Coming home from my in-laws tonight I took Dailah, Trysten and Tomas with me in one car, Zach took the other 2 with him. Somehow we got on the subject of singing (I think I asked Tomas if he remembered any of the songs he used to sing in Ethiopia.) So Tomas tells me he has an even better song for me (you won’t be able to see anything, it was shot in the back of a dark car).

Then Dailah proceeded to sing maybe the cutest rendition of her preschool song called, “Good morning”.

When I asked Trysten if he had a song he wanted to sing he commenced to singing, “All my single ladies”.

Well, I tried.

Today the kids and I took a little road trip to the great city of Waterloo, Iowa to meet with a few fellow Ethiopian adoptive families.

Tamara arranged it (thank you sweet Tamara) which is never an easy task.

Anyway, Tomas and Binyam loved seeing a few familiar faces (both Ethiopian and American) and I loved meeting new mamas who have that same crazy look in their eyes as I do. (What is that look anyway? Lunacy? Sleep deprivation? What?)

But one of my oldest friends just told me the other day she likes my posts with pictures more than words (this girl has loved me since the 2nd grade, if she hates when I “talk” then you all can’t possibly like it either) so here you go, Pit. The pictures.

This one had the ladies eating out of his hand (and by that I mean carrying him around). And really how could he not?

Take a look at that last picture. Had to zoom in on Tariku’s cuteness and the impromptu kiss little Bini gave his big sister. Yes, I do so love them.

Lots of fun, let’s do it again next week! And if you’re an Iowan family (or close enough) interested in our little outings, leave a comment or email me and we’ll get you in on the fun. It’s like the babysitters club but cooler.

One of my favorite things about adopting an older child is how they call you out on your junk. For instance, when we started decorating for Halloween, Tomas looks at me, “Mommy, why we do this? Why this in the house?” Well, there really was no explanation as to why I was in the middle of hanging little pumpkin tinsel. I just looked at him, “When you’re in America, you’ll notice Americans do a lot of crazy things that make no sense. Run with the ones you like, leave the ones you don’t.”

This past weekend at my parent’s house the kids got to carve a pumpkin. Tomas looked at me, “Why we do this?” I reminded him of the crazy Americans. He seemed to accept that as a justifiable reason as to why we would gut a perfectly good food item and carve it out to scare little children. I, on the other hand, have become increasingly skeptical of some of our traditions. 🙂

But they were stinkin cute regardless. Oh, we also got to decorate cookies, now that makes sense.

Last picture of Zach before he left…folding his socks. This, this is my foreplay. Which is mildly disturbing but also mildly true. Or maybe it’s the smile? Probably it’s the combination of both.

Shonda (go to her blog, she has one of the most beautiful families I’ve ever seen) tagged me on this survey. I’ve been trying to figure out a blog post the past few days. Not that I don’t have unlimited funnies/crazies throughout the day to tell you but I always forget the next day. So here is something harmless, kind of fun. Enjoy.

1) What is your biggest pet peeve? Hmmm. I’m not actually sure on that. Perhaps my kids chewing with their mouths open? That ranks right up there with the biggest anyway.

2) If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be and why? Well this changes from time to time honestly. Right now it’d probably be Colorado because 2 people I love are there (my husband, away on business and Jody who made the selfish decision to actually move there. 😉 ) Truth be told, though, I’m kind of one of those people who loves wherever they’re at in the moment. So right now I want to be right where I am because I have gathered all of my family around me like some freakish cult. And because I live a pretty darn good life.

3) Have you ever been searched by the cops? Well no, but admittedly I’ve probably come close. There are a few really funny stories that I would need to get release forms from the responsible parties before sharing here. Don’t let me sound cooler than I am, I was/am a “good girl”. Or, at the very least, a “bad girl” who was supremely cautious and careful and lucky to have never been caught. 😉

4) What is the one thing on your mind right now? My hubby. I just skyped with him (had to keep it PG, the kids were around, you know how it is). My life is infinitely more dull and boring without him. I swear I remember fall being the most colorful season around here but until he comes home, I’m firmly believing the sky is gray, the leaves are gray and all hope is gone from the world. 🙂

5) Favorite song right now? Again, this changes by the second. Anything by Ray Lamontagne. When I’m cleaning I’ve been known to go back in time to some classic Shedaisy (what happened to them?) When I want to jam out with the kids I turn XM to 90s on 9 and am bound to hear Ice Ice Baby. If someone were to take a peak into my ITunes selection they would swear it was owned by someone with multiple personalities…which is probably true on most days.

