here we are. Those very first hugs......the hugs that you dream of and imagine hour after hour, day after day.

Suddenly, it is a reality and you are holding them in your arms for real.

Here we are with all the staff, this was hard for me. They obviously loved our children and were sad to see them go. I wanted to reassure them that I would love them with every fibre of my being.

This was outside the (old) foster home, sitting on the porch and hugging my babies, both together. I was so happy, my arms were full and we were about to leave and go back to the Weygoss. I just couldn't believe that it was real. I kept looking at Joanne (another mum there) and saying :"Can you believe it? We're really here!"

On the way "home" in the van, Moses was very quiet, very still. He just stared out of the window with his huge eyes and sucked his fingers.

Ayana fell asleep almost immediately in Dave's arms. We would learn that this was a stress response from her, she fell asleep very quickly over the next few days if there was something new or different going on.

You can go back and read about all our experiences in Ethiopia and the plane ride to end all plane rides.

A year has gone by. It has not always been easy, not always warm, huggy feelings of love and delight. There have been hard times as we came to grips with adding two more people to our already pretty big family. I was often over whelmed and wondered if I could handle all the laundry, the cleaning, the piles of dishes, the diapers and the sheer hard work of having a baby and toddler added into the mix. But as I reflect now, those times kind of fade as I look back on all the "firsts."

We saw Moses learning to crawl, pull himself up and take his first steps. We watched as Ayana learned to hop and jump, to bounce around like Tigger and pedal her little bike. First tastes of ice cream, first jumping into piles of leaves, first fall in the snow. First dance to the great Bob Marley (yes, my bias!)

Birthday parties, Halloween costumes, Christmas celebrations and their Dedication in front of family and friends at church.

We cried as Ayana began to say "I love you" and Moses learned to say "mama and abbaba". We laughed as they discovered playgrounds, swings, slides, beaches and parks.

Ayana has been a flower girl (I will post about that soon) and danced until midnight.

We have had rounds of immunizations, bottles of TB meds (still going on!), E.R. visits and check ups.

We have grown as a family and feel as if these little ones, so precious and so beautiful have been with us for ever. We thank God that he hand picked them to be in our family, to teach us more about sharing and loving.

I have so much that I could say, but my heart is full, I just can't put it all into words. I am content.

Tonight we will go into town to celebrate at our very favourite Ethiopian restaurant as a family...all together....forever.

2007-08-22T22:06:00.000-07:00

Been Away For a While...

We have been away on holidays and I have been sick. And yes, I have sadly neglected this blog.

However, lots has happened that I want to catch up on. Ayana was a GORGEOUS flower girl in July and we have been to Penticton on holiday. Lots of beaches (and BC wine for me and Dave!) and playgrounds. We have been to Family Camp on amazing Thetis Island and enjoyed sunshine and great friends.

I am going to be catching up on all these things in the next few days so stay tuned.

However, I want to make note of today.

Today August 22nd 2007 is the one year anniversary of when we first saw our new little ones. Our very first cuddles. Our very first kisses. Touching that smooth silky skin and holding those tiny little fingers.

Tomorrow is our first Gotcha Day anniversary, our celebration of the day that we took custody of Ayana and Moses and brought them back to the hotel to be with us forever. A whole year.

So, tomorrow I will post about our first year...absolutely incredible.

Thanks to God for my amazing family.

2007-07-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

Beads and braids.

I only have a couple of minutes literally, so I am just going to show you some pictures of Ayana's hair during and after my attempts at braiding and beading.

She was sooo good and sat for almost 2 hours while I made little box braids and threaded pink and white beads all over!

My two older girls sat with me, threading the beader, bringing Ayana little snacks and we all just chatted away. Dave came in and said that it was like being back in Africa...all the women chatting and doing hair together.

It is very much a part of African culture for the women to do just that. Very relaxing, very social and friendly...it was a fun time. So, here are some of the pictures...isn't she a little princess!

2007-06-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

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 :)

2007-06-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

" 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!

2007-06-08T09:35:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-06-07T16:41:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-06-04T13:13:00.000-07:00

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)

2007-05-24T09:29:00.000-07:00

Sweet Moments...

Just a couple of lines to share something with you.

This morning we received an email from friends who are presently in Addis picking up their child. They said he is shy and timid, with a rare but lovely smile.

I was reflecting on how scared, shy and terrified Ayana was when we picked her up.

Totally terrified. Breathing in little shallow gasps, with a frozen smile on her face. It was heartbreaking. I wondered when it would end.

A few moments ago, Ayana was attempting to ride a little bike she has and she laughed as she wobbled around. She is now boisterous, loud, energetic and full of laughter most of the time. She looked up at me and said with a huge grin,

"Mama, Ayana so happy!"

Oh, sweet, sweet moment.

2007-05-21T14:02:00.000-07:00

An Amendment...

Well, a very good friend (hello Val :) ) told me that the enclosures on tramps actually have a higher accident rate than if you use a tramp without the enclosure!

So, before I get any comments that may need moderating..lol..just to let you know...we don't let the kids on there without supervision.

AND we've told them (the older ones) not to rely on the net.

AND safety rules still strictly enforced.

AND we've told them tht if they hurl themselves against it (this is mainly for Joshua and his crazy friends!) that they will not be on there any more.

So...I think I've covered my bases there :) :)

And a comment...

Two sets of our neighbours really don't like us! We are a very noisy family. It can't be helped with 5 kids that are healthy and active and are loud to begin with. Anyway, one set of neighbours doesn't speak to us any more at all, the lady actually ignored me and turned away today when I waved over the fence and said "hi".

Strangely enough, it's since Ayana and Moses have come home and we introduced them as our beautiful new children that they haven't spoken to us. Mmmmmmm, I hesitate to attribute this to them as racism but I can't help but wonder. Makes me sad...and not a little angry.

Another set of neighbours across the street also ignore us now, I mean, they don't even smile at us any more.

Don't you find this sad? Anyway, as I said to Dave this morning as we were talking about it, it's their loss! We have wonderful friends that love us and we love them and that's what it's all about.

Thank you to all my friends that have welcomed Ayana and Moses and love them to bits.

2007-05-16T19:56:00.000-07:00

Trampoline Fun...
We had a fantastic trampoline that was given to us by Dave's brother. It was old, having been through their four children, but we loved it.
Unfortunately, the canvas ripped right down the middle a few months ago and we mourned it's loss in our back yard because it is such great fun. The kids spend hours out there and we haven't had any disasters or accidents on it.
Last week, Dave and I decided that we just had to buy another one with the warmer weather coming up. We knew our older kids would love it and we thought it would be a fun, healthy outdoor thing for Ayana and Moses too. (We got the enclosure part too for safety, just in case you're wondering!)
So, off to the store went Dave with Josh and Megan and they brought back two enormous boxes...guess what Ayana and Moses immediately did...sure enough they climbed into those boxes and had a splendid time, squealing and laughing while Dave and the others put the tramp together.

The thing that really made me laugh was that Ayana could hop in and out without any problem, but Moses couldn't get out by himself. He could only manage to drape one leg over the side and then he would cry and shout, "tuck, tuck" for "stuck".
Of course, as soon as you went and got him out, Ayana would run over and hop back in, causing Moses to try and get back in and again cry and call out "tuck!"

So, here is a picture of Dave and Josh setting it up. Then a happy family portrait of all the kids on the completed trampoline. Fortunately, you can't hear all the arguments and the "debates" about where it should go and whether it was level etc.

We have a cute little video clip of Moses and Ayana jumping around and falling over. Ayana tries to hold Moses up, very cute. I can't figure out how to post it though, so until I do, you will have to imagine it! :)
PS: You may be wondering what my role was in the whole setting up of the trampoline episode? I was the official photographer...someone has to do it...right? :)

2007-05-06T14:26:00.000-07:00

An Evening Out...

We recently went out to this great little Ethiopian restaurant in Vancouver called Fassil. (It's rapidly becoming our favourite actually.) We were meeting some people off the forum (great to meet you S!) and also people from the Vancouver group. We had great food and good conversation as usual.

Ayana sat very well, colouring, playing with her little friend T and wandering about a little bit. The great thing about eating at an Ethiopian restaurant here is that the two little ones can just run around and nobody cares. Moses however, took this to a new level on this evening....he was hilarious.

He knows that they adore him in the kitchens. He kept running in there and the staff would cuddle him and laugh, giving him bits of injera every time.

I would run in behind him and they would tell me to leave, that I should just sit and relax, they would watch him.

So, I would go and sit down, only to hear him shrieking with laughter and see him running out of the kitchen holding great rolls of injera that they were feeding him with.

He ran into the area behind the desk and poked at the computer, and the owners daughter would just laugh and play with him.

Two minutes later he would be back in the kitchens, getting more food. Back to the daughter to play. Back to the kitchen. This is all before the food arrived for us!

Here he is at one point, injera in hand behind the bar!

He then started moving chairs out of the kitchen and dragging them through into the restaurant. Of course, I put them back and told him not to touch, but the owners just laughed, "Let him play, he's fine" was all they said.

Basically, he could have done anything and got away with it because the owners thought he was so adorable, I looked like this big meanie trying to set limits!

When the food arrived and he was put in his high chair...he was already almost at bursting point with all the injera he had been fed. (It was a bit of a struggle strapping him into his car seat later...that tummy was very full!)

It just made me laugh to see him having such a fun time and I was more relaxed because the owners were so great with him.

It is impressed upon me every time we go to this restaurant how much the Ethiopian people love children and how very welcoming they are. They hug us when we go in and again when we leave and tell us to come back soon. The owners wife told us to come down on a weekend and hang out with their family.

Whenever there are other (Ethiopian) people in the restaurant, they also laugh with the kids as they run by, wave to them and chat. I never feel as if we are annoying them because our kids make some noise or run back and forth to the bathroom a million times.

What an amazing culture our children come from. We are so dedicated to making sure they grow up very proud of their heritage. After all, it is a great heritage to call one's own.

2007-04-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

Kibaale, Uganda, East Africa.
You may recall a couple of posts back that I talked about going to Uganda as a family to have a look at and help out in a couple of organisations that we support.
One of the main places that we visited was a school and community project in the Rakai district called Kibaale. The school that my children attend founded the project at Kibaale, it is very much a part of our family life as we support it financially, pray for it regularly and talk about it all the time.
Rakai is only known internationally because it is the home to the first known AIDS cases in Africa. This is like the heart of the pandemic.
There are literally thousands of child led homes here. Children as young as 8 up to 14 or 15 taking care of their little brothers and sisters. They would approach us for some money or a bit of food. I could not wrap my head around this coming from our culture. I kept thinking,
"Surely someone at least watches out for them.." but no....nobody does. There are just too many children that live that way. If the kids can get into the school at Kibaale, they will at least have a meal.
Here is an excerpt from my journal:
There are millions of children orphaned by AIDS here in Uganda.
I knew this as I came, and yet I am not prepared to see children lower their heads and whisper,
“My father is dead. My mother is dead. I live with my sister.”
“ I am 11. I take care of my brothers and sisters. Can you give me work for food?”
In the district of Rakai, I have learned that there are thousands of child led homes.
“But who actually takes care of them?” I asked the school community worker.
“They look after themselves the best they can. They get a meal at school.”
“That’s it? They get one meal at school?” I responded in total shock. “What about during the school holidays?”
The worker looked at me.
“I think that’s why kids here do not like school holidays, life is hard."
Every year, our school holds a sponsored 5K "Kibaale Walk" to raise money for the community school in Kibaale. The kids get very excited about this. 100% of the money raised goes directly to the project and it basically provides the operating cost of the school (over 800 students) for the entire school year. As if that isn't enough, there are other great incentives closer to home too. This year, the Middle School staff said that if the students in the MS raised a certain amount, the staff would all spend the night locked into the basketball court...students raised money with enthusiasm! There are prizes of class pizza parties, non uniform weeks and extra gym time. Most years, there are also fund raising goals of teachers having their heads shaved...so you can imagine...it is a fun event too.
This year, my children each raised a record amount... THANK YOU to the family and friends that so generously supported this incredible project in Kibaale. The school as a whole (K-12) raised WELL OVER $100,000.00. In one day! One event! Now, isn't that fantastic!!!!!!!!! Way to go to all the P.A. kids that walked in the rain!!
(If you want to check out the Kibaale project, log onto their website at http://www.paoutreach.net/pages/kibaale/kibaale_home.htm It gives details of the project and ways that you can get involved i.e. sponsoring a child. 100% of all money donated goes directly to the Kibaale project)
While in Kibaale, we also had really fun times with these kids that just love to dance, laugh and sing.
The people are all incredibly friendly, and so hospitable. Everyone we met wanted to shake our hands, they hugged our children, they invited us in. We could certainly pick up a few tips in our culture about how to welcome people graciously.
One of the staff there told me that as they do not have much financially, what they give to each other is their time.
"Time is a gift," she said, "so when you come and sit in my home, I give you all the time you want."
I loved that. "Stuff" and getting the supper ready are not as important as the time taken to just sit and chat with friends.
I just love Africa.

