A photo journey of our trip.

I figure pictures tell more than what I can write.  So here is our trip in photos.  Enjoy!

Our car packed and ready to go.  

Gebremedhin, what a handsome boy!

Caleb and Geb had a great time playing soccer, building legos and just being together.

Nazareth loved taking the wet wipes out of my bag and wiping her face.  It was a sensory indulgence for her.

Nazareth with her mom and her uncle.

This is Geb with his mother.  She came to the Care Center to meet us.

Our family with Geb's mom.  We took these pictures, printed them off a small portable printer and gave her a small photo album with these pictures.   

This is a traditional Ethiopian meal at Yod Asyssinia.  It comes on a plate of injera bread.  You take a piece of bread and dip it into the different mixtures of sauces and concoctions.  We were in Ethiopia during their lent season. Most Ethiopians fast from eating meat during this time. 

This is a traditional coffee served with popcorn. Caleb and Katie's favorite part of the meal.

Traditional Dancing.

Musicians.

Our only picture with Reed, our pastor.  They come to your table and wash your hands for you (since you eat with your hands).

Geb eating lunch.

Nazareth loved Katie's necklace.

Katie had her hair braided!

Love that girl!  So snuggly.

Nazareth, our sweet girl!

The first church in Ethiopia on Entoto Mountain. 

A huge grasshopper.

Katie and the grasshopper.

We visited the Alert Hospital, which is a Leprosy rehab facility.  People recovering or living with the effects of Leprosy make items to sell to help raise funds for the hospital.  The work is also used for some as physical therapy to regain muscles in there limbs.  This man is making weaving a blanket.

This man is weaving a mat.

These ladies are embroidering the blankets that are weaved with a design.   

A spindle wheel.

My sweet, sweet girls.

The view from outside our hotel.

Construction underway!  They use Eucalyptus trees for the scaffolding. 

In front of our hotel.  This was is the morning so little traffic.

In front of our hotel.

Beside our hotel.  Notice the neighborhood in the background.  The houses were mainly constructed out of metal corrugated metal.  My son said, "Whoever makes all that metal must be a millionaire."  It really the main source of materials use for houses.

Geb with the poster and photo book we gave him.  He lost his first tooth.  

Potty time.

A doll we gave her.  It was the blackest doll we could find.  Not very black at all next to her.  We are working on finding dolls for her.

A church we visited.  Said to contain the Ark of the Covenant.  Shh, don't tell anyone.  No one has been looking for that for a thousand years or more.  

Art inside the church.  In Ethiopia art, the evil people have one eye and the good people have two.  This is a photo of the first martyrs.  

Jump roping.

Our Family.

The room our daughter sleeps in.  She sleeps in the bottom bunk on the left.

Our travel group.  Amazing people.

The boy's room.

The nursery.

The courtyard.

All the laundry washed by hand.  

The waiting . . .

We have been home for 4 weeks now.  I can't believe how fast and how slow time can go.  We have been officially submitted to the US Embassy and now we wait.  We wait for people to work on behalf of our case to arrange birth parent meetings.  The waiting has been easier and harder then I expected.  I expected to be sitting around wondering what each day is like for my children, but by the time I wake up they are going to bed so during the day I pray for sweet dreams and when I am going to bed I know they are just waking up so I am asleep while they are playing, eating, showering and whatever else their day holds.  It is also a little of out-of-site out-of-mind.  When we do receive pictures of our kids, this is when time seems to stop and slap me on the face and say, " Why the heck are you not with your kids? This whole thing seems so wrong."  In the last set of photos, Nazareth's head was shaved.  I immediately started to cry upon seeing her.  I am her mom, I should know and approve this, right?  It just seems plain wrong for me not to know what decisions they are making on her behalf.  I do believe the staff did it for health reasons and I am grateful for their care.  It is just the mother instinct in me wanting to be apart of her life.

I am thankful I have four kids and a household of projects to keep me busy.  We are rearranging furniture and rooms to make room for the kids.  I am also prepping for the next year of homeschooling.  So I am thankfully busy with preparation.  Let the waiting continue . . . . .

Summary of trip

Well we made it home on Wednesday and after several days we are starting to feel normal again.  In summary our trip was hard, fun, exciting, interesting, emotional, and very educational.  We were able to meet both birth moms of our children and learn about their pasts and their hopes for their children.  This was the hard part.  Meeting the person who brought them into this world and who had to give them up for a hope of a better life.  I am still processing all this and even grieving for these moms and my children.  

Everyday we spent several hours at the Care Center, where our children are currently living, to connect and bond with them.  We certainly bonded with them and learned about their personalities and some of their challenges.  Gebremedhin is extremely fun, intelligent, handsome, and has quite a sense of humor.  He is also a hoarder.  He hoarded every toy we brought out and hid it in his bed.  He definitely wants to own his own items.  I can't really blame him.  G really understood we were his family.  When the van would roll in to pick us up, he would go sit in the van like he was going with us.  Through a translator, he would say, "I am ready to go with my family now."  

Nazarite is tiny and snuggly.  She loves being held, sang to, and tickled.  She is also very intelligent. We can't wait to bring her home and beef her up a little and heal the sores and bald spots on her head.  She cried most of the days we had to say goodbye to her.  She understood we were more than just people stopping by for a few days.  

Leaving Ethiopia was excruciating!  It still is.  When I was in Ethiopia I felt part of me was missing since Zach and Matthew were at home.  Now that I am at home I feel half of me is still in Ethiopia.  I am struggling with having my kids live in an orphanage for 2-3 months as we wait for the US Embassy to clear us.  This is the hardest part.  I am constantly trying to figure out a way to send me back to Ethiopia to rescue my kids from their current situation.  I am trusting, however, that if God wants me back there, he will provide the way.  Please pray that circumstances will arise for me to find my way back there soon to live with my kids as we wait for Embassy.  

We had many fun and interesting experiences.  Driving in Addis Ababa was quite the experience.  There is no traffic control, stop lights, or lines on the streets.  When they come to a intersection they all take they turns passing through and a inch slowly through four lanes of traffic. Katie had her hair braided by a couple  who run their business out of a tiny pink shack.  We just happened upon their business as we were looking for a place to have her hair braided.  The couple who runs the business live, eat and work in a 4'x4' foot corrugated iron hut that costs $850 birr a month to rent, about $43 USD.  They can't afford a place to work and live.  We enjoyed meeting them and we were their first American customers!  

We enjoyed a ethnic meal with music and dancing. We enjoyed the coffee. We enjoyed our drivers and learning about Ethiopia from them.  We enjoyed a day with Reed, our pastor. We also enjoyed spending time with the children at the Care Center.  There are several children, besides our own that we connected with.  The children would smother us when we sat down.  They need people to hold them, tickle them and play with them.  Since we are connected on Facebook with many of the families that are adopting these children, it was a privilege to love on their children and send photos home.  

Thanks again for all your prayers and encouraging words.  They were felt and definitely needed.  Please pray for patience and a speedy process through Embassy.  Love you all.