More Ethiopia pics...

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View from our guest house


Another view from the guest house


Cow crossing


Construction


Big Mak Cafe - Burgers, Coffee & Tea, Wedding Cakes. Interesting combinations.

Merry Christmas (a little late...)

Putting lights on the tree....

That's a lot of work. Time for a nap (with my boots on, of course!)

My first Christmas Present (I wasn't really sure what was going on!)

A Bears Jersey!! I love this box!

ROCKSTAR!!

Pictures

Pictures

Here's some of the 500+ pictures taken in the last 2 weeks..

The Day We First Met

Here's the day we met Zerihun

Hello Everyone

Well, we finally have internet access!  It's been strange not checking emails every day.So much to catch you up on, so we'll hit the highlights. The 17 plus hour flight was awful. I somehow manged to be sick throughout the entire flight & it continued even once we were on solid ground. Then Rocky had it Monday night & all day Tuesday. Steph has been lucky, she didn't get it, but it could be because of the 'special' medicine she took. We went to Z's orphanage on Monday, it was amazing to finally meet him. It brings tears to my eyes just typing it. We walked into the gated compound & were immediately surrounded by about 30 little kids. They all want to shake your hand, be picked up, and hugged. They just want to be loved. The Sisters that run K.M. (Z's orphanage) are amazing people. They know everything about each kid there. There are about 170 kids there total this week, from the new baby brought the day we were there, to the older kids 11,12,13. They are all awaiting their forever families. Such hope, and still so heartbreaking.
We've been all over town, it's quite a city.Cows walking through the streets, along with cars & buses. People chatting on cellphones, walking past homeless people who literally have nothing. The Sheraton hotel that charges $335 per night & is one of the most extravagant hotels in the world down the street from tin shacks. Amazing contrasts.
We went to the US Embassy today to start our paperwork. Now it's a waiting and praying game that our paperwork gets done expeditiously.
Z is amazing.He is very quiet, content to play today with a cracker. He LOVES Stephanie. She is definitely his favorite, and she won't let him go.
He and Rocky seem to get along well, but it's hard to tell as Steph monopolizes him. We miss you all and will try to write soon!

We're Outta Here

This is it! We leave in 2 hours. The bags are packed and we're ready to roll. We'll update as often as we can throughout the way! Wish us luck!

Test...

Testing the email to blog feature for when we're travelling...

Halloween

We had a very low key Halloween this year. I got home later than I wanted from work. S & R had gone out only to one house earlier, R was too hot (the mask made him hot) and he said it was too much work. So they stayed at home until I got there handing out candy.










Then when I got home, we headed out for about a half hour.











We ended the night with a black cat crossing our path. The perfect ending for Halloween.

He's Ours...

We passed court on 10/13 and received Z's Birth Certificate on 10/22. It was so strange to see Zerihun Kathleen Owsiak... It's not quite fair to his first family to see that we've essentially rewritten his history by taking their names off of it. Anyway, our embassy appointment is 12/3. We will leave here 11/29 & return, hopefully on 12/12 if the paperwork gets processed in a timely fashion. Keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer. Both S & R are coming with. The school wasn't particularly impressed with S taking 2 weeks to go, but she's spoken with each of her teachers and they've all promised to work with her both before & after the trip to make sure she doesn't fall behind. She's also organized some fundraising efforts to get some donations to bring with us. It seems so strange that we leave in 4 weeks. I can't wait to have him home with us.

End of Summer

Now that summer is almost officially over, here' some pictures of some of the more interesting highlights

Here is when the neighbors tree crashed into our front yard...










About a week after the tree fell, we found a nest of baby squirrels on the sidewalk. We loaded them & their nest into a box to take to a wildlife refuge.














and we went to the Air & Water Show....

Updates

So... You may have noticed that I haven't updated my poor neglected blog in awhile. I actually am quite lazy, and haven't felt much like writing. Here's what we've been up to.

The eldest graduated....









We go to the zoo every Sunday since we live 2 minutes away. It's open late on Sunday nights ('til 7:30 p.m., so we have a picnic dinner there).



















We played some baseball....










All in all, it's been a great summer. Hard to believe how fast it's gone. The eldest leaves for school in 3 weeks. She needs to start packing!