6) What talent do you wish you had? That would have to be singing-while-hitting-the-right-note. That would be amazeballs. My brother-in-law Jake can do some amazing shin slaps which would be kind of cool too. Overall I’m happy with the balance God gave me in life: ability to dance to anything-inability to sing. It all evens out.

7) Favorite drink? Boring…water. Though I do enjoy a good couple glasses of Merlot as well.

8) In one word how would you describe yourself? Yikes. I don’t do one word. If something can be said in one word, I’ll choose to say it in 10. Obviously. I digress, the word would probably be “blessed”. Because, isn’t it obvious? Amazing, hot husband. 5 hilarious, kind children. 2 dogs who presently need a bath but overall are pretty precious. Extended family who make the world a better place. Friends who love me regardless of my crazy antics. And above all of that, a God who still loves me despite being a severely flawed, disappointing human being.

Well that was fun.

Now I pick 8 people to do the same thing.

1) Rebekah – because she’s Rebekah and she says things like “we don’t allow ourselves the purity of love with them”. (Will explain later.)
2) Beth– because I miss her and she’s smart and beautiful and wonderful and an amazing baker.
3) Leslie– because she’s my sister and one of my very best friends.
4) Sarah– because her kids are beautiful, her words are beautiful and she gave me some life giving info on our boys before we could pick them up.
5) Cathy– because she always has funny things to say and she’s dealing with bronchitis and puke over in Colorado (she also might be the third reason I want to live there right now.)
6) Miss Effie– because she is smart, beautiful, generous, has hens that lay the most delicious eggs this side of the Mississippi and because she is proof to me that one voice can be mighty!
7) Jess– because she needs a reason to blog too. 🙂 And because I can’t wait to go visit her and #1 very soon!
8) Blueberry’s mama– because I will forever be indebted to her for something she did for our whole family. Oh, and she also happens to be smart, beautiful and the proud mama of some amazing individuals.

So Zach took the following picture one day. Sometimes I even surprise the man I’ve been married to for nearly a decade at my fashion-forward sense. But actually, Zach took this picture for probable bribery reasons.

Perhaps this is why I’m always watching TV and laughing at the “stay at home moms” portrayed. Really? I haven’t seen high heels in my house for months and I only put on make up when I’m feeling particularly frisky.

This is motherhood. This is a day when you start out wearing cute PJs (purple) and then find out it dropped 30 degrees overnight. This is also when you just remembered it’d been one…maybe two days since you last showered. This is the outfit you wear in this job where at any moment you might be plunging poop out of a toilet, getting puked on, doing 10 loads of laundry and 20 minutes of dishes.

This is my uniform. What’s yours?

that’s what I’ve seen most from my Binyam the last few days. And somehow this major surgery has found him turning a corner. He’s talking more, being more engaged and aware. We are starting to see more of his personality. I think truly, there might have been a part of him that wondered whether we had noticed his feet. And that, when we noticed, we might turn him away. But now he’s seen that we not only knew about his feet but wanted to help him with it. And then not only helped him with it but stayed with him through it. And we carry him around all day. And take him to the bathroom. And administer drugs. And tell his siblings to make way for him.

I think he likes whatever “family” means.

So he’s gotten goofier. At first we thought it was the pain meds (and mostly it probably was). But now we’re noticing that’s just him. And it’s beautiful.

And so is his resilience. I have no doubts that if the roles were reversed, I’d be sitting on the couch sobbing at my hand in life. Not this kid. This kid isn’t sitting anywhere, this kid is taking that hand he was dealt and playing a sweet ass game of poker with it. And when I see him live life, all I can think is simply…

I want in.

Bini’s doing well. Had a great night of sleep last night. Only waking up once whimpering with pain (he had slept through his dose of pain meds, I think that’s a good sign in and of itself!). Today he could be found moving around on his butt, keeping up with his siblings. Also, when I was making PBJs fresh dinner, I turned around and found he had slid down the stairs all by himself (on purpose). He.is.amazing.

After a weekend at my parents the kids were less than stellar. This could be to blame for the copious amounts of chocolate I’ve consumed in such a short amount of time.

And scene.

Binyam is doing pretty well.

His surgery took just about 4 hours yesterday. After an hour and a half the nurse (who has taken a few of my classes, this felt like a huge blessing to me to know someone in there with my baby) called to let us know the doctor was still on the first foot. The doctor had actually never seen anything like Bini’s foot. The anatomy was just different, so he was taking his time so that he would *hopefully* not have to have any more surgeries. The nurse called out a few more times to let us know things were going along.

