Class Mascots

Tihun and Solomon are like little rock stars when they show up at Adaline and Arthur's school. All of the kids in their class rush to greet them with hugs and kisses. The kids carry them around like little baby dolls and tend to their every need. Adaline used to get a little possessive when this happened-- "She is my sister, and I need time with her"-- but she is fine with it now. Solomon loves big kids and Tihun loves attention, so they are both happy with the situation.

Tomorrow is the last day of school, so all of this attention will come to an end. But I have no doubt that we will run into a lot of their friends all summer as we go sprinkler, pool and playground hopping. Next year Tihun will enter Kindergarten so Solomon will have to be the mascot for two classes. Should be fun!

Homecoming Anniversary

 It's been one year since Tihun and Solomon joined our family. How blessed and joyful our family is with these two little people in it. We are so thankful!

Amusement

Our family recently went to Knoebel's Amusement Park in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania. Jamison's dad and stepmom took us two times, and it was quite a treat! There was probably more laughter and fun than I can remember having with our kids. It was also interesting to see how seeing them in a new environment highlighted a part of each of their personalities that we had never seen before. Adaline was fearless, which was a huge surprise. Nothing ever scared her and she rode everything that her height allowed (including 2 large wooden roller coasters). She giggled and raised her arms throughout every ride and found solidarity with her fearless dad. Arthur was as excitable as I have ever seen him. Even at home he is still studying the map and talking about all of the rides. Today he designed and drew "Knoebel's 2" with 10 new rides. He was extremely trepidatious, but fought through the fear and rode every ride that Adaline did (and forced his terrified mom to ride every ride with him). Tihun was content to pass on the scary rides--a first for her because she usually keeps up with the big kids on everything. She enjoyed riding the kiddie rides with Solomon. Solomon had an enormous smile on his face no matter which ride he was on. The higher and faster, the better for him. This actually comes as no surprise, and is consistent with his character so far. All of the family had an amazing time!

Enjoying Spring

Spring cleaning! Time to dust the cobwebs off this blog again. Before I took these recent pictures, the last photos on our camera were of the snow in February. It's been that sort of season--huddled up inside, trying to survive without a thought of capturing memories. It was a long winter. But now we are out and feeling good! The daffodils and tulips are saying hello, the ramps are making their highly anticipated appearance. The cool spring air is so energizing. The big kids are on spring break from school, so we have had extra time this week to enjoy the outdoors.

This trip to Coney Island was so refreshing for us all. It felt great to just let the kids run around without so many boundaries and restrictions. And I love how these pictures highlight their interactions with each other. This is pretty typical of them--Arthur and Tihun have a special bond and Adaline has a unique patience with Solomon. It is fun to watch them pair off in different ways.

I'm not sure what else to say to catch up on the past five months. Tihun turned 4 years old, Arthur lost his first tooth (and swallowed the second), Adaline donated 10 inches of her hair to Locks of Love, and Solomon says a new word almost daily. Solomon demolished his crib (while in it) and has to have a crib tent (a.k.a. cage) to contain his adventurous naughty self. Adaline and Arthur are obsessively reading the Boxcar Children series and are devouring books every night (largely due to an extremely early bedtime for their age). Tihun is now fluent in English and has also picked up every other American child-like behavior (tantrums, whining, rolling eyes...) Lots of fun in the Galt household. There is never a dull moment!

Oh, and last weekend the 3 big kids were in their first wedding. Arthur and friend blew Ethiopian horns to announce the bride's arrival. The girls slowly "decorated" the path for the bride and dumped out the pail of flowers at the end of the aisle. Super cute!

Our African Princess

Our little Tihun just had her second visit to the hospital. This time for just an outpatient procedure (colonoscopy), but the hospital nonetheless. This 3 year old has been through a lot of medical ordeals since arriving in the U.S., none of which she would have endured in Ethiopia. On one hand, this is a blessing. Coming to the States has possibly saved her life because she wouldn't have had access to such great medical care in Ethiopia. So we are thankful. But it is also overwhelming to watch your little girl be poked and prodded on such a regular basis. We are sad for her.

