hair...

We are now into doing hair once a week and trying new styles.  I am constantly googling African American hair styles for young girls and then trying to You Tube how to achieve it.  My favorite styles are the ones that take under an hour and I think Mekdes would agree.  Our least favorite styles are the two hour deals that leave us both cranky and annoyed!  We love her beautiful curls and I wish I had half the fullness of Mekdes' hair, but the amount of product and effort that goes into maintaining African hair is something we Caucasians cannot even begin to appreciate!  Hair is an enormous subject in the African American community as I can attest to via my inner city teaching experience as well as my African American Studies major.  I had entire courses dedicated to the subject.  It is multi layered and very complex and there can be a lot of self worth wrapped up in an African American woman's hair.  With all that said, I wonder if it will be the same for Mekdes.  After all, she is not African American.  She does not descend of ancestors with roots that go back through slavery.  She is American/Ethiopian  and from what I have read, many  Ethiopian American adoptees do not have the same feelings on hair and skin color that African Americans may have.  It will be interesting to see how our dear Mekdes feels as she grows and develops.   

This morning I was having feelings of guilt, however.  Guilt over not mastering all the wonderful hair styles that Medkes deserves to wear in her hair.  Somewhere in that sacred space between mother and child Mekdes must have sensed I was feeling low.  As I was working on her hair she whispered, "you are a good mom".  How dear!  How pure!  And oh, how I needed to hear it in that very moment.   

Life is good!  

40 minutes flat--new record!

We put the letter M in the back of this hair style...very exciting!

1 year....

Today is our "Gotcha Day" anniversary.  One year ago today we were able to walk out of Hannah's Hope with our Mekdes.  

While the proper thing to say here is, "Where has the time gone?" or "Geez, it just flew by!" the honest to God truth is that Shawn and I have aged 10 years since November 15, 2010!   Three adolescent daughters, rigorous athletic schedules, involved students in four different schools (preschool, elementary school, middle school and high school), boyfriends, social calendars, our youngest child still transitioning, our fourth child still figuring out her role...the list goes on and on yet they all contribute to our perpetual state of chaos here in the Geary household.  This is nothing that every other stay at home mom doesn't deal with on a daily basis and I do realize I am preaching to the choir here with some of you, but I do dream of a day when I am as together as those moms we see around town who look put together, who act put together and who don't have kids going to preschool with a maxi pad stuck to the back of her coat!   But the reality is,  as I look back at all that has happened since a year ago today,  I wouldn't trade any of it as it is the glorious realization of what a leap of faith can do.  

Now the aforementioned "put together" mom would have created a beautiful Ethiopian feast for her family on this special day.  But in our Geary chaos, Mekdes has decided that pepperoni pizza and Sprite would make her perfect dinner....what a change a year makes!   From bananas to pizza.  Perhaps I'll be put together next year...we can dream!

Gotcha Day!  Here is the outfit Mekdes wore when we left the orphanage.  My how we've grown!

Halloween...

I regret to inform you that my computer has passed away.  And in doing so, I have lost all photos going back to Margo being born!  The horror of it all has not truly set in, but I have had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach for quite some time now and I think that is why I have neglected my blog entries.   For those of you who are computer savvy and are wondering why I had not "back up" the answer is--I am NOT computer savvy and I just assumed my Mac stuff was saved up in the "cloud" that exists out there for me.  Laugh if you will, but that is how primitive my knowledge of all things techy truly is!  With all that being said, I am trying to get back on track and have  some catching up to do.

Halloween....what a strange holiday full of strange traditions that we celebrate every October 31!  We teach our children not to talk to strangers and not to take food from strangers, yet once a year that all goes out the window.  As I'm sure you are picking up on via my tone here, Mekdes was thoroughly confused by this holiday.  What do you mean we dress up in funny outfits and people give us candy?   We do what with pumpkins?  You expect me to put my hand in this goo?!

The big day had finally arrived and I was dropping Mekdes off at preschool for the Halloween parade.  She was commenting on everyone looking "weird"as we pulled into the drop off line.  After going over what was going to happen at school that day (for the 100th time), Mekdes looked at me and said "Ok, so when do I take off my shirt?"!  Costumes, putting them on, taking them off, using good manners, everyone looking weird....it was all too much to compute!!!  I told her to keep her shirt on and that all she has to do is put on her flower wings and she is in costume and ready for the parade.  "Mom, I've got it!" she shouted as she very independently jumped out of the minivan and walked over to get in line for school.  It was definitely a Halloween to remember!

Smurfette, Hippie, Freshman, Mouse and Flower