Blessed by more friends

Signe and I thought that Nesradine and Biruk look like brothers especially now that Nes has longer hair. The girl to the right is Signe's precious daughter Helen.

Lisa, me and the Kidane kids

The girl in the middle is Imani who is Lisa's other daughter from ET. Wow, she is such a ham.

Okay I think all the Kidane girls from that floor where our kids came from just love Biruk. Sorry Zene that Biruk is hugging another girl. I have especially reserved you to become Biruk's future wife :))

Here goes my Amira again, pouting as usual because Biruk is having all the fun.

I have said this before that through my long journey of adoption I became so obsessed that I neglected my old friendships and really don't have any friends left except a few girls from church. Once you adopt, you always share really deep bonds with other adoptive families. Over the past two years I have gotten to know some pretty amazing ladies through adoption.

This last week was really special to me. I got to hang out with Lisa and Signe whom I adore very much. All of our kids were at Kidane the same time and all of them left Kidane at about the same time. Lisa lives about 4 hours away and Signe about 6 hours. I only wished I could live closer and see them more often. It really does break my heart to know I can't just drop in on them at a moments notice. But in the mean time I am thankful that I have them period.

Home 2 months

How do I wish that time could stand still. 4, what a precious age. The children at that age are so care free about anything. I continously feel so blessed that these two precious kiddos are finally in my arms. Sometimes I feel like I am dreaming. In the middle of the night I just sneak in their room and watch them sleep and listen to them breathe and pray over them.

I have probably already mentioned this but Biruk has taken a huge bond to Kevin since home and Amira to me. I am totally fine with that. Amira just hugs and cuddles me to death wanting to be by my side whereever I go while Biruk likes to talk to Kevin about cars all day and eat with him. I have heard now many times and also seen it with my own eyes that the minute I leave the house Amira gets so sassy and does not listen. I never see that when I am with her. Like slamming doors and throwing stuff. She doesn't do that when I am around. I think in time when she understands more she will get better with her attitude. I will have to explain to her that she needs to be respectful to anyone, not just mommy. I have to say, she is a smart girl because she has me all wrapped around her little finger.

Biruk started Pee Wee soccer last week and is really enjoying it. I am still trying to figure out with to do with Amira for fun. She easily gets distracted so we'll see.


The dress below is Amira's favorite dress. Every day she asks me if she can wear it but it is too cold right now but today I just let her wear it anyway. She also loves to wear her hair down and pose for me so here you go. Biruk gets annoyed when I take his pictures too much.

Ethiopian Coffee

Okay I think some of you are going to kill me especially those ones who are avid coffee drinkers like me that I have ever badmouthed ET coffee the way I did.

Yesterday I met up with Signe and she gave me a huge bag of coffee from Biruk's mom. She got it off Nesradine's mom to give to me while she was in ET. Thank you Signe, you are the best!!!

Anyways, re: the coffee. While I was in ET I never had real ET coffee (isn't that sad), just the one from the store and it was so nasty. I was so disappointed after all the people told me how good ET coffee was. So obviously I didn't bring any home. Signe told me yesterday that the real ET coffee is way better than the store one but I had to taste it to believe it. This morning I made a pot of the real stuff and I am so hooked. It is the best coffee I have ever had. I had like 10 cups already and I bet I cannot go to sleep tonight.

More about Sign'e and Lisa's visits later.

P.S. Yeah after Signe's comment, I totally forgot to mention that she left me Berberi too. Thanks again. So true, Samrawit really had it with banana. That stuff is so spicy. I am sure Biruk and Amira will have it too once they get wind of it where the spice is hidden. As for me, I am a bad mommy, I still have not learned how to cook anything ET with berberi (sp).

WELCOME HOME NESRADINE

My dear friend Signe arrived home yesterday with Biruk's best guy friend Nesradine (Zena is his best girlfriend).

Nesradine and Biruk came to the orphanage the same day. Their two moms are best friends also. Hopefully we get to meet up really soon. Nes is about 6 hours away from our house but I know between Signe and I we will make it work to meet up very soon. I know we both promised their moms we would keep in touch so our boys would never forget about each other.

I just talked about Eden the other day and Nesradine equally has a special place in my heart.

I am so glad all my special kids are home with their very special families that I absolutely adore.

