1. This week I received a call from my childhood best friend, Tanya, who shared with me that she too is adopting a girl from Ethiopia and working with the same adoption agency I am and probably a month or so behind me in the process. Tanya and I have not talked in a couple years and this coincidence just floored me as she already has 3 children but wants to grow her family in this awesome way. I'm so excited and proud as it's just another great mother and another family to share experiences with.
2. When doing some of my Ethiopian research on famous Ethiopians I came across the name Marcus Samuelsson who happens to be the Executive Chef of Aqavit restaurant in NYC. What's nice about this coincidence is that one of my dear friends Russell, who happens to live in Sydney in the moment, some time ago introduced me to Aquavit (way before adoption thoughts) because of his unique and unexpected Swedish/Ethiopian fusion. This restaurant quickly became a special staple of my NYC visits and thought of so fondly that Alexis got Russell a restaurant cookbook to make for us while in LA.
Marcus is not only a famous Ethiopian but was adopted by a Swedish family at age 3 and considered a premiere chef throughout the world. He reflects on his cultural identity, "The difference between an immigrant and an adopted kid, is that when you are an immigrant you are more clear on your identity; you are Ethiopian. When you are adopted you are stripped a little bit of one identity, and when you grow up you sort of go back to that identity.” “
He compares his upper middle class Swedish upbringing with that of his childhood friend Mesfin’s, who lived in close proximity to Stockholm’s ‘Little Ethiopia’ neighborhood. “What my friend Mesfin had was a community that I wasn’t familiar with. He was exposed to Ethiopian music, language, identity and customs.”
It's so helpful to hear stories from adults about their experiences to help broaden my awareness and parenting priorities.
3. Andy's constant supply of Ethiopian T-Shirts that he rocked in LA. I love it - bring it.
4. On father's day I was lucky enough to share brunch with 3 other couples. Two of which are waiting and ahead of me and the other who recently picked up their precious son. It was wonderful to hear about each story and relate. I learned that coincidentally, one of the men and I worked on the same movie together that he directed and I helped market. The funnier part is that those who know me, know I have little to no memory regarding movie moments (even though it is my business) and for some reason I have a handful of lines that I still use from this movie (and obviously so does he) so we had a lot of laughs over that (and Russ, it was actually a comedy - so we were laughing with it)...
5. Today on the streets I noticed Bob Dylan banners and right now as I type "Lay Lady Lay" is playing on my random select mode from my itunes (out of hundreds of options). And in case you didn't know, he's one of my dad's favorites. All these small nods are adding up ;) thanks dad.
So I guess to sum it up Rev Run style -
It surely is a small world where special meals take new meaning, old friends become new again, t-shirts only get cooler, music speaks to the heart and movie moments create the start of a beautiful bond.
P.S. Now my "random" itunes is playing "Hooray for Hollywood" - Dad is definately joking around with me now - LOL.
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