The First Month

The first month on the ark found our family with lots to keep us busy. We have, in no particular order...

• celebrating St. Nick's Day, Advent, Christmas, New Year's and are currently preparing for H and Baby T's Baptism on January 14th.
• learning to speak broken Amharic and understand broken English--we have settled on Amhenglish as the ark's first language.
• trying to explain (and understand) why everything in America can be thrown away when finished. (paper plate-garbage, juice box-garbage, baby diaper (yes-even these)-garbage...and don't even get us started on elevators.
• trips to doctors, dentists, hairdressers, schools and many, many stores. Much of which has been met with an inquisitive, "We go in car---again?!"
• priming, painting, and carpeting the 1200 square feet in our basement to be ready for when H and Baby T come home (like we had nothing to do before they actually came home)
• meeting Dad's family (grandmother, grandfather and an assortment of 10 siblings, spouses and cousins!)
• developing a family dance (no, seriously) which is a combination of the "shoulder dance" that the Ethiopian children learn and the Chicken Dance...oh, and renaming one of Daddy's brother's "Uncle Chicken Dance"
• not blogging-you probably thought the holidays with 6 children (2 who just arrived from half way around the world) left me with plenty of time to myself...
• scheduling appointments for our first POST-placement visit, calling an attorney about re-adopting in Illinois, and visiting the Social Security office, again, all non-time consuming things...

But mostly, the last month, has been filled with basking in the joy of our newly expanded ark and the knowledge that God really, really, does have a plan bigger than us and when we are open to it-the blessings are too many to count.

Wishing you all a 2007 open to all God has in store for you!