Heritage Marks

In our multicultural clan, we celebrate family, first family, origins, and culture.  We are intentional in our speech, household decorations, musical choices, and recipe selections to honor our children and respect their heritage.  Hiwot and Tesfaye are fortunate to have memories of their earlier life, half a world away, but Burke was a baby when he joined our family and so has no such rememberings.  But those beginnings are significant to the boy he is and the man he will become.  Burke is blessed to bear the permanent marks of his first family and tribal origins, something for which to feel very proud! 
 
Our Burke Zerihun was born in Kembata, Ethiopia.  It is common in that region to cut slits in the eyelids as a tribal medicinal practice and beautification scarring.  It is believed that blood washing the eye can help prevent conjunctivitis in babies.  Burke has two vertical scars over his right eye, and three vertical scars over his left.  At first we didn't recognize this purposeful scarring, his scars aren't as clean and precise as others we've seen.  Thankfully a local adopted friend, whose eye scarring has the beautiful look of elongated eyelashes, educated our family about the tribal custom in Kembata.

BBC Africa recently posted a fascinating article about tribal facial scarring.  This ancient practice is dying out and being banned in some regions.  One man is quoted: "We are not violating children's rights, we are showing the children where they are from and what they will go through in life."  He stated that for him the scars convey the message: "Beware, there is pain in this world, and you will feel pain in your life.  But the pain will stop, and you will endure."

I am so glad that Burke bears this unique mark and gift from his first family. 

6 and 10

Banks is is 6 months old . . . Dabney is newly 10 months old.  

They're both into everything!
(One is 18 pounds, the other is 52 pounds)

Hard to believe she's the elder of this pair :)
 

Projects

In our current phase, educating our children is our priority.  It becomes nearly all-consuming during the school year, leaving little room for household projects.  Which means, by necessity, summer break becomes the time for all those projects that have sat on the back burner all year.  This summer, we have quite the list: photo books, reorganizing school cabinets, cleaning out closets, and several larger yard upgrades, not to mention all the little home maintenance items.  The large list of projects and summer-cleaning are overwhelming, especially when all we want to do is enjoy some unstructured summer fun. 

That's why pillow are so great.  New pillows, sewed in a single afternoon, are such a rewarding, fun, and super impactful project. 

The closets may not be cleaned out, and the photos are still sitting in the bin from last summer, but we have new pillows, what a rewarding feeling - yay! 

(Maybe I'll gear up to tackle a less fun, but more necessary project next week.)

Friends

We have been blessed by the friends in our lives.  Friends who have challenged, encouraged, supported, taught, inspired, changed, and blessed us.  We have had dear friends in various stages of our lives who have made such impacts on our life.

We're at a phase in our lives where it is hard to walk with other families and invest in relationships.  The friends we do have are incredibly precious to us:  friends who welcome the chaos of our crew and love our children; friends who might think we're crazy, but love us anyway. 

We were blessed when friends of ours moved into our neighborhood.  For 2 years, we've grown a relationship, sharing life together: babies, midwives, tools, hair tips, celebrations, hardships, parenting advice, carpooling, slumber parties, neighborhood walks, cookies, meals, drinks, babysitting, critter sitting, birthdays, painting, holidays, coffee . . . we shared life. 

They have been a gift.  I am so thankful for their family.

And now, they've moved out of our neighborhood.

We miss having our friends a short walk away.
Our girls miss having their best friend down the street.  

Thankfully, they're not too far away :)

A sweet friendship refreshes the soul.  Proverbs 27:9

Cousin Camp - Pool Swimming

The cousins had a wonderful week together, creating memories at Cousin Camp.  This year, swimming was definitely the highlight: lake and pool. 

As these kiddos grow, I know Cousin Camp will take on a different focus, but for now, carefree splashing, swimming, and jumping is a delightful way to enjoy the Summer together.  It has been so nice for us to have the use of this beautiful pool for part of the summer - what a treat! 

Kolpin, our most hesitant water baby, has made a breakthrough!  He's always been content to play outside the pool, only periodically dipping his feet, never comfortable submerging fully (and having a choke hold on mama or dada when he does).  Kolpin just realized he can stand and touch the bottom of the pool - such a confidence boost for our 4-year-old!  He's been like a fish ever since :)

Cousin Camp - Lake Swimming

While cousin Zoey was here with us for a week of Cousin Camp, the favorite activity for all was swimming!  Our neighborhood beach is pretty fantastic - a magical childhood hot-weather spot.  The kids would have happily spent entire days splashing, jumping, floating, and diving for fish. 