More firsts and ramblings

I just saw on another blog the other day that they were happy to have started a blog if anything its for the journaling. Just until recently I was sad that only certain people regularly leave comments while others just browse my blog and don't want to leave a comment either because they are bored with my blog or whatever they think. Who cares anyway. I sure don't.

Now I really don't care anymore because for myself and the children I have journaled so much it will be nice one day for them to look at everything and go back to see where there journey began. I would have never journaled over birthdays and anniversaries. Kinda cool now that I look at it.

Life has just become crazy busy but I guess that was forseable with me working again. About 2 weeks ago we went to the skating ring and it was hillarious. The kids had so much fun. Biruk refused to skate on the walk skates, he had to have real skates and pretty much was on the floor the whole time. Amira used walking skates and she was such a trooper.

Last Saturday we went for first haircuts. When I came home, I got chewed out pretty badly by my husband telling me not to ever have someone else cut his son's hair. I kind of did it behind his back because I didn't want Biruk to get a military haircut. But I respect his wishes and apologized. I wouldn't like if he takes my girls to the hairdresser.

Amira's oral surgery is scheduled for April 1. It looks like our insurance is covering the hospital and we have to pay about $2,000.00 out of pocket. I guess that beats $5,700.00.

Amira also still has her huge moluscum. That $700.00 cream is obviously worthless. It looks like we might have to cut it.

Biruk now is close to 40 pounds. Kevin calls him the garbage disposal. Every time I turn around he asks Kevin for more food knowing he is not getting anymore from me.

In other good news, Biruk's best friend Nesradine already got his visa so hopefully they arrive in the states pretty soon and we get to see them. If not I understand, because that long flight is so exhausting.

Lastly, my dear friend Lisa is coming to visit us next week with her precious girls Eden and Imani. Eden really does have a special place in my heart. I am so so happy. Lisa and I were supposed to travel to ET together but circumstances didn't let us. I saw her there in ET the day I left and she arrived.

At the skating ring

Biruk below starting up Kevin's truck. True boy. He loves the sound of his mufflers

First haircut

kids after their haircuts. Amira really just got a tiny bit of her ends trimmed but Candy did a wonder french braid

Pics

Just wanted to post some pics. The little ones are wonderful but lots of other stuff going on.

I know Kevin looks rough but he pulled a 24 hour no sleep thing because he had to study for exams.

Jessica is Danica's best friend. Have you ever, ever seen my son smile like that. I think his smile below is the best ever.

Biruk in the tub. I don't like full body pictures.

Visiting our AAI office in Port Angeles shortly before I went back to work. Michelle is to the left and Susan to the right. Susan is one of my favs there.

Kevin and Biruk trying to fix the dishwasher with no luck. Okay now I am starting to grow a little frustrated and impatient that the dishwasher has been broke since I returned from ET. But I will be humble, how can I complain about trivial things like that after just returning from Africa.

Danica visiting to get her fix from the little ones. She was only half dressed but I wanted to put the pics up anyway because the all looked so adorable.

Adoption Friends Forever

I have noticed, although its sad to say that I have lost a lot of friends over the past 2.5 years while I was trying to adopt. I think I was really out of it and focused on one thing only. Figure, that would be me. I know that's sad but my sole focus has been accomplished at last. But with that I have gained so many adoption friends, of course most of them are blogger or email buddies only; some I have met. Over the past two weeks I have met up with Lisa and Laci . They are both very dear to me. I have met Lisa at camp last year for the first time (all of her 11 children came, yeahhh) and I have known Laci since 2006. We were preparing to go on a mission trip together. The thing we all have in common is that we adopted from Ethiopia and also even used the same agency. We also have lots of things and feelings about our kids to be the same. Laci is really close to me like 30 min drive but Lisa is 6 hours away.

When we met up with Lisa this Wednesday at the ET restaurant Lalibela in Seattle, Kevin and I decided we are going to visit them out where they live and also go see one of her best friends, Signe who is on her way in a few days to pick up her Nesradine from ET, who is Biruk's best friend. Yeahh Signe, I am so looking forward to meeting you when you come back!

I would love to meet many more of my blogger friends especially the ones that are closer to home. So if you are in the 6 hours vicinity and want to get together, let me know. I am not joking, we will make plans.


Lisa and Russ with their 4 girls and Kevin and I with our 3 kiddos. Sorry you can't barely see my Kevin, he is slightly dark. Also my 2 little ones are between Kevin and me but they are too short to see.

