Oh the things you have missed...

Anybody still there? Hello?!

Let me explain... no there is too much. Let me sum up. (Bonus points if you get what movie that is from)

So broken computer and missing camera cord leading to an inability to charge or remove pictures from my camera = really poor blogging.

*Everyone started school. It is going well. They are mostly well behaved, lovely and charming. Was there any doubt that this would be the case? Maybe... Mer has class clown tendencies. I may have been a little worried about that.

*Hani has gone from never holding a pencil to drawing people. Like, recognizable people with faces, hair, limbs and digits. In 8 months. It is kind of like when we came home with Meron and she couldn't even roll over and then a month later she was crawling and three months later she was walking. Like all the developmental steps we missed happening at lightening speed. Way. Cool.

* There was some fall out due to the change in routine. Wow. I'm not going to say more, just cry quietly in the corner. Things seem to be sorting themselves out after the implementations of the world most ridiculously strict boundaries and a sticker chart.

*The girls started in Nathan's taewkondo class. They are total rock stars. Meron was still only 3 when she started, and she did better than some of the 5-7 year olds. And Hani? DIGS the structure and manners and rules. Such clearly defined boundaries. A place to take out some of her pent up feelings. Boat loads of positive feedback. It is perfect for her. Kai is still too little... but he stands in the back and does warm up with everyone.

*Did I mention there is no way on earth that Hani is really only 4 1/2? A couple of weeks ago I was doing Mer's hair and Hani came down and asked for breakfast. I told her she could get out the stuff for cereal and call me when she was ready. She didn't call, so I went to check. She was sitting at the table eating her cereal and milk. She had even already put away the milk jug (which was full, by the way) and the cereal box. That combined with her desperate pleas to be able to go to school all day and her increasingly advanced sense of humor make me think she is 6 or 6 1/2. Oh, and the fact that she is still growing at least 3/4 of an inch a month.

* Meron turned 4!!! Much excitement.... I now have two 4 year olds and a 3 year old. The local college's home coming parade happens to be held right around the day of her birthday every year. And it happens to go right past Nathan's gym. It is kind of a perfect location for a party... big, open, padded, lots of fun equipment... free... We had a lovely time. Meron got to have friends come for the first time, which was great. We had weird pizza (spaghetti pizza, chili pizza, pot roast pizza complete with mashed potatoes, gravy and corn) for lunch per her request. We also had a dance party. And she got a really cool doll from Ethiopia. And some other cool dolls, books and clothes, along with a puzzle that has proved to be a LOT of fun. And a purple bike with a bell. At the end of the party she came up to me and Nathan and said, "Thank you Mommy and Daddy for my party. I had really really fun." Melt me.


And pictures... thankfully my parents had a camera for the party and generously let me borrow it.

The birthday girl. Oh, my heart. Where did my baby go?



We love a parade...

"Obstacle course" in the gym. Pretty fun. Plus they were pretending to be giant turtles with blue shells. Plus, since the party was preceded by a two hour long parade, I didn't have to supply candy.

Meron wanted a purple butterfly cake. Grammy delivers.

My Hani... getting so big, and prettier every day. The party was hard for her. She hasn't had a birthday party... ever. Her birthday was about two weeks before we brought her home. She is extremely competitive with Meron. All these things led to some pretty rough days coming up to the party. We actually had a contingency plan for Nathan and I tagging off walking with her outside during the party if it got to be too much. But she was awesome. She did great, even when Mer got a new bike. I was so proud of her.

Bike helmet... way cute. Riding her new bike in her fluffy purple party dress... even cuter.

Meron and Rahel.

The face Malakai makes when I ask him to smile so I can take a picture.
His real smile. Such a handsome devil.

My three babies... on their way to be greeters at church with Grammy and Papa... we practiced saying "Good morning! Welcome!" all morning.

bummer...

so...our computer died. I may be taking a blogging break since it is very difficult to type with a W.ii remote. Lots of stuff going on- mostly great. School going well, girls started doing taekwondo in Nathan's gym...us which they love... Hopefully computer revived soon!!

For my Mum...

Who gets sad without frequent pictures. Thanks for the early birthday present, Mom and Dad!

Oh My Achin' Heart...

So... three years ago we met Meron. Sweet baby, huh? Here is what I wrote about what went down...

