Annual Ethiopian Kids Community picnic

Whew am I ever tired!!! So is Lucy, she fell asleep at 7:14 while I was taking the hair snaps out of her hair. We spent the entire weekend communing with Ethiopian adoptive families. We arrived at the hotel Friday afternoon ... we shared a room with Mel and Morgan. Amazing how much stuff a toddler and a baby take up! I was totally unprepared. I thought I had packed early in the week so Friday after work I just shoved some "extra" stuff in our big yellow bag. Turns out all I had was our swimming stuff, towel, our Ethiopian Kids Community tshirts and the "extra" stuff I shoved in. That meant I had no clothes for me. No biggie, I am pretty low maintenance. Friday night we swam and swam and swam and swam. Lucy and Morgan were good little travellers and slept through the night ... Mel and Morgan had one side of the room and Lucy and I shared the other side. I believe that Mel and I slept very little as we were on high alert so we would be able to respond quickly if one of our kids woke up in order to prevent that kid from waking up the other person's kid! It was fun to see all the families that had gathered from across the states to attend the picnic. Saturday morning we were all about swimming and down for an early nap before the picnic. The picnic was great fun! Tons of families were in attendance just a huge swarm of beautiful loud happy children. Lucy was in her element running around being social and active. After the picnic it was back to the hotel for more swimming then sleep. I felt like we had an encounter with the Ethiopian adoption superstars (the Triplets) ... Lucy and Tsega obviously have some sort of cosmic connection, she was actually diverted from her beeline to the pool to hug Tsega and participate in some chase running/crawling down the hall. Talk about cute!!!! There were so many others that I have felt connected with through the forums and through blogs that we were able to meet in real life. Obviously as we all had children to attend to our conversations were always quick and either on the run or in a loud swimming pool area.

I arrived home exhausted ... and about 5 minutes later the phone rang, it was some one from our agency calling asking if I would be willing to be interviewed about Lucy's adoption in my home. She said the Ethiopian government can see families in their own home and how the children are thriving, and I could show them a single mom perspective. I said "sure". She said "it'll be today". I almost fainted. I cleaned like a madwoman. I got Lucy down for a nap. For some reason she woke up after only one hour. The crew arrived. They had lights, a huge camera, an interviewer ... they moved my furniture around and moved stuff around so the background was better. I myself was decorated with makeup and a scarf. Lucy was at her most uncooperative (like at the photo shoot). I still think the interview went well ... I almost teared up at the end and probably the only think stopping me was that I was talking to a camera and couldn't see the person behind the camera at all.

It's now 8:22pm and I am about ready for bed!

Sorry no photos tonight ... can't muster the energy to find the camera. Trust me, she's adorable.