Idaho: Day Five

Picking huckleberries on the side of a mountain somewhere in the National Forest - the essence of summer in Idaho, shared with my Ethiopian kiddos.  Ashagre was completely in his element tromping through the forest picking berries, and Elsa did a good job making sure we didn't have to compete with any bears for our berries with her loud singing (yes, she was singing Michael Franti songs) and shouting.  Can't wait for vanilla ice cream and huckleberries for desert tonight!

Mission accomplished.

Idaho: Days Two Through Four

The Michael Franti show did not disappoint!  Ashagre had a blast running around with his friends from Ethiopia, and Elsa danced her heart out with Grandma Robin.  AND...The kids got to SHAKE MICHAEL FRANTI'S HAND!  I think Elsa is in love and any other concert she may attend in the future will be nothing but a disappointment.


I did not cry, but I did have one of those sublime this is why I wanted to be a mommy moments when Ashagre, after hearing the one song he was waiting to hear, The Sound of Sunshine, looked at me and said, "Mommy, I'm tired.  Let's snuggle."  The two of us curled up on one end of the blanket we had been sitting on, he buried his head in my chest and fell fast asleep - just like the first night we slept together at the guesthouse in Ethiopia.

Can you see the joy in my mom's face?  She LOVES having the kids around.

Ashagre had SO MUCH fun with his friends Alex and Melkam.

My mom danced with Elsa all night long.  I don't
know how she wasn't sore the next morning.

Enjoying the moment - snuggling with my boy while enjoying
the sounds of Franti.

We spent the next day with the Manning clan, including their three Ethiopian kiddos.  Ashagre got to sleep over in the boys' room and I enjoyed listening to his giggles of delight as they woke up together and started their day with a little goofiness.  The Mannings were fabulous hosts with a lovely breakfast on the porch, a walk to the neighborhood park, and then an afternoon out on Lake Pend Oreille on their boat.  Elsa and Ashagre tried tubing for the first time and all us parents got a much needed hour or so to catch up and compare notes as the kids swam off the back of the boat and had wars with noodles.  The kids also attended an arts and crafts fair with my parents where they painted, make cars out of scraps, and got their faces painted.

The wonderful Manning threesome.

All painted up and ready for the boat.

Trying out the tube.  They didn't realize that it would be sent out
behind the boat and opted to watch their friends do it first before
they gave it a try.

Alex and Ashagre took the first turn.  Alex was really supportive
of Ashagre and made sure to let us know when Ashagre got scared
and was ready to come in.

Waiting for their turn.

Elsa and Melkam are ready for some speed.

Ashagre was feeling braver on the second turn and he and Elsa had a blast.

After the afternoon on the lake we cruised up Schweitzer Mountain to my family's condo.  It was late and we had had a long day, so we pretty much went straight to bed, but the next morning we enjoyed the fresh mountain air, bright sunshine, and the smell of the pine forest as we took a ride on the chairlift to the top of the mountain and went on a short hike along the ridge.  The kids loved the chairlift and weren't even remotely scared.

The obligatory mom and dad requested photo with plenty of attitude.

Elsa showing off her hiking dirty after taking a
digger on the hiking trail.

Catching grasshoppers and katydids. 

Almost done with the hot hike back up.

This afternoon we made it bak to grandma and grandpa's big blue house and we're enjoying a little down time - if you define down time as a screeching Elsa throwing herself on you so you tickle her until she can't stand it any longer.

First Day in Idaho (Nearly Wordless)

Helping Grandpa Corey mow the back field. 

Looking for big orange pumpkins in Farmer Doug's
crops behind my parent's house.

Not pictured: the nearly 2 hour game of Trouble played by the four of us and ice cream on the front porch after a long day of swimming.  Tomorrow its hiking, maybe some rock wall climbing and a ride on a chairlift before we meet up with the Mannings for the Michael Franti concert.  Saturday's shaping up to be another beach day, this time with lots of new friends and some boat rides.  Sunday Uncle Shea has offered to carve out some time for us and show us the best place to pick huckleberries.  After that - there's absolutely nothing planned.  The kids seem to be getting the best of what northern Idaho has to offer.

Good Parents or Good Kids?

Definitely good kids!  The kids were awesome on their 24+ hour flight to their new home.

All ready to go home!  Saying goodbye to one of the guards at the guesthouse.

In the van that would take us on our last trip through Addis to the airport.

I have to admit I had a knot in my stomach for the entire first flight from Addis Ababa to Dubai since Ashagre had a pretty dramatic meltdown in Bole Airport (in Ethiopia) before we boarded our first plane.  He was sick of waiting around the airport since we arrived too early and mad that we expected him to share his bottle of water with Elsa, even though they had shared a bottle of water with no problems the day before.  He decided he would let the entire airport know just how mad he was.  Eventually, an Ethiopian woman that worked for Emirates took him into a special little room and he came out with fist-fulls of cake and a small can of coke.  She smiled and told us that he would "be fine now."  While well intentioned, this was NOT helpful, because she very clearly rewarded him for his ridiculous behavior.  It was so apparent that he had been rewarded too - he had almost pulled himself together when he saw the cake lady again, looked right at her, and immediately started wailing at the top of his lungs again.  Brent and I have found that it is best to stay close to him but ignore his behavior when he is melting down.  However, I think that approach made many of the Ethiopians in the airport uncomfortable, and we started to feel like we were jerk farangi parents robbing this cute, wailing little boy from his country.   Elsa was her normal smiling, attention-loving self, and rode out the long wait in the airport like a champ.