Laci and her daugther at her sister's wedding. Laci's sister Karly is actually one of my very dear friends I have left prior to starting my adoption journey.

AHOPE Special Edition T-Shirts are out

I don't know what it is about these AHOPE T-shirts but I love em to death. Its time for me to order new ones because the one I have is totally worn out. I just really love the AHOPE products. I have also the beautiful necklace and the sweatshirt. On my casual days that is all I wear. I just love the designs. I am not smooching but the AHOPE store has got to be my favorite store on line. Please go to Lisa's blog, last paragraph, and check out her post on these special edition shirts and the store.

Anyways they are only $10.00 per shirt. You just can't beat eat. Order a bunch. For your friends or whatever. These shirts will benefit AHOPE, our precious HIV orphans in Ethiopia. You can also check out AHOPE for Children which is to the right of my blog.

http://abushel-and-apeck.blogspot.com/2009/02/ahope-special-edition-t-shirt.html

Happy Valentine's Day - Home one Month

Where does the time go? I now fully understand what people have told me over and over that once you have the children you forget about all the painful wait you had to go through and time just flies. That is so true. Just like giving birth. Once its done, a new life has began and time doesn't stand still anymore.

Things at home are really really good with Biruk and Amira. They have started their preschool program and just love it. They wished the could go every day but unfortunately its only every other day. They were so thrilled last Friday when the yellow bus picked them up for school. I think that is really the coolest thing when adopting international because its so much pleasure to watch the children finding out all these new things every single day.

They talk so much already. Really there is no problem understanding them at all. They speak many full sentences. They sleep through the night from 7:30 to 7:30. Amira occasionally pees in the bed but that is usually our fault for someone giving her something to drink too late. I don't have to punish her at all anymore. Amira is really good. In fact she is so sensitive with me that I have to be really careful because I can easily hurt her precious feelings. Everyone else calls her sassy but I think she has a wonderful personality that many people die for to have. I take her mostly everywhere with me and she is so good for me. She just sits in the cart and smiles at me the whole time.

Biruk is really awesome too. He really has bonded with Kevin which I wanted and dreamed of all along. Biruk is highly intelligent and picks up on things like its nothing. I have to watch Kevin though with his talking because sometimes he throws some slang in there and Biruk picks it right up. He is also really helpful and very neat with everything he does. He does an amazing job at cleaning up his room.

The kids are really polite and well behaved already. I know this sounds really conceded but I think this is all to the goodness of me. When I first got them they would eat with their hands, smack, talk with their mouth full, eat from each others' plates, interrupt constantly. They don't do anything of the above. I started training them up the minute I got custody of them so I had a good 7 weeks with them between ET and staying home. I just cannot stand kids who are disrespectful to adults or rude. It doesn't make any sense to me. After all we are suppose to raise them and they are not suppose to raise us. To some that might not make that much sense because they had a hard life but to me I feel kids need structure.

They also say "how are you", "I am fine; thank you", "excuse me" all the time.

With that all being said, it has been a pure joy to have them but I think Kevin and I never have it easy by having another child in our lives that is hard and gives us lots of problems.

When we raised Danica and Anastasia, Danica was an angel for us and while we were raising her we had a hardcore life with Anastasia because of her Autism and many other diagnosis that she received but I don't want to get into it on this blog. Few friends and our families only know to well about that and what we have been through.

Going back to work

Today was a really hard day. Mainly I had to leave the kids behind and Amira was just crying so hard. The 2 of us have extremely bonded and it seems like Biruk has more bonded with Kevin which is totally fine with me. We don't mind sharing the wealth.

The funny thing is that when I had the kids Biruk always got in trouble but today Amira got in trouble all day and I almost wanted to tell Kari and Kevin, stay off my baby, she does good for me and is an angel. But I have to respect them because they have my blessings and we all have to work together. She just like to sass other people..... She is full of life and has so much spunk.

Today at work was really sweet. They all gave me a huge gift certificate for Target and I so needed it. There are still so many things I need and obviously no yard sales starting anytime soon. I really wanted to buy them some bikes but other things are more important.

Back to my work subject. In these days it is truly a blessing to still have a secure job and as much as I want to be a stay at home mom I am so blessed to be in the workplace that I am. Its just so secure, quiet and safe place to work and all the people are so respectful to each other. Just felt loved today in a worldly way, my workstation was beautifully decorated and everyone was happy to have me back. It was pretty overwhelming especially because I wanted to be with my kids and my heart was really not there. I am sure it will take a few days.

