Embassy Update

We received an update yesterday that our agency attempted to submit our file to the embassy, but they rejected it b/c our copy showing our passport-entry/exit stamp on the visa wasn't clear enough.  They will get a new copy and hopefully we will be submitted again next Wednesday.  Please pray that it gets resubmitted and the embassy finds no other 'problems' with the file. We are praying for quick clearance!  I am praying we get to go and are home by the end of October.  I believe it is a realistic possibility, it just depends on our lovely embassy.  Just, please pray!  I will keep things updated as soon as we find anything out!

Thursday and Friday, July 7-8, Days 8-9 in Et

The day was here!  This day at court was the entire point of the trip, it is why we made this journey.  Our chance to go before the judge and pray that she says, 'the boys are yours'.  We woke early and got all dressed up!  We had a chance to eat breakfast and then go and play with the boys for a few minutes.  We eventually loaded up, a few minutes later than we were supposed to, and took off.  We headed toward court, but unknown to us, it was an Orthodox Holy day.  The streets were crazy!  There were people everywhere!  Some of the streets were entirely closed off due to the masses of people.  Our poor driver, Ashenafi, was driving like a mad man to get us to court in time!  Thankfully, he was the driver we had the entire week, so we trusted him to get us there safely! (which he did)  We court to the court house, unloaded, went through security, headed up four flights of stairs, and took a seat in a waiting room.  The room was a plain room with chairs lining the walls.  There were both adoptive families and birth mothers in the same room.  It was a humbling place to be, especially after meeting our boys birth mothers.  There was sadness in the birth mothers and a complete joy in the adoptive parents.  We sat for a while, not too long, and were all called into the judges office together.  We sat in the tiny room, the judge verified who we were and who we were adopting, asked us a few questions, and then told us the children would be ours pending the MOWA letter appearing.  As good of an answer as any of us could have expected.  So, we were all pretty excited by this point and thankful that it was done.  We loaded up and headed back to the guest house to take it easy for a while that afternoon.  Around 4 or so, we headed out and went to the shopping area for about an hour or so, which was enough for us to finish getting most of what we wanted.  We finished shopping and went to dinner.  We went to the same traditional ET restaurant.  It was really good once again!  They did some different dances this time, so that was good to see!  After dinner, we went back to the guest house.  There was no where we had to be on Friday, so we had basically a free day ahead of us!

Dan and I at the restaurant

 A little group participation dancing!

Friday was the first day I was finally able to sleep in!  Praise God!  We had breakfast and spent time playing with the boys.  This was after all, our last day in Ethiopia.  A sad, but necessary day.  After a while, both boys got sleepy, so we took them back to the nannies and headed up to our room to get our things packed.  It took a fair share of time, but finally, packing was done!  We hauled everything downstairs and just hung out in the living room.  We took it easy, napped a bit, read a bit, and had a yummy lunch.  After lunch, we spent time visiting with Woudenah and then went to get the boys for a bit longer.  It was going to be time to head to the airport shortly, and we weren't ready to say goodbye.  We held and snuggled then until about 4:30, and then it was time to take them back to the nannies and say goodbye for now.  It was awful!  They both started crying and fussing when we gave them back to the nannies!  I was crying!  It was terrible.  All I could do was pray the day we could go back and bring them home would come soon!  Thankfully, I know they are being loved and taken care of, it doesn't make leaving them easier though!   We then loaded up with one other family and headed off to the airport.  As hard as it was to say goodbye, I was also excited to be seeing our Mason soon!

This is the main guard at the guest house

 Loading our luggage to head to the airport

 Us with Woudenah

 This is kind of cool with all the layers of the Ethiopian airlines planes. 

Our flight didn't leave until 10:45 that night or something like that, so we had plenty of time to wander around and grab a bite to eat.  We eventually got loaded and were on our way home!  The trip home was uneventful!  Thankfully! 

Now we anxiously await hearing from the embassy that our hearing is scheduled!  Please pray with us that there are no paperwork issues with the embassy and that we have a miraculous turnaround from the time we are submitted to when we travel to bring the boys home!  Thanks! 

