Gotcha Day Video.. Take two!!

Ok, lets try this again.. in case you missed the first failed attempt, this was a video I made for our one-year-Gotcha Day Anniversary. I haven't been able to post it until now, so I'm REALLY hoping this will work. You can check back to the first try for more information. If this doesn't work, then I really don't know what to do.... any suggestions????




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Videos

Ok, obviously, if you saw my attempt to post my Gotcha Day video, you've seen that its not really working. I've tried copying and pasting, embedding it, linking it, and everything.. its downloaded on Google Video, but it just won't go onto my blog. Does anyone have any tips and/or suggestions??

"Game" Time!

I saw this on Nikki's blog (http://dreamasifyouwillliveforever.blogspot.com) but it looked kind of fun, so thought I'd do it too!

1. How many blogs are listed under your favorites list that you check EVERY day?
Umm.. I only have 9, but one is my other one, and one is my mom's. I check, out of those ones, probably 3 everyday. However, I also check other blogs that I don't have listed down.

2. How many times a day do you "go to the bathroom" and end up checking blogs?
Haha, I always use this one with babysitting! When the kids are watching movies, I often have to go to the "bathroom" several times within the movie! Probably 3/4 times.

3. Do your kids recognize the other kids from the blogs that follow??
Sorry, I don't have kids!

4. Do you keep track of how often people update their blogs and get upset when they don't keep to the schedule??
I don't get upset when they don't post, but I get really excited when there are new updates!

5. Favorite time of day to check blogs?
Truthfully... anytime!!

6. Who's blog is your favorite?
I like tons of blogs, but I really enjoy Nikki's and Susy's (http://bigsisdiaries.blogspot.com)

7. How many of the blogs that you follow are people that you have never met in person?
Most of them!! Some of them I know, (like my mom!! :D) through adoption and everything, but most of them, I have never met. It feels like I've known them in person for ages though! :P

8. How long have you been married?
Nada... I just turned 16!

9. Fav. food?
Oh man, I love food! Umm lets see.. well, I have a sweettooth, so lots of sweet stuff, and chips etc. I also loove different kinds of salad, like brocoli salad, greek salad, asian noodle salad, and bean salad. Oh, and fruit is always good too!

10. Fav. TV show?
I don't really watch much TV. I used to like 7th Heaven, but its kind of old and lame now.. not much happens. I like America's Next Top Model, although I almost never watch it (I watched last season, but other than that, not really), and I love watching the audition weeks for American/Canadian Idol!! Hilarious! Oh, and Amazing Race.

11. Anything that you forbid your kids to watch on TV?
I don't have kids, but they probably won't be watching much anyway.. I don't watch much.. I'm more of a movie type person than TV.

12. How long was your adoption journey from beginning to end?
April '05-August '06... 1 1/2 years (April was when my parents decided to adopt, and August was when we brought Ayana and Moses home)

14. What did you imagine your family to be like as a little girl?
I've always wanted lots of kids, from all over the world! I think its really cool to have families with biological kids, African kids, Asian kids, Indian kids... like a rainbow family! :D

15. Favorite down time activity?
I'm obsessed with reading.. seriously, I could read for hours and hours and hours. And I do! :)

16. Do you have more online friends than "in person" friends?
No, I have way more "in person" friends than online friends, but I do have quite a few online friends.

17. Tell us the cartoon character that you most look like:
Well when I did the test in Disneyland, I think I was most like Alice in Wonderland.. but I don't really look like her. I always wanted to be Ariel though!! Unfortunately, I don't have a tail, or red hair! :D

18. What toothpaste do you use?
Umm.. I'm pretty sure its Colgate. My mom bought it. :P

19. Stupidest adoption comment/question that you've recieved?
Well, this was to my mom, but still... stuff like,
~"How much are they?"
~"Where did you get them?"
~"How many real kids do you have?" (yea, because everyone knows that Ayana and Moses are fake!)
and the worst one..... one lady says to her friend (very loudly so that my mom can hear):
~"Do you want to get yourself a couple of those?" and her friend replies,
"No, I give my money elsewhere!"
Oh man, my whole family was ready to go and hunt those two down when my mom told us!!! Can you believe it?
Of course, its always funny to see it really confuse people. Ayana and Moses were going down a slide once, and this dad was waiting at the bottom for his little girl, who was right behind them. When Ayana and Moses came down, he smiled, then looked around for an African couple.. when he saw them run towards us, he did a complete double take, stared for a second, then quickly turned away when he saw us kind of watching him! :P
Oh, and then, at the zoo, a little girl looked into the stroller and saw Moses. She quickly looked up at my parents, then with this really puzzled look on her face, looked back at Moses, and back and forth several times, until she just kind of wandered off to her parents, looking really confused! It was so cute! lol

20. Fav. website?
Lately I've been completely addicted to Facebook (not to mention about a gazillion blogs!!)

My Silly Little Sister... or was it me that was the Silly One???

