It's been THREE years!

10 Reflections
1. Exactly 3 years ago, I sat on a crowded bus in Addis Ababa headed to an Ethiopian government building, embracing my son, whom I’d met just the day before. My arms were lovingly wrapped around him in a tight bear hug…in a futile attempt to prevent his kicking and thrashing as he threw (another) FURIOUS tantrum.

 2. He accentuated his kicks with loud expressions articulated in Tigrinya, the only language he knew. I knew not a lick of Tigrinya…but I had a pretty good idea what he was saying to me.

3. And then I became aware that my lap felt unduly warm. The little urchin…I mean…my boisterous new son…had drenched both of us in pee.

4. A little later Katrina and I stood with Kebrom and Atsede before a grave Ethiopian authority for one of the most important appointments of our lives – my hair mussed from the wrestling match, my shirt a wrinkled wreck, my pants exhibiting the pee-stain, Kebrom still grumbling away and both of us smelling particularly pungent in the hot Ethiopian climate.

5. Ironically, it was just 24 hours earlier we held them for the very first time and declared them the most precious gifts we’d ever seen. Then the tantrums began…and by nightfall the precious lambs had become terrible tyrants of whom Katrina and I greatly feared.

6. The flight home was a nightmare. They hardly slept and if we restrained them for ANY reason – like buckling their seat belt, forcing them to sit while landing, preventing them from repeatedly pressing the flight attendant button, etc. – they loudly erupted into another tirade.

7. Exhausted, bedraggled and bewildered (this was NOT how we had envisioned this!) – we drug them through the D.C. terminal and a lady stopped us to express what beautiful children they were…and Katrina and I both glared at her.

8. But since that day, happily the tantrums, and sadly the Tigrinya, are both distant memories. They are fully Americanized…Kebrom recently asked if he could renounce his Ethiopian name…curious I asked what he’d prefer his name to be. “Michael Jackson” he said w/o hesitation.

9. Daily they delight us. This week Atsede told us to watch how brave she could be. She then made Kebrom lie on the floor and she hurdled him. When asked how that was an act of bravery, she explained, “I could have really hurt him!”

10. Then yesterday she told me she got first place in a field event at school. My running prowess well documented, I was thrilled! And then she told me it was in the eating contest. Yep…my Ethiopian daughter is without question, Daddy’s little girl!