Aniyani

I can't believe it's been a month and that Auntie Lani, or as Melke says "aniyani", left today to fly home. It was so nice to have her around and we will miss her greatly. We are very lucky to have had her staying with us for a whole month. She was super helpful with Melkamu and around the house, and I now believe it takes three adults to run a household efficiently and raise a child...two adults is just not enough. We need another "aniyani", or just need to have our Auntie Lani back. Thanks for a great month Lani! We miss you already.

We all ate lots of food.

We hung around the house and yard.

We went to the free concert in the park.

We went to the coast,

and played in the sand.

We went rowing on the river. Melke's first boat ride.

We went to another beach.

We went to Eugene for a Holt picnic,


and the girls went out dancing.


And last of all, hiking around Mt. Hood.

August 9th

Last year, August 9th was a Monday. Daniel and I and a small group of eager parents, were being driven back from Durame, down south in Ethiopia. When we got back to Addis Ababa, we were going to have a chance to eat lunch, pick up a few things at the store, and then take custody of our children.

Some pics from the drive to and from Durame:

Once back in Addis, I remember walking up to the store a few blocks away with a fellow new momma. We walked past the sheep and the cows and the goats in the rode and on the sidewalks, we bought Ethiopian formula, juice, fruit, and baby food. I went back to our room and organized one last time all of Melke's things. When we had gotten back from Durame, a little pink bathtub and a wooden crib were delivered to our room. We were as ready as we were ever going to be. Daniel was more ready than I was. He was more confident that this little boy would be fine and would love us. Daniel is always more sure than I am, that everything, whatever it might be, will work out fine. And so we headed over to the care center and returned to our room with our son.

He (Melkamu) wasn't too happy about this plan.

Walking next door.

On our balcony.

Reflection - maybe our first family picture.

Milk and bedtime.

A year ago today,

we met our son for the first time. We were so nervous and anxious. It was Thursday, August 5th, 2010. We had our stuff all packed up and ready to go the night before. We woke and showered and dressed and waited for the Holt staff to pick us up. When we had gotten into Ethiopia Tuesday night, we had an e-mail that Melkamu has in the hospital with pneumonia. Daniel had called the next morning to check on Melkamu, and the Holt staff said he was headed back to the care center and we could see him the next day, Thursday...a day earlier than expected.

When we walked into the care center, the toddlers were playing in the main room, and immediately surrounded us and were climbing all over us. Before we could get out from under them all, I turned around to see a nanny holding a little boy in a pink jacket with the hood up over his head. "Is this Melkamu?" I said. And there he was. I took him and held him, and pulled the hood back to see his face and head. We sat down with him and were still surrounded and being climbed on from all directions by the kids in the care center. After a few minutes, the toddlers were taken back to their room upstairs and the staff left and went about their business, and we had some nice, peaceful, quiet time to be together.

Looking back, my heart breaks for the little guy. He was so sick and not feeling well. Surely his hospitalization had been traumatic. He just gets back from the hospital and here come two strange looking people to turn everything upside down in his little world again. But, he is such a strong and determined little guy and he didn't let that slow him down for long.

A year ago yesterday

...we left Amsterdam and arrived in Ethiopia. We had spent a few days in Amsterdam on a lay over and arrived in Ethiopia late at night. Walking out of the airport in Ethiopia, I was thinking to myself, I have to remember all of this country. I have to remember how it smells and sounds, and what it looks like and feels like to be here. Breathing in the warm night air as we left the airport felt so good, so important. It was so dark it was hard to see the surroundings as the taxi drove us to the hotel where we would stay for a few days before meeting our son.

A year ago today, we woke up to the sights and sounds of Addis Ababa. This was the view out our hotel window. The night before I couldn't see it, only small glowing fires and lights, but I heard the music and the people well into the wee hours of the morning.



We spent the day walking around the city of Addis Ababa and exploring, visiting the Merkato, and standing out in a sea of beautiful brown faces.

