finally.

A Long-term Dream

When I was in college I wanted to travel. And I did, a little.

I spent a few weeks one summer in El Salvador and I spent a month in London, doing part of my student teaching.

I seriously considered joining the Peace Corps. I called them, requested the information, even sort of settled on going to Papua New Guinea or El Salvador (I really enjoyed my time in El Salvador and at the time I knew enough spanish to survive.)

I would go to Perkins and sit for hours with a friend who would listen to me talk about wanting to travel, to see the world, to join the Peace Corps, to just do something with my life. And he would tell me to make sure I sent him a postcard from wherever I was. At the time, I was 99% sure it was what I wanted to do when I graduated. I wasn’t in a relationship, I had no desire to go to grad school and I knew that come graduation day, all my friends would be scattering all over the  country so, why not?

But plans changed in an unexpectedly good way. That same friend is now my husband. We’ve got 2 kids, a house, a couple dogs. I’m a teacher and I love my job.

And 11 years later I still  can’t shake that need to travel, to experience living somewhere that is nothing like here. So I’ve come up with a plan. An exciting plan with a very real possibility of working out.

A couple weeks ago I noticed that AHOPE, an organization in Ethiopia that cares for children with HIV, is always looking for voluteers. They specifically request people who are social workers, nurses, doctors, occupational therapists, and teachers. A volutneer needs to there for a minimum of 6 weeks but can stay longer if they wish.

Guess which teacher wants to move her family to Ethiopia for a summer?

I don’t want to go this summer or even next summer. I want to wait until Milo and Lexi are older. If we are going to move them half way around the world for a summer, I want them to experience it, to remember it, to fully participate in the experience.

I’ve already contacted AHOPE to see if this is even a possibility and got a resounding “yes” so now, we just need to make things happen on our end. It will be a lot of work to make this happen, another reason why I’m not trying to plan the trip for anytime soon, but I really think this will happen.

I’ve also got a second plan that involves staying in Ethiopia for a year but we’ll just stick to the plan of going for a summer to see how that works out for us. Then I’ll start plotting a longer stay.

It’s exciting to think about. It’s scary to think about. It makes me happy that we will be able to take Milo back his birth country and Lexi will see probably the most important piece of her brother’s life. I want this to happen.

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Best Picture of Lexi

I was looking at our flickr account an came across this picture of Lexi. I’m guess it’s her eyes that make this picture but it’s now one of my favorites.

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2009 Photos: A Year in Review or An excuse to post a ton of photos

Here’s our year. It’s not even close to everything that happened this year but it was a good year.

January

Now that we had our referral and the holidays were over we started to get things ready for Milo’s arrival.

We built new shelves in the closet, put together bunk beds and put up the crib.

Lexi got a much needed hair cut.

And we got ready for her 3rd birthday -  she requested a “W” cake for her party. (In case you’re wondering. This year she wants green circle cakes. Nope, no Elmo birthday cakes for us.)

February

We passed court! Milo was officially, legally, 100% ours. We also got his birth certificate and a travel date.

March

We started to get ready for our trip to Ethiopia. We borrowed the three biggest suitcases ever.

Our last photo as a family of 3. About 15 minutes after this was taken we headed off to the airport.

And we were off.

This was the first day we were able to bring Milo back to the Guest House from the Care Center.

And headed back home.
A boy from our travel group. We were all waiting for our connecting flight in DC. He held Milo for a while.
And friends we met at the airport. They went through a different agency but live in St. Paul. Our kids are about 2 months apart in age.

And we are officially a family of 4. Lexi met us at the airport.

April

Lexi decides to sleep on the floor. She did this for several weeks. And she and Kevin did a lot of work for Start Seeing Art.

Our first Easter as a family of 4. And Lexi enjoying being the big sister.

Kevin and I (and the kids but they are always barefoot – we’re lucky if they have pants on) went One Day Without Shoes.

May

I braved it and drove to Green Bay, by myself, with both kids. My sister was there and we took the kids to Bay Beach. Cheapest, greatest summer entertainment for kids under 10. I love this picture because I have the same picture of me at about 3 years old riding the same ride.

Kevin and Lexi wore their Red Wings jerseys to church on Pentecost Sunday. Milo wore his as well.

Kevin’s hair getting longer. In May he challenged people to help him raise $600 for http://www.charitywater.org/. That’s enough clean water for 30 people. If the goal was met by his 30th birthday (a month later) he promised to shave his head. People donated $2300.

