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I love Ethiopia.  I can remember thinking about Ethiopia when I was a girl. The news of the awful famine had a profound effect on me even as a small child.  Then, of course, choosing Ethiopia as the country of our adoption led Hubby and I to learning quite a bit about Ethiopia.  While I will never be a professor of Ethiopia, I still feel apart of this great country.  On a recent min-vacation I took a friend to eat Ethiopian food for the first time.  It was enjoyable to share this food with her and she enjoyed feeling apart of our family.  The kids were not there, but it still felt homey when I was in the restaurant. My previous posts… [more]

It is that time of year again! Yes, it is back to school for most, but Ethiopian families know that September means New Years! September 11th to be exact. Yes, that is a strange day to be celebrating in the U.S. I am aware, but it falls where it falls. When the rest of the country doesn't follow the same holiday calendar you do, you have to be flexible! Enkutatash, meaning gift of jewels, is Ethiopian New Years Day. A great way to celebrate your families connection to Ethiopia and to share with friends and extended family. Last year I ordered Ethiopian food and had a nice dinner with all the tradition dress that I had. This year it falls… [more]

We love books at our house. They are everywhere in fact. Some may call it clutter, but I like the books everywhere. It means the kids are using them! Two new books I want to share are Fire on the Mountain by Jane Kurtz and Silly Mammo: An Ethiopian Tale by Kily Mammo. Fire on the Mountain is one of the first books we checked out from the library after deciding to adopt from Ethiopia. I finally broke down and bought it last weekend at the culture camp I have been going on and on about! This book is written by Jane Kurtz. For those of you new to Ethiopian adoption, Jane Kurtz has many books out that are Ethiopian related. She grew… [more]

I was fortunate to meet an Ethiopian photographer named, Andarge Asfaw. He had a booth at the Heritage and Culture camp we attended last weekend. His book Ethiopia From The Heart was one that I could not pass up. The pictures in it brought Ethiopia alive in my mind and I do so want to go back again, now more than ever. Andarge was incredibly helpful when describing his pictures to me. I was trying to get a feel from where the pictures were taken as he had traveled extensively to photograph as many areas as he could. Two pictures stunned me. One is called Suluta Girl and can be found at his website. This picture just jumps out at… [more]

This past weekend we attended an Ethiopian Heritage and Culture camp in Virginia. I will be writing about all that I learned for a while. I cannot convey what this weekend meant to us as a family and to Mita and Enu. One of the firsts was sitting in on a coffee ceremony. It was one of the things we missed on our trip to Ethiopia in 2008. This ceremony was cut down a bit on time, but had all of the qualities of an Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony. It usually lasts for hours, we did ours in about 45 minutes. I will share some of what I learned and show you some pictures. I also picked up a great children's book explaining the origin… [more]

I got a great new book in the mail today and I cannot wait to tell you about it. My kids cannot wait for me to tell you about it either as I won't let them color in it until I get pictures of it! Needless to say this review is being written today and not tommorow! Explore Ethiopia: A Coloring Book by Stacy Bellward and illistrated by Danette Malerich, is a fun, educational and affordable book to add to any child's library, but especially to the library of an Ethiopian family or adoptive family. The activities are as easy as coloring a picture of an Ethiopian woman carrying water and as advanced as learning Amharic words and vocabulary. Being very… [more]

Early in our adoption process I found a book named, There Is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene. While we had already chosen Ethiopia to be where we were adopting from, this book really helped us feel Ethiopia's need for help with AIDS orphans. I immediately bought it to keep forever and to re-read again someday. Greene is an adoptive mother herself, from Ethiopia and other countries, as well as a writer by profession. She did an amazing job researching, interviewing and then sharing what she had learned. The book is full of facts and theories, but is told in a story form that keeps my eyes from rolling back in my head. I really need to feel… [more]

At Mita's school the other day I used several books and other props to help me teach the kiddo's about Ethiopian culture. I want to pass on these great tools as it took me a while to find them! First of all I asked the class how many letters did the English alphabet have. They all answered 26. I then showed them a part of the Ethiopian Amharic alphabet. They were amazed with the shapes of the letters and how many there were. I passed around the Feedel for Beginners poster from AbshiroKids.com. This poster is very colorful with pictures to keep the kids interested. I plan on framing the poster and putting it in our all-purpose room… [more]

On April 16th, it will be a year that Mita and Enu came into our lives. Officially our court date was March seventh, but the sixteenth was when I could hold them and hear them say "mom". I have decided to celebrate our year as a complete family by writing this month about what I have learned, what I'm still learning and what I wish I would have done differently. I'll be using all four of my blog topics on Adoptionblogs.com to share. We have decided to call the anniversary "Family Day", as it is simple and to the point. Other families may call this "Gotcha Day" or "Airplane Day". Here are my plans for celebrating our Family Day together… [more]

It may sound strange, but I love kids place-mats. I have place-mats that teach colors, states, countries, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division. I also have animal ones including the polar bear mats that Enu just took to school for her class project on the Poles (I knew I would use them some day, they were so worth a quarter!) My kids don't really share my enthusiasm unfortunately. They use them as mats when they play with play-dough or color, but the activities on the actual place-mats have pretty much been ignored. When I recently stumbled upon a new product from AbshiroKids.com I just couldn't help myself. Amharic Place-mats! How cool are those! So I quickly bought the set… [more]