The Dunham Family of 5

Amazing conversation over breakfast.

2011-12-10T06:46:00.001-08:00

Highlight of my week. We were all sitting around a big Saturday breakfast and we mentioned that soon we were going to the United States (trip to Florida in the new year). Ruthie's eyes got all big and she said, "I can't go to the United States!" We of course told her that Florida was in the US. Her response - "But they'll arrest me and I'll go to prison!" "What?!" "Yeah, and then I'll have to try and get home on the Underground Railroad!" She was really serious about this and clearly she's been doing some learning in school about the UR but maybe some of the details weren't so clear. LOL!!

Points of learning this morning:
- We told our kids that there are, in fact, many, many black people in the United States and they are not working as slaves on plantations anymore.
- We explained that the Underground Railroad did not include any actual trains or train tracks.
- A great relief came over the children.
- A great disappointment came over the children for a lack of real underground trains coming to Canada.

Sunday

2011-12-05T19:26:00.001-08:00

Sunday was a beautiful day - even more than usual. Rob had his camera at church and captured what happens every Sunday morning while Rob and I set up for the team. Kai is developing some pretty amazing skills and usually he is accompanied by his sisters on dueling keyboards. Noisy? Yes. Fabulous? Yes.

And my nephew, Colton, was dedicated on Sunday morning. What a gift he is. What a gift to be here for his dedication, sitting in the front row and then hosting the families for dinner afterward. Loved every minute of it.

Christmas begins.

2011-12-05T11:27:00.001-08:00

Halloween

2011-12-05T11:24:00.001-08:00

Got this beauty of a photo from my hubby yesterday - Shay as Little Red Riding Hood, Malachi as a Ninja and Ruthie as a Cowgirl. We're STILL working through the candy.

We loved September.

2011-10-19T09:15:00.000-07:00

Did we ever love September this year. The weather was amazing and the kids love school, have great teachers and have started up their activities (piano lessons, singing/acting class). I turned 31 and Rob surprised me with a beautiful dinner with friends.

But, probably the most exciting thing was the birth of my nephew, Colton. As you can see in Ruthie's face, we are all very smitten with him. He is totally fabulous.

There was also some apple picking to be done since we live in a really great place for that sort of thing. Technically we did that in October but nevermind that now. Rob discovered a good way to use our fearless Shay to get the really good apples.

And, I've included a cute little picture of Shay reading because I love to listen to and watch her read. She's really fabulous at it. This picture reminds me that they are truly becoming the most amazing little people with an increasing sense of what they love and what they were born to do, with more refined thoughts and opinions and a better sense of the world around them. Some days I feel like I'm going to have a panic attack if time doesn't slow down a bit but in reality, I am loving this age, this stage, these days. It's good.

The summer almost at an end.

2011-08-31T06:14:00.000-07:00

After Uncle Sammy dropped off a few boxes of sugar-coated "cereal" yesterday, Rob declared it an eat-in-the-basement-watch-a-new-episode-of-Thunder-Cats kind of morning. I wonder if they're going to be there until lunch?

The summer that was wild.

2011-08-29T18:47:00.000-07:00

For the second year in a row, we did the African Lion Safari with our Airmiles. So sweet. This is an amazing place and there is so much to do that we didn't get it all done before we were too tired to do anything else!

This was a trip we were saving for when our friends from Moncton were here (Dino & Julie) for their week-long visit. We decided to drive through the safari in our van this time instead of taking the tour bus... that way, Rob could take lots more pictures at his own pace. What a crazy time! The lions and ostriches were walking right beside our van and it was so, so, so, so cool.

Did I mention that the ALS is only about a half hour from our house? Yeah! We win!

The goats in this petting zoo are, shall we say, a bit aggressive. They know that people = food and we did not disappoint. They chew on your shirt and your sandals... so funny.

The splash park is second to none and then there is ice cream... did I mention that we love the African Lion Safari?

The summer I returned to camping.

2011-08-29T18:34:00.000-07:00

I've been camping before and only endured it because the whole youth group was going and the pull of the cute boys and social activities was too much to say no to. I have mostly refused to camp as an adult and I have good reason. I pay a mortgage on this lovely house where I also pay to have running water and toilets that I don't have to go outside to use. I have air conditioning when it's hot and heat when it's cold and again, I pay good money for these comforts. Why would I choose to give up all of these thing to live outside where it's always dirty and bugs roam freely? I'm just saying.

But I went with the young adults from our church and you know what, it didn't suck. Who knew? We even made some great memories. I know, it's totally shocking.

Above is Walt & Steph's sidekick, Ernie, so cute in his sand mustache that he had to be photographed. And below is Walt who actually really does like camping.
Out in the wilds of Goderich, away from the thriving metropolis of KW, Rob was able to get a pretty great star-trail shot. Google it if you have no idea what that is.

In general, Lake Huron (the lake that I grew up very close to but didn't appreciate) turned out to have amazing scenery and amazing sunsets. Score one for camping?

And then I realized my baby boy was a little man.

2011-08-29T18:25:00.000-07:00

This hurts my pride a bit but I thought for the sake of the yearbook that I make with these posts that I really did need to put in a picture of the cake. I thought I had wrestling ring ropes and stuff but I was wrong. Instead, I made it edible with giant tootsie rolls... tasty though they were, they were also melty. The cake tasted great and Kai loved it but no matter how I squewered it or iced it, it would not stand up. At some point you have to just go with what you've got. Sigh. Black mark on cake-making record. Big score in eyes of 6-year-old.

What did I say? That Kai is now 6? Yep. That's almost all I can say, just leave it as a fact and not try to hard to wrap my head around it lest it explode. He is going into Grade 1. We have kids in Grade 1, 2 and 3. Is that possible?! Yes. And it is happening now and I will also leave that as a fact and move on.

Kai's choice was to go swimming with his friend-of-choice and come home for his favourite food (pit BBQ from Hogtails - I love my son) and some hangout time with his BFF.

This year was all about the small b-day celebrations with one activity and one friend. Next year we're back to the bigger parties. I'm really liking this system - it was a very cool way to celebrate their birthdays and a lot of fun.

The summer of company.

2011-08-29T18:13:00.001-07:00

Well, to be honest, I wasn't quite sure how this "summer of company" would all turn out. I mean, we had 4 sets of out-of-towners here from the end of June to the middle of August. And I guess looking back at it I would say that it all worked together to make for a pretty fabulous few months. Our routines are completely screwed up, there were a few sunburns and grumpy moments but other than that, we had A LOT of fun. I think Kai's face sums it up.

When Rob's family (mom, dad, sister, brother, sister-in-law) drove from Moncton to stay for a week we didn't do much sitting still. We hit Niagara Falls and all we could talk about when we left at the end of the day was how much more there was to do and how we should make it an annual trip. What a fabulous place! I've been there many times but never with kids and now I want to go back and do it all!

The one expensive thing we did (so much company, gotta stick to a budget!) was the Maid of the Mist. I thought the kids would love it but I didn't expect Malachi to practically lose his mind. As we're getting soaked by the Falls, he is taking off the hood of his poncho and laughing SO hard. Better than we could have imagined.

And I think my favourite thing was the Hershey store and the attached Coca-Cola soda shop. Wicked!

Ah man, there is just so much more to do there... the adventures of Summer 2012, I guess.
We always take everyone to the St. Jacob's market because it is amazing and I love it and pretty much everyone else loves it too. This was the first time that Ruthie bought herself a giant pickle on a stick though. A well-spent dollar, I'd say.
The kids quite enjoy their Uncle Tyler, wouldn't you say?

The Dunham family visit was a huge success, lots of tearful good-byes and lots of pictures to remember their week with us... I guess we'll be driving that way next summer.

Shay-Baby is not really a baby anymore.

2011-08-29T18:03:00.000-07:00

There she is, our beautiful 7-year-old. Her Tinkerbell birthday was back in June and here are the photos to prove it. We went to a movie with one of her friends and then back home for the dinner of her choice - Mary Brown's. Love it. Rob convinced me to NOT attempt a Tinkerbell cake no matter how much I felt obligated to try and so we found this incredible one from Zehrs, ordered it, picked it up and watched her almost explode when she saw it for the first time. Somehow I feel that I should make the cake myself or they won't feel special or something - myth busted. I'm off the hook.
We let her open one present in the morning...
And the rest we saved until her "party" with her cute little friend of choice.

The best part of her getting that purse from her friend is watching her carry it around like she's on a runway... ALL the time. She made it into her backpack and she walked the tarmac like it was a red carpet every day until the end of school. She is such a fabulous kid. Not really my baby girl anymore, she's a real kid and growing every day. What an amazing thing to watch.

The summer of 2011...

2011-08-19T06:39:00.000-07:00

There is a really good reason why this blog has been silent for several weeks. The reason is that we have been busy making the most of every moment of this summer! As some of you may know, starting at the end of June, we had four sets of out-of-town company at our place. Just a few days a go we finally go rid of the last of them - just kidding D&J! You know we loved having you!

The great thing about having so much company is that you are forced to find things to do around home that will be fun for everyone and interesting to your guests. Everyone is on a travel budget so these things also have to be cost effective. This made us branch out a bit and do a lot of local things that really ended up to be really great. The cool thing is that living in KW you're kind of close enough to TO to enjoy it but without having to live in the traffic. Plus, KW itself is no slouch when it comes to attractions.

There are some very beautiful photos of our summer adventures (so far). As usual, Rob has them safely tucked away on a hard drive somewhere and someday soon we might even get to see them! LOL! But even without the images our summer has included: Niagara Falls, multiple trips to St. Jacobs, U2 Concert, African Lion Safari, Jully Black concert, soccer camp, a trip to Haiti that wasn't and more.

Some of you have been asking us about the status of having Betty come to live with us and for now, we're just in a holding pattern, waiting for our lawyer to work on our behalf. So slow. That's all I can say. No news to report we just keep seeking God's will for the situation and believing that He has a plan.

Last night we took advantage of a cool KW thing - free movie in the park. We got there late, just before the show, so the seating wasn't ideal but the kids still thought it was pretty darn cool. Next year we've already decided to get there early, enjoy the entertainment and have a wicked seat!

For my own chronicling purposes, I will have to get those photos on here someday. But for now... a few shots that I took on our point and shoot last night. What a summer! Fabulous weather and fabulous people!

The images of Forever Family Weekend.

2011-05-25T11:24:00.001-07:00

This past weekend, our Forever Family Day Weekend (which was also a long weekend!) had some simple and beautiful moments. I've been letting the kids go by themselves to play with the kids that live behind us and when I called them home for lunch (WOW! We're at that stage already?!) I did PB&J on the front porch and it was so simple but they thought it was so awesome.

And of course, for the big family celebration on Sunday Rob cooked up some steaks from Oakridge Acres, grass-fed, organic, hormone-free = amazing.

These are the images of our lives. Sigh. So good.

In reflection.

2011-05-23T18:24:00.000-07:00

Last night and this morning I watched a few hours of our home videos from our first few weeks together as a family. The most astounding observation that I had was that our kids are exactly the same. Malachi can not stop dancing, Shay makes the most insane faces and is always a late adopter of an idea and Ruthie runs the commentary for everyone. They are exactly who they were and so why is that so surprising?

The truth is, we didn't know what we were dealing with in those days. This is who they were and they knew it but we didn't. It was like watching a video of Rob and I babysitting someone else's kids. We were totally fine and having fun but not quite ourselves... I suppose we were on our best behaviour!

Of course, that is to be expected, obviously. But I have never given much thought to the fact that it is the parents who do the changing, not the kids. Sure, they have grown (and grown and grown!), they've learned to read and write and ride their bikes, they have friends and favourites and newly discovered talents but those have always been there. The real change has taken place in Rob and I, how we see the world, how we spend our money, what we prioritize, what we talk about and where we go. In the last three years we have been utterly changed by these three kids.

I suppose you could argue that in the same way the kids have grown that's really what's been happening to us too. Fair enough. So perhaps the way to say it is that we have been refined by these three people. The things that have come out of our lives in the past three years have surprised us, horrified us, delighted us and inspired us. People often marvel at how well our kids adjusted to being in our family, how quickly they learned English and just fit right in. I wouldn't argue with that for that was the best miracle of all. But what is perhaps a better point to marvel at is how they just stayed themselves, honestly and authentically acted like their true selves and we were all powerless to do anything but fall in love with them.