2007-04-26T21:05:00.000-07:00

28

In a previous post I talked about going to hear Stephen Lewis speak and the tremendous impact that he has had globally in the fight against AIDS.
During his speech, he mentioned that there was a book coming out that was absolutely "astonishing" and incredibly written. Praise indeed.
He said that it was the most well researched writing on AIDS to date...if you want to learn all about the pandemic, read this book.
It is called 28 and is written by the renowned Globe and Mail reporter Stephanie Nolan (a Canadian!) living in Jo'Berg, South Africa.
Her years of living in Africa and researching AIDS in many of the African countries has given her a unique insight that many people do not have.
She has titled her book 28 because to date there are 28 MILLION people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa alone. That's 28,000000...a lot of zeros there.
Check out this link to read more about Stephanie Nolan and her work in Africa. There are lots of links on the right hand side when you open this, that you can go to. They are incredibly moving to read/listen to/watch.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/generated/realtime/aidsStories.html

We also have a great show here on CBC called "The Hour" and Stephanie Nolan was interviewed there recently. (Incidentally, another favourite speaker of mine was recently interviewed, Tony Campolo, it was a very good show...)
Check this link out too, she is well worth listening to.
In this link, make sure you also check the related video files...you will be able to hear Stephen Lewis speak (free!) and there is a clip on children living in Northern Uganda...one of the hardest places in the world to be a child.
http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php?id=1549
Do take the time to check these out, please.
Just as an aside, an important aside, but an aside nonetheless...Dave and I went to see the movie, "Amazing Grace" the other night.
I actually wasn't that keen as I'd heard it was "slow" and "ponderous".
For people who don't know the premise, it is about William Wilberforce, an English politician in the 18th century (I know, it sounds boring, hear me out!) who devoted his ENTIRE life to the abolition of the slave trade in England. His friend, William Pitt, who becomes the Prime Minister is completely supportive of this dream and at one point, Pitt asks Wilberforce,
"Do you think that just because there are only 2 of us, we can't change the world on this issue?"
I almost cheered out loud! I LOVED this movie. I want to buy it because for me it embodied what can happen when God puts a dream and a passion into someones heart. Wilberforce just kept going, defeat after defeat, but he couldn't let it go.
Stephen Lewis says something similar when asked how he keeps going.
He says that he does get exhausted at the enormity of the problem and the seemingly endless defeat, with little hope of glory, but you grit your teeth and carry on because you have to.
We have to educate ourselves and be smart about the ways that we can be involved and make a difference. We too, need to grit our teeth and carry on because 28,000000 is all made up of 1's.
People die one at a time.

2007-04-23T22:14:00.000-07:00

A goat for Christmas.
In 2005, our family traveled to Uganda to work in an awesome project there that our school founded and continues to run.
There are over 800 students in the project and we of course made friends with many of them when we were there. The little ones always tug at your heart strings, laughing, playing, singing in divine harmony even at an early age, dancing and hanging on to you every time you set foot on the compound. I usually hang out with the younger children, but during the time I spent there, I gradually came to love a few of the older students. A couple in particular stick in my mind and I think of them often.

One boy (probably 14 or so) would come to our door every day and wait for me. When I went outside he would ask me how I was, in a very shy voice and then ask if he could sing or dance for me that day. Of course, I would ask him to and he would sing beautiful songs for me or perform a traditional dance. He would then bow gracefully, smile and head off to school. On the last day we were there, he waited for us for a long time as we got ready to go. He took my hands in both his hands and he sobbed, great tears running down his face. He whispered to me, "I will never forget you, you are so kind to listen to my songs. I wish you my mother". His mother had died. I felt so bereft leaving him.

Another boy also stole my heart. He invited us back to his house to meet his grandmother. Our whole family slogged up the side of a mountain in the heat of the day to get to his house (it was HARD work!) He walked that distance to school and back every day, barefoot, not seeming to notice the rough terrain. We passed coffee fields, maize fields, banana plantations and finally made it to his tiny little hut where he lived with a couple of brothers, an aunt, a baby nephew and an old grandma. We had a great time, just hanging out with half the village watching in shy fascination. They played soccer and volleyball using the traditional African ball made of plastic bags tightly wound together. During our time at the project, this boy stuck to us like glue. Wherever we went, he would appear. He showed us round the tiny village, introduced us to his family, hung out outside our house and played with Joshua every moment of the day. I wanted to bring him back to Canada. I wasn't able to sponsor him, but we made a promise to ourselves to send him things, to send presents, money through the school etc to help him when we could. He always writes and says thank you and how he misses us. Last Christmas, my elder daughter sent the project some money in my name, requesting that they purchase a goat for him. This will bring him income as he sells the milk, or the kids etc. (Or food if they are desperate) Today I got a picture of him holding his goat with a huge smile on his face. Here he is.

If you are not sure of the impact that we have on these amazing kids when we sponsor or support in any way, let me share with you an excerpt of the letter that he wrote to me. (Of course, I realise it is more personal because we have met and are friends.)

"How are you dear Lesley? How is Canada? I got a goat, I send thanks to you, thank you so much...I love you so much. I love your dear family so much. How is Joshua and his sisters...I am so happy for what you done for me and my family.... My dearest , I love you"

My dearest...I love you too.

2007-04-17T18:25:00.000-07:00

Stephen Lewis.
We have just had the amazing chance
to hear Stephen Lewis speak,
twice in a row!
He was speaking locally and we got tickets for one event and then heard that he was speaking the next night only 30 mins away! So, we bought tickets for that too. (tickets were not that expensive either!)
I have to applaud this great man as being one of the most incredible speakers I have ever heard in my life. (I also love hearing Tony Campolo who actually says similar things)
I am sure that you know who Stephen Lewis is, but I will just say (in case anybody is not sure) that he was the UN Special Envoy to Africa for HIV/AIDS for five years, among many, many other positions politically/globally and important posts in Unicef etc. He has worked in Africa for almost 50 years and he says that he loves that beautiful continent so much, it has his heart. Check out his foundation at http://www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/ He has initiated great programs like Granny to Granny which I don't have time to write about, but is so great..check it out!!!
As well as being knowledgeable and super, super smart (I couldn't even hazard a guess at this guy's IQ!), he is very funny, very current, and very compassionate. There were several times that he seemed to choke up as he was relaying stats or stories of his work and believe me, I was crying through a lot of it.
He gave stats like:
Half a million women die in childbirth complications every year. There is absolutely not one reason why this should be. In a world that knows so very much about obstetrics, about getting women into urban areas from rural areas if there is a problem, about the drugs needed when necessary intervention is immediate etc, this should not happen.

Over 75 % of recent infections of HIV in Africa, which if not treated will develop into full blown AIDS, are women and young girls. Gender inequality, says Mr. Lewis, is at the heart of the pandemic. New research out of South Africa suggests that the % may even be in the 90's.
Again, you may have heard this before, but one of the most unsafe places to be in Africa if you are a woman, is in a marriage. They have very little, if any, sexual autonomy and these young girls are infected by their husbands, and then often abandoned to cope, along with caring for their children.
Of course, we are battling against cultural values here, where for many African cultures, as a woman, their esteem and reputation/self worth is tied up in being married and having children.What can they do? Nothing.

There are almost 15 MILLION orphans in Africa with a CONSERVATIVE estimate being that the figure will rise to almost 20 million by 2010.
In Liberia, when he last visited, they had over two million orphans (I think that's accurate from my memory) and they just couldn't cope.
Something that really struck Dave and I was that he said that would be like Canada suddenly having to cope with over 2 million orphans this year. We couldn't possibly cope either and that is with a highly developed infra structure and being one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
There were many more stats and some horrific, mind boggling ones like the U.S spending on the Iraq war was now over 9 BILLION....A MONTH! When I think of figures like that, it just makes me so mad.
Anyway, as you can see, I could go on and on. He had some heart wrenching stories. He had some encouraging stories (not many of these actually) He praised Canada's citizens for their compassion and their concern and condemned Canada's Government for their foreign aid practices and not meeting promises.
Many, many more things to say, but I don't have space or time (and I'm sure most of you have things to do too!) However, Dave and I talked into the night (both nights!). What can we do? What should we do?
We know that this is our heart, our passion, our calling to be involved with African orphans in some way.
For now, we will continue to take sponsorship of children in Africa very seriously. We will continue to support the organisations like HOPE International and Compassion that work tirelessly to make a difference. We will teach our children about the world and their spiritual, moral, HUMAN obligation to do whatever they can wherever they are. We will try to make ourselves aware of what in the world is going on in our world. We may at some point end up working in Africa, we know and talk about it endlessly, that is our big dream.

2007-04-16T15:14:00.000-07:00

I want to be just like my daddy...
The other day my daughter Megan and I were quickly running through Wal Mart (story of my life lately, I'm always running somewhere! :) ) and we spotted some perfect little boots for Ayana and Moses.

Doodle Bop boots for Ayana and Bob the Builder boots for Moses. Don't feel bad if you do not know what these are! I confess that before Ayana and Moses arrived, I had not heard of the Doodle Bops. I remember Bob from when Josh was little. Ayana loves the Doodle Bops, a singing, poppy, dancing group for kids. (I'm not as convinced, they are very irritating, but oh well...) When we got home and showed them their new little boots, they were delighted and insisted on putting them on there and then..even though Ayana was all ready for bed and Moses was nearly ready, just in his diaper. He tried to pull his boots on the wrong feet, saying "b, b, b, b" for Bob. Here they are proudly showing off their new boots.

Moses is obsessed with wearing his daddy's shoes. Many times a day I find him desperately trying to walk in Dave's enormous shoes, often falling over after a few steps.

It is very sweet the way that he loves to go into the closet, haul out a pair of shoes, spend a few concentrated minutes pulling them on, struggle to stand up, only to fall over and start over again.

Notice the delicate balancing act..."if I stay bent over like this...I might stay standing!" (Also note the odd shoes, he doesn't care if they are a pair, just as long as they are way too big)

Here he is attempting to walk in Dave's shoes.

I have to say, Dave is the most awesome guy, wonderful husband and fantastic daddy...those are big shoes to fill little guy!

2007-04-13T17:01:00.000-07:00

Playdate Fun

One of the things that I was excited about before my kids came home from Ethiopia, was arranging playdates . I am still excited about this and as more children come home to their forever families, there will be more opportunities for playdates with Ethiopian buddies. (Can't wait to have little M from Abbotsford and M from Vancouver join us VERY soon!! Yeah, come on guys and gals...we're waiting to play!)
A couple of weeks ago, Ayana had a playdate with a little friend, T, that was in the foster home in Addis at the same time as her and Moses. When T was shown their referral pictures, she told her mom that she used to play with Ayana and had even helped with Moses in the baby room.
What fun for them to reconnect here in Vancouver! They have seen each other at our Vancouver dinners, but this was the first "proper" play date. They had so much fun playing with my Little Pony and of course dressing up! First they dressed up as princesses, then as animals, then back to princesses.
We have many fun costumes at our house to choose from..spider man, batman, cowboys, princesses, cats, pirates, medieval ladies dresses etc etc...the list goes on and on. However, poor Moses was on this occasion "roped" (pun intended!) into being a cow!
Here he is, oblivious of the fact that everybody else chooses more glamorous costumes, like fairy princesses complete with sparkly wings and tiaras! (Maybe that's a good thing :) )

The goodbye hug, Ayana still dressed as Tigger! Aren't they beautiful!

2007-04-11T13:08:00.000-07:00

Our one and only claim to any fame!
I realised that I had not told you about our experience being media stars!
A few months ago, our adoption agency called me and asked if I would be willing to do an over the phone interview with a Vancouver paper about adopting from Africa.
Of course, I said that would be fun, no problem, just let me know when.
So, a few days later, the reporter called and I answered a whole list of questions like,
"Why are you adopting when you have your "own" children.?" (Grrrr, I set her straight on that one!) "Why Africa?" "How has our community reacted? How have the Ethiopian community reacted?" and so on.
They then called and asked if we would mind having a photographer come and take a picture..nothing major..just for an inside story.
Again, of course, why not!
So, the photographer came round and did a million shots, some funky shots, other more traditional ones. Ayana and Moses actually did really well and we didn't have to bribe the older ones too much either.
The photographer mentioned as he was leaving that as we are a Surrey family, the Surrey sister paper might want to use the photos...OK with that? Of course.
That was it, no promise of it actually being used, no mention of when etc.
So, imagine my shock when I got the Sunday paper that weekend and our family was all over the front page of the paper...this was what I saw.

Our family, sat on the stairs....now staring out at people all over Surrey, Delta, New West, Vancouver etc etc.
I was so excited! (If I would have known the extent of the coverage, I would have done my hair...at least I would have combed it)
Since then, the media attention has died off I have to say, and I don't get asked for autographs any more (a little boy at my son's school ran over to me one day and asked if I was famous because he'd seen me in the paper. I told him I was VERY famous and he wanted my autograph...so funny!)
Here are the other shots that were used in the paper.

The interview was mostly accurate, a few minor details missing or added, a few controversial Q & A missing, but pretty good.
The highlight of this whole experience for us though, happened only about a month ago. We were in a little Ethiopian restaurant in Vancouver when the owner suddenly came up to Dave with a phone in his hand and told him that the call was for him. Dave, completely puzzled of course, took the call and it was an Ethiopian man in Surrey who had seen us in the paper.
He was friends with the restaurant owner and had told him how much he wanted to speak with us. When we went into the restaurant, the owner had called him right away as he recognised us.
Anyway, this guy told Dave how happy he was that we had adopted from his homeland and also said that we were family now. He gave his number and told us to call anytime we needed to.
We were completely amazed and also humbled.
I think I could safely say that the reaction from the Ethiopian community has been awesome.

