We Are Moving.......

And starting a new blog................I think this blog has served its purpose!!!! It has been a constant outlet where I have met life long friends, shed many tears as I poured my emotions across the many post for well over a year now.

I will continue to keep the blog up and open as I venture off to  private blog island, for those like me, who so desperately needed to know there ARE women of color adopting from over seas, who needed to intimately follow ones story as their journey unfolded on the pages of a blog, and develop a circle of friends like no other.

I say hands down the adoption community is awesome.......and I have been blessed with so many friends through this experience.

I thank you all for all your support, those that prayed for us, those that cried with me and for us, and those who sent many well wishes the day they found out my two precious daughters were legally free and mine.

It was a hard road.....................but I knew that this was God's plan for me..............every day towards the end was a struggle, but I had good friends to keep me going and a reminder that God puts nothing in your heart he has not fully prepared you for.

There is no one reason why I am starting a new private blog, nothing crazy happened,  but I can say, one major reason is that I want to blog on a more personal level for the girls, something that is reserved for them, and just them.  Sure I hand write them notes and letter, but I have come to love the way I can simply journal my entries to them electronically. 

Here is a video that got my through the most darkest days.  Great is your Mercy!!!!! I still get chills when I hear this song, and I pass it on to those who just need that extra boost of encouragement and assurance that God has not forgotten about you.

Love Celeste

Just Maybe w/edit........

I have come to expect to much from the camp my oldest attends.....

you be the judge......

the camp is apart of my youngest day care center

it is very easy to get to when I am on my way to work, I take no detours, turn off(only to get into the lot) drop them off then I am back on the road headed for work.

I liked the center for Shaddi, she is doing very well there

I like the fact I feel she is safe while I am work

however, the brochure that was given while seeking young campers w/parent approval is not what I am seeing............

I was excited a/b all the educational trips......

I was excited a/b all the activities they had coming in from the outside in support of the summer theme

I liked the daily activities that were listed in the brochure

I liked the fact that the camp ends at 4 but parents are given two extra hrs of services for free(no charge, so I can pick them up at the same time)

Well here is my dilemma.... the camp has been up and running since the 28th of June, and Helina started two weeks after the camp got up and running, each day I ask a/b her day at camp she can list 3-4 movies they watched.......Me being me, I googled the time of each movie and it equals a day full day at camp, minus the snack break, lunch break, and bathroom breaks, and maybe 30 mins of just idol time.........  I know what you are saying......hmmm, but when it comes to my kids, lets just say I am all of the above.......

Well the first few days I just let it go, and watched as I picked her up at different times each day to see if there was just a small switch in the daily routine.  And here is what I noticed....

The camp staff are all high school students, w/maybe, maybe, one or two who are in the very early 20 something age range, well when I went to open house that is not who we met that wold be running the camp.

There is a large 40 maybe even 50 inch Tv on the wall in the huge room where all the kids including older kids are just sitting on the magic carpet watching television.

Helina comes home and says she is hungry each day, and they gave her a little bit of food, now I can take this a few ways, Helina being the precious little daughter of mine, could be refusing to eat what they are giving her, or they staff could be use to feeding the younger kids a smaller portion, or they may just not be giving her enough to eat, so I send her w/a snack each day also. 

I ask Helina every day which is apart of our conversation what did she have for lunch and did she eat it, and she says yes, she ate it, but it was only a little bit.......I have to say in the day care/camps defense, Helina's appetite is growing and in our house she can freely ask for more and get more, that may not be the case at the center......

Now, I know my viewing eye is a bit different b/c of my profession, but I feel at 165 per week, some may say is really cheap for full day/week camp(don't forget I have another one in school that also requires a weekly day care fee, so when you add it all up its expensive in my book) I am starting to  feel I can save my money and allow her to watch TV at home, or she can get to know her grandmother by spending some time w/her this summer who happens to live 8hrs away, and unfortunately has only had the opportunity to meet her once.  The lessons/visits would be priceless!!!!

Just maybe that needs to happen, and just maybe, she can begin gathering memories of her time w/her grandma, who happens to be my mom, like the memories I have of time I spent w/my grandmother.........

Have I spoken w/the director?  NO! I really think me speaking w/her at this point could and should make a difference, but I am thinking this is how this camp is run and has come to be the norm.

So 

ETS............forgot to take a form back to the school, and went around lunch time to drop it off, no wonder my baby is saying she is hungry, they serve them food on cake plates u wld find at a kids party!!!!!!  I am serious!!!! the cake plate you would have at ur kids party is what they are served their lunch on.

OK, in defense of the camp, maybe that is their way of doing portion control, and to keep kids from being wasteful

OK, in my defense......there were kids that looked to be every bit of 11 and 12 eating the same portion. Even my Juan was like no wonder Lina is hungry every day, she ain't getting enough to eat, and I never talked to him a/b my concerns w/the school, b/c I know like I mentioned earlier my professional eye can some times take over the personal eye of seeing things.

I feel so awful, like maybe I dropped the ball on this one.  I thought I turned every stone and dotted every I........ I spoke to a close friend of mine whose kids are also in camp in a different city, and she says most times you do have the upper grade students from the high school working the camps, but for every students there should be an adult ratio, which I knew to be true, and when she went to orientation for her kids camp, they actually had all the camp staff there, including the teeny boppers.

Now I am am all for teenagers having jobs and learning, but.........as I walked into the room w/the 50 plus inch tv on the wall, I saw this one tenny bopper with a kid over his knee smacking him on his butt, in a playful way I am sure, and for all I know the kid cld have been related to him, or a neighborhood friend, but you would think as I tried to talk the the leader of the program over all the noise those two were making he wld have stopped, especially w/my evil eye, but he kept right on, w/the little boy laughing  saying do it again!!!!!!  

