I realized this morning that I'm completely full of
gugut (anxiety). It's not the bad kind of anxiety though where we become preoccupied with worrying over something. That kind of anxiety translates into Amharic with a different word.
Gugut is translated into English as "anxiety", but it really means that you're full of eager desire for something. So, I'm full of
gugut (eager desire) for my kids to come home today, yesterday, tomorrow, and everyday until that finally happens.
So, I was lying in bed this morning, sleeping in with Lucas who was unusually snuggly, when the phone rang. I jumped out of bed, thinking that maybe Avery had gone to work, checked his email, discovered that we had a courtdate, and was calling to share the good news with me. Yea, I managed to think all of that as I woke from a dead sleep! So, though my eyes were all squinty, I managed to answer the phone and it was some very generous guy from Sprint on the other end. He was letting me know that he was going to send me a cell phone in the mail for free! And what's better is that my free cell phone was only going to cost me $200 per month! Whoa! What a deal! I had to decline his most generous offer though, as I already have a cell phone and don't really need a new one. Otherwise, I would have jumped on a deal like that! :)
God is so faithful to us in the most unexpected ways. We so desperately wanted our kids' case to go to court this week, as next week the courts will close until sometime in late Sept or Oct. About half of the kids at our agency's orphanage got their courtdates this week, but ours weren't included. That leaves just a few other families who have waited as long as us. I was truly very happy that God had answered my prayers for so many other families, but also very disappointed that He hadn't answered my prayers for my own children. But, knowing how heavy my heart would be, He has brought people out of the wood work this week (both on-line people and real-life people) to say the most kind, encouraging things to and about our little family. It's actually been so overwhelming that I cry when I read the emails we've been receiving. It's just all come out of nowhere! It's been so much that I've started praying that God wouldn't allow pride to take root in my heart! I had started thinking, "Gee- I'm a pretty swell girl!" :) Then of course, God reminded me of how desperate I've felt and what a mess I've been at times, and that He is the One who has faithfully given me peace/comfort/assurrance of His love and sovereignty! hehehe How like us humans to take credit for the impossible things that only God could have done in our lives! Surely, God is faithful to the end of time; faithful to a thousand generations.
Injera day 3 was somewhat successful, I suppose. The finished product doesn't exactly look right, but it's closer than it's been so far. The taste was actually pretty good. It seems that there's a real science to sourdough bread. I've been reading a book about this, and according to the book, it takes 14 days to get your starter batch going. Like I said, I'm determined, so I've already started my starter batch using just teff and water and relying on the natural yeast in the air to be captured by what the book calls this "living organism" called sourdough bread. Avery and I are going to be signing up for an Ethiopian cooking class offered by an Ethiopian restaraunt. Perhaps we'll learn the secret at our class! 
