The Dog Days of Summer are Dwindling

School starts here in Denver in one week- so there is one week of summer left with 5 kids- but this week is filled with dentist appointments, dermatology appointments, Yabsera's surgery to remove his extra finger and other events. So I feel a bit melancholy that the summer- the only summer I have ever been home with all my kids is about to end. And I guess I feel that I wish we had done more- it seems whenever we tried to do certain things something backfired and we were not able. So many days I was left feeling a bit frustrated. And of course it was not what I had imagined- but what is? Our trip to Rochester was probably the highlight. We never did get to go camping and we love camping. We did just spend a weekend with Mark's Office in the mountains and that was nice in its own way. All 7 of us stuffed in a hotel room could have been recipe for disaster but it was actually fun- we got a movie on the TV and bought snacks and watched a movie together- the two little ones slept.But it all worked out. Maren is talking so much- most people can't believe he has only been home two months. He is even starting to refer to himself as "I". So usually the conversation will go something like this:
"Maren do you see the horse?"
"Horse Maren I see you no" (which means, "no I don't see the horse” If he sees it he says, "Horse Maren I see you")
But now we can catch him saying, "I see you no Horse" which is closer to correct. He keeps telling us stories from Ethiopia- these are hard to understand because there are more hand motions and grunts and usually an Ethiopian (either Amharic or Wolitan) word thrown in there somewhere that we don't understand. He now refers to himself with his "American" name even in stories from Ethiopia - which we find odd- he has completely taken on the new name to the point where he talks as if it was always his name. Maren is his usual dramatic self!I have been working on my DVD which covers the trip we took to Sodo and he LOVES to watch this and talks about the women who cared for him way back in February. We are trying to piece together what little we know of his life for him- but it’s hard because we have some conflicting stories and the time line is a bit odd. I think they it might make sense that we think he might be older- because he has talked about when the cow hurt him how his Mommy helped him- but his Mommy should have been gone by then...unless, and its entirely possible- this was a new mommy...an Auntie or Granny. I still plan to post again more about the Sodo trip due to popular demand and because many families are not able to make the trip.

Finally, we are hosting our "End Summer Colorado Ethiopian Adoption Picnic" this coming weekend. We have 76 RSVPs! But our house is small- so pray for good weather. It should be a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing all of the growing families! Since Last January we have at least a dozen new kiddos home from Ethiopia! Say "Hi" to my bookends...my teenager and my baby! (and he is wearing her overalls! but since he is busting out of them we figured we had better take a picture...)