A fun side note - we taught the kids how to ride the escalator at Bole airport and they thought it was SO COOL.  We rode the same escalator 5 times each with them getting more confident with each ride.  At one point, Ashagre got so excited that he did his little happy dance and shouted, "Yes, yes, yes!"   It's a good thing we practiced too because we had to ride several escalators/people-movers in the L.A. airport as part of a large departing crowd and they were comfortable old-pros by the time we got there.

Ashagre was pretty excited about the plane and pulled it together by the time we boarded our flight for Dubai.  The entire 4 hour flight from Addis to Dubai was spent pushing as many buttons as possible on the in-flight entertainment systems.  Thank you in-flight entertainment.   You definitely saved us.  By the time we got to Dubai, it was WAY past the kids' bedtime and both kids were dosing off on the shuttle bus from our plane to our next departure gate.  We grabbed some complimentary strollers at the airport, and the kids got a kick out of being pushed around in them.  I think we also avoided some major turmoil by not asking them to navigate the Dubai airport on foot.  The kids colored and whined a bit during our wait for our next flight, but nothing that wouldn't be expected of any kid that was up at 2 am.

The 16 hour flight from Dubai to L.A. really couldn't have gone any smoother.  The kids both fell asleep watching the first movie we put on for them.  The slept in all kinds of crazy positions for 6-8 hours (my favorite was Elsa bent at the waist with the upper half of her body resting on her seat facing the back of the plane with her feet still standing on the floor).  When they woke up I was sure they wouldn't be able to sit in their seats for the remaining 8-9 hours of our flight, but they totally did.  Thanks again for in-flight entertainment.  They watched movies and pushed buttons and did a little coloring for the rest of the flight.  The flight attendants on Emirates were awesome - super attentive and careful to make sure the kids' had new experiences throughout the flight.  They even gave the kids big hugs as we departed.

When we got off the plane, a fellow passenger commented on how well they did on such a long flight.  He then went on to say it was a reflection of our parenting.  I literally looked at him and said, "I doubt that; we've only been doing this for a couple of weeks.  We have no idea what we're doing.  They're just great kids."

Ashagre was so excited to see our car (he loves machinas) that he once again jumped up and down and screamed, "Yes, yes, yes!"  Both kids hopped right in their carseats with no protest and rode quietly (I think they were just soaking it all in) in the back until they passed out.  When we got to the house they both seemed a little shell-shocked but seemed excited to see their new home.

Meeting the dogs did not go so well - we didn't expect it too.  Elsa broke into a pretty uncontrollable sob when Brent let them out into the backyard, even though she was in the front yard with a fence separating her from them.  They are both VERY leery of the the dogs and we have the dogs confined to our bedroom with a pet gate right now.  Hopefully the kids will grow more accustomed to them over the next few days because the pups are pretty sad that they can't meet them (Lola is currently whining in our bedroom because she hears Brent and the kids playing in the kids' room) and we have really missed the dogs and would love for them to be part of our big happy family.

A couple of last tidbits before I wrap this up:

In the L.A. airport, a man working for security identified Ashagre as Ethiopian.  "Now that boy's gotta be from Sidama," he said to me, "Wondo Genet?"  Shocked that he had gotten so close to Ashagre's birthplace, I smiled and told him that Ashagre was from Sidama but that the town closest to his home was Yerga Alem.  It turns out that the man's mother was Ethiopian.  He spoke with the kids in Amharic and asked tons of questions.  It was our first experience being asked lots of questions about the kids' pasts.  I can't say that we did so well; in retrospect, I wish I would have protected their privacy a little more.  It was hard because this man knew Ethiopia so well and was so enamored with the kids.  I bet it was comforting to the kids to meet someone that could speak to them in their language after traveling for 20+ hours away from their birthplace.

As we left L.A. Ventura's lack of racial diversity became more glaringly apparent than it has ever been to me before.  The only black person we saw was a man in the back of a police car - both Brent and I shared uncomfortable glances as the cop car passed us.  We're definitely going to have to put in some work to ensure that the kids' have the opportunity to interact with and see people that look like them in their daily lives.

So that's it, we're home.  It's REAL.  No turning back now!

And...since we couldn't post any pictures from Ethiopia here's a couple of gratuitous shots for ya:

Chalk with Daddy.

Fun in the Land Cruiser during our trip south to Sidama.

Yes, she definitely knows how cute she is.

Puzzles!  Lots and lots of puzzles.

A family of 4.  We'll work on getting a better picture.  This one was
taken more as lesson for Ashagre then for a good picture.