"I wanna have friends that I can trust, that love me for the man I’ve become not the man I was. I wanna have friends that will let me be all alone when being alone is all that I need. I wanna fit in to the perfect space, feel natural and safe in a volatile place."

- The Avett Brothers

Sunday, April 17, 2011

You Can Take the Boy Out of Sidama

But you can't take the Sidama out of the boy.




Ashagre loves to garden.  He is deft with a hoe and will weed for hours.  He loves to water the plants with our little metal watering can.  He recognized the corn plants at the nursery and demanded that we buy and plant some.  He can't wait for his corn to grow big so he can eat it.  The other day he asked if his corn would be big when he woke up if he went to sleep.  When reading our E is for Ethiopia book (H is for House, a hut very much like the ones found throughout Sidama), we talk about his home in Sidama and the corn that grew near his hut.  Alone time for Ashagre is spent outside picking oranges, watering plants, watching the chickens, and gathering eggs.  If you are quiet, you can sneak a peek as he putters around the backyard; he is peaceful.

Ashagre's relatives and neighbors in Sidama were farmers.  I am so happy to be able to encourage this connection to his life back in Ethiopia.
Posted by at
Labels:

5 comments:

  1. barb_alootApril 18, 2011 at 5:53 AM

    I love it! My 2 year old son and I have been pottering around the garden a lot lately. It's a great family activity, and how wonderful that for Ashagre, it's a connection to his previous life and community too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Me. Us. She.April 18, 2011 at 10:47 AM

    For whatever reason this post makes me weepy. In a good and bad way. I wonder how it makes you feel to watch him garden? That would have been his life. Our kids all lose so much - but gain as well. It's hard to unravel it all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. wendymetdaveApril 18, 2011 at 3:08 PM

    Master gardener!

    ReplyDelete
  4. dcoreyApril 18, 2011 at 9:44 PM

    @ Me.Us.She. Yes, this is definitely a bittersweet post for me, especially knowing more details of Ashagre's story and how he came to be our son. Farming/gardening is a deeply ingrained theme in his story. Watching him garden is a bit like peering into his private thoughts. I like to peek once in a while to make sure he stays in that peaceful spot, but I also really feel its important not to intrude and to let him have that time to process and be in his own moment. It fills me with love for him - the whole him - past, present, and future.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Me. Us. She.April 25, 2011 at 10:44 AM

    Note to self, do not read our perfect space posts or comments with PMS. Now I'm very weepy at your comment above. How did you get to be so wise? You are making adoptive parenting look easy (and not in a fluffy/surface way but in a deep understanding way.) If that makes sense.

    And one off topic comment - your blogroll on the right is my exact blog roll, plus or minus only 1 or 2 blogs. I've never read a blog with a blog roll so closely mirroring my own.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)