2007-04-08T15:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter
Happy Easter to all. I don't know whether you are Christians or even believe in God, but for us, as Christians, this is one of the most significant days of our year.
This is the day that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.
We had a great talk at church today that basically said if we don't believe that there ever was a resurrection, there is nothing to our faith. BUT and it is a big but, if we do, then we should be looking to see where we can be bringing that resurrection hope into our world now.
So, when we encounter injustice, intolerance, cruelty,misery and pain, we can be looking at how we can be bringing God's mercy, love,justice, peace and joy. Something to think about.
The kids had (or are having) a great day. Ayana and Moses had a blast at church, waving flags and dancing around to the music. When we got home, after a French toast with strawberries lunch (thanks Dave!) the kids all went on a treasure hunt to search for chocolate!

We kept hearing shrieks of delight as clues were found with little pieces of candy...Ayana and Moses couldn't believe their luck being fed with Easter Jelly Bellies as they followed their older siblings around the house.
Dave does wicked clues that even I have a bit of a hard time figuring out, so I am always impressed that the kids actually get them.

Here they are at the beginning of the treasure hunt showing off the beautiful eggs that they decorated yesterday.
When they finally got all the clues, they were led to their Easter chocolate and a present for each of them.
Again, Ayana and Moses thought they had landed in Paradise as we gave them each a chocolate bunny. Ayana immediately sat down and started chomping on it, almost right through the silver paper.

They were not at all impressed when it was time for their naps and the other kids were still eating chocolate. Ayana cried and hung onto her bunny...we had to promise her the chocolate would still be there after her sleepy time. I lay down with her for a while and she sobbed and sobbed for a good ten minutes. I have to say it was quite funny, even though she was so sad. Have we created a chocoholic already?
So, that is our Easter this year. As I talked about in my last post, Easter 2006 was spent in vain hope that we would ever get a referral...and this year, here they are, laughing and dancing around at church, munching chocolate with their brother and sisters...isn't that so incredibly cool!

2007-04-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

Memories

I was emailing a friend today about the wait for referral and how hard that can be. I was wanting to encourage her. (Hang in there L...we're all waiting for that news!)

It was this time last year that our referral came.

I remember on Good Friday 2006, sitting in our living room so depressed and miserable. I thought our referral would never come. We had heard from our agency only that week that referrals were slow, that the wait for siblings under 2 would be probably a year or so.

I asked Dave if we had made a mistake. I didn't really mean that, but I was despondent and depressed. Were we crazy? Could I wait for a year?We went to church on Easter Sunday, good service, great reflective time. A friend came to me and tried to encourage me..."your referral could come tomorrow, you never know" she said. I gritted my teeth..."maybe, don't think so, but thanks" I muttered.

On Easter Monday I got up, got my cup of tea, checked my emails and saw an email from CAFAC (Agency)

I thought it was a country update and clicked on it to read,"This is the email that you have been waiting for since your dossier went to Ethiopia"

I thought, "How weird, I haven't been waiting that long for a country update?" I read on,"You have been matched and your referral papers are on their way to your provincial agency. You should hear from them in the next few days" I have to say, I must have read that sentence ten times before it slowly dawned on me that our referral was here. (Hey, I never claimed to be a genius!)

I remember starting to hyper ventilate and running to the bottom of the stairs screaming for Dave. Dave came tearing downstairs because he honestly thought there was a fire or a serious emergency. All he saw was me standing with tears pouring down my face and my hand over my mouth.

"What! What!" he shouted. "Our referral" and I pointed to the computer...

We got our phone call from our Provincial agency the very next day. I remember my social worker saying "Good morning Lesley.Congratulations! We have a referral for you"

She sent the package over and Dave and I sat holding hands waiting to see the details of our new children, to see their faces for the VERY FIRST TIME. Here are those pictures.(It makes me sad to see Ayana looking so scared and miserable :( )

A little girl, Kalkidan (her Ethiopian name, 17 months old) and her baby brother Ermias (his Ethiopian name, 3 months old)

Joy. Tears. Hugs. Joy. Tears.

Can words really describe that moment, that very first glimpse of your child? From despair to complete utter bliss in a matter of a few days.

We got updated pictures 6 weeks later after a group came back.

Here they are after 6 weeks of food and care in the foster home.

We scrutinised these pictures and others that were sent during our wait to travel. We knew every mm of their beautiful faces. We loved them without ever holding them. We couldn't wait to kiss them, stroke their little cheeks, hold onto them very tightly. We adored them.

So, this Easter as I remember our Easter last year, I want to encourage all those waiting, waiting, waiting for your referral. It will happen and when it does, that glorious moment of seeing their face(s) for the first time will be worth the wait. I promise you that.

2007-04-04T08:09:00.000-07:00

Moses.

This is going to be a long post, there's a lot to share and it has been possibly one of the most stressful times of my life, so stick with me!

After discussion on the adoption forum about getting our newly adopted children tested for TB, I decided to go last week and get Ayana and Moses checked out. Our wonderful paediatrician had recommended it when we got back from Ethiopia, but had advised us to wait for a few months before doing the testing as malnutrition can affect results.

I took them in, they had the skin test and we waited a couple of days to see if they would react.

In my mind I was half expecting them to react and sure enough, after a day, they both started to develop a red bump on their arm.

When I took them back to the TB clinic, they read their skin tests and said that they both needed chest x-rays. We had already waited a couple of hours in the clinic and I prepared myself for a loooong day :) Little did I know!

Up to the x-ray centre, waiting, waiting, x-rays taken (Quite difficult to get a 1 yr old to stand completely still on a little bench leaning against a cold metal plate) Back down to the TB clinic, waiting, waiting. Finally the Dr called us in to look at the chest x-rays.

The procedure is that with a positive skin test, you get the chest x-ray to determine if you have active TB. With children under 5, the recommendation is that with a positive skin test, even with a clear chest x-ray, they need to be on meds (3 different types of antibiotics) for 6-9 MONTHS to clear them of the latent TB.

I went into the Dr's office and he put Ayana's x-ray up. "Negative for TB, all normal"

Then he put Moses x-ray up and the drama started...he literally said, "Oh my god! This is not normal. He has a huge heart that is spread right across his rib cage. I've never seen anything like it."

Then he called the nurse in and said again, "Have you ever seen an x-ray this abnormal?"

The nurse looked at me standing frozen in complete shock, and suggested that the Dr told me whether Moses was clear of TB...the Dr just kept shaking his head and saying, "This is serious, really serious"

Finally he looked at me and said, "I don't know what this means but I need to be in touch with your paediatrician..oh and he's clear of TB"

I managed to gather my wits enough to ask about the medication and he said definitely not, they didn't need it. I asked why all the literature says that they do need it and he said, they don't need it, absolutely not. I then asked what I should do about Moses, was he OK etc. Then he said "I'm a TB Dr, I'm not a cardiologist but all I know is that this isn't right, it's very serious."

Can you imagine how I felt as I left the clinic? I was in complete shock and I could barely buckle Moses into his stroller because I was shaking. The nurse came after me as I left and asked if I had the meds all sorted out. I told her the Dr said they didn't need it. She brought me back into the clinic again to recheck because she said children usually get the meds with a positive skin test. The Dr again said no....she gave me her card and told me to call her.

I wandered around the medical buildings for a while trying to absorb the fact that my little baby boy had a serious problem with his heart. I called Dave and told him in tears. He was stunned of course.

Then I decided that I was not going to wait for the TB Dr to get hold of my paediatrician, I was going to talk to her myself. Fortunately she was in the next building and I went in to her office and burst into tears again...the lovely receptionist told me she was fully booked. Of course, people wait for months to see her. I pleaded just for 5 minutes. I was told to come back in an hour and she would see me for 10 minutes.

More waiting, getting the kids something to eat etc. I couldn't eat, everything tasted like sawdust in my mouth.

Ayana kept saying, "what matter mommy?"

Finally I went back up to the Paediatrician's and she was so AWESOME... she took me in her office, sat down, gave me kleenex and told me to start at the beginning.

She is so wonderful, very matter of fact and reassuring.

She then gave Moses a thorough physical exam and said that everything checked out as far as she could see. She got on the phone with the TB clinic and also a pediatric radiologist who had the x-rays sent over. The ped radiologist said the x-ray was normal.

WHAT? How can it be "the most abnormal x-ray " a Dr had seen and "normal" at the same time?

My paediatrician said that she would call her friend at Children's Hospital in Vancouver, a renowned cardiologist and ask her to help us out. She phoned and this wonderful lady told me to come down to Children's today and she would sort it out. I could not believe it. Do you know how long it takes people to get in to see specialists at Children's???? I knew that God was watching out for little Moses.

I went back to the TB clinic to pick up the x-rays and a different Dr called me into his office. He at least apologised for the way that the other Dr had told me about Moses x-ray and said that they were OK with the ped radiologist opinion and also....told me that the kids needed to be on the medication. I was so furious. I told them that I didn't care if they were happy with the ped radiologist opinion, I was getting my own second opinion and also that I had triple asked earlier if the kids should be on meds and had been triple told no. I told them to call me when they had come to an agreement on treatment.

Down to Children's hospital. It was now the end of the afternoon...I had gone to the TB clinic at 9:30 a.m.

We waited, waited, waited for the waiting room to empty and finally I got into the cardiologist. She examined Moses, said that he had a normal exam, looked at the x-rays and said that she needed an ultrasound of the heart and an electrocardiogram to be 100% sure that all was OK. I asked her why that needed to happen...were the x-rays showing something abnormal...she said "maybe".

However, as this was the end of the day, all the testing had to be done the next day.

I went home and our whole family prayed, I called my family in UK and they started praying, my church started praying, my friends were praying. I couldn't even post about it on the adoption forum as I was so upset and scared. This little boy had a lot of prayers offered up on his behalf in that 24hours before we could get the tests done.

So...(I told you this was going to be loooong, but I need to tell the whole story) yesterday we went back down to Children's for the tests. This time, Dave was with me. Also, it was my birthday but the day just didn't seem that happy for me even though the sun was out and the blossoms were blooming. It just all seemed blah.

Moses had his tests...hard to see your baby hooked up to machines...and then more waiting to see the cardiologist for results.

As I was waiting I was watching the parents in the Heart Centre. There were teenagers there with their Ipods on, right down to a newborn baby being nursed in the corner and I wondered how many of them had battled through agonies of having their children diagnosed with heart problems, it was so sad.

We were called into the office. I was shaking.

We sat down and the cardiologist said, "This little guy is fine. He checks out 100%. His tests are great. The size of the heart is normal. The chambers of the heart are strong, with good activity. The Doppler (sound) reading is good. He's a healthy baby" His x-ray had shown that the heart size was big, but she said that's why we do other tests. It turned out to be something called the thymus (spelling?) gland had been in a slightly different place than normal, but it was completely fine..no worries at all!!

I almost burst into tears on the spot. I thanked her over and over for squeezing us into her busy schedule, for her kindness in seeing me the day before. She smiled and said that she liked to put parents worries to rest.

The drive home was wonderful. We sang. We called people. I kept looking at my little guy in his car seat blowing kisses at me. We thanked God.What a fabulous birthday present!! Moses has only been in our lives for seven months but my goodness....we LOVE him so much!!!

Oh, yes, they probably do need to take the meds for latent TB...that now seems like a walk in the park.

I am so grateful for healthy children, something that money just can not buy. I thought of all the parents still waiting anxiously in the Heart Centre and felt so bad for them.

Thank you God for my healthy baby boy.

Thank you for sticking with this long post...I'll get by with a little help from my friends.

2007-03-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

A Holiday....
Last week was Spring Break here in Vancouver and we decided to go to a little Gulf Island called Pender Island which is in between (roughly) Vancouver and Vancouver Island.
We had an awesome time,relaxing as a family, just being together.
It was the first time that Ayana and Moses had ever seen a hot tub of course and there was one right on the deck of the gorgeous house that we rented. It was surrounded by trees and believe me it was heaven to sink into. Ayana called it "the bubble water"
We spent time on the beach, going for walks, exploring bakeries and coffee shops, perusing through book stores. We took up a DVD collection of .....The Waltons (my favourite series ever :) ) and watched them at nights, the kids loved them!
One day I took the three older kids to a thrift store and they got their money ready, all excited that they would pick up some sweet bargains, maybe even a souvenir of the Island. Well, we got there and it was like a nightmare of an old Bargain Basement /Junk store. The crowing glory of it was finding bins of (clean!) used underwear for 25c. Joshua almost died as he saw the boxes of old bras and underwear...I don't think he's forgiven me yet for taking him there! We still laugh when we remember it :)
I have added a link to a slide show of our time on the Island and a little video clip of Ayana and Moses on the beach. Ayana discovered chips on this holiday and rapidly became quite passionate about them. Being the generous little soul that she is, she wanted to share them all the time because if she shares...she gets more. She has also picked up on the phrase.."Gosh!" that my older girls have taught her and she is hilarious as she uses it all the time. If the TV is too loud, she says, "Gosh TV", if I drop something she says "gosh mama" etc etc, you get the picture. She's just a funny girl.
Anyway, I am going to update this blog, it is sadly in need of an overhaul but for now, let me know how you like the slide show and "goodnight John boy, goodnight Mary Ellen, goodnight...."
http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=25d01c717508b9028571bf&skin_id=0&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

2007-03-07T09:59:00.000-08:00

Isn't he Gorgeous?

I just had to share this photo. This was Moses fast asleep last week.

He's so cute!!!

2007-03-06T18:21:00.000-08:00

A Beautiful Day For A Walk...

Today was a gorgeous day in Vancouver. The sun was shining in a blue sky. Little clouds were lazily drifting. Flowers were blooming. It felt glorious after our snowfall last week.