Tuesday & Wednesday, July 5-6, Days 6 &7 in ET

Tuesday was probably one of the most easy going days we had the whole trip!  We were able to sleep in, theoretically...  Dan was able to sleep, I woke at 5:45 or so and went downstairs and started journaling.  Until that point, I hadn't done such a good job of it, but am now very grateful that I took the time to do it.  So much of this that I am writing, I have had to go back and read through the journal to recall it all.  So, back to Tuesday, Dan finally woke up and came down as well as the other family there.  We all had breakfast and then went to play with the kids.  We were expecting two more families at some point that morning, so we had the time to just hand out with the kids.  Dan was feeling quite a bit better, so that was great!  After the families showed up, Woudenah took us and the other family that had been there with us previously to the Sheraton to eat some lunch.  The hotel is super fancy and the food was great!  We ate outside near the pool, it was nice.    After we finished up, Woudenah's wife Betty came and took us shopping.  Woudenah had to go and work with another family.  We went shopping and were able to pick up a lot of the things we had wanted.  We purchased gifts for all three boys for over the years and special occasions.  We didn't get everything we wanted, but quite a bit.  After shopping we went back to the guest house and just visited with Betty and one of the new couples.  The other family was out meeting their children where they were located off site.  The cook at the guest house made us a fabulous dinner and we were all able to just enjoy the evening. 

On Wednesday, we got up and going.  The final family that was coming arrived Tuesday late night.  So, at this point there were 5 families and 15 people total.  We all got up and had breakfast.  Unfortunately, at this point, Dan and i had shared our stomach bug and gave it to two of the three other people in the family we had spent the previous days with.  We felt pretty bad about sharing at that point.  Finally we loaded up and headed out.  Honestly, at this point, I wasn't sure what we were doing for the day, but as we told Woudenah earlier in the week, we were along for the ride, whatever he wanted us to do!  So, we drove about an hour and half to Nazaret and stopped for coffee and a break.

On the way to Nazaret

 We loaded us and then headed out the Dhera.  This is the town where Woudenah is from.  The village/town has about 56,000 people and is one of the most drought ridden areas in Ethiopia.  At this point, the nearest source of water is about 7K (4 1/2- 5 miles) away.  Betty is the in country director for an organization that works to bring water to areas in need which has been working to bring water to this town.  The week prior to us coming, she had just secured the financing to finish the project in Dhera.  They had already built the reservoir for the water above the city, but had not had the financing to lay the pipe to bring water from it's source to the reservoir.  From there, there is pipe to gravity feed it to the city.  It was neat to see the site.  There were a bunch of kids and adults alike who had come to see us up there.  One of the ladies in our group was prepared and had brought suckers for the kids.  They were loving them!  We then followed Woudenah down the hill and walked to his parents home.  It was so neat to be invited in for lunch!  They had provided boiled potatoes and eggs as well as this yummy flat bread.  They prepared coffee for us as well.  It was such a neat experience to sit and share a meal with them in their home.  We said our farewells and headed to a grocery store to pick up bananas. 

On the way to Dhera

 The city of Dhera

 Dhera had the only 'feed lot' that we saw the whole trip.  We live in a feed lot community, so it was interesting to see theirs.

 The water reservoir

 Kids getting tootsie pops

 Tasting each others tootsie pops

 Lunch at Woudenah's parents place

 Woudenah with his parents

 Kids waiting outside their place for us to come out.

After gathering a bag of bananas for everyone, we headed to this hotel/resort/camp place to feed monkeys!  There were a bunch of monkeys as soon as we got out of the vans.  You had to hold your bag tightly because they would try and grab your whole bag of bananas out of your hands.  You could just toss them a banana and they would peel it and eat the banana and toss the peel to the side.  Woudenah said that later they would come back and gather the peels to eat as well.  After all the bananas we gone, we loaded up and headed back to Nazaret. 

On the way to the resort/hotel

 Monkeys!

