Mehaber 2010 - part 2

Our Great Bunch of Children

The next day was jam-packed full of fun.

In the morning, the children played soccer against the dads, while the mums sat and chatted.


And then there were some crafts set up for the kids to do. They made yarn crafts and then did plaster of paris hand prints.



After this, we had lunch and then headed to the beach for the afternoon. Now that was wonderful! It was hot and the children just played, while we mums did some more socializing. The dads were great looking after the children in the water.

Briton and his special friend, Aden.


Briton found a frog and boy, did the children get excited!



Then they found another one. We had to work to convince them it was in the frog's best interest to be put back in the water.

Kalkidan asked Raine how many brothers and sisters she had. Raine told her eight. Kalkidan said, "That means EIGHT beds!!" Then Raine decided to show her each of the names and ages of her brothers and sisters. This is her counting them off.

This is my very favourite picture!! These six girls are three sets of siblings. They were all living at the Kidslink Transition House together in Ethiopia. There are a set of Savannah (Gadisae), Addis, Semegn, Raine (Mesay), Mekfira, and Kalkidan. They are all in the same age range of about 6-8 years old. This was the first time our girls saw them since we came home two years ago. We are so very fortunate that our girls were able to reconnect with these girls! And now it appears that our camp will become a yearly event, thus enabling them to see more of each other.

That evening we had a potluck barbeque.


Nicky made authentic Ethiopian coffee with popcorn, which is traditional in Ethiopia. I couldn't have any, unfortunately, as I can't guarantee when my heart will object to coffee and start dancing like crazy!


Cassidy was a big helper with the hamburgers and then the cleanup afterwards.

Austin had a little girl crush / boy crush encounter this weekend, that included all his little friends in the picture above, minus his sister, Raine. He learned how you can't 'like' one girl cause you break the heart of all your other girl friends. It was quickly patched up and they were all good *buddies* again. (smile)


Savannah loved this guitar. Brant, a very kind dad, owned it and appreciated that Savannah enjoyed playing it. He let her take it into the woods and sit and strum it. She must have sat at various times for a couple hours! When he and his wife left the following day, he gifted it to Savannah, since he was going to upgrade his guitar and he really appreciated her interest.


Two dads were giving out rides and Savannah was quick to voluteer for the scary experience. She loved it. Of course, I knew she would! (laugh) Oh, and they took her right over the top in a full circle!


Later that evening we congregated around the fire pit again.


More drumming and even a little dancing done by my own girl, Raine! She went a little wild when she heard the drumming. (smile)


The following morning we all packed up our cabins/tents/trailers and then some of us headed out to the Hippy Hole. This is a fabulous rock formation swimming hole that is a little walk from the campsite. You have to walk down a long very narrow path that drop down a steep cliff.


When we arrived we found that our older kids were already there with two of the dads and some of the girls.


There is a really high spot and Rekor, Semagn and Addis's dad decided to jump off there. Sadly, my camera missed the shot. Then the girls decided they would climb down the ladder and swim over to a little island. They did, brave girls! Then Cooper finally worked up his nerve to try. He wasn't being shown up by a girl! It was 'au natural' with all the kids doing it in their underwear, since it was an impromptu decision. Cooper had a little struggle with that but got over it quick enough, since the girls did it. (laugh)



He headed down the ladder and got to the bottom and decided it was too cold. He came back up and sat for a while. Soon he gathered his nerve and headed out again, not one to be outdone by the girls. This time he looked up at me to tell me it was cold! But he took the plunge, after a long think. (grin). I told Cassidy to stay nearby in case he got panicked. Cooper headed out and did just fine, but then he began to panic and so Cassidy plunged into the water and guided him to shore.
The rest of the kids decided they wouldn't do it this year. Maybe next time. I do think there were some regrets that they hadn't done it, but honestly, it was kind of scary and cold, so I don't blame them!

Right as we were leaving the children found a salamander in this puddle on the rock surface.

Heading back up the long, steep trail. The trail that gave my leg muscles an incredible workout!

Another View of the Hippy Hole

About an hour later we headed out. It was hard to say goodbye to new friends, but in a way it was not so hard because so many of them will be spending all or part of the next week at Harambee with us! So it was Au Revoir, instead of Good-Bye!

Until Next Week!

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Just to Let You Know

I am heading out to Harambee. This is the camp for families with children from Africa. It is a week long adventure full of classes, dancing, food, friends, hairdressing, lessons, cooking African foods. Our children are *very* excited about this!

It is a long journey of 6 hours, and I will be driving the trailer and my van. I had my first lessons two days ago and I believe I am ready. I really didn't want to learn last year because I didn't have the guts. This year, I didn't have a choice.

I could have had Ray drive me 6 hours each way, and then come home in the middle of the week to work, and then come back and get me next Saturday, but that would be too much time off work, too expensive using two vehicles etc etc. So I bit the bullet and learned to drive.

