Day 3 - Lake Ziway

I decided that while we were here in Ethiopia we ought to go do a little sight seeing. I didn't have much time to decide and we ended up traveling to Lake Ziway. It is the largest lake in Ethiopia’s Central Rift Valley and is home to thriving bird populations and hippos. We took a tour by Bird Island and saw lots of different birds and then headed to an island. We got out and walked up to a monastery that was said to possibly have kept the ark of the covenant at some point (it's debatable). We didn't get to go inside, it was closed since the priest had to go to the mainland?? I was bummed. They boys weren't all that interested anyway :) we headed back to the boat and off to find some hippos - we got lucky!
 Overall it was a nice day - LONG drive but good. On the trip we passed through some smaller towns and even smaller villages, it was nice to see the country side and the people who lives there. Some were tilling the ground with help and others by hand. We saw many donkeys hauling jerry cans and horse taxis - hey were working very hard!

  We saw many thatch roof/mud hut homes in the country side....

 Gig'em

 This was the monastery....unfortunately we didn't go inside.

 our boat

Hippos! They were pretty shy but we were happy they showed their faces.

LONG drive....they did great.

Day 1 and 2

Monday we picked up Berihu, such a long awaited day! It was pretty uneventful, we hung out at the orphanage for an hour or so then went back to the hotel. Berihu started to go to our “old” room it was cute…we showed him the new room. We ate lunch at American burger – Berihu ate a whole hamburger and fries and I found out he likes lettuce, tomato and onion. Braden and I split pizza…real traditional, I know J We played cards(skipBo), played soccer, threw football and decided to dine in at the hotel with our friends who are also here.  We finished the night showering and watching Toy Story in bed. Braden and I slept the whole night which was nice, no issues. Berihu woke up at 5:30! I saw him moving the shades to look outside (but it was still dark) and so I told him to try and go back to sleep. I woke up an hour later, sun was rising and he was still looking out the window so I gave him some of the kid magazines I brought. We had a slow morning which was nice. We went to the park for a little while and then had our embassy apt. All paperwork is finished on our end and we will go back Thursday to get his visa and immigration packet. This is a packet that we will give to immigration when we arrive in the US, it is sealed and not to be opened except by US Immigration officers. We did this with Reese too. These records will go to the government (some where J ) and then we will receive his certificate of citizenship, social security card etc in the mail later. After embassy we headed back to the park for a little bit, played dodge ball, soccer, basketball and bowling with water bottles (we got creative). Tomorrow we hope to go out of the city for a little site seeing…should be fun.

 reading magazines while we sleep :)

 went to the spice shop to get some berbere to bring home.

walking back to the hotel from the park

We're back!

We arrived in the UK on Saturday morning and my cousin Daniel picked us up for the day. We had a great time visiting with family and it was fun for the kids to play. We went to the park for a few hours and had a picnic and then met more family back at home. Funny enough my Dad and Christina were there, they arrived the day before us, so we saw them as well. Suzanne cooked us a nice spaghetti dinner and spared us from the dinner on the plane :) We slept most of the way to Addis, which was nice. It was nice to catch up with one of our friends here but the day was hard as we didn't have much to do and were trying our best not to sleep the whole day! Tomorrow we get Berihu!

Oh and it seems I have forgotten my camera cable...bummer. I might start using my little camera so I can transfer photos to the computer.