In this process I have been pressed and shaken and put under more pressure than I could have imagined. The things that oozed out of my life haven't always been something to be proud of. But I am so very, very glad for the change-agents in my house, the catalysts of refining my life. At church we often talk about how Scripture teaches that our lives with Christ are like gold refined in the fire. I can see now as I look back at my sweet Kenean, Nardos and Nati that they are a part of that fire in my life and if I let it, through the intense heat, trouble, worry, failures and ultimately, deepest joys and victories, I will not ever be the same.

So, to my children who will one day read all of these ramblings: thank you for being you and just you. You didn't change for me or anyone, you are just who Jesus made you to be and there is nothing more beautiful or transformative that I could ask for in my life.

Tracy

Forever Family Day 3.0

2011-05-22T12:08:00.000-07:00

Today marks three years of parenting our three miracles. It feels much longer and much shorter at the same time. We had a celebratory lunch with our family and what we're going to do with the rest of the day I just don't know. What I do know is that I love this day, I love to remember, I love to step back and relive it all, read the old blog posts and marvel at how far we've come.

A great day indeed and as per tradition, here is the blog post I wrote from Ethiopia on our first Forever Family Day, the day that we took custody of the kids (also known in the adoption world as "Gotcha Day").

Addis - Thursday, May 22

Nobody slept last night. We were either replaying yesterday or trying to imagine today. We had power when we got up so I decided to seize the moment and flat iron my hair. Yeah, I caved at the last minute and packed it. Rob and Jeremy got us a great power bar adapter thing here that works for everything. I figured that I should become a mom in style and with some more control over the crazy thing that Ethiopia does to my air-dried hair (when there’s no power).

Mom and I hiked up to the Limetree again hoping to post some pics and and update with no luck. It wasn’t cooperating so we gave up and picked up some roses for the girls and a few other groceries before our driver came to get us.

Rob had gone out for breakfast (firfir - nothing like injera and beef first thing in the morning) with Jeremy and some of his friends. At 10:00 we went again to the TH, picking up the other Solomon on the way. His English is really good so he told us stories about “the babies”, as they call them, along the way. The Imagine staff is all really, really wonderful. Not necessarily full of information unless you ask, but wonderful nevertheless.

We went right to the Toddler House and of course, instantly heard the kids start their songs for the parents. “Hello Mommy, Hello Daddy...” and into about 10 minutes of precious singing. Our kids saw us arrive and got so excited. We bent down and gave the girls a yellow rose and Nati got a small bear. Kenean kept stroking it and saying, “Mommy, flower”. We were totally surrounded by the kids and so we struggled to get video and pictures of all of them, especially for a few families who sent me requests. (We’ll get them to you ASAP!)

So we laughed and caused all kinds of chaos for Rebecca their teacher. She didn’t seem too phased - us parents make chaos all the time for her I think. It was time for us to go and have coffee (again, right before lunch and I was starving... when will I learn to eat earlier??). We told the kids we’d be back soon and they disappeared into the classroom. Then there was a bit of a ruckus. Nati and Nardos had both quietly gone back inside and started to cry... they were not interested in us leaving them again. Instant melted hearts. The teacher said that we should just take them to the coffee ceremony with us. No problem! They sat and chatted away, showing us everything they know. The staff came by one by one and said good bye to them. The are so incredibly well loved.

The weird thing is that they just left us alone there. We had no idea what to do next or where to go. I wanted to talk to the head nurse and to Solomon but neither were offered to me. Strange. So, I just got over my unassuming Canadian way and marched right into the office and asked to see the nurse. I am SO glad I did. She gave me some information that has been more than useful. It turns out our little boy has a mild form of asthma. Nice to know, eh? She even gave me his meds and I’m so glad because we needed them right away tonight. I am anxious to get him home and tested in Canada so we can be sure it’s all under control. I guess what must have happened is that I met the nurse earlier - she showed me the toddlers schedule during the coffee ceremony - but I had no idea she was the head nurse. So, that was probably the moment I was given to ask my list of questions but no one was there to explain who she was or anything. Her English was
very broken so she wasn’t offering any information either.

In the end, it was all fine! We left with the kids and they were completely fascinated by absolutely everything. They’ve hardly ever been out of the home in the last year. We got home, changed their clothes, settled in a bit and put them down for a nap. Their routine is so beautiful right now that we didn’t want to wreck it. They were tired and we could tell, even though they were charming the pants off of us.
We put them all in one bed and quietly walked away. That lasted about two seconds. Nati started to cry, just scared I think. Robbie went in and took him over to another bed and snuggled in with him. Nati’s first nap was then successful. Nardos ended up softly crying too so I took her to the other bed. Kenean did so great - she was still excited and just happy to be alive. I eventually left and in about an hour, I found them all laying in bed with Rob and Nati. Lets just say we have a few pictures of nap time - it was so cute!

We had a snack, played outside for a while, then walked up Bole road to a restaurant. We ordered pizza, spaghetti and hamburger with french fries. It was actually off of the kids menu, but it was still a lot of food. It’s OK though because we gave them all some of everything so we could see what they like. So far, they like it all.

After being assured that Nati and Nardos only need diapers at night, he peed his pants on the way home from the restaurant. Daddy discovered that but I ended up being the one to carry him most of the way home. How did that work? Nothing says, “welcome to motherhood” like a shirt full of pee.

We discovered quickly that the previous sleeping arrangements were going to have to change. Rob and I need to be in the room with the kids. They just get freaked out and Nardos had started crying when she was put down too. The looks on their faces is, “what the heck is this place? are you going to just leave us here?”... and who can blame them. So, Rob had Nati again and I tried to just start out with the girls (who were in the same single bed... good thing that I’m just hobbit-sized!). Kenean was so happy that she came face to face with me, wrapped her arms around me and fell dead asleep. I woke up a little while later to my softly crying Nardos... I pulled her out of bed and took her to the other bed in the room with me. I just held her until she finally fell asleep... thankfully, Kenean is not a light sleeper because I had to unwrap her from me to get this accomplished.

I did not sleep. Nati was coughing all night and I was so uncomfortable that I was impossible to really be restful. But we made it through and the reality of everything was setting in around me. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it was actually good to get a handle on it all and decided how this is going to play out.

All in all, we had a successful, albeit awkward, day. What do they like to eat? Are their shoes too tight? Too loose? Are they thirsty? Did they get enough? What the HECK are they saying???

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I'm also going to include a video that I watch several times a year. I just love it for obvious reasons. I've already watched it twice today!

Password: dunham

The Dunham First Family Meeting from Freedom Church on Vimeo.

Mother's Day Weekend

2011-05-11T12:41:00.001-07:00

It was truly a beautiful weekend, especially the amazing day we had on Saturday. It started with my bouquet of cupcakes being delivered. Score one for Rob! And shortly after we went on a nature hike with our friends. They live in the neighbourhood and have kids from Ethiopia too!

This nature trail/park thing is seriously only 4 minutes from our house and we had no idea that it was there! What a beautiful, beautiful day.

And then she was 8.

2011-05-05T08:31:00.000-07:00

Birthdays are so fun and such a time of reflection. We still remember how sad we were when we "missed" Ruthie's 5th birthday by just a couple of weeks. We remember how small she was, how she felt during her first real birthday party the next year and how that feels like it happened a few months ago instead of a few years ago. What a kid. She is so incredible, really, I don't know how else to describe her. I can't even wave from the tarmack at her teacher without being flagged down to be told what a great student she is and how much her teacher loves to have her in class. She is a gentle leader, compassionate and thoughtful, and coming into her own at a shocking rate. I have no choice but to think of her more as a young lady than as a kid. Though I can't know how she will process her adoption and everything she has gone through as she gets older, but I can predict she will do it with grace and beauty. Ruth Kenean is totally remarkable.
Did you know that the other Ethiopian beauty in this photo lives in our neighbourhood, goes to the kids' school, has parents who are the same age as Rob and I who have also become great friends of ours and was in the transition home with our kids in Ethiopia. She is a total sweetheart and the fact that Ruthie has her in her life is nothing short of a miracle!
The cake of choice: a "wedding cake"... basically she wanted something with tiers. Thank-you Sobeys for the fancy top tier.
What 8-year-old gets this excited about an iTunes gift card? Mine. My movie-loving, music-loving one.

Ethiopian-flavoured Easter.

2011-05-05T08:24:00.001-07:00

When Rob was in Ethiopia in October, he bought some traditional clothes for the kids and it was finally time to unveil them. Thankfully the Ethiopian seamstress left about 6 inches in the bodice of the dress for me to be able to get them taken out when he got them home. These kids looked so stellar on Easter Sunday morning it was ridiculous. New shoes came courtesy of Nana - check out the silver sandals that Ruthie chose. She loves her fashion to make a statement, that's for sure!

I wish we could do this every year, an Ethiopian outfit for Easter - it is just so beautiful and unique.

And, the highlight of the Easter service (and the perk of being the music pastor!), Shay made her singing debut. SO excellent. I had no idea what she would do - would she cry, forget the words, freeze? Nope, she did it just like we practiced, maybe a little more timidly, but still, she nailed it!

Shay's Debut - "The Anthem" from Freedom Church on Vimeo.

Spring?

2011-04-27T11:31:00.001-07:00

It was actually warm this morning and the girls asked if they could skip all the way to school. It was such a cute thing to watch. Oh my little beauties.

Week-Highlight Wednesday

2011-04-13T07:45:00.000-07:00

Ah, swimming lessons. Worst part of the week for Rob and I, even when I do give myself a pep-talk going into it. It's SO hot in there, the change rooms smell like chlorinated dirty diapers and it's extra crowded. However, it is also the best part of the week for the kids. They love every minute of it and they're getting good at it. So, I'm improving my attitude a little each week and getting into the groove of the schedule and the stuff (it helps that there aren't any snow pants and boots to deal with anymore). I almost enjoyed it this week!

I know, I know, I should have a better attitude, just a confession moment, blog honesty. LOL! That's Ruthie in the picture, by the way. Yep, she's really, really tall!

Tracy

Lunch with Daddy.

2011-04-07T07:23:00.000-07:00

Lunch with Daddy... no, seriously, this is all he had for lunch because this is all he wanted and so that's all Rob got him... and he drank every last drop. Boys are awesome.

We're expecting...

2011-04-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

That's right, the Dunham Family of 5 might have to be renamed as the Dunham Family of 6. We are so thrilled to be able to tell the world that we are pursuing another family member... but not a baby this time, a teenager.

Lots of you know that our kids have a 15-year-old sister named Bethlehem. After 3 years of sitting on that knowledge and then Rob being in Ethiopia in October to spend time with her, it has finally been settled in our hearts. She needs to become part of our family geographically.

We know that Betty (Bethlehem) and her mom both want so badly for her to be here with us and we just didn't feel like we were supposed to adopt her. It's not that we didn't philosophically want to, we just knew that we weren't ready. This weekend it all changed. With our first adoption we had a life-changing conversation in Starbucks that started us down the road of international adoption. Without that conversation we never would have gone down that road and as you know, it was the best decision we ever made. It was a lot the same this time but on Saturday we happened to be in Montana's in Toronto on our way to a concert. Rob and I started talking about Betty (again) and this time the tone changed. Rob told me some stories from his time with Betty that he had never mentioned before and before we knew it, our minds were made up.

This addition to our family will probably be a lot different than our last. The Ethiopian adoption situation in Ontario is at a stand still and we know that if we go the traditional route that we might get tied up for years. So this morning we met with an immigration lawyer who had great news... the law is in favour of family reunification and we have a really great shot at making this happen and even of this happening reasonably quickly.

We are still in the initial stages of this process, our lawyer is working to find the best possible route to go and in all likelihood, we will bring her home with a Permanent Resident Visa and then work on a legal adoption sometime in the future.

