Julie Gumm - Author

Swim Progress

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Friday we spent the day swimming at our friend’s house. Dad told the 3 youngest kids “No floaties!”

I was curious to see how all of them would do. Natalie is right on the brink of being fully independent in the water. As long as she doesn’t try to cross at a really wide part of the pool, she does great at swimming underwater, gliding. Gotta work on her freestyle some more and being able to get a breath and continue.

Wendemagegn and Beza stayed in the part where they can stand up for the most part but they had a lot of fun swimming back and forth. It’s really fine tuning – like getting them to kick with mostly-straight legs, and “scoop” the water instead of slap it with their hands. They got more adventurous as the day went on and even went down to the deeper part, would jump in and then swim back to the side (w/ mom standing by for backup that was unneeded).

Here’s a couple really short clips we took to show dad when we got home:

Answering the prayer of a little girl’s heart

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I was just commenting to someone last week that it seemed as if we had not had as many grieving tears lately – especially from Beza (she’s the one that shows the most emotion about leaving Ethiopia and Grammy behind).

Well I’m not sure exactly what set it off (although I’m sure it was exacerbated by lack of sleep) but last night the tears were flowing. She even told me she wanted to go back to Ethiopia and not come back. (I knew she didn’t really mean it, so I didn’t take it personally.) We have told her before that we would love to take her and Wendemagegn back to Ethiopia some time but it is very expensive and so we’re not sure when we will be able to do that. Her concern is that Grammy will die before she gets to see her again.

So I was comforting her the best I could. I asked if she maybe wanted to write a letter or draw a picture for Grammy tomorrow and she said “No, it’s not the same. I want to SEE Grammy.” So we prayed that God would keep Grammy healthy until Beza and Wendemagegn could see her again, that we would be able to have the money to make a trip to Ethiopia sometime “soon” and that he would help Beza not to be sad.

I finally left the girls room only to hear her calling me a few minutes later to come back up. When I got up there she was trying to figure out how to stick a picture of Grammy on the wall next to the nightlight by her bed so she could see it. So we taped it up there. Then Natalie asked if she could sleep with Beza so she wouldn’t be sad (isn’t she sweet). So we compromised by throwing all the blankets and pillows on the floor and they slept together.

This morning as I was scarfing down breakfast I grabbed by Blackberry to scan my emails. There in my inbox was an email from the family friend in Ethiopia. Attached were 4 WONDERFUL professional pictures of Grammy and the kids half sister Mesret. I totally got chills at how God answers Beza’s prayer. I know it wasn’t exactly what Beza meant when she said “SEE” Grammy but what a wonderful reminder that God cares about what is in her heart. He sent us a visible reminder that Grammy is well.

She is a beautiful woman and to me embodies so many things including courage and selfless love.

Grammy

Five Months Home

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I just about fell off the planet there didn’t I? Somehow by the end of the day I don’t have enough creative juices left for blog posting it seems.

May, as usual, has been a busy month with Mother’s Day, my birthday and end of the year festivities. The kids made me really cute cards and gifts in school and told me they were glad I was there mom. It warms my heart to hear Beza pray at night “Thank your for mom being my mom and dad being my dad.”

Natalie graduated from kindergarten. The other kids didn’t really get why she got to have a graduation and they didn’t. I’m not really sure why either but oh well.

Both the girls had tears on the night of the last day of school because they were going to miss their teachers. Natalie’s teacher is coming back and will actually move up to second grade and be Beza’s teacher. Beza’s teacher is moving to a different school. So of course Beza felt like Natalie’s tears were not warranted because Mrs. Leary would still be around. “Can I hug her every day?” Natalie asked me. I assured her that Mrs. Leary would love to get a Natalie hug in the mornings.

Wendemagegn keeps asking how long before they go back to school. If only all the kids were that dedicated right?

Last Saturday I was on my way to see my mom in the hospital when Wendemagegn called me to tell me that he had asked Jesus into his heart that morning. Oh did the tears flow, again. It is an amazing thing to see your children come to know Jesus as their Savior and watch that relationship build. Coming from an Ethiopian Orthodox background I had no idea how difficult it would be for our children to understand a different set of beliefs.

Wendemagegn’s flag football team, the Raiders, finished out their season in second place. He had a great time playing for Coach Greg and Coach Dave and really improved his skills over the 8 weeks. He loved to run straight at the defenders and then fake them out at the last minute (I’m sure there is some technical football term for that). We still need to work on the idea of going for the hole in the defenders FIRST and using his fancy footwork as a last resort.

We still have the normal kid issues – sharing, taking terms, etc. We’re also trying to come to grips with the fact that life is NOT fair and no one said it would be 🙂 The boys are both going to church camp this summer and Beza got a good pout about the fact that it wasn’t fair she couldn’t go (it’s for 3-5th grade). Life is tough, isn’t it.

The boys seem to be getting along better. Part of that is probably attributable to the fact that we adjusted Noah’s ADHD meds. We had a couple really rough months where I thought I might loose my mind. I was chalking all sorts of behaviors up to the adjustment of having two new siblings before it dawned on me that this is exactly the same pattern we go through EVERY time his meds need adjusting. Every time this happens I swear that next time I’ll remember to evaluate the meds before I go insane and every time it takes me weeks and weeks for the light bulb to go off.

We are so blessed to have flexible work schedules this summer so that we can take care of the kids. I’ve shifted my four short days to 3 long days while Dad is home with the kids (and getting some? work done from home). The other two days Mark works while I’ve got the kids. Since Mark works from home I’ve been trying to schedule activities outside the house so that he can have some quiet time. So that means the splash park, free summer movies and hopefully crashing at friend’s houses who have pools.

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