Can I just brag and not March 14, 2008

Emmanuel and Solomon are dang Gorgeous beautiful darling and sweet as well as kissable and amazingly handsome.
They will fit in nice with my other good lookers, and mullet wearing man, how do I fit in amongst these people.
The scale don’t lie is all I have to say I need to get my Phat booty less booty.starving myself is not an option, I thought it was
good aerobic activity taking care of six people all day plus two cats and a dog and a whole forest. but nooooo my booty is still there.
I met four other people in a round about way from Ethiopia in our ci’tay, I can’t figging believe this.(I mean friggin)
I love Barack Obama still, I will cry if he is not our next president and yes I do want a Rock Star for my next president as one of my neighbors accused me in a not so nice way of wanting and as does my 60 something priest who never has voted Democrat and is this time, what do you say about that Mrs. neighbor and by the way I do not like your snowman Christmas decorations in the front of your house its clearly something Hillary would have chosen, Barack would have chosen something more classy he probably would have not chosen anything because he would be running our country and not choosing lame o Christmas decorations made in China that are not free trade!

I love YOU! My Rock Star man March 14, 2008

I love my man, he told me today that he wants to have lots and lots of kids with me, I wonder what he thinks lots and lots of kids are personally I think seven is lots and lots, but I am already driving this monster van, I so feel like a tour driver, except the thing is a wreck, my house is clean and tidy but da van is a disaster there is stuff everywhere, frankly I don’t care because the thing is ugly and boring gray every last square inch is blah gray, I did make some hip curtains for our Mexico rendavou with Amy Butler fabric they are pink and awesome I felt pretty hip in my 12 passenger van with my hot husband and cool kids with all our junk piled around, we had bands checking us out all over LA.
Saturday we are having the “old” band guys and families over along with a bunch of our old friends from when we used to live here, 25 peeps are coming over, I am making Ethiopian food, meat must be cheap in Ethiopia because I spent a fortune on this stuff and I didn’t even get the good stuff it called for, I’m makin Beef Tibs, Doro wet and yellow lentils, as well as this Ethiopian salsa stuff and an Ethiopian Coffee chocolate Rum cake with cinnamon whipped cream, one of our friends is getting the Injera in the big ci’tay.
Good Good news we got the signature that we have not so patiently been waiting for for 18 days, I was ready to go over there and get the dang thing myself. ya right you were sick for 18 days no one is sick for 18 days, well maybe he was sick and I pray he is ok, that would be horrible if he really was sick and I’m all bad mouthing him.
Thank the good Lord that we got the sig!

Court date update March 10, 2008

We don’t have a new court date yet, our other one was cancelled…
Our case keeps getting pushed back and back each group plan on tacking on 3-weeks to a month we were in Group B with a court date of Feb 15th,

then possibly group C with a date of March 7th,
we missed group D with a court date sometime in the beginning of April,
and now they said maybe if we can get the papers signed in the next three days we could be in group E with a court date possibly of
the end to beginning of May,
but if they don’t get the papers signed it could be group F with a court date sometime in June,
People travel around 4-6 weeks after passing court..
that means we travel the beginning of July if we pass court in the first place!
I am so sad right now, I know things are in Gods hands but I just feel so hopeless right now Solomon could be around 9 months when we get him home he was 15 days when he came into care.
Please keep us in your prayers we are really down and need prayer that God will work in this case.
As of today there is no news of our case and the man coming back that needs to sign the (damn i.e.dang)paper, today is the first day of Lent so I thought today would be a great day to find out something the only good thing we found out is that group E was not formed yet.

I Am Because We Are February 10, 2008

D just launched this site for Madonna its really relevant to our lives now, its amazing that he got this project right in the middle of our adoption check it out!
http://www.iambecauseweare.com/

A Walk to Beautiful February 10, 2008

I want to see this
“The award winning feature-length documentary A Walk to Beautiful tells the stories of five Ethiopian women who suffer from devastating childbirth injuries and embark on a journey to reclaim their lost dignity. Rejected by their husbands and ostracized by their communities, these women are left to spend the rest of their lives in loneliness and shame. They make the choice to take the long and arduous journey to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in search of a cure and a new life.

