We are home!

We are home. Today is day 2 being home. We are still adjusting back to US time. It feels good..but bitter sweet. Our precious little angel is far..too far away. We got an email last night saying that today she should be transferred from her only home she has ever known for the past 8 months to a new orphanage in Addis. She will have to make the 4.5-5 hour trip in the car to her transition home. We were all emotional last night as we pondered over this move. First of all, we got to meet her precious nanny. This sweet woman has been her mom in the interim. She has raised her, loved her, kissed her, comforted her, held her, fed her in the midnight hours. The love she has for Syra Tadelech is unreal. I have seen it. When we were leaving the orphanage the other day, my heart sank as I knew I would never see this woman again. I had our social worker translate for me and I expressed my deepest love and gratitude for taking care of Syra. I hugged her dearly and wept. She was humbled and speechless. She has simply been doing what she is gifted to do, but for us..she has had a pivotal part in our daughters life. I cannot imagine what emotions she will feel as they bring Syra Tadelech to the new orphanage. Lord, comfort her and bless her. Since our visit to the orphanage in the Hawassa town, we have wanted to get her out of there just simply because of the conditions. While they are doing their absolute BEST to raise and care for these precious babes, they are limited in resources. At one point during our visit there, I had to use the restroom. I asked and they nodded. The nanny walked out into the courtyard where two ladies were washing baby clothes. They took the dirty wash water, poured into a bucket and ran inside. I was trying to assess what was going on. At this point, there was lots of chatting in Amharic and gestures but no one showing me where it was. Finally, when the gal returned with the empty bucket, she showed me the bathroom in a building adjacent to the baby area. It was not good. Our social worker who is also Ethiopian was with me. She cautiously peered around the corner and with an unsure face asked me if it was okay. There was no door, no real floor. I quickly surmised that the dirty wash water had just been graciously poured into the top tank so that the toilet could be flushed. I felt a little obligated out of courtesy to use it ..but then not. SO, I did not. The social worker agreed with my decision. I had appreciated the great effort and love that when into their swift hosting. ..but I just could not do it. I will hold it! I went back to babe in daddy's arms. SO sweet!! She loves Chris so much already. Can't wait to post a pic. We are supposed to get pics from our visit today via email. During our sweet 2 hour visit, we were assessing everything with Syra. We were looking her over as much as we could without appearing like freaks. She was wearing a long sleaved outfit, so it was difficult to check her out completely.Everything appeared to be great with Syra until I saw the back of her neck. She had a sore on her neck about the size of pinto that was open, oozing, and infected. Next to it, were scars of the same size. There was a little row of scars that led to this wound. What in the world? She also had a rash on her neck and little red dots all over her face and arms and a few on her feet and legs. Wow, Lord, heal her. What is this? The nanny told us that the dots were fly bites...but many of the dots were under her clothes. On a good note, she was doing things that the local doctor had said she could not do. I helped her sit up. I noticed she was passing toys from one hand to another and she also began to babble a little: all things that she reportedly was not able to to do. Joy..pure joy. It is amazing what we were witnessing. We were prepared to see our sweet girl less developed but she was so much more developed than what they had reported. BUT...the sores were worrisome. They nanny told us via the social worker's translation that it was an allergy..but we knew better. As soon as we got back to our hotel, we sent out prayer requests to our team at home and began to google. nothing. could not find one thing that fit the description.o When we arrived safely back at the guest house in Addis the next day, we were still determined that a diagnosis would happen. I emailed our agency in the US and requested the doctor to check it out again and see if antibiotics were being given. This particular sore was becoming necrotic at the base of her neck. not good. Long story short...a new couple came to the guest house with their baby girl. Incidently, this was the same couple we had seen in Hawassa the day before at the orphanage. We never got to officially meet them but assumed they were with a different agency doing the same thing we were. They were visiting with their babe and enjoying every moment like we were. Little did we know we would be spending the week with them and getting to know their family. In the guest house, as we told of our experiences and concerns for Syra, they showed us a sore on their baby's leg. THE SAME THAT WAS ON SYRA...a necrotic sore, black in fact. Their babe was sick and fluish. They have decided that the husband is going to stay the next several months in country with their babe while the mom goes home to US during all the embassy prep work. A great situation if anyone is able to do it. They are able to take their babe straight into their care for the next few months until homeward bound. After hearing about her sores, I googled and prayed and found a diagnosis that fit the description perfectly: Rickettsial Pox. Basically, this is a condition that occurs from mite bites. These are bites from the bug of mice that once bitten create a necrotic wound that takes 2-3 weeks toheal. In the meantime, a false pox rash breaks out (the little red dots) and creates flu like symptoms. The wound heals and leaves little scars. It is healable and treatable but can get bad. It is not contagious. Our prayer is that Syra will heal soon and get no more bites...and hopefully when she is moved, she will be in cleaner conditions. While we were at the guest house this week, we were able to see the huge improvement with Syra's orphange roommate. Her sore healed...her flu symptoms went away..and she had the best demeanor. It was encouraging. SO encouraging. I think the Lord knew we needed to see that. Well..I ramble now. my fatigue is setting in. It is 9am here..but 5pm there. Will post pics when they come. Lord, take care of my baby today. I miss her soooooo.