In the late morning, I got Ayana and Moses ready and headed out to the duck pond in our neighbourhood. We live in a cute area with lots of trees and a local duck pond at the end of a cobbled street. The little ones LOVE the duck pond. Sometimes we even glimpse a turtle swimming slowly from one end to the other, or just kind of leaning/sitting on a branch in the water.

We got to the ducks after a slow walk in which Ayana had to stop at each flower bed and exclaim about the beautiful buds and blooming flowers.Moses was safely in his umbrella stroller or we would still be walking! We had a snack at the edge of the pond. We laughed at the ducks. Ayana skipped from one end of the bridge to the other. Moses toddled around and I had to be very vigilant as he approached the waters edge. It is actually a little difficult to take pictures and keep one hand on a lively baby!.

All in all a lovely pre lunch outing.

As we were headed back, they both heard an aeroplane and we spent a while looking up at it, Moses waving away and pointing in delight. As I was standing waiting for them to lose interest in the 'plane, I noticed ugly, scrawled graffiti all over the path. I was a bit surprised that I hadn't noticed it on the way in as it was vivid red and in huge letters.

As I read it, the day seemed to lose a little sparkle.

It was horrible. Very racist. Using awful words to describe people with black skin. Slurs against women. I felt cold as I read it, as though the sun had disappeared. The day felt grey.

As we walked home, Ayana was still skipping. Moses was still waving at the cars and shrieking with joy when we saw a doggie.

I felt so sad. So mad. There are people who will hate my beautiful children because...they have a different colour skin. This is reality for those of us adopting children that look different than we do. I have never had to read any graffiti imploring others in my community to "get rid" of me. As my children grow older, they will read things like that and we will have had to educate them as to how they respond. We got home and Ayana ran to the bathroom. After a while, she called for me to come and see her. She was standing looking at herself in the mirror, a huge grin on her face.

"Look mama, Ayana cute. Ayana beautiful" she said. Suddenly, the sun came out again. The day sparkled.

Oh yes my little girl. You certainly are beautiful and don't let anyone tell you different.

2007-03-05T21:36:00.000-08:00

One of Those Evenings...
Tonight was one of those nights where everything seems to go wrong. In England there is a great ad on TV that has people going about their daily lives with a big key sticking out of their backs. Every time something stresses them out, the key winds them up a bit more until the only thing that can unwind them is...(come on this is an ad in UK, you should guess what can unwind all those stressed out British people...)...a cup of tea of course! I felt that way tonight. Everything seemed to wind me up, like a key creaking away in my back..
Moses dumped out a big bag of garbage all over his room. Creak.
Ayana jumped off the toilet too early and peed on the floor. Creak.
Megan spilled a whole jug of juice on the kitchen counter. Creak.
Joshua ran in from soccer practice and spread clumps of dirt across the hallway. Creak.
I sat down with a headache, feeling quite sorry for myself. I'm so tired and busy I thought. My house is a mess and I still have to make lunches for tomorrow. Get all the kids to bed. Help Dave unpack the zillion grocery bags on the floor. Will I ever get that soothing, unwinding cup of tea???
Creak...that key was so tightly wound.Then I checked my emails.
A friend of mine has a tiny little boy that has just undergone a liver transplant. The email was telling us that things are not going well. The email asked us to pray for this little boy's life and for peace and a calm for the parents.
WHAM. Suddenly, I got perspective. Suddenly I felt privileged to be home with my healthy children, picking up after them, making lunches and cleaning up messes.
I realised that my "key" is often wound up too tight and I need to stop and reflect on how very, very thankful I am for my family and circumstances.
Maybe we all need to do that, stop and give thanks, for everything. For the little things. For the big things.
Finally, if you are reading this and you believe in prayer, please pray for little Andrew fighting for his life.

2007-02-28T09:44:00.000-08:00

Gran Gran's Here!
My whole family lives in the UK, and as such have not yet seen Ayana and Moses...much to their distress!
My mum has been dying to see them and phones them all the time. You can imagine the phone conversations with a 2 yr old still learning English and a 1 yr old who points. Anyway, we also "visit" Gran Gran on the web cam and so Ayana thinks that Gran Gran lives in the computer. If you say "where's gran gran?" she runs and points at the computer screen. Very funny.
So, mid way through January, my mum finally arrived and what a glorious airport trip that was. I was so excited that I started to shake when I saw her and she just ran and held onto Ayana and Moses who straightaway hugged her. It was so awesome. Of course, Erin, Megan and Josh got huge hugs and kisses too. She left at the beginning of Feb and it was very hard to see her go. She is very British in that she doesn't usually cry in public, but she broke down at the departure gate when Moses blew her a kiss...it's hard to live thousands of miles away from family.
We had the most awesome visit and now when I ask Ayana where Gran Gran is, she says "Gran Gran said Bye bye and mama cry" :(
I made a short slide show of a couple of pictures taken on the first day of her visit here. Please click on the link below and turn on your speakers. I would suggest that you don't enlarge the picture as it tends to distort. I really HOPE that this works.
PLEASE leave me a comment so that I can see if I did it properly!
http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=23fe24c2fb5cb341f84ca4&skin_id=0&&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

2007-02-22T13:40:00.000-08:00

What a Disaster!!

Yesterday I dropped Megan off for her voice lessons and decided to quickly run into Save On Foods for a couple of things before picking her up again. I had half an hour and I also had Ayana and Moses with me.
I zipped around the store and was quite proud of the fact that I had done a shop and was back at the van in 20 minutes. Pride always comes before a fall, I should have known!
I put Moses in the van, turned round to put Ayana in, put all my bags in and then reached across to buckle Moses up. As he was squirming away, I put my keys down on the seat. You can guess what's going to happen.
I turned around for a moment (now I don't even know why) and turned back to see Ayana push on the door which slid across and clicked. I froze.
I frantically pulled on the door. Locked.
With Ayana and Moses inside, not strapped in their seats. With my purse, my keys, my cell phone on the front seat.
At first I just stared into the van in desperation.
Then I tried to get Ayana to press the button on the door which would have unlocked all the doors. She of course could not understand me and just stared back at me. Then I was pointing to the button, "Ayana, push the button" (two words she doesn't know yet are "push" and "button" I've discovered) She waved at me.
Soon a little crowd of three guys had gathered as they all tried to get Ayana to push on the button! She waved at all of us quite happily. One guy kindly informed me that this would never happen to him as he always carries two sets of keys around. Thank you sir, you can leave now.

Moses meanwhile thinks that this is hilarious. He starts to go through the shopping bags and throw things around the van. Then, in his new found freedom, he stands up on the arm rest of his car seat. I was trying to tell him to sit down...good luck!
Finally, I got hold of Dave at work, half an hour away and he said that he would come and open the van with his spare key. I didn't even think of calling a tow truck and anyway, they take about half an hour too. (How do I know this? Another deadly embarrassing thing happened to me in the van last Sunday involving running out of gas and having to call a tow truck :0 )
Anyway, Ayana now is tired of waving at me and starts to cry and then to call out "shinti" (meaning "pee") She starts to jump up and down and then finally just pees in her pants which upsets her and sets her off into a complete fit of crying.
Moses is now throwing bottles of 7UP around the van.
I stood there for over half an hour and I have never been so glad to see Dave pull into the parking lot. Oh the magic sound of that key turning in the lock and click, the door was open! Ayana looked at me and then sighed. "Poor Ayana" she said! I had to laugh!
Meanwhile Megan is still sitting outside her voice lesson waiting to be picked up, we were over half an hour late in getting her.
All in all, a horrible, frantic experience. When I think back on it now, everything ended up OK, the kids were fine etc, and it is quite funny. However, at the time.....

2007-02-19T20:53:00.000-08:00

(Almost..) Six months already!!

In 10 days, we will have been home from Ethiopia for SIX WHOLE MONTHS!! I just can not believe it. Dave and I were talking about it today and saying how fast the weeks and months have flown by.

Major events in our new family have been and gone in a flash..

The first picnic in the park.

The first Autumn, playing in the leaves.

Being featured in the local paper...our one and only claim to fame.

The first snowfall...Ayana's eyes grew huge and her mouth opened wide as she peered outside at the snow and breathed, "Who did that?" Moses was VERY unimpressed.

The first time celebrating Ayana's birthday in her forever family...a happy, giddy little girl dressed up in a fairy costume and sunglasses all day.

First Halloween. Dressing up as a princess and a cowboy was so fun.

Trips to the hospital with Moses.

Our first Christmas all together, simply magical. Moses' first birthday.

Their dedication at church...

Moses learning to creep, then crawl, then walk.

So many huge events, some of which I will post about separately to give you a glimpse into our lives. As I reflect back, in the grand scheme of life, six months is nothing. BUT six months has made such a huge difference in their lives and also in ours. They have grown physically and emotionally. Ayana now understands so much English. Moses even follows simple directions showing a basic understanding too.

They both frequently run to us for hugs, kisses, reassurance and cuddles, another indicator that they are attached and bonded, ( one of the greatest, and sometimes never mentioned, fears of an adoptive parent..."what if they don't attach to me?")

They adore their older siblings too and we were also thinking today of how wonderfully our older children have accepted their little brother and sister. They literally welcomed them with open arms and were ready with lots of hugs and kisses right from the moment we set eyes on them. They are the best older brother and sisters that Ayana and Moses could ever had and we are so proud of the way that they have adapted to all the huge changes over the last six months. That is a blessing and an answer to prayer.

Ayana and Moses eat well. They sleep well. They laugh a lot. They run around the house being crazy, laughing and falling over each other and then getting up to do it all over again. Moses is obsessed with The Wiggles and now we all know the songs off by heart. We hum "Dorothy the Dinosaur, Queen of the Roses" as we go about our daily routines. (Not sure if that is good or bad?)

I am so grateful for this chance to parent these amazing little children. What a huge challenge and responsibility. What a joy.

I am excited to see what the next six months will bring.

2007-02-01T11:03:00.000-08:00

Arriving in Vancouver, Canada!

I explained in my last post why we arrived in Vancouver stinky and exhausted! We came through Customs and went straight through Immigration without much of a wait at all. Finally our Ayana and Moses were landed immigrants of Canada, we had done it. They were home with us at last. We asked the Immigration official to sign something special for them in their papers and he wrote, "Welcome home to Canada" What a feeling.

The euphoria faded somewhat as we came to realise that all of our bags except one were missing plus our stroller. Is it possible for bags to go missing both ways on a journey? I suppose it is. Is it possible that it always happens to us? I suppose so!

I had a moment of madness where all the frustration, stress and my general feelings of being overwhelmed rose to the surface and got the better of me. I saw a BA official, explained our situation in no uncertain terms to her ("We have been traveling for two days with 5 children, one of whom has very bad diarrhea. Our bags are all missing again..DO SOMETHING") and then we just said forget it. We want to go home. We will deal with the bags another day.

We left baggage, walked around the corner and were met with the loudest cheer, whoops of joy and delight, banners being waved and an enormous crowd of friends and family waving and crying. They had been waiting to meet us for almost 2 hours as we went through Immigration/ Customs and tried to find our bags. The picture above is of us first walking through...I still cry when I think of that reception. (I'm crying as I write this)

After all that horrific journey, after almost 2 years of waiting to bring the children home, after tears and ups and downs, we were home. Our family and friends were there to welcome Ayana and Moses into their new community. I was bowled over by the emotion on people's faces as they met them for the first time and it became so real to me how very special and "wanted" these children are. While we have been waiting, so have our friends and family, it was incredible. I have to say that it was one of the highlights of my life to be greeted and welcomed by that crowd of special people. I will never forget it.

2007-01-31T20:40:00.000-08:00

Leaving Addis...

