An update and a prayer request

Things are still going remarkably well for all of us - hence the lack of posting lately. Who really wants to read about how many times we've read "Go Dog, Go!" this morning or how long we spent kicking the ball back and forth in the street? Yikealo is just almost always a happy if somewhat goofy little boy. Last weekend, we bought a remote control truck for $1 at our next door neighbor's garage sale, and Yikealo has spent untold hours running it up, down and around our driveway. I'm not exactly sure though, who's enjoying it more: Yikealo or David! In the middle of all of the good stuff, Yikealo does seem to be trying to come to terms with people from his past. During the last two weeks he has started asking fairly frequently if we can go to Mihiret's house. When I've said that we can't, he wants to know if we can visit Genet instead. When that request is also met with a no, he asks if he can talk to them on the phone. When I tell him that I'm sorry, but we don't have their numbers, he wants me to re-tell his adoption story. Right now, it goes something like this:

Me: "Yikealo, remember how Mihiret had ouchie hands?"
Y: "Yes."
Me: "Well, she couldn't take care of you anymore, so she took you to Hannah's Hope - to Genet and Alem and Almaz. Do you remember them?"
Y: "Yes."
Me: "Then the people from Hannah's Hope called Amama and Ababa and said, 'We have a little boy for you.' So Mama and Ababa got on the airplane and went to Ethiopia and we got you and brought you to America. Now you're our little boy and you live here at Yikealo's house."
Y: "Yeah! Amama gotchoo! (He means 'got me') And then, Yikealo airplane and then Gwen 'Hi!' (Gwen met us at the airport in Cleveland) and then Yikealo's house! Yeah!"

Once I've taken the time to explain things again, he seems fine with everything, although I'm sure that he doesn't really understand that we can't just hop on a plane to go see all of them again.

He's also been obsessed with wondering if we think he's bad lately. If we show the SLIGHTEST bit of displeasure, he wants to know if he's bad. The conversation usually sounds similar to this:

Y: "Mom, more candy please."
Me: "No. Absolutely not. You've had enough candy."
Y: "Yikealo bad?"
Me: "No, you're a good boy, but I'm still not giving you more candy."

Or this:

Me: (in a somewhat annoyed tone) "Yikealo, PLEASE eat your lunch! You've been chewing that same bite for 15 minutes!"
Y: "Yikealo bad?"
Me: "No, you're not bad, you're just very slow."
Y: "Yikealo bad - Amama bite choo?" (It took me awhile to figure this one out, until he mimicked someone biting his arm.)
Me: (very emphatically) "No I'm not going to bite you! Why in the world would you think that? I've never bitten you! That would hurt, and I don't want to hurt you. I love you very much, sweetie!"
Y: (big smile) "Okay! Thank you! I love you too!"

Honestly, where did the whole biting thing come from? I can't imagine that anyone in his past has bitten him as a form of punishment. We've warned him not to be mean to Frankie (the cat) or she could bite him - is that what he's thinking of?

Unfortunately, right in the middle of this whole "we're your parents and we're not going to leave you" stuff, David's going to be spending a minimum of two nights in the hospital next week following his surgery. So, to those who are still patiently following this blog, we're asking for prayers: specifically that David's surgery will go smoothly and that Yikealo will not be too traumatized by the fact that his Ababa is not here for a couple of days. We've been talking about it - that Ababa is going to go to the hospital so the doctors can fix his ouchie, and Yikealo is looking forward to spending some quality time with his Aunt Suz on Monday and his Aunt Tigg (Karen) on Tuesday, but we'd really appreciate the prayer cover too!