Another convoluted situation is her response to all of this invasive care. She has no fear. The first time she was immunized, she calmly handed her arm to the nurses and blankly watched as they repeatedly pricked her. She endured multiple (seemingly painful) attempts at drawing her blood without a flinch. Meanwhile, Solomon needed a whole team of medical professionals to hold him down. The doctor was worried about me when he freaked out so bad on his first visit, but I was fine. That is the normal response of a child being held down and hurt. But when Tihun complied without any acknowledgment of the pain, I starting weeping. That is not normal--it should upset her at least a little.

There are also positives to this, of course. We are constantly in awe of how strong this child is. I never get any resistance to the things we have to do for her health...nebulizer treatments, stool samples, ANOTHER trip to a doctor... She had to fast for her colonoscopy and drink a LOT of laxative in a short period of time. No complaints. No whining at the incessant bowel movements. Can anyone name a 3 year old that would respond in a like manner?? Unbelievable. To top it off, when it came time for the enema (I know, too much information), she listened to the explanation of what was about to happen and immediately complied. And what followed was one of my favorite moments with Tihun (seriously, after an enema?)! We laughed. We giggled and laughed so hard that we were crying--all while she was sitting on the toilet losing every bit of substance in her body. But we laughed.

Sorry for the graphic image, but I can't help sharing how amazing this little human being is. And this description of her medical self is true of her personality in general. She takes everything in stride. Nothing phases this girl. She has been exposed to innumerable new things, and she experiences them as though she has seen them before. She is so confident and eager. I have to be honest that when I pictured adopting a 3 year old, I imagined one response: panic. We have a child who was removed from everything she knows (except her younger brother, which is a significant continuity), and plopped into a new family and environment and culture. Surely this child is going to panic, and panic often! But, no. Tihun has shocked us with her laid-back, confident, trusting personality. Who is this little person? I think I will spend my whole life trying to answer that question.

Watching Tihun navigate through all of these issues makes us reflective about her past. What has this little girl been through? What kind of pain has she endured? How much love and joy must she have experienced to possess such confidence now? She had over 3 years of life that we know nothing about. It is mind-boggling to not know every detail about your child's life.

Yet again, the other side of the coin--we are thankful for her life before we knew her. It shaped her into an amazing child. It formed beautiful qualities in her that we would have never been able to create. God has shaped and is shaping Tihun into an inspiring person, and we will never foolishly take credit for that. We will just give thanks.


* In the event that you think our Tihun is perfect, let me reassure that she is not. (She threw a tantrum just after I wrote this post.) I am just highlighting some wonderful things about her and choosing to leave out some of the not-so-wonderful ones. :)