The day finally dawned when we had to pack our cases into Selemnah's taxi van at 4:30 a.m. and head off to the airport on our way home.
"Home" ...I thought about this as we wound our way through nearly empty streets and into the airport parking lot. I was heading home to Canada and taking Ayana and Moses away from the only home they had ever known. I felt so sad, heavy-hearted and down. I didn't want to leave Ethiopia and I knew that even though we had pledged to bring the children back to their homeland regularly, it would be a long time before we were back in Africa.
We said goodbye to Selemnah and I stopped myself from crying as we hugged and shook hands in the classic Ethiopian way. It was heartbreaking to see him hold onto the children and wish them good luck in their new country.
We went through security and it took a loooooong time...after all...that pack of unopened crackers looked very threatening.
As we stood at the counter to check in, we heard an unearthly screaming that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Suddenly, a woman came running through the airport terminal, screaming and shrieking. She had a traditional long white Ethiopian shawl wrapped around her and she was running back and forth wildly. As we watched in horrified fascination, a group of men came charging after her, caught her and dragged her away.
Not the best start to a couple of days hard travel!
After another loooong wait at the check in (yes, we were the only ones there at the counter, but something else went wrong), we slowly headed down to passport control, grabbing a drink on the way. All of a sudden, we heard the screaming again and the woman reappeared, only to be wrestled to the floor by security, wrapped up in her own shawl and unceremoniously bundled out of the airport. I wonder what her story was and what happened to her.
Finally we got through passport control and I breathed a sigh of relief. I don't know why, but I was scared of passports being wrong or documents incorrect, but all was in order. We were allowed to leave.
The departure lounge was full of so many interesting people. I love to people watch and imagine what each person's story is. There were groups of refugees, holding their UN refugee status bags closely..all they had in the world. I watched as they huddled together, off to start a new life in Europe or North America. There were many Aid/Relief workers and business people, but we were the only visible adoptive family.
As we got onto the plane and settled into our seats, I glanced out of the window and suddenly I couldn't stop the tears. I was so aware of the fact that we were taking these children away from their country with it's incredible history, culture, cuisine, languages, art and music. We were leaving the continent of their birth. It was a very emotional and hard time for me as we took off, leaving the patchwork of Ethiopia below.
I have to say that the trip home was horrific. Moses had two parasites (we discovered later) and he had unbelievable diarrhea almost every hour on the hour. To be buckled into tiny seats and have to grab all the change things and carry a wriggling, tired and fed up baby to be changed was a nightmare. However, the horror of all horrors was as we landed in London, UK.
Security was very intense as there had been the terrorist threats a couple of weeks earlier. We were late getting into Heathrow and could hear our flight being called as we were stood waiting in security. Of course, when I asked the security lady if we could be moved ahead because our flight was being called, we were made to wait even longer. The awful, rude woman got her supervisor to check and double check our bags, carefully checking BABY WIPES for drugs and making me suck on EMPTY bottles...just in case there was some poison in there.
When we were through, Dave asked BA to hold the plane for us, which they said they would do, but then they told us to RUN to the gate, which was a good 20 minute walk away.
So, there we were, running through Heathrow with our bags and our five children. We were frequently paged on the PA system and I ended up in tears.
To arrive on that plane out of breath, crying, heaving little children up the aisles and hear the Captain announce "Well, the family we were waiting for has finally arrived, sorry for the delay" was too much. I just sobbed....not helpful to anyone I know...but I was so overwhelmed.
I promptly sat down and spilled apple juice all over the dear lady sitting next to me, who proved to be an angel for the rest of the flight.
I have mentioned the diarrhea. I have not mentioned that as I frequently stood in the aisle, waiting for the tiny bathroom, with Moses squirming in my arms, other passengers were holding their hands over their faces to try and get away from the gross smell. I haven't mentioned that the flight attendants were walking behind me and baby Moses, spraying disinfectant and air freshener. I haven't mentioned that at one point, as people were literally moving away from me as I stood waiting , that I felt diarrhea dripping right through his sleeper, down my arm and splash onto the floor. It was a low point, a VERY low point!
I would stand in the enclosed bathroom, with the smell to end all smells (those of you who have dealt with this will be laughing right now...), desperately trying to scrub my hands and arms, to splash clean water onto Moses in that ridiculous tiny basin, to change his clothes...throwing most of them away by the way. I would wearily make my way back to our seats, only to repeat the whole thing about an hour later. I have to say, it was worse than a nightmare.
Ayana was fine, crying occasionally, sleeping occasionally, clinging onto these people who had suddenly whisked her away from everything familiar....we couldn't really communicate and it was so hard to be doing this journey without any kind of explanation to her as to why we were running, crying, hurrying, sitting for hours on a plane. When I wasn't changing Moses, I was holding Ayana, who refused to be out of our arms for long. It was hard.
Eventually all things have to come to an end and we arrived in Vancouver...stinky and exhausted...but we had made it! It was over! (We didn't know at that point that ALL our bags had been lost by BA, but that is for next time)
In my next story, I will also share about our incredible welcome party at the airport and then, maybe, I can move onto our life now that we are in Canada.
PS For those who are waiting to travel with their little ones...don't worry...it CAN'T be as bad as our experience and we survived to tell the tale!!!! lol

2007-01-18T12:29:00.000-08:00

Frustrating...
I like to blame it on Blogger, but maybe, just maybe it was my fault.
I wrote a HUGE post today about our return trip to Canada...lots of pictures...lots of detail. Just as I was finising, the whole thing suddenly vanished and a little window popped up to say "press OK to continue" and so I pressed OK thinking it meant to continue on with the Blog.
I guess that was my mistake because it continued to shut down Blogger and the screen returned to my screen saver.
I was so mad.
So, when I have recovered and if I haven't thrown this computer through the window, I will write 2 posts (too big for one I have now realised) about coming home.

2007-01-10T20:01:00.000-08:00

"Mama again...Mama kisses"

(I promised that I would say hi to my brother David in UK and thank him for reading this blog!! HI DAVE...now you have to leave a comment!! )

One of the problems with doing a reflective type of journal is that so many things are happening every day in the here and now, that I don't get to share right away. I will eventually get round to them and catch up with our lives. In my next post I will share the horror trip home from Addis Ababa, but today I am going to jump through time and share something that happened today. It is important. It is significant.

Today, out of the blue, Ayana suddenly looked at me with a very puzzled look and said,"Amaya?" (mother?) then she shook her head slowly and said "No Amaya"

She touched the little necklace that her birth mother gave to her when they parted. She always wears it, and she said,"Amaya ciao, Amaya cry" (mother bye bye, mother cry)

I tried to stay calm (i.e. not burst into tears) and I asked her if Amaya cried.

"Ow, Amaya cry. Amaya Ermias chi-chee. Amaya ciao" (yes, mother cry. Mother carry Moses( on her back.) Mother bye bye)

Then she looked at me for a few minutes in silence. With a smile, she leaned over to me and said, "mama..again, Mama kisses" and kissed me.

She skipped off and went to play, her usual sunny, bouncy little self. She left me an emotional wreck!

This tiny 2 yr old had suddenly had a vivid memory of her mummy saying goodbye to her, giving her a necklace, crying as she left, carrying her baby brother on her back and saying goodbye to him too as she cried.

What prompted this memory? I have no idea. What have my two little ones been through in their other world, their other life? I have no idea... but I want to preserve this detailed memory. Ayana told me in her innocent little way that she had a mama again and that I was accepted as that mama. I want to be able to burn the image onto my brain of her little earnest face bending over to kiss me, saying "Mama...again. Mama kisses."

We have been given such a task in taking care of these precious children. I hope and pray that I can live up to it.

2007-01-03T19:58:00.000-08:00

Last days in Addis...

(This is the view from our guesthouse...it overlooked part of the city but was set back and so the noise was muted..a little!)

It is incredibly sad to leave somewhere that has such special and significant memories and return home again to the world of lattes and washing machines.

Ethiopia is my two youngest children's homeland, their birth family lives(d) here and the language and culture of this beautiful place have washed over them since they first entered this world.

I longed to be back even before I had left. One day we will go back and visit. We will take our little ones back home but for now, we have these memories.....

(Waving to Dave from our window at the guesthouse. Josh is wearing his Ethiopian Rasta' hat.)

This is our room a few hours before we had to leave for the airport...a complete disaster. How do you possibly fit in all those little presents and bits of pottery??

We had to be at the airport at 4:30 a.m which meant getting up at 4 a.m. Not good with five kids ranging from teenage (never want to get up) to babies!

This is a view of the guesthouse. We loved it here.

This is where we sat as a family on our very first day in Ethiopia and just grinned ...we kept telling each other,

"We are in Ethiopia!! We made it!!Can you believe it..arrgghh..I can't believe it!"

This is where we came back and just sat on the bed and cried after we had been to the Hope project and seen the hundreds and hundreds of children living in the slums. This is where Dave and I said to each other that from this moment on, we would do everything we could to make a difference..

This is where we held hands and took deep breaths, just minutes before heading out of the door to see and hold our new babies for the very first time.

This is where we first gave a bottle to Moses and where I first tucked Ayana into sleep.

A lot of firsts in this guesthouse, I would love to come back and stay here, it is very special to me.

2007-01-02T21:11:00.000-08:00

New Blogger Stuff:.....

Well, just to let you know that I have been trying to upload stuff onto Blogger but it seems to be having problems? I will be updating and catching up on leaving Addis and coming to Canada as soon as I've figured out how....... very annoying to wait ages for images to upload and then they...disappear.

I'm going to try and post a picture just to see if I've figured it out..so if it works...here is a picture of Ayana on Christmas Day. If you can see it, I did it right!.

Lesley

2006-12-14T14:35:00.000-08:00

Last Days in Addis.....

(OK OK I haven't posted for almost a month...sorry)

I wanted to give a few impressions of beautiful Ethiopia before I talk about leaving Africa, returning home and starting life as a family of 7.

We loved Ethiopia. Yes, it is sad and haunting and incredibly heart wrenching. It is also joyful, exhilarating, beautiful and captivating. Much like the Ethiopian people themselves.
So, I am going to do a couple of posts with some of my favourite pictures capturing what we saw of Ethiopia, just to give you a taste of it.

These two boys were very persistent in trying to sell us gum etc through the van window. They were funny, they kept trying to do sad faces and then, they would burst out laughing. They were very taken with our girls and their friend in the back of the van. They were typical little street kids and (we asked ) of course, did not have the chance to go to school...

Another example of creative employment...a very typical scene of a teenaged boy trying to make a little money. If you gave him a "birr" (approx 7 or 8 cents), you could take a picture of him with this cute little pet monkey or have your picture taken with them.
Of course, we had to take a picture, so we gave him a bit of money and he smiled and got the monkey to run up and down his back etc.
For some reason, I always felt sad when kids lined up at the van window trying to scrape a living from the white people....

This is the foyer of the Hilton Addis Hotel where we had to go to exchange money. I say.."had to" because it really was a bit gross to be in a place of such extreme wealth and luxury while kids are lying with their begging mummies outside on the street. I could not stay here.
To even get in, you have to drive through a very poor area and then your vehicle is searched and you go through metal detectors to enter the building. Incidentally, our driver, our wonderful friend, was not allowed to even park in front while we exchanged money...he had to leave and they called him when we were ready to be picked up. As the bank was "not available" for about 40 minutes, our poor driver had to just sit outside the gates waiting for a call. I felt horrible.

Remember when I posted about meeting our Compassion child? Well, this is the group of kids that were watching us meet her. There was a stampede when we got the granola bars out and I tried to make a point of at least shaking hands with each child. They were so lovely, so beautiful, so completely desperate for a loving touch...do you sponsor a child? Doesn't have to be through Compassion.
To even qualify for this program these kids are classed as the poorest of the poor. I like this picture because despite their harsh lives, they are all smiling (and the little girl with a blue hoodie in the top right hand corner has to have one of the sweetest faces I've seen. )

Well, Blogger only allows 4 pictures, so I'll do a few more favourite pictures in the next few blogs before embarking on the trip from hell ...also known as flying back to Vancouver.

2006-11-30T14:27:00.000-08:00

Sightseeing in Addis...

On one of our very last days in Ethiopia, I think just two days before we left, the group decided that it would be fun to do a bit more sightseeing in and around Addis. We wanted to go up a nearby mountain, I think Mount Moret (could be wrong) because we had been told of the spectacular views.

We set off in the two vans and it soon became apparent that our van was not going to make it through the city, let alone up a mountainside. As our family was leaving before the rest of the group, we switched vans, got into the healthy van with a few others from the group and everyone else got into the ailing van and limped back to the guesthouse. They would have another chance to see the sights.
Joshua of course hopped up in the front beside the driver and I took this picture of the street over his shoulder. This is typical of anywhere you go, people throng all over the road and vehicles kind of weave in and out! Usually there are a few goats and donkeys to add into the mix.

We started the climb up a winding, beautiful road in order to get our touristy shots and passed so many people struggling up the road that I thought it must be a festival or something. It wasn't a festival but the driver told me that people make their way up to the churches at the top of the mountain as a kind of pilgrimage. Some people ran up to the van and waved money to try and get on, and I have to say I felt a bit colonial as the driver waved them away with a sweep of his hand as we sailed past.

As we neared the top, I thought that the countryside looked familiar. Then it struck me that it actually looked exactly like the views of my home county, Cheshire in England. I took this photo because it reminded me of my home...how ironic is that? I was in the middle of Ethiopia looking at a landscape very similar to England and feeling homesick!
Very beautiful and pastoral, green, (I mentioned about the rains in another post) rolling hills, cattle grazing....

We got out of the van at the top and similarities to England faded as we were immediately approached by a group of young boys, wanting to talk, wanting money.
These boys were fascinated with Joshua (very typical, not many young white boys around!) and so began to tell him all about their lives. I have to say, their English was pretty good and I became captivated by their stories. (The African people I have met are the BEST story tellers, I find myself mesmorised by their tales of life and family.)
The boys told us that they lived nearby and they were shepherds. School was a magical dream...they would love to go but it was too expensive to pay the fees, get the uniforms, and get down the mountainside in order to join in. I asked how much it would be for them to get someone to take them down the mountain every day in order to go to school.
"Many monies " was their sad little reply. "How many monies?" I persisted. They looked at each other and shrugged.
"Maybe two dollars " (equivalent) I thought that was a bit much too until they added, "a month for all of us."
Two dollars a month for all these boys to get down the mountain to go to school??
"It is impossible" they added.
Impossible? I always start to swallow hard and try to tell myself that this is normal, but everything in me screams that it shouldn't be. How much is a coffee for me? How much did I spend, even in Addis, on my precious little presents to take home?
I asked these boys what their dreams were....I knew what the answer would be.
"To go to school" they replied immediately.
Ah, life isn't fair.

They then told us that it was their job to collect the bark from Eucalyptus trees and weave it into whips to scare the hyenas away from their livestock. A boy ran to get his whip and gave us an awesome display of...I guess it would be called whipcracking.
The whip literally cracked like a gunshot and it was LOUD! Easy to understand why the hyenas would take off if they heard that in the dead of night. I took some video and pictures of it and he was so proud.

I got a bit nervous as he danced around cracking the whip pretty close to us, but luckily nobody was hurt. Very cool though.

