Road to Awasa

According to the iPad GPS, we travelled 168 miles in 7 hours, including a stop for lunch, a visit to an orphanage, and an encounter with some camel drivers.

We left Addis this morning with our driver Ephraim. He is an awesome driver. You have to be around here. Here are our wheels. Let me tell you that Ephraim is one with this van, and knows exactly how long the front end is, and exactly what turning radius it has, and makes use of both frequently.

So I'll post a few pictures of the typical sights along the highway...

The normal construction technique around here. Huge scaffolding of poles, supporting concrete forms. Also, miles and miles of corrugated steel. Not sure where they get it all, but it is everywhere.





Bags and bags of charcoal. It appears that the vast majority of heating and cooking is done with charcoal. The air quality attests to this as well.





Speaking of air quality, this kind of thing doesn't help. Our driver said it was some kind of concrete plant. Also note the donkeys. I think we probably saw several hundred along the roadside.





A traditional toukul of a farmer. Lots and lots of these once we got out of the city.





Cows. Lots and lots of cows. Frequently on the side of the road, frequently in the middle. Knowing the exact length of the nose of your van comes in very handy here.





Many roadside stands selling vegetables.





People. I've never seen so many people in my life. There are just people everywhere. It's mind blowing. The same in Addis. The streets are constantly filled with people. I mean... filled. Again, intimate knowledge of your vehicle, and liberal use of the horn, are key to navigation of the streets.





Ok, so the camel story. At one point in the drive, Paige dozed off for a second. During which, I spotted some camels. I pointed this out when she woke up, and she instructed me that next time I better tell her, because she wanted to see them. A few miles down the road, I holler out "CAMELS!" Ephraim nails the brakes and pulls the van off the road. We are all checking out the camels out the left side of the car, taking pictures. All of a sudden some dude sneaks up to my open window (behind me) and starts yelling in the car (not in English.) I've got no clue where this guy came from. He and Ephraim are talking loudly, with me in the middle, this guy practically inside my window. Another guy on a bike rides up, stops in front of the van, and joins in the conversation. Some kid wanders up looking like he just walked out of the bush and starts practicing his English. Pretty soon it is determined that the first guy owns the camels, and we need to pay 10 birr for the pictures. So I pay the man, who then insists I must get out of the car and take many, many pictures of his camels.
















A little ways down the road we saw the rest of his camels. We didn't even slow down for these though, figuring we would draw a crowd of hundreds from who knows where insisting we take many pictures of their camels.





Saw way too many kids without pants wandering along the side of the road.






And too many people washing in dirty, dirty water.





And lots of people riding lots of miles in lots of donkey carts, just to haul a few gallons of water from the tap in town back to their home.

Going light on the pictures

FYI, the Internet isn't super speedy and is somewhat unreliable (go figure.). So we are trying to go light on the pictures in posts. When we get back, I'll post enough to choke a horse. Lots of cool stuff, just in the first couple days.

Plus some video of driving in Addis, which is an experience all in itself. Better than any roller coaster at Disneyland!

Brought to you by the number 7

Friday, February 25: Day two in Ethiopia

Today we awoke well rested (after having gone to bed around 8) and ready to go visit our sweet Sophie again. We ate breakfast, headed to the Hilton to exchange some money, and then off to Toukoul. We are allowed only 3 one hour visits with Sophie while we are here this trip, so we are trying to make the most of our time and enjoy every second with her. And today's visit went great.

Today when the babies (our and Pat's) were dropped off we could immediately tell they were more relaxed then the previous day when they had been placed in our arms and saw their very white parents for the very fist time. It is possible that we are the first white people they have ever seen, and they hardly ever see males. So yesterday Sophie was not the biggest fan of us and our excitement and she was NOT going to let Jason touch her hands. Today was SO much better. She came to me very easily and had lots and lots of smiles and even a few giggles. We had so much fun playing with her, and the best part was, I think the nannies forgot about us and we got to have her for 2 hours and 17 minutes! (but who's counting)





I'm telling you this girl is perfect for the Addink family. She loves to play "rough", like lifting her high and tipping her upside down. It gets her smiling and squeaking every time. Reminds me of a little boy in our family who asks his daddy to "throw me high!"

By the end of our visit we had throughly worn the poor kid out. She popped her thumb in her mouth and fell asleep on my chest as I sang her the love song I sing my other kiddos each and every night. It was WONDERFUL! We are so blown away that we are to be her parents. I keep asking out loud to Jason if he can believe they are really going to let us have her. How can we be so blessed?





Only one visit left with her and that will be on Monday after court. Hopefully on that visit we will officially be Mommy and Daddy, although we have already introduced ourselves to her as such. She hasn't objected, so I think that's a good sign. :)

Honestly Monday is going to be a tough day. We have court at 9 am. (That will be 11pm Sunday night for family in AZ.). Please pray with us that we pass court, and MOWA has our paperwork ready and correct. Then pray for our hearts as we get to see Sophie one last time and have to kiss her goodbye for what may be as long as 12 weeks or as short as 6. It is going to be terribly hard to return her to her nannies arms.

