Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin carving is always something that I've admired from afar. I always thought it was so cool to see the pumpkins all "designed" up but I never imagined how much work went into it.

Well this year I was very enthusiastic about carving pumpkins, probably because I knew this was our last "Ohio" fall and I wanted to experience and have Eva experience it. I had the templates, the tools and my right-hand man! 

John had carved pumpkins before, so he knew exactly what it would entail. Me, on the other hand....totally clueless :-) Here's how it went down:

It started out fine until John realized how thick the pumpkin was. He had to use a lot more muscle than he thought.

When it came time to clean out the pumpkin, Eva was ready to lend a hand!

 

Next, it was time to carve out the face. I had a heck of a time getting the template to show up on the pumpkin. After 10 minutes of using some tool that's supposed to score it, I had to use a marker so that we could actually see where to carve.                    

And here is the end result. Eva is saying "Hooray" for her cool pumpkin!

          

By the time we got to the second pumpkin, Baby B's pumpkin, we were WAY less tolerant with carving it out, as you can see. John was tired and wanted to be done! Hence the triangle face :-) But once we put the changing lights in them, they looked really cute.
                         

                  












Now that I've helped with carving pumpkins, I don't need to experience that again. Been there, done that, thanks for the memories :-) Maybe I'll come across something next year that will be really cute and less time consuming!

Pumpkin Patch

So much has happened in the last 3 to 4 weeks, I hardly know where to begin. I actually had to go back to all my pictures to make sure I put all of these blog posts in the correct order.

So, let's start with the pumpkin patch:

Waaayyyy back in October, we were able to take Eva to a pumpkin patch that I had learned about back when I was working daycare. Originally I wanted to take her in the beginning of October but there was a glitch in the plans. Then she got sick for about a week and soon after we met with days of rain. Towards the end of the month, though, we were finally able to get there and we met with a girlfriend (former co-worker) and her family. Eva and her daughter are the same age :-)  We got there before my friend Gri, so we started out taking some pictures.

 

My little Buckeye

Once they arrived, we decided to take the tractor hayride to the pumpkin patch. Eva was so excited to see all the pumpkins. The tractor dropped us off at the corn maze. We had to go through the maze first, and then as we exited, the pumpkins were right in front of us.

 

It took a while, But Eva eventually found her pumpkin and even picked one out for Baby "B" :-)

After we got our pumpkins, Eva and her BFF Alli rode back on the tractor together.

After some lunch and s'mores (yummy!!) we got a couple of pictures taken and then the girls played together for a little bit.

 

          

School Time!

During this past summer, I spent a lot of time doing research on curriculum for 2 year olds. I wanted it to be the basis of homeschooling but I also wanted the curriculum to have the foundation of the Bible, the Word. It wasn't until mid-August that I found a curriculum that I was willing to use but not totally satisfied with because it was not Bible-based. Then I read a fellow adoptive mama's blog who was also a fellow Embassy trip traveler and found the curriculum I had been looking for the whole time.

I spent the next several days on the website reading up on everything. The more I read, the more excited I got about implementing the curriculum into Eva's schedule. ABC Jesus Loves Me (ABCJLM) is all about incorporating the lessons into everyday life. There are 36 lesson plans. One for each week, starting mid to late August and finishing up in May.

For the past 6 weeks, Eva has been learning about how God created the world. We've read bible stories, sung Bible songs, learned poems, memorized Bible verses, read related books from the library and done all kinds of arts and crafts to complement the lesson of that week. We've made a Creation Book and are almost finished with it.

Because I used to work in daycare, I have also implemented some things that I used to do at work into our schedule as well. We call it School Time! I have a small throw rug that stays rolled up until it's time for "school." When I unroll it, Eva knows it's School Time :-) She gets so excited. We sit down in front of our big calender and go over the month, day of the week and year. We sing the days of the week and then we practice our numbers by counting all the way up to the current date. Then we sing a couple of songs, practice our Bible verse and practice our poems. After that, I read our Bible section and book for the week. If we're doing really well that day we'll do one of our arts and crafts projects. Doing ALL of that usually takes about 30 minutes.

Most days though, we're busy running errands or at Eva's classes. Those are the days when we can do stuff in the car, like sing songs, practice our poems or Bible verse. The curriculum is SO flexible. I love it. It definitely takes into account that a 2 year old has a not-so-long attention span.
 

Here's our School Time rug

 The Bible we use

 

I even have a School Binder

 

Our Calendar and Artwork Wall

On the wall, around the calendar is where I hang all of Eva's paintings, coloring pictures. She's so proud of her wall. Because she goes to Preschool once a week for half a day, any craft that she does also goes up on the wall. I leave it up for a month and then as old stuff comes down, new stuff goes up, so it's always rotating. Because I don't want to throw any of her artwork away - (I just can't seem to part with it and I don't know if I'll ever be able to) - I scan it and put it on a flash drive.

I was even able to get Eva on video singing the Bible verses that we've been learning. I just love her voice! 

2012 Meskel Celebration

It's amazing how quickly time goes by. I remember thinking 2 weeks ago that I had to blog about this.....then last week. Now, it's 2 1/2 weeks after and I'm just now getting around to it. 

Around to what?

Two and a half weeks ago, on September 26, was an Ethiopian celebration called Meskel. It is the celebration of the Finding of the True Cross. 

Here's a little history on it:

In the 4th century, Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great found 3 crosses buried. One was the True Cross that Jesus Christ was crucifed on. She took pieces of the True Cross and distributed them to all the churches, including the Ethiopian church. This piece was then brought back to Ethiopia and later buried at the mountain of Gishen Mariam monastery in Wollo region. The monastery also has a book that has this whole story recorded.

