The Boy

Who is this little boy, and where is my baby?

Is summer here yet?

May is coming to an end in the next week...it's almost June. Is summer here yet? We are waiting and waiting for warmer weather, and not just because we are tired of grayness, wetness, and coolness, but because we don't have heat. We have run out of oil before, on accident. This time it's kind of on purpose. We have been trying to run out of oil in our tank gracefully and in a timely manner for the last month and a half now and it just isn't working, and the weather isn't cooperating. We are anticipating getting a new furnace this summer...a more environmentally friendly and higher efficiency furnace. We don't want to end up with any oil in the tank, we want it to be empty and therefore easier to remove. The oil company won't deliver anything less than 100 gallons...the oil is a lot more expensive unless you get 200 gallons or more. Hence our dilemma. If it would just warm up, all would be well. But as it is, our nanny wears her winter jacket all morning while taking care of Melke and sometimes I find her huddled around the space heater that is in the living/dining room. Too bad she isn't here in the afternoon when it warms up in the house.

In the past when we were worried about running out of oil and waiting for our oil to be delivered (yes, we've in in that situation more than once), we were told by the oil company that you can use diesel fuel for an oil furnace. So, for a while in April, Daniel was putting diesel in the oil tank several gallons at a time. But I think he is protesting in May, thinking that in May you shouldn't need heat, so no heat for us. We keep saying soon it will be warm...it's almost summer. It's almost summer, right?

Boys, Boys

Glad we got to get together with our friends last weekend. These boys are so cute!

May 18th

Daniel's birthday and a year ago today the news that our adoption case passed through the Ethiopian courts and that Melkamu was legally our son. That morning, I was checking my e-mail every five minutes waiting to hear news of how our court date had gone. Finally, Daniel was up and about and I had him check his e-mail and there was the news! It was very exciting and then very sobering. After a few minutes of joy, I think we were both scared to death...it's legal...someone thinks we can be parents...do they know what they are doing? Do we know what we are doing?




Well, no, really we have no idea what we are doing, but a year later we have our son home. We have been together for 9 months and celebrate Daniel's birthday this year with our boy close by.

Run or Walk Mama Walk

I was excited to participate in Adoption Mosaic's Run Mama Run event on Mother's Day. I am not a runner, but a walker and did the 5K walk with Daniel, Melke, my uncle, sister, and nieces. I recruited others to do the running - my brother-in-law and uncle. It was a family affair. It was fun. I enjoyed doing it, although it would have been nice to have a little more sunshine and a little less rain and mud. Melkamu looked awesome in his rain suit handed down from the neighbors. He and Daniel made it half way through the 5k before Melkamu wanted nothing more to do with the stroller and got out to walk.

Rain and mud doesn't stop us.

Uncle Lon and my sister and nieces - Thanks for walking with me.

Katie did the kids fun run and walked the whole 5k with us...she's tough.

Thanks brother-in-law Chris for running.

The Show Stopper in his rain gear, doing his part to participate in the walk.


Thanks for running Uncle Jerry.

Melkamu Update

Today we have been home nine months with Melkamu, which is just completely unbelievable. When I go back and look at pictures from when we first came home, I am surprised to see a baby. He is such a little boy now, although still my baby. He has moved to one nap over the last few months, instead of a morning and afternoon nap. He takes a long nap (very long, we hope) about noon everyday. He is saying a lot of words on a regular basis now: juice is our favorite, it's so cute when he says it, and bye, hi, eye, nose, ball, bike, back, b for basement, boo for book, rock, hot, hat, hide, and shoe (which sounds more like yooes). And our cat, Rio, who I call Riri. Melke is constantly looking for Riri and calling out his name. In fact every cat he sees is "riri". I'm sure I am forgetting something else he says. And sometimes he says a word once, like "elbow", perfectly clearly but then doesn't say it again. He has also started to show us over the past month or two, by patting his own little bottom, when his diaper is dirty and needs to be changed. I recently got out the little potty seat and put it in the bathroom and told him that's where you go poopoo. He likes to go in there and sit on it. One day it was kind of quiet and I found him in the bathroom sitting on his little potty and going poop. It was pretty cute, of course he was wearing pants and a diaper. I took his pants and diaper off so he could sit on it, but he wouldn't go anywhere near it with a naked bottom.

The Joys of Outside

Melkamu loves, loves to be outside. Over the past month, we have had a few nice stretches of more spring like weather. Daniel has finished the fence in the backyard and I started to get the garden beds ready to plant. Melkamu is ever so helpful, of course. I thought it would be fun to garden with a little boy, but fun isn't exactly the word. I had to pick out green bean seeds he poured out all over the newly planted lettuce seeds. My plant identification tags are constantly moved from one place to another by little hands. Trucks drive through newly planted seeds, and little toy garden tools unearth delicate lettuce that is just poking up through the dirt. And that is just the beginning. I have had to replant seeds a few times, as my starts get picked up and dumped out while they are trying to catch some sun, or handfuls of dirt are taken out of the little pots and thrown about with joy. We have enjoyed spending more time outside and really look forward to this summer. We hope Melkamu can spend a big part of his days outside in the yard, hopefully not sitting in the middle of the raised garden bed like he was the other day, but out enjoying the yard and the neighborhood. We are dreaming of summer, fresh veggies and fruit from the garden, and dirty little boy hands and feet that have been exploring the outdoors.

Always fascinated with what his daddy is doing.

Finished the backyard fence and moved onto a little fence in the front yard. One of the neighbors said, "Is this a Melke fence?" Yes, that is exactly what the front yard fence is. It's a contain Melke fence. Momma and daddy can actually work in the front yard fence and maybe even sit down and rest fence with no worrying about Melke in the street fence.