Korah

The second to last day we were in Addis we had the opportunity to go visit the Center (ACDO - Access to Children Development Center) that some of our friends are involved with in Korah. Again I found myself in the familiar territory of the "slum". Poverty you know exists but we, the top 5% of the wealthy in the world, rarely see first hand (did you know that if you earn more than 34k /year you are categorized into the top 5% of the worlds wealthiest? Actually it might be 3%). 
 The area is consumed by poverty, leaving many widowed and orphaned. Illness spreads quickly due to scarce and tainted food, filthy living conditions and a lack of clean water. Most who survive do so through begging, prostitution and living off of the city’s garbage dump; a place many orphans call home. Men, women and children spend their days searching and sifting through the trash, desperate to find food or discarded metal and plastic they can salvage and sell for pennies.
 We pulled up to the center and went inside. It is gated and there is a tin roof and the sides and floor are covered with tarp. The sponsored children come to the center on Friday for extra tutoring (since their school is lacking) and then on Saturday they have a Bible class/fellowship. Among the darkness there is this light and it shines brightly. We met two of the leaders, men who love the Lord and want to bring hope and a future to the people of Korah. We left and they took us to where many live, right beside the city dump. The smell of trash, the heat, homes made of discarded trash found in the dump .....oh but the faces. The children immediately came to Nati who was showing us around, he was popular :) A few followed us around as we visited a few homes of children in the program. We were told we could look inside their homes but I felt rude and besides I could take a guess at what was inside (or what wasn't inside). All around the kids so readily smiled...it blows my mind every time I see it. 
 That day our "sponsor family" grew by 2 more girls. Sponsorship saves families, the end. Families who give up their children don't do so out of choice - they are desperate, love their children and can't bare to see them starve. It is an act of love BUT it can be prevented, sponsorship is one tool that helps to keep families together and provide opportunity that would otherwise not be had. It is overwhelming when you feel you can't help everyone but you have to start small, you know? The two girls below are 9 and 11 and neither have ever had the opportunity to attend school. When you can't feed your children you can't pay school fees, children watch siblings/family while parents dig in the dump in hopes of finding something that will yield a profit. If you are interested in sponsorship you can check out this organization our friends have introduced us to http://www.i117.org/  or you can also sponsor through Compassion International http://www.compassion.com/default.htm . 

Kurt talking to Nati, one of the leaders at the center. The center is in the background.

  Tihune and Guday - our new friends :)

Homes lined up....all made from trash. I cannot imagine what this looks like in the rainy season.

 This man is headed over the hill, you can see the line of trash just there at the top as well as scattered all up the path he is taking. 

 A few homes we saw were made from straw

Nati with a few boys he knew. He is studying social work at the university.

Today (Thursday) we had court, it went smoothly and quickly, very uneventful which was great. Berihu is now legally ours, to God be the glory! We all came back to the guest house and the older kids stayed (as they went to court with us) and I went down the street and brought back pizza for lunch. We ate, played cards, soccer, basketball, keep away…you name it. The weather was great, it was just nice to hang out and relax. Oh and we have a new name for that “chillax”, there is a restaurant here and Truitt has taken to it’s name (Chillax) and likes to use it now…too funny. Chill out + relax=chillax  J The kids left late today, it was our last day with them. We said our goodbyes, gave him a card we wrote in and left him the UNO game (which he loves), Go Fish and the soccer ball. We waved as they drove off and felt a bit sad but happy we’ll be back soon to bring him home. We packed up and went out for dinner with our friends who are still here. We have made great friendships, it’s too bad we live all over the states. Hopefully we’ll all see each other when we travel back in a few weeks. Now we wait to head to the airport…so ready to be home!

 Just relaxing today...Truitt with no shirt because well, that's how he rolls ;)

 Lots of games with Dad

Finally it's official!

Monday – our wake up call didn’t come at 5 like we asked, Kurt happened to wake up and look at his phone, it was 5:20 and we had to leave at 5:30! We did most packing the night before so we were pretty much ready but rushed downstairs only to be told that one parent would go get the child while the rest of us waited there. Really?? Anyway Kurt went so Truitt and I could have breakfast. They came back about 40 minutes later. This is Africa time :) Oh well, we’re functioning on little sleep anyway but still annoying to rush downstairs to leave an hour later. Kurt came back with Berihu and the other parents and we all left for the airport, checked in and were ready to go . Berihu was excited, on the plane they had the ‘old school’ arm rests with the numbers for the channel and volume – he couldn't stop playing with it. He paid attention to the emergency procedure video…I wondered if it was freaking him out so I put my hand on his and asked “are you ok”…big grin “yes”. As we took off and went up he just smiled and as we went through the clouds he laughed…it went very well. We played UNO, had a snack and then landed, it was a pretty quick ride. We came straight to the guest house, got settled and they took the kids for lunch and to the new orphanage in the city where they will stay for until we return to pick up on second trip. They will come to the guest house for a few hours tomorrow which will be nice.  After the kids left we went to the postal market, we bought Berihu a jersey and I bought a few other things. I need to go back (we ran out of money!) and get more jerseys for the boys....it will probably have to be on our second trip. We had a  good day :)

 He LOVED his first plane ride!

