sistermom

Monday, May 18, 2009

Hallo Amsterdam

I made it to amsterdam all by myself! I did cry hysterically quite a few times yesterday, but I think I will be okay. I am actually starting to get excited. For anyone going to Ethiopia soon, I would strongly recommend KLM. I found the food and entertainment much better than Ethiopian air and I really would prefer the break between flights. Okay I will try to update when I get to Roooma!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Hello Habesha

Check out my hair!!!

My baaaaaby

Such a beautiful little Habesha

Oooh Addis you are hillarious

Check out MY ringlets!

Me and my girls!!

There are no pictures of Jax, because that "super cool" hair of his was about 50 little braids him and his friends had done all over his head. He had to get his head shaved and is REALLY refusing pictures.

Things with Eyerusalem and Addis are going much much better. Now they just fight like siblings. Lalu has a lot of orphanage behaviors that are of course annoying but she was in an orphanage for 3 years so we have to remember that. Overall the two get along as well as any other sisters I know. They bond over their love for, the color pink, juice, watermelon, pizza, and screaming/dancing/singing. Lalu is learning english pretty well, can almost say her abcs and can count to 4!! Addis can count to 2 and can say her abcbs and is even learning a little bit of amharic. It is safe to say we are a hit everywhere we go. It's like who can out extrovert who.

And tomorrow I rock their teensy weensy little worlds. I leave at 3:45 for Rome to study abroad for 6 weeks. Who said that minor in Italian wouldn't come handy? (MOM!) Yes be jealous, and yes everyone, and your great aunts, I will be safe and careful! I will miss everyone soo soo much but it will be good for me to get away from being "Sistermom" for a while. No waking up at 6:30 to do hair, break up fights and gather everything for day care. No being the queen of time outs. No being walked in on while taking a bath and having a fully dressed addis join me. No feeling guilty about laying down and watching tv while the girls are home. I am more than happy do all these things, but it will be fun to get away for a bit. I am going to miss the little kisses from stingy addis in the morning when she wakes me up. I am going to miss Lalu giving me a thumbs up about my cooking. No more dance offs for a while, no more seeing the girls kiss and hug after they fight. No more hearing them say watermelon. No more fingernail painting.

I will be updating while I'm gone, and will probably start a flicker or something to keep people who want to see my pictures updated. Wish me luck!!!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

piiiiicture update

Jackson in Ethiopia, check out his awesome hair

the three girls

fighting

Eyerus and I

My gorgeous little sister

The other gorgeous sister in my life

dyeing easter eggs!!

say cheeeeese

Friday, March 27, 2009

Party of five

Sorry for the delay in posting, you will all understand if things got a little hectic around here. I am proud to say that we are now a party of five. Yes as in my mother has 4 kids ranging in age from 20 years to 20 months. She and Jax left on monday march 16, got into Addis late late Tuesday night and picked up Eyerusalem on Wednesday. Let's just say that for all of you who have heard the horrors of toddler adoption, my mom's experience with Eyerus was that, times 13, but without any potty accidents. Incessant crying, screaming, refusing to make eye contact, attempts to escape, refusal to eat. She wouldn't let mom touch her, change her clothes, fix her hair, anything. She refused to sleep in bed with mom, and slept in a chair the whole trip, see picture below. As soon as Mom, Jax and Eyerus got home late Sunday night after 30+ hours of flight travel and 6+ hours of driving, she plopped right into my arms and fell asleep. Ouch for mom right? Well we all stayed home the next day and she slowly started coming out of her shell. Addis was like hey, who are you, why are you playing with my stuff now let's fight! Eyerus was like Hey, I hate all of you, leave me alone, give me a banana, and leave me alone. Things slowly got better, and she slowly started letting mom touch her more. I think she just bonded to me quicker because she wanted someone to have to love on, but was still mad at mom for being the person who actually took her from the orphanage. I stayed home with her on Tuesday, and she really started to show her personality. She had a few times where her "only childness" came out, but she quickly got over it and came back to loving on me. I don't have class until 2 on Wednesday so I stayed with her again, and she just really started to blossom. She was showing mom all types of affection and being really sweet and funny. She started day care on Thursday, please don't say anything about this affecting her bonding, we tried to hire a nanny and 3 fell through so she goes to the same one as Addis for half days and she told Jackson that she really likes it. She let's mom kiss and love on her now, she loves to have mom do her hair, and loves to cuddle up with me. She HATES the dogs, but is not as scared of them as she used to be. She has started to be really sweet with Addis, sharing her food, and drinks, and only fighting a little bit. That's all I have now, so I will show you all some much needed pictures. We only have a few, but we will take more this weekend.

all happy and pretty in her embassy outfit, before she realized what was really going down.