All of this is so up in the air, so many unanswered questions, so much unknown. How much of a fight we have ahead of us is uncertain but Rob and I have felt a call from God to do this, we are sure of it and we are going to walk through every open door that we possibly can.

There is always the chance that we will hit a wall someday and not be able to finish what we've started so we once again ask for your prayers. We know that we need another series of miracles to see this come to be and we believe with all of our hearts that God is able and that He has called us to walk this road.

Betty is only half my age - it's terrifying to think of suddenly having a teenager but I've always maintained that I don't want any regrets in this life and I don't want my life to be boring. We are afraid but we're at peace. We are walking this path with our eyes wide open to the challenges (both now and after she comes home) but with confidence that we will have everything that we need. We feel so blessed to be chosen for this task and to have the chance to live by faith again in such a poignant way.

Our kids are beyond thrilled and pray every day for Betty to be safe and to come home to us soon. We will be starting our pile of paperwork very soon and I'm actually really looking forward to it. I don't care if she ever calls me Mom, I just want her to have a forever family.

Thanks for standing with us in this!

Tracy (& the Fab 4)

Highlight from March

2011-03-30T10:32:00.000-07:00

Just a brief highlight from March... the kids have been in hip-hop class for the last 11 weeks at our community centre. It was so much fun to watch them give it a try. What a joy they are. It gets a bit overwhelming to think about how fast time goes by but every stage is more fun than the last. They are such independent thinkers and full of life. At the end of each routine the teacher gets them to do their "pose", something as fierce as possible. Here's the one they always choose. Love it!

Kai wasn't technically old enough to be in the class, but truly he was one of the best dancers in the class. Not his fault, he's got skills! (And here's his pose.)

Ah, l'amore.

2011-02-14T17:15:00.000-08:00

Sometimes special days land on my day off and therefore, anything is possible! Today, it was homeade heart-shaped pizzas. My four loves came upstairs to a pizza crust just for them that they did with as they pleased. Chocolate milk in wine glasses and candy hearts for a centerpiece was some more fun I added. The result? Delicious love!

A little culture.

2011-01-26T11:52:00.000-08:00

Thank goodness for people like Jacyln who organizes events for our little Ethiopians. She put together a lunch that included a coffee ceremony (complete with popcorn and sweet bread) and dancing. I expected a few dozen people at the most but there was a full house, well over a hundred, I'd say. So many cute kids!

The kids loved it and had so much fun dancing at the end of the program. Malachi didn't want to go up and then at the last minute he did... typical. He gets more stubborn by the day, I think. Good thing he's got the face of an angel!

Toothless Shay.

2011-01-12T10:46:00.001-08:00

Shay lost one of her front teeth. She's been working on it since October when it started to come loose in hopes that she could sing "All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth", but alas, it wasn't in the stars. She pulled this bad boy out on Monday and I can hardly look at her without laughing. She looks like a hockey pro! Cuter though.

A beautiful reunion.

2011-01-05T19:45:00.001-08:00

The day after Boxing Day we went to visit my Grandma in the nursing home. The amazing thing is that for the first time in so many years, my dad and both his brothers and their kids were there to have dinner together. It was so cool to see my uncle and aunt and cousins that I haven't seen in a very long time and to introduce them to the kids. I mean seriously, this is what Christmas is all about!

I love Christmas Eve!

2011-01-05T19:36:00.000-08:00

After a great day, turkey dinner prep, our final performance of the church production, we got to my favourite thing - everyone has Mom/Grandma's famous lasagna, a shrimp ring and so many treats. Notice that the kids pajamas change throughout the pictures? Yeah, it's classic, they opened new jammies from Grandma and they are so sweet! I love jammies! The kids haven't had enough Christmases to get that they're always going to open new jammies on Christmas Eve so they were still delighted and surprised.

I will say, however, that the kids definitely are catching on to Christmas in general. The 23rd and 24th were wild - I've never seen them so wired. Ah, the joy of childhood.
After pjs, Uncle Brad and Aunt Thadeane (my brother and sis-in-law) gave us all their presents. Donations to Child Care Plus on our behalf for Rob and I and a day at the Ontario Science Centre for the kids. They ended up going the Tuesday after Boxing Day and had an unbelievable time. What a great gift! Rob and I had a day kid-free and went shopping, the kids got spoiled and all was well. It's so good to keep them busy when they're off school and wear them out a bit.

Christmas Day.

2011-01-05T19:26:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning... in fact, all of Christmas day was so excellent. The present that we left out for them was not exactly what they asked for. They kept saying they wanted a Blizzard Maker (honestly, they didn't even know what a Blizzard was!), so instead we got them a real ice cream maker and all the kids had sundaes for dessert after we whipped up a fresh batch of vanilla in this bad boy. Yum.

Stockings, breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa, Grandpa read the Christmas story from Luke (so beautiful - I know it's our house so Rob should do it but it seems right that the patriarch do the reading!) and then downstairs for presents. We didn't put anything under the tree before they went to bed on Christmas Eve so it was a glorious sight around the kids' tree.

Ruthie got an iPod. When she reads this someday she might feel ripped off because we took an old iPod Nano of ours that wasn't being used, filled it up with her music, got a pink case for it and some new headphones and wrapped it up. She sat like this for almost the whole day... she has a new love in her life and she couldn't be happier. Also, cheapest Christmas gift ever especially when you measure it against the deep love she has for it!
Malachi's gifts were all bought and wrapped and then he asked Santa (who he knows isn't real, but still..) for "How To Train Your Dragon", a movie that we all love. So, everyone got one more gift so that Kai could get this movie. He was SO happy and surprised since we told him that it was too late to get another gift. LOL!

Their Christmas best.

2010-12-27T19:17:00.000-08:00

As is her tradition, Nana made sure that the kids were all dudded out for Christmas. She sent money so that we could take the kids shopping for some new "fancy" clothes and did we ever do it up right! It took us two hours at the mall in early December (not as bad as I thought it was going to be in there, by the way) but we came out with some sweet stuff. Ruthie looked like she was going to faint with delight when she saw herself in this straight-fit, rosette-covered black number. How can I convince her to just be 7 instead of 17 for a little while? I almost had her convinced to go with a red satin-topped, crinoline-bottomed number which she really like but this black dress was too much for her to resist and I couldn't say no since it was not inappropriate in any way except that she looked too grown-up.Actually, as I'm blogging this, I'm seeing these pics for the first time. Of course I dressed them that morning (they wore these duds for our Christmas productions at church - Kids Choir), but I wasn't there for the photo shoot and this picture is so awesome. I think I have a new screen saver!

So many concerts!

2010-12-27T19:12:00.001-08:00

I really do understand that the school can't have one big Christmas concert (sorry, I mean "holiday concert") for all the kids because there are too many kids and parents to fit in the gym at one time... but we pulled the short straw. There were three time slots for concerts, our kids landed in three separate slots. And of course, it was during our dress rehearsal week at church.

We went to Shay's dress rehearsal on Tuesday at 12:10, Malachi's real concert at 2:30 and then Ruthie's concert on Wednesday evening. Truly, these concerts are horrendously boring but so worth the looks on their faces when they see you from the stage. I will endure these for as many years as they have them because someday I will miss them, I'm sure.

Embracing December.

2010-12-27T19:01:00.000-08:00

I guess Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas unless you hang out with Sponge Bob, right?

We had a really fun day at the Community Centre, part of which was going around to the local businesses and doing a scavenger hunt-type thing. One of our stops was at CIBC who happened to be hosting Sponge Bob. What a photo op!

Another stop was at Home Hardware where Santa was hanging out. No line-up and the camera man let Rob plug into his flash to get a better shot instead of paying the $10 for their shot. Pretty cool of him. Santa was awesome and Malachi asked for a scooter and "How to Train Your Dragon". He had NEVER asked for a scooter before even though we had asked him so many times what he wanted for Christmas. Thankfully we are prophetic and had already bought him a scooter. Whew!

Actually, we told the kids about Santa this year and it went remarkably well... so we had fun with the story of Santa and trying to embrace the spirit of St. Nicholas.
Then back the the Community Centre where Rob and I sang some carols and the kids did crafts, decorated cupcakes and had a story time. I love the Community Centre here!
On Rob's birthday, a week later, we had our church's family skating party. As you can see, Shay found some super cool older girls to look after her. She was in heaven.
Malachi really will be wearing a helmet next time he skates so you can save your safety warnings... we just seriously didn't think about helmets because we hardly ever skate. I never wore a helmet when I skated so it just didn't occur to me but when our kids were the only ones without helmets I felt like a dumb-dumb. Live and learn!

I love skating with the kids, especially indoors! Let's do this more often!

Ready for Christmas.

2010-12-27T18:51:00.000-08:00

I got inspired this year. My parents don't put up their big Christmas tree anymore so Rob suggested that we could use it as the kids' tree. This tree is all about them and I thought that we should go a bit old-school with it. In the last week of November we spent an evening getting it just perfect and it is such a thing of beauty.

We painted wooden ornaments, we made a red and green garland out of paper and I even strung together some popcorn for the perfect old world charm... or something like that. (Note: it is so much harder than it looks! It took me a few tries to get it right.)

I found some old lights in the storage shed at the church - you know the ones, the big bulbs that practically burn your hand off when you touch them. They were perfect. We didn't leave the tree lit very much for fear of melting the tree but we figured, hey, people used these lights for years with few incidents... we should be fine. LOL!

Anyway, it was a really fun time and I'm so proud of their tree. I showed it to everyone who came into our house. The upstairs tree is a bit more refined and proper. The downstairs tree, the centre of Christmas morning was perfection.

Halloween!

2010-11-12T19:15:00.000-08:00

Truly, Halloween is a big pain in the butt, but a lot of fun. Here we have a lion, a chef and a unicorn. They had so much fun and heck, we even did the pumpkin thing. Of course, I gutted it and roasted the seeds and then I made Rob draw the face on it because, well, we each know our giftings!

Rob captures Bahir Dar.

2010-11-03T10:22:00.001-07:00

This is the first set of images from Rob's trip to Ethiopia that have been made ready for the world to see. My jaw hit the floor when I saw the raw images. Now, I am even more stunned. This was a family that the guys met early one morning while traveling north of Addis to Bahir Dar. They wondered what the crazy white guys with cameras were up to and allowed them to do some family portraits, Ethi style.

rawphotoandmedia is the name of the photography business that Rob and Walt have together. Check out more if you'd like... http://www.rawphotoandmedia.com/
(more Ethiopia pics will be posted there as they get finished)

Another fall adventure.

2010-10-29T07:31:00.000-07:00

For the last 12 days or so, Rob has been in Ethiopia (see previous post) and in the meantime, life had to just keep rolling. Rob's mom came to rescue me from single-parenthood and though we've missed Rob SO much, we did pretty great!

On Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch with a bunch of other families from our church. We are all bundled up but it turned out to be a beautiful, warm day. Hay ride, corn maze, straw maze, pumpkin treats and of course, they each picked a small pumpkin from the field - each as unique as their individual personalities. Another awesome day, just sorry Daddy had to miss it.

And this is what Nana is the queen of - reading with the kids as well as making treats, doing puzzles, cleaning and tidying and making more treats. Case in point, with dinner last night we had fresh rolls and sticky buns for dessert. We're going to miss you, Nana!

Baited breath.

2010-10-21T06:07:00.000-07:00

Just in case you don't already know, Rob is gone for the next 8 days, 6 hours and 25 minutes. And he's not just gone, he's in Ethiopia. What?! That's right. He's in Ethiopia without us. So unfair.

Rob, his friend Walt and another friend and adoptive dad from Edmonton, Cody, have raised the money they need to go to Ethiopia and film promo material for an amazing program called Child Care Plus. Why? Because no one really knows what Child Care Plus is and yet we know that it's changing lives (including the lives of our kids' birth mom and half-sister). We know that if people understood the return on investment that monthly sponsorship is that it could only help our friends in Ethiopia to do even more.

