Last Sunday, my dear friends/neighbors Lori, Deb, and Sue had a shower for me. It was just terrific! It was at Olive Garden (yum!) and I was surrounded by my moms and sisters, old friends, school friends, church friends, and neighborhood friends. It felt so great to have all these fantastic women that I love sharing my joy. Everyone was so generous and we got some great stuff for the kids... books, backpacks, beach towels, cameras, pjs, toiletries, and GIFT CARDS... lots and lots of gift cards!
So yesterday I took all the gift cards and went shopping for the kids. I would like to state for the record that I am not a shopper. I do okay if I know exactly what I want and where to get it. But if I have to figure out what I'm looking for while I'm in the store, I find myself spending too much time analyzing prices, value, sizes, options, environmental impact, political/social ramifications of this purchase, etc... and then my father's cheapskate genes kick in and I think, "we don't really need this" and walk away, having wasted 20 minutes thinking about one stupid item. Plus whenever I'm shopping Brian calls me about every 45 minutes asking where I am and how much longer I'm going to be gone because he can't find Thomas's shoes and did you get any more yard waste bags? and we're going to need some dinner soon and is it okay if Meredith wears her new pants? and other random questions that one would think a fully competent adult could handle by himself. The annoying phone calls combined with my indecision and frugality make me not enjoy shopping at all. But I needed to get the kids some stuff, so I had to go.
Well yesterday I spent four hours at Target and Kohls and got everything the kids will need (at least to get started in America)! I already had lots of clothes for Solomon thanks to generous friends' hand-me-downs and leftover things from Thomas that I was still hanging on to (see Dad? Cheapskate genes once again!). Because Tinsaye needed everything and Meredith is very close to the same size, I felt like two girls could wear things thereby halving the actual cost of her stuff and making it less traumatic for me to decide. And Brian only called twice!
As I was picking out Tinsaye's clothes, I kept see-sawing between thinking "she is going to LOVE this!" and "I hope she likes this!" What seems totally cool to an American mom might be horrifying to an Ethiopian girl. By all accounts, she has strong opinions about things and I can imagine her looking at the clothes I bring her and thinking "this is horrible, but I don't want to offend or hurt my new mom, so I'd better pretend to like it". No one ever worries about this stuff with baby clothes!
I was nearly done when I saw a really cute dress for Tinsaye that was blue with white stars and red trim. Very "brand new American girl", so I got it for her "coming home" outfit. Then I went over to the little boys department to see if I could find an "American" shirt for Solomon. Immediately, I found a white and red baseball jersey with blue and silver words saying "All-American Slugger". As I held up this adorable shirt and was thinking about how they would look stepping off the plane dressed up like the flag, I suddenly (and to my horror!) started crying. My first thought was "my sisters would fall on the floor laughing at me if they knew I was crying all over the boys tee shirt display in Kohls". But my second thought was what it really means to these kids to be Americans. Americans always tell our kids "The sky is the limit on your future! You can be whatever you want to be!" and American kids and parents take that fact of American life so for granted. But for Solomon and Tinsaye, coming to American means that they get to have a future. If they had spent their lives in Ethiopia, the odds are very great that they would have lived in poverty with little or no education. They would most likely have gone blind because of their eye condition. Their lives would have been very short and very hopeless. Being an American means they will get good nutrition, good education, good health care. They will be surrounded by friends and family. They can pursue whatever life they want. Stepping off the plane in America means they have limitless potential. I know that God has something amazing in store for them and for all of us. I can't wait to see how it all unfolds.
And then my phone rang... "we're all really hungry. When was dinner going to happen?"
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