Ayana is constantly surprising us with her level of comprehension. She seems to understand everything that goes on around her! She is really smart, and is picking up English just like that. She's good enough to be able to have a normal conversation with her (as normal as a conversation with any 2 1/2 year old can be!). In fact, the paediatrician said, at their last check up, that Ayana is completely on target with language for her age... for kids BORN here. And she's ESL!! I am so proud of her. Every day she says something that completely surprises me, and I had no idea that she knew. For example, yesterday we were driving to go to Maplewood Farm (this really cute farm, with a petting zoo that we occasionaly visit- I'll post about it soon!) and we drove through a tunnel. Well, in those tunnels, it gets darker, so Ayana was very surprised.
Our conversation was as follows:

Ayana: Oh! Lights out! Who did that?
Me: I don't know! What do you think?
A: Silly lights. In house.
E: What? What house?
A: Lights out in house. Ayana, Rara, Mama, Meme, Joshua, Doya and car in house.
E: Oh.. we turn the lights out in the house. Are we in a house right now?
A: Yup! House!

Just then we drove out of the "house", and continued on the freeway.
Ayana turned around to see the "house".

A: See Rara? There house.
E: Where?
A: Right there house! Gosh!

It wasn't so much the conversation on a whole, it was just the little things that made it up. She had seen the lights go "out", and wondered what happened. Then, remembering that inside we can turn lights on and off, she figured that we must be in a house! So, when I didn't quite understand, she had to wait until we got out of the house, in order to show me (I don't always get Ayana's logic. I am a bit silly, and she often has to show me exactly how everything works, because.. Gosh! Rara is so silly and grownup. Of course Ayana, a two year old knows better than her! :P). How silly I am! Of course we were in a house! Gosh Rara!

Anyway, its just little things like that that continue to amaze me. Another example happened just last night. Ayana was having her bath, and afterwards, my mom sat her down to take out her braids. This isn't Ayana's favourite pass-time, but she sat still, and was generally a good little girl. When they were all done, I went upstairs to see.. and it was hilarious! Ayana's hair was all poufed up from her head, in a HUGE afro!! It was so crazy, which I said out loud. A little while later, I was sitting in my room reading a book, when Ayana and Moses burst in to say goodnight (I love it when they come in, all cuddly, and want to give me hugs and kisses! Unless, of course, its Moses, at about 7 in the morning, which he is known to do! But then again, what better way to wake up, that to pudgy fingers slapping your arm, and slobbery kisses all over your face? Hmmmm....). Moses came over, and gave me a huge hug and kiss, saying, "Ni-ni! Ahwowo!", which is generally used for "Night Night! I love you!" Although, he does sometimes use it to mean other things! :D

So then Ayana came to me, to give me a hug and kiss goodnight, but before she did, she stopped, and said, "Look Rara!" and pointed at her hair, which had been moisterised, and slathered full of the leave in conditioner they have to have. It was very cute, and curly, and not huge and crazy at all. I said to her,
"Oh, very nice!" She looked at me rather sternly and said, "Its not crazy. Its cute." I laughed and laughed, and told her that, yes, her hair was beautiful, and not crazy anymore. She looked at me slightly suspiciously, but decided that it was good enough, and gave me the nice big cuddly hug and kiss goodnight that I love so much.

She's so funny! I seriously don't know how we ever did without her to make us laugh. And of course Moses does his fair share of entertaining! He loves to sing, and dance, to whatever music is available. I'm sure that's its a reflex reaction, because the moment music comes on, his shoulders jiggle, and his arms wave around, and he starts to bob around the house (or carseat, or high chair, or playroom...you get the point!)

He's doing very well with his level of understanding, and his lanuage too. Yesterday my mom came outside with him, and asked my dad where Josh was. My dad replied that "Josh is climbing the tree." The minute he said that, Moses turned around, and stared at the tree, until he could pick out Josh among the leaves, and then pointed to him, and shouted triumphantly at my mom "Jaja! Jaja! Jaja!" He can totally understand everything we say to him!
Here's an updated list of his words I have to warn you.. its long! In fact, there's no way I can put it all down.. I'll just give you a sample! :D

~car= cah
~truck= tuck (although lately he's been saying Turuck)
~bird= tweet tweet
~tree= twee/turee
~chicken= chickie

~bike= bak

~book= book.. yay he's got this one!

~walk= wuk

~more= mo mo mo (he never says it once. He has to say it three times at least!)

~no= NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

~yes= owe (for some reason, he says that in Amharic... he probably picked it up from Ayana, as she still says it sometimes)

~there= dere

~I love you= some version of Ahwow, although if you get him to repeat after you, it goes something like this:
"I"... "Ah"

"Love"...."Uh"

"You"... "MEEE!" this last part is said with a grin.. he knows exactly what he's saying!

