Having kids and watching them figure out the world around them is such a HOOT!  Last night, we took the girls to El Torito Grill for dinner for our "family night out".   We decided to valet park the car since it was cheaper than the hourly rate.  As the the valet drove away to park our car Tiana asks, "He's borrowing our car, Mommy?"  HAHAHA!!!

It's especially funny to see Tiana try to master restaurant etiquette -- sometimes sweet and appropriate, sometimes just a little off... 

We were nearing the end of our meal when I asked T,

Me: "Tiana would you like another tortilla?" 

T: "Oh, no thank you.  You go ahead and enjoy it, Mommy.  I'm all done, thank you though!" -- SWEET

As we were finishing, the manager came over to ask how everything was.  He was dressed just like the food servers except his name tag said "Manager".  Of course, Tiana can't read the name tag...

Tiana says: "It was really good, thank you." 

...and proceeds to hand her finished plate to him.  After pretending to admire her leftover mess, he set the plate back down on the table.  I'm sure T was thinking "no, silly, you're supposed to clear the plates off the table now!"  Uh...nevermind that he's the ****manager**** -- A LITTLE OFF 

Then, when we were getting up to leave, the busboy was clearing off the table next to us.  Tiana says to him, "It was delicious, thank you!"  And when she got no response (he was pretty focused on his task and indifferent to customer service issues), she said it louder, "IT WAS DELICIOUS, THANK YOU!" ... "THANK YOU!!!" (Like, "Isn't he supposed to say 'you're welcome", or "thank YOU", or something??) -- SWEET ...AND A LITTLE OFF.

And of course, we have our Aliyah, who waves and says "AHHhhhhhHHHhhhhhh!" ("hi") to everyone and everything in sight.  Then screams really loudly in impatient protest when the Cheerios run out.

Eating out was never this much fun before kids!!!

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Aliyah is astounding us all with how fast she's learning and how communicative she is. 

Anyone who knows T knows that she is obsessed with accessories:  shoes, purses, jewelry, headbands...  Since she doesn't have pierced ears, her favorite way to spruce up an outfit lately has been to stick star stickers on her ears like earrings.  Pretty cute if you ask me! 

A couple days ago, the girls and I met Mike for lunch.  When we were done and about to part ways, Mike and I hugged and he felt something prickly on my back.  Little did I know I had been running around town all morning looking like this...

How did she put those stickers on my back without me noticing??!!!  It must've been while I was talking on the phone and changing Aliyah's diaper.  I vaguely remember T counting and pointing on my back.  Everyone who saw me from behind that morning must've thought I was a total dork!!! Thanks a lot, T.

In other news... Here's Aliyah trying out her new carseat! 

And Aliyah's first sign language skills...

4 minutes and 2 very loud burps later...

You'll notice that for Aliyah, the sign for "milk" and the sign for "all done"  look the same, the only way to distinguish what she means is her little voice saying "ah-duh"  when she means "all done".  Not bad for 9 months old, huh!!!  These two little girls continue to amaze and confound us -- what precious gifts they are!

Around our house, I try to teach Tiana not to use too many negative words or phrases.  Like, instead of "I don't like..." I try to teach her to say " I don't prefer" or ".... is not my favorite" or "I would like .... instead".  We try best we can to avoid words like "yucky", "stupid", "ugly", etc.  These are some of the humorous results of my attempts.

Tiana has 2 different chewable vitamins that she takes each day -- an omega 3 fish-shaped gummy that admittedly is sort of weird-tasting, and a regular gummy one that tastes even better than candy.  So each day, after I hand her the fish-shaped vitamin, trying to have a good attitude about it, she imitates what she thinks I might say to her: "I know the fishy one is not your favorite..."  she tells herself,  "the regular one is yummy, though."

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A few weeks ago, Tiana was watching me feed Aliyah some baby food peas. 

Tiana asked: "Those are peas, Mommy?" 

Me: "Mmm-hmm, they're peas." 

T  (matter-of-factly): "It looks poopy." 

