My Favorite Moments

As I said before, I did not keep an accurate journal recording our time in Ethiopia. But I will share a few of my favorite moments...

The first morning when we stepped outside of the wall to our guesthouse, Lucas exclaimed, "Gwosssss! What's that smell?!?!" Upon which Avery pointed his gaze toward the herd of goats walking ahead of us! He was flabbergasted at the goats!

Walking the streets of Ethiopia with two ferinj children was quite the experience! People exclaimed in Amharic almost constantly, "Look at the ferinj children! The ferinj children are so beautiful!" Also, their hair was touched almost constantly. Well, so was mine, but my Kaitlyn especially received this touching. Her hair is long and silky and straight. Luckily, she wasn't bothered by this, as she mostly was oblivious to it. I have photos of Lucas getting "petted" on his head.

While walking through Merkato, a woman sitting on the sidewalk selling her wares petted Lucas as I walked past her, holding Lucas by the hand. (We were kind of making a get-away. More in a future post). All of a sudden, he stopped coming and I turned around to find that the woman had grabbed his other hand and wouldn't let go! I didn't know until later that she had grabbed him because she wasn't finished petting his hair! Avery was behind us and saw the entire thing unfold. All I knew in the moment was that a stranger had grabbed my son and wouldn't allow me to take him! I told her very sternly, "Aiy! YANE wadadj no! Kum!" (No, He's MY son! Stop it!)

No fewer than 20 times I had women ask me if they could have one of my children, both ferinj and habasha children! I would always reply, "Aiy! Yane!" with a smile. I think this was their way of admiring my children....at least I hope they didn't really want to take them!?!?!

Three days into our stay, Yosef and Mihret began begging us multiple times each day to PLEEAASSSEEEEE take them to America TODAY! They were more than a bit excited. Poor babies had no idea what they were getting themselves in to! Honestly, they still don't. These children are so brave and resilient. God is surely with them.

I leave you with a couple of pictures taken at a beautiful crater lake in a town called Debra Zeit about an hour and a half outside of Addis. This is where we spent our first two days as a new family. It was such a perfect, peaceful location to get to know each other. The view was absolutely breathtaking. Sooooooo beautiful! Reminded me of God.