You will notice that the ground is full of piles of...crap... and we all checked our shoes pretty carefully before we got back into the van, As we left, the boys directly asked us for money and so we gave them a little. It's always so hard to know what to do, but sometimes I just don't care about what is correct and what is not.
Of course, as SOON as we gave them a tiny bit of money there was a group of ragged, children all in a row....
Looking at us with huge, beautiful eyes, bulging tummies, thin faces and white fungus all over their little heads. Pleading.

I recently read Steven Lewis's brilliant book, "Race Against Time" and he writes of meeting a similar little ragged group of children in Africa.
"Time stopped. I looked at these lovely kids...faces shining through the greys of malnutrition, every one of them seeking an adult touch or hug, and I thought about the often unbearable lottery of life. Has there ever been greater injustice in this world"
I can so relate to this.. My mind goes back to all the hundreds of children that I have met both in Uganda and Ethiopia and I ask myself the same question.

Mountains and pilgrims, shepherd boys and Eucalyptus whips....another interesting and fascinating day in Ethiopia.

2006-11-08T14:34:00.000-08:00

I went to the Mercato and I bought...gum...

Toward the end of our visit we had the chance to visit the Mercato. This is the largest open air market in Africa and sprawls over many miles. Narrow paths wind in and out of crooked little stalls and take you from blankets to baskets, from pottery to spices and shoes.
Anything that you want, you can find here and we had all been very excited about a chance to visit this famous shopping area in Addis.
Incidentally, we were informed that the Government is wanting to tear down the whole thing and make more formal shopping areas...which sounds sad to me...but then I do not live there and I know that it has a huge crime problem.
Selemnah took our backpack and carried it himself, turning it around and putting it on his chest, with all the pockets tied shut. He told us to empty our pockets and lock everything in the van and he also told me to ask him when it was OK to take pictures. Even though this sounds a bit scary, it really was a great experience and we loved wandering around looking at all the different sections of the market. We saw hundreds of baskets, mounds of rubber boots, spice stalls with piles of gorgeous coloured spices and blankets piled up in wobbly towers.

Of course, the people were friendly and called out to us the whole time to come and buy stuff, joking with Selemnah and grabbing Ayana and Moses to kiss them. This custom of holding out their arms for your children and kissing them was a little different at first, even sometimes a little daunting. At one stall, an old lady held out her arms to hug Moses. I looked over at Selemnah and he nodded and said it was OK. The woman held Moses, kissing him, cuddling and crooning to him and then she said something that made Selemnah shake his head and laugh, then he told her to give him back! Finally she handed him over to me.
Selemnah told me that she said she wanted to keep Moses and that he was beautiful.
At one point a man asked if he could have his picture taken with Joshua and he told Selemnah that he thought Joshua was so cute!
The sights and smells, the array of colour and the sounds of hundreds of people shouting out their bargains and yelling at each other was wonderful, we really enjoyed the whole time there.

In Addis however, as I have mentioned before, there is always something to remind you of the ever present poverty and this market day was no exception. We noticed after walking through the stalls for about ten minutes that we were being followed by a tiny, ragged girl selling gum.
As you walk around, you are often followed by children begging or selling something, but what made this little one stand out was that she never lost sight of us. If we lingered around a stall, we would turn around and she was there. If we went into one of the covered areas, we would emerge to catch a glimpse of her peeping out from behind a stack of blankets. If we were on one side of the road, she would inevitably be trailing along the opposite side of the road, keeping an eye on us. I noticed that sometimes she would suddenly turn and run as fast as she could and I would look around and sure enough, there would be a policeman waving his stick at her....but she would then appear a few minutes later. Over the morning, I saw several people reach out and cuff her on the head as she waited by their stalls and my heart went out to this little child. Finally, Selemnah called to her and she crept over to us and he told her that when we were finished, we would buy some of her gum.
Sure enough, as we walked back to the van, she ran alongside us down the street and we of course all made a big deal of choosing lots of gum. In fact, we bought all the gum that this little girl was carrying and watched her carefully tuck the pittance of money inside her shirt.

Here she is showing us the different flavours.
This was her daily job.
She had to "work" the dangerous market selling gum, getting cuffed by stall owners and threatened by police officers.

I asked Selemnah if she had parents and she told him she had a mommy and sisters that begged in the market.
I asked him to ask her how old she was....
...she was only four years old.

I almost couldn't take these pictures because I was trying not to cry.
Oh Ethiopia, so beautiful and so tragic.

2006-10-26T18:14:00.000-07:00

A Visit to Kechene Pottery.

One day we had the chance to have our wonderful friend, Selemnah, drive our family around for the whole morning...we could go anywhere and we asked him to take us to a pottery and the market place. After driving through Addis for a while, dodging donkeys and cattle, we headed into the Northern section of the town. Selemnah informed us that this was traditionally known as the Jewish Quarter, and many of the Jewish people were skilled at crafts including basket weaving and pottery.

The pottery that we arrived at was a Women's Co-operative, something that I am always glad to support. The women were able to work the hours that they chose, the more they worked, the more they were paid and they also could negotiate their rates etc. They sold their pottery to the market stalls. It was cool to actually go right to the site where they were making the pots instead of buying them from a middle man on a market stall..

As we walked into the dimly lit room, we were met by a circle of women in the middle of a meeting, trying to negotiate for a bigger plot of land to build a new pottery works on. They agreed that we could come in and look around and of course, buy their pottery.

This picture was taken as we left. I went around and shook hands (and kissed that gorgeous little baby!!) We asked Selemnah to translate for us and told the women that their pottery was stunning and that we would be giving it as gifts in Canada...and also that we would let people know about them. (which I am now doing!)
They were so delighted.

This is the display room and it was so hard to choose what to buy and what to leave behind. It was beautiful. There were traditional coffee services, stunning bowls, plates and serving platters.
A lot of the pieces were decorated, it was all hand painted in the most intricate designs. The lady in the picture was one of the painters and she said that the smaller pieces took only about 15 minutes to complete!
We then toured the pottery works which were extremely rough and basic and it was amazing that such beauty could emerge from these squalid little sheds, stuck in the middle of a muddy compound behind an old fence.

As we left, a little group of children magically appeared, as is the case all over Addis...they just appear out of thin air!
They were delighted to pose for me in front of the pottery gates and a couple of the younger ones pretended to be karate champs or something similarly heroic. They screamed with laughter when I showed them this picture!
We gave them fruit bars and granola as we left.

Here is a little glimpse of the road we drove down to find the pottery...

...and the sign telling us that we had found it.

We left the pottery works to go to the market place which I will tell you about in my next post.

(PS...Not one of the many pieces of pottery that we bought got broken on the long journey home...proof of Dave's expert packing!)

2006-10-24T19:45:00.001-07:00

Hi there..a few people have asked me for the site address of Hope International that I wrote about a couple of posts back.
(I am delighted not only because people are interested in Hope because of what they read here, but because people are reading this!)
Anyway, here is the link. Check them out...again...they are AWESOME!!!!

www.hope-international.com

2006-10-24T18:45:00.000-07:00

Sodiere Hot Springs (Part Two)

OK, first of all, I'm sorry about these huge delays in between posts. I have been busy but that's no excuse!

Anyway, back to the Hot Springs.
As we drove into the resort area, I noticed that it was beautifully situated with profusions of exotic flowers everywhere. It was like a calming oasis in the middle of a red, sun-baked wilderness. After the long, dusty and hot bus ride, it was a welcome relief to stagger out and head into the restaurant for lunch.
There was a traditional dining area set behind screens and an open, more informal area (where we ate) at the front, overlooking a small pool and lovely gardens.

This is the traditional dining room. In the corner, it was all set up for a coffee ceremony with rushes spread on the floor.

Here is Ayana sat at the big table with a menu...she ended up eating some injera dipped in various sauces from our plates.

After the meal which was really good and a lovely long glass of chilled Mirinda, (Ethiopia's equivalent to Orange Crush which is totally addicting) we piled back in the van and headed off to the actual pools fed by the Hot Springs.

En route, we made a little stop to look at and feed a troop of monkeys that were (literally) hanging out beside the road.

As we went into the bathing area, we noticed that there was a beautiful, large pool complete with diving boards and a tiny shallow area that was cordoned off. It was similar to a little kids pool attached to an adult pool here in Canada. The big, spacious pool had about ten people in it, all hanging onto the side. There were a couple of adults swimming lengths. The tiny, shallow pool was completely full of people, adults and children, so crowded that they were basically all standing still as there was no room to even breathe.

We went to the side, found some chairs in the shade, and then the braver members of our group emerged from the changing rooms and stood looking at the two pools...mmmm...tiny pool crowded with people OR a lovely big empty pool with diving boards. My son could not believe his luck as he ran with joy and dove into the big pool, hauled himself out and ran over to the diving boards. He climbed up and waited behind three big Ethiopian teenagers. He waited and waited as they just stood and stared at the water and then he asked if he could go past them. They looked at him in complete shock and moved aside. As he jumped off with a loud "YEAH", they covered their mouths with their hands, their eyes as big as dinner plates. I'm still not sure whether they were scared for Joshua or horrified that his mother was at the side cheering her son on in this madness. (Of course, my camera battery ran out at this point so I can not show pictures.)

We then realised that the Ethiopian people were scared of water...of course not all are...but we asked Deb and she confirmed that most Ethiopian people do not have the chance to go swimming and the rivers etc are often crocodile infested. Remember that the Hot Springs are for the wealthy only, and it is a rare thing to go swimming as a recreational activity. Hence, everybody crowded into a shallow little pool and almost had a heart attack when a little 9 yr old boy calmly jumped off the high diving board.

Soon Joshua had a little fan club going, with a line up of teenage boys all hanging onto the side and cheering as he jumped into the water. Joshua LOVES to perform so he was doing starfish jumps and flips to the awe of his followers. Selemnah had accompanied us and he was not scared of the water, jumping in with Josh and having a great time.

It was actually quite relaxing for me, which is not often the case at a swimming pool. Usually, I am constantly scanning the water to make sure that I can see my kids the whole time. Here, I just sat and could easily spot my little blonde son and my daughters in the middle of crowds of Ethiopian people!

Ayana went into the water with Erin and Megan and loved it, but Moses sat out with me and did one of his famous exploding diapers. He was covered from head to foot and so was the stroller. I will say no more on this other than it is truly a unique African experience to change an awful diaper with one hand and to swat clouds of flies off with the other hand.

The drive home was wonderful until we hit Addis. There was a huge traffic jam and major congestion throughout the whole city because people had heard that gas prices were going up the next day...so every taxi, bus and car was out filling up at the lower price. We crawled through Addis with a bus load of very tired, hungry and fed up children adding an extra TWO HOURS onto the already long and hot trip. We loved the day but were so relieved to see the guest house, and the food we ordered in tasted extra special that night!

2006-10-12T22:21:00.000-07:00

Immunization...

Taking a little break from Sodiere Hot Springs to let you know that Ayana and Moses had their first round of "catch up" immunizations today.
I don't know how you feel about immunizations, (I have a couple of friends that don't "agree"), but I have to say that I feel it is a privilege to be able to have a shot and be immunized from a childhood disease. When you see kids dying from very preventable things in third world countries, I think that we are so lucky to have the luxury of protecting our children. There, that is my only rant I promise...I could go on, but I won't.
I started the morning with them both in the bath getting washed with divine Winnie The Pooh soap, the smell is so delicious and they looked adorable in new little outfits. I wanted them to look great for their first trip to Public Health.
Of course, they had other plans and Moses did an explosive diarrhea diaper just minutes before we needed to leave, covering his entire outfit and Ayana had an accident (very rare actually) and was crying because she was wet. Needless to say, they were put into whatever was clean and ready to grab out of the closet and they didn't smell too sweet. Such is parenting.

When it was our turn, the nurse was trying to talk to Ayana, and she was saying "Ow" (not sure of spelling) which means "yes" in Amharic, but the nurse thought that she was scared and was saying "ow" for pain. She was repeatedly telling her everything would be OK, and she kept telling me how brave Ayana was. Eventually I just had to tell her that Ayana was actually just saying "yes" to everything and wasn't really aware that she was getting shots because I can't explain that to her yet.
Then Ayana said "shinti" which means that she needs to go to the bathroom. I was putting Moses into the stroller and so couldn't get to her right away and Ayana kept saying shinti and the nurse kept saying, "yes, shh for the sleeping babies, shh" Again I had to say that she meant bathroom, it was funny.
Ayana really screamed the place down and would only be comforted by sitting in my lap with her face buried into my shoulder...sobbing "mama, mama"
Although I was sad that she was hurting, I was happy to see her look to me for comfort and reassurance.
Moses did his famous grin in between shots and the nurse and student nurse both said that children don't usually smile and coo during immunizations. He then promptly screamed so loud for his next shot that my ears hurt.
He did enjoy batting a little bell right out of the nurses hands though, the sound it made as it rolled away was highly entertaining for him. He also enjoyed chewing up and spitting out the schedule for their next shots.
The nurse was really wonderful and so helpful and lovely with the kids, she made the whole experience as positive as a trip to the clinic could be. I have her card to specifically request her next time.
So, that was my day.

2006-10-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

More scenes from our journey to Sodiere...

Lots of horses pulling little carts like taxis and also working as you can see here.

Typical scene of a lady driving a donkey along. Maybe she is going to market...

Some of the ever present, beautiful children of Ethiopia...running to catch up with the bus.

2006-10-11T18:28:00.000-07:00

Some Scenes on our Way to Sodiere...

Donkeys are loaded up with incredibly huge burdens.