~Mummy= Mama

~Daddy= Baba

~Erin= Rara

~Megan= Meme (said Mee-Mee)

~Joshua= Jaja

~Ayana= Callie (we REALLY have no idea where this came from. It was her nickname at the orphanage, and it comes from Kalkidan, her birthgiven name. But he was only 7 months when we brought him home, and we almost never call her that, except at the very beginning.. How on earth does he know that??)

~Moses- DuhDuh (An attempt to say DoyDoy, which is his nickname from the orphanage, that has just seemed to stick. I almost never call him Moses!)

~go= GO!

~bad= ba

~dog= do/woof-woof

~gosh= goh (I know, slightly strange for a one year old, but "Gosh" was kind of a family joke for a while- someone I knew always said it- and Ayana and Moses both picked it up right away! :S Ooops!)

~cheese= CHEEEEEEE!!!! (he says this any time he sees anything resembling a camera, and screws his face up into a cheesy- no pun intended!:P- grin which slightly resembles a grimace. Because of this, we have several nice video clips of Moses standing in front of the camera, hands behind his back, face in a little.. "grin", saying "CHEEEEEE! (breath) CHEEEEEEE! (breath) CHEEEEEEEEEEEE! (breath) CHEEEEEEEEEE!" and so on, until my mom laughed, and told him to say hello. Which reminds me.....)
~Hello= Hewwo!

~Bye= ba/ba-ba

~rabbit/bunnie= buhee (he says this anytime he sees me getting rabbit food out to go and feed our three darling little dwarf rabbits.. I'll post a picture of them sometime!)

Well, I think you get the picture! I should go now, because I'm really trying hard to post a video I made for Gotcha Day. I know that was almost a week ago, but the computer is just not letting me post it!! So, this is my final attempt.. lets hope it works! :S Keep your fingers crossed!

Gotcha Day Video

I made this video last week, in honour of our One Year Gotcha Day Celebration. Its made up ofhalf video clips, and half pictures. Oh, and in honour of Ayana and Moses' favourite dancing music, the background soundtrack is the one and only Bob Marley!
I hope this works, because my computer has not been letting me download it, or post it or anything!

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*For those of you who have adopted from Ethiopia through CAFAC recently, and are wondering where on earth we picked them up from, this was at the old Foster Home.. a few months before they moved to the new one that they're at now.*

Capernwray on Thetis Island

Ok, so maybe I'll finally update this blog on everything that has happened this summer, since we left for Caperwray....I'll try at least! There's lots, so brace yourselves!
If you have ever heard of Capernwray Bible College, you'll know what I'm talking about. They are all over the world, and they have one on Thetis Island, here in BC. Every summer they have a family camp, which we have now been to 3 times. Its really great.. there are adult sessions, along with teen, pre-teen, kid, and baby/toddler groups. Each group has their own fun activities and lessons they do. For example, every year the teen group drives to a campsite, and spends the night under the stars... its a really cool place, and we really enjoy being there. We've gone twice before this year, in 2003 and 2004, and we really liked it then. We thought we would come every year, but it didn't really work out again until this year.
Anyway, there is also freetime, which is when they open up the waterfront. They have boatrides, water-skiing, tubing, wakeboarding, kneeboarding, and a couple other water-type activities. They also have crafts to do, and fishing, and two ropes courses.... basically during the afternoon you can do whatever you feel like. Its very relaxed, and everyone always has a great time.
This year was the first time going with Ayana and Moses along. They l.o.v.e.d. it!! They were in the baby group, and they absolutely adored their leaders. Ayana called them "friend Jenny, friend Jol, and friend ummm... the oder one". I guess Stephanie was a bit too hard for her to say! (and Jol was otherwise known as Joleen- sorry, I have no idea how to spell that! :s) Ayana and Moses adored them, and loved it when it was time to be dropped off (the teens would stay for the morning talk, and everyone 12 and under would go to their groups while this was going on...then later during the afternoon talks, everyone would go to their groups, teens included).
Ayana also enjoyed being able to be a part of the craft- elastic/mousetrap powered cars, or sea-shell necklaces (take a guess as to what Ayana made!). She loved choosing beads, and colours, and helping me paint it, but most of all, she loves wearing it, and showing it off to everyone she sees! She is very proud of that necklace! On another note, Josh took part in the car side of the craft. At the end of the week, there was a derby for all the cars that had been made that week. There were 5 heats, and the winner of each heat would compete in the final race. In Josh's heat, as his car was going down the track, the wheel teetered, and fell off! Somehow, despite only having three wheels.. Josh's car won that heat! Everybody laughed so hard, and wanted to see what would happen in the finals.. well, believe it or not, Josh's faulty car won the entire derby race!! I can't even describe how big my brother's smile was.. he was soo proud of himself!
Throughout the week, many fun and exciting things happened, and we all had a lot of fun. Its kind of hard to write in one post what we did all that week, but hopefully this will give you a little glimpse into what we did, and how much fun we had. And, a picture's worth a million words (my new and improved version!), so here's a few more pictures to make up for my lack of words! :D

Me waterskiing

Josh winning the race-car derby

Ayana and Moses with their friends (leaders)

Me, Megan, Josh and my dad went on a boat tour one afternoon.. it was so cool! Towards the middle of the trip, they stopped the boats, and anyone who wanted to could climb onto the roof of Boat #3 and jump off into the water.. I went in about 7 times!!

