Camping--Disney Style

I'm not much of a camper-never have been.  I love being outside, hiking, rafting, swimming, enjoying nature....I just don't like to sleep with nature.  Thankfully, we've taken the easy way out and have camper equipped with a kitchen, bathroom, shower and beds--now that's much more my speed.  

I also enjoy camp grounds with amenities like:

swimming pools

slides

 savannas with free animal viewing areas

 campfire sing alongs with Disney characters 

and outdoor movies

a splash park

and quite rides (it wasn't quiet--we had 20 kids with us,

 but you can't tell it from this picture) on the monorail

Caroline with Grandad

Now that's camping--Disney style--and that's just the way I like it.

Growing Up and Getting Ready

Since the chances of me actually getting a baby book put together for Eli are slim to none, I thought I could at least post a few photos of his first few months as we have watched him grow up in pictures.

This is the first picture we saw of our sweet boy (yes, he's wearing girl clothes--a theme that will be repeated :-)  We were just in awe of what a blessing God had bestowed on us.  Such a handsome little guy.  We knew right away that he was meant to be our son.

2 months old

2 1/2 months

 3 1/2 months

4 month with a package from home.

 

Sporting his favorite color pink at 5 1/2 months

he would make a pretty cute girl (5 1/2 months)

Here he is at 6 months old when I went for court.  He has the sweetest little features!

and the happiest little smile

 

Here's the latest picture we've received of him at almost 7 months old with his nanny.
I can't believe how much he has grown since I saw him last.

 
This past week, I could hardly sleep and woke up early several days in a row.  I couldn't shut my mind off to the lengthening list of "to dos" before Eli comes home (let the nesting begin).  Number one on the list was to get the crib out of storage and get the boys room ready for their new baby brother.  What a relief it was to get that checked off my list.

Lexi knows we're getting ready for another little one.  She guarded the crib all afternoon.

Our case is almost ready to be submitted to the US Embassy for final clearance for us to come and pick him up.  We are hoping and praying our file will be ready by this Wednesday (files can only be submitted on Wednesdays, so if not this Wednesday, we'll have to wait until the next or the next, but we're praying it's not that long :-). 

 I can hardly believe that we have been given this amazing gift and he is almost home!

Trees of Glory Update Part 3

 Livestock

A few years ago, there were no animals living at TOG and now they are everywhere!

 Several mommy cows (I think there were 6 or 8 adult cows all together) are giving milk which is used for the children and staff.  

And quite a few baby calves were running around.  They keep some and are also able to sell some of the calves.

 After stopping by the stable, we were off to the newly constructed chicken coop.  Now I'm not a farm girl, so this may not be saying much, but this is the largest chicken coop I've ever seen.  It has it's own attendant that meticulously cares for the chickens.  It is amazingly clean inside.  We even had to wash off our shoes with bleach before we could enter. 

It was very quiet until Simret started to walk around with her scoop of food.  Then all kinds of chicken craziness broke loose as they pushed and shoved to the front of the cages for a bite.

We got in on the feeding action.

And then I noticed that one little chicken had gotten out.  Simret laughed and said, "No.  He is free." Apparently Simret has her favorites and this guy gets to run free--a true "free range" chicken :-)

And last, but not least, we got to see our donkey friend who has now been put out to pasture now that his water-hauling days are over.  He's now the only donkey in Ethiopia that doesn't have to work for a living :-)

The staff at TOG is expecting eggs any day now from all those chickens.  They will use some of the eggs and also be able to sell a great deal more.  This project has given them a great source of income and nutrition and helped make TOG more self-sustainable.  Again, another blessing to the community as well as the kids at TOG.