You have to watch where you step!

A typical house in the country...

(Very impressed with this shot as it was taken by my daughter sticking the camera out of the bus window and clicking randomly. Not bad!)

Blogger is only letting me load three pictures at a time and so I will do another post with three more.

2006-10-11T13:36:00.000-07:00

A Fun Daytrip... (Part One)

On Saturday 26th August the whole group set off on a daytrip to one of Ethiopia's famous tourist areas...Sodiere Hot Springs. Actually, Joanne and Rick didn't get to go as the deadly tummy bug had hit Joanne...we promised to take lots of pictures... :(

The Hot Springs are located about 4 hours drive south from Addis Ababa, I was really excited to go as it meant seeing a part of Ethiopia that I had not seen yet. Spirits were high as we all trooped onto the bus, little snacks were neatly tucked into backpacks and water bottles were lined up.

Addis Ababa is at a very high elevation (can't remember what it is right now, but will get back to you with that info!) and so being in the middle of rainy season, the weather was actually quite cool and blustery. However, as we drove out of Addis and headed South, the temp picked up and the scenery started to change. We passed acres of industrial looking compounds which turned into mile upon mile of agricultural land. Fields were bursting with crops ripe for harvest and stunning flowers bloomed in profusion. I asked Deb (our trip leaderand agency director) if it was unusually green and she agreed that it was the most green/lush she had seen in ten years. She went on to remind us that there was terrible flooding further South which was displacing people and destroying land.

I thought again about this being a land of contrast...more rain than usual had turned the area we drove through into a paradise, but the excess rain further South was causing death and destruction.

We stopped at a beautiful lake and took a break (picture above...note how green!) As we walked around part of the lake we were followed by a group of young guys in a boat slowly edging along the waters edge. They were asking if we wanted a ride in the boat, only 5 Birr (CHEAP) and they would take us right around the lake. Selemnah, our driver and friend just started to laugh and laugh and then told us maybe not to go in the boat. We all agreed that it had probably last had a safety check circa 1900 and I had visions of us getting to the middle of the lake, without life jackets and the boat starting to sink. I asked Selemnah if there were cocodiles, "Of course" was his reply.

We continued onto Sodiere, with the heat rising and the scenery again changing. It became more rocky and dusty as we wove into the valleys and chugged up through the hills. We started to come across lots of traditional huts, and clusters of tiny mud houses making up little villages, home to the farmers working the fields. As we entered towns, the bus would slow down and crowds of children would suddenly appear as if out of thin air, pushing their hands through open windows offering everything from tissue paper to baby alligators for us to buy. It actually came as quite a shock to be confronted with a baby turtle being thrust into my face, it's wrinkled legs frantically waving back and forth. Little beady eyes stared balefully at me as if to say, "Buy me or let me go..please" Of course, the children on the bus were highly entertained. One boy in the crowd was wearing a Manchester United T. shirt. It was so incongrous to me, I was in the middle of Ethiopia and there was Man Utd! (I am English for those that don't know and grew up very near Manchester...my brother is a dedicated Man U fan!) I pointed to him with a thumbs up sign and said "Man U!!" He totally understood, pointing at his T. shirt and laughing. (On the way home, we again passed the same crowd of kids. Suddenly there was a knock on my window as we slowed and there was the Man U fan waving at me and shouting Man U, Man U! Funny.)

We finally arrived at Sodiere and had to pass through a check point to get in. I need to explain that the Hot Springs are for VERY wealthy Ethiopians and tourists, nobody else would ever have the means to get all the way there and then pay the entrance fee, just to go... and ...do nothing but have fun? Life in Ethiopia is too hard for that and so we were quite concious of the fact that we were very priviledged to even be there.

(Part Two will be posted shortly)

I will quickly show you some pictures of the countryside etc...I'll have to open another post though :)

2006-09-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

Home Visits...

(I actually didn't take my camera into the slum area, as we were visiting homes of people that I didn't know. Wherever you go in places like this, there are always crowds of people following and I didn't want to be insensitive to the fact that I was entering their homes. I wish I could be invisible sometimes and not have to school my face to be neutral in front of people watching my every expression. Consequently, there are no pictures ...sorry! I know it's way more interesting to see pictures than to "listen" to me...but there you go!)

I mentioned that I would tell you about the home of the kids in the project.
We left the school and were almost immediately in the slums. When I say slums, I mean bits of iron or cardboard or whatever other material, all thrown together in a seemingly solid mass, with winding alleyways inbetween. The alleys or "streets" were just rough stones and dirt and as Freihwot led us in, she told us to watch our step.
Mmmmm, let me see now, would that be because it was rainy season and the ground was a slippery mess or would that be to avoid the piles and oozings of human waste??

We went into a little shack, probably half the size of the office that I am writing in right now. It was very dim and damp. Here we met a lady that rented a rag on the floor to sleep on. She had three children, two year old twins and a five year old daughter. The daughter was at the school we had just left but the twins were there and I felt my stomach do a flip when I saw them.
I knew they were going to die soon, they were about the size of healthy 6-8 month olds here.
They had that pitiful, mewing sound of hunger and misery. The floor of the shack was squelchy and the smell....
I asked where they cooked and the woman led me outside and just pointed at the ground to a blackened pile of wood. Again, there were piles of human waste everywhere with the obligatory clouds of flies.
Freihwot told me there were three families in this place, a total of ten people. She had not just invaded this woman's privacy to "show" us the home, she had had a message from the woman that day to come and see her. This lady had taken her twins to the clinic and been handed some medicine but didn't know what it was for, she needed someone to read the bottle of pills to her and explain how to give them to the babies. It turned out that it was medication for epilepsy...she said she didn't know what that was.
I smiled as she bowed and shook my hand and thanked us for visiting...these people were truly gracious and beautiful. My fake expression stayed plastered on my face as every couple of minutes or so, another woman would come and beg to be part of the program. Inside I was crying.
Freihwot said that there just aren't the resources or the staff to take in more families.
Why don't you look up Hope International and see how you can help out?

I feel so sad when I remember that place, it is full of people hurting, hungry, sick and desperate. I think of my life and I feel ashamed. Not because I have "stuff" particularly, but because I often seem to want something else. Something that will ease my already comfortable existence. Something that will make me feel even better about myself or my family or...you get the picture.

I don't want to paint this picture of Ethiopia being all complete misery and sadness, I am just going through some of my experiences while there and the impressions that the country and people left on me. I LOVED Ethiopia.
I was telling a friend recently that Africa has a way of charming you and getting into your blood, so that you feel a deep connection. It also has a way of being so disturbing and heartbreaking that you think you will not ever be the same, not ever... and maybe that's a good thing.

2006-09-27T17:34:00.000-07:00

Pictures belonging to my last post...

This is the beautiful child I introduced last as "little David".

Look at that face!

This is minutes after getting out of the van...

Dave talking to Frehiwot...truly an angel in disguise. When I asked her how she coped with all this sadness and poverty, she told me that she prays about it every day and then leaves it up to God.."I can't do anything, he'll have to do it" was her response.
I have the deepest admiration for this woman.

2006-09-27T13:48:00.000-07:00

Introducing..."Little David"

(As usual, this post is too large, I will post a picture of little David and a couple of the children in my next post. Also, in my next post I will tell you about visiting the slum that these children call home)

We had the honor while we were in Addis Ababa, of visiting one of the projects of an organization very close to our hearts. It is called Hope International Development Agency ( look it up, it's awesome)

We have supported this agency for many years and were really delighted when it was arranged for us to be dropped at one of their sites in Addis, and get a glimpse at the work being carried out at the grass roots level.
We visited a school that is being run for the orphaned and street children of Addis. When we arrived, we had a brief overview of the project, meeting all the staff and the incredible Project leader, Freihwot.
After she had given a small tour of the offices and the newly constructed HIV/Aids clinic, (the waiting shelter was enormous and hundreds of people come to get the free testing..much needed), we went to the school to meet the children.
I was constantly reminded of opposites while driving around Addis, especially the back streets and into the slum areas.
Full/empty, rich/poor, have/have-not, joy/sorrow, beautiful/ugly, peace/anguish...the list went on and on in my head. I watched as kids played with stones at the side of the road. Dirty, hungry, wrapped tightly in poverty, and yet they would jump up with huge grins and wave frantically, screaming with delight if you smiled or blew kisses to them.

The school was actually an experiment of doing "Summer school", which I think just meant that the kids got a meal when "official" school was out. We entered into the facility that was being lent to Hope by a local public school and we couldn't get out of the van because of the crowds of children thronging around to greet us.

I get a lump in my throat when confronted face to face with these crowds of orphaned children. These are not looking at me from the T.V or out of a magazine, these are real, warm little children bumping into me and scrambling to hold just one of my fingers...yes, I usually walk around with ten children hanging onto my arms!
I look into their eyes, and realise that they are looking at me like an alien has just dropped out of the sky. We are so far removed from each other on so many levels. They have no idea of my life or my lifestyle and yet they know it feels good when I hold their little hands. I always have to swallow hard as I kneel down and hug them, because I think to myself,
"Right now, at this moment in time, they are actually happy"
I love to give "high fives" and stroke their hair and show them their picture on my camera, always a huge hit.
We stood in the middle of a crowd of the younger children and had a few pictures taken and suddenly, I felt as though I just could not take another minute of this. I found it hard to breathe, my eyes started to run with tears and my heart felt as though it was in a press. I had an overwhelming urge to scream about the injustice of this. These were little kids, they shouldn't have to be scrambling to get their own food, watching their parents die and taking care of siblings.
I thought that if I could just get everyone I knew on a plane and stand them in the middle of this crowd of children, then we could all help to raise awareness. We could really do something. I mean, we could...right????
I pleaded with God.
"Where are you?, You cannot be here in this mess, where are you for these children?"
I felt a tug on my arm and a little face beamed up at me,
"Photo?"
I was introduced to "little David" he was an orphan (of course), he smelled very bad, he was in filthy clothes, I could see the lice in his hair...and he was beautiful...just beautiful. I wanted to take him home.
I took a picture of this little boy looking up at me because he wouldn't let me walk away, he just hung onto my hand and then clung onto my leg as I started to walk.

I watched Frehiwot with all the kids, smiling at them, laughing with them, hugging them and I suddenly thought...you ARE here God. You are working through these staff tirelessly slogging it out in these awful conditions, you are here as Hope reaches out to children and families like this all over the country (the world).

All the children kept looking at Moses and Ayana and saying something over and over, trying to touch them, trying to stroke their hair...
Frehiwot explained that they were asking why we had black children with us. She said that she had told them that we had adopted them.
They were just wanting to touch them. She said that they were saying,
"These are the lucky ones"

I think a little piece of my heart actually did break that day.

2006-09-20T21:33:00.000-07:00

A Trip to The Hospital...

Well, I will take a quick break from reliving our Ethiopian trip to let you know that our baby boy spent the better part of the night last night in Children's Hospital.

He had a fever for the last couple of days, but last night it wouldn't go down and in fact was steadily climbing...when it got to 39.4 and wasn't responding to meds, we decided to take him in.

We left home at 8:20 p.m, arrived at the hospital at 9 p.m. and then started the marathon evening of tests, needles and more tests. As Moses is from Ethiopia and does not have an established immunization history yet, they seemed worried about infections and "nasty things from Africa growing in the blood" (direct quote!) At one point, a Dr. said to us that if he was "just" a "regular" kid coming in, he would have been discharged way earlier and we would have been told it was just a virus.

Now...the staff were actually wonderful and fantastic with Moses, but it was a little disheartening to have several medical people all wanting different tests, just because he recently came from Africa. I know WHY they wanted to do it, and I CAN see the wisdom in it, but it meant Dave and I being stuck in the E.R. for 6 hours while they took blood from his arm, mucus from his little nose, and poked, prodded and tested him ad nauseum.

I remember at 12:30, Dave and I just looked at each other and almost died laughing because Moses had morphed into "hyper-baby"...I don't know if it was the stronger fever meds they gave him to bring his fever down or what...but he was hysterically funny. He was laughing LOUDLY, throwing his arms in the air, throwing things off the bed, blowing raspberries at us, kicking his legs up and banging them on the bed over and over...and then lying down and laughing again. All the other babies in the E.R. were crying and screaming, and we were trying to stop Moses from laughing so loud.

He didn't laugh at the bloodwork or the nasal collection or having a little urine bag attached...that wasn't funny. Eventually the bloodwork and other results arrived and sure enough, it was "just" a regular virus. Maybe his little body wasn't used to our horrible Canadian viruses...maybe he's only used to African viruses, I don't know.

The final funny episode (funny now, not then) was that we were kept for the last hour just until he peed into the little urine bag so that they could check his pee. They kept coming and checking if he had peed (remember he had the bag on for 6 HOURS) and finally they said they were going to have to put a baby catheter in. A few minutes later the Dr. came back and said that they didn't need the urine sample any more...and of course Moses filled the bag to the top...straight away! His leaving present was an enormous poopy diaper that leaked out all over the sheets and the bed...the smell was horrific and we quickly made our exit. We arrived home after 4 a.m. What an experience.

2006-09-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

GOTCHA DAY!!!!

I can not even describe for you the excitement that we all felt as we left the guest house to pick up Ayana and Moses...they were going to be a part of our family forever now. (here are Erin, Megan and Joshua as we set off!)

The vans were not as quiet as the previous day as we traveled along. People felt happy, anxious, nervous, chatty and giddy with excitement...we now knew the route to the foster home ...I felt like cheering as we turned into the bumpy dirt track leading up to the gates.

