So anyways ....

I'm really really starting again.

Is there anybody out there?  

We are here and we are good.  Lucy is still 7 and still as funny and full of life as ever.  See?

I last left off in October, mere days before the big fall:

oh the irony. Lucy was all dressed up as a zombie.  Covered in fake blood, I even left her hair down and stuck leaves and twigs in it so it looked like she just emerged from the grave. It was a good costume, and possible not appropriate for the church Halloween party that we were about to attend.  It was a beautiful fall afternoon so Lucy was climbing a tree at the neighbors, when she slipped and fell, there was a skinny little patch of walk way and like an arrow to the bulls eye she fell right on that cement.  I knew right away she busted a bone in her arm.  I was all "cool" because in my head, you break a bone and you go get a cast and then you go home.  

*special secret: if you want to be seen VERY VERY quickly in the ER, have your kid dressed in a very bloody shirt.

turns out, a fractured elbow requires surgery and pins and a lot of recovery. So Lucy and her unkempt hair, and the twigs and leaves and her mama spent the night at the hospital.  Above you see a very looped up Lucy.

but our lives haven't been all hospital drama.  We've also had that regular type of drama that one might expect from a very very spirited girl:

you know, the kind that requires one to stare forlornly out of the window when mom cuts off the Taki consumption and tv.

It's spring now and our big thing is dreaming and scheming for our return trip to Ethiopia. We are taking Auntie Jen and hoping for some treasured memories and some grounding moments. It's time. It is. Only thing stopping us at this point is finances. 

I will leave you with Lucy the reader! 

More soon.