I honestly don’t remember Mita doing this assignment last year, but I do remember Meg doing it. This makes me wonder if it was assigned to Mita and she didn’t make a big deal about it or if she kept the assignment on the down-low because it was a big deal to her.  Hmm. I must go through the projects I kept from last year and see if I can find it.

Back to yesterday.  I told Enu that I would have to get on the computer and order prints as we are a digital family and I rarely have extra prints hanging around.  We discussed what pictures she wanted and what her events on the time line were going to be:

1- Birth in Ethiopia – She wanted a baby picture of her and her dad that we have.

2- Mom dying when she was 3.

So when she mentioned this I gently said,”Honey, if you put this down people are going to ask you about it.”  She shrugged and said that it was fine.

3- Adoption and movie to the USA.

4- Disneyworld for the first time.

5- Being at 4th grader.

I am planning on supporting her wishes, but I am also going to have a back up picture in case she changes her mind at the last-minute. I will also let her teacher know what is coming so she isn’t put on the spot.

I applaud her for being truthful and authentic in her project. I admire her strength for acknowledging what she has done through. I am so worried that this may trigger something and she will have a bad experience at school.  I’m running this by Hubby to see what he thinks.

I think this will also be a lesson-learner for the other kids in the class.  Not everyone has an all-happy timeline to share, even 9 year olds.  That said I hate that my children seem to be the models for adoption and diversity at school as that is a lot of pressure on a kid.  If anyone out there has traveled this path I would love some advice!

Now that this school year has come to an end I have been thinking about sitting down again and starting to work on the books. Then it just hit me today when I was doing the dishes.  I don’t want to separate their work.  I don’t want them to leave my home after college with boxes filled with only their projects and pictures. I want them to remember their sister’s pieces to. To be able to track how Elle went from drawing squiggly lines to recognizable pictures.  We are a family and always will be a family, even when they have lives of their own. Seperate but together.

I can picture Meg showing her possible future children artwork from 2011 and everyone oooing and aweing at Aunt Mita’s Kente cloth pattern or Aunt Enu’s self portrait.  They may live far apart or close together but either way the next generation will have one more tie to the girls Hubby and I are raising today.

Maybe I am more sensitive to this because we are a family who has been through the trials and blessings of older child adoption, who has concentrated on attachment and building bonds.  I cannot help but think our society is so individualized in so many ways that we are leaving the importance of family behind.  When disaster strikes, illness  or death comes round, a financial crisis hits; we all go back to family.

My hope and prayer is that my girls are the best of friends when they are old and gray and I am gone.  Do I think family albums are the only factor that will determine this outcome? No, but it sure cannot hurt.

Anyway, here are my favorite shots of the day.  Meg and Mita spent most of the time in the woods so I didn’t get any good pics of them, but Bella, Enu and Elle were quite the posers for me!

Photo Credit Mandy W. 2010

Grandma Francis was the mother of ten kids.  When she died she still had a couple of teenagers in the house. I was only about seven and at the time didn’t realize how young she actually was.  I didn’t see her as much as I saw my Grandma Williams as she worked long hours as a waitress at Howard Johnson’s.  I waitressed through high school and college and can tell you that it was weary on a young body and cannot imagine waitressing through my forties and into my fifties! 

She had glamorous big hair and was very beautiful.  Now I know it was a wig (she had thin hair due to an illness at a young age) but at the time it was amazing to have a grandma with such hair!  She also always had cookies in the cookie jar.  When telling my brother which grandma we were going to go see I would say Cookie Jar Grandma.

I can remember being in her kitchen with my mom and aunts when she pulled up her shirt to show them the mastectomy site.  I left the room.  I remember clearly being embarrassed about seeing my grandmother this way.  I had no idea what was going on.  I hope I did not hurt her feelings by leaving.  I’m sure she knew I was just a kid. I now wish I would have stayed and see the scars, and felt that loss with her. 

I can also remember her in the hospital. They put her on the children’s ward and we couldn’t visit her. She was to weak to come to the window to wave, but my grandpa waved to us.  We handle death so differently now with kids and I am thankful that I have memories of Elle running around and talking to her Pap Pap the day he passed away. She may not remember, but I can tell her about the joy he had watching her at that time.  

I feel a loss of not knowing her more.    I wonder what made her laugh, what made her cry, what her favorite song was? I’ll never learn these things first hand.  I know my mother feels a loss of losing her mother when she was only in her twenties.  I am thirty-five and my mom is my dearest friend.  What would I do without her?  Why has this breast cancer disease been allowed to continue to pillage the lives of our mothers, sisters, daughters and the men in our lives?

We are aware of breast cancer. We know about the pink.  We get mamograms, do self-breast exams and donate money.  What else can we do?  We can help with research and we can work on prevention of the desease.  My next post on breast cancer will be dedicated to the prevention of breast cancer.

Cherly’s Cookies sent me two samples of their Cookies For the Cure  cookie they have in honor of this month of pink. Ten percent of the money from said cookies will be given to Susan G. Komen for the Cure (Columbus Affiliate).  Koman has given my area of Ohio grants for woman to get mammograms who cannot afford them. Women without insurance.  Thanks Komen and thanks Cherly’s for donating to this cause.  The cookies were delicious by the way, but of course… they were Cherly’s!

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway!

My Favorites!

There is a new commodity in our house.  As of June the Silly Bandz phenomenon has hit our house big time.  From the get go I have liked Silly Bandz or Silly Bracelets or Googly Bands…any brand will do, as they are inexpensive and easy to get (now, they are) and just plain fun.

I cannot tell you how many times a check out person has looked at my Silly Bandz purchase and said something negative about them!  Number one, why are you giving me your opinion on my purchases? Why do they do this with me?  Number two…what is wrong with fun?  Good cheap fun, that does not need to be plugged in the wall or cost $59.99.

In our house if I have an undesirable extra chore I need done, I offer a Silly Bandz.  If the girls have friends over and they need something to do, Silly Bandz trading time!  In the car on the way to Lake Erie, Silly Bandz trading time!  I have a bag I have with many different types of Bandz and I just reach in and grab them or trade with them.

Enu is my one child who can take Silly Bandz or leave them.  She does take them though and use them to bribe give to others when she is not wanting to do something.

Mita loves the rings and has conned her sisters out of most of their rings.

Meg broke down and spent her own money to buy Harry Potter Bandz.  This is a big deal for her as she does not spend her money on anything…she is saving for college.

Elle has piles of bandz all over the place.  She cannot find them usually, but when she does she is so happy it is as if I had just bought them for her!

Me?  I have a few Bandz in my permanent collection that are not up for trade.  The pirate theme, Toy Story and Harry Potter ones are my faves.  I do not wear them out and about or stare at them daily, but  I got them and I like them!

Meg's hand turning blue... I made her take them off!My favorite!

What is your favorite Silly Bandz design or do  you hate them so much you want to scream?

Photo Credit:  Mandy W. 2010