Ethiopia Trip Number 2

First I just want to say that we just celebrated Amayah T's one month home anniversary this weekend!  She is doing so well....adjusting to our family and life in America quicker than I ever thought she would.  We are so happy to have her home finally, there's never a dull moment around her.....she is continually crackin' us up.... her sense of humor is a hoot!

AND.....yesterday was Court Day for our son "Z"......we are praying that all of his papers are in order and especially that the MOWA letter will be there for him.  Todd and I met with the judge last time we were there and the meeting went very well.....I feel like she gave us her approval at that time for him to join our family and that this court date was just a formality.....BUT he will only pass court if all of the needed paperwork is there.  We are still awaiting news of whether we passed or not.....

We will make an announcement and introduce him as soon as we can.  But for now...here is a picture of us looking at the map and talking about where we live and where other family members live.....and about the kinds of things we do here in Michigan.  =)

Anyway.....

So....like I said in my last post.....we arrived safely, without our luggage, but we were very fortunate that our travel agent was able to track down our bags and get someone in DC to put them on the next flight over.  I was so happy to see those bags.....I don't even want to think about what COULD have happened to them!  =(

We arrive at the guest house desperately wanting to freshen up, but guess what??  ......just before we got there the water got shut off!  Isn't that just the way it goes?  So.....after about 48 hours of travel with no showers, we headed off to go see our kidders.....nothing was going to stop us from going to see them now that we were that close!   We had planned to just visit and not bring Amayah back to the guest house with us for a couple of days.  We wanted time to be able to show our daughter Haylie around Addis a bit and also to be able to get all of our shopping done before we had Amayah with us 24/7......plus we wanted to let her get used to us again before we took her away from everything she knew.

One skill you need to learn very fast after arriving in Ethiopia is the skill called "go with the flow".   One thing led to another during that very short first visit and the next thing we knew, we were sitting in the director's car with our precious little girl headed back in the direction of our guest house!  Ummm....what just happened here??!  All I could think of was poor Z.....he waited so long for us to come back, and then we no sooner get there and we end up leaving with the munchkin and he's just standing there watching us drive away!  =(

So off we went, back to the guest house to start our new life together.  We were so thankful that there was another family staying there that was picking up their boys from Amayah's group....it helped her tremendously to have M&M there!

We had a very busy schedule while we were in Ethiopia this time.....so much to see and do....  

We went to visit the boy we sponsor from Korah through Project61 and got to attend a church service there.  That was quite the experience....did you know that an Ethiopian church service could go on for hours and hours??!!  We met lots of really great kids while in Korah.....one or two in particular that we would have loved to bring home with us!  While we were there we gave out some of the donations that we brought....things like clothing, toys and art/school supplies.  Definitely didn't have enough time to spend there and would love to go back some day.  Sumer, the lady who runs the Korah sponsorship program, is amazing.....just love her!

This is us with Tesfaye and Sumer

This is the precious little one that we wanted to bring home  =)

We also went on a two day trip to visit the town where Amayah is from.  It took about 4 hours to get from Addis to Asella.  During the first hour or so of the trip, the road was jam packed with lots of cars and big trucks....the air was full of exhaust fumes!  But once we got farther away from Addis, it was like we were driving back in time, into another world.  I felt like I was in a National Geographic magazine!

This is someone's home.....that is actually hay piled in those mounds!  

I have no idea how they do it...

This is a sugar cane plantation

Kids tending their donkeys....the donkeys are carrying water.

While we were in Asella we visited the orphanage that Amayah was brought to. 

It's pretty small and there were only a few babies in care at the time we were there.  From what we could understand, it is basically just an intake center......as soon as they can, they send the children on to bigger orphanages or adoption agency care centers.

People going about their day in Asella

The day we left Addis Todd went outside the gates of our Guest House and gave out the last of the goodies that we brought with us.  We had about 3 soccer balls, some small toys and some candy left.  Keep in mind that every time we left the protected gates of our Guest House we were mauled by kids begging for candy and such.  I wish I would have gotten pictures of the other times Todd was giving out treats....there were times he barely made it out of the mob scene with his clothes on!  They would stick their hands in his pockets and pull on his shirt to try to get at the candy or to get his attention!

Handing out candy....this is only a small group of kids...

sometimes the group was triple this size.

So happy that he got a soccer ball....he's running home with it so

that the other kids on the street don't take it away.  Wish I 

would have gotten the look on his face!

There was much more on our to-do list....and we managed to get it all done in the time that we had....thank goodnes!  All in all, it was another wonderful trip to Addis......although it was very difficult to leave Z behind.

There are so many precious children just waiting to hear that they have a family.....a couple of whom I would have loved to sneak into my suitcase and bring home.  It was hard to leave them behind also.....

Blessings on your day....