Through the intimate experiences all five share, we are no longer in the heart of Africa - we are in the hearts of these women. And through their eyes we also reveal a larger story, that of the seemingly intractable problems facing women in the developing world, including malnutrition, child marriage, and lack of obstetric care.

The trials they endure — and their attempts to rebuild their lives – tell a universal story of hope, courage, and transformation.”

http://www.walktobeautiful.com/

“Patriotism can be laudable but when taken to extreme” February 7, 2008

I found this article I took the key points I thought he communicated.

“Reducing people of other races to racial stereotypes. This can often be done in very subtle ways. For example, confusing race with culture, a belief that certain races are more adept in particular jobs or functions, a belief in differences in intelligence between the races, etc.(this one really gets me when I hear this from “people”)
 Extreme pride in one’s own country or race. Patriotism can be laudable but when taken to extremes, this sentiment becomes the basis of all fascist regimes.( Amen)
Belittlement of members of other races.  Racist will constantly criticize the opinions of other races or even ridicule them.  Often they will do it without explicitly making mention of the race of the person or persons.
 
Constant references to race. A mere mention of someone’s race on a first encounter could be benign but when these references continue after a long period of knowing that person, no matter how innocent the references may appear, they establish an unmistakable pattern.
Antagonistic sentiments.   When a person has anatognistic towards someone at first sight it is often related to skin color. The only information that one normally has about someone on seeing them for the first time is their skin color. 
Invisibility.  An indifference to the plight of members of society who are of other races when they suffer injustices. It is typical of the racist to claim that he is under no obligation to help or that the situation in question is somehow an “inevitable” by-product of some greater good. When the great majority of members of the disadvantaged group are not of his race a pattern emerges.
Presumption of racism in members of own race. Racists typically expect members of their own race to be similarly racist. This often results in expectations of preferential treatment and they expect, for example, members of their race to see the humor in racist jokes or join with them in what but for the race of the victim would be seen as morally reprehensible behavior.
Condescending attitude or behavior. Racists show condescending attitudes towards members of other races. For this reason they often try to use even members of the race which they despise to attack members of that race which cause them most offense. They believe that these other members of the victimized race will collaborate because of the magnanimity which the racist is showing in momentarily treating them as members of the “superior” race. 
Acceptance of racist behavior or conduct.  To view “mildly” racist acts as either reasonable or, at least, not racist and to feel that more severely racist acts are wrong but “understandable”. 
Failure to recognize impact of racism on the victim. To believe that a victim of racism can be unaltered by racism. For example, when racists examine apparent differences between members of different races or ethnic groups they completely ignore all differences in circumstances and history which could have affected the “inferior” race.”

Court Date! January 26, 2008

We have a court date of Feb 15th, and we were able to chose Solomon’s Birthday Oct 17th as well as Emmanuel’s Aug 1st.
I bought socks and bottles with liners, finished Emmanuel’s blanket, washed all the windows on one side of the house, ordered a rug for the living room and gifts for D for his birthday, he wants tri tip steak, key lime cheese cake, and roasted peppers potatoes and onions, I think I am going to go get fresh oysters and make shrimp cocktails too!
My brother is having his baby in three weeks or less his name is Jace I can’t wait to see him, I have had three nephew’s in a years time.
We finally sold our land cruiser! I can’t believe it!
I have tons of things to do, the kids start a new semester at school.
Tonight we are going out for thai food (my addiction)

No stinking way December 20, 2007

Pinch pinch pinch sla-p, om gosh, we have a referral of sweet baby boys, darling sweet baby baby boys.
The call happened Monday morning at 10 something, I bawled D was pretty calm!!
They are 3mo and 17mo.
Glory to God.