We miss Rob so much. Rob's mom is here taking care of things though and admittedly she's a better housewife than Rob. (Teehee) But just today Rob met with our kids' birth family in Adama where they live and where our children were born. We never had a chance to go there and so not only is Rob bringing home CCP footage, he's bringing home a piece of the kids' life and history that we are missing. The first meeting with a birth parent is a gift, the second is a treasure - he's got some new questions for her and some things to share about the kids that a letter could never really cover. He's going to get film and photos of where they were born and I can not wait to sit down and soak in every image and every second.

So, that's what new at the Dunham house. It's a bit upside down right now but we're pressing on because we're so excited about how Rob is using his creativity and resources. Yeah Daddy!

See you in 8 days, 6 hours and 20 minutes.

Simple fall day.

2010-10-13T18:23:00.000-07:00

Quite possibly, this is my favourite time of year. This fall has been full of fall-type things and I'm totally loving it! My parents blew all of their backyard leaves into the yard beside their house and left them for the kids on Sunday afternoon. Such pure joy. And let me also say that Rob's pictures are so amazing. Quick capture, no editing but you feel like you're with them. Nice job babe.

Rob wanted me to tell everyone that this photo was shot right after Rob said to Kai, "Watch out for the spider by your head." He's a serious arachnophobic now.
Don't worry, he recovered.

Apple Picking = A Happy Fall Day

2010-10-13T18:05:00.000-07:00

We went on a lovely little after school adventure to pick apples one Monday afternoon with our friends Walt and Steph. Though Steph and Rob somehow don't appear in these photos, they were indeed there. I'm not sure why the kids have weird faces in the first photo, but they are being silly, that's for sure. We had a wicked awesome time and picked A LOT of apples. So extra yummy. The best thing is that we have time to do this kind of thing now. I really feel like even though the years are still going to fly by, we're doing everything we can to embrace every moment. I don't even care if that's cheesy, it's true.
Courtlands, Empires and Macs, oh my.

I can't wait until next year. This is an event to turn into a tradition.

The Karate Kid

2010-10-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure I've seen anything as adorable as this kid in a gi for a very long time. What a cutie! The problem is trying to make sure that he doesn't "practice" on his sisters. LOL!

Our newest full-day student.

2010-09-07T11:54:00.000-07:00

Here she is - she just met her teacher, she's crowded onto a tarmac with about 1200-1500 other people and she's totally ready for the day. On the way out the door, our newest full-day student was told by her daddy not to expect to be able to paint and sing all day but that it is a lot of work being in Grade One. That almost deflated the balloon (the look on her face was priceless - like, what???), but she quickly bolstered and sang all the way to school.

I can't wait to get home and find out what she has to say about this day. I wonder if she'll fall asleep at the dinner table like Ruthie almost did on her first day of grade one. So cute, so smart, so kind - she's going to do great.

My children are fierce.

2010-08-19T18:44:00.000-07:00

Rob's building up his portfolio with his photo buddy and friend, Walt. They've launched www.rawphotoandmedia.com and are creating some beautiful art. Seriously.

When you need subjects to show what you can do, why not use your own kids - they don't cost a thing and you can boss them around. So, here is the result of the latest shoot. My only criticism is that they aren't smiling in any of them. I guess these are more vogue than candid, but still, fierce. I wasn't home that night so Rob had to dress and style them himself too - pretty impressive, Daddy.

African Lion Safari

2010-08-19T18:35:00.001-07:00

I thought I remembered the African Lion Safari from my childhood but let me tell you, it's not exactly how I remembered it. It was way, way better. They even have a crazy big splash park that we could have done all day long.

Just another fabulous day with the Palichuks. In fact, this was even better than Wonderland because there weren't any line-ups and so much less walking. This is going to be a summer staple for our family for sure.

The pictures don't really show it but we actually did see some animals too! We took the bus tour (totally worth the money) through the park first and loved every minute of it.

I think it's safe to say that we're really, really doing summer this year. We're making up for last summer that was mostly consumed with moving across the country. The weather has been unbelievable, there is so much to do and we're having the best summer we've ever had as a family. Sigh, I wish it wouldn't end... though, back to school has its advantages too. Teehee.

Canada's Wonderland is just that.

2010-08-19T18:25:00.001-07:00

These are the Palichuk's - Jeff, Kym, Cameron, Samantha. They used their vacation time this year to come here. Crazy, I know, but they did it. So, we figured that while they were here we would try and be tourists in our own city. And thanks to burning through our Airmiles and theirs we went to Canada's Wonderland for free.

It is seriously a cool place. The line-ups were annoying by the end of the day but otherwise, a very cool place. We didn't know how long we'd last there with the kids, but we ended up not leaving until 9:30pm! The kids weren't whiny or losing it at all. We were amazed - I guess they liked it! A very fun day indeed.

Let me mention how our kids feel about roller coasters - LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. They scream and giggle themselves silly, especially Malachi. So entertaining.

Malachi is half a decade.

2010-08-19T18:20:00.001-07:00

Right after we got back from Moncton, we were full-on in birthday party mode. The pictures from Kai's party are way better than the girls'. Why? Rob was at this party! We had lots of fun and an unfathomable amount of noise with 5 little boys at the superhero party.

Think about this - Kai is now the same age that Ruthie was when we picked her up from Ethiopia. Isn't that shocking?

We are so in love with this kid. He's the sassiest of our three and the most energetic, but he still melts us with his smile. I've never seen a kid as handsome as him in my whole life.

The Moncton Trip

2010-08-19T17:48:00.001-07:00

Oh my. There are so many pictures that tell the story of our trip to the east coast in the first two weeks of July so, enjoy scrolling!

On the way, we stopped mid-afternoon at a hotel with a pool and then chilled out with movies until we all conked out... about 8:30pm for all 5 of us!
Kai had to pee in the bushes way too often. Perhaps it was because he thought it was so hilarious. Not so hilarious? Ruthie attempting the same thing. Girls were not meant to pee in the bushes.

Right after we arrived, we went outside and watched Nana and Papa reconnect with the kids. So sweet.
Bonfire night at Aunt Amanda & Uncle Tyler's. Way too many mosquitoes but with marshmallows and fire crackers, it was still a great night.

Back at Ty and Amanda's for the Dunham family reunion, complete with rides around their GIANT (3 acre) yard.

We took a trip to the Bay of Fundy - highest tides in the world and all of that. Kai is helping Uncle Ty navigate the trail to the rocks. Cute, cute, cute.
Tide is almost at its highest...
Then we wait for the tide to go out...

And we get to walk on the ocean floor! The kids loved this whole thing. I was surprised actually since it was mostly hiking around, but they thought it was really, really cool.

Next day, "real" beach day. AKA - the ocean. First though, we had to stop and get some east coast sea food - fried clams! What a crazy amount of food.

And then there was the rainy afternoon that we spent a Crystal Palace, an overpriced indoor amusement park. But what the heck? We were on vacation!

After days of waiting not-so-patiently, finally it was time for Malachi to get a ride around the block in Papa's '56 Belair.

For the record, the kids did AMAZING in the car. We were pretty sick of it by the time we hit Toronto on the way home, but you know what, they were so great. It was a fun family adventure and Rob got to show the kids off to this family and friends.

We miss you Dunham family!

Peter Pan in Stratford

2010-08-19T05:38:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm just getting warmed up and ready for a blogalicious night - but these photos were on my phone so I thought I'd throw them on here even if it's not chronologically correct.

On Tuesday night we went to see Peter Pan in Stratford. My Mom snagged some $5 tickets for our $109 seats. I felt like we were stealing the seats, but whatever! The girls had never seen a live stage production like this - High School Music Live doesn't count. They were beside themselves. I actually had to hold Ruthie's hands in her lap for the first five minutes because she was coming out of her skin. The show didn't start until 8:00 so we didn't bring Kai - he would have loved it but he wouldn't have lasted past the first intermission.

It was SO cool to witness my girls going through the exact same thing I went through when my mom started taking me to the theater (our special yearly summer outing). I still feel the same way I did that first time, I'm just a bit too grown up to giggle and jump in my seat. It was super cool to see Shay and Ruthie get the bug and feel the magic. Thanks Stratford Festival!

(I couldn't take any real pics of the production, but these are what I'll really remember about this night.)

Coming attractions.

2010-08-17T13:52:00.001-07:00

OK, listen, I am fully aware that there has been no blogging for more than a month. It weighs on me like, well, like a weight. I want to blog for you, I want to for our family yearbook, I want it all.

The truth is that I have some great blogs coming up but I'm waiting on my photographer extraodinaire to filter through his thousands of pictures and give me the goods. That's the love/hate relationship I have with Rob's new camera and new found photographic talent... he takes so many pictures, albeit beautiful ones, that I can't possibly sort through them on my own. I await his sorting, organizing, shrinking and foldering. Then, I will happily share.

I have put sufficient pressure on Robbie about this one and I have been promised something in the next 24 hours.

This has been a preview of coming attractions.

Tracy

And the fun just keeps on rolling...

2010-07-02T05:38:00.000-07:00

Seriously, we just don't stop with the fun lately, eh?
On Canada Day we didn't just do a BBQ and fireworks, we did 2 BBQs and then fireworks. The first was with an old highschool friend and her family, the second was with the young adult crew from church. I know the kids weren't scared of the fireworks last year but somehow I don't remember them being this enraptured by them. Maybe it's because we were so darn close to them that they were practically over our heads or maybe they're just old enough to think all the loud noises are cool. Whatever it was, look at these pictures I snapped on my iPhone. They're loving it!

And of course I had to snap a picture of "Mr. Bradley", Malachi's new BFF. He decided to snuggle up with Bradley and it was so, so cute. Thankfully Bradley likes kids!

A lovely Canada Day indeed.

Last Day of School = Chuck E Cheese

2010-06-30T05:42:00.000-07:00

You may not believe this but we've never been to Chuck E Cheese. Seriously. But this was a great initiation! Grandma wanted to take the kids here as their "passing present" and I'm so glad she did because it was so much fun. The kids wanted to meet Chuck E so bad and finally he came out to do a birthday party and photo op. They were in love. So weird to me and characters in costumes like that who don't speak creep me out, but whatever.

The "green screen" video wall was a huge hit. My kids know how to get a party started. They went back there again and again and again. It's such a gift to not be self-conscious. And the highlight for me was the roller-coaster simulator. They scream-laughed so loud that a line-up started to form. I don't know if anyone else realized it was so fun until my kids announced it to the whole place. LOL!

That was a really fun time. And now school is out for the summer and we've got our routines thrown out the window. It's going to be very, very interesting. Something tells me that we're going to blink and it will be the first day of school again - this time with 2 kids in full days. Crazy!

Rob and Tracy Take Kindergarten

2010-06-28T13:50:00.001-07:00

Today was Family Day in Shay's class and because my day off is on Monday now, both Rob and I were able to go... who am I kidding? I would have played hooky if I was working!

Not only did we find out that Daddy has a wicked crafty side, but we saw Shay play a billy-goat in a play and sing "Take Me Up To The First Grade". Unbelievably cute! I don't know why all the costumes were made with short-shorts but it was great. Glad my phone has a camera because otherwise we wouldn't have a visual of the cutest billy-goat ever!

Learning to ride.

2010-06-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

This afternoon, Malachi said he wanted to go and ride his bike. I told him that I would take him if he would let Daddy take off his training wheels. He was game for that so we went over to the school yard where the fields have grass but it's really packed down and gave it a shot. Seriously, this picture was taken 30 seconds after I got him going for the first time. I gave him a steadying hand for second and he was off. And that was that. I guess when you're not afraid and you're in the mood to try the brain is relaxed enough to make it all click.

Upon seeing this wild success, Shay decided that she'd better give it a try too. Her attempt earlier in the spring was mediocre at best. I gave her a steady hand and yep, sure enough, off she went just like the picture below. Hum... positive peer pressure. I love it! There's nothing that you can't do once you see your little brother do it!

Then Ruthie, decided to get in on the action. This bike was way too small for her but that kind of let her feel more confident that falling wasn't a big deal and guess what? Yep. She took off like a shot too.

We've got some more summer lessons on turning, braking and well, control coming up, but it was shocking to witness all of this go down this afternoon. After all of the attempts in the past and the fear and panic, suddenly it was all no big deal. Kids are so cool.

Oh yeah.