Halloween

I'm not sure if anyone even reads this blog anymore...after a 2 month plus hiatus. This blog is so stagnant that there are these random spam businesses leaving creepy comments on old posts. Yuk. (Let me know if you know how to get rid of these bugs.) It's not that we aren't doing fun things worth writing--we are--it's just that I can't bring myself to look at the computer at the end of a tiring day. I'm happy to report that we are surviving with 4 kids and even enjoying a "normal" sort of family life much quicker than I had imagined. I think we look and act like a family that has been together for a long time--not just 4 short months. Yet I am most certainly off-duty by bedtime and in great need of relaxation. And, sorry folks, blogging is not on my list of relaxing things to do. :) Maybe I should just cave and join Facebook. It would probably fit with my schedule a little better... So, once again, I'm not going to attempt to play catch-up from the last couple months. I'll just try to get back on board with the latest events...
Halloween is fun in our neighborhood. People really get into it. There was even a vampire opera on a stage in the middle of the street--they lost their teeth from eating too much candy :) I love the day-of, but never seem to get around to the costume-planning frenzy. We just lay out all of the dress-up clothes we have before each event and try to be creative. We did our cutesy costumes on Saturday (pictured above) for the festival in our park. My personal favorite is Adaline's flower--completely made up and pieced together. Dad said she looked more like Lady Gaga.
We decided to go with scary costumes for the main event. It all started with Adaline wanting to be a princess vampire. She looked really nasty, I must say. (I should add a close-up of her.) Tihun wanted to be a flower girl, but I convinced her to be a flower girl-turned-witch by slipping some black on top of her frilly dress. Solomon had to ride on Dad, and we used lollipops to keep him happy. He had several before the night was over. Our friend Ben carried Solomon later and used him to get more candy. One of the benefits of having 4 kids--4 times the candy!
Speaking of candy, we have trained our kids for years to always pick chocolate when given a choice. Before we leave, we drill them. "Laffy Taffy vs. Mr. Goodbar, which do you choose? Quick!" It was easier this year because the older kids can read. So we told them our personal favorites to look out for--mine: Snickers, Jamison: Reese's. And our training worked! They were happy to report when they found the last Reese's in the big bowl of Jaw Breakers and Jolly Ranchers. Arthur actually told one woman "no, thank you, I would prefer not to have Laffy Taffy..." and she gave him something else (ouch! maybe we took it a little too far?)

The only problem with this plan is that the kids didn't realize that WE were going to eat all of that sought-after chocolate. Arthur tried to find a Reese's THE NEXT DAY and couldn't find one because Jamison had eaten all of them (and I ate all of the other good stuff). He was so upset that he went to all of that trouble to get yummy candy and his parents ate everything but the gross stuff that we drilled them to leave behind. Oops. That's the problem with them getting older and smarter. We can't fool them like we used to. So now I've promised Arthur that I will buy him a Reese's because he's never tasted one and he'd like to know what the fuss is all about. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of going trick-or-treating? Now I have to buy my own candy because I am such a selfish sugar-craving mom? Oh well...I do receive some payback for my wrongdoing. Every evening (including this one) I feel lousy because I've overdosed on sugar and high fructose corn syrup. My kids are limited to one candy per day, but their mother has a different system for consuming the loot. Eat until sick.

And while we're on the topic of sicknesses...the most difficult part of having 4 kids so far has been the vast number of illnesses. At any given time, there is at least one child with a fever or a cough or vomiting or wheezing (Tihun and Solomon have pretty severe asthma). It's hard to take care of one sick child when you have 3 healthy ones bouncing off the walls. I feel like a nurse--giving nebulizer treatments to 2 kids, staying 48 hours in the hospital with Tihun...and a sanitation employee--cleaning up diarrhea, vomit, accidents...it almost feels weird when they are all healthy, but it never lasts for more than a day or two. But I am thankful that the worst of this transition is just a physical one. I can imagine much more difficult problems with going from 2 to 4. We are alive and well...but coming off of a sugar high at the moment :)

The Farm and Woodstock

We recently took a day trip to Stone Barns Farm in NY an hour outside of the city. Friends of ours are cooks there, so we were able to get an insider tour while the place was closed on Monday. It was a lovely day seeing the animal and vegetable/fruit farm. Then our friends prepared us an amazing lunch and we ate on the terrace of the fancy restaurant (that was closed). The view was spectacular. (Pictured are the kids' letter t-shirts made by my friend. You can't see them all, but each shirt starts with the first letter of the name of the kid wearing it. In case we get confused. They are super cute walking around in matching outfits!)

All of the kids loved the tomato house. They all ate dozens of tomatoes off the vine. Yummy!

Tihun worked really hard to catch a chicken. I finally grabbed one so that they could pet it. She was so upset when we left the chicken coops. We finally figured out that she thought we were catching it to cook and eat it. Oops. Communication breakdown.

The Berkshire pigs were enormous and stinky. The restaurant slaughters and eats 3 pigs/week.

