Happy Ganna!

Did you know.....

• Today is Christmas Day in Ethiopia?
• Ethopia uses the Julian calender so they celebrate Christmas on January 7 every year instead of December 25?
• Ethiopian Christmas is called Ganna? Ganna means birth of Christ.

Just thought you'd like to know!

Here's to hoping (and praying) that we'll be celebrating Ganna next year with a little Ethiopian prince (or princess) of our own!

3 weeks

Meet Gabe!

Meet Gabe's Cast!

(And yes, I know it's purple... purples Gabe's favorite color!)***

For the next 3 weeks Gabriel will be wearing 3 different casts on his 2 little arms. Each Tuesday, yesterday being the first, Gabe will get a new cast on one of his arms. The first 2 weeks the casts will be 'stretching and strengthening' cast on his left arm. This cast made of plaster and fiberglass will stretch his muscles and strengthen his shoulder.

The 'stretching and strengthening' cast is all in preperation of Gabe's 3rd cast; the restriction cast. This cast will go on his RIGHT arm and even encompass his cute little fingers. The goal of the restriction cast will be to force Gabe to use his left arm during that week.

In case you haven't picked up on the fact before; Gabe is pretty stubborn and strong-willed (a lot like his dad) and although he's worn a removable restricter cast on his right arm for a few hours everyday for the past 5(?) months, he's now learned to wait it out. Gabe knows that eventually it will come off so he just waits to do what he wants until it comes off, then he uses his handy-dandy right arm to do whatever he needs to do.

We need Gabe to learn that both arms work! That lefty can be just as handy-dandy as righty. Here's to hoping this will work!!! And it better work, because I'm not sure what the next step to get Gabe to recognize and use his left hand and arm would be.

Does Gabe like his cast, you ask? Not a bit. His whining has increased a bit, he tries to pull it off (which is pretty funny if you ask me) and since it inhibits his rolling a bit, I've found him yelling a bit more. While he doesn't like it, it isn't hurting him. So we'll just roll with it and hope we get a little bit more sleep tonight than last night!

***Purple really isn't Gabe's favorite color, it was just the only option. I've been told his next cast will be something more manly like blue, green or red. But if anyone can pull off a purple cast, Gabe can [smile]! But I do look forward to running into someone who asks why purple, because I will most certainly tell them it's Gabe's favorite color!

Heart Smiles

I'd be lying if I didn't say the past few days have been rough. I've been run through the proverbial gauntlet of emotions and feel like today would be a good day to just stay curled up in bed with a good book. But duty, named Gabe [smile] calls, and with the chorus of ob-la-di ob-la-da in my head, life continues to go on.

And as I think, admist the sadness of the past few days there have been good moments as well.

The moments that make my heart smile, in no particular order:

Warm, silent hugs that conveyed heartfelt sympathies and love. We are so grateful to the friends and family and friends that are more like family that traveled near, far and even farther to hug our necks and say goodbye with us.

Homemade Chili, chips and cookies on the doorstep from dear friends.

Experiencing first experiences with friends! (And yes pastey white is the new tan for me! Go ahead, be jealous!)

And Hotdog Bazooka's. Yes, Cleveland sports may not always come out on top... but we have hot dog bazooka's... beat that!

Resolutions

I usually don't make New Years Resolutions... I always get flustered and discouraged when I'm not exercising enough, losing weight or turning into this fabulous person, etc. So a few years ago I just gave up on them. Said no more! I wasn't going to set myself up to fail.

But this year I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and set up some resolutions, or goals per se, for the coming year.

My first goal is to read my Bible daily and read the entire thing in a year. Seems easy enough considering I love to read and have downloaded 2 different Bibles on my Kindle. To keep on track I'm joining the Patterson's Boss Your Heart Bible Challenge in order of their daughter Chrissie. I'm doing the OwnIt 365 plan. You can find lots of different Bible reading plans here.

Goal number 2 is to get more organized while being less compulsive about order. As Gabe becomes more and more mobile and can get into just about everything, I'm learning that my type-A, obsessive-compulsive personality is turning into a complication. Learning to maintain organization while letting Gabe explore the way a 16 month old is expected to all while not going crazy to keep perfect order will probably be the most difficult challenge.

Being content is my 3rd goal. Finding myself easily stressed or overwhelmed about the little things always seems so foolish in retrospect so I'm going to try to find contentment in the chaos. Content with what we have, where we're going and what we're doing. Again it feels like a lofty challenge, but I think by reflecting on my many blessings will be the best place to start.

I pray this year brings you good health, happiness and a way to find peace and contenment admist the chaos of everyday life.

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors,

and let each new year find you a better man.

~Benjamin Franklin