Readoption Day pics

Five of the youngest six

Addis & Abi Mulu ready to go
Addis Rose

Abi Mulu & Addis at the court house
The youngest nine
Abi, Addis & Mommy
Love you!

Abi in the judge's seat-She's an official American citizen

Addis in the judge's seat-She's an official American citizen

Love that hair?

Readoption & U.S. Citizens

Today the older girls have their readoption hearing. Once approved they are "officially" U.S. citizens with a U.S. birth certificate. We have to readopt here in California because we didn't see them before their court hearing in Ethiopia. Today will be a flurry of activity as we prepare everyone to go to the courthouse. After that we go to Jesse's college soccer game and then off to eat. Will post pictures later.

Apparently I make some of you tired

I have heard from two people, one being my mom, that I make them tired just reading about everything I do. I think I'm just wired with so much energy that I can't sit for too long unless it's at the end of the day; at which I clock out about 8pm.

The child in my family who is like me in that way is John. He is constantly doing something. TV is NOT for him because there is something to be done somewhere. He's a hard worker and often initiates a job and does it well. If we need someone to weedeat, John is there with goggles on and weedeater in hand. If we need someone to use the blower, you can find John first in line.

Now that I know you're already tired from my life, I'll fill you in on what I've been doing in the week I didn't post. I really didn't realize it had been a week!
Tuesday-teach school, piano lessons, errands, soccer practice taxi, and all the cooking, cleaning and laundry are just assumed for everyday

Wednesday-teach school, get ready for Cubbies, soccer practice taxi, lead Cubbies, did research for My Side of the Mountain

Thursday-Class Day with our Home School group. In our first Living Books class for grades 1-3 I am reading Charlotte's Web to them, we also made spiders out of yarn. Our second class which is Games went splendidly. I had my friend set up the games ahead of time and that really made a difference, as well as choosing better and funner games. (by the way we have like 45 kids in that class)-now that should make you tired, plus I take care of Anna & Adah at the same time, After lunch I read My Side of the Mountain to 4-6 grade boys. It turns out that the whole class, 15 kids, are ALL boys. They all sit and listen quietly. I love them. I'm entertaining the idea of having men read to the boys because I think they would REALLY get much more out of it then if I read to them.
-More soccer practices

Friday-Taught school, then took the afternoon off by myself! I went to Michael's craft store to look for a color of yarn that so far three stores haven't had in stock. I then went to Ross to mowsy and shop. I met Steve at P.F. Chang's for Mongolian Beef with brown rice and then we went to Costco to shop for my birthday dinner.

Friday night we decided to head to the Ethiopian church. We were a little late, but they as always were gracious with us and welcomed us in. So when we go to the ET church, a peculiar thing happens, the girls go to the children's program because they want to be with the children, but it is in English. Steve and I stay in the worship service but it is in Amharic. We don't speak Amharic. They provided a translator for us who tell us what passage we were in or what the topic was. We were also managing Adah & Anna at the same time so not always able to turn to the passage, but I think our translator understood.

Saturday-Up bright and early for soccer. Games all day.

Sunday-Up bright and early for church. Taught Sunday School for the 4 & 5 year old class. After church we came home and Steve grilled Hebrew National hotdogs and I had the chocolately chocolate cake from Costco for my birthday. I turned 48. My mother can't believe she has a child that old. After we had our family celebration Steve & I went to see The Family That Preys by Tyler Perry. We headed over to Joanne's for fabric for quilts. After that we then went to Black Angus for fried zuchinni and prime rib.

Monday-teach school and recuperate from the weekend, soccer taxi

Tuesday-teach school, soccer taxi & went back to JoAnne's for more fabric. They're having a $2.99 yd sale on some of their flannel. We went to Guitar Center for Joe who is learning how to play the electric guitar. I also had to go to Kaiser for my thyroid test. I have my annual appt. next week and need my numbers for the dr. I had thyroid cancer three years ago so I go annually for testing to make sure it hasn't come back. I don't have a thyroid and must take meds everyday to function. I started reading Good & Evil by Michael Pearl. It's the Bible in comic book form. It's almost like I can't put it down! It is so good.

So now we find ourselves at Wed. and I have school to teach, diapers to change, babies to snuggle, laundry to put away, fold, and wash, meals to make, Cubbies to lead, soccer players that need a ride, and piano lessons to go to.

Hope you have a productive day!

Pioneer Woman

I was talking to my mom last night on the phone, thanking her for the lovely flowers and balloon she sent me for my birthday. She mentioned a website she goes to so I had to head there myself this morning. http://thepioneerwoman.com She has wonderful recipes and just looking at her Pasta Carbonara recipe on Sept. 22 was enough to sell me on her!

