First Day in Ethiopia

We arrived around 4am, Monday, April 19th. We then went to bed and slept until 10am. Pochi was called and came with Tamirat right away. Tamirat was a bit shy and very near tears when it was time for Pochi to leave. The boys found a soccer ball and Tamirat was completely comfortable with Seth and Alex in no time. He clicked with them and everything was very easy after that.

Meseret was with Pochi so they sat on the couch at the Guest House and played with the electronic games we brought. Electronic learning games are a great idea for donations!



Here is Seth putting on a pair of the new shoes we bought Tamirat. They were too big so we sent them off to the orphanage.



Here are the boys playing soccer:



This was his first night with us. We had brought DVD's to donate so they put a movie in the computer and watched The Lion King.



Seth has done an amazing job bonding with Tamirat! Seth communicates so easily with him even though they don't speak the same language. Seth can get Tamirat to try most foods. Tamirat only likes pizza because of Seth's encouragement. Pochi had told me that Tamirat does not like pizza. He does not like cheese.



Our first day went very well together. Seth and Alex immediately loved him. (Bill and I did too.) We were both very glad to have had Seth and Alex come along. I think it would have been much harder without them.

We Are Heading Out Today!

I will try to update on FaceBook as often as I can. Hope to get pics here.

Visits to my Blog

I put Map Loco on my blog to see who was visiting. Today, I had one from Ontario Canada. I have no idea who that is but how cool! Tyler TX....hmmmm. It is so fun to see the places that check in on me here. Could all of you leave me a comment and how you found me?

Not much to report here. We leave in 3 days. Crazy! I can't believe it! I keep having to go shopping and I keep buying Tamirat clothes and shoes. I buy donations. I needed some t-shirts for me. The boys needed, well, underclothes. We need to pack 10 days worth. The cameras are all getting the cards emptied, batteries charged, cords all found and put together with the cameras for easy downloads. I have 5 bags packed, all close to 50lbs each. House is getting cleaned, refrigerater cleaned out. Laundry...oh my...everything I buy has to be washed along with the regular loads. I bought 72 diapers that had to be washed twice and dried twice. I am still working on getting them folded and stacked. I am exhausted by 8pm.

We spend Thursday night at our friends, the Kumars. Shanthi is cooking us her Indian food for Thursday night. The boys love her food! They will take us to the Chicago Airport Friday morning, we leave for NY JFK at 11am. We are there for 4 hours and then head to Cairo Egypt where we will spend Saturday night. We get to Cairo at 11:15am. We will see the Pyramids. The Cairo Marriott is where we will lay our weary heads. Google it and check it out. It looks amazing and sits on the Nile River. The boys are really excited!

We leave Cairo Sunday night at 10:15 and head to Addis where we will arrive at 3am. Not sure what we are going to do at 3am...sleep? Our home for the week is New Flower Guest House. We will go to Covenant on Monday to meet Tamirat. He is ours forever!

Sue, the director of our agency, comes on Wed. There are 2 other families there and we all have Embassy on Thursday. During the week we will go over to the Transition House and meet Natnael and Mulugeta, Obsi's friends. They will be coming home to Whitelaw two weeks later. We will have gifts for them from their mom and dad (and us).

We fly out Saturday morning and arrive in Chicago at 9:24. Waiting for us will be Tamirat's brother and sister and their mom, and of course, the Kumar's who will take us to their house for the night, again. We will head for Manitowoc early afternoon. Our families will be here to greet us and meet Tamirat, the newest member of the family.

Tamirat starts his adventure in America. That week we have a doctor appt, dentist, he gets to check out his new school. Soccer practice will start right away and the Goalgetters are excited to have him. Camping starts 4 weeks later and we can't wait to take him camping. We are so blessed to be given the opportunity to raise him as our own! God is good!!

Travel

Our embassy appointment is on April 22nd. We will pick up Tamirat on Monday and keep him with us until Thursday's appointment. We fly out on Saturday.

Friday, April 16th, we head to Cairo Egypt for a mini field trip to check out the pyramids. We will spend Saturday night in Cairo and head for Ethiopian Sunday night and arrive at 3am Monday morning.