Tuesday!

Ty, Audrey, and Abeh-Micah should be flying through the air right now across the Atlantic! Woo Hoo!

My luggage arrived on my front porch tonight. In one suitcase, a bag of coffee beans had burst and were e-ver-ry-where! What a mess! In the other suitcase, the lid had come off my perfume--Whhhoooooo! There was no need for me to describe the colors and size on the claim form for the baggage--I should have just described the aromas each were admitting, and let the United Airlines guys follow their noses!

Monday Monday Praising God Today!!!

The investigation is finished, Micah's paperwork is okayed, and they're coming home soon!!! Praise God!!!! What a roller coaster this has been. I hope I'm sufficiently pruned for now, God!! My tear ducts and anxious muscles are frazzled. I can't wait to hug that baby again soon. Thank you Lord!!!

Saturday (and Sunday! grrr!)

Made it into DC as planned at 8:30 Saturday morning. Long, sleepy flight, and I fought tears off and on the whole time. Micah and the rest should have been there with me. Got off to Chicago on time, but arrived to find my last leg to Tulsa cancelled due to weather. Tried and failed at a couple of standbys, and ended up in the Comfort Inn at midnight. Got a fitful 5 hours of sleep and a shower (but no make up, no clothes, as they are all in my checked baggage, somewhere in OHare), and was back at OHare at 6am. Stood in line 2 hours to get back on standby, but finally opted to take a flight to Springfield, MO instead, and rent a car back to Tulsa. Crazy, I know, but they could not guarantee me a seat on a a flight to Tulsa till Wednesday, and that would be even more nuts! The Springfield detour worked, and I made it home at 7pm tonight finally. Whew! Hopefully Ty will have good news tomorrow...

Friday

We had a meeting this morning at the Embassy re: Micah's case. Apparently they want to do more research on his history. That is fine, but they should have had all that done BEFORE we came. Very frustrating. Bottom line--they hope to do their looking over the weekend and early next week. If all is well, Micah can come home then. Grrrrr....

We visited a neat art gallery today at lunch, and then came home. I packed up my things and helped Ty and Audrey move down a couple of flights of stairs. I am going to go on home as planned with the other two families. If there is any need for Micah to stay beyong mid-next week, I'll come back to be with Audrey, and Ty will go home to be with their girls.

It was very very hard for me to leave them. The last half of this week has been so stressful and exhausting, but so worth it with that cute baby!

Wait till you hear about my trip home!

Thursday

Now it is Sunday, and I think--what did we do Thursday? Well--we waited for the Embassy appts, and the other two families finally got theirs, but we got a phone call that said there was a glitch. We scheduled a meeting with them for Friday. We shopped a little too.

The biggest part of the day was visiting two orphanages. Both were full of kids. Both were pretty sad conditions. They do so much with so little. I have pix, but not sure if I can put them on my blog. I will if I can. Tough stuff, but there was a sweet light in their eyes!

Wednesday Wednesday Need Your Prayers Today!

In every life there is a storm they say, and so it goes with this trip as well. We were supposed to have appointments at the U.S. Embassy yesterday to get visas for the kids to come home to the U.S. They had said the week before we came that all the families were cleared to come, that all was well. But yesterday, they said they had not finished their work on the kids yet, and we could not have an appt. They "forgot" or somehow let us slip through the cracks. They will not tell us when they will be done. At first they said Monday, but the AWAA staff here told them that we all had tickets for Friday night, and we neeeded it done sooner than that. They did not make any promises. So, we wait. It is Thursday morning here now. We hope to have a call by 1pm or so that they are ready for our appointments, and if so, we can come home as planned. If not, it could be earlier next week, or even longer than that. The uncertainty is very frustrating. We don't know what Plan B is at this point--stay a few more days and see? One parent stay, the other go home? All of us go home and let Micah and the other kids go back to the Transition Home while we wait? All three families here have young children back at home in the care of others. We appreciate your prayers for the visa to come through today. They apparently don't do visa on Fridays at all. We have considered pressure through Senators and the State Dept., but they said last time they tried to use pressure it worked out very badly. Anyway, so please just pray.

We did not do much other than wait around yesterday. Micah and the others did get good naps in the afternoon. One baby is still a little sick, but otherwise all three kids seem to be doing well. I'll attach a couple of pix for fun.

Thank you so much for your prayers!

Tuesday!

And finally, today, here we are. This morning was shoppping! We went to a place with lots of little shops selling traditional Ethiopian items--wooden animals, clothes, instruments, leather goods, etc. When we pulled up we were surrounded by street children, kids around age 12, offering to shine our shoes and sell us gum. Some of them were part of our guide, Robel's, ministry to the street children, where he helps them with school, sports, etc, and teaches them how to work rather than beg and steal. They were very kind. When I could not find Ty in the shops, they would take me to him immediately. I gladly let them shine my shoes and I bought their gum. Most of the shops were about 8'x8' any very crowded with stuff. It was expected (and fun!) to bargain for things, and I am very happy with my purchases!

Then we had lunch at a pizza place which was very good, and then back to the AW Transition Home. We took some pictures of other children whose parents will be coming for them soon, and then we got our children again, for the 'forever" time! We gave a lot of donations (clothes, toys, etc) to the home and wento the 2nd AW transition home for older kids and played with them a bit.

