Emilee's First Blog

Good Morning (or whatever time of day, you check in)!

I am sitting here drinking Ethiopian coffee as I attempt my first time updating the blog. It is President's Day, which for one more year does not affect us. The search has begun for the perfect Kindergarten. Keep me in your prayers, as I research options for Chloe. Speaking of Chloe, we were in the car yesterday and she says, the first president was George Washington. We were pretty impressed with her and her preschool. She then said the second president was Abraham Lincoln, well...at least she is remembering the important names!

Isayas is picking up English every day. He speaks in little sentences now, like "I'll get it" when something falls on the ground at a meal. Yes, he knows some abbreviations already. Pray that I have patience and wisdom as I really start to work on numbers and letters with him. I am not sure if he is being ornery or just struggling. Mario and I lean towards believing he is stubborn, the things he is not doing here, are concepts we witnessed him doing in Addis, at school.

Our two year old, Maya, is pretty much acting two. Last night, we went to the nicest shower thrown by Grandpa Daniel and his family. She grunted and moaned in my arms the first 45 minutes, whenever someone spoke to her. Even us. It can be frustrating to figure out what to do about discipline in a new situation and with new people. I eventually sat her by our diaper bag and baby carrier for a time-out. She screamed for two minutes and then had a good party for the rest of the time. We felt surrounded by love and really had fun last night with Mario's aunts and some cool cousins. The kids made fast fun and friends too with the kid cousins that were there. Taylor, Michael, and Tatiana you are cool kids. Little Tami too, but when you and Josh are crawling you two will rock the Rodriguez parties.

Joshua Molla is doing great. Since I was the only one calling him Joshua and Josh here, except for Maya, I started calling him Joshy. This name really caught on with the siblings and they all are calling him Joshy now. Isayas rotates with Joshy and Baby. Very cute. We were supposed to take Joshua in to a specialist on Thursday, the 8th. We were stuck in terrible traffic due to a car accident. The doctor's office refused to see us till the next opening, which was three hours away. We were beyond frustrated. But God has a way of working things out. We had not seen blood in his stool for five days before that appointment, and haven't seen it since. That doctor's visit would have been unnecessary and very expensive, so that traffic saved us a lot of money and Joshua unnecessary discomfort from tests of that nature!

Daddy is doing good. Working hard and getting much satisfaction from that. He is still enjoying his job and coworkers. He comes home and chases the kids around the circle. The four of them are laughing and playing so hard, it is very cute. When we just had the girls, he would play that game with Xena, but now they all participate. I have a feeling that this week will involve much chili eating for our family. Mario needs to defend his second place finish at the work cook-off. If anyone wants to eat chili this week, let me know. We could always use company and guinea pigs! (Please, no one actually give us real guinea pigs as a gift!-I clean up after the perfect number of residents here already!)

I am doing well too. I have been on my own with the kiddos since, Thursday the 8th. My mom/nanny/housekeeper/friend is scheduled to be out with us this week for a couple of nights, but on Saturday was coming down with a second batch of bronchitis. So I might be going alone with the four musketeers once more. Grammie Vicki get better!!!! Thanks to my girlfriends last week who stepped up and helped me out with long phone calls, babysitting so I could grocery shop all alone, and prayer. Thanks to Nana Debbie for the dinner and carpooling Chloe. Hillary Clinton once said it takes a village to raise a child. And she only had one, so how would she really know! Thanks to our village of support, prayers, and understanding. This week my goal is to keep my calm and write numerous thank you notes. In that order!