Rob took one (or four) for Team Stensberg today

As you can see, Roberto got his shots to go to Africa today... complete with kid-friendly bandages and a WHO card to prove it. He wasn't expecting to get them all, but the travel nurse was ready with the "cocktails." Mm, yummy. He'll only have to go back for the seconds and third of the Hep-series.

Thanks to my time in Peace Corps, I'll only have to get the Yellow Fever... which I'll wait till the last day to get, no doubts about that. Shoo.

Sling run 3

Well, the sling officially works, in all of its positions. My dear friend, C., was over today with her children, including her newborn. After watching a video on how to "load" the child, we were able to slip Baby right in. I wore her all around, even through the back "yardin." How fun! Now my goal is to make a sling for C. so she too can be hands-free.

Olympics

Ethiopians finished first and second in the 10,000 meter race. Go Ethiopia! Here is the article.

Ikea gifts

This weekend we stopped at Ikea. We went for one item, which of course we didn't end up getting, but left with a few other fun things. Rob chose the bowls and I picked out the finger-puppets.

Amharic

Well... I used to think that I learned languages easily. Then I went to Ukraine and struggled to learn passable Russian. Now, I am baffled. Rob just brought home a book to learn colloquial Amharic and I've had to force myself to begin copying the syllabary. (Amharic doesn't have an alphabet, but a syllabary. This means that there are different symbols for, for example: kä, ku, ki, ka, ke, kï, and ko.) That's all that I can do right now: copy. There is a system, for sure, but... yikes! How complex. I'm just amazed at language. In desperation, I have written to a person that works with international students at our church, asking him to keep an eye out for any Ethiopian students with whom I could become language partners. Until then, I'll be busy copying!

There Is No Me without You

I just finished the book with the title's title, and I suggest that everyone read it. It doesn't only have to do with adoption or Ethiopia, but with "the West" and our responsibilities. It is so well written that you barely even know that you're getting a history lesson. Two thumbs up.

Sling run 2: success

I was a bit worried after the first sling run's failure; however, I tried it again, this time with second-cousin-in-law (?) Big Little E. And, as you can see, it worked. He slipped right in and actually seemed to like it. I walked all around the house and didn't have to hold onto him at all. I am happy that it works and can't wait to wear our little one around.

Ethiopia in the Olympics

Last night, watching the opening ceremony, Rob and I waited patiently (Thank you, Chinese writing system.) for Ethiopia to walk in the parade of nations. How fun. We were excited to see our child's country of origin proudly march behind the same flag that flies on our house. Here is a bit of information on a probable gold medal for Ethiopia, plus some more overall information on Ethiopia in the Games.

Ethiopia in the news

An article on the famine situation in Ethiopia ran in the Chicago Tribune today.

God, please...

Sling run 1: fail

We just had a lovely evening with our friends and their relatively new-to-the-world baby. We had a nice dinner (Thanks, Roberto.) and then watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics (Thanks, NBC.), with baby-holding mixed in here and there. So warm... and pukey. Anyways, I wanted to try out this new, French-seamed sling that I made yesterday for our child, with the help of the same friend (We'll just call her JR, or Junior. Do you like your nickname?) that taught me to make the quilt. So, our dinner guest tried to get her baby into the sling, but Baby was not having it: It was new to her, but I also don't think I know exactly how a child is supposed to be situated. So, the sling experiment failed tonight. Take 2 to follow, I'm sure.

Mushy-mash

Today I visited my cousin and her two baby boys. I even got to feed one of them his three-course meal! On the topic of food, my cousin is also starting to make some of her own baby food. I was able to learn from her what she's already read and then watch her make a batch of sweet potato mushy-mash. This is a photo of her making single serving cubes, which will get frozen, and then be stored until needed. How fun!

Others' good news

So, one family is in Ethiopia right now, with an Embassy date today, picking up their child. Unfortunately, they don't participate on the forum, so we'll learn nothing from their experience.

However, two "forum" families are leaving on the 15th to pick up their babies, and another two will follow shortly afterwards. This is such good news for these families, and I'm so excited to learn from them.

In fact, Rob is going to try to get the travel packet from Bethany today. I think that they didn't widely distribute it yet so that they could amend it after learning from the first family's experience, but I'll take a rough version.

Fizzy

Ethiopia is one of five countries Coca-cola is featuring on this year's Olympic can series.

Ethiopia in the news

Here is a recent news article about Ethiopia.

Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate and vanilla!

I just finished a book entitled I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla (Raising Healthy Black and Biracial Children in a Race-Conscious World). It made me think a lot, and I believe that this thinking has really just begun again. I dealt with a lot of these ideas and problems while studying to be a teacher, but now the situation is different: I'm more personally involved in the race talk now. My biggest issue right now is culture. What parts of white culture and black culture are good to promote and how am I not a racist if I reject parts of another race's culture? But then, can an entire race have a single culture? I think not. And then there is Christian culture to consider. But what is that? And I can't say that I accept all or even most of what the United States would define as Christian culture. Shoo.