Me: "Tiana, we don't talk about other people's food like that.  You can say that the peas are green, though." 

T: "OK". 

Then this week it was time to feed Aliyah peas again.  As soon as Tiana saw them, she said:  "Don't say it looks poopy.  You can say it's green, though.  But don't say it looks poopy." 

Me: (debating whether or not to attempt to explain to her two-and-a-half-year old little mind that saying NOT to say something has the same effect as saying it): "Uhhhh. Yeah Tiana.... you're right...good job remembering that you're not supposed to say 'it looks poopy' but DON'T SAY, 'don't say it looks poopy'." 

Tiana (earnestly):  "Don't say it looks poopy." 

Me: "No, Tiana.  DON'T SAY, 'don't say it looks poopy', because it ends up the same as if you say, 'it looks poopy' ". 

Tiana (earnestly and emphatic):  "DON'T SAY, 'it looks poopy.' `" 

I gave up.

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This evening Tiana took her shoes off after a long afternoon of wearing closed-toed shoes without socks.  She let out a loud, "AAIcckkk!"  to which I responded, "Tiana, what's the matter?" 

Her answer, "My toes smell not yummy!"

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Yesterday, I took Aliyah in for her 6 month well-baby visit.  By God's grace she is in perfect health, 90th percentile for height, 80th percentile for weight -- not a petite fleur.   If she keeps it up, it seems it won't be long until she overtakes Tiana in the weight department! 

We really like our pediatrician -- he's a grandfatherly older Christian gentleman who has been really supportive of both of our adoptions.  After the doctor did his exam and left the room, a whole posse of nurses (well, maybe 3) came in, but not to administer the vaccinations --they were there just to take a peak at Aliyah.  Apparently, the doctor came out of the room and told the nurses, "There's the cutest little black baby in that room, you all should go see her." I think it was his way of commending transracial adoption and encouraging our family.  The nurses were all really sweet, wanting to hold her and hug her and play with her a little.  Aliyah was smiling and laughing and having a grand old time ...and then one more nurse came in to give her her shots.  Party's over.  Thankfully, she just wailed for a few seconds, followed immediately by some very loud sympathy tears from Tiana.  Why did SHE cry, she didn't get any shots?  I don't get it either.

Here's T alterna-rockin' out on Daddy's guitar

The BIGGEST smile in the world!

And a very toothless grin

Betcha can't tell which one's Vietnamese!

Thank you, Ba, for the beautiful Vietnamese outfits!!

This is a truly amazing place.  Hannah's Hope is the name of the orphans' home/transitional home where Aliyah was blessed to stay pretty much from birth until we came to bring her home. Mike and I were so impacted by the time we spent there with the staff and children.  We have so many stories that both break our hearts and encourage us, and we came away from the experience with a deeper understanding of the world and the difficulties many of the world's children face.

Thank you to all who donated clothes and supplies for us to take to Hannah's Hope.  We were really encouraged by your response and hope that you'll trust that your donation is being put to good use!

[Forgive me -- I can't hyperlink...http://www.allgodschildren.org/adoption/ethiopia/ for more info and pictures.  You can sign up to be a sponsor and support the work they do]    

Here's the road on the way to Hannah's Hope... we ran into a herd of goats on our way there the first day.  The guy in the red sweatshirt is one of our travel group members...who, incidentally, got bitten by one of these goats as we were walking -- I've never heard of a goat biting anyone before!

Here is Almaz opening the gate.  Almaz is the director of the home and a wonderful Christian woman.  She is the total package-- organized, energetic, humble, funny, and has an amazing ability to motivate her staff to carry out her vision.  She has got to be one of the world's busiest people managing the children's care, managing the staff, playing hostess and tour guide to the travelling adoptive families, bringing the kids to different appointments in the process of getting them adopted... and yet she knows each of the 70+ children very personally and specifically.  This little powerhouse of a woman could seriously be a CEO of a large lucrative business in the US, but instead she has chosen to return to Ethiopia to serve orphans and help give them permanent homes and families.  Almaz is the WOMAN! (by God's grace of course) 

Most days we visited Hannah's Hope (HH) in the early part of the day, so the older children were at school and it was mostly babies and toddlers.  CUTE CUTE CUTE!  And really sweet!