There Woudenah took us to an orphanage there.  This was an opportunity for one family to meet the birth mother of the children they were adopting.  It was neat to watch the two mothers bond instantly over a love of their children.  This orphanage was completely fascinating for many reasons.  The man who founded the orphanage is working to make the orphanage completely self reliant.  They had gardens, cows for milk, and goats.  They were getting 60 chickens for eggs.  Most of what they ate came from their own grounds.  It was just a completely fascinating facility to see.  After touring the place, they invited us for a coffee ceremony.  We all gathered and a group of the older children came and sang a number of songs to us.  It was so great!  After the group sang, one of the young ladies came forward and sang two songs beautifully.  Her voice was amazing!  After the singing was done, we were served coffee and popcorn as well as the kids came around and offered us sodas.  It was fun to watch the kids because after they had served us, they each got one as well.  Even though they were in this orphanage, there was such joy in these childrens' lives.  It showed in their faces.  Dan and another guy sat and visited with the founder of the orphanage.  I just enjoyed watching the people in our group interact with the children and workers, watching an adoptive mother and birth mother sit and just be together, bonding in love.  It was such a wonderful experience.  This orphanage has meant a lot to Dan and I, on this trip as well as in our own life since. 

Watering system for a garden

 The boys room.  Dan thought it was neat to see the Bible on the bed by the pillow.

 'Our Guest Welcome'

 The Kitchen

 Milking the cow

 Other buildings at the orphanage

 The founder of the orphanage praising the Lord during the children singing

 Coffee ceremony

 Watering a garden

 This little girl was cute.  She grabbed an almost empty cup of coffee, finished it, and I also have a shot of her using her finger to get every last drop out of it. 

 Dan and the others who had been chatting saying a prayer before we left.

We spent a fair amount of time at the orphanage and afterwards, we headed out and actually stopped at the same resort we went to the first day Dan and I were in ET.
It was a beautiful evening.  We finished up eating and then headed back to the guest house.  The next day was what we had all been waiting for.  Our time in court!  Our chance to go before the judge.  We were all anxious and excited.  We headed to bed because we had to be ready to load up by 8:30 the next morning!

Sunday & Monday, July 3-4, Days 4-5 in ET

This was the first day we got to sleep in the entire trip!  It was great, except that we were up and going by 7.  I was thankfully feeling back to normal about this point!  We got ready and headed down for breakfast.  It was yummy once again!  We were able to sit and relax.  We met the family that had shown up the previous night.  It was nice to sit and visit, but we were all anxious to go spend some time with our little ones.  They are adopting an adorable baby boy!  We spent time playing with the boys and after a while, Woudenah showed up.  We loaded up and headed to this sports club place where we had the most wonderful Italian meal.

Streets of Addis

 After lunch, we loaded up and headed to a historic church on Entoto mountain. It was beautiful to see and fascinating to hear the history.  The paintings were absolutely beautiful. 

On the way up Entoto Mountain

 The church

 The paintings on the inside.  Beautiful!

After our time up on the mountain we headed back into town and went to the National Museum of Ethiopia.  It was interesting to see all the history and all the information.  It's not like museum's here.  There was so much stuff just sitting out for you to look at.  Not as much behind glass and what not.  Some things were, but not much!

Museum

 After we were done there we loaded up and drove around.  Wodenah showed us a lot of development and told us about the 'plans' for the city and things that were in process to help develop the city. 

City Construction

 Another lady on the street roasting corn.

We headed to Kaldi's and had some yummy coffee before heading to a traditional meal.  The traditional meal we went to was at a beautiful compound.  The place was a home that a man had started building for his children and their families.  It was gorgeous.  Unfortunately the man passed away before it was completed, so, his kids turned it into a traditional restaurant.  The food was fabulous and the music and dancing was great as well.  We really enjoyed ourselves.  It was also neat because Woudenah was pointing out which dances were from the regions our kids were from.  It was pretty late when we finished up, so we headed back to the guest house and headed to bed.  We were to head out Ambo the next day! 

Grounds at the restaurant.

 Musicians getting ready to play

 Dancers

 Part of our group getting involved in a dance/ceremony.