I am so disappointed..........I am going to pick her up early and have a nice P and J on the table for her when she walks through the door along w/some of her favorite fruits....... and a cold glass of mango juice..........

I have no complaints for the side El Shaday is on though................ugggggggg

A Quiet Moment!!!!

Well folks, the girls are in school and at camp!  I am thinking today for some reason what has changed in my life since the girls blessed our lives.......

I guess all the quietness in the house will force one to reflect!

Although everything has changed, I really really can not put on paper what has changed for me..

I am sitting here in the quietness of the house and humming in my head some of their favorite cartoons, thinking what will they like for dinner, hearing in my head their voices, seeing their smiling faces, thinking what will we do when they get home, how long will it take them to catch onto riding their bikes, thinking how I am going to kiss those cheeks today, and hug em, and tell em how much I love them, waiting to hear out of the blue, hearing them say, mom I love you, thinking I have to re-make their beds, re-clean their rooms ( see I allow them to do what they can, and when they are not looking I go in and re-clean it and re-make the beds so it is nice and neat) thinking they are both going to crawl up in my lap and I am going to have to say you both or to heavy, ur hurting mommy legs, thinking........thinking.....and thinking.......about our trip next week to Disney, thinking a/b how will they do w/such a long car ride to Florida, thinking...thinking....and thinking......what educational things can I do with them this summer before school starts, thinking.....thinking.....thinking.......about what Helina is thinking a/b when she is quiet and I ask what is wrong and she says I am thinking, I can't tell you, thinking.....thinking.......thinking about how blessed I am to have this hand picked girls, for me and my family to share and love on......thinking about how as the days go on I hole them tighter, I dare any harm to come their way, and I how the words come so freely when I am in conversation about how crazy I am about my daughters and that I don't play when it comes to them.. ....thinking....thinking......thinking.....

So what has changed.............everything...........but its the best change one can ever ever imagine.

Camp, Bikes, Pool Parties, and Just Some Great Old Summer Fun

All I can say is............. I am loving it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I can say there is no better job than being a MOM on this earth!!!!!!   Hands down! there is nothing that brings u more comfort and joy but the smiles you see when they tell you how wonderful you are! the hugs the kisses, and the fact its all b/c of them that makes it all so worth it!!!

Helina starts camp tomorrow!!! she is not so excited being the camp/daycare is at her sisters school! she tells me on a regular she is no baby, and babies go to her sisters school!!!

She is also spending a week w/her grandma in NC..... in Aug, She tells me no, mom not seven days, I won't get out the car, then she says ok, ok, only 5 days, then when I say ok, she tries to bargain it down to 4........  I have learned w/Helina that she has to be knee deep in it to realize she enjoys something, you can prepare her by talking to her but any thing new she is really not trying to hear it!  I know this is all NEW and she has only been home not even six months, but her shyness is really really paralyzing at times, she is really shy to the 10th degree and as much as El Shaday depends on her sister for certain things, Helina really depends on El Shaday b/c of her out going personality! 

El-Shaday depends on Helina for her motherly quality, big sister protection, and her ability to just do things that big sisters do.

I love these girls so much!!!!!!!!!

My girls are quickly/slowly doing away with their native customs

As I watch the girls grow stronger and bigger I see each and every day that they are slowing or shall I saw quickly moving into more of the American way of doing things.

For example:

El Shaday learned in school the prayer before meals that most kids learn in Sunday schoolor  either taught by their parents, that God is good and God is great and we thank you for our food Amen, 

well the first day she came home and said her new learned prayer at the dinner table Helina was upset and could not believe that El Shaday was praying like this over her food. She asked her what is this, why are you talking like this, and El Shaday w/her bubbly personality attempted to teacher Helina who wanted nothing to do w/the prayer, but now almost two weeks later, Helina says that same prayer over her food at dinner time.  

Helina gets upsets when El Shaday no longer writes her letters and numbers in Amharic, or when she tells on El Shaday that she can't say her numbers in Amharic any more.  El Shaday is quickly forgetting, and adapting so fast.

Helina who could eat this berbery(sp) paste I learned to make that is spicy and will make you break a sweat Helina can eat it and not  even even ask for water to curved the hotness of it she can no longer tolerate the spiciness of it or can she eat it w/o asking for water.  

El Shaday, sings all the american nursery rhymes, and no longer sings in her native language

Helina does not ask for me to play the ET music as much, she is asking for American songs to be played

The list goes on and on, but these are a few examples that makes my heart jump each time I witness something that starts to leave them that is so precious not only to them but to me also.

On Monday July 5th

Helina's tooth finally came out!!!

I am such a coward b/c we were all playing in the pool and some how my hand hit her in the mouth by accident which caused the tooth to kinda move away frm the gum leaving only a portion of it hanging!!! 

now I am no coward when it comes to blood, and stuff like that but I cld not pull the tooth out myself, but my sweet Helina said, mom, let me do it, and took the towel and pulled it out, afterwards she rinsed her mouth and continued to play in her pool.  

In the midnight hours Helina was payed a visit by the tooth fairy and received four shinny quarters, which she used to purchase a ice cream cone for her and her sister yesterday.

awwww! so sweet

Celeste

No Not My Money!!! haahahah?And Even in the Tub I can pose for the Camera!!!

This is a piggy back post from two or three post ago!!!!

an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com