crazy days

I just love naptime. Is that selfish? That middle of the day break is so needed for all of us I think. I am going back to work on Monday - part time for 2 weeks and than back to my 3, 12 hour nights. I am really looking forward to it. I am not meant to be a stay at home mom and my kids know it after a month. Meanwhile, Zipporah is her same silly self, oblivious to it all!

more positives

When we first got Zipporah, I was simply called "engee". In Ethiopia, the locals call white people "ferengees". (I am sure I did not spell that right) Zipporah had obviously been hearing that all her short life so that is what we were. Well, I graduated to Ma-Amaye. Half English and half Amharic. Sometimes she even calls me "mom". Yeah!!!
She is also no longer petrified of the dogs. As seen in the picture, she loves to give our mastiff, Ellie, kisses. We are still working on not being too rough with her though. (Zipporah with Ellie!)

yes, she is still singing. She has an infection in her leg, giardia (an intestinal parasite) and has still "decided to follow Jesus". And she won't let us forget it!

I give up!!

I have now dressed Zipporah 4 times today. Everytime I turn around she has stripped down to her birthday suit...and it is not particularly warm today. I have finally given up and am letting her just run free.

July 16, 2009

Well, we are well into week two at home and you wonder how it is going?....After about a week of spending an hour each night in Zipporah's room rocking her to sleep I had about had it. I have 2 other kids that need me and I felt like I was neglecting them. So, my recovered from jet lag brain had an ingenious moment. She had shared a room with 4 other kids at HH! She is afraid to be alone at night - Duh! So Reese agreed to move her bed into Z's room and WaLa, not another peep. I can lay her down and walk away. No mental facility for me - yet!

She is a very picky eater and I am still working on finding things that she will eat. No fruit but bananas, but loves eggs, oatmeal, nutrigrain bars, and spaghettios. She loves her milk too. I guess I will just continue to experiment and maybe she'll just realize there is no injera here and she should just give it up and eat?

July 11, 2009

some of my favorite memories of Zipporah so far...

* sitting at the tables at the Union, waiting for Almaz to start our "meeting". Zipporah yelling, while all else was quiet, "Almaz, Almaz, Almaz", and didn't stop until Almaz acknowledged her and blew her a kiss.

* Zipporah belting out " I have decided to follow Jesus" just about anywhere and at anytime.

* Zipporah and Yikealo singing out the window of the shuttle bus at the airport

* the kisses she gives when she knows she is in trouble

* her utter shock at an ice cube and her screams of disbelief at a water fountain.

* The hour long fun a gum wrapper can give

July 2, 2009

Thursday, our final day in Ethiopia...it was bittersweet. No real plans for this day. We made our way over to Hannah's Hope for a final goodbye to Almaz and the special mothers. It was quite confusing for Zipporah so we didn't stay long. Almaz explained to Zipporah what was going to happen. She responded with a slight nod and "shh", which means "ok". We made sure that we snapped a lot more pictures today and ate an early dinner since we were leaving for the airport at 6 and they don't cook real fast - especially since we had no power that day. I took a quick cool shower since I would not get another until Friday night in the good ol' USA.
the flight home was agonizing as we probably went thru security 6 plus times between the 2 airports. I do not recommend Ethiopian airlines either. We boarded our plane at 10 p.m. and within 2 hours they thought, as everyone was falling asleep, that we needed dinner. So, on all the lights went and all the kids were awake! Then, after at least 1 and a half hours, the lights went off again. And then, we land in Rome and the cleaning crew gets on and we are not to get out of our seats until they are done...of course all the lights are on again. Finally, we are off again, lights off for maybe an hour and then we need to eat breakfast??? The staff was rude and we were very glad to see D.C. Unfortunetely we had a 9 hour layover - ouch. We made it home about 9 p.m. Friday night and were excited to shower and sleep. Needless to say, I slept on Zipporah's floor but at the time I did not care. It was not an airplane seat! And now, here we are...