Barefoot on April 16th
On April 16th go barefoot.
Go barefoot to help people understand how important shoes are.
Go barefoot so people know that some kids can’t go to school simply because they don’t have shoes.
Go barefoot so people know that one million people in Ethiopia have a disfiguring and debilitating disease from walking barefoot in volcanic soil.
Go barefoot to remind people that in many countries children walk miles for food, clean water, and medical care.
Go barefoot so you can remind yourself how lucky you are to go home and pick which pair of shoes you’ll wear tomorrow.
causes, ethiopia | Comment (0)A lot to say but not sure where to start.
Now that we are back home and not sick and not jetlaged I’ve been wanting to write about our trip and having Milo home but there is so much to say, so much to share, I’m not quite sure where to start.
First of all, thank you. Thank you to the people who brought us stuff for our rummage sale. Thank you to the people who bought stuff from the rummage sale. Thank you to the people who sent donations towards Kevin shaving his head. Thank you to the people who prayed for us. Thank you to the people who asked us about updates and listened when we were excited about updates and when we complained about wait times. There is no way we could have done this alone. So thank you.
About Ethiopia.
Ethiopia was amazing. It’s how I pictured it to be and completely different than I thought it would be. I can’t really explain it but even though I’d never been there before, everything felt very familiar. When we go back (and we will go back at some point) I want to see more of the country. Our trip was obviously focused on Milo so there wasn’t much sight-seeing or touring. What we saw was mostly out the bus window.
We went shopping at a small mercado. It was obviously designed for tourists. Then we drove through the real mercado. The small mercado was one or two streets of shops, all containing similar jewelry and wall hangings and clothes. The real mercado was huge. Single streets devoted entirely to textiles or shoes or cleaning products or clothes or electronics.
Hosanna
We drove down to Hosanna and saw where Milo lived when he was first brought into the care center. Up until recently, children were relinquished to a care center in their local area and then after a few weeks (sometimes months) transferred to the care center in Addis where they waited for a family. While we were in Hosanna we met one of the nannies who cared for Milo. We showed her a recent picture and she was very excited to see how happy and healthy he looked.
Hosanna is “the country”. It’s about 3-4 hours south of the city and looks like the pictures you see of Ethiopia. There are wide open spaces and traditional round mud and straw huts. There are donkeys carrying yellow jerry cans to fill with water and young kids driving cattle down the road.
The CHSFS bus makes the Hosanna trip every Sunday so I think we were an event for the kids along the way. They ran to the edge of the road, waved and wanted us to take pictures.
The Plane Ride
Let’s face it 20+ hours on a plane just sucks. But it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It was typical plane seats with minimal room and food that was pretty bland. The ride home however was great. We lucked out and got the bulkhead seats and a bassinet which meant we had leg room and Milo could sleep in a bed. And jet lag wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
Milo
Milo seems to be adjusting to life in Minnesota pretty well. He sort of naps in the morning, takes a decent nap in the afternoon and only half wakes up at night for a couple of bottles. And by half wake up, I mean he wakes up, cries and then can barely keep his eyes open to eat.
It’s been fun getting to know him. He’s smiley and happy and for five months old is pretty good at letting us know what he wants.
He likes to be held but is content to hang out on the floor and play with toys.
He thinks Lexi and the dogs are fascinating.
He sucks both thumbs at the same time.
He thinks being naked is really funny. And bath time is a blast.
Along with being naked and bath time he also thinks that spit bubbles, burping, blowing raspberries and chewing on his burp rag are also amusing ways of passing the time.
He took to a bottle right away and gets MAD if he not being fed as soon as he starts to fuss for food.
He likes to be bundled up in blankets and is a total sweat bomb when he sleeps.
He likes riding in his sling. He seems to prefer the ring-sling over the others but I think it’s because he’s a little too short for the other ones.
More updates will come. Like I said – lots to say but not sure where to start.
adoption, ethiopia, family | Comment (0)Leaving Ethiopia
Today is our last day in Ethiopia. We head to the airport in about 8 hours. It’ll be sad to leave but I’ll be glad to be back home in a familiar place with both my kids.
I’ll be posting much more later but for now here’s some highlights:
· Going to Hosanna to meet people who are an important part of Milo’s life.
· Watching the nannies take care of the kids
· Hanging out at the guest house (with candles because of zero power)
· Watching School of Rock
· Going to Metro Pizza (it’s almost as good as Punch Pizza)
· Playing with Lily, the dog that lives at the Guest House
· Finally taking Milo home on Tuesday. No more saying goodbye at the care center.
· Beautiful weather. In the morning it’s a little cloudy and breezy and about 70 degrees. It gets hot around lunch time and then the evenings are cool again.
A couple of things I won’t miss:
· Flies.
· The cats. Seriously, two cats somewhere in our neighborhood would sound like it was a fight to the death every morning around 2ish.
If everything goes as scheduled we should be home by about 4:30 pm on Friday. (We’re leaving Ethiopia at 10:30pm Thursday). See you then.
adoption, ethiopia, family | Comment (0)We’ll be in Ethiopia in 3 weeks!
We got our birth certificate and our travel date today! We are leaving for Ethiopia on March 18th.
That’s three weeks from today.
In three weeks I will finally get to hold my baby boy.
This means that all of the waiting is over.
There is an actual date of when we will get to meet our little boy.
3 weeks.
Only 3 weeks left.
adoption, ethiopia, family | Comments (6)Advent. And Water.
Yesterday was the first Sunday in Advent. The four weeks building up to Christmas. In honor of the Advent Season I’m posting this video. I’m sure you’ve seen on ten other blogs by now but I hope it makes you reconsider how you’ll spend this Christmas season.
This is idea, to give the world clean water, has really hit home with me in a lot of very real ways. The kids at school either know someone who is sick from lack of clean water or remember hiking to carry water or have heard their parents talk about trying to find clean water or have had a family member die due to lack of clean water. That statistic about 1 in 6 people not having access to clean water, well almost the parents at our school were that 1. Right now we are working to raise money to dig a well for a school in Africa.
And I think about Ethiopia. We are continuously warned not to drink the water when we go. Makes me wonder, if Ethiopia had clean water how many fewer parents would have to make the heart breaking choice to relinquish their baby?
Need a place to donate? Try here.
And if you need ideas for my gift this year. Go here.
causes, education, ethiopia | Comment (0)Happy New Year!
Enkutatash (The Ethiopian New Year) is celebrated this weekend. It’s now 2001 in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia follows the Julian calendar which is 8 years behind our Gregorian calendar from January to September and 7 years behind from September 11 until January 8. The Julian calendar has 12 months of 30 days each and a 13th month of 5 days (or 6 days in a leap year).
Enkutatash means “queen of jewels”. When the Queen of Sheba returned from visiting King Solomon in Jerusalem, the chiefs welcomed her back be replenishing her treasury with jewels. Today when Enkutatash is celebrated there is dancing and singing as the rainy season comes to an end and all of Ethiopia is green again.
People celebrate with feasts, dancing, exchanging New Year’s greetings, cards and bouquets of flowers.
ethiopia, special occations | Comment (0)