He also walked about 2 miles from the Misissippi River to our house carrying the can Lexi is holding above. The can was full and weighted close to 25 lbs. On a daily basis, people without access to clean water carry these cans close to 3 miles for water. It’s mostly women and children who fetch the water.

June

We went to White Robin Farm for a family photo shoot. It was a ton of fun. Lexi helped.

Kevin’s birthday. Before:

And after:

July and August

We took care of 5 kids under 5 for a morning. Two belonged to us and three belonged to a friend. We got out of the house and walked to a park to wear everyone out.

But the best part of the year (after bringing Milo home) was flying to Connecticut and visiting our best friends for close to two weeks. We ate out a lot. We played games. Made a lot of popcorn. And just hung out.

Lexi also sat in on one of Uncle Tim’s lectures at Yale.

We saw Times Square and Tim and Nicole took the kids home and Kevin and I saw Stomp.

We met up with other college friends in Amherst and hung out for the day.

Kevin with two of his college roommates and me with one of my college roommates

August is also the State Fair. This is Lexi being “State Fair People.”

September

Happy birthday to me.

We also got to meet and hang out with Mark Horvath from InvisiblePeople.tv.

October

Happy 1st birthday, Milo. In case you were wondering, he does like cake and he does like chocolate. Even tried to swipe his sister’s cupcake.

Halloween. I cut the jack-o-lantern, per Lexi’s instructions and she decorated it. Lexi was a Green Princess and Milo was a scarecrow. This year, the costumes were made by me.

November

It was freakishly warm around here in November. This is how warm Lexi had to dress to go rake leaves with her dad.

Milo became extremely mobile, deciding the quickest path from point A to point B was a straight line, no matter what was along that line.

We went to my parents house for Thanksgiving. Every year Joanna and I buy the kids matching Christmas PJ’s and insist on a picture. This year, 3 really excited kids would not sit still so every picture is just a big ball of stripes.

December

Kevin tried to teach Lexi to ice skate. She wasn’t a fan.

We went to Kevin’s parents’ house for Christmas. Lexi insisted we take this picture after church.

And of course, present opening.

And seeing Papa’s pigeons.

And hanging out with second cousins. Emelia and Milo were the newest second cousins this year. Emelia is 9 months in this picture and Milo is 14 months.

We got back from Kansas to discover there was a lot of shoveling to do.

And on to next year. Here’s to 2010.

family, friends, things that make me happy, uncategorized | Comments (2)

It’s a raffle for water.

For every $5 you donate here (use the big yellow button that says “donate”) you will get a chance to win all of this.

Most of it is from Starbucks and a few things are from water4 christmas or charity:water.

You’ll get one water 4 christmas tote bag, one water 4 christmas water bottle, one copy of The House at Sugar Beach (about Liberia), two cute Starbucks Mugs, two cute Starbucks tumblers, an assortment of Starbucks candies and cookies, two Starbucks charms from Rwanda, Starbucks Mocha powder, African themed Memory game, cute tote from the Starbucks Africa collection, Africa trivia game, the official charity:water bracelet and a surprise that’s not listed.

Seriously, that is a pile of loot for $5. For every $5 you donate, your name will be entered in the drawing.

Oh, and there will be a new coffee & water box every day this week. And if you win shipping is free.

So, go play.

P.S. After you donate, leave a comment here with the number of tickets you bought…and be honest. She gets a print out of who donated.

causes, things that make me happy | Comment (0)

A Year Ago Today.

Last year, right about now I was heading back to my classroom from the bathroom. While I was in the bathroom my cell phone rang. I ignored it because, you know, I was in the bathroom. On my way back to the classroom I checked my messages.

“Hi Abby, this is Angie from Children’s Home Society. Could you give me a call back before our meeting tonight?” I called her back. I was thinking she was going to cancel our meeting to update our homestudy. (She has 2 kids at home, it was December, I was assuming sick kid.) It was 10:20 am and since I didn’t have to pick my class up from computers until 10:30, I decided to give her a quick call.

A really perky voice answered the phone.

