Yohannes is doing so incredibly well that it seems like every week we have a completely new child living with us. His personality continues to shine and his smiles continue to grow in size – it is amazing!
He is doing so well in fact, that we tend to forget that he still doesn’t understand many of our terms. For example, today he is working on a book report about Neil Armstrong. He did the entire project, including making a puppet and writing a report, all before he turns to me and says: “So what is an astronaut any way?”
For weeks now we’ve been talking about his birthday which is coming up on April 30th. We’ve talked about gifts and parties and cakes and candles but for some reason never mentioned that he was turning 10 years old. During lunch on Saturday, after the terrible haircut that was discussed in the previous post, he asked me when he would turn 10 years old. It dawned on me that we had talked endlessly about a birthday party but never told him what a birthday was. God only knows why in the world he thought he was going to be getting such a big party, but he never asked and we never bothered to explain. So, I explained to him what a birthday was and that April 30th would be his birthday and the day that he turned ten years old.
Caleb, my middle child, is currently ten (and about to be eleven) so naturally the next question was: “Then on my birthday will I become the same size as Caleb?” I wasn’t sure if Yo was confusing “size” with “age” so I asked him to clarify to which he responded: “On my birthday will I grow as tall as Caleb? I’m too short for basketball.” Now is that cute or what?
I continue to be reminded that no matter how fully “Americanized” he seems to have become, even the most simple things leave him scratching his head. And so, the adventure continues.
Hi Stefne – just checking in to see if there was any news on the kids coming home. I laugh at your posts as we are living the same “fun times” here in Arizona. Habtamu HATES lotion will run screaming from me when I have it in my hand. Both Habtamu and Fikre HATE getting their hair cut. They say it’s because at AFAA they always cut their hair. And Fikre was so excited that on Easter Sunday eggs were going to fall from the sky. — We stopped telling them things because they only get more confused we just let them experience it, but the kids at school had told Fikre that there would be hidden eggs to find Easter – so he just naturally thought that those hidden eggs got there by falling from the sky. How cute!! (I wore a pith helmet Sunday just in case the eggs were hard boiled). It speaks to how much they have seen and done since in America only 7 months now – that one would think eggs could fall from the sky says just how amazing our country really is. Praying for your entire family to be together soon – in His mighty Name, Karen Cheney
By: Karen on April 22, 2009
at 5:35 pm