After the kids left we went to a local park

Sunday was palm Sunday, people here all make rings out of palm leaves and wear them. When we got to the orphanage Berihu had made us all a ring at church. Today was similar to the last, we hung out, played card cards, played soccer and let him have some time on the kindle. We played some learning games and it was neat to find out some of what he can do in English, he is pretty sharp  ;) He can do addition, subtraction and some multiplication, we counted by 5’s. I’m impressed, it’s nice to know we are not starting right at the beginning, he has a decent English base. I figure by end of summer he’ll be fluent, or close to it!

We left the orphanage early on this day, I guess to give the kids time with the nannies before they leave the following day, not sure I didn't understand why but it was fine. This gave us a chance to go out and do a little shopping, we bought Berihu a bible in his native language, Tirgayana. On our way to visit an old castle (which is now a hotel) we hopped out of the car and took one of the little taxis. Two things Truitt wanted to do was ride the taxi and swim….today we did both. After a little wondering around we went back to the hotel and Truitt swam for a little bit, it was pretty cold but he had fun. We went to bed early since we needed to be downstairs at 5:30.

 Truitt lost his first tooth. In Ethiopia it is tradition to throw it on the roof but he decided to keep it and put in under his pillow. I left a dollar and 1 birr on his side table, when he woke up and saw it he said "thanks mom". Made me laugh :)

 Lots of ball games were played

We played UNO a lot, Berihu and the other kids really like it.

Truitt really wanted to ride in the little taxi...since we're such awesome parents we made that happen ;)

 I thought he'd be more excited?! He had fun though. 

The castle/hotel

We finally Meet

We arrived in Mekelle around 9 or so, our flight was very short. After we unloaded everything at the hotel we headed straight for the orphanage. When we got there the school age kids were at school and they went just down the road to get them. One family met their little boy in the mean time and then they all walked through the gate. As we saw Berihu he had that great smile beaming, he came over and said hi and we all gave him little hugs :) He was particularly taken with Truitt, he put his arm around him and went to show him his room. He currently sleeps on the bottom bunk....so transitioning his his bunk and home will be no problem. I showed him a photo of his room and pointed to his bed and Braden's bed - he smiled big and seemed pleased. We looked at some other photos too and he proudly named everyone as we did. I was pleasantly surprised at his English, he understood much of what we said. Then he asked Truitt if he wanted to play a game so off they went. We played soccer much of the afternoon with everyone joining in - good bonding :) We left for lunch and a few errands and the whole time listened to Truitt say "can we go back to the little orphanage and see Berihu", "when are we leaving, I wan to go play with Berihu"...as annoying as it was it warmed my heart :) We did of course go back and the soccer match resumed. We gave hugs when we left and said we'd return tomorrow. 

 

We were getting ready to go and I found Truitt telling Berihu a story as he ate his lunch. I'm not sure what all he understood but it sure was cute.

Lots of soccer...I even showed off some of my skills - ha!

Finally

The day has finally come! Our flight was an hour late but we got to eat a good meal and relax before getting on the plane. As I type I am on the airplane heading to Ethiopia with Truitt and Kurt by my side. Truitt is very excited...I think I may fall asleep first out of our crew :)
 We arrive in Addis at 12:15am on Friday, we'll take a short trip to the guest house and have about 5 hours there to sleep, shower and just hang out. At 745am (Friday) we will travel up to Mekelle and go to Family Umbrella Orphanage. There are 4 other families traveling to meet their kids. CAN.NOT.WAIT. On Monday we return to Addis with Berihu and he an the other kids will get settled into the transition home. I'm thankful we'll be there for those first few days as he adjusts. We have court on Thursday and then fly out at lam on Friday.
 Praying for Berihu's heart as he prepares to meet us...and ours too. God is good!

January Birthdays

We actually have 3 January birthdays now - Blake on the 6th, Berihu on the 13th and Reese on the 28th. We sandwich Christmas :) Blake had a little party at Chucky Cheese...not my favorite place but he had his last party at home and really wanted CEC so we agreed.

 Blake's quieter side :)

Reese turned 4. We had planned to have a small affair at Chickfila then a cupcake shop with 2 friends. This turned out to be the day we had "ice" and school was cancelled. We had a lazy morning with our friend Lilly (this "ice day" was perfect since our friend was only with us for a day!!) then we all went out for a birthday lunch and dessert.  It was cold but a great day!