Alive in Addis

Killing two birds with one stone... sending this to family/friends as well as posting on the blog:



WE ARE ALIVE! Today is the first day the modem has worked in our guest house. We have SO much to share.

The kids are wonderful! We expected the worst and have experienced as good as we could have ever hoped/prayed for. YOU WILL LOVE THEM! The placement (adoption term for hand-off) was extremely difficult with long, hard cries from the kids and then of course from Dustin and me. One of the guest house employees quietly joined us and spoke so softly and tenderly to the children and helped in the transition. His name is Cannon (sp?) and he didn't know us from Adam, and yet served us so generously by helping with the kids. I could write for days, but don't know how long the internet connection will stay up.

Ethiopia... no words. Simply no words. Dustin and I have raw, open sores on our hearts. I wonder if they will ever heal. We have seen things that shouldn't be. And yet, the people are very open, very kind and loving.... beautiful people.

Today was extremely difficult. We visited three Gladney houses, one for infants, one for toddlers and then the older kids home where our kids lived. It was all that Dustin and I could do to keep from openly sobbing as the children said goodbye to the care givers and friends who have been their family for the last 15 months. And the children in the homes... All beautiful, all deserving of a family to love them. I can't wait to share pictures. Dustin already picked out an older boy that he was ready to start paperwork to come back and get. (Dustin was so relieved when I told him that I knew that particular boy was in the process of being adopted, the boy just doesn't know it yet.) The care givers are amazing and you could tell how very much they loved our children. Each time our children went into one of the houses, the care givers squealed and loved and kissed and held each of them.

What else can I say without writing a book? The kids are amazing. They speak enough English for us to get by and have already picked up on so much. They love teaching us Amharic words. Haileb will sound an Amharic word out to us so that we repeat each sylable after him. Then he will change the last sylable and look at us and die laughing. He is a clown. Yeabsira is very sweet and loving as is Meseret. They are definatley siblings who are loving each other, caring for one another, sharing with one another and then the next minute whacking each other on the head. (We were warned in advance that the culture is very physical, so it was nice to have a warning the first time one whacked the other one. It bothers Sage terribly when they hit one another.)

There is just so much more. Dustin and I wake up each morning at 2:30 a.m. (5:30 p.m. time at home) and can't go back to sleep. We actually haven't minded much because it's the only time of day that all is silent and we get a chance to talk and reflect on all we have experienced and retell funny stories of all the kids. BTW, I never would have believed I could survive three days with little to no running water and little to no electricity. There is a huge shortage of electricity so the government shuts off all the power at least every other day. In addition a water pipe broke the morning we arrived and the guest house staff have hauled water up to our rooms in bucket so the toilets will flush and we can have bucket baths. When you are stinky and have yucky hair, cold water from a bucket for a bath really isn't THAT bad. We were so glad when the water was fixed last night. Madison almost did a halelujah chorus when she got to take a hot bath this morning (the electricity came back on, too!)

Our request, again, is for prayers for Friday when we meet Amarech. Today was so hard at the children's homes that we can't imagine what Friday will be like. Will the kids feel pulled in their loyalty to their birth mom and to their new family. What does a child feel in their shoes. Tears sting my eyes at the thought.

Love from Addis!

Dustin, Nikki, Madison, Sage, Meseret, Yeabsira and last, but not least, Hailab

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