Seeing our princess

Wednesday, we got up early and headed to Hawassa. After the 4.5 hour trip there, we were exhausted, mentally and physically. The scenery was beyond amazing which I described some in the post before. Chris and I are still captivated by the region and feel sure that we would probably still be country folk even if we were in ET...despite the fact that we have no idea how to plow with simple handmade tools and cattle strapped with yolks. Beautiful. ..and the donkeys. Can't wait to post pics.We arrived at the Lewi Hotel and had a quick lunch. We cleaned up and headed to the orphanage. Okay..I have to tell you that by this time my stomach was COMPLETELY messed up. I have always been a girl that gets a little queasy in the back of the car..but this drive had made me VERY ill...almost lost my cookies a few times. I think combined with the fact that I was getting ready to see my daughter and hold her for the first time was too much for me to handle. I kept trying to picture me in the orphanage but my mind was picturing me throwing up all over the place! perfect. So..I kept praying that I would not throw up. ..the whole time I was there.We arrived, and there stood the beautiful green iron gates. Prepared to stay only 60-90 minutes, Chris and I geared up. We followed our social worker inside and they showed us our greeting room and encouraged us to sit. Chris and I sat as they left. I looked around. A big handwritten WELCOME sign hung above Chris' head. I lost it. Ugly tears spewed from my eyes. I felt like they were spraying across the room. Chris grabbed my hand and then he lost it. Both of us did not want to look like wackos but we were having a very hard time holding back. The nannies and social worker would come in and out bringing little parts of our baby girls life: a walker, a floor mat, some toys. I was dying!! My eyes were fixed to the window that faced the walkway that led to her room. Our social worker walked by and in her arms, our princess. My eyes darted to the entrance of our room just as they rounded the corner. There she was!! Oh..I can't tell you. I am pretty sure that I stopped breathing. I watched in slow motion as she layed her down on the mat. I wanted to grab her up immediately but I respected the fact that they wanted us to take this introduction slowly. Pardon me for wanting to completely want to eat her up. So, slow we were.She looked at us intently..then back at her nanny and the social worker, then back at us. I am pretty sure we are the first white people she has seen. I am sure we looked different to her. She did not smile. She just took it all in. We let her.For a moment, I forgot how to talk to a baby. I have had three already but what in the world?!! I think they could see my nervousness. Still, I am praying I am not going to lose my cookies all over my baby girl and completely insult everyone. The nanny began to coo and speak to her and there she smiled. SO beautiful to see. The love that her nanny has for her. THe love our sweet girl had for her nanny. beautiful.Through the waves of nervousness, I started to breathe. I began to talk and giggle with her and tickle. Chris and I began to relax. I could feel the eyes of the nanny and social worker totally scoping us out to see if we were going to be good parents to her. My nerves picked back up. Please dont let me throw up, Lord. Just then, the nanny blessed us with some coffee and roasted grains. Uh...my stomach. I didnt want to be rude. Chris graciously accepted the little cup of dark goodness. I took mine. I was able to take one sip and swallow with some more prayer..and was able to nibble on one tiny grain. That's all I could handle. I could think of nothing more than holding her. No more waiting. I picked her up. OH.MY.GOODNESS. unreal. Lord, is this real? Am I really in AFRICA holding my baby girl?!!! She seemed heavier than I expected but a good heavy. I loved every minute of it. Our baby girls name is Tadelech. It means "You are blessed". They call her Tadu...pronounced TAH doo. As they called her name, she smiled...and smiled. Her little bottom teeth glowed with each grin.Lord, please let me be as much a blessing as these sweet nannies. Lord, let us make her smile like they do. Okay..I admit, I was a little jealous..but understandably so. There is so much pressure that goes into this one meeting. So much.No wonder my stomach was in knots...and then I kept thinking, Oh Lord..the time is ticking.Tadelech began to warm up and soon smiles abounded. She would totally perk up when Chris talked to her. What a blessing. Our social worker let us stay for 2 hours!! I cannot believe it. I was able to feed a bottle to her. We were able to walk with her in the courtyard.I forgot to mention that the social worker forgot her camera. This whole meeting has to be documented by photo to prove to the judge that we have seen her atleast 24 hours before court. A mini miracle is that the day we left for ET, Chris and I grabbed our son's camera that just so happened to use the same memory card that the sw used. We were going to use our phones only on the trip but grabbed his camera as an extra. Thank you Lord for again providing.SO...the sw usually only takes a couple of pictures as documentation but she let us take our own pics. Can't wait to post them. We probably took close to 2 dozen pics or more. Thank you Lord. When our sw worker gets back to her computer to look at them, she is probably gonna freak out. We would grab it snap pics even when they werent around. They let us have some sweet alone time with Tadelech. Every moment was precious to the very end. As they asked us to prepare to leave, the tears poured again. I didnt want to go. I didnt want to hand her over. Chris and I gave her kisses and snuggles and slowly gave her to her nanny.It will be close to 3-5 months or even more before we see her again. Her nanny grasped her close and gave her kisses. And as we left, her nanny held her close and they both bowed a little as they said good bye and Selam (peace). Ciao sweetness. See you soon.