Three years to the day later, I walked her to school for the first time, along with her older sister and younger brother. I couldn't have imagined then what our family would be like today. It didn't take me long to realize she'd be sassy and sweet and lovely and precious to me. I could never have guessed how compassionate, tender hearted, funny, precocious and maddeningly obstinate she would become.

I had butterflies in my stomach the whole morning before she had to be at school. I knew how Malakai would be at school... not great at listening but can follow along and be good natured and charming. I know Hani will be a good listener and a perfectionist and will love school when she starts at a different school next week. I didn't know what Meron would do. She needs things to be on her terms, and I was so worried she would clam up or be too shy or cry when we left.

Meron did none of those things. She went right in, took the Principal's hand when she led her to the classroom, and started playing. When Mal started crying when we had to leave, she came over and held his hand and patted him on the back and said, "Mommy and Daddy will come back in a little bit. It's okay." He trusts and loves her so much. He stopped crying and held onto her hand for dear life. She gave me a kiss and went back to playing, Malakai pulled along behind her.


I am full of anxiety about the hurts she will inevitably receive from the world, because I want so much to protect her from all of the ugliness that is out there. And so sad that she is that much closer to not needing me... to leaving and becoming this whole other person whose life is separate from mine. It is so much worse with her than it is with Hani and Kai, because they were already big when they came to our family. They have never needed me in the same ways that Meron did.... so it doesn't feel like such a loss to me that they won't need me as much.

But I am also so very proud of the person she is becoming and excited to watch the things she will do and the ways she will make her world a better place. And I am hopeful that she will always need her mama, at least a little bit.

Anger

I know people don't read this blog (people meaning my 10 loyal readers) to get yelled at... or to listen to me rant. I know my last post was kind of a downer. Sorry. This one is going to be kinda crappy too. Because I am angry. So. Angry. And I don't want to talk about how cute my kids are (though they are beautiful beyond words). And I don't want to talk about how Hani is going to head start screening tomorrow (though my heart aches with pride and anxiety). I don't want to talk about the funny stories Mer has been telling me or how we are seeing more and more of Mal's dimples and of his defiant side. The only thing I really want to talk about is how angry I am.
29,000 children under the age of 5 have died in the Horn of Africa in the last 90 days. 29,000 children like mine... or younger. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Tens of thousands more deaths are coming. And we could stop it! The world has the resources to stop this from happening and we aren't! I don't understand why. I am so angry I want to shake people and scream. Don't they see? Don't they understand? Why don't these children matter?
If 29,000 children died in Texas in the last 90 days, the world wouldn't stand for it. People would come together to donate food and supplies. There would be help coming from the entire world. Why are 29,000 children in Texas any different, more worthy of help, than 29,000 children in Somalia and Ethiopia? Nobody would talk about anything else. Think about how much news coverage was given to a shooting in Norway. It was a tragedy. Absolutely. Those families were torn apart and will forever experience a grief I pray I never understand. But what about the 29,000 families in Ethiopia and Somalia that are experiencing the same loss? How much are we talking about them?

Ever see the movie "Hotel Rwanda?" It takes place during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. In a film full of awful moments, the most awful to me was when a Rwandan named Paul was trying desperately to get media attention. He thought that once the whole world knew what was going on, they would stop the slaughter. Jack, an American, told him it wouldn't matter. Paul replied, "How can they not do anything? Don't they care?" Jack told him "I think that when people turn on their TVs and see this footage, they'll say, 'Oh my God, that's horrible,' and then they'll go back to eating their dinners." He was right, of course. 800,000 people died before anyone tried to do anything.
Isn't that what we're doing? We see the news footage. We think it is awful. Then we go back to our own lives and our stack of bills that need to get paid and our problems at work and at home. And we forget. Because it is easier? More comfortable? Because the problem is so big it is overwhelming? All of those things are true. But it doesn't make us any less awful.

And it doesn't make it less awful that on my MSN news page it has headlines including "15 Mood Busting Ideas for Summer," "7 Homes for $300 K around the World" and "Mystery Woman Revealed in Elvis Photo" and doesn't say anything about the fact that right now, the sun is rising over the Horn of Africa, and today, thousands more children will die... and we could stop it, but we aren't. And I am angry. At all of us... and myself. But that doesn't help the 29,000 children that will die in the next 90 days, does it?

I'm done yelling about it. My next post will be about how much I love my children, because it isn't helping for me to yell and be angry. The only thing that will help is giving as much as I can, so I will know that at least I did something. Even though it won't be enough. And I hope you will, too.