Check Out This Article

A friend of mine sent me this article . It's a great observation about the orphan crisis and what should be done about it. Here's a clue: if you're a Christian, it involves you.

Check it out and be inspired.

Summer Fun

Rahel made it home just in time for summer fun. We've had lots of free time to get to know each other and work on bonding. The kids have enjoyed playing together and enjoying the lax schedule. I often say that she must think all we do in America is play, swim and eat cake (we've already had three birthdays and a holiday since she's been here). Hope she's not too shocked to learn that it's not all play around here once school starts again.

Lots of our friends have big pools at their houses and we've been doing some swimming there, but in our own back yard, we've rigged this up. Two blow up pools side by side on our deck (yes, I know it's rather tacky and borders on "you might be a red neck if...."--but the fun factor and ability to cool off is worth it).

Rahel's getting brave and going all the way under!

And the kids have gotten creative with their acrobatic pool-to-pool jumping competitions.

After a long day of swimming, what better way to end it than with a sleepover. The kids have slept in the same room (yes all 6 of them) almost every night since Rahel's been home. They did a few nights on the floor and then realized the beds were a lot more comfy.

The current sleeping arrangements are: Caleb sleeps up top in Caroline's bed, Colton sleeps up top in Meron's bed, Meron and Caroline sleep together in Rahel's bed and Hermela and Rahel sleep together in Hermela's bed. So out of six kids, only Hermela is actually sleeping in her own bed and she now has a new bed buddy.

Who says we need a bigger house. The way I see it, with six kids in one room, that leaves the boys room open to add two more :-)

SUCCESS

I've finally made a batch of injera that actually resembles the real thing in taste, texture and even has the little holes in it. I've tried for over a year to make injera with "quick" recipes off line and never got close. I finally realized there are no short cuts and if you follow the long directions-it actually works. A friend of mine gave me the starter and I brought teff flour home from Ethiopia so we can now enjoy injera on a more regular basis.

Check out those holes!

And these happy faces (well except for Caroline-Ethiopian food is not her favorite, but she's learning to like it). Before we left Ethiopia, we had lunch with our driver and he told Rahel she may as well order pizza (instead of the traditional Ethiopian food) because there's no injera in America. She was very happy to see this coming right out of her new mom's kitchen. We've had Ethiopian food 5 or 6 times now since she's been home.


Now I'm just waiting for my injera pan to arrive so I can make them full size.