Luggage arrived!

Our luggage just arrived and we are elated! As we tugged them up the stairs and opened them up, we were both struck with the fact that we packed WAY too much. We are too luxurious in America...and just.don't.know.it. I am grateful the Lord is blessing us with so much to see and experience here. This morning, we headed to the National Museum and on the way, we tried to capture as many mental photographs as we could. The one that stuck out the most: my eyes and sneaky camera were trying to capture the images of the street boys who live their lives by shining shoes. This is their way of life...my camera could not capture the image that popped up so quickly as our car swerved to miss another. There was a homeless woman leaning up against a streetpost with her belongings scattered around her. She was nursing her babe in her arms while trying to gather some things around her. My heart hurt. In an instant we were too far away for me to even tap Chris to look. Ethiopians LOVE their babies. They LOVE their children. They LOVE their culture. They want the BEST for their babies. We are blessed that the Lord has called us to bring up a sweet beauty in our home. We are blessed, humbled, honored. I have not had a chance to describe our visit to the orphanage. that is coming..as long as they let me use their computer :).

Court Date Changed..

okay...I won't lie...I am disappointed. ..and tired...and needing some clean clothes. We just got back from the agency offices where we found out that the Judge has postponed our court date until Monday afternoon. Want to know why? Because she is taking an exam for her Masters program and she needs extra time to study. Okay. Okay Lord. The Judge needs time to study. Okay. The Judge actually wanted to reschedule for Wednesday but our offices pleaded for Monday. Thankfully she obliged. SO, we are here two more days. That doesnt bother us. Our kids are in great care and all will be okay. ..but I am disappointed. ..and I have cried my many tears into a bathtowel so as not to disturb the rest of the guests here while my hubby lovingly has sat next to me and comforted me. I am not sure I am done crying yet...but I am going to be okay. i know that.

Arrived, survived...thrived

We are here!!! We arrived around midnight last night. By the time we got to the Guest Home last night, we had been traveling for about 26 hours...with about 3 hours of eye rest only. Our luggage did not make it with us. We are hoping to have it by tomorrow. I could go on and on about the craziness of our travel and the shear miracles that occurred to get us here, but I would rather focus on our experience since we have arrived. We are blessed by the generosity of everyone here. The sweet guest home attendant blessed us with a big welcome even though it was super late. After we got all settled in our room upstairs, I came back down to ask her a question and she popped out from under the stairs. Her little dwelling place and bed were in a tiny closet under the stairs. She was not bothered by her small quarters. She is young, probably and older teen, and she is grateful for the job. After about four hours rest, we were up again this morning to have breakfast downstairs; scrambled eggs, fresh bread, and coffee. We then got in the car with the social worker and a driver and headed to our trip South of Addis to Hawassa. It is about a 4.5 hour drive. Much horn honking, brake slamming, swerving, dodging, and speeding. Enough to make even the heartiest stomach a little queasy. I don't have a hearty stomach, so needless to say, I am still suffering from motion sickness. We saw soooo much on the drive. So much that it is impossible to really express and even pictures dont do it justice. National Geographic is very close to what we witnessed today. On one of our previously lost referrals, the comment was that the babe had been found while a woman walked to work. It is one thing to read about it, another to witness exactly what that means. I am not talking about a casual stroll down the sidewalk to work. "Walking to work" means walking miles on the side of this dangerous road or through pastures and over freshly plowed and rough fields to their place of work. Most work on farms. Some travel long distances to bring water back on the backs of donkeys to bring back to their straw huts or to the animals that they tend. We dodged folks all day on the road, nearly hitting them. I cannot describe it. They often walked in the middle of the road or drove their donkeys in the middle of the road..and typically they move if you honk loud enough and often enough. We were fortunate not to hit any living thing. I think what spoke to Chris and I most was the fact that there was not an age excluded from working. It was typical on this drive to see 3 and 4 year olds herding cattle or goats along the road with no one else with them. "Careful, babes, this is a dangerous road! Big trucks are having to dodge you!" They even carried whips and knew how to use them. We saw a pair of about 5 year boys walking together carrying an oxen yolk on their backs. They were working together following behind a clan who were moving their farming tools to a different plowing area. We saw an equivalent number of women carrying bundles of hay, baskets, water, or farming tools and their little girls with them. Every 10 miles or so, was a tiny village consisting of a dozen or more clusters of huts....that's it. huts and farms and kids and farmers. The images are forever engraved in our minds with a serene backdrop of mountains, fields, or deserts trickled with shapely bonsai looking trees and cone shaped huts amidst the farms. Oh forgot to mention that we stopped for a humble bathroom and coffee break halfway there. Chris and I both got a coffee, our sw got a macchiato, and our driver got a hearty injera breakfast. After getting the bill, we began to divide out our portions and then Chris ended up taking care of the whole bill. Not even $2 total for it all. They were moved but I am not sure they understand how moved we are about all of this. So very humbling. We finally got to the hotel..and then orphanage. details to follow.