Ethiopian Millennium 2000 September 17, 2007

D got home Thursday night from his LA business trip, most of the time he spent it on the phone with me while I was having a nervous breakdown… Ha.. and not so ha!!
I spent Wed at my parents house,My brother came in from LA, we ate outside by the campfire and got in heated talks about the war with my parents, its real civil at my parents!! Anna and I slept in the same bed, we had some girl bonding time, I was so wiped out from the whole week of non stop kids that I didn’t wake up until almost 10:30,

Thursday we went to the beach, my little but not so little brother(1 tried to get Basil who has only swam once to swim out 5o feet to the log they were all rolling over and around on, I know you are a life guard but COME ON, I was not the happiest chicken in the pen that day, big mama bear was coming out, I carried that boy for 9 Mo., birthed him, almost died doing so, breast-fed for 17 mo., and have nursed his many many many falls, cuts, taken him to the hospital for his kidney problems, stayed by his side during hour long X-rays, not to mention loved the heck out of him for 5+ years and I was not going to have him go that way, thankfully he is really smart and told my brother off for trying to convince him.
I love love my family but the thing that ticks me off about all of them except one who is 22, is that they hate confrontation so much that they will take the guilty persons side just to get me and my 22 year old brother to shut up, we love justice and love saying what we think, believe you me we are not the most popular, everyone was staying silent, I was like Um…. its like asking the babe to swim out buddy, and the bay is only like 55 degrees!!! enough said!!!!
Gotta love those guys, can I rant some more… and then “Pop” told the same little five year old to”GO RUN ACROSS THE STREET and get the certain 18 year old” that was pouting over the water incident, I was like “RUN across the STREET” those two words should Never come out of an adults mouth to a child!!!
Well I guess he didn’t die from the water so lets get him run over by a car, and D wants me to go away for a couple of days, Ya I think they would all be safer at home without the “adults” looking after them.

I got to meet newest baby of our awesome friends who really helped us come into the Orthodox church, we saw them at the hospital, the baby weighed 9lb 2 oz and he was darling, mama looked really tired but so beautiful as ever, they named the baby Isaiah but they are calling him Isai (ee-sigh)It made me want to birth another child, not now but someday a long long time from now.

We attended an Ethiopian Millennium celebration on Sat, I met some cool people, ate some really great Ethiopian food, Anna saw some of her Ethiopian friends, I saw some people I met at the adoption gathering, and I met some Ethiopian people, We drank some great Ethio tea, and watched some cool dancing, everyone was so nice, it was awesome!
Today we were in the big city again worked through some stuff with D, ate Italian food, went to my favorite store, bought D some cologne for a make up present, he loved it, went to Macy’s home looked at Mar ta Stewart rugs, tried on five pairs of flats, they were out of size 7 1/2, looked at every earring they had, I didn’t like any except one pair, got thai at our favorite cheap thai, the place is really really sick inside the bathrooms are GROSS, but there is something really special about their food its really cheap when we started going there 13 years ago it was 3.99 now its 5.50 for everything on the menu, the bathroom has not been cleaned for 13 years though, on the way home on our one hour drive we ate choco covered pretzels,unsulfured apricots, and lots of water!

Subtle racism August 30, 2007

Racism, is sickening,
In line at the goodwill a woman behind me was smiling at Hope, she asked me “what nationality is her father?” WHAT I had never been asked that, I said what do you mean? she said “Is her father mexican” I said no he is English…, then she said ” well here in the valley there are many mixed breeds, so you never know?” I said mixed breeds????
I really do not get it I mean if she is picking something with me Mrs. white and baby white, what is she doing to people with any color or to multi cultural families,
I can only think what is it going to be like with two beautiful black children, I will not tolerate anything like this ever to be said to my children,
I am so totally amazed by the hate in this world.
Thank God my parents are not racist in any way, its absolutely a miracle to me that my mom did not get tainted by her parents living in white white neighborhood in Dallas TX. her father was a subtle but not so subtle racist, my mom would not even hurt a moth she gets sad if fish are in small tanks, so you can only imagine her towards the HR, she loves people all people ,(even mean people??) my adopted dad grew up in a primary white area in long Island NY. he is a amazing human as well.

In my family there are only two adoptees I’m “half way” adopted so I don’t really count, my uncle and aunt have two kids adopted from Peru. D’s cousin gave up her baby 20 years ago, I am hoping there will be more adoptions in the near future, in our church hopefully there will be 7 kids from Ethiopia in the coming year.