It Takes a Village

Ok, I know it is a cliche, but Lori's recent post reminded me that I wanted to post about something. And, yes, it is about the village raising the child. Well, sort of. Here's the thing - lately I've noticed that while I'm out with Micah, some people will go out of their way to help me, while others will ignore completely that I might need a hand, even if they are standing right next to me. Granted, these are people that I don't know, but I think our culture has really lost it's ability to lend a helping hand, literally.

Case in point. This is a lame example, but bear with me. We were at Borders the other day and I had not brought the stroller with me, so I'm carrying Micah and three books. Standing in line, Micah was crabbing and reached out toward the gift cards and proceeded to knock a whole bunch of them on the floor. Great. So, I bend down to pick them up (still holding baby and books) and notice that two women are standing behind me and staring at me picking them up. I figured they were about to bend down and help me when I noticed the woman directly behind me begin to inch up, as if to take my spot in line!!! The audacity! I was silently fuming and made a point to return to my spot in line (with said crabbing baby in my arms).

Not to say, "I am so great," but if there is someone behind me in line with a babe who is obviously unhappy, I will offer for them to go ahead - I know how frustrating it can be to have a little crabber in your arms - they don't understand waiting in line. And, obviously if their little one knocks stuff over, I would bend down to help. (You would too- right?) So, to think that this woman would not only decide not to help, but to get ahead of me in line... I think that's awfully rude!

Second story - we were out renting a movie last weekend and the parking lot was extremely crowded. We got to our car and another car (with two women in the front seats) stopped to wait for our spot. I buckled Mic in, but it takes a little while to make sure he's secure. I got him in and closed the door and then heard the car behind us HONKING at me to hurry up!! I went to the back of our car, put my hands in the air and asked, "Are you kidding me?" They SAW me carrying my baby to the car, but they want me to hurry up? I couldn't believe it.

So, my point of this vent is that we need to be more caring - we need to lend that helping hand - we need to show that we care about ALL of the children of our world, not just our own. Maybe I'm being selfish in thinking this way, but I'm putting it out there (here) anyway.

Whoosh. Glad to get that out. Feel better now... :)
(Oh - and don't miss the post below - lots of good news to be happy about)

P.S. Go sign this petition: http://www.one.org/visitafrica/

Happy News!

This morning I woke up and diligently checked the blogs - and on a week where I really need it - found happy news! First, the Gurske's got their travel email! You can go see pictures of their beautiful son! And, the Shubin's are home with their sweet son! We met him at the House of Hope and are SOOO happy that he is home! (This means that all but one of the children we met at the HOH in Ethiopia are now home!) And, Jocelyn is posting like crazy while in Ethiopia, so I was able to see all the beautiful pictures of Pacey - and video!! Go see!

Oh, and then, just now, I figured I'd go check on Coming to Amharica because I knew they were close - and guess what? They got their referral! More good news!!! YAY!

Together Again

Yesterday we met up with Jenni & Mamush. It is so great when we get to see them - and to see Micah & Mamush together. We feel so blessed to live close enough to them to visit and get the boys together. (If you don't remember - these boys were at the same orphanage in Ethiopia and we were there when Mamush came to the House of Hope, so they have history together.)

We made quite a spectacle of ourselves having a photo-shoot of the boys in the middle of the restaurant. It was worth it - look how cute they are!

These next ones crack me up - they look like they're having a conversation!

It's COLD Outside!

This is what happens with Micah's stuff after he goes to bed...

We Voted... and other musings of the day...

So we went out and voted in our state's primary today. Micah rode in the baby carrier and 'helped' me vote by trying to grab my pen and the ballot from my hands. He is so very helpful. :) Watching the primary results come in, we were discussing some of the rumors that have been circulating about Obama. It is amazing what people will believe. You can read some of the rumors and the responses to them here. I am also so lucky that I can call Jenni - she is "in the know" about matters of politics, so she answered some questions for us tonight. Thanks Jenni! :)

We have our first ear infection. So sad. We went to the doc yesterday to check out the cough that Micah has had and instead of finding anything bad with that, the doctor found a "fresh" ear infection. So, I guess we caught it early which is good. But, I count ourselves as very lucky because Micah has been very healthy - this was the first time we went to the doctor for anything but a wellness visit or shots.

And, today is February 5th, which means it has been exactly 6 months since we first met our son. Happy Family Day Anniversary to us!

Micah is getting 5 new teeth all together. FIVE! He has one coming in on bottom too now. Here are the top teeth coming in (along with yogurt mouth and a strawberry)...


