Family Day

Can you believe it?  Yesterday, April 5th, was the one year anniversary of the day we met our kiddos in Addis Ababa.  Family Day or Gotcha Day, whichever term you prefer.  Wow.  One year.  On one hand it seems crazy that it's been a year already, and on the other I can't fathom life without them--so they must have always been here, right?

Yesterday Brandy had to be in the truck overnight.  Saturday Brandy had to work part of the day and we had Easter plans for late that afternoon.  Sunday of course was full of Easter fun.  So we celebrated Gotcha Day on Friday night.

I wasn't sure how to go about celebrating.  With Jaden, we've always kept Gotcha Day pretty low key.  But he was little, so I didn't know if we'd vamp it up for when he was older.  I had one idea that fell through that I hope to implement next year.  But otherwise we decided to keep it low-key again.  For our bio kids, their Birthday is also their Gotcha Day.  But for our adopted kids they have 2 days.  And each one of them is of the same importance.  So for us, for now, to acknowledge it as a Family Day together works better.

So we were off to the Ethiopian restaurant.  It's a little further away now that we've moved, but still quite do-able.  Embarassingly, we hadn't been there in over a year!  In other words, we hadn't taken Svanna, Gabe and Summer there.  I think we would have if they'd expressed more of an interest in Ethiopian food.

Svanna especially...I think maybe it's because it involves piecing together her past with her present and future.  And so she doesn't care much for Ethiopian food, and doesn't get excited about it.  We've had it a few times since they've been home (made by other adoptive families) and she--nor Gabe or Summer--wasn't thrilled to have it.  Even though the next day she said she had an ok time at the restaurant, while we were there you could tell she was very relaxed and having a great time.  That said, I think it's important we go there more often.

Svanna LOVED the music they were playing.  The owner there is so nice.  We actually brought him back a little something from Ethiopia to thank him.  He had told us how to pronounce the kids names when we were first in there after the referral.  He took a copy of his music and gave it to us.  There was almost no one in the restaurant while we were there, so the kids did some dancing around.

Svanna dances Ethiopian style so beautifully.  I tried to copy her...she just laughed!!

Brandy had never tried Ethiopian beer here in the States or while in Ethiopia, so tonight he had to try one.  He said it was pretty good.

 It just amazes me how Summer just knows exactly what to do, like she'd eaten with injera (we didn't use silverware, we used injera, or an Ethiopian type bread--I use the term "bread" loosely--to pinch or scoop up other food) every day the last year, instead of it being a while.  Their native language is all but gone, but things like this I hope never will be.

Just now as I'm posting this, I asked Gabe, "does that look good?"  He shook his head no.  *smile*  He pointed at a couple of things with his lip curled up..."that healthy for you?"  He did say he liked the Dora Wat (bottom center), although it's a little too spicy.  He says, "yum, I want to eat that egg!"

It took me a while to get used to Ethiopian food, and while it will probably never be a favorite (or who knows?), I have come to appreciate it and enjoy eating it.  Brandy and I both commented on how injera doesn't taste as sour to us anymore.

Wow, I can't imagine our lives without Svanna Feruz, Gabriel Asmelash, and Summer Firewoyni in them!  If time permits during this busy couple of weeks, I'd like to do a separate post on each of our kiddos from Ethiopia.

Svanna, Gabe and Summer.  You have completely our family in such an awesome way.  We thank God for you, and for Him giving us the gift of being your Mom and Dad!!