The rest of our day today was another adventure as we went across town to visit the Kolfe boys orphanage to drop off two care packages for friends. Joy and Jeanette, your gifts have been delivered, and my heart will never be the same. I gave them hugs as promised, Jason did too.





Tomorrow we are headed off on a weekend adventure to Awasa to visit none other than Lake Awasa. The plan is to go on a boat ride and see the hippos, visit the fish market, and see the beauty of Ethiopia. We are headed there with our new friend Pat (who is here on her first visit as well for her sweet baby girl Zoe), and our awesome driver Ephrim, from our hotel.

We were told there would be Internet access there so maybe we will post about our adventures while there. So far the Internet cafe by our guest house is not cooperating all that well so we have been a bit frustrated, only because we would like to communicate more with our kids and see how things are going back home.

Psalm 126:3

Put on your shock face

Thursday, February 24:

We landed in Addis and after making it through immigration were met by our driver and our coordinator from the YGF Guesthouse, Hanania. They took us to the guest house to get settled in. We expected, based on what we had been told, that we would be settling in today and have our first visit with Sophie tomorrow.

I literally hadn't gotten the luggage up to the room and Hanania said "I hate to bother you so soon, but would you like to go to Toukoul and visit your child?"

Ummmmmmmm, yes!

I went up to the room and told Paige and she nearly hyperventilated right there.

So after a quick breakfast, off we went to Toukoul.

Here is Hanania, while we wait in the room for our daughter to be brought over.

And here is our daughter being carried back to the orphanage after our visit.




Unfortunately I can't post any pictures of her yet. But it was awesome. She was terrified at first, stiff as a board, staring at us with a wrinkled brow frighteningly similar to Luke's. She wouldn't even let me touch her while she was sitting on Paige's lap without pulling away. But after a while she started warming up. We even ended up getting some smiles and laughs and strawberries from her (Paige informs me it is "raspberries" and I have my fruits confused.)

So first impressions:
- She likes playing rough, tossing up in the air and ladies ride type stuff. That got us the smiles.
- She is just getting her first tooth.
- She can sit up by herself.
- She has a nasty cough. Her nurse said that is typical, and all the kids there have it.
- She's got a decent sized flat spot on the back of her head. Poor kid, all that time lying in a bed.
- She loves her nanny. She got comfortable with us, but when her nanny came back to get her she was anxious to get back in her arms.
- She is even more adorable in person.

After our one hour visit was up, they gave us a tour of the orphanage. No pictures of the kids were allowed, but here are some pictures of the orphanage.

The trip of a lifetime

We left Tuesday morning for Ethiopia. The first leg was from Phoenix to Washington DC. And speaking of legs, there was very little room for mine on that plane. Very uncomfortable.

The flight itself was uneventful though, and we arrived in a chilly DC just fine.




Ethiopian Air put us up in the Sheraton overnight, about eight grades above they hotels we usually stay in. The next morning we were up bright and early to head back to the airport. Spotted our 777 across the terminal.





We got to ride in these big ol' Conestoga wagons the day before. I am seriously considering one of these for our next family vehicle.




The big bird.




Much more legroom on this one. The airplane was super nice, and brand new.




Holy big engines batman! Hope some engineers did a really good job on their burst testing.




Feet wet. Somebody identify this piece of land for me. they had a fancy inflight map... but it never worked the whole flight.




For most of the flight over the Atlantic, the ocean seemed to be filled white spots. Waves? They didn't seem to be moving. Icebergs? Really? Whatever it was, they were everywhere!




Sunset somewhere over the mid-Atlantic.




We made landfall again in the middle of the night. I have no idea where.




Then sunrise again, north of Addis Ababa.




Lake Tana.




Approach to Addis.




Coming into Addis.




Hard to believe that two plane flights, and we are on another continent, and in another world.

The big bird!

On our way

Today we left home on the beginning of our journey. We left Phoenix with thankful hearts that the super crabby luggage check in lady allowed us to take an extra piece of luggage donations with us. Neither woman at the check in desk was too happy to help us, but thankfully we had received an okay the day prior from a very lovely employee at Sky Harbor airport. So while we had to return one bin of donations back to the van, we were thankful that we had one headed with us to Ethiopia. Nothing, NOTHING, was going to steal my "joy" today as we headed off to meet our Sophie.

Jason and I marveled at how this was the first time in a long time that we had been alone together. We also joked about how easy traveling was without four kids, two car seats, coloring books, dvd players, and goldfish crackers is. We even ate dinner together at a table for two. No interruptions, no noise, the food was still hot, and I didn't have to cut it or blow on it for anyone! It all feels a little strange. Strange, but so nice.

Tomorrow we head back to the airport, where we will recheck all our luggage again. We hope that all 5 pieces arrive with us in Addis Ababa on Wed, the 24th. We are so excited to get to Ethiopia and can hardly stand the suspense of finally meeting our daughter. I can hardly contain my "joy"!

We appreciate all the prayers being said for us, our kids at home, and Sophie.

Next time you hear from us we hope to be Addis Ababa!

Paige and Jason

Jason loving the legroom on the flight.

 Brrrrrrrrrr, it's cold in DC.