luci may day!

two years ago yesterday we met our "blessings" face to face. this sweet little face...

was a sweet little scared face...

my kids like to point out that anyone would be scared by my euphoric high-pitched laughing/crying combo on that day. i'll spare you the video of the encounter for that very reason, but you can read about it here. basically, it was an incredible moment...

a moment that changed both lulu's life and our family forever. as we celebrate this day, i am always joyful, but also mindful that this day was born out of great loss and sadness. a reality i don't know how lulu will process as she grows older. but that does not cause me to hold back in my gratefulness and our celebration. so celebrate we did. we knew we were going to be traveling all day on luci may day, so the night before we went out for an ethiopian dinner...

the kids aren't big fans of ethiopian food and their softie parents let them order the oh-so-traditional, chicken tenders and fries...

we tried injera again with lulu with the same result as in the past...

she spit it out of her mouth. in time, i hope she grows to love ethiopian food, but that time has not yet come. but the day had come to celebrate. to celebrate this child...

who has blossomed into this child...

to celebrate her home country and birth family...

and to celebrate being a family...

we celebrated on the night of the 27th by returning to our home after our travels. my sister's family surprised us by driving an hour at 10pm to be their when we returned to a decorated home and a luci may day celebration...

dear luci may rediet kollar,

your ethiopian mommy named you rediet which means "blessings". i cannot count the ways you have already brought blessings into this world, into our lives, and into this family. we are grateful to know you, let alone to call you our own. and you are ours, lulu. well, HIS, then ours. and we are, always, yours...

blessings, indeed.