Monday, May 16, 2011

It was a truly lovely weekend, where we were able to partake in time at the dog park and an incredible production of Guys and Dolls at the Fifth Avenue Theater in Seattle, one of the region’s best.  We felt fortunate and fancy-free—on Friday, the Fifth sent out an email that for 4 hours they were offering $19 tickets in the nosebleed seats.  So, very last minute, we bought tickets and had a wonderful evening in downtown Seattle and the theatah.  We know good and well that once children finally (finally finally) come, those carefree choices will not exist, so we are trying to take advantage of them in the here and now. 
The best part of our weekend, however, was our agency’s final class of the year.  These classes are always well-planned and incredibly informative.  This class was a panel of adult adoptees answering a series of questions and what was amazing to us was how their stories were so, so so wildly different, yet in some ways were quite similar.  This group consisted of domestic and international/ transracial adoptees, from the 1940s to the 1980s.  Their stories were so interesting, and they were so open and honest about their experiences.  One nuts-and-bolts issue that came up multiple times for the internationally/transracially adopted speakers was the lack of knowing the language of their culture, and more than one commented that they wish their parents had pushed the issue more.  At the end, Cory asked if they wished they had taken language classes, and every single one said yes.  We are learning basic Amharic ourselves and planned on researching children’s classes, and now that is more of a priority.  We are lucky to live in an area with a large Ethiopian population, so hopefully this will not present too much of a challenge. 
Overall, great weekend and ready of some sunshine!

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like a great class!

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  2. There might be some online or dvd computer games you can order for kids that teach the language too- A loves that sort of thing. xxx

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  3. http://www.squidoo.com/learning-amharic-children

    Like these above- think when it gets closer to the time I'll buy the game and the books- so the cousins can make fun of us in Amharic and we'll have no clue what they're saying :-)

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