paperclips and acorns.......

funny story. and true even. i was making tem and tessa's beds this morning and realized that while the rest of us are sleeping at night, they are quite busy.

tem's bed was full of acorn shells. apparently he got hungry during the night and decided that the acorns he and tess collected would make a yummy midnight snack.

and tessa's bed was full of paperclips. attached together to make quite a beautiful necklace.

huh. i wonder what we have planned for tonight??

New pets...

Today, Tem and Tessa became the proud owners of four goldfish.

Tem decided to name them: Abel, Hanna, Water, and WashHands.

A WOMAN IN AFRICA........

I am forever connected to a woman in Africa. She has trusted me with her children. We have some similarities.....but many more differences.

We both have had eye injuries. She lost her eye. I have perfect vision once again.

We both have had a baby at home. She was alone in her mud hut. No midwife. No husband. No one. I had my husband, my mother-in-law, my neighbors, a hospital five minutes away.

We both have children who can make us laugh and cry. She has watched her children go hungry, go without medicine, get ostracized for having parents with AIDS.........I have not. I have never even had to worry about where the next meal is coming from.

We have extended families. She only has two family members still living......her parents are gone, her husband, most of the others. I have parents, in-laws, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends who feel like family.

I will never understand why God chose to place me in America and placed her in Ethiopia. Her life has always been quite difficult, mine has been so easy. Whenever I begin to complain of the minor inconveniences in my life, I will remember this woman in Africa. And I am forever connected to her and indebted to her for the gift of Temamen and Tigest.

Skype is an incredible invention...

On Saturday night, Tem skyped one of his best friends from the orphanage who was adopted the same week. It was hilarious. Tem and his buddy chatted in Amharic for a long time while Tessa kept running back to her room, changing clothes, and then reappearing in order to show off her new wardrobe.

Not sure what alphabet this is...

How are you?

Today, we tried to teach Tem how to answer this question. He responds in one of two ways...

1. He either repeats the phrase back to us so that the conversation goes something like this:
"How are you?" -us
"How are you?" - Tem

2. Or today he answered like this (something he must have learned at the orphanage):
"How are you?" -us
"I'm fine. Thank you, teacher." (He emphasizes the last syllable so that it sounds like this: "I'm fine. Thank you, tea-CHAIR.")

Haha.

Best Video Ever.