Care Packages = Sweet smiles!

The past few weeks have flown by. I still am in awe that God has matched us with a little boy so perfect for our family! The peace that has come from receiving our referral and now being able to place a face and a name has shocked me. I think I lived in such struggle for so many months and have finally came to a place of calm and understanding. I knew that God had to work on our hearts big time to prepare us for this adoption journey and that when our hearts we ready he would reveal our son, and he has!

We are now in the waiting stage for the next month or two while paperwork continues to be completed.

One of the exciting parts of this time of waiting is Care Packages.

 

 

Our agency allows us to send photo releases to families who are traveling to the transition home and with the photo releases they may also take care packages. Now, in the 18 months of waiting you would have thought that I, the planner, would have made a care package....you would be wrong! I was afraid I would jinx it..

 

                             (I know- great faith step- insert eye roll!)

So we made it a family event and took the children to walmart to buy their new brother his first gifts.

    Saria picked out a toy car

   Kellsie crayons and a small coloring book 

   Jacob- a can of Flarp....

 

 (For those of you that have never had a jokster in your house Flarp- it is like a jelly type play-dough that is in a can and when you push on it the noise it creates is similar to a really gross body function- I can only imagine these two boys together and all the mischief that will ensue ! )

 

They then all wrote letters and drew pictures to "N".  I totally love my children and their diversity:

   Saria- a simple getting to know you letter

   Kellsie- a picture of N and her playing

   Jacob- a picture of the Flarp saying: Don't get into trouble with the Flarp!

Gene and I added a few other things in like some family pictures, socks, sunglasses and gum.

 

We received a picture of him with his very first care package today. Each family shares with us how sweet he is and how he shared his gum with their daughter. We can't wait to hug this little man!

 

 Is he not the cutest -even with out seeing his little face!

Gena

After my last raw post I needed to take a little time away from blogging but now I am way behind!

This year we decided to celebrate Ethiopian Christmas with some traditional Ethiopian food and music. It was fun to think that we were celebrating and eating the same way our new son was on the same day and we had a little helper who told us how the transition home for our agency was celebrating too so we really felt connected to our little guy even though we don't know him yet.

 This is photo journal of my first Ethiopian cooking...our quest to make Doror wat and Miser Wat, two traditional Ethiopian meals. (FYI- Below may or may not be the actual instructions but an adaptation Collins style!)

                          Cut a million onions into pieces until your eyes burn. Add garlic and fresh grounded ginger root (which you can buy at walmart!) then make into a paste

the burning red face and eyes (not my most glamerous moment)

Add to some oil paprika and a few other spices and stir, stir, stir until your eyes STOP  burning (about 10 minutes)

 This one is the Doro Wat which to the onion/oil base you add a bunch of Berbere (an Ethiopian Spice I bought when I last went to STL for our fingerprints- hope it has a year shelf life!)

Add broth/water/wine and some cut up chicken then simmer for about 40 minutes, In the end you get to add several whole boiled eggs and simmer an additional 15 minutes. (Gene really had a hard time believing you put in whole eggs)

                                                                         

X

I forgot to take a picture of the Miser Wat at this stage but you take the onion/oil mixture and add some water/stock and a pound of red lentils and then let them simmer for about 30 minutes until the lentils pop and turn yellow.

Check out the hot cook!

(Literaly- I was burning up standing infront of some seriously hot spices and onion- you can see my face is still all read and puffy. )

 The other cook trying out the dish- he likes :)

Here was the start of an epic fail- I tried to make a quick Injera recepie. For those of you that are not familiar to Ethiopian quisen - Injera has a sourdough taste with a spongy think pancake consistency and is eaten with almost everything. You take a piece of it and scoop the stew/meat with it.

 Normally Injera takes 3 days to make

- my recepie used club soda and took 30 minutes -

 as Jeff Foxworth would say- Here's my sign!

So far not soo bad- looks kinda like a pancake but then.....

These 4 may not look to bad but let me tell you- I made about 12 of them and they stuck together or to the pan, were too runy or thick or just plain wrong.

 In this picture you can see the real Injera on the left and my imitation on the right.

See the differences in texture.

On a side note- that Injera was also from when we had our fingerprints done- aside from a little freezer burn on the sides we salvaged the middle parts....

The final meal- Yum!

The three infamous critics.....

Their first bites.

They all liked it and Jacob believe it or not had 3 servings of Doro Wat,

his only complaint- add more Berbere!

And to not let you miss out on the rest of our celebration- Kellsie searched youtube and found us this great Ethiopian music and dancing.

Melekame Gena!!!

Amharic- My adventures in language

So in my effort to be a cross cultural family and educate myself I went on a google search to try to hear a little Amharic ....wow super overwhelemed!  Did you know each of the 33 Amharic letters has like 7 different forms with different vowels and consanants. First, our alphabet only has 26 letters- where do the extra six come from? The how do you make 7 forms then combinations then male/female/respect..aahhhhh...

 Good thing our watiting time to meet our little boy will be so long, I think Im going to need it just to learn the alphabet! Maybe by the time he comes home I will have a few words down, or at least mom and dad!

I do have to mention though, Im watching Amharic music videos and listening to Ethiopian pop music right now and I think I like it, it's kinda catchy! 

If you want a taste of my new music here you go! BTW-you know Im trying these dance moves too...this mama has some moves!