One of the hard things about bringing home new kids (especially in bunches) from Ethiopia is figuring out how old they are, and what their birth date is. We thought we had a system, but that hasn't seemed to work in all cases.So, we finally figured out dates the other day, only to realize we had missed Terefu's birthday by about a week. Thank God she is filled with grace! We celebrated it about 1 1/2 weeks late, and she was perfectly fine with that.
We had it all set up without her knowing, and when she walked in the dining room full of balloons and decorations and family (just us immediate ones) she wanted to turn around and run back upstairs. She doesn't want to be in the spotlight at all, but we convinced her it was okay.
She covered her face while we sang, and hid behind the stack of presents, but when it came to opening the big 2 gifts, she was all smile. Which leads to the "we'll get you Ted" part of the title.When I went to Addis in March, my now good friend and brother Ted Burton was there too, visiting his daughter who was also at Layla, but not yet ready to go home.
Ted brought a "wave board" with him, which is a skateboard kind of thing with only one wheel in front and back, and the center of the board pivots. Your back foot goes back and forth and propels you. To someone like me who is seriously skate/ski challenged it looked like instant trouble to me. Ted of course was very popular with the kids at Layla with this thing, and to be honest the only one who got hurt all week was Ted's daughter.
When Ted left he left the thing with his daughter, who then left it with another girl when she went home later this year. So, Terefu spent time with the evil thing, and is quite proficient at it, and REALLY wanted one. Thanks a bunch Ted, now we own one of the ER Trip Wave Boards in pink, and one really smokin' pink helmet designed with space for a ponytail to boot.She was so happy to get it, and went straight to our street to show us how it was done. The pink helmet and board and that big smile were priceless.
But, I have to confess that this is still more my speed of skateboard/deathboard type travel. Go get 'em Gus!
2 comments:
Happy belated birthday!
I guess we have Ted to thank as well, since all we hear about here is how skateboards are only supposed to have two wheels. Our son is currently saving up all his allowance to buy the two-wheeled version.
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