Today is a special day...a milestone in the adoption/attachment journey. Today, Maeve has been with us longer than she had been without us. She has had two loving parents longer than not... rocked to sleep covered in prayer more nights than not...splashed and played in the bath tub more nights than not...cuddled and tickled, kissed and sang to more days than not. I mourn the days that we have not, but thank Him endlessly for the ones we have and the ones that lie ahead...and marvel in the miraculous healing power of love (ours and hers).

I wanted to share a couple of my hair accessory storage solutions. I've look all over the web and Pintrest to find a good solution to organize headbands and bows...and keep them out of my way. I kind of had a light bulb moment when I saw this pant hanger in the back of a closet.


The cool thing is that the arm things swing out to let you take the headband off. I just hung ribbon from the bottom bar and clipped the bows to them. I even have room for two more ribbons.

When my daughter was tiny, she wore mostly headbands, but now that her hair is getting longer. I don't let her wear it out very often. We mostly do protective styles. To keep up with all of the rubber bands, etc, we use this jewlery bead organizer from JoAnn's.

I just saw that all jewelry and beading storage is 40% off at JoAnn's right now. I could use a couple more of these since I'm going to start using beads on her braids. I'm kid of lusting after this one. It looks like this could almost be an all in one storage unit for us, with combs, brushes, clamps in the top and pray bottles hanging off the sides. We'll still have to keep our shower caddy bucket for big jars of conditioners and styling creams, etc. I'll have to check it out in person to see if it will work :)

As far as logistics go, I keep a spray bottle (water, conditioner, & olive oil) hanging off the side of her diaper caddy. I spray her hair in the morning to add moisture and then slather her down with lotion. I keep a small shower caddy basket of her detangling conditioner, regular conditioner, sulphate-free shampoo, combs, etc. beside the bath tub. The rest of the hair accessories normally stay in the TV cabinet in the den, since we style while watching Sesame Street.

My sister and her family came up from South Texas to celebrate Thanksgiving at my Dad's. It is so fun to see these adorable cousins together...although hearing protection might be a good idea next year (lots of squealing and screaming).

We celebrated Halloween at a big neighborhood party...which was so much fun.

I'm trying to catch up a bit on my blogging, so the next few posts will likely be mostly pictures;)

Maeve turned 2 in October, and we were so happy to celebrate her with lots of family and friends...many from out of town.

Happy Enkutatask! (Ethiopian New Year- 2004!)

Yes, you read that correctly.
Enkutatash is the Amharic word for New Year which will be celebrated in Ethiopia on Sunday September 11, 2011. Ethiopia follows the Orthodox Julian Calendar which consists of 12 months of 30 days each and a 13th moth consisting of 4 or 6 days. This means the Ethiopian calendar is seven years behind our Western calendar and it will be the year 2004.
The Madine family will be celebrating by attempting our first Ethiopian coffee ceremony at home, roasting our own beans, burning Frankincense and everything . You can read more about this very important part of Ethiopian culture here.

We will also be attending a dinner for adoptive families at our local Ethiopian restaurant.
A couple of weeks ago we attended the 10th Annual Ethiopia Day celebration in Plano. Here’s a great pic of our little Habesha (Ethiopian).

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, enjoying your friends and family, especially on the 10th anniversary of so many losing so much.