Drawing A Crowd

In the USA, we grew accustomed to drawing lots of stares. I got it. I am a white mama with identical Ethiopian twins. I sometimes got bugged and wanted to beg, "Please, just let us be normal!"

Turns out, that may have been very decent training ground. :)

Jon and I are clearly farenj (foreigners) and are referred to as this most everywhere we go. Farenj is not said in a derogatory way, just factually. When I was in Mexico, I was just called "guera" (light one) in the same way, not insultingly, just stating the obvious. Here we can draw quite the crowd, especially in more remote spots.

This picture was taken as Jon drove through town. He wasn't giving out anything, just smiling and waving. These kids were not asking for anything, just smiling, waving and chanting, "farenj, farenj."

Add to our overall farenj-ness two Ethiopian identical twins (not common in our area) who speak English and not Amharic? It is enough to make anyone gather around and try to figure it out.

Overall, The Littles do really well with the attention. Again, it is not given in a rude or threatening way, just curiosity and fascination.

They are hugged and kissed and loved much.

Sometimes it puts the Littles on edge. "Mom, why are they all looking at me?" Other times they play to the crowd. :)

We get lots of questions and I have tried to explain adoption but have a language barrier. I say it in English and a few people nod along like they understand and I finish and they say, "Okay, but where is the mom?"  This has led to some interesting conversations with The Littles lately.

"What do you mean my Mama died?"

"Where is my daddy?"

"Are you going to die?" 

Thankfully, they have dialogued through it and I think it has actually increased their security, for us to reaffirm, over and over the story of our family. It's tough but so good. We talk about how my daddy died and I was adopted. It seems normal to them. We chat over dinner about God's adoption of each of His children as sons and daughters.

When I wake up, I rarely can anticipate all the new experiences and conversations we will have, it makes life stay fresh and very interesting.