Shay Baby's 6th

2010-06-14T16:52:00.001-07:00

Here are some pics of the big par-tay. It was so fun because Shay had so much fun. The weather was beautiful, the icing turned the kids' tongues blue and all was well with the world.

After the party, Grandma played Princess bingo with the girls so I could clean up. What a beautiful thing!

Should we call it football or soccer?

2010-06-09T19:15:00.000-07:00

The Dunham 3 have taken on something new... soccer. Or should we say football since they're African? Either way, Saturday mornings have become a really fun time. Our church is on a 10-acre property equipped with soccer fields, volleyball courts and a baseball diamond. So, we run a community soccer league for kids. Two words - super great.

To be honest, we thought that Ruthie would struggle because she kind of runs like Phoebe from Friends, but to our shock and delight, she is totally excelling. She's almost the tallest kid on her team so it gives her the confidence to go for the ball and she's scored two weeks in a row! Yeah Ru!!! Rob is her coach so it's a whole family affair.

Shay is having lots of fun and is generally really athletic so she's doing great. You'll see in the pictures that she gives Ruthie a run for her money since they're on different teams. It's awesome to watch.

Malachi's team is coached by my Dad, know formally known as "Coach Grandpa". He is loving every minute of it and working really hard to do everything his coaches tell him to do. He gets a bit intimidated when the action gets intense (well, you know what I mean), but he is taking to sports really naturally.

This fall, we're going to venture out into some unknown territory... the extra-curricular. Shay is signed up for gymnastics, Kai is taking karate and what to do with Ruthie... ah yes, she'll be in a theater and drama program! They're all stoked about their new adventures and so are we. The running around is going to be a pain, especially now that we're so used to having lots of evenings "off", but when you have three kids, you have three schedules. They're only doing one thing at a time and I'm working really hard to get them to overlap a bit. But whatever, they're worth it. (Remind me of that in November, would you?)

Tomorrow is Shay's birthday - she's going to be 6 in about 90 minutes from now. What the what? I will officially have a 7-year-old and a 6-year-old... thankfully Malachi's going to give me another month of being 4. Oh well, Shay's stoked and it's going to be a few days of celebrating an amazing kid. I see a good week-end in my future... if I ever get her cake finished!

Forever Family Day

2010-06-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

This year, our 2-year-anniversary of Forever Family Day, we tried to make the absolute most of it. We started with breakfast out with my parents, then off to the Farmer's Market, family bowling (which terrified Malachi for the first 10 minutes though we still don't know why!), take out Ethiopian food for me and kids and a pizza for Rob. It was a super fun day and I remembered again why it is so fun to be an adoptive family. Taking a day that feels like your wedding anniversary and just celebrating being together is a really powerful thing.

Two years - totally amazing and going by way to fast.

(There were lots of pictures of me but somehow they were all of my bum and I didn't feel like sharing them... I guess that's what happens when your husband is the photographer!)

Edmonton

2010-06-01T16:27:00.000-07:00

What to say about Edmonton in May?

A beautiful thing. We stayed with our friends Cody and Andrea who treated us like royalty, we played with the band again and did some of my favourite stuff, my parents watched the kids at their hotel (hence the pool shots) when we were working, we visited some of our best friends and just generally had an amazing time.

I am so, so, so, so glad that we did this trip. It was amazing. Thanks Edmonton friends - we miss you so much!

The First Forever Day

2010-05-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

The post from our first Forever Day. The date is wrong, but the content is beautiful!

http://www.freewebs.com/robandtracydunham/index.htm?blogentryid=3467390

The day that changed everything...

2010-05-21T15:54:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 was the best of times and the worst of times. I can't remember ever feeling as horrible as I did that morning and I can't remember ever feeling as amazing as I did that afternoon. We were in Ethiopia and found out that the kids' visas were not in Addis, and then, they were.

Tomorrow is our Forever Family day. Two years of the Dunham Family of 5.
Here's the blog I wrote from Ethi two years ago today.

Miracle!!!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

We have our miracle and more! We were on our way home this morning from an internet cafe and Solomon called us. The Embassy had finally gotten around to sorting through the pouch and the visas were there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got picked up a 1/2 hour later and we met the kids. Later on, when we're home with a good internet connection I'll post my actual journal entries about the event... but for now, we just wanted to tell the world that it was more than we could have asked or imagined. They are beyond words. Beautiful, bright, full of life, and totally excited to meet us. We have an incredible video, we have more than we could have asked for.

What can we say? Daddy cried, Mommy was just trying to understand that they were real. Grandma had to hold it together so that we'd have a decent video! They hugged and kissed us, they weren't that shy - they really seemed like they were expecting this day and Kenean was absolutely bursting.

I will try and upload a picture soon... it is very difficult to say the least but we want to show you the Dunham babies... we want to show the WHOLE WORLD that we have the most incredible miracles in our arms.

Tomorrow we'll go back, finish our tour (the toddlers were napping so we had to skip that part) and then take the kids home forever. Absolutely amazing.

Your prayers have moved the hand of God. His heart was for this moment all along. He knew that the longer we were in Addis before these moments, the more ready our hearts would be to embrace the experience. This was the second best day of my entire life. (Marrying Robbie was the first.)

We love you all and sense your prayers and how much you care for us. Reading our blog this morning completely lifted our hearts.

Tracy

http://www.freewebs.com/robandtracydunham/index.htm?archived=1&page=4

Fasionista.

2010-05-02T17:45:00.001-07:00

On Friday, Shay went upstairs to get dressed and came down like this and went outside to play. She was super proud of how well she matched because every article of clothing had a hint of pink in it. Beautiful, just beautiful.

We have a 7-year-old.

2010-04-30T17:56:00.000-07:00

All I can say is, wow. How is it possible that we've been a family for so long now that I have a 7-year-old? I remember Ruthie's 5th birthday like it happened last month. I remember missing it by just a few weeks and how sad we were that day. There was certainly no sadness two weeks ago when we had Ruthie's party - a rock star party. I had 9 little rock stars at our house, all dressed to the nines, getting make-up put on (thanks Margaret and Grandma) and doing hair and dancing and singing and... yeah, there was lots and lots of giggling. Oh my.

I love this kid, she's amazing. I'm not feeling particularly eloquent today so I'm not really sure how to put in to words what it's like to be her mom, but I am most blessed among women. She is a beautiful mix of strength and compassion and we love her like crazy.

Rob told me that I wasn't allowed to make a "fancy" cake this year because it was so stressful last time, especially when we got to Malachi's race track cake. But I reminded him that we were moving at the time, we didn't start decorating it until 11pm and it was 35 degrees that day. Plus, why not make the cake great since cake is one of the greatest things in the world. But truly, the real reason I spent my afternoon making a pink guitar for my Ru? She asked me for it. That's it. All the other reasons just solidified my decision. I loved making this cake, I loved throwing this party and I love my little rock star. Happy birthday Ru. Please don't grow up too fast.
All she really wanted was a Barbie and the Mermaid Tale doll. What a no-brainer - easiest gift ever!

Yep, I love cake and I love icing and though I was kinda tired when I was done it was totally worth it. This is the coolest cake I've made to date.
I was really busy getting the party ready so I asked Rob to find something for Shay to wear to the party. This is how she emerged from her room 20 minutes later. They were both proud as peacocks.

Black, pink and stars with all the girls' names on them. Cheap and effective, two of my favourite things.

"I'm a Star" Day

2010-04-30T17:53:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, there was an "I'm a Star" day at school a few weeks ago. The kids were supposed to dress up in something that represented their talents. So, Shay wore a ballerina tutu because she's a great dancer, Malachi wore a music shirt because he's an amazing drummer and Ruthie, well, I dress her up as a movie star because not only can she act, she's a world class drama queen. She LOVED it. She totally lost my white scarf at school, but, well, she looked great so I guess it was worth the sacrifice.

Easter Weekend

2010-04-12T18:25:00.001-07:00

Easter Weekend 2010 was so much like ones I remember from my childhood. I can actually say that it was hot a couple of days... hot! I love the heat!! Our kids wore their stunning new outfits (courtesy of Nana and Grandma) to church and sang in the kids' choir. Brilliant! In fact, we had the kids' choir sing with the worship team for a few songs so I got to lead worship with my kids for the first time - tres cool.

We did Easter up right - with a Good Friday family dinner and an egg hunt on Sunday afternoon. It was still nice on Monday so we even got slushies and went to the park. So lovely. So far, spring in Ontario has been very good to us.

Maple Syrup Festival

2010-04-12T18:11:00.000-07:00

My friend Erin is always doing stuff around every holiday to create experiences and memories for her kids. She's all about the pumpkin patches and the sleigh rides and the festivals... me, not so much. However, when we were invited to get up early on a Saturday morning to eat pancakes at the Maple Syrup Festival, I felt her saying to me, "But Tracy, think of the memories!"... and so I said yes. And it did, in fact, create some unforgettable moments.

Let me say that the pancakes were amazing, the maple syrup was fresh and the vendors were out cooking up a storm by 7am. Lovely. However, it was FREEZING. Or at least anything below 15 degrees is too cold to be outdoors eating pancakes at 8am. I think it was hovering around 0 that morning. Though he never complained, Malachi literally was shaking from the cold while eating pancakes with his winter coat on! It was so pitiful that it was cute. We saw a little farm display and then Malachi (who I had picked up and was carrying by that time just to warm him up a bit) whispered in my ear, "Can't we just go home now?"

Sounds like a bust, right? Well, actually, we went to find some hot chocolate for the kids and ended up inside of a store front church where we warmed up and took a potty break. After a half an hour and some lovely cocoa, our outlook on life was totally different. Actually, it would have been a perfect morning if we had just added 10 degrees into the mix.

By the time we left, we were all glad we came but did say that we won't do it again unless we are sure it is going to be above 10. No, seriously. Rob says that he's going to just have everyone over to our house next year, charge them the same $5/person and give them a pancake breakfast they'll never forget.

It was actually really fun for the memories - right again Erin, right again.

(Yeah, Rob heard about these turkey legs that they sell at the Festival and had to see for himself... honest to goodness, it tasted like ham. Very weird.)

The Prince & Princesses with the Princesses.

2010-03-23T12:42:00.001-07:00

My mom bought us tickets to go and see Princesses on Ice last week. What a way to end March Break! I figured the show would be decent and that the kids would enjoy it but I never imagined how magical it would end up being.

The girls were beside themselves when we walked into the arena and saw the castle hiding behind the curtain and then we found our seats... 6th row! Good one, Grandma! They then proceeded to sing at the top of their lungs, scream at Snow White to not eat the apple, wave at all the princesses, stick their tongues out at Cinderella's stepsisters and generally just have the giddiest faces I've seen on them in a while.

Malachi, my little prince, loved the show too. He was there more for the entertainment value and wasn't as concerned about waving to Ariel as he was about when we were going to get to eat the cotton candy, but he had a really fun time too... just not quite as dramatically as his sisters.

In truth, I got choked up for the first 5 minutes because I couldn't handle how amazed the girls were to see... well, everything.

Super fun day. Super fun March Break!

Sisters.

2010-03-12T13:57:00.000-08:00

I don't have a sister. My friends and I came up with some pretty stylin' things in our time, but this has got to take the prize - the trust two sisters have is amazing. If Ruthie says it's beautiful, Shay's on board and the result was quite a look from the 80s. Beautiful.

The Canadian Tooth Fairy

2010-03-01T05:02:00.000-08:00

It was a very exciting evening here on Friday... Shay not only lost a tooth, but she lost both of her bottom teeth! She had been mentioning that one was wiggling and sure enough, it was a bit loose but then the next day it wasn't. Then suddenly, on Friday after school she told me that one was really wiggling. I looked in her mouth to check it out and low and behold, two adult teeth had already popped through behind the baby teeth. (We were expecting this based on her last x-ray at the dentist.)

So, I asked her if I could wiggle it and I totally did to her what my dad always did to me and basically popped it right out while "taking a look". LOL! So, she was excited but also a little weirded out by the blood and everything. Then she said, "The other one is wiggling too." I told her that it was probably ready to come out too because the grown-up teeth were already there. She wasn't ready for another bloody Kleenex in her mouth so she had a snack instead.

