Injera

Since we've been home, yummy meals been delivered most days of the week. Friends have dropped off bags of groceries - food we need and food they hope J&A will like, too. "Helpful" doesn't sum up how I feel about these meals and groceries. Without argument cannot imagine making food for our family right now. It feels like too much just to brush my teeth more than once a day, much less make 3 meals a day for 4 people.

On Sunday our friends, the Baran's, brought us Ethiopian food from a local Ethiopian owned restaurant. We thought that especially Judah might really need a taste from home after nearly 3 weeks of not having any familiar food. A couple necessary Target bags in stow, the Baran family showed up with Doro Wat, Beef Tibs, and Injera for our family dinner.

What happened next surprised this exhausted and overwhelmed momma to tears [my first tears since getting J&A]...



The entire time Judah was consumed with his food. He couldn't take his eyes off it. He ate more than we'd ever seen. He literally tasted home that night for the first time in a long time. My heart exploded when I became emotionally connection [again!] to how much transition this little 2 1/2 year old has been through in the past month. New language. New caregivers. New food. New bed to sleep in. New clothes to wear. New environment to explore. New boundaries. New weather. NEW NAME! New, New, New! So much to grieve and learn.

People say kids are resilient. And they are. But grieving is still necessary. Saying "goodbye" to everything that you knew is still hard. Learning a completely new way of life is still enormously challenging, especially when communicating is so difficult.

Parenting Judah these past few weeks has been extraordinarily difficult. Parenting an infant like Addise is a piece of cake compared to a toddler. But their are moments like eating injera and taking baths that solidify that we are supposed to be Judah's parents.