Lead us to Levi

"O -KAY" he says.  The response given by sweet Z every single time you tell him something.  Sometimes he'll say "O-KAY Mommy" in the sweetest tone.  He'll nod his head, his eyes say "Yep, got it", but his actions that follow will often tell an entirely different story.

We are now stuck.  He is stuck - in a world between two spoken words.

We have hit a sad realization.  Our little boy no longer remembers his Amharic words.  Even simple words for "Car", "bring it" and "water".  The words that even we - his "farenge" parents had learned and used with him are now lost on him.  5 months home ... and it is gone.  My heart grieves a bit.  We are still left with a precious Ethiopian accent we can often not quite understand ... but the spoken Amharic word is now gone.   When I recently said the word for "Car" - Makena - in Amharic, he proceeded to ask "what es "Makena"?  My heart sank ...  I think we heard that word a 1,000 times a day.  It was for sure, the first word I learned.  It was also the first word he spoke to me.  It is now lost.

I am also realizing in the past few weeks that our sweet boy has grown a ton in his English words.  I mean, seriously, I am super impressed at all the things he knows.  The concrete ... the tangible words - bike, dog, cat, different foods and animals, letters, numbers and more.  You get the point.

But there is an entire other side to our language that is still completely lost.  The abstract - the things that one can't just explain by pointing a finger at an object or by physically showing an item for explanation.  The "do you understands" of it all ... of a discipline moment, of a response, of a voice tone and more.   For example, recently as we rocked I commented on something he said by saying "yes, Ma'am" - trying to teach him that his response should be "Yes Ma'am".  My effort to train my four year old - who like most four year olds wants to argue with me, his appropriate response.  Shaking his head when he doesn't like what I have asked of him, he'll quickly tell me "no - no, Mommy".   Trying to re-direct his response (that abstract concept), I will say "Oh, don't argue with Mommy ... we say "Yes Ma'am".  Staring back at me with that blank stare, I can tell he is lost in those words on most occasions.  What is "argue" his eyes say.  Still - I try.  It's the only way I know to teach these concepts - over and over again.   Every time they appear.  But on this occasion in the rocker he says "What es a MAM"?  Giggling, I tell him - it's a woman, a girl ... and how we are to respond nicely when asked a question.   He then looks at me with that same blank stare.  Nope - it hasn't quite sunk in yet.

Recently he has asked "What es pomis (promise)"?  "What es