A Natural Family

What a joy it is to watch my child in the arms of his grandparents and great-grandparents--smiling, laughing, healthy.

What a joy it is to watch my husband tear up while watching a Black man accept the nomination for President of the United States from a major political party. Even more a joy for me that he did it while holding our sleeping son, Emmett, on the anniversary of another Emmett's death. (not to mention the anniversary of Dr. King's speech.)

You should watch the speech from tonight too.

So, while here in AR, I have been hearing and reading about this proposed ban on 'unmarried couples' being allowed to foster or adopt children within the state.

I think this is stupid and in the end detrimental to children. If all 80,ooo+ people who signed their names to the petition to get the ban on the ballot were involved in fostering or adopting the children who need it in Arkansas, this would be a non-issue because firstly, the children would be taken care of, and, secondly, they would care so much about the children that they wouldn't make dumb (discriminatory) stipulations about who is and isn't able to care for the children. But, I am guessing that most of these people are more interested in discriminating against gays and lesbians than making sure children have stable and supportive homes. Mind you, after going through an adoption process myself, I have experienced the kind of rigor with which adoptive and foster parents are screened, poked, prodded, and prepared to parent children--much more than many (heterosexual) biological parents.

End of rant.

Ok. One more thing. Call it what it is, people. Don't say "ban on unmarried couples fostering/adopting" say, "ban on gays and lesbians fostering/adopting." This is what is really happening.

So, here we are. Week two. Doing pretty well. The boy is congested--not sure if it is allergy related or just a cold. But, since there's no fever, we are just doing the saline drops, humidifier, asperator (er?) thing. We've seen TONS of people, and I now have over... SEVENTY thank you notes to write. I love gifts for the little man but man oh man do I HATE writing thank you notes. I think that since mostly women attend baby showers/give baby gifts, they should understand that new moms don't have time to sit down and write personal thank you notes to everyone and it should just be understood that this is one occasion for which thank you notes are not required. Oh well... in my perfect world...

Anyways, the boy has now met three great grandparents and his great great aunt and uncle. Pretty awesome.

Okay... now for the pictures.

Guest post from J...

A couple of weeks ago, Adu had the privilege of meeting Ira, who has a pretty cool story to tell, himself. Language is still fairly new and exciting for him, so he's doing what everyone does when learning a language - taxonomy. Things need names, after all.

Ira's mother, Laura, had already been chatting with us for a few minutes when Ira walked over and pointed up at EB.


Ira: What is that?
Kathryn: He's a baby.
Ira: What is that?
Laura: He's a baby.
Ira: What is that?
Laura: Emmett.
Ira: Hi, Emmett.

And he walked away.

So, we may have missed out on his first smile... but we did take him to his first concert. This concert was a far cry from my first concert (Amy Grant...) as Peanut went to the All Points West Festival at Liberty State Park on Saturday. Our friend Clay (now known as 'Uncle Clay') got tickets for us before we knew when the boy would be joining our family and we weren't quite ready to leave him with anyone for so long, so... along he came! We saw part of Animal Collective and Kings of Leon, but we were really there for The Roots and Radiohead. Fantastic!

After partying with 30,000 others at the festival... this is how Emmett felt about getting up for church Sunday morning... Yes--we did make it (but not for class :))

These are the people who have done our laundry in the time that we have been home.
they are parts of EmAdu's village. Isn't he lucky?

(CC and Niff)

(left: deeeelicious macchiato at tomoca in ethiopia)










free association with 'motherhood':
pretty much what i expected
less sleep
less relaxing
never stopping
think about poop more often
supportive, loving friends
glad i prepped for being conspicuous
race matters
like having a boy more than i thought
perfect baby
perfect husband
thanks mom
thanks niff
more laundry
less showering
outings a big deal
no alone time
still read book
no more movies at theater
more doctors appointments
care less about most other things
comes naturally--trust instincts

the plan is to go to Makeda's for birthday lunch. peanut makes it a little harder to stick to plan, but hopefully we'll get it together. other things on the agenda: my bathtub hasn't been cleaned in weeks (maybe a month?) and is getting dis-gus-ting, laundry needs to be addressed, i need to find out what is In The Fridge, thank you notes?, Jenn leaves, Clay arrives, geez does life slow down?