They swam back and forth from shore to the floating dock for countless jump competitions: cannon ball, pencil jump, belly flops, flips, dives, biggest splash, smallest splash . . . and the favorite, funniest jump.  Mama got quite the workout treading water near the dock to judge all the jumps - whew!  I am constantly amazed at the enormous amounts of energy and stamina kids posses! 

We have a few kids, (Burke) who can't wait to be grown up (and have his own kids).  We are constantly telling him to enjoy being a kid, and to not wish it away.  It lasts such a short time and there's so much to enjoy.  Childhood, and youthful exuberance is such a gift.  Oh, to be a kid again . . .
:)

Snakes

Tis the season for snakes . . . and Hendrick only grown more courageous with age, but thankfully also more knowledgeable.  He has an amazing love for all frogs, toads, turtles, lizards, and SNAKES. 

After closely watching lots of old episodes of "The Jeff Corwin Experience," and reading extensively in herpetology books, he has become quite the snake charmer, confident in his snake handling skills.  He assures his snake-scared mama that he can easily identify and will stay clear of the poisonous snakes, and knows how to properly handle the harmless ones.  There are 4 deadly poisonous snakes in the U.S., 3 live in our state of Tennessee.  Yikes! 

Earlier this year, he worked to rescue a snake that had gotten tangled in netting.  It was an impossible rescue attempt, but bless his heart, he sure tried.  During the rescue mission, he was bit twice, but remained remarkably calm, gently explaining to us onlookers: "He's feeling threatened and is just defending himself."  The neighborhood kids who had gathered to watch were quite amazed. Thankfully the snake was a non-venomous racer. 

The boy has skills.

For his sake, I'm so glad we live in a place where we have snakes in the yard. . . but, ewwwww!  

We recently stumbled upon two corn snakes doing their part to expand their population in our backyard.  These were about 4 feet long and appeared to be dancing together through the ivy.  Quite amazing!  These we observed from afar and left alone.  

Bear Walking

Crawling around with a pretty dress in the way? . . . determined babes resort to bear walking. 
Dabney is one clever baby :)

(At 9-months-old, she's quite determined and impressive in her mobility: crawling up and over everything, expertly pulling up to a stand and cruising around, quickly scaling the staircase when we aren't looking . . . it's no wonder she's sporting some mighty warrior bruises.  We have to keep a close eye on this girl - wow!)

Cousin Camp

It's been 4 years since our last we last hosted, and we were thrilled to bring it back this year . . . Cousin Camp with cousin Zoey!

Last week, Gramma and Zoey came down to visit for a whirlwind week of fun.  It's nice to have a break from the norm and an excuse to do special things.  I always love for my mom to visit: it's a lovely to have adult conversation, and another set of hands helping with kids and around the house.  We always have a wonderful time together (although we always stay up way too late chatting!).

We all have such fond memories of our last Cousin Camp, the kids were absolutely thrilled to have their cousin Zoey with us to create new memories. 

The 2014 Cousin Camp activities:  tie-dyed shirts, playground visit, swimming at our beach (twice!), swimming at our temporary Summer pool, watched the newly released "Lego Movie", glow sticks, flashlight tag, baked dessert, cobra-stitch paracord bracelets, lunch at the ComeUnity Cafe and dinner at Red Robin, filming our own Lego video, painted stained glass window hangings, cousin circus performance, book reading, and critter catching.

It was a full week, and we did a good job exhausting the kids!  Despite the close-quarter sleeping arrangements, the kids all slept well :)

A good time was had by all.  We were so glad to have Zoey and Gramma with us.  Next year, we'll have to try for a longer visit! 

(Mike and I also managed to get away for two dates during the week, what a treat!  Thanks mom! )

Life

Each year we have a new nest of babies over our dryer vent.  This year's gorgeous nest houses 4 little ones.  The kids love listening to their chirps . . . and Hendrick has been throwing worms up to them :)

In just two weeks, they've grown quite a bit! 
Amazing.

Growing Up

Miss Maegli has been asking, and asking, and asking . . . begging to get her ears pierced. 

We're not quite ready for that huge rite of passage to occur in our household, so she's had to be creative, resorting to scotch taping earrings to her earlobes!  She alarmed her brothers when she came downstairs after quiet-time, announcing that Hiwot had "pierced" ears. 

It's amazing how mature she looks with earrings . . . we're definitely not ready for that :)

(right now, we're thinking 13 sounds like a good age for getting ears pierced, Maegli will have to learn patience)

Demolition

We love the Keva Structures Plank set.