A Letter To Our Marilyn

To our sweet sweet Marilyn ~

We knew the time was coming ~ we knew we would only have you for a year ~ and what a most AMAZING year it has been.  There will never be enough words that this mama could say that would thank you enough for all you did.  You came into our lives and poured your love into the boys every single day. From soccer practice, to basketball, to speech and beyond you were there every step of the way.

Your grace and patience with both of them taught them to be patient

Your smile was something the boys ran to at the end of each school day

Your sign language skills helped me understand my sweet deaf son a bit more every day

Your knowledge as a sibling of a deaf sister helped Tariku understand his place in the world a bit better

Your passion for the LORD gave them a passion to follow

But above all things was and is your LOVE for them and their LOVE for you.  We are so proud of you and your heart for Ethiopia.  We could not of made this past year had you not been a part of it and while my mama heart is sad I know this journey with you does not end just because you move on to UT.  The boys and I will visit often and I am sure we will find a Ethiopian restaurant in Knoxville to share your love of tibs fir fir with Tariku and Teddy.

So as I prepare to fly off to Addis know that I love you and that I cannot wait to see you soon!  I love you to Ethiopia and back sweet girl and remember this quote ~

Joshua 1:9 - “…Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Injera and Missionaries - Otherwise known as July 5th 2013

Greetings -
Well one thing is for sure the 4th of July was a wash out for middle tn!!!  The 5th of July was not looking much better ~ unless you were one of 2 little ethiopians who knew that at 5pm there were gonna be 7 camp counselors knockin on your front door to go for tibs fir fir!!

Every year Tariku begs me to take the missionaries who work as camp counselors for Camp Summer Sign to an Ethiopian dinner.  And every year it doesn't work out.  This year (praise the LORD) July 5th was an open and an available evening and the camp counselors were game enough to give it a try!!  So at 5pm on the dot they all showed up to our house ready to load into cars and head on over to the boys favorite Ethiopian restaurant in town!  2 car loads packed and ready to go we were off to GOJO's

                  Tariku and Teddy in their new Ethiopian Futbol jerseys from Marilyn ready for injera!

Now we have loved this restaurant ever since we were introduced to in by another adoptive family about 4 years ago (WOW hard to believe it was that long ago) and Tariku could not wait to get inside and show his friends his native food!  I will leave the rest of the story to photos!

Many many thanks to the amazing missionaries who gave of their free evening to come and hang with two little boys who think the world of you and wanted so much for you to see a part of who they are.  Thank you for creating a night they will not soon forget!!

We are an ASL family

Greetings -

Teddy has been home 2.5 years and whenever we tell someone he is deaf they naturally say - oh so you guys sign.  I LAUGH at that comment - (cause let me be real here for a minute just like you and I  didn't learn how to speak fully in the first 2.5 years of our lives there is NO WAY NO HOW we sign)  Sure Kenneth, Tariku and I know some signs and possibly to the outside world we may even look like we know what we are doing but deep down we are 2 year olds learning a new language just like Teddy.

But yesterday something happened - something that makes me have to step out of the 2 year old babble and acknowledge we are a family that signs (and dear lord it is sooooo scary for me to say this) - Tariku has a friend that unfortunately broke her foot earlier this week and he really wanted to go check on her and take her something to cheer her up.  I checked with her mom and that was great!  When I asked what we could bring her mom said gum - so off to Publix we went for gum!!  When we were checking out Tariku noticed the cashier was hard of hearing (huge difference between that and Teddy who is deaf but that is for another post on another day!) and that she could probably sign.  So he asked if he could sign to her.  Ummmm heart now stops beating - see we have NEVER signed with anyone we don't know and who doesn't know our story - I'm scared to still sign with the people I know and here he wants to sign with a complete stranger?????

Well alright child sign away.  And sure enough he did - Hello my name Tariku - what your name?  Nice meet you (please note I did not type this incorrectly that is ASL grammar - see I told you a whole different language!!) The cashier did not miss a step and signed right back to him - my name Corrinne what your name and without missing a beat Tariku spelled his name and introduced me.  She asked me if he was deaf and I said no this is my hearing son but my deaf son was in the car with friends. (Yep I did it - not sure how correct I was) but for the first time Tariku and I both used our new language without Teddy.  I cannot tell you how proud I am of Tariku for feeling comfortable enough to step out and talk to her in that line.  Because at the end of the day we are an ASL family and it's not just to talk to Teddy! AND we are getting better every day!