After the snack, she told me she was ready to go for the other one and yep, it popped right out too. And so begings the story of the Canadian Tooth Fairy.

On Saturday morning I was woken up early to a very sad Shay telling me that she forgot to put her teeth under her pillow. Uh oh. Well, at least forgetting wasn't my fault like it usually is. On Saturday night, she remembered about her teeth... but yeah, you guessed it, I didn't. However, she woke me up at 4:00am because she had a pee incident, which, for the first time ever, I was grateful for. While I was grumbling and changing her sheets I spotted her teeth which she had thankfully forgotten all about. I put her back to bed and then tried to figure out what to do.

I found a loonie downstairs but I really needed at least $2 to make the transaction legit. So I found myself searching the house for some loose change and literally, there was barely a penny to speak of. Curse this cashless society! Then I remembered that I had some quarters in the ashtray of my car.

Only a Canadian mom finds herself putting on boots and a coat in the middle of winter, trudging through a few inches of fresh snow at 4:15am to find some quarters to exchange for a tooth.

Mission accomplished. I was so awake after my brisk jaunt through the snow that it took me forever to fall back asleep, but eventually I did and in the morning, all was well with the world.

It's possible that I'm the worst tooth fairy ever, but I might be the most persistent.
Tracy

O Canadian Winter - Truce.

2010-02-15T17:16:00.000-08:00

I have made a weak resolution that if I'm going to live in Canada (which I love in every way except for this winter thing), I might as well at least attempt to make this season fun. Admittedly, I'm not great at planning winter events because bundling up and doing anything just feels exhausting. And besides, we bundle our kids up a few times a day as it is. Hence the reason I'm calling my resolution "weak".

However, the answer is going to be "yes" whenever we're invited to hang out with another family outside. These pictures are some proof that we're trying to make the best of the cold. We went on a sleigh rides with some families from the church and it was really fun - and it was also the coldest day of the winter so far. Shay actually got into the van afterward and started to cry because her feet hurt from the cold. Mine did too, but this is my 29th winter in Canada and I'm sort of used to the burning, thawing feeling. Shay is just Canadianizing... it might take her a few more years to be convinced that the pain will pass.

It was cold but it was fun and very wintry. And then today, on Family Day, we went to my cousin's house and all of our kids went sledding and then skating on an outdoor pond. We played hockey for the first time with our kids and they loved it (much warmer today, by the way), and we were even using a Tim Horton's puck. It doesn't get much more Canadian than that.

Winter rolls on, soon coming to an end and I guess I can admit that it is more fun when you get out there and embrace it and kids give you the best reason to do that. And to be honest, the napping that happens spontaneously to every member of our family after one of these events is worth dressing the 18 layers of clothing.

Strange and terrifying.

2010-01-19T18:53:00.001-08:00

I've been coming to the realization lately just how strange and terrifying parenting is. And I don't mean that all in bad ways either. The terror keeps you on your toes, I think.

When you realize that your kids are at the age where they will have memories for the rest of their lives, it scares you a bit. You're responsible for their "happy childhood" now, no pressure. When your child can understand more in a grown-up conversation than just the emotions in it and asks you why "so-and-so" did "such-and-such" to "so-and-so", and your conversations with your spouse start to be scheduled post 8:00 pm out of necessity, it scares you a bit. When your child remembers every word to every song they hear and you have to really think about what's on the radio, it scares you a bit. When your child sounds out the words you spell to your spouse over dinner and gives up your secret to the whole table (... "ice cream! Mommy said we could have ice cream!"), it scares you a bit.

I like this terror, it wakes me up to realize that some of the ways we did things when our kids were younger, more oblivious and didn't speak English have to change. That our lives are not stagnant and we have to be ever-evolving if we want to be effective as parents.

And it's strange too. Beyond the moments of terror are the opposites that we have to come to terms with every day. On one hand, we're working so hard with Ruthie on her reading, and she is working so hard every day too... and then she jumps up three levels in difficulty and really reads on her own and we are amazed and celebrating and high-fiving and thinking that she is a wonder-child. On the other hand, I just realized that it's almost time to plan her 7th birthday party. She cannot possibly be 7. I laid eyes on her for the first time right after she turned 4, met her when she turned 5... and that, I'm sure, was the day before yesterday or so.

And I used to have a quiet, introverted son, so intense and focused... and then suddenly he's in JK, making friends, telling jokes that are actually funny and being the life of the party wherever he goes. He talks a mile a minute and is always having fun. What a great thing to see him come out of his shell and excel in school and have his own life (of sorts). But on the other hand, a few weeks ago he said, "Hey Mom...". Mom??!! Mom??!! When did I stop being his Mommy? This kid was 22 months old when I first laid eyes on him!!

How is it that as parents, we can be so excited for the growth and learning that is taking place, the stuff that we're encouraging and even forcing (eat your vegetables, take your vitamins, do your homework, no you can not play Wii today, that's enough treats...) and be so mortified when it is all happening so quickly?

I guess I'm feeling a bit cliche - you know, carpe diem, make the most of the moments, don't take anything for granted, etc. But also, I've just been fascinated by this part of parenting, the clear and present double standard that we all live by. Strange and terrifying, ironic and beautiful, insanity and order all at the same time.

Tracy

Like father, like son.

2010-01-11T17:26:00.001-08:00

Matching aprons and wooden spoons courtesy of Nana allows the legacy of good eats to continue to the next generation.

Less Words Wednesday

2010-01-06T17:51:00.000-08:00

A reminder of a very sweaty but beautiful day in Edmonton. Oh to sweat in the sunshine again. It never comes soon enough.

Ah, Christmas. A very, merry Christmas.

2009-12-30T19:29:00.000-08:00

One of the big differences between Christmas before kids and Christmas after kids is how exhausting the day is. There is no end to the mess and the chaos, the dishes that have to be done, the toys that seem to be mating and multiplying all over the house and the noise level that creates a dull but present and constant headache throughout the day.

However, it's never, ever been so much fun either. In the middle of the lunacy, there is a magic and joy about the whole thing. There is a deeper sense of family... or perhaps just a true understanding of what family is and what it has always meant in my life, I just didn't recognize it. It gets to be more fun to give than to receive and you get to have moments to keep forever.

Our kids are the perfect age for Christmas and having my parents here to witness it all was incredible for all of us. Sigh. Good Christmas indeed.

(Thanks for the Wii, Grandma!)

Christmas Eve

2009-12-30T19:22:00.000-08:00

After a day of being more wound up than I have ever seen them, Christmas Eve/opening a present time came. One from Mommy & Daddy (the "family gift" - games), one from Grandma & Grandpa (new pjs, classic!), and then one from Uncle Brad & Aunt Thadeane because they weren't going to be with us in the morning.

Step back Von Trapps, we're coming for you.

2009-12-30T19:17:00.000-08:00

We like to think of them as superstars in the making.

We had an awesome Kids Choir as part of our Christmas production at church and all of the kids were in it. These shots are all from Christmas Eve. Dresses courtesy of Mrs. Worrell (a friends' mom from Edmonton - they still fit!), necklaces courtesy of Aunt Esther... though I should have thought about Shay + magnetic necklace clip before sending her on stage with it!

Oh this child.

2009-12-30T19:14:00.000-08:00

Remember, this kid has two older sisters, not brothers. Yet, he manages to come home from school, home from church, down from upstairs, up from downstairs and just stand up with a new bump on his head seemingly every day?

We thought we'd share this shot of his excellent shiner. I actually saw this one happen. He was getting down off of a kitchen stool, slipped and contacted the counter with his left cheekbone. Ouch.

Then we really started to party.

2009-12-30T19:04:00.000-08:00

After Rob's Mom left, we did a crazy week of dress rehearsals and concerts and then our first performance of the church's Christmas production, Matt, Erin, Vaughn & Greta came to see us - finally. Erin has been my BFF since almost forever and I miss her like CRAZY.

Not only do I miss her, but babys grow really fast and I'm totally missing out. Snuggles with Greta were a must for all of the Dunham girls.

And of course, they came bearing gifts - Mouse Trap, to be specific. A new family favourite! I don't even mind supervising this one since it's actually really fun to watch the whole contraption work! Didn't you love Mouse Trap in the 80s?
We attempted to streak Erin's hair late into the night. Results may vary from picture on package, FYI.
And we just love this shot of the little men together. (Why is Kai wearing so many layers of clothes? He is 4 and he dressed himself. Enough said.)

I have chosen not to spend time regurgitating the emotion we all felt when we said goodbye after about 48 hours of the Jamiesons. End scene.

Christmas begins with Nana!!

2009-12-30T18:58:00.000-08:00

Nana was here (that is, Rob's mom) at the beginning of December and saw the kids after far too many months... and she brought and early Christmas with her. I think this early taste of gift opening reminded the kids about last year and started the "wind-up" to Christmas Day. Oh my.

The pics of the kids with Nana are MIA... a hazzard of having such a picture-taking frenzy over the last few days. Don't worry Nana, we'll find them and post them!

One of my favourite things is putting up the Christmas tree. I don't actually like the work of it, but I really like watching the kids do it. It's like they have a spark lit inside of them and it's so magical. I love Christmas with kids!

INDOOR Skating... how novel!

2009-12-21T20:33:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago (I know, I'm behind a little), our church had a Family Skating Party and it was so fun! Indoor skating is awesome! So much easier to teach the kids how to skate when it's not -15. I actually loved it and can't wait to do it again. I'm pretty sure that last winter we did it for the video footage. LOL!

So above is my dad and Malachi - one of the cutest things I've ever seen. My dad's a great skater and loved taking Kai out for a spin around the ice. Below, you'll see me with Shay... that's what I did for 30 minutes or so until she ventured out on her own. And she really did it - I was so proud of her, she got brave and skated! So awesome.

This is Pastor Heather, our youth pastor, lending a hand while we all switched around with the kids - so nice to have an extra pair of skates to help us.
All in all, a great day, so much fun and a new favourite of mine. Skating indoors. So good.

Brag alert, but it must be said.

2009-12-07T19:57:00.000-08:00

I have no choice. This blog is about our family and our family is on cloud nine about school so that means you get to read about it.

On Friday, we had back-to-back parent-teacher conferences. We weren't nervous or anything, knowing our kids are loving school and learning in leaps and bounds, but we weren't expecting to hear all of their teachers rave about how great each one of them is.

Ruthie's teacher gave her a hug and said she wishes she had a whole classroom full of Ruthies. She is reading like crazy now, advancing a level every week or so and to think that she started speaking English 18 months ago is almost unfathomable. The only thing she's working on right now is remembering to raise her hand before talking - she gets excited when she knows the answer... I can't relate. (LOL!) She got an official report card with mostly As and some Bs in reading and writing. We're so proud of you Ru!! The next morning, after her report card came home, I woke her up early and told her that after she went to bed that Rob and I had read it. She started to look concerned and then I told her that we were incredibly proud of her and asked if she wanted to go out for breakfast with me. Her eyes popped open and she jumped out of bed - it was hilarious. We chilled out over Egg McMuffins and Hot Cakes and talked about how far she'd come. It was pretty great.

Shay, ah Shay. I went in to observe in her classroom a few weeks ago and was stunned at what I saw. Shay has two personalities - very silly and goofy and hyper and quiet, thoughtful and creative. In the first week of school she was having trouble channeling her quietness so I fully expected her teacher to talk to us about this and help us to know how to encourage her to be attentive in class. But then, when I went to watch her, I noticed that she was so soft spoken, even when the teacher was doing attendance and called her name. She answered questions but in the quietest voice. I was concerned that she wasn't really getting what was going on and was overwhelmed with all of the information since this is her first real school experience. But then, in our conference, the teacher told us that Shay was incredibly smart, she totally understood, was understanding concepts and their context with remarkable maturity and her quiet behaviour was actually her being a leader in her class, helping the JKs to know how to act. She raved about her and talked about her being a gifted child. I mean, we have been saying from the beginning that she has a unique and brilliant way of looking at the world and processing information, but to hear it from someone else was thrilling! We went wild telling Shay how proud we are of her. What a great experience.