Melkamu Goes to Montana

Although this blog post is dated in June, when I started it, it is now August. I do this too often. I start a post and then don't finish it for weeks or a month or more. At the end of the day, the last thing I want to do is get on the computer. I am on the computer all day at work, and then I chase Melke around until his bedtime and then I just want to sit still and not be on the computer. So...my blog suffers. I almost sent out some individual e-mails with pictures to people the past few days and then realized I just need to update my blog so people can get their Melkamu fix.

And so, Melkamu goes to Montana. In mid-June, we had a nice vacation to Montana to visit Daniel's family. It was the first time Melkamu met his great grandma. He had a great time at her house and it was the first time I heard him say the word "animals", which came out something like "aminals", when he was playing with some toys at Bina's house. After a few days at Daniel's grandmother's we headed to his parents and had a great time there, as well. Melkamu got to take his first camping trip and stayed in grandma and grandpa's trailer with them , while Daniel and I stayed in tents. (Yes plural, the one tent was too small for both of us.) There was a momma and baby moose in the campground that we saw several times during our short camping trip. When I put Melkamu to bed that night, he was saying "moof", for moose of course, and he was still talking about the "moof" in the morning when he woke up. We camped outside of Yellowstone. One day all five of us went into the park. Melkamu got to see several buffalo and also learned to say "buffo". The next day, Daniel's parents took Melke for the day and Daniel and I went into the park by ourselves. That was nice. Who knew it could be so fun just the two of us, like the old days. We definitely need to do that more often. On the way home we were even able to stop and have a nice, quiet dinner together.

We were pretty worried about the 10 hour car drive with the boy, but he did rather well. We did it in two days and tried to time driving around times that he would be sleeping (naps, nighttime) and when he was awake we took nice long breaks at playgrounds and parks and had picnics ready. It actually worked out fairly well.

We all had a great time in Montana and we were all spoiled by Daniel's parents (as usual).


Melkamu Meets Bina:



Climbing to the "M" at the top of the hill:

"M" for Melkamu, or is it Montana

Daniel said Melke was saying "ought oh, ought oh" from the backpack as they were descending this very steep part of the trail.

Father's Day:

Daniel is a great father.
Melkamu adores him and just can't get enough of his daddy's silly antics.


Fathers and Sons

Home Sweet Home

This blog started a couple years ago when we moved and bought our first house...this wonderful house we live in. There were lots of house updates on the blog, but in the last year another star has taken over and gets the most air time - our son. About two months ago, in April, we had the second phase of our kitchen remodel done, and by far the most exciting phase. Our old house had shorter than standard and narrower than standard kitchen counters. So even though my aunt had given us her previous dishwasher (which is perfectly wonderful), it sat in the basement, or "base" as Melke says, for two years until new cabinets and counter would allow it to fit. Yes!!! A dishwasher and a garbage disposal! It is very exciting! We kept the wall cabinets, because they seem perfectly fine to me and I like the old world charm, so we just got floor/base cabinets, counter (more than before - yippee more counter place!), electrical and plumbing work, a few more electrical outlets, dishwasher, garbage disposal, and faucet. During the process and for the first weeks after the project was completed, I would cheer and clap every time I went into the kitchen. This meant that for awhile Melkamu would also cheer and clap upon entering the kitchen, it was pretty cute.

As an inexpensive counter top solution, we decided to use wood. There is still another wall in the future that will get base cabinets and counters, so I didn't want to get something more expensive as of yet. We'll wait until we do the whole thing. But, I had nightmares about the wood counter for a long time...you have to really take care of it. And the way my kitchen runs and my cook operates...oh boy. I was sure it would be a disaster, but so far so good. I really love the way it looks and adds lots of warmth to the area.

Before

I was a little sad the night before the work started...saying good-bye to
Great Grandma's kitchen. It turns out I don't miss it.


Disgusting sink. It came this way.
No amount of bleach and scrubbing ever made a difference.


Under construction.




Awww, it's like a breath of fresh air.

Writing this post, I realize I don't have any pictures of the project completely done. I'll have to go clean the kitchen and snap some pictures.

What June should look like...

...blue skies and cold fountains. We had a nice warm weekend, but back to wearing fleece this week.