school and tennis.....

Well, it’s been two months now and Mekdes continues to astound us all with her transitioning!  Her language skills are so  amazing, especially to her mother who has never been able to master another language.  I apologize to Miss Finney, my high school French teacher, for my continual inability to grasp the French language.  How exasperating I must have been to her!  And trust me when I say, I didn’t get any more fluent in college.  Luckily, I was able to disappear a bit easier in a class of 100 IU students as opposed to my little rural high school French class.  With this being said, Mekdes’ ability to listen to our every day conversations and pull out words that she realizes are useful to her and  then add them to her vocabulary  is nothing short of a miracle in my eyes!  Today she took  a drink from my water bottle and said MA WOOHA WARM.  I don’t remember her using the word warm before and she just threw it into our conversation as if she has always used it—so cool!  She is also beginning to string together several words and forming phrases and even sentences.  Mekdes will stop mid phrase, say “ummmm” and look up to the ceiling  as she is thinking of the proper  word to finish her thought.  It is so  fascinating!  MOM’S MAKEENA WASH is what she exclaimed today after she rubbed her coat against the car and got dirty. 

I enrolled Mekdes in a park district ABC’s 123’s class thinking it would be one more source of language acquisition for her as well as an opportunity for her to be around other kids her age.  She calls it her school and she seems to really enjoy it.  Her only gripe is that she doesn’t get to take the bus to her school on Monday.  The teacher said Mekdes followed directions for the most part and did well with the other kids.  I am confident that if  Mekdes finds a career where she needs to constantly adapt and fly by the seat of her pants, she will excel and be incredibly successful at whatever she attempts. 

I also signed Mekdes and Margo us for a park district tennis class on Fridays.  Why I decided tennis was the sport I should introduce her to first is beyond me!  Soccer would have been a much more obvious choice, but nooooo!  I chose tennis—ha!  She has never seen a racket or a tennis court before so the poor instructor had no idea what he was in for!  When I introduced the girls to Coach Mike, the instructor,  and told him that Mekdes is from Ethiopia and doesn’t speak much English and  that she doesn’t have any idea what the game of tennis is—the look on Coach Mike’s face was priceless!  I’m sure he was thinking that he doesn’t get paid nearly enough to deal with this crazy scenario!  To his credit, he is doing a fantastic job.  This is in large part to his assistant, Margo!  Margo is playing tennis like she has been doing it her whole life!  Coach Mike asked if I play tennis because Margo is such an skilled tennis student .  I chuckled and informed him that I do not play tennis and that Margo has just been absorbing all the sports she has been forced to watch at her older sisters games since birth, so it stands to reason that she is a rather talented athlete.  I think Coach Mike is ready to sign Margo up for his elite group of tennis students J  As for Mekdes, she tries to watch what Margo does and follow whatever drill is being run, but most of the time she just stands with her hands on her hips and her head tilted to the side like it is the most ridiculous thing she has ever seen.   I will try to get a picture of the two girls at class—they are so cute together!

So that about sums up my latest experiments with our newly formed crew.  Our older trio continue to do well with school and their various sports.  Kate had an orchestra concert and just did a  fabulous job.  Emme continues to be the social butterfly with a schedule that is really exhausting!  Anna is starting to think about what classes she will register for next year in high school.  The thought of her heading off to college in four years is overwhelming to me! 

We continue to be blessed with 5 healthy girls and a means to supports them.  I am still working on setting up a fund for some of the street children we met in Addis and will keep you posted with the results as it takes shape.   I cannot wait to see what next week brings... 

our talented violinist!

ready for tennis!  hair accessories a must for any occasion!