A post from Marissa

A Birthday to Remember
By: Marissa
Our big boy has finally turned the big 1!!! Friday January 4, 2008 we celebrated Girums first birthday with a traditional Ethiopian meal. We had our family and friends over. We ordered a ton of food (literally) of which we only ate about a half. It was very spicy and a lot if the kids ended up having hot dogs instead, although all of the adults said it was like heaven! I will have to admit it was excellent and my favorite was Dora watt a dish with a spicy red sauce, chicken and hard boiled egg. Mom also bought red and yellow lentils, (the red was way more spicy then the yellow.) “ “Attecult” cabbage with carrots. This funny thing happened when my mom tried to buy some of the food. She kept saying “I want the attecult!” and the lady at the African market kept saying “what three atteclut?” well it turns out that attecult does not mean cabbage and carrots in Ethiopia it means vegetables! So all mom was saying was “I want vegetables!” (Funny huh?). There was my second favorite dish tibs, includes beef and onions. The Ethiopians have spicy food, so they have this cheese that they put on top of all their food to make it less spicy. To me it tasted a little like milk, so the lady at the African market filled a whole take out box with it so we had that too. You can’t forget the Injara when you have Ethiopian food! They use the Injara as silverware, pinch, grab, eat! You have to be carful if you eat to much it expands in your stomach! Our Aunt Brook took home a big package of the left over Injara and said. “This stuff makes me feell like I have a lot of energy. So I am going to take this home and this is all I am going to eat for three days and see how I feel.” She will do it too! We will have to tell you how she feels,
Girum got his own cake, and it was huge! Mom decorated the Ethiopian flag on it and set it in front of him he make a gigantic mess! He had frosting all over his face and his little body.
Everybody had a great time celebrating are little guys birthday. We are so blessed to have him in our home and have him be able to show use what is important in life. He has been a blessing in our life and we love him so much!!!!!