A Little Amharic

  

                                                     Kali turned eight last month!

When Kali joined our family almost two years ago she learned English so fast and stop speaking  Amharic so quickly that the little bit of Amharic the rest of learned was soon dropped.  Although Tulem speaks English pretty well for being here 5 months, somehow some Amharic lingers. I-deh-LEHM - No - is popular and kwahss - ball. Tulem's favorite Amharic word is bulicay - I have no idea how to actually spell it and we may be pronouncing it incorrectly since we are copying a three year old. A friend in Colin's Sophomore class is Ethiopian and she said it means bad person, but she has assured me it is not a cuss word. Tulem use to say it when he got upset with his siblings.  Now they all say it to taunt each other.
Earlier today Tulem was trying to get my 18 year old's attention, but Luke was on the computer and not paying attention.  Finally, Tulem yelled, "you bul-i-cay!" And shrieked with delight when Luke got up to chase him!

Cute and Funny

The girls as princesses dressed Tulem as a prince - big white shirt, forrest green pants, and boots.

The two oldest girls are selling Girl Scout cookies. I am keeping the boxes in my room for protection, but apparently that isn't enough.  Tulem was walking by with a an unaurthorized Thin Mint cookie and I asked him where he got it.  It said his sister gave it to him.  That sister denied opening a box and would not say where she put the box. An informant suggested looking under my bed.  I found an open box with half the cookies missing. My informant suggested I look in her sister's underwear drawer and not suprisingly, there were some Thin Mint cookies. The guilty party confessed.
Meanwhile, I found another opened box under my bed - this time Samoas.  I asked the girls who opened that box and no one admitted it.  Although the Thin Mint culprit said she doesn't like that kind of cookie.  I realized who does like Samoas and confronted that child, who then threw herself on the bed and started crying. Those Girl Scout cookies are just too much temptation.
I have since moved the cookies to a more secure location:)

Some December Highlights

We had a great holiday season!  The girls and I went to the Nutcracker. As it started, Amy asked me in a loud whisper why they weren't talking:)

On Christmas Eve we went to church.

 The guys...

The girls..

All eight kids!

After Christmas we drove to Northeastern Arizona, stayed at my Dad's vacation home and met up with a wonderful YWAM Ethiopia family, The Monahan's.  They took up to a great sledding spot!

Tulem and Kali enjoyed experiencing the snow for the first time.  You don't see much snow in Ethiopia:)