Defending The Fatherless

Friday, January 11, 2013

Ethiopia November 2012 Day 5

So after nearly a month, I'm back on the blogging band wagon (at least for today)....back to Ethiopia:

Saturday November 10^th

We flew back to Addis this morning, headed over to our guest house to collect our other luggage, did some shopping at the post office (all of our kids have out grown their Ethiopian clothes, so I wanted to get them all new outfits) and then headed over to our new guest house.

We would be staying a block away from the HopeChest team to make transportation to and from the care points easier. We stayed at the Ethiopia Guest Homes-highly recommend them for mission trips and other stays in Ethiopia. They also specialize in adoption visits.

We had some free time before the team got back-they had been doing home visits at TOG that day, so we headed out behind the guest house so Caleb could throw a few baseballs. Before you knew it, Nick was teaching a group of boys how to throw and catch a baseball. One of the boys ran off and came back with a bigger group of kids to start up a soccer game.

No ordinary league ball here—these kids throw down and play to win (in their beat up sandals no less). I don’t remember whose team won, but Caleb had a blast and said this was one of his

favorite parts.

It was one of my favorite parts too. We were a little ways out of the city, so it was really quiet here. As I sat and watched Caleb playing in the streets of Ethiopia, it was amazing how totally natural and comfortable it all felt. I kept looking around and thinking, that's my son, just playing in Africa. 4 years ago, we would have never (NEVER) thought we'd be hanging out half way across the world and now, I can't even imagine if I never went back. It's a crazy feeling how somewhere so far away and so different can feel so much like home.

Chatting it up-this kid spoke pretty good English.

One of the kids playing with the camera.

After dinner, we met up with the HopeChest team—I finally got to meet Karen Wistrom in person—a treat as we've emailed countless times over the past two years. I love and share her passion for orphaned and vulnerable children in Ethiopia, so it was an honor to finally meet. How cool that our adoption trip overlapped with this mission trip— I've wanted to go the past few years, so it was nice to at least get a taste of being on the team.

We also got to see some more of our good friends. Nick hasn't been back since February 2011, so the guys were especially glad to see him. They all took right to Caleb as well and really made him feel a part of the group.

Next--one of the big highlights--our trip to Trees of Glory!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

It Would Have Looked Like This

So if you normally receive a Christmas card from us, you weren't cut from the list. I just didn't send any :-)

I intended to, but there never seemed to be a time to get all NINE of us dressed and ready for a family photo (well, we did manage to get dressed, just not for a picture) before Christmas. Between bringing Eli home 7 weeks ago, Thanksgiving, Nick's and my brother's birthday, a family ginger bread decorating party, 3 baseball tournaments, doctors appointments (and lets not forget stool samples--my favorite!) trying to resume some semblance of school around here, Advent, preparing for Christmas and doing all the regular stuff......well, it just didn't happen.

But, if I would have had it all together, it would have looked something like this:

Not bad--this was our second attempt (not second picture-second time we tried to get the one and only thing I wanted on our vacation--a family picture-is that too much to ask for-I may or may not have lectured.....).