Things For Which I am Most Thankful...

It looks like we're going to be stuck at home for Thanksgiving instead of joining the big Olson gathering in Minnesota. Meron woke up yesterday sounding like she smokes about 3 packs of cigarettes a day, and I got worried enough to take her to the doctor, telling myself the whole time that I am a total hypochondriac. Well, turns out she has severe acute broncitis. They had to do two nebulizer treatments and chest x-rays before they would even let us leave the doctor's office. It was pretty darn scary, especially because she got so sick so fast. I mean, the day before all she had was a runny nose. So, I'm a little bummed. I love my family and love hanging out with them... but we'll have some mashed potatoes anyway, and I'll spend all day being thankful that Mimi is healthy and that we can give her medical care when she needs it. I have a huge list of things to be thankful for, but the first 5 are the most important.

1. Meron. I think you all know how I feel about my Mimi. She is sleeping curled up next to Nathan as I type, wearing fuzzy pajamas, breathing easily and smelling like lavender and sleeping baby. When she wakes up in the morning, she will give me kisses to wake me up, and then insist that we go out to the kitchen to say good morning to the dogs. She calls them Wowo (Rosie) and Tutu(Stew). Yesterday, she was singing the "I love you song" that I recorded her singing in the tub. She sang it to me, Rosie and Stew, touching each of us as she sang the I love you's. When Nathan comes home for lunch, Mimi spends about 2 minutes exclaiming... and another 2 minutes saying good byes, I love you's and more kisses please when he has to go back to work. She pretends she is a lion and shrieks with delight and feigns terror when I roar back. When she came home from going to the store with Nathan, she ran all the way across the house as fast as she could to give me a hug around the knees. I guess... I don't really have words that can explain better than that.

2. Nathan. He loves me. He loves Meron. He takes a shorter lunch break so he can stop at the store and get me a surprise on the way home and does the dishes almost every night. He stays up until I get home from work so that we can talk before we go to bed, even when I had to work until 11:30 every night and he had to be at work at 6:30 in the morning. He is a good man, a good husband, a good father. He does stupid things to make me laugh... in fact, once he has committed to a joke he will keep drawing it out and elaborating until I laugh. I love him.

3. Lela and Finhas. They aren't here yet, but they will be. I don't know who they are yet, but they are already expanding my heart, and for that I am grateful. I am grateful that I know that Fin is described as a 'character' by all who meet him, and that Lela loves to dress up in pretty dresses. I'm grateful that I get to be their mom... even if they don't know it yet.

4. My family. They are wonderful. They love me. They love Nathan. They REALLY love Meron, and I know that they will REALLY love Lela and Fin, too. I can count on them... for anything. I don't ever remember a time when I wasn't grateful that they were mine, and I can't do without them. Included in my family is a woman in Ethiopia named Meseret. She is Meron's amaye. I think about her every day, and I make sure that Meron does, too. I am so grateful for the many gifts she gave to Meron that make her who she is.

5. My friends. I have so many friends, those I know in person and those who I have only met on line and on the telephone, that make my life better. They offer support, encouragement, ideas, inspiration and love. You know who you are. I love you dearly and am so grateful for you.

Stats

Okay, so we're not allowed to tell everyone the real names of our soon to be children. We have, however, decided to name them the way that we named Meron; we will give them each a name common in Ethiopia of our choosing, and then retain the names given to them by their Ethiopian family as their middle names. It will, of course, be their choice which name they want to go by. After much discussion we think we have chosen the names we would like to give them. So....
Stats for ALL of our many children:

Lela Y: 5 1/4 years old
42" tall
37.5 pounds

Fin S: Will be 3 in December
33.64" tall
25.3 pounds

Meron T: 2 years old
34" tall
26.4 pounds


Notice that Fin and Meron are almost the same size. Our big kids are small, but look really good (and beautiful.... really, really beautiful). The paperwork continues... we are supposed to get fingerprinted on Monday. Thanks to everyone who told us they were excited for us... you have no idea how much it means to us to know that our family and friends are right there (as always) being supportive.

Bath time live

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The many faces of bath

Why oh why....

on a beautiful day like this would I...
risk making the girl make this face....

because I asked her to stop doing this....

and come here?

We had to mail something... something important... something life changing... something that Mimi isn't going to like at first...

But that (I think) will ultimately make her very happy.

I think she's ready...
and so are we.

And in Ethiopia there is a little girl and an even littler boy who I think might be ready, too.

Hang onto your potatoes; we're going for a ride.

Trick or Treat

I haven't had this much fun trick or treating since I was.... I don't know, maybe 10. Meron (who, I'm sure you could tell, was a Korean princess) was confused at first. After the first person put candy in her pumpkin bucket she was SO into it. Meron wanted to go to every house, and then after a little explanation about the lights, was able to pick out which houses we were going to go to. Actually, she picked out WAY more houses to go to than I would have. We were actually just going to go see a few people, but then Mer ended up stopping at so many houses on the way that we ran out of time and ended up going home. She knocked on the doors and said, "Twi o Weet" and then said thank you and good bye when we were leaving. It was so funny. My favorite memory of the night was watching Meron running down the sidewalk as fast as she could, laughing like crazy, carrying her bucket. She kept handing me candy and saying "try?!" whenever she wanted a piece... which could be why she looks so tired and yet so very very exuberant in some of the later pictures.
I have been getting some pressure to participate in NaBloPoMo- this would mean that I would have to post EVERY DAY in November. Well, I thought about it, and then Nathan and I both fell asleep on the couch and woke up after midnight. So, I am such a crappy blogger that I didn't even get the first day done. Maybe next year...