Reminders of Ethiopia

I am struggling to find time to write, but I wanted to write a short post. 

Ethiopia is so very different than everything here. The smells, the food, the sounds, the weather, the culture, the people- you get it! 

It is not any easy task to keep Ethiopia evident in our home all the time. We have to be really intentional. Some people don't quite understand why this is so important to us, but we feel that although Zane is now an American citizen, he is also still Ethiopian. We don't know if Zane will want to know more of Ethiopia or even care to know more of Ethiopia when he gets older, but until he is old enough to decide, we feel it is our responsibility to always keep Ethiopia in our conversations. It isn't something hushed or unspoken. Several people have asked us when we were going to start talking to Zane about adoption.  This is something that is just natural and a part of our family. No, we don't say, "This is our adopted son." That's weird.  Zane is at an age that we don't know 100% if he will remember Ethiopia or not (we hope he holds some dear memories of people and his birth country). Ethiopia does not intimidate us or scare us in any way. We love Ethiopia, and we want to continue to help people and missions in the country as Zane grows up. We want to take Zane back to Ethiopia when he is ready and show him this amazing place that is a part of who he is. Zane has an Ethiopian flag in his room; we pray for Ethiopia and for Zane's friends still in Ethiopia nightly; we look at pictures of Ethiopia, and we drink LOTS of Ethiopian coffee! haha! but seriously! We want Zane to be confident in who he is in our family and who he is as an individual, and we believe that by celebrating his differences and where he is from will help bring that! 

This weekend, we went to IKEA in search of a little clock to go under our big clock. Although we try to be intentional about bringing Ethiopia into our lives daily can be quite challenging. This is a small visual and reminder to think and talk of Ethiopia. We have the time set to Ethiopia time.  Zane points to it and says "Ethiopia". We don't know if he totally gets it yet, but he knows it's a word that is spoken often and very highly of in our home.