Grandma :D

After a bit of airline drama, Grandma finally made it to NM. Yeah!! She was rerouted to Wisconsin and then flown back to Chicago. She was told that she'd have to spend the night at O'Hare. But some precious soul was able to find a flight to LA and then to ABQ. I'd say she was exhausted by the time we got home!

It's always a great time when Grandma is here. My children just adore her. Binyam too...even though he barely knows her. I guess he can tell she has a heart of gold. My mom will be here with us for a month while we finish the last bit of summer vacation. She'll be an asset as Zachary will be having a routine surgery in 2 weeks.

Stitches, Popped Stitches & More Stitches

Don't you just love the activities of summer that lead to Emergency Room visits?

On Tuesday, Katie took a tumble on our tile floor. She hit her chin really hard which caused the skin to split. Sadly it split in the exact same place as it did two years ago. She was so precious while we waited for her turn in the ER. She and I were having sweet conversations, just mother and daughter. At one point she asked me if she was going to be wrapped up in a blanket for her stitches. She blew my mind! She must remember being wrapped in a blanket when she had to have stitches the first time. Katie was so little - just barely walking when that happened.

So sweet Kate decided that she didn't want to be wrapped up. I said that would be ok as long as she held extra still. She tried. But it took three adults to hold her down. She kept begging us to stop squishing her so hard. I tried to reassure her that if she held still, the nurses and I would ease up. I told her - Momma is squishing you to keep you safe. That's when she started screaming at me to stop. Ach...it just about broke my heart. It's a good thing that she only needed three stitches.

Later that afternoon, we realized that our newly adopted dog - Bella - had popped her stitches from getting "fixed". It was a very significant pop, and we could see her insides. We sprayed her down with some hydrogen peroxide. But what we really needed was an E-collar. So Wednesday morning, I made an appt. for Bella to see the vet. Bella got cleaned up but not restitched. She is sporting her E-collar, which the boys love calling "the cone of shame"!

Shortly after making the appt, Ben asked me to toast a bagel for him. Happy to help, I got out my serrated bread knife to slice the bagel before slipping it into the toaster. But the stale bagel shifted as I was cutting and I sliced my left index finger directly on the knuckle. It didn't hurt nearly as badly as it bled.

Oh, well. What can you do? Katie's stitched up. I am stitched up. And Bella is mending up. I don't need any more weeks like this for a long while.

Birthday Photos

It was too funny that the boys automatically lined themselves up according to height for the photo.

Yesterday was Nate's 11th birthday. The kids had a lot of fun on the slip 'n slide. I don't think the lawn will need to be watered for a long time!! LOL. It was a beautiful day for a party! Good Friends. Good Food. Good Fun!

I am seriously proud of Nathanael. He is such a great kid. I look forward to seeing the man that he will become over the next 11 years.

5 Months

My, oh, my...how time has gone by!

Binyam has been home for 5 months. We have seen him change so much. As a family we have all changed a lot. Sometimes those changes came easily and sometimes it was a difficult struggle! But now, it feels like we've hit our stride as a family of six. (A family of 6 is very very different than a family of 5...I'll have to post about that one of these days!)

Binyam is a happy kid. In some ways it seems like he's always happy - just different levels of happiness. Some times he is mildly happy, other times he is extremely happy. We have seen some grief, but only a very little. I have never seen a child with such a level of understanding of God's hand in his life. Binny seems to be blessed with such a measure of grace to handle the adjustments that come with the kind of changes involved in an international/transracial adoption. It seems as though someone in his first family had specifically prepared him for the challenges he would encounter in his new life with us. It seems like he has a lot of prayer warriors too. We know only a few facts about his first family. Every bit of history is like precious gold. It is pretty clear to us that he came from a remarkable family. He was loved and cared for. He was taught many things by his first family. Binyam was given a firm foundation in his early childhood. He is an awesome kid. With only 5 month home with us, we know we can't take the credit for that!!

Give Me A Break!!

Yesterday ranked high on the list of worst Father's Day ever! It started off great but ended up horribly.

After church we ran to KFC and picked up some lunch and then headed to the park. We had tons of fun watching the kids goof off. All of the boys have passed the age where they want to play with any playground equipment they way it was intended to be played with. That's not to say that they are being hoodlums or anything. But the swings are not for swinging anymore - they are for distance jumping contests. In any case, the park was a blast.

As soon as we got home, Phil started getting a bunch of calls from work. So he had to go fix some things. Work is definitely a place you don't want to be on Father's Day. Once he was done being a heroic problem solver for work - he had kids bikes to fix. I can't believe we have gone through so many tires this summer. I guess it's a good sign, but a costly one too.

While the kids were riding their bikes, our next door neighbor came out and yelled at the kids that our cat had used her yard as a litter box. She wanted them to clean it up. Of course - yelling at our kids was not the right way to get what she wanted. Phil went out to talk to her and tell her that if she had a problem she needed to talk to the homeowners - not yell at the children of the homeowners. Not appropriate!

Three hours later, (at 9:30pm) we got a knock on our door from the police. Apparently the neighbor called the police because Phil confronted her about inappropriately yelling at our kids. I watched from our driveway as Phil talked with the policeman and neighbor. It was a 20 minute discussion/argument about property lines, kids, cats, her noisy dogs and being hefty. She said she called the police because Phil made her nervous because he is "hefty" - GOOD GRIEF CHARLIE BROWN!!!!

When Phil came home, I could see the steam rising from his head. He was fuming mad. It took us another hour or so to debrief from that situation. And then we got another tap on our door. We figured it was the police again. But No. It was a neighbor - a different neighbor. It took us a while to process what he was saying because we were assuming it was about the cat confrontation we had with the other neighbor. We then realized he wasn't there about a cat at all. He was looking for his 5 year old niece who was playing at someone's house and he didn't know where she was and who she was playing with. 10:30...not knowing where a 5 year old girl is??!! C'mon People!!

Phil's much deserved Father's Day was not what he imagined. Maybe we'll have to call for a Mulligan!!

More Pictures

Pictures