You Can Take the Child Out of Ethiopia, But You Can't Take Ethiopia Out of the Child

Let's see...where to start? This week was filled with firsts for our new additions. They had their first experience with:

* Walmart
* Their pediatrician
* Culvers
* Fast-flow nipples (parents getting babies in Ethiopia, buy these!)
* Riding a trike
* Going to the park (Jacee loves the swing. Charis...not so much)
* Hectors Mexican food (kids can eat some spicy stuff!)
* Picking up/dropping off Davi @ school
* Our church

Jacee is picking up English pretty well and parrots much of what we say. Charis isn't really doing that great with it yet. Maybe it's because she's only about 7 months so we'll cut her a little slack and give it some time. The other day Gina got home from being out with our two new girls and our dog Chelsea met them at the door and Jacee responded, "Hi Chelsea!" Davi, our oldest, has been a HUGE help with the girls by playing with them, loving on them, and teaching them English.

The jet-lag didn't take too long to get over and the girls have done a pretty good job adjusting to the time change. Now if we can just keep Jacee from falling out of her bed everyone can sleep through the night! We purchased bed rails today so that ought to corral the little bugger and give her a full nights sleep without being awakened by the pounding of her body on the floor!

Now...for the title of the blog. In Ethiopia as you're driving around it's not uncommon to see various aged children wandering around on the side of the road and squatting to use the street as a bathroom. Just a few moments ago Jacee used the backyard in a way that seemed familiar to her...glad to know she's feeling like she's home! Oh, we'll be keeping the new shoes we bought today too as they're not really returnable any longer.

Better go for now...Charis is in her Bumbo seat and has had her limit.

- Dave

Back From the Other Side of the World

Well, it's about 4 a.m. on Tuesday morning and I (David) am sitting here with our little 6 month old finally able to post on our blog. High speed internet isn't quite the same in Ethiopia and I was unable to access our blog there. Well, after some grueling travel we finally made it home on Monday, August 24th at around noon to some family and friends at the airport. It was so great to have so many come out and meet our new girls. It meant so much to us and I'm sure will be meaningful to the girls when they're older and they see the pictures and hear the story of so many that were excited to welcome them home.

We're adjusting well and are looking forward to finding the rut as a family of 5. It's just so nice to finally be home and done with all the waiting, wondering, and what-if's. Not that much is all that stable right now with two new nuggets in the family, but I must say it's nice to not have to worry about paperwork expiring!

Charis (6 month old) is doing well. She did some serious sleeping yesterday. I'm sure all the travel, noise, and new smells and sights just wore her out. She's a great baby and is generally pretty quiet unless she's hungry. She's a smiley little one and loves to shove whatever is in reach in to her mouth. So nice to see her in her crib yesterday.

Jacee (4 year old) is doing well also. She opened up so much over the last couple days and has been quite chatty. She's digging being here because it's like Toys R Us with all the stuff we have around here from when Davi was little. We're planning on going to the park today to work on the gross motor skills department. With so many kids in the transition home they just don't have much time to play, run, jump, and develop in areas we're so used to here in the States. She's come a long way already though. When we first got her she had difficulty just going up a few stairs b/c her muscles were so tiny. She's heading up our stairs like a champ now.

Davi is doing well and adjusting to life as a big sister. She's been such a huge help through the transition time. Jacee follows her around and mimicks her every move. Not sure if she'll go to school today or not...depends on how she looks when she gets up today. She hit the hay around 7:30 last night so she's going on 9 hours of sleep and counting!

Gina and I are doing well. So nice to sleep in our own bed and not have to worry about a long flight or wondering if we packed everything we needed.

Well, here's a few pictures of the day we met the girls and some other assorted images of our time in Ethiopia. We'll post again soon.





Dave

Rome

Our flight out of Omaha was delayed, so we had to make a run for it in Atlanta. Davi and Gina ran ahead to try to get the Rome flight held a couple minutes while David waited for the carry-ons that were stowed below and then made the run himself. The "gate-keeper" kept threatening to close the gate, and finally Davi spotted David running down the hallway.
We've enjoyed Rome--got to see some amazing sights. Davi got sick the second morning and tossed her cookies a few times. She recovered by early afternoon and did great doing some sight-seeing. We returned to our hotel and discovered something very valuable to Davi, something she has kept with her since she was a baby, was snatched up with the sheets and taken out to a laundry service. It has not been recovered yet, but we're still praying.
We're up until our flight leaves at 1:15 tonight. We had to check out of the hotel at noon, did a little more sight-seeing, then came back to wait out the time in the hotel lobby until our flight.
We see our girls in two days! Crazy.
Ciao until Ethiopia!

