Making Memories ... Tigist is Thriving!

It is so hard to not post/write as much as I want to. As you can imagine, the time that I had available before Tigist arrived has lessened quite substantially. I think that is what I'm adjusting to the most. It is tough, it is a huge change for me/us, but there is no doubt about why we chose to adopt and have our lives turned upside down for a while .... the riches we have and will gain are unbelievable, to say the least.

When I feel like it's been a tough day or question why we did this, all I have to do is grab Tigist in my arms, turn on some music and we dance ... we dance like nothing else matters and it becomes a magical moment. Truly a magical moment between she and I. When she hears music, she'll put her left hand out for me to grab it and pick her up to dance.




David took her out on Saturday with the boys so I could get some things done. Look how cute he dressed her. She loves her pink cowboy boots. When we dress her each day, she says "Konjo" (pretty) and also points to her newly pierced ears that have "diamonds" in them. She loves to look pretty. In this picture she is admiring her pink boots.



Here she is giving the "2 thumbs up" for her cuteness.



Daddy and Tiggy ... ready to go out and about.



Tiggy has new friends in the neighborhood. We heard rustling outside in the back. We turned on the backyard lights and there stood 5 huge raccoon's playing with our ball in the backyard, which they subsequently popped with their big raccoon nails. This one was the littlest of the 5 and hid most of the time.



Then we made the mistake of throwing cat food outside just to get them closer to see. Evan and Tigist were sleeping as it was 11:00 pm at night, but David, Brandon and I were cracking ourselves up by watching them scavenge for food.



They kept getting closer to the door and the cat was freaking out. These guys were not afraid of us or anything we did. Brandon started throwing water balloons at them to scare them away. NOTHING! They could actually be really mean. They actually started hissing as each other for food.



Look how close they got to our back door.



We were crying by laughing ... we threw out Tigist's huge stuffed giraffe (the kind toddlers sit on ) thinking it would freak the raccoons out and they'd run away, they didn't. They actually grabbed the giraffe twice their size and pulled it away from the food so that they could get to it.



See her new "konjo" earrings! She screamed her head off. But we just got it done and over with and then cleaned up the smashed chocolate chip cookie that was in her hand while she was getting them pierced. But that face!! Isn't she just beautiful ... wow!



Our Ethiopian church we went to last week. Wow, last month when we went and stood up in front of the congregation and introduced Tigist was met with so many people being very moved, said Pastor Endeshaw. He said he never saw so many people with tears in their eyes or said to him how touched they were by our decision to adopt "one of their own". These are just some of the riches we enjoy by having made this decision to adopt from this beautiful country.



Pumpkin patch. If you click on this or any picture you can view it larger, but this is a scarecrow they are sitting next to.



Denver Botanical Gardens in Chatfield area



This is a typical way that an Ethiopian would respectfully hand or take something from you. They hold one hand under the other and offer their hand.



Tigist and Evan at an old farm house






Last Sunday, we met up with 3 other Moms and their newly adopted children. We've all used the same agency and brought our children home around the same time. Two of them I'd met as they live here in Colorado, but Leah (pictured here with her daughter Gabre) lives in Texas and was in town. I'd followed her blog since the beginning of her adoption and her daugher Gabre was one of the first girls I'd seen on the agency website. So it was wonderful to finally see her in person. She is just so cute. This is Leah's first child.



Amelia is Lori's daughter. She was so incredibly gaunt and teeny tiny when they brought her home. She is doing so well now. I know Lori had some rollercoaster moments while waiting to pick her up.



From left, Amelia, Shawn and Lidya, Gabre and her Mommy Leah and of course ... Tiggy!



Tigist is so gentle with little babies.



Tigist



Amelia



Amelia's toes next to her sisters toes painted so cute in pink.



Lori and Amelia



The four Mommies (Shawn, Me, Lori, Leah) and baby girls (Lidya, Tigist, Amelia & Gabre).



Lori's daughter reading to Tigist at the Library where we met. She actually met Tigist before we did when she went with her family to pick up Amelia.



Lori's 2 daughters with Tigist. They were happy to see her again because they spent some time with her in the orphanage getting to know her before we did. It was sweet to see them together.



Gabre and Lidya



Gabre and Leah



Gabre and Lidya playing



Evan started selling candy, Mrs. Field's cookies and caramel corn and has made $35 in two days of selling it in the neighborhood. He was so excited about the profit margin ... now the kids are coming to HIM asking to buy. I just love what they learn from running their own "business".



His friend Mateo helped out too.