What NO Fork??????

Well the oppertuntiy comes but once a year. The oppertunity for we the parents to go out together, no children. Yes 24 hours of alone. Thanks to our local Down Syndrome Guild and the planning of a yearly Mind your Marriage conference,that this year lasted a whole two hours... Don't tell our babysitters though. We need the extra 22 hours to discuss what we learned at the confrence. You all understand right??So I only had two things on my wish list this year.. first eat authetic Ethiopian food. What do you know there was a lovely restraunt called the Blue Nile Cafe only moments from our hotel. Problem Gary did not really want to travel by car. We had the priveledge of this year staying at the Westin Crown Center and there are lots of great places to eat that you can walk to without having to ever go outside. I was supportive I assured him (as I called the front desk to get directions) that we could go anywhere for dinner he wanted. So after the nice lady gave me directions we jumped in the car (alone) and took the five minute drive to the Blue Nile Cafe located at City Market. It was just a little place it filled up quickly on a Saturday night which was nice because that gave us a chance to watch other people eat before we gave it a go. We had a waitress who is Native Ethiopian. This was great she was able to explain everything wonderfully to us. She even took the time to answer questions that had nothing to do with food. Very helpful Ethiopian food and education. We had the Sample Platter which consisted of 8 different vegetarian entrees and one each of chicken, beef and lamb. All served on top of Injera a soft, spongy, national bread made from teff and wheat flour. Ehtiopian food is traditionally served in communal platter and eaten using injera bread instead of utensils. Yes we ate with our fingers... sorta. You tear off some injera (with your right hand only) then kind of pinch the bread around the food and eat. The injera has sort of a sour dough taste but not to much. I don't care for sourdough and I liked it. We bought some extra and I made fake Ethiopian food for the kids the next night they all took a shot at eating with injera instead of forks.
At the Blue Nile the uniform shirt has a fork with a red circle and a line through the fork.It was a really neat experiance and really great food. We now know Gary and Morgan will not starve.The owner of the restraunt Daniel also a Native Ethiopian must have just known we were going to adopt. He asked if we had a baby picked out and told us about his trip back from Ethiopia last month. He said the plane was half full of babies (children) coming back with their new Mom's and Dad's. He sure helped us to feel good about our choice. Some have asked if we knew how the people of Ethiopia felt about white Americans coming over and adopting their children. Daniel said it was an honorable thing for us to do. Although God is all the reasurance we need. It was nice to have him to valadate our choice. If you have time be brave and try the Blue Nile Cafe. www.bluenilekc.com/reviews.html
Oh what was the second thing I wanted to do... having this oppertunity to not have to feed anyone else take anyone to the potty, or change a diaper during a meal...all alone with my husband.. for our one overnight a year... you guesed it.............. SLEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for joining us on our adventure.
Tiffany