Ethiopia: Day 1 (5-5-2010)

After 2 days of traveling!!! Des Moines to Minneapolis. Minneapolis to Amsterdam. Amsterdam to Khartoum, Sudan. Sudan to Ethiopia!!

Welcome to Ethiopia! It was so nice for us to finally be off the plane and in Ethiopia!! Last night, Abel picked us up at the airport with another couple - Scott and Cara Jo. Mike and I were able to hear many stories from Abel; apparently he used to be a tour guide in Addis Ababa, so he knows pretty much everything about the city and its history. He said that his family lives in Tennessee now, and moved there 4 years ago.

Birtukan Sinshaw from Morning Coffee Guest House was waiting for us at the guest house. I was so happy to finally see her in person, after hearing so many wonderful things about her and her ministry! It was shocking for me driving through the city and seeing such extreme poverty everywhere - and I was surprised at how nice the guest house looked in comparison! We were the second family group to stay at the new house, and she really did do an awesome job making a nice place for adoptive families to stay while in Ethiopia. The second we walked inside, we felt "home" - although we were half way across the world!

Since we were the first family there, we got first choice of rooms. We picked the suite with a personal bathroom. Hooray for first choice of rooms! :-) Unfortunately, I got really sick the day before we left with some type of virus (cough, sore throat, sinus pressure and congestion, etc) so you can imagine how wonderful flying for 2 days felt! I coughed nonstop, and Birtukan heard me and made some hot tea for me. I've never liked tea before; actually, I've always hated it!! But I drank it to be nice, and I was surprised to find out that I actually liked it! One jug later, and in the middle of the night, I asked Mike if tea has caffeine in it. Umm, so much for a good nights sleep! There were also dogs that barked all night long, and apparently the roosters wake up around 2-3am. Good thing we had earplugs with us!


The bathrooms are very different than in the US. Even the way they flushed amused me, as I pulled up the knob on the top of the tank. Birtukan made us a wonderful breakfast - homemade pancakes (NOT from a mix, which is what I'm used to!), awesome fresh bananas, coffee, tea, and fresh juice made from papaya, mango, and lemon. It was so good!! After breakfast, a local pastor named Damous came over with someone from Ontario Canada (Bob) that does prison ministry - he said he was spending a few weeks in Ethiopia working in the prisons. One thing he said was that children are in the prisons with the parent if there is no other family able to care for the children. This is way different than in the US, and heartbreaking to think of children being raised in a prison!

Today is a holiday, so everything is closed. Abel told us it was Patriot's Day, which was similar to the 4th of July in the US. We are planning to be picked up here at 0915 tomorrow morning to go to Mussie Orphanage to meet our little daughter Birtukan. Hopefully I'm feeling better by then!

So far we have had no access to the internet, which is hard, since my mom had heart surgery Tuesday and I haven't been able to check on her since we left. Praying all is well with her!!

So far I absolutely love Ethiopia!! The people are so kind and generous. Even if they have literally nothing, they give to you. It really is an amazing culture, and I love the people here!

Tonight for dinner, Birtukan made a salad with lettuce, tomato, red onion, bananas, papaya, salt, vinegar, and another spice called mekelesha. It was so good! Also, an Ethiopian stew with tiny noodles. The food is so delicious, and Birtukan is taking great care of us! I'm really glad we came early to have this relaxing time before the crazy schedule coming up.

Birtukan also told us they were praying about adopting an Ethiopian child. Right now, they are just praying about it and have no immediate plans. We also met their kids tonight. Edu, their youngest 3yo son, is quite a ham and really reminded me of Maddie! He was so funny. He always likes to be the center of attention, and make everyone laugh. We got a lot of Birtukan's handmade jewelry today, and it's beautiful! She also sweetly brought me a thing of hot tea in bed to help with my cough.

Abel is picking us up tomorrow to see our daughter. Hopefully we will know more about being able to meet birthfamily, or if that's still a possibility. We are looking forward to meeting the other families tomorrow night!

There was a 'friendly little buddy' waiting for us in the bathroom. I'll just leave it at that!!