More Mehaber

The family headed north to Minnesota this past weekend for a wonderful Mehaber celebration. For my readers who are non "Ethiopian adoption families" Mehaber is amharic for a social gathering. It's was nearly 600 miles to Minneapolis but well worth it. Even if the 400 miles back to KC took us 10 hours. It was definitely worth it. The kids did fabulous on the drive up. And they slept well every night in the hotel (I now have a taste of 2BR hotel suites and I'm hooked). It was a suprisingly relaxing trip. We were able to meet up with 3 families from our travel group. It was so nice to meet all of their children and see how much all the kids had grown since last March. We hung out with 2 families prior to the Mehabar and then afterwards everyone went to the hotel and then a park to hang out. It was such a nice visit!

Another added bonus was meeting some of the families I've met through blogs, adoption groups and our adoption agency. I was finally able to meet Tesi. We had checked in on her son Tariku when we went to Ethiopia to pick up Biruk. I still remember the first time I met him and saw his beautiful, beautiful face. He let Nathan and I hold him and he LOVED Nathan's sunglasses. He wore them the whole time and showed them to all of his friends.

We arrived at the Mehaber at 10:00 and checked in with the boys, said hello to some families and by 10:45 we headed to the auditorium for the opening ceremony. By this time the 2 babes were getting extremely tired, hungry and irritable. We handed Landon off to our friend Steve b/c I knew it would calm him down if a stranger was holding him. Sure enough he chilled on Steve's lap and danced to the Amharic music. It was quite adorable. Biruk we bribed with food and Conner was his usual self (pretty easy). Finally after 5-10 minutes of a prensentation we had to sneak out and get the kids somewhere to sleep. Nathan and I quickly fed the 2 little ones in the van and then he took them back to the hotel for naps. Conner and I headed back to the party hand and hand laughing about Nater. For the next 2 hours I enjoyed being responsible for ONE person. I wasn't constantly searching for 3 boys, worried about who was cranky or changing diapers. I was able to eat Ethiopian food, chat with friends and randomly help Conner with his food. Next, I peacefully watched Conner play in the bounce house, slide down the slide and video'd as he tried learning an Ethiopian dance all while visiting with dear friends.

Before I knew it over 2 hours had passed and while turning the corner in the basement I was greeted with 3 beautiful faces. Their stood Nathan with one baby on his back and another in his arms smiling at us. And I then realized how much I had missed them. And they had missed me. And how much I loved my Nater. We headed upstairs, grabbed some AHOPE tshirts and headed back to the hotel for an afternoon swim and visited with our travel group.

It was such a fun trip and I hope we are able to make it again next year. Minnesota is beautiful. But the real beauty was all the wonderful children from Ethiopia smiling, dancing and enjoying the day. Some held tightly to their parents while others couldn't stand still. Some more cautious, others fearless. But all of them stared back at you with their big, bright, beautiful eyes. I couldn't stop smiling. It was so wonderful to be surrounded by so many beautiful, amazing, magical children. If only every weekend we had a Mehaber to attend.