Photo time

1. looking at photos on her little table

2. reading a book

3. still loves the bath

4. cat not thrilled with new friend

5. ahhhhh

6. she's reading Nora Roberts ...

7. appears to be sending a text message

8. diaper rash bath

9. mommy hug

The Che shirt works - Sort of

Lucy's voting day outfit (che shirt, plaid pants) has had mixed results.  We got the HOUSE!!!  The senate is still in debate... but what the heck happened with our governor??? 

she's a democrat

I swear this morning she scowled at each person who looked like they might be voting off the republican ticker.  I couldn't help but encourage this...  I brought her along to vote because I wanted her to feel important if we win ... I can tell her about how she scared off all the right wing voters with her stink eye.   If we loose ...  too sad to think about.

Baby bully - or it's not the biting as much as it is the growling

Not to be negative about the beautiful, wonderful Lucy but I need to present a different side of her occasionally (in case you all wonder if I am actually parenting a real child!).  I believe my kid might be turning into the class bully.  Don't get me wrong,  I was secretly pleased when I saw her give a little to the young girl "A" who pushed her off the loft in her first minutes of daycare BUT ... Lucy has taken revenge to a new level by taking it out on any child who wanders into her path.  She's pushing the boys around, the 4 and 2yr olds that we babysit ...  This morning she shoved the sweet "W" out of her way at the sensory table.  Lucy shows no regret.  The biting???  Thankfully she hasn't figured out how to chomp hard yet ... but her fake bites are accompanied by a rather realistic and scary growl... this concerns me!  

Photos

1. Basket stander

2. Basket bouncer

3. Why do I bother buying toys?

4. Reading the International Journal of Play Therapy ...  hmmmm

5. Back to the basket

6. Peek a boo

7. goat milk rejection

8. admiring herself at the shoe store

9. these boots were made for walking

meeting people

In the past couple weeks Lucy and I have met several families in person who we previously only "knew" through the CHSFS adoption forum.  What fun!!!  We met one family who are in the midst of their home study (hope the wait goes fast).  We met two families from the forum.  We caught up with a couple families we have previously met.  What socialites we are!  Saturday night was so much fun, surrounded by beautiful Ethiopian babies and toddlers, plus a couple beautiful bio-preschoolers (funny calling them bio-preschoolers). Lucy continues to be overnumbered by little boys in her life, so we were beyond excited to hear that our good friends S, R, H & M are officially starting the process on the adoption of another Ethiopian girl H!   I was also able to talk to my friend N who lives out of state,  I was so wishing that she was just going to show up at the gathering Saturday night.  When she wasn't there I was disappointed!   Lucy is still having some symptoms of her cold that never ends.  We (Lucy and I, and our clothes) are really really tired of snot.  

the time goes on ...

October 24th …  One year.  I feel like I can send/post this now because it’s officially tomorrow in Ethiopia.  My mind has been on so many things … mostly remembering this time last year.  I met Lucy!!!  I got on an airplane on the 22nd, arrived in Ethiopia late in the evening on the 23rd and the morning of the 24th I took Lucy into my arms and it was real!   I know I became a mother during those months of waiting to travel.  I got a scary medical update and could not be soothed. I was desperate to get to her into my arms and hear her breathing.  I stared and stared at each of the four photos I received while I was waiting for her.  I looked at her eyes, ears, hands, feet, lips … I examined the spit up on her jacket.  I was in a word: obsessed.  I still am!   The morning I met her I was so in another world, I felt a little detached from my emotions.  It’s almost like the emotions were so strong that I had to leave them or I wouldn’t have been able to hold her.  She was sleeping when I picked her up … minutes later she opened her eyes and her gaze met mine briefly before she fell back to sleep.   I stayed there with her in that crowded room, eight babies, a couple nannies, a nurse, Mel and Sara for some time getting trained in on Lucy care before being released to take her upstairs to the guest rooms.   From the moment we went upstairs, she was in my care.  A year later, she sleeps in her room … soundly (most nights).  She’s the same … observant, silly, smart, loving, trusting, wonderful child she was then.   She loves home.  I love that about her.  When she comes in the door to her home she laughs and twirls around and around.  She feels safe here.   I can’t believe a year has passed, some days it feels like it’s only been moments, and other days it feels like it’s  been forever.   I look into her eyes at night when she’s falling asleep and I marvel at all she knows, and all the memories she has that I will never know.   It’s overwhelming at times, the responsibility I feel for her as her mother, but also as the keeper of her story and the means for her to learn more and know more.  I feel compelled to seek for her, I feel like it’s an urgent job …  I know I am not alone in this. I feel connected with all the mothers, but especially the momma’s of children adopted from Ethiopia. We know too much about the situations that brought our children to us, we have responsibilities now that no amount of imagination could have prepared us for, we have a weight on our loving, tired shoulders. Lucy is a beautiful child, something about her touches the spirit of people who know her, she connects.   She brings joy and peace.   Thank you to everyone who has been a part of her story over this past year.  Love Stacy and Lucy Eskedar.