Melkam Addis Amet!

Happy Ethiopian New Year! September 11th marks the beginning of the year 2003 in Ethiopia. Kiya was born in year 2000 in Ethiopia which was the year 2008 here in the US.

This date also marks the anniversary of when Kiya became a US citizen. The date on her COC is September 11th. Ironic that she lost her Ethiopian citizenship on Ethiopian New Year. Sigh.

We as per family tradition of 1 year will go out to eat at our local Ethiopian restaurant and have a family picture taken to mark the occasion. We will also share pictures of Ethiopia with Kiya and light our family candle and remember Mama Zinash.

September 11 has so many meanings in my life. It for the last 9 years brought a flood of emotion as I remember the horrific events of that date and the loss I felt when a student of mine was a confirmed passenger on Flight 93.

So it is a little weird to wrangle with the emotions behind 9/11 and what that means here in the US and the joy that is 9/11 in Ethiopia. I am doing best to be true to both.  That said I will continue to pray for all the families dealing with the losses they experienced on 9/11 here in the US and I will pray for Ethiopia that this new year brings much good to the country.

Picture update :)

So I know I am a little behind so here is a picture post to catch up in the goings on of our family. September 8th was Badger's 6th birthday. Still shocked we got both dogs to sit still for the same picture and pay attention even with food in front of them.

Badger is too concerned about licking up treat crumbs to care that Sebastian is running off with his toy.

Once Badger figured it out, tug of war was on in full force. Well really only like 15 minutes as they ripped the toy and started eating the stuffing and the frog found its way to the garbage.

As you all learned from my last post, September 11th was Ethiopian New Year. We went out to eat at our local Ethiopian restaurant to celebrate. It will be a new family tradition and maybe some day I will be brave enough to try and cook Ethiopian food :)

Kiya couldn't eat the food yet but we did give her some injera, which is a spongy like thin bread used to eat the food. It does have a slightly sour taste so I wasn't sure she would eat it but she did. And wanted more :)

We had our waitress take a family picture to help remember the evening.

In other news, it looks like Kiya isn't quite over her last ear infection. We had a rough night. She started that weird moaning she did before and we knew what was coming next. Fever and vomit and bam we got both. We were able to get some Tylenol in her and changed her pj's but she just wouldn't settle down. We had her in the pack n play in our room in case she got sick again but she just laid there awake for well over and hour just sucking her thumb.

After awhile she started screaming and was getting really upset. Well turns out she had a poopy diaper so we changed that and tried to get her settled back in her crib in her room. Nope. She wanted nothing of it. I wound up getting up and just rocking her in the chair in her room for 2o minutes or so until she calmed down. I put her down in her crib and didn't hear from her again until 6:45am. Poor baby. This whole ear infection and massive teething thing really stinks.

Melkam Addis Amet!

Or Happy New Year. September 11th is Ethiopian New Year. It is our first Ethiopian New Year together as a family. Long before we had our referral, we had discussed ways to incorporate Ethiopian culture into our family and we agreed to celebrate Ethiopian New Year.

So what are we doing? Well, Kiya is still young so it will be low key and we will add to it each year. So this year we are going to have dinner together at Buraka, our local Ethiopian restaurant and take a family picture.

It is so great to have a reason to celebrate on September 11th. Since 2001, this date has been a little rough for me. It will always be my "I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing" moments. Both when I heard the news of the attack and later in the day when I heard I had lost a former resident on Flight 93.

So Melkam Addis Amet.

For more info on Ethiopian New Year click here : http://rastafarionline.com/files/AddisAmet.pdf