I will be back on Sunday. Please pray for SAFETY and that I will do just fine. I really want to conquer this because if I do then I can GO ANYWHERE!! I just might consider crossing the border and heading on down to the Southern States! You know me. I love adventure and I love road trips! And if I have my house like a turtle, then there is no reason I can't travel. (grin)

See you on the flip side!
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Mehaber 2010 - part 1

"Look Mama! A tiger!!" And with those words our road trip began. We were stopping into Tim Hortons for the 'Road Trip Must Have' - an extra large decaf mocha, heavy on the hot chocolate, don't forget the whipped cream. Briton saw a shabby alley cat hanging out on the side of the hill and figured it was a tiger. Why not? Who says tigers don't live in our area? The day began a little later than it was supposed to, since we all slept in. I had planned to be on the road by 5 or 6:00 am, so we could be at our destination by 1:00 PM, but that didn't work out. I finished packing the van and then we were on our way. Once we were on the road - about 20 minutes from home - I realized I had left my directions at home on the kitchen table. We pulled over, used the cell phone and called Ray, only to find out he had already left for work. So we sat there and killed time, while waiting for him to drive home, find my directions and narrate them to me over the phone. Finally, we were back on the road and headed out to our most exciting weekend! We were on the way to MEHABER - TRUE COLOURS Adoption Camp. I had no idea what to expect, except for the fact that for the first time since bringing our girls home nearly two years ago, they would have little brown children to talk and play with! That was enough to make me heady! Unless you are a mum of a child of a different colour in a 99.9% white town (with a smattering of First Nations people), you might not understand how exciting it is when your children have a chance to see that there really are other people just like them in our country. Our drive was pretty uneventful, and after we made a few wrong turns we made it to our destination: When we arrived the first people I saw were two little girls that were identical in looks - I knew them. They were the ones that I was so excited for Raine to see. We have not had much opportunity for our girls to meet other children who lived in the their orphanage while they lived there, and these were two that had been there at the same time. Raine remembered them. We unpacked the van into our very nice deluxe cabin. It had six single bunks and then a single over a double. There was a wood fireplace for a cozy evening, plus fridge, hotplate, shower and bathroom! It would be a quite convenient stay! I unloaded the six bikes and then within a few minutes the children were off and riding around. It didn't take too long for the children to become fast friends. Before I knew it my boys were racing everywhere with the girls. They enjoyed having Cassidy to chase and tease. Other than about 3 tiny little boys, there were only girls at the camp! It was a good thing I brought my boys to even out the numbers. Then later on, a family arrived that included one boy. Cooper quickly made himself their new friend. They found him ever so friendly. He was just thrilled to have a new friend. In the meantime, Cassidy, being the only child over the age of 9 (outside of our family) found himself a little bored. Before too long though, the fun began when the girls decided to chase him and tie him to a tree! I told him, all little kids love it when a big kid will play with them. I had brought Briton's bike, but he was not interested in riding it. I knew he would have so much fun if he would just take the challenge and get on the bike and conquer the starting and stopping, and of course, the middle part - staying up. So I did what I never, ever, do! I bribed my son. I told him if he would ride the bike and learn how to stop and start I would give him a pop. At first, he said, "No fankyou." After a little while, Cassidy came to me and said to me, He says he would like chips. Oh, so now we are negotiating! We agreed on a deal and before I knew it he was working with Cassidy. You should have seen him. Such a determined little worker. But he was struggling. Then a new friend, Carrie, offered him to use her daughter's wee little bike. So he did and with that bike he got the hang of the starting and stopping. But he still needed to be able to use our bike, so Cassidy got him going and before I knew it, he was riding past me calling out to me. If you have seen him. There was a priceless moment when I was standing around with about five other parents, and Briton drives up behind us, gets off his bike and parks it with a bunch of other bikes. He then says kind of nonchalently, "I parked my bike," and I promise his shoulders pulled back, his chest puffed out and his head tilted back. He then walked off. He was such a proud guy. Yup, he might have just parked his mustang! You should have heard the group laugh - simultaneously. They all knew that he had just learned to ride his bike, and it showed in his face everytime he rode by. Too cute! We had hotdogs for dinner and sat around chatting and getting to know each other. We talked about all things interesting: Scalp fungus Parasites Attachment Name choices and changes Real ages Behaviours You know the typical talk for mums with international adoptions. Stuff that most wouldn't find interesting, but we find fascinating. We forgot to bring marshmallows and one kind dad was sharing his with other people's kids. Briton asked me if he could have a marshmallow. I told him I didn't have any, but if he went and sat by the kind man, he might get offered one. *grin*. Then Cassidy suggested he simply ask the man for a marshmallow. That nice daddy gave him one and then helped him blow out the fire when to caught fire. And then someone suggested we head down to the beach to check it out. It was a 3 km drive and why not! We were up for adventure. We headed down for a short visit and before we knew it most of the kids were into the lake with a couple great dads. These guys were having a great time keeping the kids entertained! After we got back from the lake we headed back to the firepit for some singing and drumming. Then all the children hit the sack around 11:00 PM, all worn out from a wonderful day of energy spent making new friends and rekindling old friendships. For me, I can't explain the incredibly warm feeling I got when I looked around the campsite. There were parents sitting or standing all over in groups of two or three or more - chatting, laughing, and getting to know each other. There were children darting around on bicycles, and on foot, chasing each other, laughing and squealing. There were little brown faces everywhere, and for once our girls knew what it felt like to be the majority, instead of the minority! As their mum, it just warmed me to the core, to know that once a year I have camping opportunities where they can meet up with friends and be like everyone else: brown, adopted, transracially adopted, and internationally adopted! What an amazing feeling! .