Again, we are so thankful for friends! Some friends of ours have a house in Woodstock, NY, and they let us stay there for 3 nights this week. It was rainy and chilly, but still great to get out of the city for a longer amount of time. Lots of mud playing!

We ate outside when we could--even when it drizzled on us. The place was so beautiful!

Fun Stuff

Front row seats at orchestra in the park

Quadracyling on Governor's Island

Overlooking Brooklyn Bridge from Gov Island

Sculpture climbing on Gov Island

A & A camping trip with Dad and friends

Hiking and wild blueberry picking with friends

Little Solomon skipped many naps to have all of this fun! (Mommy is very annoyed with blogger right now. I can't get pictures to do what I want. I have many more to post, but I'm tired of waiting/failed attempts. Maybe more later...)

Oochee

What is it about being outside? Is there some magic in the air? I have spent a lot of effort trying to keep our family at home--bonding, resting, renewing...this is what you are "supposed" to do when you adopt children. Create a safe and structured environment. Make sure that they know that you are their forever parents (and forever siblings). Reassure them that this is it--no more huge changes or moves. This worked for about a week or so in our home. Now, staying indoors usually results in grumpy, fighty frustration. I'm amazed at how walking outside can change everything. Constant arguing and whining can just melt away when you cross the threshold. Enemies (a.k.a. siblings) become best friends. Stressed parents become patient and playful. It really is magic.

This has been true of the Galt family thus far, and Tihun and Solomon are following suit. Solomon grabs his shoes constantly begging to go outside. He points at the window and makes his little "I want it" grunt. Tihun begins at 7 o'clock in the morning asking when we can go "chow" (goodbye) or "oochee" (outside). Our days are 100% better if we make it outside. The problem is that I don't have a lot of options in this stage of life. Four kids are difficult to manage in most environments, it's so hot that we can hardly breathe, Solomon takes 2 naps...but I've found a few things that work for us. Splash pools and sprinklers are our friends.

So far my favorite outside adventure with the kids (with other adults) has been the beach. We have gone twice (day trips) with the kids and were surprised at how well it went. Adaline and Arthur LOVE the waves. Tihun enjoys the sand and was impressed by the "telik woo ha" (big water). Solomon dives into either water or sand--literally DIVES.

I'm so happy that our whole family loves to be outside. Why fester inside when you can blister outside?



*That is Arthur's head at the top of the wave in the last picture. The waves were intense and they didn't mind being knocked around a bit.

One Family

In one sense, Tihun and Solomon have joined a new family. They have lost their birth family, their birth country and culture, and everything they know, and they have become part of something new. This is simultaneously tragic and beautiful. Nevertheless, it is their story, and our family has chosen to become a part of their story. Our family is blessed to have them in our lives.


In another sense, we are happy to be able to keep them in the same family in which they were raised. Both Tihun and Solomon were baptized as Christians in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church a few days after they were born. Last Sunday, we were able to take vows before our church to promise to uphold their baptismal vows. We did not know them when they joined God's family, but it brings me joy that we are able to keep them in the same family. It's only one continuity in their transitional little lives, but it's the most important thing that I can think of to stay the same.

I can't show you too many pictures of the ceremony because I was weeping pretty quickly into it (which is not pretty). I didn't realize that we were taking vows, and certainly hadn't read them, so I was taking it in as they were being asked. Our pastor asked the simple question, "Do you take these children to be your own?" and I responded with a weeping yelp. Very embarrassing, but I am thankful for the emotional experience. It was good to stand in front of so many people, promising to love Tihun and Solomon and raise them as part of God's family. I felt the weight and joy of it, and let it all loose in front of hundreds of people :)

That evening we celebrated at an Ethiopian restaurant. Tihun was ecstatic. She ate a ton and ruined the beautiful Ethiopian dress I bought for her baptism (before I knew she had already been baptized). She also enjoyed speaking Amharic to the wait staff who were very sweet and kind. It was a special celebration!