The only funny thing that happened is that people kept saying "wow, you got your hands full", because I have 2 four year olds and I keep thinking of my wonderful friends that have large familes. I am not even close to having my hands full but oh well. It also bothered me when they kept saying how blessed the kids are and when I kept saying no its opposite the kids have been such a blessing to me, they didn't get it even though I explained why. I am just in a place where more than 2 children are not normal. I think out of 30 people, there are just 2 other people, one has 5 kids and the other one 3 kids. Everyone else one and two. A professional stuffy place. But again, I don't mind the challenge and I don't mind setting an example that larger families are beautiful and it's okay to have more than 2 children and how much I just love it and I adore large families. Anyways, that was cute how people just look at adoption as being such a big thing.

Health updates and going back to work

It seems like we are moving forward some re: all the kids' health issues. It was never anything big but running and running to the dr's and all the distributing of meds is getting old.

I now am distributing meds to 4 children so I had to make myself a list because I started to get really confused. I figured what if something happens to me, Kevin wouldn't know where to start.

First off I am so thankful beyond my wildest dreams that I have health insurance and on top of that the military retired insurance from Kevin. That has helped so much because we didn't have to pay all the co-pays like some people. Having served 22 years in the military has finally paid off including all the many months I had to raise the children by myself because Kevin was overseas.

Biruk has to be on TB meds for one year. His TB is not active or contagious, x-rays were negative. In fact in most countries they don't even put people on meds if the TB comes back negative but the Dr. said in America they do anyway, just in case. It's just a precaution here.

They were both tested for Giardia/parasites and it came back negative. Yeahhh good for me. One less medication.

Amira got her medication called Aldara for her huge moluscum under her eye and that is $700.00 for 24 packets. Kevin didn't believe me, he had to call the pharmacy. Again, all covered because of military insurance.

Still haven't heard back from the oral surgeon but Amira is starting to get cranky with some of her teeth, rightfully so. They need to get taken care of asap.

Amira's huge fungus on her head is almost gone thanks to my wonderful husband for cleaning it 2x week and the meds of course.

They have been enrolled in pre-school 3x week for 3 hours each session. And guess what.... Its free. I guess they have a program her where the kids can go for free just because they are disadvantaged for just coming here... language etc...

This was really an answer to prayer for me because I didn't want Kari (Anastasia's provider) and Kevin to carry all the burdens of babysitting Amira and Biruk. So now they are split up between Kevin, Kari and pre-school.

This is good for me because I have to go back to work this Thursday. I was home with the kids 4 weeks exact. I can't believe time flew like this. I have never imagined and hoped there would be a way that I wouldn't have to go back to work but there is just no way right now. Wishful thinking on my part. I was horribly burdened by this babysitting situation. There was no way I could afford daycare so at least now all I have to pay is Kari and Kevin doesn't have the kids every single afternoon. God is so good and he always makes ways, even the very last minute.

A day at the Zoo and all these Firsts

The one thing I have always enjoyed about reading blogs is when the children come home and they do and say all the firsts. Today was one of those. All day long. And it is especially cute when they are older because you can see it in their expressions. At the zoo they saw so many animals that they had only seen in books before. Also they went on a merry-go-round and feeding little goats which I could tell they had never done. I was a little surprised about Biruk because for the first time he did something before Amira and that was feed the goat. In many of his expressions you can see he is still afraid but surely trying it out and that is what's important. He is hilarious to watch because when he gets nervous he gets this spastic walk like he pooped in his pants. This is usually how I can see he is really nervous and I back off. I am not forcing the issue than.

I am still like so in love with these little guys. Don't get me wrong, we have our temper tantrums and sassyness but 4 year olds are just something to me. I have always been obsessed with 4 year olds. They say the funniest things and if together they really have a way of entertaining each other. They are so mischief too. I often wonder what they talk behind my back because they get that look at me and just start to crack up. But nothing gives me more pleasure to hear their voices all day calling me mommy and I love you at least 100 times. They are just never quiet, ever, unless they sleep. I also love when I came back from a short errand how excited they get to see me. Or when I call the phone when out, it seems like they know its mommy calling and they scream in the background "MOMMMMMMY".