Walking down to the waterfront

Josh jumping off of the swimming dock

Josh and his friends tubing.. they got LOTS of air!!

In front of our cabin

Josh and my dad making their winning car!

Making necklaces

The finished products (mine's on the left, Ayana's is on the right)

Some of the scenery we saw on the boat tour

On the way home, Moses got hooked on my iPod.. I was actually holding it, and he had one earphone in, but we gave the whole thing to him for the picture.. after that, he wouldn't give it back!

Gotcha Day!

I can not believe that its been a whole year since Ayana and Moses legally became ours. Its completely surreal! Its been a packed year of new beginnings, of crying, of first steps, of laughter, of stress (no, it hasn't been perfect!), of happiness, and of all around love.

Looking back, its amazing to me how much they've changed, and grown.. how much we all have! Our family is so much better with them in it. Its like it was almost complete, but something was missing.. when Ayana and Moses came along, they stepped right in, and filled that gap perfectly.

These are three of the pictures from our referral. Its incredible how different they look! Moses was still a chubby little baby back then, but Ayana looks so sad and alone. To see the life in her eyes now, and the joy she emits to everyone around is just amazing.

We could even see the difference from our referral, to our 6 week update. They were both looking happier, and healthier.. its incredible what 6 weeks of love, care, and good food can do to a child!

The day we finally got to meet them (I didn't get a chance to post about it, but the Anniversary of the day we first laid eyes- and hugs and kisses!- on them was yesterday!) was one of the best days of my life. After months of preparing, and hoping and dreaming and waiting and longing, there they were. It was like a picture coming to life. We had stared at those pictures for so long, and suddenly, they were there in front of us, big as life, and completely real... it was actually a very strange experience at first.

The very next day, we went back, and got ready to take them away from the foster home, to be ours forever. That was a very emotional day. You could telll the staff had really loved the children, and it was hard for them to let them go. They wanted them to have a new life, with a family that really loved them, but they had become so attached to them.. there were many tears that day! But when we were finally in the car, heading back to the Weygoss Guest House, it really hit; they were ours! Ayana Kalkidan and Moses Ermias were Wiebes, and were part of our family forever!

They had never been in a car before, but they took to it surprisingly well. Moses even managed to get one or two bounces in! (He could hear the music playing.. he's loved music, right from the beginning!) Ayana fell asleep straight away, in my dad's lap, but Moses was content to sit with my mom and stare out the window, occasionally taking quick peeks at us.

The first few weeks went by in a blur, what with adding two new kids to our family, traveling back from Ethiopia, and major jet lag.. we were glad to be finished with that, and be able to start settling into our new lives.

Ever since then, Ayana and Moses have bloomed. From inching his way across the floor to crawling, to walking and running all the way to beginning to peddle on his little tricyle all by himself (a new development, first occuring today!), Moses has grown out of being a chubby little baby, to being a chubby little toddler. Ayana has gone from being a shy, quiet nervous toddler to a beautiful little girl, bubbling over with laughter and sunshine.

There have been so many firsts in this year...

~ Moses had his first birthday

~ Ayana had her first birthday with us (she turned 2!)

~ Their first car ride

~ Their first plane ride (what a disaster that was!)

~ Their first Christmas

~ Their first snowfall

~ Their first Halloween (complete with cowboy and princess costumes!)

~ Their first Thanksgiving

~ Moses' first wobbly steps

~ Ayana and Moses' first bike rides (Ayana can now ride around very well by herself- with training wheels of course!- and Moses runs around behind her, pushing his!)

~ Their first family vacations (to Pender Island, and this summer to Pentiction and Thetis Island.. which I will be sure to write about soon!)

~ Ayana's first English word (she now chatters away!)

~Moses' first words (he now chatters away as well, although half the time you have no clue what he's talking about!)

It seems like just yesterday they were coming back to the Guest House with us, in Ethiopia, all nervous.. its hard to believe so much has happened since then!
I love them so much, and I'm so happy that they are part of my life. Tonight we are going to our family favourite; an Ethiopian Restaurant! We'll have fun celebrating their first year in our family.. our forever family!