Day by Day

When someone describes a store or restaurant as a "hole in the wall", do you ever wonder what that means exactly? I always took that saying for granted without thinking about its origins. But then in Addis Ababa, we saw so many businesses being run out of - literally - a hole in a wall. My first impulse was to think how different things were there, but then the fact that we have this phrase in our language made me think this way of doing things must be part of our history, too.

Things are going well in the Brockett household. By "well", I mean we're continuing to adjust as a new family in a positive direction. By "well" I don't mean "easy" or even "comfortable". Biruk is accepting Alan as someone he can be with...mostly for having fun, but also sometimes for comfort. This is making life much easier for Christine. Also, Biruk's temper tantrums are getting fewer, and of less duration. Plus, we're getting our strategies down for how to deal with them.

We seem to be moving into a new phase of figuring out how to establish boundaries in the midst of bonding. For example, hitting seemed a pretty regular part of play at the orphanage. How do you explain to a 2 year old, who doesn't speak your language, that suddenly that's not ok anymore?

Every night and every day goes differently for us, so there's few routines to fall back on. But Alan was able to go into his office yesterday for a few hours. Christine and the kids joined some other moms on an outing to Boulder Reservoir for the morning, which went ok. So we're getting a few tastes of "normal" life, which we're happy for.

If I were really clever, I'd make a tie between a hole in a wall and our lives, bringing out some rich metaphorical truth. But as it is, I'm not - I'm just grateful for a quiet minute to get something written!