She also has a photography area as well as Home & Garden. Check her out!

Carryin' babies Ethiopian style

My girls

Love you sissy!

Look at the difference in Abi Mulu

February/March 2008
September 2008

WOW!

Two more pics

Joel at Disneyland
Sweet Anna

Pictures of Adah's 2nd birthday & other misc. pics

Adah's two!

Isn't she just the cutest thing?
Happy Birthday! She blew out all three candles.

Dancing to the music on her toy.
Excited and embarrased.
Bouncing to the music.
Papa & Adah
Adah giving kisses
Papa & Anna smooching.
Adah & her hair scarf.

You Tube-Ethiopia

Faces of Ethiopia

Disneyland!

We took Addis & Abi to Disneyland yesterday. Abi calls it; Mickey's House. Sarah graciously offered to stay home and watch Anna & Adah so we could play with the middle kids. We took Joe, James, John, Joel, Addis & Abi. The girls were so excited. I know they didn't have any clue as to what and where we were taking them, but they love Cinderella and the very idea that they might meet her was too much for them to even imagine. (We didn't get to meet her, but did see Belle, Arielle, & Sleeping Beauty)

We ran to Finding Nemo only to find there was a half-hour wait and the boys ditched the idea. We went on Autopia instead. I had to help Joel with his car because he couldn't reach the gas pedal. James went with Abi Mulu and Joe went with Addis.

After that ride we split up with me taking the girls and Steve taking the boys. The boys wanted to ride the Matterhorn and I knew the girls were not even ready for that kind of ride. We headed over to Fantasyland/Storybook Land and rode the teacups. They giggled with excitement as we sat in and the cup started moving. It was too funny to watch. We also hit Dumbo and the Peter Pan ride.

Addis's hair before-she styles her hair this way.
After-I took a rubberband and contained all "3" puffs. I couldnt' take the scraggly look anymore.


While we were in line at the Peter Pan ride we spotted the guys sans Joel. Where is Joel? Hmmmm......seems like he wandered off because he heard they were going to Thunder Mountain and decided to go his own route? I don't know.......Being the horrible mother that I am I stayed in line and went on the ride letting Steve handle the dilemma. He had the sidewalk sweepers and security looking for him.

After we got off the ride I approached a sweeper and filled her in on the info, she took me to someone with a radio and he already had the info. I decided to give one more piece to the puzzle, he was Caucasian. They saw me with two Ethiopian girls so I thought maybe they thought he was not Caucasian. This never occured to me that I would ever have to specify what ethnicity my children are when they're lost. Now I know I need to keep that in mind.

Turns out one of the sweepers was Ethiopian! He talked to the girls for a few minutes and we resumed our task of finding Joel. He was at Thunder Mountain and we were at the entrance to Cinderella's Castle. Quite a distance. A mom had found him and she asked him if he was lost, he was. She tried to call our cell number, but he didn't know the area code. They tried a different code, but it wasn't the right one. Then the security found him and said, "Joel." He answered and they brought him to us. Steve told security. He probably won't be crying, he won't go up to security and tell them he's lost, he'll just wait it out. He was exactly right. He does not talk to people he doesn't know, sometimes he doesn't even talk to people he does know. He hates to cry and rarely does except if he's REALLY, REALLY mad. That was information I never thought to share either.

Steve & the middles:

After that little episode Joel, Joe & John went over to California Adventure. We took the girls to Pirates of the Caribbean. They hated it. They were scared. They cried. I never even considered that Pirates would be too much for them. They're very pure in what they've been exposed to and we decided we're going to keep it that way. Skeletons, scary sounds, gunshots, too much for my girls. We'll keep their exposure to our American desensitation to a minimum.

Here we are on The Jungle Cruise. Addis thought the animals were real. Trying to keep her in her seat when there is a "real" hippo in the water is not an easy feat.

Addis loves her Cinderella!
I took the girls to the Princess Land (I don't know the right name for it) They made crowns, danced with princesses and had a great time.


After we met back up Joe took the girls so I could go on some faster rides. I love Space Mountain. I close my eyes as we're flying through and it feels wonderful. I got to go on Thunder Mountain, Indiana Jones (blah), Pirates again, Matterhorn, and then Buzz Lightyear with James. Buzz Lightyear turned out to be the unexpected hit of the day. We kept going on again and again and again. They have lazer guns that you shoot at targets and collect points when you hit the mark. It was fun to try and outdo our last scores. The girls loved it!

After a long day we decided to head out and went to Coco's for dinner about twenty minutes down the freeway. The girls enjoyed it and had a great time. They want to go "play" some more. Next month!