We had not been to a Mekel celebration for 2 years. So I was really looking forward to this. The whole day leading up to the celebration it looked like the sky was going to open up and pour down buckets of rain. 

We got there early, around 5 o'clock and were able to spend some time with friends before the prayer ceremony began. 

Eva was very excited! 

The priests and other clergy members came out around 6:30 and the ceremony began.

Prayers lasted for about 40 minutes. By the time prayers ended, it was dark outside. The bonfire was lit and everyone with a firestick (similiar to a candle wick) started lighting theirs as well. It was very pretty.

Eva was so mesmerized with the bonfire and the firesticks all around her.

Everyone began singing and dancing around the bonfire and then it was time to eat. After waiting several hours and only eating a few pieces of injera, we were definitely ready for dinner.

The food was absolutely wonderful, as usual. As God's design would have it, just as everyone was starting to say their goodbyes and farewells, the sky opened up and the first drops started to fall. We were so glad that Eva got to be a part of the celebration.

Apple Picking!

A couple of weeks ago we went apple picking at our favorite fruit farm. We actually weren't supposed to go until the first week of September, but we got an update from the fruit farm saying that because of the weather, they were moving up the apple picking of our favorite, Honeycrisp, one week.

Picking for Honeycrisp apples is REALLY popular around here. It's usually from Friday to Sunday. People who wait until Sunday though usually don't get much pickings at all. So Friday morning we were up and ready to get our apples. 

Although this was Eva's second year going apple picking, she understood it a lot more this year and was excited to actually pull the apples off the trees. Even though we got there mid-morning, the place was starting to fill up fast!

We got our 2 bushel bags and starting filling them up :-)

Taking a quick break

Okay....ready to pick some more apples!

 

 We had such a good time. Eva found a stick, got to pick some apples........by herself and with her Dad. John got to eat apples off the trees, and I had fun taking pics the whole time. This was possibly our last apple picking season....at least for a few years. Maybe we'll be able to come back after Baby "B" is home with us and give her the whole apple picking experience. In Florida, they're all about the oranges.

Melkam Addis Amet 2005!

Happy New Year.....in Ethiopia!! 

While the majority of the world celebrates New Year on January 1, the country of Ethiopia celebrate their New Year on September 11. It marks the end of the rainy season and the beginning of spring. While we use the Gregorian calendar, Ethiopia uses the Orthodox Julian calendar which is 12 months of 30 days and then a 13th month of 5 days. That leaves a 7 to 8 year gap between our calendar and their calendar. So while we are very much in the year of 2012, Ethiopia is celebrating the New Year of 2005.....just think about how old you were and what was going on in your life 7 years ago :-)

This past weekend we went to an Ethiopian Festival (Enkutatash) to help celebrate the New Year with the Ethiopian community. It was an all day festival. There were a group of Ethiopian girls that did several dancing/singing routines throughout the day.

There were 2 tables that sold Ethiopian clothes, jewelry and home decor. But the best part of all was lunch!! Doro Wat. Red lentils. Yellow lentils. Salad. Cabbage and potatoes. Rice. And most important...injera. In traditional Ethiopian custom, we had some kaffa (coffee) afterwards. Strong, smooth tasting, and oh-so good!

I think what really made the celebration special was that other representations of countries were there as well: Burma, Nepal, Cameroon, Eritrea, Somalia. It was really beautiful to see the support and love. We all had a wonderful time. It was important for us to attend this year as this will be the last year we will celebrate Enkutatash here with our friends. Our prayer is that by this time next year we will be in Florida celebrating with a whole new Ethiopian community and group of friends.
 

 

Has It Already Been 18 Months?

Today is a very special day. Not only is our beautiful little girl 2 1/2 years old, but she has also been home with us EXACTLY 1 1/2 years now!! I can hardly believe the time has flown by so quickly. I remember the cute chubbiness that was in her cheeks and legs. Now she's starting to become thin and lean. And even though she will probably be petite (like her BM - birthmom) it's so amazing watching her getting taller. 

Everyday has been an absolute miracle. Obviously both Eva and myself have had our fair share of not-so-great moments: her screaming, crying and fit-throwing, my screaming, crying and fit-throwing. There were a lot of days that started off terrible and ended on a good note and a lot of days that started off great and ended terribly. Neither one of us is perfect and everyday I have to ask God's forgiveness and ask Him to make me a better person, a better mother for the next day. Even after a year and a half, we are still learning about each other each and every day. I wouldn't change a thing. 

Eva is such a strong person. I often forget how much she had to fight just to survive, so when we butt heads and she's fighting me, it's usually John that has to remind me that it is the fighter in her coming out! That also brings out even more of the pride I feel for her. Already she wants to be so independent, the very thing her BM said she would like for her. I just pray that I can continue to instill in her that feeling of independence so that she can grow to be a strong, vibrant, caring young woman. 

I thank and praise God for giving me this wonderful person to be responsible for. She is such a gift and has taught me so much about myself. She's helped me to sometimes ask myself the hard questions and answer them. Sometimes she will say something that I KNOW is not anything that she's been taught or heard of before and I KNOW THAT I KNOW THAT I KNOW that it is God teaching me through her. 

To hear her speaking in full sentences, having conversation just blows my mind!When I hear her reason something through or mirror something back to me that I've just explained to her, it is nothing short of God's goodness! We feel truly blessed to be Eva's parents and to this day we look at her in awe and amazement feeling a bit surreal still after all this time that she is here with us. Out of the millions of orphans in this world, God divinely planned her for this family. She is the perfect fit!!