My Weekly Post

Obviously, my blogging isn't high on my priority list right now. I don't feel like taking the time to upload photos and who really likes to just read my ramblings? What fun is a post without pictures? We have one child successfully potty trained without much trouble and now Miss Eden has decided she would like the attention that accompanies using the potty. We are now in the midst of training her and she is doing better than I expected. Again, I always let my children initiate (controversial I'm sure) and it works for us. She has been making it to the potty 2-3 times a day for the past week and yesterday I allowed her to wear underwear. She did really good and even puts herself on the potty when she needs to go. If I am unaware she is on the potty she brings her pants and undies to me when she is done. Complete with a huge smile and anticipation of some m & m's. So it appears as though we have gone from 3 in diapers to 1 within a month. That, my friends, is something to celebrate!!


Last week we had Judah's back to school night. I had hoped to maybe just have it be Mark, Shane and I go with Judah but he was insistent that his whole family go. He said he had told his classmates that he would bring his family. I cannot say enough good things about his teacher. She is so high energy and loves the kids. She has made herself so accessible to us. She gave us her home number and her cell number and said to call anytime. Is that normal? I don't know if it is since this is the first year he is in school. He has his first spelling test last week and got 100% plus 2 bonus points. He was thrilled! And I was a bit proud. :) The funniest part of back to school night was something Mark overheard Judah telling his friends. We were all in the cafeteria as the principle was going over some things with the families. A bunch of the boys in Judah's class were sitting together and doing typical boy things. Like trying to stuff their entire fist in their mouth. None of them were successful but Judah told the boys with a bit of pride, "Do you see my sister over there? My little brown sister? She can put her fist in her mouth!" How funny. His little brown sister! One time a few months ago Judah asked me if Ethiopian's have big mouths because Eden has a big mouth. Decent logic I guess. But I informed him that just because Eden is a certain way doesn't mean all Ethiopian's are that way. Just like Caucasian people - we are all different.

I do think Eden is aware of her skin color. I don't think she is necessarily making the association that her skin is a different color than the rest of her families. But she usually is found toting around her brown baby dolls and the white baby dolls are left in the basket.

I overheard her consoling Heidi today by saying, "I'm coming sweetie." I'm sure she was already there and had possibly even contributed to the crying but nevertheless - she was attempting to remedy the situation. Eden's energy levels seem to suck the energy right out of me! She is always, always on the move and has now phased out of her naps. I really looked forward to those 1 1/2 - 2 hour naps in the afternoon. It gave me an opportunity to recharge. But now she wakes up at 6:30 and goes non-stop until shortly after 7:30 in the evening. We have moved her bedtime up a bit because she isn't napping. She is usually ready and I am always ready!! :)

On a completely different note - I have been meaning to encourage folks to head over to http://ordinaryhero.org for quite some time now. It is an amazing site and I would challenge anyone who looks at the site to consider the gift of adoption to any of these children. Spend a little time on the site looking over the vision, the heart and advocacy for orphan awareness. I know there are more people who I love that have a home to share and love to give. There is one quote on the site I like: You can't change the whole world by helping one.....but for that one the whole world changes!! This isn't a site just for adoption but mentoring as well. So take a few minutes and look around.