Leaving Nash

Getting ready to leave. Our flight is delayed already. Oh well, I think that is just prep for Ethiopian time. You get there when you get there. No rush. No spiraling around a clock. We all need some of that in our lives.Met a couple of Ethiopian friends of Chris at the airport. They are so excited we are going to their home country. If you dont know much about the people of Ethiopia, they are SO loving,SO kind, SO giving, SO,grateful. Before we even made it to the gate, they were setting up arrangements with family in ET to greet us at the,airport and take us to a coffee ceremony and bless us with traditional meal if we would like. We have almost half dozen phone numbers and names to contact if we have any needs. Such a blessing. They are so excited for us. We are excited too. The Lord has seen fit to mend our hearts with this country, this culture, this people for a lifetime. Our family will forever be part Ethiopian. What an honor.Still at the airport.....and we wait. ..

Little Feet, Little Toes, Little Fingers, Little Nose...we are coming in a couple of days to see you!!!!

Court Date!!!!!!!!!

We received our court date!!!  We got the news as we were sailing across the big blue ocean on our cruise!!   These pics are about an hour after we heard the news. Perfect! We found out moments before we renewed our vows. Perfect!! We got home in time to have about 7 days to get ready. Now, we leave in less than 3 days. So very grateful for the support from friends and family. Thankful for my sis who is holding down the fort while we are gone.
We received more pics yesterday of our princess.  She has gotten her two bottom teeth since our last update. awwww..she is precious and is actually smiling for the camera. Can not wait until we can post pics of her. Please be praying for us: safe travels, staying healthy, financial support to cover all the travel costs of both trips, great visit to the orphanage, and favor with the judge. We are also believing for our paper work to be expedited Divinely so we can bring her home soon. The Embassy process that follows a successful court date is not known to be quick. We are praying for favor, favor, favor.

A chosen day

In the wee hours of May 4th 31 years ago, my earthly father passed away in a tragic accident. I was 9 years old. Each, year, that day does not go by without memories of that moment, memories of him, memories of days gone by, the whys, why me, what ifs, and then praises for today, praises for the Lords protection, praises for His Sovereignty despite the whys. On May 4th, 2012 in the wee hours of the morning, we got the email that we had a referral!! We had gotten word the night before that they were sending it to us, but for some reason, the email would not come through. It was a sluggish internet weirdness. I kept checking my phone for the email...nothing. We went to bed..nothing..I kept checking until well after midnight...nothing. When hubs got up at 2am to go to work. I checked again. SOMETHING!! It came. I sat up..we looked together. There she was!!! Beauty. Blessed. Her name means she is blessed. No more sleep for me that night. I was up the rest of the day. I began to search her birthplace, pour over her history, and stare googly eyed at her photo. Why Lord did you choose to have us receive this precious gift on this day? I can only believe that it is because days matter. Our heavenly Father chooses every day, every moment. He is Sovereign. Nothing on this planet happens without His foreknowledge and intervention. He is ever so present in our lives, ever so knowledgeable of our comings and goings, ever so purposeful, ever so loving. I have embraced this gift of receiving her referral as a purposeful message that this day matters. Perhaps my earthly father who now resides in the Heavenlies has been assigned to watch over our baby girl, perhaps he has spoken or pleaded on our behalf, perhaps this day was simply to send a message of hope that this little girl is it. After two failed referrals, I receive that. I am cautious. I am cautiously excited and hopeful. Now the wait...the wait for the court date. We have never gotten this far before. We have gotten referrals in the past only to follow with tragic phone calls months later. "We are sorry" phone calls. We are sorry but we are taking your referral and giving her to another family because of your husbands heart attack. We are sorry but there has been a mistake and your referral has been given to another family. We are sorry. I have been nervous, anxious, and yet deep down trying to wholly and completely trust the Lord. Please dear Lord. This must be it. "I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." Psalm 27:13,14