 Our dinner.  So yummy!

The next day started out beautiful.  The two of us families loaded up in the van with Woudenah and headed out of town again.  We stopped at a grocery store, picked up some water and snacks on the way.  We headed towards Ambo, which was about 2 1/2 hours or so away.

On the way to Ambo

 We got to Ambo, and then headed up this rocky mountain road.  About an hour or so on the way up, our van overheated.  We stopped and got out so the driver could do his thing.  There were two little ones who came out of a house not too far away.  They were adorable.  The children were in complete rags, their clothes were dirty and torn and ragged.  Woudenah was talking to the little girl as best he could (they spoke a different dialect) and he went and got them some cookie/cracker things he had picked up at the grocery store.  He handed a pack to the little girl, and opened the pack for the little boy and pulled out one for him and gave him the rest of the pack.  The little boy timidly started nibbling at it.  The little girl had a beautiful smile, the little boy was so shy.  All I could see looking at him, was that could have been my little boy.  My two year old at home had some similar features to this boy and all I could think is, this could have been him, hungry and in rags on the side of the road.  I lost it and started crying, so I headed to the other side of the van.  Their mother came out and got water for our driver to cool off the engine.  While doing so, she was talking to Woudenah, asking him to take her children.  It was heart breaking.  By the time we left, those kids had a good portion of the snacks and water we had.  So, we loaded up, and headed to rest of the way up the mountain.

Headed up the mountain out of Ambo to Wenchi

 The brother and sister who came out to visit us when our van was overheated.

 Being from a farming community, we loved the scarecrows.

  We get to the top to a place that led us into Wenchi Crater Lake.  We get out of the van, and are quickly loaded onto the smallest, skinniest horses I had ever seen.  We head down this road into this crater lake area.  The village of Wenchi is down there as well.  It was a 5k trek each way (down and back).  We got to the end of the horse ride, where we then hiked down to the lake and then onto a boat that would take us across to the island.  The history goes (as far as I can recall correctly) that back in the 16th century there was a war in Ethiopia and the guy was thinking he could wipe out Christianity by destroying the Ark of the Covenant.  -side note- all the Orthodox Christian church is Ethiopia are build with the center area, the Holy of Holies that holds a replica of the Ark.  It is believed that the true and original Ark is in another area of Ethiopia.  They did not know it at that time.  But, what they did to be sure was, they took all the replicas and had them brought to this church at the island in Wenchi Crater Lake to protect them.  Legend is that at one time this guy and his army came up one side of the ride and overlooked the lake.  All they saw was water, not the island.  It is unknown if that is because of the reflection of the sun on the water or what.  It is also said that a while later, the man and his army came back up the other side of the ridge and all they saw was fire.   A lake of burning fire.  It is said that the man leading the charge then died a few days later.  Anyway, it was completely fascinating to have this opportunity.  Unfortunately, this is the point in the story where Dan got the stomach bug I was sharing.  Mind you, we were literally in the middle of nowhere, still had a boat ride across a lake and a 5k horse ride up a mountain.  He was not in good shape.  We finally all made it out and to the van with plenty of stories for another day. 

Wenchi Crater Lake

 Even out here, Woudenah had signal.  That man works more than anyone I know.  he was on his phone constantly!

 The church on the island in the center of the lake.

We headed back down the mountain and back into Ambo.  The whole reason to go to Ambo was because the other family we were with; their little boy is from an orphanage there in Ambo.  We headed to the orphanage and were able to look around and see the facility.  As well, we were able to sit in and be a part of them finding out information about their son.  What a neat thing that was to share with them.  We will never forget being a part of that and feel a little attachment to him and his family after having been able to share in this day with them.

Orphanage in Ambo

 By this point, it was starting to get later int he afternoon, so we headed out one more time to head back to Addis.  It was a quiet trip thankfully.  We got back to Addis and ate dinner at this little cafe.  We had yummy hamburgers and french fries.  So good!  It was a late night, so we then just headed back to the guest house.  The next day, the other three families were to show up!  Thus starting the next round of adventures!