And our little man, the one who we thought was quiet and methodical until we got to know him. In simplest terms, school has brought him out of his shell in ways that are still amazing us. His teacher showed us his work and was very impressed with how concentrated he is and how determined he is to learn. He is picking up concepts and language at an incredible rate and it shows in how much he loves school. His teacher kept telling us what a lovely boy he is, how sweet and mature and nice to be around. He has a group of little boy friends and that confidence has changed him in very good ways. I think he always knew what he wanted to say but now he knows how to say it - it's truly amazing. In JK, there isn't so much to say about academic progress but we are still beside-ourselves proud of who Malachi is becoming and how he can channel all his crazy antics into something constructive and he knows how to behave.

These kind of things are more than just a parent's bragging rights, this stuff is deep and significant for us in so many special ways. We know that our kids aren't always going to get As and every conversation we have with their teachers won't always be amazing, but for today, we're overwhelmed because those kids we met in Ethiopia not so long ago are here in our family, thriving, learning, growing, adjusting, attached and healthy. We are so blessed. They have overcome so much, walked through more than we can imagine and have chosen to embrace whatever life throws at them. We are humbled by them and by the chance to be a part of their lives, on their team and in their corner.

Moving in, again.

2009-12-07T19:37:00.000-08:00

In August, we moved in. We purged the boxes right out the door in the first week and have kept the door to the basement mostly closed. In the middle of October, Rob descended into that cave and emerged on Friday a victor.

Our bedroom no longer houses our office, our laundry room is actually a room, there are three storage spaces now available and most importantly, Rob now has his ultimate man cave.

This reno cost us a pretty penny, but most of it was paid for out of the proceeds from our Edmonton house and the rest we're chalking up to an investment in the value of our house. Plus, with Rob doing so much of the work himself, we saved about $6000-7000.

Now, we're moving in again. All the basement stuff that has been in the garage is now in the basement, ready to be unpacked. The garage belongs to the car now and we made it before the first real snow fall!This is Anthony, a guy from our church who is a wicked awesome carpenter. He's the only guy we had to hire and he went over and above for us, making the process so much easier for Robbie.
Then the drywall was hung in a strange way - top first. Why? So that Rob could put up the drop ceiling before Jeff came to do the electrical. There wasn't time to do all the drywall and the ceiling, so Rob did what he had to do to make it happen.

And then there was Jeff, the amazing Jeff. He flew out here on his own Air Miles for three days just to do this wiring for us. Oh and wire he did. The lighting in that basement is second to none. That is a good friend. We're still floored that he did that for us and deeply, deeply grateful.

Pretty soon, Rob had the walls finished. This job was one we were going to contract out but in the end, just couldn't hack spending the money. Rob did the best mud/tape job of his life and it came out beautifully! So, my mom and I spent three nights painting - primer + colour + colour. I'm so glad my mom was here, otherwise that would have been a 6 or 7 night job.
The office nook, finished. Totally staged since nothing really had been moved in there, but this captures the essence of how everything turned out.
The kids, after a lot of patience, finally got to watch the big screen for the first time. Inspector Gadget, I believe it was. And they deserved it. We explained to them that Daddy was finishing the basement so they'd have a place to play and watch movies and they were totally fine with not seeing much of him for long periods of time. Then, when the construction was finished, they literally worked with me for hours (volunteering, by the way) to wash the walls and floors and furniture and get it ready to move into. They're amazing!!
And the piece de resistence... the screen that looks especially sexy with the speakers mounted around it. It's actually not a screen, just a flat painted wall. Uber cheap, uber cool. Cineplex who?
Life has revolved around this reno for the past several weeks. The idea has been to just get it done and be done with it and we're so glad we pushed through and made it happen because, well, now we're done! After we move into the space properly and the Christmas productions at church are under our belts, we are set to go back to our way-less-to-do lives that we had in September!

The dust piles, the blogs pause.

2009-12-01T06:33:00.000-08:00

It's not that I'm uninterested in blogging or that I don't have anything to say. It's not that my kids haven't done anything cute or funny or picture worthy lately. It's not for lack of want that I haven't posted in 15 days. It is, in fact, for lack of time. Oldest excuse in the book, I understand, but couldn't be more true.

The Dunhams are in yet another season of renos - finishing the basement to be exact. We had a totally unfinished basement with incredible potential and as of the end of this week, we will have a fully finished basement and be fully functioning in the beautiful new space.

In so many ways, this has been my favourite reno ever. We don't have to live in the space that we're working in except to walk through to do laundry. Rob is full-time at home and the kids are part-time at school which means that Rob has been able to take this on as a semi-full-time job. So, even though there was a ton of work to do and Rob did most of it himself, it's getting done in record time. We started in mid-October and we'll be finished (except for the door trim) by the weekend. Pretty great indeed.

The other great thing about this reno is the fact that our less-crazy schedule has allowed us to do the work in big chunks rather than stressed-out spurts. So, while Rob has spent anywhere between 6-14 hours a day in the basement, I have been doing all the house/kids stuff all of my waking hours. You don't realize how much you rely on each other until you're doing it alone!

Soon there will be cute pictures of the kids, of the beautiful basement, our first family movie night in Kitchener, Christmas, etc. Soon there will be evenings to edit photos and post them. Soon my house will not be covered in a layer of saw/drywall dust and then you will all know everything that I know - I promise.

Tracy

Unbelievable surprise.

2009-11-16T17:39:00.000-08:00

Like I've said before, the worst thing about this move has been how much we miss our friends. We just have some amazing friends, deep and thick friendships that are going to be hard to get over, though we probably never will and I kind of think that's great. But in the meantime, we pine a bit for them!

On Tuesday Rob told me he had a surprise for me so not to make any plans. At 6:30 he showed up at the door with one of my best friends from Edmonton, Rachelle. I just about died. There she was in my door and she was staying for four days. Sigh. Happy day.

Then, on Wednesday we were all at the church and I was just cleaning up so her and I could take off for the afternoon when a car pulled up that I didn't recognize. I said, "Who on earth is here now?" They said, "That's the rest of your surprise." I scoffed and said, "Yeah right. Who is it, Cher or something?" And guess who stepped out of the car? Cher.

These pictures capture the Cher moment (we missed the Rachelle moment because Rob was still in the van!) and then the renunion of the three of us. Not only is Cher another one of my best friends, the three of us worked together in Edmonton for 3.5 years and are sisters to me. We loved being a team at work and we loved working for our boss Phil. That chapter in our lives might be over (Cher's in Brandon, I'm here, Rach is in Edmonton), but we will always feel like this about each other.

Aren't some things in life just best described as a gift? These girls spent the week with me and I feel so connected again, so energized and ready for whatever is next.

Who has friends that buy tickets to fly to see them? The most blessed girl in the world.
Tracy

My Ikea Office... with a window.

2009-11-10T13:32:00.000-08:00

So, my office isn't big, but I got to pick out all of my own furniture, had quite the day-trip to Ikea to collect it all and spent my first week in K-W putting it all together. I used to have a gigantic office, but no window and if you have a big office, you get to store everyone's stuff in it. So, having a small but efficient office is actually nice. The natural sunlight is good too!

Halloween & The Road2Hope Race

2009-11-10T08:36:00.000-08:00

Here is the official Halloween costume picture. Can you guess who's who?

Ruthie is Hannah Montana, Shay is a fairy (with a sweater) and Malachi is Clarke Kent. So cute!

Halloween was an interesting day to say the least. First, we were all scheduled to be in a race that my uncle and aunt put on every year... very fun! The kids ran the 1KM in costumes with Rob and they did awesome. We're trying to get them addicted to running since they are Ethiopian and have a genetic disposition to be some of the fastest people in the world! You'd think that Ruthie would be the fastest, Malachi second and Shay third, right? Wrong. Shay is actually the best distance runner. She stays really focused, has great posture and doesn't sprint and lose her energy. She usually won when we were practicing and she loved it!

The other fun thing is that my aunt and uncle got running shoes for the kids and I mean, real running shoes, the professional kind. They are SO nice and SO fancy and it makes me sad how fast they'll grow out of them... but in the meantime, my kids thought they were the bomb and are totally appreciating the gift.

I ran the 5 KM with my mom. Why is she not with me? She finished 7 seconds ahead of me... because about 200m from the end I stopped to puke. That's right, I had the flu that day and was actually feeling pretty good. I could see the finish line and was going for it and then, yeah. But, I felt amazing after that and nearly sprinted across the finish line. And to be fair, my mom did stop when she realized what happened to me but I yelled at her and told her to finish the race so she kept going. Ah, that's going to be a good memory for a long time. Offiically, my time was actually 30:30 or so even though the clock says 31:40... if you've run a race, you know about clock time and chip time.

Yeah, it's a gross and sweaty picture but we were proud of ourselves.

Below is my dad, the 55 minute 10 KM runner who makes us all look weak and lazy. He's in his late 50s and is so awesome. Here he's waving at the kids and Rob who saw him along the route and were cheering for him.

Shay & Kai's First Field Trip!

2009-11-02T16:19:00.000-08:00

I got to go with the kids to the Yee Haw Adventure Farm... so fun! There were so many JK and SK kids that we took 5 buses from just their school out to the farm. Isn't that crazy? Ah, but what a day. Pig races, hay ride, pumpkin patch, goat lofts... this place had it all and the best part was the look on their faces when they got to go on the bus. A definite fall highlight!

Thanksgiving and October.

2009-10-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

Yes, my husband really did cook at 25 pound turkey. Yeah, it was amazing... and the company was even better.We had 4 generations at Thanksgiving dinner and it was the first one I've celebrated with my family in a decade so we LOVED it to say the least. Plus, I had my mom there to help clean up so it was like having 2 sets of hands or 2 brains. Wonderful. All tucked around our table is the Dunham 5, my parents, my brother and sister-in-law and my grandparents... and a LOT of food.

Let's just say that my grandparents are in love with the little munchkins. My grandma may be over 80 but she still reads the blog and prays for us. I think that's amazing.

And this is my brother Brad doing what good Uncles do, let their nieces and nephew beat on them. The kids are also in love with Uncle Brad and Aunt Thadeane, especially since their date to the movies and the corn maze!

And another good thing about being in Ontario is that I'm close to my childhood friend Cara... and when Erin, Matt, Vaughn and Greta come to visit (usually a couple of times a year), I get to see them too! Cara, Erin and I had a reunion a few weeks ago and this is the only picture I've got, me and Vaughno... I figure, Erin and Cara pretty much look the same year after year, Vaughn will look totally different every time I see him so we've got to capture these moments!

So, again, we really miss Etown and hanging out with friends, but there are some highlights around here that we've been waiting years to experience and that's cool too.

Rob's beautiful new artform.

2009-10-18T18:52:00.001-07:00

The major difference.

2009-10-18T18:34:00.000-07:00

This post is for parents-to-be, for people who want to understand the difference between life before kids and life after kids. People say that your life changes forever and that's true. But I don't think that means you have to become a totally different person! What I think they are trying to express is that the structure of your days is so different.

Practically speaking, before kids we did projects when we felt like it and now, projects happen after 8:00PM or in the 2.5 hours in the afternoon when the kids are in school or during the occasional Saturday afternoon birthday party that you don't have to attend. Things happen, but they happen SO much more slowly. A list of simple projects that you used to be able to accomplish in an inspired weekend have to be spread out over at least 3 weeks.

But perhaps that's one of the best things about having kids - some things slow down to a crawl and force the more important things to climb up the list.

Just thinking about that as we dragged drywall into our basement on Saturday... and blogging, by the way, is a post 8PM project too!

Tracy

A sigh of relief, a moment of ah ha.

2009-10-09T21:28:00.000-07:00

I remembered this morning why we moved so far away from everything we knew and loved. Shay snuggled into me this morning while we were chilling out after breakfast and watching a concert on tv, sighed and said, "I love Kitchener". I asked her why she loved it so much and she looked up at me and said, "Because I love you." There was enough implied in that to know we made the right decision. Did I mention that she has completely stopped peeing her pants? I love Kitchener too.

Tracy

Junior Kingergarten 1, Kai 0.