Seeing all the kids in the transition home, though they are orphans, did not make me too sad really. They are all well cared for, or as well as can be in a 3rd world institution, but they all also have families that will be coming for them soon. I think I will feel differently when we see the government run orphanages where these kids actually start off. We'll see those on Thurs. and Friday I think.

We had dinner tonight here at the guest house--chicken and rice--pretty good! Now we are here in our room. Ty and Audrey just gave Micah his first bath with them and he is "army-crawling" all over the room. He loved his bath. He is such an easy going, sweet baby. He smiles easy and is so easy to love! His right eye lid goes way up when he sucks on his bottle which is a funny little quirk. He has a little upper repiratory stuff going, and is on antibiotics because he seeemed to be starting a little cold or something yesterday. But he is doing great. What a great baby, what a great trip!

Monday!

Monday--more details... The generator is still running the electricity here, but all seems well...

For breakfast we had some type of pastry, sorta like flat sopapillas, pineapple juice, cakes of different sorts, and eggs. T and our other guide, Robel, and David picked us up at the guest house about 9:30, and drove us to the Hilton, a luxury hotel. We did the adoption paperwork out on the patio. It is beautiful weather here. The altitude is about 6000 or 7000 feet, but we are pretty close to the equator, and the combination makes for great year round weather. There are palm trees and cactus. It feels breezy, cool with sunshine, tropical "Monterrey, CA" terrific! Lunch was nice, and the sparrows landed very nearby to pick up our crumbs. Then, baby time!

We went to the AWAA Transition Home. It is where kids come when they are being adopted through AWAA to American families. They come there from different Ethiopian government -run orphanages. Keeping in mind that it is an institution caring for up to 90 orphans in a 3rd world country, the home is actually very nice and the nannies very loving toward the children. The children are generally pretty healthy and fat and clean and well cared for. That is how we found Micah and the other two children being adopted in our group. There is a nice porch where we just hung out with the babies and the parents started bonding. Micah is so sweet, calm, and mild. He never fussed till he got hungry, and he sucked down a hot bottle very quickly. It was hard to say bye, but we did for one more night.

They dropped us ladies off at a Spa--very nice. The guys came back and hung out at the guest house. The massages and pedicures were very nice, and amazingly cheap. We then picked up the guys and went to dinner. We ate a traditional dinner where we all sat around tiny basket based tables. They served fajita like meat and different sauces and veggies on top of this flat spongy bread. You use the bread in place of silverware. Pretty tasty, and different from anything I've ever had. We had honey wine too, served in what looked like science class beakers. Yum! There were incredible dancers and singers there too. They had such joy on their faces as they danced--they were truly having a great time!

Sunday!

What a time we have had. I hope I can describe. First, the electricity is intermittent here, and the internet is a bit iffy, so this is the first time I have been able to blog.

Sunday night--we arrived about 8pm, spent about 1.5 hours going through to get a visa, customs,luggage, changing money, etc. We met up with another adoptive family on the plane, Charlie and Becca, very nice folks from Oregon. We have been with them since. "T", an AWAA employee, was waiting to pick us up. He loaded all our stuff on top of a little mini bus, and David, the driver, and he took us to the guest house, which is like half hotel/half bed/breakfast. We had to drive down bumpy dirt roads and crowded highways to get there, and then go through a gate with guards into the ocurtyard. There were lots of guys trying to carry our baggage at the airport, trying to get tips. Kinda crazy, kinda sad, kinda irritating. There were lots of people on the streets manning little shops, even at 10pm. The guest house is nice. There is a little living room and kitchen, and 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. The beds are soft and low, and you can't drink the water, and there is a little dog that yaps all night outside, but otherwise it is really really nice. I hear people singing outside now as I type. Oops, there went the electricity! Thank goodness for laptop batteries! I hope I can do more soon, but we are about to go to dinner.

Here's the brief in case I can't get back on: Monday: paperwork and lunch at a covered picnic table at a resort hotel. very nice! In the afternoon, we met the kids at the AWAA transition home, and hung out there 3 hours. Then us girls when for massages and pedicures, then we went out for a traditional Ethiopian dinner with dancing. Very cool! Tuesday: shopping in the little traditional souveniour markets, lunch at a great pizza place, and then back to the transition home to get Micah and hand out donations. I'll try to post more details and pictures soon.

What Are We Forgetting?

Packed and repacked and shopped and packed some more! Ready to go!

The Goal

Why is it so hard?

I get asked quite often "why is it so hard to adopt an orphan?" The child is there, wherever, in an orphanage without a family, and here is a family willing to adopt a child who needs a home. What's the hold up? Technically, I can tell you all the reasons, rules, and reality of it, and broadly, I can tell you that families need to be prepared and children have to be protected from all the potential evil out there. But spirtually, why? Proverbs 21 tells us that God can do anything--moving kings like water in His hands. He could make these adoptions happen with the lifting of His pinky finger. So why not? I think it has to do with us. Something in us is refined, groomed, pruned, grown better, with each hold up, bump, and obstacle in our way. In the end, we know that God is the one who created the family, and He did so in His time. It is hard. Very hard. But so worth it when that child comes home, and you look back and declare God's hand and glory through it all. Frankly, I don't know how people do this without God!