This is the covered patio area where they give the infants "outdoor" time.  You should see the schedule they have for these babies -- they seriously get spa treatment!  Besides the usual feedings and diaper changes, these babies are treated to a daily massage while they listen to classical music and worship songs, "sun" time, daily baths, being rocked to sleep and tended to throughout the night!  I think coming to live with us was a DOWNGRADE for Aliyah!!!

Here are a couple of the care-givers called "special mothers".  These are really sweet women who really love the children.  When the children are old enough, they are taught Bible verses, Bible stories, and worship songs.

This is one of the older girls' rooms -- Cute, huh!  As you can see, the staff has really tried to make this "orphanage" as much like a home as possible.

Appliances like washing machines are not common in Ethiopia.  Here are some of the women hand washing the children's clothing and bedding.  For 70 kids!!! I can't imagine....  As you can see there are electric clothes dryers in the background which can handle some of the load, but most of the stuff gets dried the old-fashioned way -- on a clothesline.

And of course the children need to eat!  Here's the kitchen with an injera maker.  Injera (pronouned more like "in-JAR-ah" I think) is an Ethiopian flat bread, sort of like a spongy sourdough crepe.  It's made from a grain called t'ef (teff) and it's a bit of an acquired taste, but we really like it!

Mike and I tried to put our optometry degrees to good use... we performed eye exams on most of the staff.  We thought we were going to do a vision screening on the kids, but it turns out the more immediate need was for the staff to get eye care.  They have a lot of dry eye issues... 7000 feet elevation, arid climate, air polution, and HUGE eyes make for the perfect dry eye storm.  We'll be sending them a lot of tear supplement eyedrops, etc.

Some of the precious children at HH have already been matched with families and are waiting for court approval.  Sometimes these families send photo albums of themselves to the child so that their new child can see what they look like and become familiar with the home they will be going to. We were hanging out one day and this little girl (maybe 3 or 4 years old) came up to me beaming, excited, and wanting the show me her photo album.  I started sobbing when I saw what it was she was trying to show me.  I was so happy for her that she has a family waiting to bring her home, and I was so touched by HER excitement... this little toddler had such a profound understanding and appreciation for the privilege of belonging to a family. 

While we were looking at her photo album together, another little boy came and grabbed it out of her hands, obviously jealous and angry.  It took quite a bit of strength and some stern words from me to pry it loose from his hand and give it back to the little girl.  I cry when I think of this little boy.  I mean, it was wrong for him to take her book away, wrong of him to be jealous, ... we need to rejoice with those who rejoice, right?  But can you really blame him for wanting to belong to a family? 

There are other stories... It broke our hearts to hear about children who were relinquished by their biological parents not because they were the result of an unplanned pregnancy, but because after sometimes years of trying to make ends meet the biological parents just could no longer afford to provide the basic necessities for their child.  So they gave their beloved baby up in hopes of a better life for him or her.  There is a teenage boy there at HH now who has lost his mother and is losing his father to HIV/AIDS.  He said his final goodbye to his father on our second day there.  Thankfully he has been matched with a family in the US and will be adopted by them within a  few months, I believe.  These children in their young lives have faced so much more hardship and tragedy than many of us will ever know.  And these 70 young souls at Hannah's Hope are just the tip of the iceberg --  there are millions of orphans in Ethiopia, many living on the streets.  Spending time with this handful of kids just makes me want to tell everyone to adopt, ADOPT, ADOPT!!!!   If you're a follower of Christ, and you've been adopted by our Heavenly Father, you know what it is like to be helpless, enslaved to sin, and without hope.  You also know the joy of being brought into the family of God, being forgiven, given a new name and the promise of future glory.  Please consider granting a little piece of this joy to one or two (or more!) of the world's orphans.  In many cases it makes the difference between life and death... and in all cases it really means the world to them.