Unlike the day before, we all went in together and sat in the living room waiting for the children.

Suddenly, the nannies started to slowly enter the room, all carrying a baby or leading a child by the hand. My eyes filled with tears (yes...I cried again folks!) as I spotted a beautiful, smiling woman carrying Ayana in, she was all dressed up in the special outfit that we had chosen for this incredibly momentous day. Then there was another nanny with Moses and before we knew it, we had been handed these children FOREVER!

I again marveled at the enormity of it all, our family was now a family of seven, I had five children to care for! Ayana and Moses were a bit stunned and again looked around the room for a while before really looking at us. Moses was quite fast with his smiles this time and even laughed as we tickled him...a big open mouthed smile that we now know and love. Ayana seemed slightly more relaxed, but still smiled with a forced anxious smile if we caught her eye.

We had about 10-15 minutes with the head of the foster home, a wonderful woman that loves these children so much. She went over their routines, likes and dislikes and tried to answer any questions that we had. How do you prepare a list of questions to enable you to take over the care of two children? We asked about sleep, soothing methods, toilet training, foods, birth history etc, but it was so fast and emotional that I forgot most of what was said to me. Dave took notes thank goodness!

Every family had a chance to spend time with the head woman and then we said goodbye to the caregivers, we got to take lots of pictures of them with the children. It will be an awesome memory to share with them as they get older...we will be able to say, "Look, these women looked after you and loved you...here you are with them when we picked you up."

The nannies kissed the children and hugged them goodbye. It was so incredibly moving to watch these women saying goodbye to the children that they have taken care of and grown to love over the last few months. They sang with them, stroking their faces and kissing them. They picked them up and cuddled them, cooing to them in Amharic, gently touching their hair. Every single woman was crying as they said a final goodbye and as we walked out, holding our children, they came running out for one last cuddle, one last kiss.....everyone was sobbing as we left, it was just so overwhelming. We will never see those women again, but I know that they were sweet and gentle and loving and giving with our children...I have the deepest admiration for them.

I will post some pictures of Gotcha Day in the next post as this post is ...again!!!...too big for images.

2006-09-11T21:13:00.000-07:00

Traditional Evening ....

We went out to a restaurant with traditional music and dancing on Tuesday evening.
Everyone was pretty excited as we had all met our children and we were full of anticipation about actually getting full custody of them the next day.
Before starting the meal, a server brought around a kettle of warm water and we all washed our hands. This is customary in a culture where you eat without utensils.
The food was brought out...huge platters of the spongy "injera" bread that is ripped off and used to eat the rest of the food with; spicy chicken, beef and lentils and my favourite..a cabbage/carrot/potato dish (can't remember the name) that is actually quite mild and really tasty.
While we were eating, the live music and dancing began and it was absolutely fantastic. I could not believe how energetic these dancers were...they jumped, twirled and spun around for about two hours with short breaks for costume changes. Their costumes were typical of the dress in the countryside, and Selemnah explained to me that most of the dances were traditional courtship dances.
The African audience was very enthusiastic and cheered and clapped the dancers on, one man got up and danced right alongside them, challenging one of the dancers to what looked like a "dance duel," it was really entertaining and fun. I loved the atmosphere.
We finished the evening with a spectacular cup of coffee..(all the coffee was spectacular) and went home to dream about getting our children early the next morning....Gotcha Day!!

2006-09-08T16:28:00.000-07:00

Pictures of Our First Meeting

...these are literally the first moments of meeting them.
Moses is indeed wearing pink...in Ethiopia there is no such thing as boy and girl colours!

2006-09-08T15:53:00.000-07:00

The Day we met our new Children...

Tuesday 22nd August was a BIG day for the group as we all got ready to meet our children for the first time.
We had a meeting before we left for the foster home and then we loaded into two vans and were off across Addis.
The van we were in was a bit quiet and people were taking deep, deep breaths...this was it.
Mountains of paperwork, months of waiting, agonising, staring at pictures and imagining this very day.
What are they like?
What will they do when they meet us?
Will I cry? (silly question!)

We turned into a very bumpy road and slowed down at a huge gate that slowly creaked open to reveal lines of washing hung out in the courtyard...and a couple of staff smiling and welcoming us.
We got out of the vans and stood in the courtyard, looking around at each other and I felt waves of emotion wash over me. Inside were my babies, I was about to meet them.
Families were called in one by one and I felt as if I couldn't swallow.
Then..."Dave and Lesley and family come in please" and we were walking up the steps, taking off our shoes and walking inside.
There they were!! FINALLY!! In the flesh...I held out my arms and Moses was handed to me. I kissed his cheeks...so real and warm. I stroked his black, curly hair, so soft and springy...I looked into his big brown eyes and I cried and cried.
Ayana was brought out and they said in Amharic, "Ababa (daddy), this is your ababa" and she went into Dave's arms and held on tight, snuggling right into his neck.
Can words really describe that moment? That solid reality of holding them? I wanted to shout and laugh and dance and scream and sing all at once...what I did was cry and laugh and cry and laugh again!
I looked around and saw the other families holding their babies, crying, playing with older children with huge smiles and lots of laughter.
Ayana just clung onto Dave and looked around the room with big, wide eyes. Moses stared at me for a long, long time and then, started to coo and smile...I don't know how long I just sat there, staring at him, cuddling him. It was a sweet, blissful time that will never be forgotten, I had my baby boy.

Ayana then came to me as Dave took Moses for a hug and this shy, scared, tiny girl looked up at me and smiled..my heart melted and I cried all over again. The trauma that they had experienced over the last few months, the bewilderment, the sadness, the sense of loss and abandonment...all this washed over me as she smiled into my eyes. I remember praying and thanking God for the awesome priviledge of raising these children that he had hand picked to be a part of our family.
She was so very anxious, she smiled but took deep, open mouthed breaths as if she couldn't get enough air. She continued to do this for the whole visit.

There were lots more hugs, more tears, tons of video and millions of pictures. At one point, all the children (except for a little tiny baby) sat in a circle on the floor, playing with a ball and we saw a little bit of personality sparkle out.
It was so wonderful to see our three older children playing and hugging with their new, little siblings. My five children...all together at last!

We had to leave after a couple of hours and we were sad to see them being taken back into their rooms, we had left their special clothes for the next day when we would pick them up...on Gotcha Day!

We then went shopping and later in the evening went to an awesome restaurant with live music and dancing, I'll tell you all about that next time.
This post will be too big to allow pictures, so I'll post some pictures of our first meeting (be warned..I am seriously crying! ) in another post too.

2006-09-08T00:48:00.000-07:00

P.S.

Re-read my post re Masresha and realised that I should have made it clear that sponsored children in all countries do really well after a visit from their sponsor...not just in Ethiopia.

2006-09-07T15:08:00.000-07:00

Pictures of our visit with Masresha and family....

Meeting Masresha...

The Coffee Ceremony...

The family...

2006-09-07T11:23:00.000-07:00

Ethiopia (Part two)

On the second day in Addis, we were picked up by the local head of Compassion Ethiopia and were taken to see our sponsor child, Masresha.
I was so excited to actually meet this little girl that we have communicated with. She has smiled at me from my fridge for so long.
The trip through town was again quite insane and we handed out loads of granola and fruit bars at each stop in traffic.
At one stop, two TINY little boys ran up to the window and sang a little song for us and then said, "hungry"...I could have grabbed them and taken them home right there and then. They seemed delighted with a granola bar each and darted off through rush hour traffic, never to be seen again.
As I looked at the hordes of children and beggars, I always had to swallow a huge lump in my throat. I would dig my nails into my palms and bite my tongue to not cry...It is so sad to see mothers lying at the side of the road with their children sat beside them, holding out their little hands for something to eat.
We arrived at the school project and as we drove in, I caught sight of a little girl standing with a shy, sweet smile and clutching a ragged bouquet of wild flowers...Masresha! We were introduced and she gave us the flowers with a beautiful smile and very quietly slipped her hand into mine.
After looking at the school, being introduced to the staff and handing out yet more granola bars to the other children, we got back into the van and headed to her "house"...A mud/dirt hut with one mattress and a couple of benches.
Her mother bowed to the ground in front of us and the worker told us that she was saying thank you, thank you....oh how easy it is to send off $30 a month and the occasional letter...but to these precious children it is life and death.
Her mother prepared a coffee ceremony (traditional in Ethiopia) roasting, grinding and brewing the coffee in front of us..I tried not to look as she swished the cups in FILTHY water before pouring the coffee in and I prayed the prayer taught to me by good missionary friends in Mexico...
"Where you lead me, I will follow,
What you feed me, I will swallow"
Well...it was delicious and an absolute honour to be served by her.
Suddenly, Masresha's 16 year old brother rushed in and also went round to each of us, bowing and saying thank you....let me tell you...if he was in Canada/U.S. he would be a great candidate for a supermodel!
He had fun showing Joshua his pet pigeons, bringing them in the hut and scattering seed for them...

Overall, it was an incredible day and I will never forget it.
The compassion worker told us that in their experience, if a sponsor family ever visited their sponsor child, the child's marks ALWAYS went up and they strived to work even harder than before. It is such an encouragement to these children to actually see their sponsors. (We were the second family to visit in the last 6 years)
It will be such a delight to write to Masresha and her family now and to send them some copies of the many pictures that we took.
If you don't sponsor a child (doesn't have to be through Compassion...although we were super impressed with their whole program and we were shown all the books etc), can I challenge you today to look into it?

(Tried to post some pictures of our visit with Masresha, but Blogger isn't letting me right now...will post some next time)

2006-09-06T20:08:00.000-07:00

Review of our Ethiopia Trip...(PART ONE)

I said that I was going to review the trip and share some memories and some pictures over the next few days.

As we left for Ethiopia, I remember feeling so overwhelmed and emotional that I cried as we left Vancouver (I also cried as we left Addis, but that was because I felt so acutely that these little ones were leaving their culture and heritage) I looked down and saw the mountains fade away and could not quite believe that it was here...the day of flying to Africa to get Ayana and Moses.
Our trip was Looooong and boooorrriiinnggg (Akeelah and the Bee was a highlight...great movie) We landed first in Heathrow and then in Egypt..then onto Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
As the plane touched down in Addis, we were too tired to cheer but we all felt beyond excited.
Two lost bags and a stroller later, we were being met by Selemnah, the driver. What an awesome guy, he became a real friend that we were sorry to say goodbye to at the end. By this time we had been traveling for about 25 hours and it was 1am local time. We drove through rainy streets, past a couple of dead dogs (common sight on African roads) and found ourselves at the guest house.
Bed! Sleep!

The next morning we woke up and looked outside. What a beautiful place. We could hear the traffic , but couldn't see it as the guesthouse was set back by a couple of blocks from the main road. We had a little courtyard complete with huge iron gates that were manned by an old porter/guard. Vehicles drive up and honk their horn for admittance...only granted after the guard has peeped through a little view window in the gate. We felt very secure.
There were big palm trees and exotic looking bright blue and yellow birds flying around.
Selemnah had agreed to drive us around for a while in the afternoon and we got our first daylight glimpse of the city.
Traffic is insane, little kids (some look about three or four) dart into the middle of very busy roads trying to beg from the window every time you stop, donkeys run in the roads, goats are herded down the congested streets and cows slowly amble across intersections. Welcome to Addis!

2006-09-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

Well.....

Ok! Why didn't we have a crib before? Ayana went down last night, slept through the night and had to be WOKEN UP (I broke my own parenting rule which is never, ever, ever wake a sleeping baby) so that I could get breakfast etc and older kids off to school.
Her nap today was awesome and she just went down again tonight with a little smile and a kiss for mama....melt my heart!
Moses is sleeping, Ayana is sleeping. Maybe the jet lag is fading? Here's hoping. Here are pictures of them sleeping like...babies....in Ethiopia!

2006-09-04T21:32:00.000-07:00

From Toddler Beds to Cribs...

I know that the normal progression of life is graduating from a crib into a youth or toddler bed, but Ayana has gone from a toddler bed to a crib today.
She was having a really hard time going to sleep in her little bed as she had never ever been in a bed before. Every naptime and bedtime was a gruelling ordeal of screams and temper tantrums...I was at my wits end trying to figure out how to pacify her.
As she is sharing a room with Moses, she would inevitably wake him up and the combination of jet lag and being woken up several times a night was not what we had envisioned...
In addition to this, Ayana kept getting up and trying to come downstairs, but the final straw was last night when I heard noises coming from their room and found Ayana trying to poke Moses awake.
Today Dave set out and returned victorious with a new crib which we immediately put up and we will save the toddler bed for when she is older.
Tonight was the test and I approached it anxiously as already I was beginning to dread the screamfest that was happening each night.
I showed her the new crib with her familiar blankets and dolls...and she smiled, lay down and waved to me. I couldn't believe it...I've already checked on her twice thinking that she will be rappelling over the edge...but she's asleep...keep your fingers crossed...this might be the answer.

Look at this cute little face!! This is Ayana feeling very proud sitting in her own big seat "looking" at a menu when we were in Ethiopia.

2006-09-03T20:18:00.000-07:00

These pictures are taken outside the guest house on Gotcha Day!!

oops..pictures didn't post.

Sorry about that! The pictures didn't seem to make it! I will try again.
Also, sorry about all the spelling mistakes in the last post,(one of my pet peeves ) I guess I should be checking for that.

This is Erin (oldest daughter) with Ayana (youngest daughter!) back at the guest house in Addis.