2009-10-06T19:48:00.000-07:00

October begins...

2009-10-05T15:55:00.000-07:00

Another few weeks and another series of great days. We've been busy establishing school routines and stuff, but it's been nice because even though we've got homework to help with and things to teach the kids so they can keep up with their classes, there is time to do this every day. I had heard horror stories about Grade 1 and how much homework there is - Ruthie's teacher sends home a few sheets on Monday and we have until Friday to complete it. Anyone want to guess how fast Ruthie does it? Right - she hands it in the next day!

We have been floored by how perceptive Malachi has turned out to be. We've never, ever done any letter/number learning with him (we just concentrated on attachment and English this last year) and now we're noticing that he is able to memorize things extremely quickly and he LOVES school still. What a smart cookies he's turning out to be.

Not to mention Shay, the one who always seems to not have a clue what's going on can confidently tell you all about what she learned at school and remember anything new she's learning too. Whew! I was worried that we had put her at a disadvantage by how little prep we did with her. Loving school and having a nice but tough teacher has been amazing for her.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that since the day we moved here, neither Shay or Malachi have peed in their pants? I guess they really did just need to feel settled! (I shouldn't say never, Malachi did pee on the bathroom floor at my Aunt's house while desperately trying to get his pants undone! LOL! We don't count that one since he gave it such a good effort and felt really bad. Poor little guy.)

Rob and I love the pace of everything here, love the family time, love the house. But, as we keep putting distance between us and our last trip to Edmonton, we are feeling the sadness of not being able to just have friends over for dinner or go to the Muth's after church on Sunday night. It's pretty quiet around here in the evenings and I know that in time we'll have people we can call, but this transition period can get pretty suckie at times. The last time we had to make new friends was when we moved to Edmonton for college - the easiest way to meet new people in the world! Oh well, this too shall pass. Now, if I can just get Rob to stop asking for a dog to ease the loneliness.

Again, one of the best things about this whole thing is my mom and dad. My mom just loves to do stuff with the kids and whatever, it's so fab.

A few Sundays ago, she took Ruthie, Shay and I to see a live stage show of High School Musical. The girls were totally enraptured by every song. What a memory for them! My mom used to do this kind of stuff for me when I was a kid too and it meant so much to me and my love for the arts.

Then we had some friends from out-of-the-country visiting so she took all of us on a horse-and-buggy tour of St. Jacob's, Mennonite Country. We toured through a sugar bush and went through a working Mennonite farm, bought some maple sugar goodies and learned how they make syrup in the spring. Only my mom thinks of stuff like this. I expected it to be nice and it turned out to be amazing. Thanks mom!

The kids are listening to our guide show them all the tree "taps" they've used throughout the years.

The road to the Mennonite farm. Spectacular and getting better as the colours change more and more every day.

And the piece de resistance - I have added some bling to the girls' room. Decals with their names and flowers. The pictures don't do it justice because there was no good angle for taking the shot, but they are super cool. I'm going to add a sepia photo of the two of them between the S and the R and then there room will be complete!

My first (and only) 29th birthday.

2009-09-23T19:06:00.000-07:00

Ah, a glorious week and weekend of fun things culminating in a birthday dinner, complete with a cake made by my mommy. That's a good birthday.

Here and back again.

2009-09-23T18:13:00.001-07:00

After living her for no longer than three weeks, we took our first trip back to Etown and had a really fun time! 4 days without the kids, playing with the band and being with our best friends and in an amazing wedding. It was my 29th birthday to boot. A very, very cool few days... though the good-byes were harder this time than I realized they'd be.

See you all in six months!

My sentiments exactly fellows...

A series of firsts.

2009-09-23T17:47:00.000-07:00

All I can say is, so far, so good. The kids are adjusting like the amazing kids that they are... they continue to astound me. The big highlight around her has been the start of school and with the crazy staggered entries for the Kindergarten kids, it got a little weird around here for two weeks.
To sum up...
Ruthie went to Grade 1 for two days and promptly informed that she was taking the next day off. She had gone for "two whole days" already and it was boring and they didn't sing any songs or do any crafts, just sit in their desks. (I couldn't help myself, I promptly told her that she had just experienced the majority of the next 12 years of her life. I'm so mean.) I had to convince her that school was not optional and that she would get used to it, make friends and it would get fun again. And she did and it is, though she's been known to come home and put herself down for a nap after soon on a few occasions. Grade 1 is tough!
Shay went to Senior Kindergarten and of course had a ball. She froze up a bit on the tarmac while the teacher tried to explain to her what was going to happen at the end of the day when I came back for her, but once inside, she was great. By day 2 she was already getting in trouble for the classic Shay move, saying "excuse me, teacher" and then proceeding to say whatever was on her mind without waiting to be acknowledged. Rob noticed the teacher sternly asking her to wait her turn at the end of the day and realized that she had been saying this to our little princess all day (or so it would seem by the tone of her voice) and so we have been working really hard on waiting our turn... saying excuse me doesn't automatically make it your turn, etc. Now she's having fun and not making the teacher crazy. Very good for everyone. Her teacher is kinda strict too, and that's so great for Shay! She kind of needs a rules-oriented person to help guide her!

Malachi played it cool when he met his teacher and when he actually went to his first day of school, he just lined up and went in, Batman backpack and all. We were in Edmonton and didn't get to witness this cuteness but we get the reruns every day. When he came out of his first day he said to my mom with pride, "I wasn't even scared!" I think that means he was scared but he got over it. Yesterday, Rob dropped him off for the first time and then promptly texted me to say, "I don't want Malachi going to school anymore, I don't like how he just walks in there like it's no big deal." I think Daddy is struggling with his little independently-spirited boy the most.

Now Rob has to find things to do with himself in the afternoons since he's childless. Very strange to go from having two all day and one all day except the afternoons to having them all out of the house all afternoon.

Rob and I are adjusting too. We love our church family and everyone has been so kind to us. We love the job and I especially love the new challenges and my new Ikea office and my new MacBook... But we miss our friends, no getting around that.

But like I said, so far, so good and we're happy with that.
Tracy

And... the wicked awesome new house.

2009-09-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

What can I say? We are more than blessed with this house that is so amazing - and the basement's not even finished yet! We have more than enough space, great neighbors, great neighborhood, less than a km from the church and school. We are thrilled.

We are still putting our stamp on the place in small ways, waiting for decals to come in for the kids' walls and stuff, but we are unpacked and loving it. There is still the nagging problem that we can't invite any of our Etown friends for dinner, but I guess you can't have it all.

The final goodbye.

2009-09-08T16:26:00.001-07:00

What can you say when you have friends like this? Our final night at The Project was memorable to say the least. We did an all-request set-list, Rondah led one of the best set lists known to man, people said the most incredibly kind things about us and it was all punctuated by a cake that Kennedy made - a grand piano cake to be exact. Just wow.

Afterwards, we partied it up at Rondah's house and Rob and I tried to just let the moments last. This night will be captured in my mind forever.

When we were homeless.

2009-09-08T16:12:00.000-07:00

One of the funniest things that the kids have said in the last few weeks is, "But Mommy, we're HOMELESS!" (Rob taught them that. So cute.) And it was true for about 10 days. But no fear because of the amazing people that Cody and Andrea are. In the picture above you'll see the real reason we wanted to stay with them - to stare at their Ethiopian prince.

Cody and Andrea opened their home to us and we had such an incredible time staying with them. The kids were in heaven (somewhat because they had a swingset/play structure in their backyard and somewhat because they didn't have to be surrounded by boxes at C & A's house) and it was so nice to be moved out and chilling with them. Seriously, they are the kindest people and the coolest friends.

For the sake of historical record, these are a few shots from our 10 days of homelessness.

The best part about August... Greta.

2009-09-08T16:01:00.000-07:00

The very best thing about August was having Greta around. She's my new "niece" (my best friend Erin's baby) and though she doesn't sleep enough, she is amazing and I wish I could see her every day. So, this post is to celebrate her. I love you baby girl!!

The first week.

2009-08-31T21:01:00.000-07:00

Well, we're here, we're unpacked and we have LOTS of things being delivered this week and next - a few pieces of furniture, a new phone, some bedding, etc. When my brother was here yesterday he asked where all of our old stuff was... the answer is right here! This house is bigger and more open than our Edmonton house and we had to augment what we had... so, it still looks a bit empty.

It's been fun and a bit overwhelming but everything is just tickedy-boo now in our main living spaces and so we've been able to relax and enjoy it a bit. We still have a lot of work to do organizing the basement and garage to get everything ready for the basement to be finished, so that will be the project for post-kid-bedtime for the next week or so.

Otherwise, we're just doing what we want every day and that's pretty great. We have lots of annoying things to do each day, like get the car safetied and registered, but it's all coming together now.

Gosh, have we ever started feeling weird about being so far away from "home" for so long now. School doesn't start until next week and I don't start at the church until Sunday so we really feel like we're in a vacation house, but that will change in short order.

I've finally dumped pictures from my camera to my new computer so I'll finally start updating thing in a proper way, but for now, here is a picture of my family having dinner together at our house. It was nice, to say the least and long-overdue. These are my parents and my brother and his wife.

Here.

2009-08-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting her now, in my beautiful new room, in my beautiful new house, waiting patiently for Rob and Ryan to arrive from their last leg of their trip. In short, my mom is a ninja. So, with her acting as my second set of hands, we've unpacked 90% of the house (boxes-flattened and removed, linen-closets-folded kind of unpacked) in the last 24 hours. How did I move 4 times in Edmonton without her? It also helped that my teenage cousins came and entertained the kids for 5 hours today while we did a shock-and-awe on the bedrooms.

So, all is well and though I have a few things I'm still going to putter around on tonight, I remembered that I wrote a blog entry on the airplane, wanting to remember a few moments. I didn't take any pictures because Rob had the camera, but I'm hoping that this entry will bring back the images of the experience again.

August 25, 2009:
Though I have had the time, nothing really prepares you for the moment of looking at your children, happy and excited, laden with backpacks, gladly moving 4000 km away from what they've known. Nothing quite describes that moment of comparison to 15 months ago, the same look, same scenario but a world apart. They have embraced more change in their few years than most of us will in a lifetime and have done it with more grace and joy than most of us will know in a lifetime. Malachi sat in his seat and quickly figured out how to put on his own seatbelt. How's that for an opposite experience?

My heart is broken and full. I realized this weekend that though I love my work and am passionate about it, I love my friends more. I left the job behind with peace but am processing the separation from friends much more slowly and with no small degree of numbness. I'm sure my heat knows it can only handle a piece at a time.

The upside to this part is knowing how we all feel about each other. Without goodbyes in our lives, it's rare that we really say how we feel, what is important or even take stock of the amazing things that probably surround our lives. I am working on some letters to some people that I never would have written without these moments of goodbye.

I'm actually glad for the 7-year 'selah' so that I don't find myself in another decade without the perspective that makes all the difference in our lives.

Tracy

Another last.

2009-08-20T16:29:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm sitting at this desk for the last time during office hours and thought that maybe it would be appropriate to share something that I wrote this week for the sermon/good-bye that I'm doing on Sunday night.

If you're going to be here on Sunday night, enjoy the preview...

"...Then Rob and I decided it was time to start our family and 15 tumultuous months later we found ourselves on a 28 hour flight from Addis Ababa to Edmonton, teetering on the edge of sanity and more at peace then we’d been in a long time.

Being a mommy hasn’t really changed anything about who I am. I recognize myself when I look in the mirror and I feel the same as I did two years ago. What it has done is to simplify my life. The things I love and am passionate about used to be wide-spread and numerous. The list has shrunk down to a few things that I’m crazy about and have decided to pursue with my whole life instead of dabbling in all of them.

And in case you missed it when I read my resignation, that’s the reason that this is my last night at The Project. I decided that I wanted to pursue relationships with my husband and my kids, my pastoral calling and my own worship voice. So, I find myself 36 hours from getting on an airplane that will take me to that kind of life."

That's the reason for this 'last' and that's got me pretty excited.

As I walk out the door, thanks to my MWPA Staff family for the last 7 years. I'll miss you and I'll miss this giant office!