Back after a nice break

We're back after spending the last five days in sunny Chelan, WA. It was a nice 90-100 degrees the whole time, which was apparently quite pleasant compared to the 107 we were missing at home. We had a wonderful time hanging out with extended family, soaking up the rays, swimming and boating. I'll post pictures from our trip later. In the meantime, we came home to....

A new letter from Benjamin! He is so sweet in his letters, and again talked about how happy he is to be in our family, how he loves and misses us, and specifically mentioned both Emma and Isaiah (who he prefers to call "Eftalem", which is fine with me). The sweetest part was that he sent gifts for each of us. Now, a boy living in an orphanage doesn't exactly get to run down to the mall to pick up little trinkets for his family members. So he sent us what he had: pictures of himself, presumably taken by other traveling families who then sent them back to the orphanage. Each one of us got a different photo with our names written on the back. In the picture labeled "Mom" Benjamin is in the cafeteria, jumping off a bookshelf in karate form, reaching a seemingly impossible height. He has a look of combined concentration and silliness on his face. Too funny!

There is one thing I am still confused about; whether to call him Benjamin or Biniam. Our agency refers to him as Biniam, as do other families who have adopted friends of his. However when we met him in Ethiopia, he introduced himself as Benjamin. To confuse things even more, in his first letter to us he signed his name "Biniyam", and then in yesterday's letter it was signed "Benjamine". So there you have it. I have no idea what my son's name is, or how to spell it.

We are still waiting for our court date. I am pretty sure this is the longest any assigned group has ever had to wait to find out when their actual court date is. Ever.