"Hola!" That is Hello in Spanish, but it has a lot funnier meaning at our house these days. On May 3, Nate and Dag went under the knife for some medically necessary circumcisions. The months leading up to this event brought several hilarious comments from the little boys to the big boys or visa versa, but we'll keep those in the family. If you think circumcisions should not be discussed on a blog....Stop reading now, I'm not going to be graphic, but I have to record the comments and memories of this event because they truly were priceless.
So the first couple days after the operation were a breeze. Everything was bandaged up good and the boys didn't miss a beat. I was a little let down, thinking I didn't even get a day of moaning and groaning on the couch...until two days later when the dressing came off. It took about 2 hours in the tub to coerce them to let me take the stuff off in the first place, and then as soon as they took one look at their new "buddy", the moaning and groaning began. More like weeping and whaling. The first thing Nate said between tears was, "Mom, it looks like a hot dog!" I reminded him that that was why we sometimes call it a weeny at our house. Then came the three times daily application of ointment to the wounds. Dag, loves Dora the Explorer, and her cousin Diego, both cartoons on Nickelodeon that teach a lot of Spanish. He could watch those two for hours, and thanks to the magic of TIVO he has hours recorded for those days I just need to get some things done. Anyhow, he struggles with the English language as it is, and then we throw Spanish into the mix, and he is really mixed up. Anyhow, as I go to apply the ointment that first night, he is weeping and whaling and as I rub it on he hollers, "H-O-L-A, Hola, Hola!" Like that is the word for ouch, ou-wee or oh man, this hurts. I burst into laughter, which didn't help comfort him, and "Hola" has continued in times of pain ever since.
Finally, after about 8 days of moaning, I didn't hear anymore complaints about, "My peepy hurts!" at every little wrong movement. However, about a month later Dag got a bloody nose, and at the sight of the blood, he cried, "mommy, my peepy hurts!" You think they're a little traumatized? To top that off we go in for our month post-op exam, which you see pictured above and the darling pediatric urologist says, "come back and visit me sometime." We politely said ok, but inside we knew we would probably never cross paths again. WRONG! It wasn't but a week later that we discovered, after several doctors visits, a 6 mm kidney stone in Nate's bladder. Too big for a grown man to pass, let alone a five year old boy. So Nate went in June 15th for surgery again with the pediatric urologist, who said, "I was just kidding when I told you to come back and visit"....we're tight now. Once again a sore weeny and peeing experience for Nate for a couple days. I lay in bed sometimes and get the giggles thinking what must be going through his head....."I come to America and they can't stop messing with my peeter."
It was pretty much a done deal back in October 2009 when the courts in Ethiopia convened to declare Nate and Dag "Smith" children, and then again, on December 22, 2009 when we appeared at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and the grumpy worker said, as we were signing the forms for the boys' visas, "Now you know, there is a no return policy with these children, right?" But Monday August 16, 2010 at 10:30 am the judge declared it official in the State of Idaho, and the USA. It was quick and easy and when she asked us to share some thoughts about the past seven months with our children, I reminded myself I had just sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so I was, like always, brutally honest, and told her it was the hardest thing I've ever done, but also the biggest blessing in our family's life. I got emotional as I told her of the promise we made with their birth mom, that we would love them, care for them, educate them, and give them the family she always wanted them to have. (The mighty judge even had a tear in her eye.) 