“Hi Abby! I’m so glad you called me back. I’ve got some news for you! (at this point I was trying to unlock my classroom door, dropped my keys twice and was desperately trying to get to my computer) We have a referral for you to look over.” Now she read me all the details of the referral. But she still hadn’t given me a name, age, boy or girl, etc. I was pretty impatient at this point. I cut in to the details with “I need to know if it’s a boy or a girl! I have 8 minutes left to call Kevin with the news, look at the pictures on the computer and pick up my class from computers.” She laughed and said “It’s a boy. His name is Rahimeto Keyredin and he’s 5 1/2 weeks old.”

I called Kevin and at the same time checked my e-mail. When my slow (ridiculously slow) computer finally opened the file I saw this:

and this:

I hung up with Kevin and went running down the hall at school, interrupted about 6 classes to announce “It’s a BOY!” on my way to pick up my class.

We got back to the room and I briefly explained what was going on. I told them they could color or play with toys or read books or basically do whatever they wanted as long as they didn’t hurt anyone or break anything. (not one of my finer teaching moments, I’ll admit it.) And I spent the next half hour pouring over his referral paperwork.

I printed off his picture and carried them around in my pocket for the next week at least, showing them to anyone who walked past me.

The two pictures above are Milo Rahimeto Hendricks – 5 1/2 weeks old.
Here’s Milo over the next year:
We didn’t get any more pictures until he was 4 months old

We met him in Ethiopia when he was 5 months old.

6 months

7 months

8 months (hanging out with friends from Ethiopia. Harry was at the Care Center with Milo. We met Claire on the plane ride home.)

9 months

10 months

11 months

12 months

13 months

adoption, family, things that make me happy | Comments (3)

NaBloPoMo Post #30: Twists

Look what I did today:

Yep, I put twists in Milo’s hair.
I only did the front third of his head for a couple of reasons.
1) That’s how many I could do while he ate lunch
2) The back of his high chair is really tall and I couldn’t get to the back of his head
3) I want to see how well these stay in before I attempt to make him sit still for his whole head. (If they last through nap time pretty well then I’ll finish the rest tonight.)

I’m hoping these will stay put and I can get enough practice to give him a new “do” for Christmas. I also need to pick up a better comb for parting his hair. I think it would look cuter if the parts were a little more defined.

**********
On an unrelated note: GO ME! National Blog Posting Month, 30 Posts in 30 days. Check.

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NaBloPoMo Post #26: Funny.

The Muppets are never not funny. Enjoy.

Flying Gonzo Game

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NaBloPoMo Post 16: Lists

I like to make lists. Lists of things to pack, to do, to clean, to buy. Mostly, I like to make lists so I can cross things off. Makes me feel like I’ve accomplished quite a bit. You should have seen some of the lists I made before we left for Ethiopia.

And when I can’t think of anything important to blog about, you get a list. So, in no particular order:

20 Things I Love

1. etsy
2. banana chocolate chip bread
3. sleeping in t-shirts that are really, really old and super soft
4. board games
5. board games with friends
6. kettle corn
7. music
8. teaching
9. a good debate
10. colorado
11. striped socks
12. autumn
13. books
14. m&m’s
15. traveling
16. a cold morning, a warm blanket and no reason to get up
17. breakfast for dinner
18. olympics
19. hiring a babysitter
20. making lists

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NaBloPoMo Post #15: Kindergarten

I haven’t talked about kindergarten in a while.

Here’s the thing. I (heart) my class. They rock. Sure I’ve got one or two that like to try and push my buttons but that’s only about once a day. The rest of the week is smooth sailing. I haven’t figured out what the secret ingredient to this year is yet.

Maybe it’s their personalities. Maybe it’s the new routine I’ve created. Maybe it’s the fact that they have been told by numerous adults in the school that they are the best class. Maybe it’s the fact that I have sixteen – 8 boys, 8 girls. I have don’t know.

All I know is that when I ask them to listen, they do. When I ask them to settle down, they do. When someone needs help, they are helpful. They are respectful. They are responsible. They are funny and silly and try really hard on their work. When we walk in a line, it’s an actual line. They are fiercely protective of one-another. And they love to arm wrestle. When someone can beat me, they get a party. (I may let somebody win next week.) They understand the importance of admitting they were wrong or telling the truth. They know a bad choice makes me upset but lying makes me angry. They are proud of our class library. They are convinced we have more books than the school library. (There’s a good chance we do.) We work together as a community. They love me and I love them.

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This is how a wedding should be.

Weddings should be fun.
A huge celebration.
Like this one:

things that make me happy | Comment (1)