When the doc came out he explained the difference in Bini’s foot and let us know he was happy with the procedure. Doc said Bini might still have a bit of a kidney stone shape to his foot but it’s probably something most people won’t even notice.

We got to go see him a few minutes later. Unfortunately, he had already opened his eyes and freaked out a bit that we weren’t there. But this was him.

He did ok in recovery, they even let all of his siblings come back and say hello. He cried just a bit when Dailah came back, I’m assuming because we all do that when we’re in a tough spot and someone we love so much finally comes to us. He was going to be transferred to the other hospital in the ambulance and since he’s a bit more attached to me we decided I’d go. Zach left to take our stuff to the room and I waited with him for the ambulance. Well, a few minutes later he started freaking out (probably coming off the anestetic). Pulling at his casts, swinging his arms, flailing, crying. Ugh. I started ugly crying and asking the nurses to give him something to calm him down. When they wouldn’t I just started to lift him up. “Well then I need to hold him, he needs me to hold him.” The nurse started to scramble around unhooking him from various wires.

The second I had him fully in my arms rocking in the chair he calmed down, he was still silently tear dropping but he was calm. Full breath in, full breath out, this was the first time I thought he might be ok.

The medics came and he started panicking again when they put him on the bed. BUT, he thoroughly enjoyed the ambulance ride, even giving me a handful of smiles I had yet to see.

When we got to his room we decided I’d rock with him. He threw up a little bit (mostly phlem) and then settled down. Quick funny story, when we first got to the room he was in pain so the nurse came in and gave him morphine. Once it hit he looked at the nurse, gave her a little smile and then shook his fingers and his head (it’s a classic move of his for those that know him). It means simply, “I like you, I like this business you’re throwing at me.” It.was.hilarious.

He’s done pretty well since then actually. I can certainly tell when the meds are starting to wear off. Though he doesn’t have the verbage to tell me directly, he starts crying more and arching his back a bit. We finally came up with “little owie” or “big owie” and that seems to be working. The only problem is he doesn’t ever tell me when it starts to hurt, only when it’s bad so he has to wait for the medicine to kick in.

Yesterday we did have a pretty hilarious moment when he had to go to the bathroom really bad and there was not a nurse in sight. I’m pretty sure I broke an IV stand when I was pulling it with all my mama strength so that he could just get one freakin break in the day go to the bathroom.

Had a pretty rough night, which is to be expected obviously. I had to be touching him at all times but I rolled off the bed a few times and then tried to just pull my bed next to his and put my arm around him. This seemed to work just fine but I kept sleeping through his first whimpers and so by the time I heard him crying he was in a lot of pain.

But now we’re awake, he’s watching some cartoons, eating some chocolate pudding (the only thing he’ll eat).

I’ve been humbled by the outpouring of love and support. We have an amazing community both locally and globally who were surrounding our little guy in prayer, what an awesome feeling. We even got a note from the director of the care center the boys were in. “Here in Ethiopia all of the staff members of care center 2 are praying for Bini. Let God Bless Him!” That was just awesome.

I think all of that led to him looking like this today.

Last night I texted Zach, “Thanks for agreeing to adopt these boys with me. I can’t believe how much I love them already.” I surprised even myself how natural it felt to snuggle in with him, how easy it felt to insert my motherly instinct into his medical care. How easy it was to carry him to and fro the bathroom, with his wee getting on my pants and toes and thinking nothing of it. How I didn’t hesitate when he patted the bed next to him-soaked with urine-and asked me to cuddle.

So good to see him a little more like himself this morning. He is one strong freakin kid. And precious and loving and a stealer of hearts.

He just went back. I was so thankful they gave him a little Versed (sp) so he was loopy/chill when they took him back. It was actually quite hilarious too. It was better on me him to have him not remember what was happening. He only reached for us once with a little wince before he was out of sight. Oh, and I only cried a little bit, no ugly cry yet. Score!

We’ve been thinking about this day for so long but it’s here and now I’m just anxious to see his little face post-surgery. They have a computer that tells us the progress on “the patient”. Right now it says he’s in his room. My momma brain is delusional and thinks this means he’s yelling for me and they haven’t started yet. 🙂 More likely he’s completely passed out and they’ve started on the first foot.

But I’m not the only one who’s been thinking about it. Last week I came downstairs to find Trysten had made this notation to the lunch menu. It reads, “Pray for Bini” with a down face.

That was completely unprompted and made me cry just a little bit to think how much this little boy affects us all.

I will update when he’s in recovery. Until then, here’s a little video of our otherwise sane little boy all looped up on the miracle drug Versed.