Car Seat Pundits!

So my daughter Matéa is 3 and a half. She is still learning to count to 20. She gets stuck on 13, 14 and 15....and when she says the alphabet she always says 'humanumapee". She needs help getting up and down from the potty and sits in the back seat of the car in her car seat....So, I am driving her home from preschool (she goes 3 days a week from 9-12). I am listening to Christian radio. She says "Mommy?" I say "What honey?" She says "John McCain is going to be our new president." I said "Really?" She says "Um Huh! And Rockababa will be a president next." I say "Really..you know a lot of people think Barack Obama will be president first." She said "No John McCain is first and then Rockababa because he has nice hair." Not sure what she meant by the hair comment but it was funny......

Concert in Amharic on 11/8!

Next saturday on our anniversary (11/8) Mark and I are performing with an Ethiopian Gospel Choir at Crosspointe Church at 6pm here in Cary. I am being asked to sing a song in Amharic and boy do I have my work cut out for me. The choir will also be taking two of our songs and singing parts of it in Amharic which should be super cool. Admission is free ...bring the kids.

My Little Oranges!

Amazing Night! I am so sorry that I am faltering on my blogging. I have been in NYC for almost a whole week. So, I may have mentioned before about a vision I had while in the process of adopting but I have to repeat it because tonight I received unbelievable confirmation from Grace.

Prior to the referral of our Ethiopian children I had been deep in prayer one day.... I prayed and prayed and in the middle of the day saw a winter scene where everything was white. And then the next scene I was in a hospital where the white snow had turned to bright white lights and then the next thing I knew I saw these beautiful brown hands and a hand full or oranges. I really believed it was the mother of my kids handing me her children as offerings etc. I later learned that I had that vision right around the same time the kids were put into the orphanage. I also learned about a book called the PERFECT ORANGE where an ethiopian girl gives a perfect orange to the king. So I thought the story was over.....We adopted our three children and found out that their mother had passed away a few years prior...so I believed my interpretation of the vision with the mother offering her children to me and therefore in approval and acceptance was all i needed.....

TOnight (about a year and a half after the vision) I am speaking with my daughter Grace. She is helping me in the kitchen. We were talking about names. And then I said "did they call you Ejigay in Ethiopia?" She said "No mom we call each other silly names. I call my agoat (uncle) funny names...My mom always call me a name that everyone then call me all the time and we laugh...she call me ' bustacon' ...you know that mean ...ORANGE!" I said "orange like the color...?" She says "Mommy no...orange like the food"....I am standing in the fridge getting the milk and I literally had chills running all over myself...She said "Mom...all the time my mom call me bustacon and then everybody knows to call me bustacon..I like bustacon mommy..." Then Ella heard and said "sometimes mom call me bustacon too..." So I realize she knows more english now and is learning about prayer and Jesus...so I explain the vision and said...I knew that bustacon was important to her mom. I tell her about the vision..she says "How you see that?" I explain about prayer some more......and then later that night we read a book coincidentally about angels and the concept of Jesus allowing her mom to show me oranges..made her so happy and she had a smile on her face all night...we talked about angels all night....she went to bed saying "I love you so much..." I said "good night Bustacon"......

The Finger!

Sometimes the conversations and prayers at the dinner table just makes me laugh. First off, our two youngest (Matea and Jared) are totally hijacking prayer time at dinner. It usually starts off with a loud fight with who is going to pray first. Today Jared won and then he prayed "Thank you jesus for mom make breakfas fo dinna lasa night." (I made chocolate pancakes and an omelette the night before which everyone loved)...He then said "And thank you for teacha's an my new cahh (meaning car)..fo ginooo shai.." Then Matea says "SANK YOU for (she names everyone at the table) and my new baby doll..." Then she looks up and screams at whoever giggles at her...this goes on for 10 minutes until we all yell 'IN JESUS NAME WE PRAY AMEN!"...so tonight I finally got really tired of Jared pointing with his middle finger. He is 6 and has been here for awhile and it is getting out of hand (pardon the pun). So 15 minutes of dinner conversation was about which is the appropriate pointing finger...I then say "Middle finger. This finger." Holding up my middle finger for all to see..."No good for pointing"...then everyone picks up their middle finger to show me....and then I say , while grabbing Jared's appropriate pointing finger as he points to the mashed potatoes..."THIS is the finger you point with." Grace holds up her middle finger."Mom this finger no good in etiopia too. NO GOOD" THis finger is good....I of course never told them why..but there were 8 of the bad fingers going up at one time until we all agreed we would try harder not to use THAT finger to point..I even sent Jared's teacher a note to help us reinforce the middle finger situation...I don't want to see him at 10 using that finger...I figure since he is just 6 we can work on it....certain things you would never imagine having to fix.

Jared is 6!

JARED's SUPER CHARMING.....




Today we had about 10 little kids over. They were mostly boys from his class with the exception of our girls and one adorable little SUPER GIRL named Sydney. I sched the party for 10:30-12. Jared was up at 6 really rowdy and loud. Everyone came to the party late..but by 11 they were all playing in their super hero costumes in our backyard with their foam swords..Jared had a blast. He was so happy. Mark and I were exhausted for the entire rest of the day. But it was very special....here are some pics....

I'm Charming! Happy Birthday Jared!

So Jared just turned 6 TODAY! He also just cracks me up. He has been dressing up with a foam sword and yelling "I'm Charming!" What he means to say is "I'm just like Prince Charming!" Matea will be dressed like a princess and he will put on his sword again and yell "I'm Charming!" He is extremely charming but it is just too funny. So , today we brought in cupcakes to his school. He was so thrilled and had to introduce Mark to everyone in his class. Tonight we had a real treat. The ZOE TEAM (Zimbabwe Orphan Endeavour mission team) decided to thank us by bringing a full meal to us. (Mark and I had performed for a concert for them). So tonight we had this incredible meal. The mission team is from the First United Methodist Church. From my experience the Methodists (my grandma Jones was methodist) make the best food ever. And there is always plenty of food. So we had chocolate cake and the most amazing oatmeal cookies ever for dessert.

I asked Grace if she remembered the day Jared was born. Ella said she was just a baby so she couldn't remember. Grace said that her mom had the baby at her grandma's house. And she remembers her grandma and mom arguing over whether it was going to be a girl or a boy. Her mom was sure it was going to be a boy. Her grandmother wanted another grandaughter. She said Jared had a party once in Ethiopia and was given a chicken toy for a present. We all laughed because we weren't sure what she meant by chicken toy....I also had made ginger tea when they were in school. They smelled it and then screeched just like it was Christmas and said "Ginjo Shy"...."Ginger Chai". Apparently they used to drink tea all the time over there...VERY VERY SWEET! So we will be making that again for them...Jared has a big birthday party on saturday where the kids will be dressed as super heroes or princesses..Jared is also the first child of mine to ever want a co-ed party. He has invited many girls.....so he really is CHARMING.....