All Creatures Great and Small (and not so great)

This past week we were able to introduce some new animals to our children. And they also introduced a new animal to us. (More on that later.) We took them to a local state park, where they saw mallard ducks, other birds, some squirrels and fish. Our handpicked son really likes fish. Not to eat, I think, but to catch. He saw little minnows in the shallows of the lake and thought he could catch them, with his hands. He couldn’t, but it was fun watching him try.

A few days later, we took them to another park that has outdoor animal exhibits (Bays Mtn. Park for you locals.) They saw raccoons, snakes (they didn’t like those), turtles, owls, river otters and deer. When we were standing near the deer enclosure, surrounded by woods, “A” asked, “Mom…monkeys?” He was obviously looking for the same furry little primates he was used to seeing back home in Ethiopia. I had to tell him, “No monkeys in America, but we have squirrels.” I could tell he wasn’t impressed.

They don’t seem to share my homemades’ fascination of insects and arachnids. If we show them a cool ‘bug’ they respond as if we’re holding toxic uranium. But unfortunately, they did share one little bug with us: lice. Last week, we discovered little “W” had quite a collection of them, and their eggs, in her beautiful sweet curly locks. Obviously they had hitched a ride here from Ethiopia, unbeknownst to us. We ended up shaving her head, as there was no way we could rid her of the all the nits. We’re glad we did, because even with her head shaved, we were still finding nymphs and adults hanging on for dear life. We treated her, and her blood siblings, washed everything in sight, and gave a sigh of relief.

But alas, the drama had just begun. Yesterday, we discovered that Danielle, Hannah and Josh had picked up new little ‘friends’ as well. Just nymphs, no nits or adults, but lice all the same. Our family looked like a troop of monkeys, with us sitting on the front steps and inspecting each others’ heads. Our handpicked kids were particularly helpful, having much more experience than the rest of us in lice detection. “T” in particular was an expert. Jeff and I seem to have escaped the invasion, at least for now.

Today marks the one month anniversary of when we ‘got’ the kids. And I guess we’ve been pretty blessed so far: all their medicals have come back normal, the kids are attaching wonderfully, only a few discipline issues to date and language is coming right along. If lice are the worst thing we have to deal with, then I’d say we’re doing pretty good!

Tomorrow we’re travelling over the ‘mountain’ to visit the Ethiopian Team from Christian World Adoption, our agency. One of their workers is a lovely Ethiopian lady who has been translating for us over the phone and Skype. So this time, the kids will get to meet her in person.
As I’m typing this, Hannah is teaching the kids to say, “Hey y’all, watch this!” in a thick Southern accent. Oh dear…another bonding moment…

Blessings,
Julie