I love his teeth! They are so cute. I do miss that gummy smile though.

We had a fun weekend - I went to CHI on Saturday morning (solo) for a meeting about Ethiopia and trans-racial adoption. I've been before but it was good to hear from other families and to refresh what I've learned. We also had home-made doro wat. Yum. Kevin went to Mardi Gras all day Saturday, so Micah and I had a date Saturday night before we headed to my step-Grandma's birthday party. We ran errands and then finished our date at Noodles & Co. Micah enjoyed himself as he yelled HI and waved to the diners seated at the next table for, oh, about the ENTIRE time we were eating. They weren't the kind of people who thought it was adorable either. He is very social when we go out to eat - he yells at people if they don't acknowledge his cute-ness. And rightly so! :)

Sunday we went to our friend Baby J's baptism. Micah was terrible during mass - it was right during his nap but he stayed wide awake the whole time. When it was time for the baptism (after mass) he promptly passed out on me. So, he only got to nap for about 30 minutes. It was great seeing Baby J and his mom & dad & sister though. His mom and I have been trying to get together for months - seriously.

And then Sunday night Micah enjoyed his first Superbowl at Chris & Rob's house. Here are some pics...

Eating his Superbowl dinner. We had pizza & wings. He had turkey & vegetables. Yum.

Gracie "watching" the game. We did watch on a bigger tv - this was just on in the kitchen. :)

Watching the game and eating some goldfish with dad.

Tagged... AGAIN! (Jocelyn!)

Yes, friends, you are so lucky that Jocelyn tagged me with another fun blog game - now you get to learn 7 weird things about me. As if you hadn't learned enough on my 100th post (lacking greatly in the 100 things) or lately here. So, to spice this up a bit, I am going to give you some weird things and some just plain weird photos of myself. I have no shame - I will show you my weirdness. (Besides, I posted a slideshow of my son looking half-drunk in many pictures, so I owe it to him to fly my freak flag about now.) *I should warn you that the last photo is not exactly G rated - now don't scroll down so fast - it's not that exciting! :)

1. I have had the same haircut (with mild variations) for a LONG time. Although I did grow it out for a little while, I cut it back to same old shortness right before we left for Ethiopia. Proof? Here are Kevin and I in 2001...

And, here I am recently (with my other main man) in 2008...

Pretty darn close to the same hairdo. Maybe that's not weird, but I kind of think it is.

2. I do things like this...

And this...
3. I once entered our little dog (Pedro) in a contest to be the mascot for the Humane Society's Bark in the Park. He made it to the top three and was up against a greyhound and a three-legged dog. I was obsessed with him winning and basically became a pageant mom for my dog. He came in second to the three-legged dog (not even a Hurricane Katrina survivor like my little dude could beat that!). This is why Kevin will not let me enter Micah into any contests of any kind (Don't tell him about the silly picture contest!). I have pageant mom tendencies. (Note: If you are, in fact, a pageant mom, I do not mean to offend. Really.)

Here's Pedro in all his second place glory...

See the three-legged dog? How can you compete with that?

See his shiny medal? I was so proud. :)

4. Sometimes I dress up my dogs and then take pictures...

5. I LOVE the show Northern Exposure and I really wish Cicely, Alaska was a real place where I could go and hang out with Ed, Ruth Ann, Shelly, Howling, Maggie, Joel, Marilyn, and most of all Chris. Or maybe most of all Ed. Don't know - love them both. My sweet husband bought me NE on DVD for Christmas a few years ago...

6. I really don't mind if the dogs sleep in the bed with us. I do wish we had a larger bed (only a Queen size right now), and I do have to change the sheets a lot, but other than that - I am fine with it. Pedro likes to spoon.

7. And, as a testament to my weirdness, I will leave you with this final image. Sometimes I just cannot resist...


* I forgot that I'm supposed to tag people. Next time I will remember!

So Much Silliness

There is a Silly Picture contest going on this week at And The Rest is History so I thought, "I have silly pictures." And I began to look through our pics for the silliest. I realized one thing - our child makes some goofy faces. Maybe I just find them funny (and adorable) because I'm his mom, but I had to make a slide-show of some of my all time favs. So, if you want to look at 28 goofy pics of Micah - see the slide show. But, first, here is my pick for Silliest Picture (thus entering the contest :)


And, here is the slideshow. (Oh, and there are 2 of George in there with sunglasses - those had to be added for their silliness too :)