oh, africa.

our take on adopting lulu is that ethiopia is now a part of our family identity because it is a part of her. i honestly don't know if that is the "right" approach since i haven't read as many adoption books as i should, but it is what feels the most right to us.

we have had lots of opportunities to express this as a family over the past couple of weeks. the first was gathering with other families in our town who have adopted from ethiopia. i so enjoy these families...
the newest addition to our little club...

adorable!

some of the girls playing in the sandbox...

(it was fun despite the sand remnants left in their hair for days to come)

junie and lulu were in the same orphanage in addis...

connections with those kids will be some of the only connections we will have from her life in ethiopia. it's so neat to have a family locally that we share that bond with.

some of the boys...
lulu may have been working the boy crowd a bit...
and I may have been trying to work the connection between lulu and one particular boy. she can marry whoever she wants of any ethnicity, of course, but we would like to put in our vote for mussie...
his name is pronounced "moose-y". so even if he wasn't incredibly cute and cool (which he is), it makes perfect sense that they belong together with rhyming names...
though the above picture may look like they are hugging, they are actually fighting over a push toy. their budding arranged romance was not exactly going as i planned at this point. but then there was a legit hug...
and finally found a child who is not afraid of lulu's hugs. a match made in heaven, i tell you.


we also attended "taste of africa" sponsored by the african student association on campus...

it was so yummy! lulu and jack were all about it. though the older two were a little unsure. mr. "food sensitivities" ate very little, but was perfectly happy to snag some of lulu's sweet bread...
and bill and i were more than happy to graze on everyone's leftovers...
someone ran, jumped and danced around like she owned the place...
we thought there would be african dancers, but it turned out lulu was the african dancer. there was just a dance floor with african music playing and nobody dancing. that is, until "you are my african queen" came on. bill and his african queen had to take the floor...
he had two dance partners...
and i now have a new favorite song. it was such a fun night to be a part of. we love that lulu has opened up our eyes and hearts to africa...
and inspired us in so many different ways. even in our choice of jewelry...
can you tell that they are silly bands in the shape of africa? i had told my children that i would not be funding any purchases of silly bands because i find the fad to be, well, silly. but that changed when rachel called saying this, "did you know they have silly bands in the shape of the continents?". my ban against silly bands was immediately lifted.

honestly, it can be easy for me to love africa with an affectionate kind of love. but i want my love to be more than that.

"dear children, let us not love in words or tongue but with actions and in truth." 1 john 3:18.

this is the kind of love i want to have for everyone. this is the love i want to have for ethiopia. i want to love with action and in truth. not just using africa as a fashion statement on my shirt or a bumper sticker on my van. but remembering what we saw and experienced. remembering our daughter's heritage. embracing our new family identity. refusing to sell out to "the american dream". and living out our love as compassionate citizens of the world.

you're doin' fine oklahoma...

my sister said innocently while i was in oklahoma, "surely bill is still on his trip because you wouldn't have left for a week right after he came back." umm, surely that is exactly what i did, but it was totally worth it {and don't call me shirley} .

it was oklahoma or bust for the loudest five of the six kollars. we got 45 minutes into the seven hour drive when i realized i didn't have the car plug-in for the dvd player. i bought a new one at the first available walmart and when that didn't work, i did what any sane person would do. i bought a new dvd player at the second available walmart.

and thanks to gas, caffeine, facing the giants, daddy day care and enchanted (and god's grace) we arrived at our destination...the lentz home. we had only been with the lentz's on two other occasions. we traveled together to ethiopia to bring home our sweet girls. and then they came to visit us a year ago. so it was our turn to see them in their world. and how sweet it was!

we went to a great pumpkin patch...

tasted the yummy goodness of orange leaf frozen yogurt...

(loved the yogurt and the decor)

played at the park......

had a seriously rockin' dance party...

ate chick-fil-a...

wore shirts supporting adoptive families...

(you can find them here and here)

left all the kids with "the babysitter" (aka carl) so christine and i could have girl's nights' out...

tried to convince halina and lulu they were bff's...

(why does every baby look terrified when hugged by lulu?)

and soaked up the goodness of being with dear friends. we love each...

and every...

one...

of...

you...

{you two, babysitter, even though i don't have any pix of you since you were too busy watching all nine of the kids.}

So now we all know, thanks to our gracious hosts, Oklahoma is definitely OK.

boo.

There are things I love about halloween and things I don't love. I don't love all the creepy, evil stuff. But I love the fun of dressing up. And I absolutely love that neighbors are out in force and interacting. I love connecting over their little princesses or goblins. We want to be a blessing to our neighborhood and for us, this is an opportunity to do just that.

Which means, we have to buy good candy. Though I find it terribly hard to part with my Almond Joy's, Kit Kat's and Reese's. I kept with my ranking system last night. If you are cute and young enough to be trick or treating, you get a handful of the chocolates and lollipops. If you are too old or wearing any kind of bleeding costume, it is a lollipop and maybe a little tootsie roll if you're lucky. I know I said I wanted to be blessing, but I guess I have my limits.

Our street was rockin' with displays, dry ice and "Thriller" blasting. Maybe if I was more into the holiday, I would appreciate the yard turned into a cemetery more. All I know is that the trick or treaters were out in droves threatening my leftover supply of the aforementioned candy. They were even ringing the doorbell long after I shut off our front porch light which was also starting to dampen the aforementioned "I want to be a blessing" mentality.

As for my own little pumpkins, sadly we are long past the days of family themed costumes. the name of the game for me is cheap. So this year the kids were Dwight Schrute (from "The Office")...

Raggedy Ann...

(The shirt to her costume was actually a dress I wore in kindergarten. We found in while cleaning out my mother's basement. Gunga gave Emma a Raggedy Ann doll that she sleeps with every night, so this costume wasn't just cute and inexpensive. It was special too.)

G.I. Jack...

Lulu is where there was a bit of a breakdown in my cheap Halloween costume philosophy. I had a $2 pink poodle costume for her that I bought last year at a garage sale, but it was a bit too small. She didn't like it and the poodle ears wouldn't stay on her head. It was cute, but because of the hat not staying on, everyone at our church event thought she was a pig...

I couldn't have that, could I? So I bought a brand new costume for our very own Wonder Woman...
And it was worth every penny...

Poor thing, the belt kept riding up due to her exceedingly tubby belly. Let's just call it an empire waist super hero suit, okay?

Lulu loved the trick or treating gig as you can see...

Mom and Dad didn't dress up this year. Too much effort. But Bill borrowed part of Emmie's costume...

I always wondered what my Italian Stallion would look like as a redhead (not really). Now I know. And shudder.

Our evening ended with our Halloween tradition of enduring sour warheads and seeing who would break first. It's always me. These things make me want to vomit...

I would have liked to see a 24 episode where Jack Bauer used these as a form of torture.

Though this year I was exceedingly proud of myself for not spitting it out in the first 3 seconds...
I'm just that good.

Goodbye halloween, hello November and bring on the cavities!