Keira

My baby girl is about to turn 5 years old in a week! She is such a joy in our lives. I love her big personality, and how passionate she is about anything and everything. :) She's one big ball of energy! She's strong-willed which can be hard when say, I'm trying to dress her in something she doesn't like (The other day I made her wear a dress she didn't like to church and she said dramatically "Everyone will hate me for wearing this!") But I see the strengths of her strong-willed nature already playing out as well. She's not afraid to stand up for a kid that's being picked on at the playground which I witnessed the other day. Fear does not keep her from doing anything she sets her mind to. And though she is outgoing and energetic, we've recently realized that she does really well with a little bit of quiet alone time too. That's definitely how I naturally recharge, but I didn't see it until more recently that she is the same way. And my goodness, she says some of the most hilarious things! We always find ourselves laughing from her statements. She's a pretty witty kid. :)

I love watching her growing excitement about her brothers. She's said some pretty cool statements lately. The other day at dinner we were all talking about how we are going to sometimes eat Ethiopian food for dinner now. She said she likes the Injera (flat bread) and the chicken and eggs, but when it came to lentils she said the following. "Well, I don't think I like that food very much, but I SURE do love my brothers!" (Or as she says it, brudders) :)

Last week we were at Wal-mart picking up a few painting supplies and all of the sudden she exclaimed at the top of her lungs "Look mommy!! That person has brown skin just like my brothers!!!" And before we left the store we browsed the toy section so that I could get an idea of what Keira would like for her upcoming birthday. She found several things that she really liked, but as we started to walk away she said, "I think I want a barbie with brown skin cause I want it to look like my brothers."

My little Keira bear is such a precious gift to us. She truly brings so much joy to our lives, and I feel so blessed to be her mommy!

She just walked up to me, leaned her head on my shoulder, burped really loud, and then said very matter-of-factly, "Well, you did that." Ha! Yep, that's my Keira. :)

My surgery

So my blogging has been put on hold for a little while mainly due to the fact that I ended up having back surgery. It's funny that there is so much going on and so much that I want to share, but often in those times I find I don't have the time to actually write it down. :)

As I shared in my last post, I had corrective scoliosis surgery when I was a teenager. Everything had been fine, but over the past couple of years I've noticed my back pain coming back more and more frequently until it seemed I was always in pain. So I had an appointment, and my doctor realized that it was the metal rods that they had placed along my spine during the last surgery that was causing the pain. They were no longer needed to be in since their purpose is simply to keep my spine straight while that section of bone fuses which only takes a year or so.

All that to say, we decided to go ahead very quickly and have surgery to take out the rods. It certainly wasn't something that I would want to deal with after bringing our boys home from Ethiopia soon. Everything these past few weeks have seemed like a whirlwind, but God has been so gracious to give us peace during all of it.

One funny little side note. As I was getting prepped in the surgery room I started to become a little nervous with thoughts of what if something went wrong. I prayed for God to give me courage and to trust him to take care of me. And then my anesthesiologist came into the room and started talking to me in a very heavy Russian accent. Guys, if you know me, you know that one of my favorite movies in the whole world is the cartoon Despicable Me where the Russian villan ends up adopting three little girls. My friends can testify that the only accent I can actually do is a Russian accent, so we get a lot of laughs from it. So I think I literally dozed off from the anesthesia with a smile on my face. haha

My family and I have received an overwhelming amount of support from friends, and we are so thankful for all of the meals and babysitting that has been provided for us while I recover. I'm almost back to normal now, which I thank God for because I have two little girls to take care of and a trip to Ethiopia for the court date for our boys in a week and a half now! And that will be in my next post. :)