Technical Difficulties

Obviously, I am having issues with YouTube. If anyone knows (besides google) another uploading service that will support a large file, let me know! I am not sure if it is the camps slowER connection, or me, but I couldn't even load a 12 second video last week!

HeLp!

You Ain't Seen Nothin' Till You Have Seen Us Dance!

At the end of the week the kids get to join in the "program". You can see Zach in the "duck tape" zebra costume, Tsion is the bee, and Sami is the elephant. This was Tsion's first time, and it cracks me up that she will just go for it, and look like she knows what she is doing. Keep in mind, this is in front of 600+ high school kids!

Just the Pics

We went to Bend for our night off. Here we are at putt-putt. Zach and Tsion look oxygen deprived, but they had a blue slushie. Sami looks crabby, maybe because I had two hole in ones. :)) **Mom, this is the dress you bought Tsion**

Western night, in on the action.

Tonight the kids whined endlessly. WHY do we have to go to bed at 7:45. Funny, everyone was sound asleep at 8:30. They are wiped out!

Mouse Part 2

As I was finishing part one last night, Mouse #2 ran under my bed. At 10:30, without Lance, it suddenly was not so funny. ;) I will admit, my next step was jumping on the bed to get him OUT! Then, I called on the Head Leader radio, “Will someone tell Lance there is a mouse under my bed.” Lance was in the midst of a crazy night game at the gym, so I knew he would not hear me……and no one else did either!

I left 3 kids sleeping and went to find HELP. In the meantime, Zach had come back, and started the “manly” job of looking for the mouse with a flashlight. I found the camp MGR, who called and ordered 2 more traps. He set them up, and went on his way.

With the traps set, I was not letting Zach go to bed! We watched “The Color of Freedom” (which by the way was a great movie). Ten minutes later, the trap snapped and flopped, and we were too grossed out to find where it landed (there went the manliness!)

Lance came home, we went to sleep with 3 traps set, and no more sightings. Hoefully, this is The End!

**I did figure out WHY I got the mice. I had been joking about another YL property, and their mice problem. God does have a sense of humor. ;)

There's A Mouse in the House!

Around 3 AM last night, a mouse came into our room. I gasped, and scared him back into the kids room (phew!) And I remembered a couple traps I saw under the sinks when we arrived. We grabbed the peanut butter, and loaded the two traps. Then I laid there, waiting for the trap to go off. I decided to put my i-pod on and listen to music, because I could not stand the silence! Finally after an hour, the trapped snapped. Another hour later (we waited cuz he was still moving), Lance tossed the mouse. After he had spent the last couple hours convincing me there was only ONE, on his way back in, he said…..”There goes his friend.” We had already set two traps, so my i-pod went back on.

I laid there, praying “Just do not let him get in my hair, like the mouse of Denise's did in Addis.

Needless to say, our friend #2 outwitted the trap.

To be continued........

WHC Week 1

Lance decided to swing with some campers, for probably the last time as he got pretty sick. :) I took this pix cuz I thought his shirt looked cool!

Here we are hiking Communication Hill. They do not do this as a camp anymore, and I actually woke up the morning of day 3 ready to go! So I took the kids. We had a great time!

Week One is over. This was an "Urban Week" and it was great to see a mix of kids. There was a group of deaf kids from all different backgrounds, and it was so great to see them as ONE. Black, Hispanic, White, and different economic backgrounds brought together with one language. Within another group there was a boy in a wheel chair, and they did everything together. They carried him thru the ropes course, and in the pool, and danced together. They all had such fun, and it was wonderful to see the compassion and love in those kids hearts! In the pool I would watch as he would tell them "Stop holding me around my stomach, I am going to puke!" and "Stop carrying me like a baby." 220 kids went on the New Christian walk this week! :)

Here is Josh on the big zip line. I am sure that he set a camp record, as he went on it 10 times today!

THE BLOB

Keep in mind, this is something I NEVER have done, not even when I was a camper 20 years ago! :)

Life at Camp

Girls quad, where we are staying

Lots of swimming

Watching deer from our room

The BLOB, I was not anticipating Sami to go so high!!

Eating ice-cream

Hollywood Bound

Waiting to climb......

Free Climbing

Catching tadpoles, hopefully without leaches this time!

Swimming fast in the pond, so the "little sharks" cannot get Tsion!

Potential belly flop!

It Is NOT Fair

I was reminded of a conversation I had with Sami recently, after reading on of my friends posts. She pointed me toward a new blog (for me) which I will have to catch up on once we are home. I loved this quote, as Shelly did.

"I found myself feeling ashamed of feeling sorry for them and wondering if I should feel this way. This is their life, should I steal their pride? They work, they love, they survive. Who am I to take a passing glance and judge the quality of their lives?"

I get the "It is not fair" a lot (as most parents do?), but more so from Sami. You would think if anyone, a child who grew up in Addis, would know that life was not fair. One day I had this response:

"Is it fair that your best friends are still hungry, and your bio Dad cannot get a job??? Nothing is fair." I asked what he thought when they saw "ferenge" or people in Addis that had more money then them. Did he think that was fair????

His answer was "we did not think about it, no really Mom...I am serious!" I do believe him. We all know how prideful Ethiopians are. You can see it in all their faces, whether they are carrying a load of firewood, or selling veggies on the street. Do thoughts like that run thru their head? Although Sami had a tough life, he does have very good memories of his family life, friends, relationships, and his village.

Why am I so quick to judge how his life was, when I have only had a glimpse?? Is that fair??

Just a couple rambling thoughts, at midnight, from camp. :) Goodnight!

Sorry Friends.....

I am trying to send you some sun. Should I say we are toughing it out down here....pounding the H20 to keep from getting dehydrated? I just saw the Seattle weather 60 and cloudy. Here is something to make you smile.

