Wordless Wednesday

Throwing Dirt

I've been a big grouch today. Oscar has nothing on me. I hoped that by the time I got to the blog writing part of my day, things would improve. No luck. So, if I were you, I'd stop reading and do something productive with your time. OR you can read about how I want to throw dirt at people.

We've all been there. The moment when a person asks how things are going in the adoption process or "so how much longer?" and you secretly just want to throw dirt at their face?

Right?

I think it's because we don't usually know the answer. It's hard to answer a question that you should obviously know the answer to with "I don't know."
OR, you know the answer, but it's never easy and simple. Always complex.
For example, when the "so how much longer?" is followed up with a "so do you go there and choose a baby?"

I know these are moments when you can share and sharing is good. blah. blah. blah.

But, when you're all grouchy because you don't have answers (usually because no one has answers) or the answers will take 3584968 years to explain, it's hard. Maybe I'm just a big grouch today, but as we get ready to start our next adoption my new plan is to just say "no" and throw dirt at their face.

NaBloPoMo?

There's this thing called NaBloPoMo (or something close to that). It makes you post every SINGLE day for the month of November (yeah, I didn't actually read what it was about). All I know is that the cool kids are doing it. I'm going to try.
Well this wasn't so bad. Look, it's already November 2nd and I'm a success. A pure success. So far.
What to write? Wait. Hold on a minute. I'm going to run upstairs and take a picture. I may have few thoughts, but I do have the world's best subject.


I'm back. Cute stuff going on up there, huh? Yes, my life has so much darn cuteness, it's difficult to take.
Lately, Judah has really been working on expressing feelings. He tells me all about how his stuffed animals are feeling. If they are "sad" he tells them to "cuddle me" and "hold me." Judah is a great caretaker.
He is also acutely aware of his emotional needs. Judah's daddy started working on a constructionish project yesterday. Judah didn't feel like all of his needs were being met. Here's a video of him explaining the situation:

(Transcription: Daddy, I want attention. Daddy, I want attention, daddy.)

Yes, the videography skills are all mine. Sadly.

Halloween 2009

Our little hamburger...


Flippin' our burger


Trick or treatin'



with Scooby

and a cute duck

the first taste

of Halloween goodness

and notice his super cute t-shirt?! :)

Judah's bedtime story

Once upon a time, a baby was born in Ethiopia.
His name was Tesfahun.
The world was so happy.
The stars danced. The moon glowed.
Tesfahun's mom was happy. She loved him.
More than mountains.
Taller than trees.
Bigger than oceans.

But, she was very sad too. She couldn't take care of him.
So, Nannies took care of him. The Nannies loved Tesfahun.
More than mountains.
Taller than trees.
Bigger than oceans.

Far away, in America, a mommy and daddy wanted a baby.
They searched and searched.
They flew in an airplane to Ethiopia and the moment they met Tesfahun,
they loved him.
More than mountains.
Taller than trees.
Bigger than oceans.

They promised the world and the stars and the moon,
they would take care of him always.
The mommy and daddy named him Judah. The mommy, daddy and baby Judah flew all the way home to America. Waiting for them to arrive was Judah's family. As soon as (I name his family members) met Judah,
they loved him.
More than mountains.
Taller than trees.
Bigger than oceans.

Now, every night all the people who love Judah look up at the dancing stars and glowing moon and smile because they are so happy that he was born to love
More than mountains.
Taller than trees.
Bigger than oceans.

Our Big News!

We are excited and thrilled and scared to announce:

We are growing our family!

We don't know any details yet (boy, girl, age, etc). We just know that there will be one more person in this crazy clan. We'll let you know the details as we figure them out :)

YAY! Judah's getting himself a sibling!

Note: I'm a Mrs. Flakeyflakerson. I have done some fun crafty stuff with J. I have. I just haven't posted. Perhaps it will be a one time per month gig :) We've been a bit busy with iHeartAdoption.
If you haven't had time, please take a peek.

Pumpkins!

Today we went to the Pumpkin Patch. It was goodness.










and just because I can't believe how he's grown, here's a picture from last year...

The Teacher

When I was little, my older sister and I played school. Yes, I got the coveted role as student. Well, to be honest, there were actually a lot of us students.
She would line us up (the stuffed animals and me) and we would sit VERY still and try to be well-behaved. We tried to be good students. We really did.

But, we couldn't do anything right.
We had never completed our imaginary homework from the night before.
We never answered the questions correctly (no matter how many times she explained the concept).
We were bad, bad students.

So, the stuffed animals and I would sit very still and hope not to be called on.
It was a strict program.

Last week, as Judah lined up his animals to read to them, I recalled what it felt like to be one of them, even though their teaching styles differ. Here's a peek at the reading program that Judah has started:



Here's a rough transcription:
"Night night! Question Mark. Question Mark. Here you go. Read a book. Read a book. Read a book. [Reads book] The End."

Thought you should know ...

I'm so touched and honored to be a tiny part of our Ethiopian adoption community. Seriously fabulous, supportive folks.

Today's realization:
I started blogging 2 1/2 years ago. That's a chunk of time, huh? Many of you have been in my life for YEARS now. I started blogging because I saw Amy Bottomly's blog and thought it was so darn cute and fun that I wanted to blog too. Then, you comforted and supported me tremendously during the year of our adoption process and celebrated his homecoming with us. It's been confirmed once again, for numerous reasons, that blogging has been an excellent use of the last 2 1/2 years :) I adore the strong, smart, opinionated and fabulous people I've met along our journey. Thank you.

As most of you know, Judah, Tommy and I put together a little baby book. We are super happy with how it turned out and have huge dreams of being able to drill a whole well in Ethiopia from the profits (ALL the profits are going to water).

If you don't know, click on the picture to the right (I Make the World Better).

Note:
If you sent me a picture and I was unable to use it, please know it was due to size/quality (I just passed all the pics on, so you can really blame my layout department :). Obviously we would have loved to have used all of them (as you know, ALL of our babes are absolutely stunning). Last year, when I sent Judah's pictures to the GAP, I was personally shocked and offended when he was not chosen. Ok, I'll be honest. I just haven't really liked GAP that much since. I want to be clear. I am not like GAP. I adore all of you and all of your gorgeous babies. Equally.

Much love to you all and THANK YOU...for everything.

Judah

liked his copy so much, he fell asleep holding it :)



Get your copy here:

www.iheartadoption.com