Habesha Child

Turns out I am a totally predictable and easily mocked white person.  (I know - shocking.)

This is me to a T.

I care far, FAR too much about the serial comma.

warning, this is super-sappy, and incredibly cute, and you have to watch it to the end.

This is kind of cool - some German archeologists now claim to have discovered the Queen of Sheba’s palace in Aksum.

When Clare and I were in Aksum, we toured some ruins that were called the Queen of Sheba’s palace (photo shows us at the very spot).

But our guide told us that there was no way the building we saw could have been her palace - it was built almost a thousand years after her reign.

Now, perhaps the real palace has been found… hmmm. maybe I’ll have to go back to Aksum.

Talk about feeling the impact of climate change. The poor rains in Ethiopia have caused not only famine, but loss of power as well. Most of the power in Ethiopia is hydroelectric. And no water = no power.

It was just announced that rationing will continue and that Addis Ababa (the capital of Ethiopia) will be without power up to THREE DAYS PER WEEK. Can you imagine a city the size of Addis - which at 5 million is bigger than Los Angeles - with power only about half the time? Craziness.

Julie over at The Eyes of My Eyes Are Opened just posted a brutally honest (and shockingly accurate) post describing some of the “stages” of Ethiopian adoption.  Not the procedural stages, mind you, but the emotional ones.  And she really nailed it, including doing a bang-up job on giving each stage an accurate title.

My favorites are the “WIN/WIN/NAIVETÉ/MELISSA FAYE GREENE STAGE” stage (how I enjoyed that one!), and the ” I AM A SELFISH ASSHOLE” stage. Both of which I instantly recognized as dear old friends.

Go check it out.

She burst into laughter right after this shot was taken, but the expression on her face right here just cracks me up.

just because it’s been a few days, and I know y’all are jonesing for a ANTME shot…

Happy Mother’s Day to my mother.

Happy Mother’s Day to my step-mother.

Happy Mother’s Day to my godmothers and aunts.

Happy Mother’s Day to those who are moms of babies and furries.

Happy Mother’s Day to those who are waiting to be moms.

Happy Mother’s Day to the woman who I will never know, who, without knowing it at the time, gave me the most amazing gift of family. I can’t help but think a lot about Elsa’s biological mom quite often… I hope she is alive and well. I hope she knows, somehow, that her baby is safe, thriving, loved, and treasured beyond measure. I hope she knows that I can’t imagine what my life would be now without my - our - precious girl.

Happy Mother’s Day to me.

It totally got me weepy about being a mom this year for the first time…