We Are HERE!

We are HERE! I thought I would give you a glimpse off a YL staff wifes day, before leaving on a 3 week assignment…….Course most of these things could have been done ahead of time, but who has time to be organized!?!

4:30 AM: Lay in bed and think of everything I have to do (which of course was saved till the last days we had to leave!)
5:30 Get out of bed, start dishes and laundry.
7:30 Get the kids up, for the last day of school, prepare teacher gifts (really, could I have done this ahead of time?!)
8:00 Lance leaves for the dentist to get a crown
8:30 I leave for the dentist for a cleaning…..(don’t ask, Lance scheduled it!) Luckily, his parents were here to take the kids to school.
10:00 Leave the dentist for home.
10:45 Lance’s Dad comes in, says it looks like a tornado struck. :)

11:00 Lance and I decide to drive to town to run a couple errands, and get on the same page.
11:10 We turn around, realizing we do not have enough time.
1:00 Pedicure (yes, this was necessary!)
2:00 Tsion, Josh and Lance haircut.
3:30 Pick up Sami at school, say very sad goodbyes.
4:00 Resume packing and cleaning
5:15 Sami haircut
5:45 Drop Tsion off to get her hair braided.
6:00 Drop Sami off at the ball park with Lance, Zach has a baseball playoff game. Josh and I head out for errands.
7:30 I feel guilty, find out Zach is pitching in the last inning, and stop at the ball park on the way home.
8:15 They lose the game, Zach is upset and I decide to take him to Starbucks for a Mint Chocolate Chip Frappachino.
9:00 Pick up Tsion. Arrive home to the same mess, put the kids in bed. Pack, clean, more laundry.
1:00 Decide to go to bed, after washing Lance’s wallet, with all his Young Life and reimbursement receipts inside.

I told Lance it was much easier packing to go to Ethiopia then it is for an assignment!

Prefontaine Press Conference

Some of the kids with Kenenisa Bekele

Meseret Defar...who was the world record holder in the 5,000 until last week!

Grace and Tsion

Kenenisa, Ashy, Sami and Minte

A few weeks ago, there was an invitation for adoptive families to drive down to Eugene for the Prefontaine Classic, and the chance to meet Meseret Defar and Kenenisa Bekele. How could I pass up this opportunity to drive 5+ hours on my own (due to baseball playoffs) to give my kids a chance to meet their hero's!

We left at 5 AM Saturday morning, and picked up 3 of my friends kids to take with us. We arrived in Eugene 7 hours later, and Ashy proclaimed it as being his longest trip ever, and was convinced we had driven to Alaska!

As we arrived at the press conference with a handful of other families and their kids, we all awaited the atheletes. Once they arrived, they sat in chairs around the room, while news/magazine reporters interviewed them. It was a great experience. We anxiously awaited Meseret, and listened as she explained to Ashenafi as she arrived (in Amharic) the no one told her what time and she hadn't eaten lunch! Kenenisa was also there, with his wife.

We were able to get autographs, and after Meseret left, Tsion came up to me and showed me her picture, with no signature. We chased Messie into the parking lot, who graciously stopped and signed her picture. She started speaking to Tsion in Amharic, then I had to explain she could not speak anymore......after she left, Tsion burst in tears. Poor girl.

It is funny how "unimportant" their language was to them when they came home. Time after time I told Sami to keep speaking, and he was insistent, "No Amharic, only English." He was even rusty on our trip back to Ethiopia. After this trip, on the way home, I would say between the three boys (one adult teen!).....at least 1/2 of the words spoken were in Amharic. :)

Brazil VS Canada

So, I will spare you from all the soccer pics and video that Lance took. :) Lance took Sami and Ashy to the game on Saturday. Zach and Josh did not want to pitch in any $$ for their ticket, so we figured they must not want to go! They had a great time, and got great 100 level seats from a scalper hours before the game. Mom is on duty this weekend for the track meet!

Starvation

Funny timing. Last week, one of Sami's spelling words was starvation. First, he had to define it, his definition was "very, very hungry" Here is dictionary.com's definition of starvation.

1. the act or state of starving; condition of being starved.
2. liable or seeming to cause starving: a starvation diet.

Not much help, so here the definition of starve.

1. to die or perish from lack of food or nourishment.
2. to be in the process of perishing or suffering severely from hunger.
3. to suffer from extreme poverty and need.
4. Obsolete. to die.

I cannot count how many times I have heard ALL my kids say (in a very whiny voice) "I AM STARVING."

I do know, that even Sami and Tsion were never "starving" in Addis. I have pictures of them growing up, almost yearly, and although I do not doubt they went hungry, maybe "very very hungry", but they were not starving. Can most kids in America REALLY understand what starvation is, and is it something they can even grasp? I do not think even Sami and Tsion can.

This brings me to a post, that I read last night. Mindy is someone that I met by phone in Addis, her husband teaches in Addis. They also employ Sami and Tsion's Aunt, Hoptom, so sometimes I get a bit of insight by Internet into their lives, which is fun.

Yesterday I read something that Hoptom's husband said, and I was so amazed at their faith in God, and so proud to call them part of our family.

"Our dear Hobtom (our houseworker) thinks exactly as I do on so many things, I can no longer pretend to push aside these horrible things in that way. Her husband, Alebachow, and I were talking the other day while returning from the eye doctor with their daughter Haimee. He was saying that this cycle of famine causes the people to look not to human hands to sustain them but to the God Who Hears. Lack of formal education has not resulted in lack of education about the hand of God. This they have learned in every tangible way possible."

Here is Hoptom's baby who was born in January. When we were there she was VERY pregnant! It was fun to see these pix when we got home.