A Present For Me? And Cold Food

Woke up this morning to find a little Ethiopian dress on my dining room table.

One of Michael's Ethiopian friends from work gave it to us.

How is that for encouragement?

Michael was asked to present at an Ethiopian culture festival next week along with two other adoptive parents.  I'm nervous, and I'm not even the one doing the presenting.  Something about the extremely large amount of people that will be interacting with Michael...  Apparently 500 to 600 is a low estimate.

There will be a famous Ethiopian musician and some dancers and a coffee ceremony.  And braiding demonstrations, which I will be eyeing up to improve my technique.

And of course this little man will be in attendance for an hour or so if he can stop acting two long enough to go.

I was done with this week already by Tuesday night.   Tuesday... the day of multiple public tantrums, two running away from mommy sessions, tossing an entire salad on the kitchen floor, and sticking a hand in a box fan at a public library.... among other things.

I had a really cute flexitarian meal made for Tuesday night, but naughtiness and quality parenting demanded that we end up eating our meal cold.  And Michael and I did eat the salad that I had saved from the floor, for your reference.

And it's hard to rave about cold food....so you only get the pictures of the cucumbers.  How's that for transparent blogging?

I should note that yesterday and today have gone much better than Monday and Tuesday.  Yesterday, when I wrote our announcement post, I was kind of just waiting for things to fall apart...

So this morning's surprise gift was more than just a dress.  It was an Ethiopian saying "Hey. I think you're doing an okay job raising your Ethiopian son.  I think you'll do a great job with a little girl too."

At least, that's how I like to interpret it.