Happy Thanksgiving!!!

we are thankful for all of our children from all over the world to little ol kansas, we are blessed!!!!( Mahlet's swim lesson and Harry got dreads in honor of his sis, did not last long)we will be spending the weekend with family and friends, Happy Thanksgiving!!!

caution: overly emotinal woman

i must confess my love for this child, who would have known she would bring so much love and joy to our home, i truly cry at night watching her sleep, thanking God for who she is, her kisses that last for several minutes, how she continually is telling me "good job mommy" and rushes to help me complete anything i am doing with pure joy,happy, happy, happy and how she makes my husband weak in the knees, and how my kids are crazy for her! we are truly blessed to have her in our family!last night i was starting to get out christmas stuff and she saw mary and joseph and baby jesus which led to the christmas story, then the cross, she was in tears, truly understanding what i was saying and she was crying for jesus, i was as overwhelmed as she was, she has a great understanding of birthdays because she has had 2 in the past 2 months, so to say she is excited for jesus birthday is an understatement, we repeated her birthday because she had only been home a week and we had celebrated quietly, this time it was chucke cheese,riding all the rides, her brothers winning her 600 tickets for that "special necklace" in about 45 minutes, pizza, soda, balloons, eating her cake like cookie monster, thanks to her brothers, and dancing, and of course wearing her favorite ehtiopian dresses, it was wonderful!!!!! we are thankful!!!!!

okay, so i'm 41

there i said it on paper, i am into my forties, sure, i'm okay with this, uh hmmmmm, anyway, my kiddos and their girlfriends celebrated with me, i was missing my oldest son in college, we still had fun, Mahlet was VERY upset it was my birthday, even though we celebrated hers already, i think we had been home such a short time she didn't even know what was going on, so i tried to explain everyone has a birthday, she's next! so we will be re-doing her birthday, she is very excited, she is still doing very well, i can't believe it, she is still not ready for me to leave her except with my mom, we are doing little mommy and me classes, hopefully this will help her adjust slowly to being away from me, remember, i'm an older mom, i need little breaks away from my mini me

so she does like candy....

Mahlet has found candy and chocolate and soda to be quite delicious, up until sat night( we were pirates) she wanted nothing to do with sugar, well things have changed!!!!!! woo hoo for her, not me, darn, was hoping she would keep that habit, she still eats very healthy, she is doing great adjusting to all the new things in her life, she even is interested in horses, yea!!! and school, i think she is missing all her little friends from Hannah's Hope, she keeps telling me she wants to go to school like her siblings, but she won't let me out of her sight, so we will see... enjoy the rest of the fall

Our family of 7 and our newly 20 yr old son!

finally a photo of all 7 of us and my oldest who turned 20, who i had 20 years ago, on octber 20th!

JOY

this child continues to amaze me, she is always joyful, unless it's bedtime or that new pink dress in the store i had to say no to, she is truly remarkable, and so resilent, i would never know she has had such a painful past, and her past makes her this incredible person, you can just tell she has experienced so much, when we pick apples or garden she knows what she is doing, she cleans and organizes like crazy and will start setting the table when i start cooking, she has so much pride in her, i marvel at all of this she is just plain fun to be around, now i am not saying i am not exausted, and best of all she loves any kind of food, the food you would never eat with your 4 yr old and of course reminds me to pray before every meal,she is teaching me about JOY, living each day and enjoying the little things, this is her favorite pink scarf that we got in Ethiopia that she loves to wear and sleep with, thanking God for my sweet daughter all the way from Africa

our new red dress

we are all still adjusting, quiet time is getting better, sleep? well she ends up in the hallway on the floor after visiting everyone all night long, english is amazing and she is eating more and more things, she loves lunch out and shopping, and anything sparkly, her attachment to us has been instant, thank you God, and she remains very very joyful!!!!