Thanksgiving & Ethiopia get-together

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at my aunt and uncle's house. It's nice when our family can get together.

Jake and Arianne on Thanksgiving

Friday we had dinner at our house and I think it was the first time that all ten kids were there plus Miranda and Arianne! We had our table out to it's full length and it seats twelve. Maybe we need to add another table to it?


Saturday we went to a gathering with other Ethiopian adoptive families. It was so much fun to get together with others who have gone to the same place, gone through the process and love these children from Ethiopia. On the tv were Ethiopian dancers and the girls were having quite the time dancing to it. They love music and just move to it when they hear it. There was Ethiopian food and pizza. I met another Lakeside family and received tips on brushing/combing their hair. So far I've just kind of finger-combed their hair; not really knowing if I should comb it. Paula mentioned that it's good to toughen up their scalps. So girls, I'm comin' at ya! We found that there is a culture camp in the summer up near Santa Cruz and look forward to going to that. We met two other babies there too, lots of teens and in-betweens! We belong to a new community. It's kind of mind boggling when you think about it.

Oh! and Adah started crawling this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!