liberian-american celebration

In honor of our Liberian-American family, we headed to Memdee's Restaurant in south Philly for authentic Liberian cuisine. The restaurant was small, as we expected, with 4 items on the menu plus sides. Of course, the side dish we wanted was gone. So were all the desserts. We ordered one of each main course to share around. The kidney bean "soup" (the Liberian word for nearly everything that you eat on rice) was so good that we ordered a second dish. The kids haven't lost their taste for spicy food even though neither of their new parents are big fans. Garty wasn't eating solid foods in Liberia, but he enjoyed his first tastes of his native cuisine immensely.

Evidently a year does make a big difference in some respects because both Joshua and Patience choked on tiny fish bones. A year ago they would have sucked all the meat off them and spit them out without any trouble as Mommy sat nervously by. They had even forgotten all about "peppah soup" despite the fact that for months after they came home they would always pretend to make it for us. I was so excited that it was actually one of the 4 menu items, but they didn't seem to care one way or the other. It's sad to see them forgetting their past, but there's only so much we can do to remind them.

Because we missed out on dessert at the restaurant, we stopped at the McDonald's down the street and brought sundaes home to eat. You can't get more American than that. The crazy thing is that both Joshua and Patience said they were full and couldn't finish their ice cream!!!!!!!!! We knew that some day they would have to admit that they were full, and it finally happened. We could hardly believe it. Actually, all 3 of them looked like their bellies were going to pop. They definitely consumed enough Liberian food to last until next April.

We ended our evening by watching the video that was taken when we picked them up at the orphanage. It was a great night of remembering.