We're Off!

We're finally traveling to get our precious girls! Davi's first day of school is today, so she is going for a couple hours before we snatch her up and head to the airport. Today we'll fly to Atlanta, then on to Rome. We've heard people say it's really beneficial to get acclimated to the time change before going into Ethiopia (a third world country) and going through the stresses (mostly GOOD stresses) of adoption details. The plane to Ethiopia stops in Rome to re-fuel, so we're getting off for a bit :) We're staying a couple nights in Rome (as are some other families with our adoption agency), then heading to Ethiopia just after midnight on Saturday night/Sunday morning.

We get to meet our girls next Monday, and we pick them up for keeps on Tuesday!!! We then have a few days of paperwork, etc., and fly out of Addis Ababa on Saturday night. We'll stay the night in Washington DC and be back in Omaha on the 24th.

Of course, all this assumes everything goes as planned. We know better than to think things can't change :)

For our friends in Omaha -- Thanks so much for your excitement in our girls' home-coming. For the first few weeks, we'll be working really hard at helping the girls attach to us and come to know us as their parents, so I'm sorry that we won't be able to pass them around to be held. Our four-year-old is quite shy, also, so she will likely want to stay pretty close to Mom and Dad.

We might not be able to blog much or at all, but we'll try. We're not bringing our computer.

Please pray for our trip. Pray for the girls as they have so many changes and adjustments coming their way. This will likely be very difficult for them. Pray for us to know how to help them with this transition.

Please also pray for health and safety. We have travel insurance and tons of meds with us, but we know our only trust is in God Who is bringing us through this journey.

Thanks for supporting us through this incredible adventure.

Gina

Davi Tastes Success -- I Eat Crow

The other day, Davi and her friend Katie decided they wanted to have a water balloon stand. They would be selling water balloons for 25 cents each. Trying to protect my little girl from disappointment, I basically said, "No one is going to buy water balloons, Honey. You can try to sell them, but don't be upset when no one buys any." She and Katie got to work on their water balloon stand, despite my words of warning.

After a few minutes into making the sign for the stand, Davi got the idea, "Hey, we could use the money for our adoption."

I think this is about where God showed up.

The girls ran outside and returned a few minutes later with three quarters. Katie's grandma who lives across the street gave them the money. I had to admit to them, "Okay, I was wrong. People will buy water balloons."

They were now inspired and planning to go door-to-door. We told them they could only go to people we knew. At some point, they decided to ditch the whole water balloon idea and just ask for donations straight up. As we saw the money start coming in, David suggested the money be used for the orphans still in Ethiopia rather than for our adoption. Now they were asking for donations for orphans in Ethiopia.

After hitting a few houses up and down the street, they ended up with $77.55!

We will be shopping this week for gifts for the orphans.

On a personal note, I am humbled. I should know better than to tell anyone, "That can't be done." As believers, we are to be risk-takers. Even though I didn't know the original water balloon business was headed toward Kingdom purposes, I am reminded to not discourage my kids from trying new things, especially if it's just to avoid failure and disappointment. Good lesson for me. I pray Davi will be inspired with what God can do through her when she does take a risk.

Gina

July Update and Travel Plans

We got new pics and some updated info on our new daughters today. They continue to get more and more beautiful. We feel so blessed that God has placed these girls in our family. He is so gracious! We can hardly wait to get to them.





The plan is to fly out of Omaha on August 12th. We're still working on travel arrangements. Everything looks fine getting to Addis, but getting out is a little hairy. We're waitlisted for a flight on Friday (21st) and a flight on Saturday (22nd). We'd really like to get out on Friday, but to get out at all would be great:) Until we have a flight confirmed to get out of Ethiopia, we can't make our final arrangements. Please pray for all this to come together well.

Gina

A Family of Five!!!

Woo hoo! We got a call this morning from our agency with good news. We passed court! Everything went smoothly with the case while we slept last night (Friday for them), and now these beautiful girls are joining our family.

These pictures are some that we got with our referral. We will let you know more about their names and show more recent pics later.

Praise God with us!!
Gina