still here but bleeding ethiopian birr

Alot has been going on here in sunny lalibela. The kids are getting settled into routines now, but they are also getting more familiar with us which is both good and bad. i love that they have all pretty much taken me on as mama, but you have to take the good along with the bad and the last few days they haven't been on their best behaviour. of course they dont speak much english, so most of it goes over my head but then S comes home and i find out they've been bad. nothing too terrible, just name calling and disobediance and it's stuff that we're getting on top of now that good behaviour reward systems etc have been introduced. but it's been a long past few days.
it kinda seems like it never rains but it pours here. everything broke down at once, hillary got a nasty eye infection and her diarrohea got alot worse, the babies somehow managed to dismantle part of the sink in the kitchen so we couldnt use it, the bath wouldn't drain, the kids broke one of the light switches, the lights in angelini's house wouldnt work and then we heard news that both of the babies mothers had cleared out of town. we went to investigate that yesterday and indeed they have left and noone knows where to. i'm sad for the babies as it means loss of contact with their birth mothers, but im hopeful they will resurface at some point. it means ive taken on the role of mama for real with them though and it's funny timing because all of a sudden, the babies really have adopted me as mama and only come to me for comfort whereas before they would go to S, and ytinet was terrified of me.
but anyways, we got the electrician and plumber in yesterday and got the house stuff sorted and were able to move our guard into the downstairs of angelini's and S moved his stuff upstairs. of course today the kids all decided to take baths despite our alternate day policy and surprise, surprise, the bath is now broken again.
but it's ok, i have faith things will work out. these are all just teething problems and at the end of the day, i take comfort in the fact that these kids now have a family and i will do everything in my power to make sure they can continue as such. it's saturday today and every saturday so far there has been at least one meltdown because on sundays the kids who have extended family here in lalibela go and visit them after church. there are 3 kids though who have literally no family left at all and when the others go to visit their aunts/uncles etc there are always a few tears. so tomorrow we will take those 3 (abraham, winesnet and turet) and go do something nice with them.
ok well someone is waiting for the internet so i shall have to go
xx