May 29 - Thomas is 5!

Today my little Thomas turned 5!  We had his little kid birthday party before we went to Ethiopia but today we tried to make him feel special.  Abbie put up streamers and balloons and he got to pick what we ate for our meals.  For dinner, we had “pizza guy” and ice cream for dessert.  We had a fun time at our nearby playground too….

I have photos of each kid on the swings - very cute - started to upload but it’s taking time from my kids - not sure if I want to continue blogging - I need to be with my kiddos.

Marie

May 28

Our trip home was exhausting - I just today feel almost normal.  Nathan slept 6 hours in a row last night and seems to be settling into a schedule.  He napped 2 hours this morning and is napping again now.  He is a very content baby and smiles and plays with toys.  He loves mommy to hold him and seems to be attaching well.  I think the nursing is helping a lot.  I am glad I pumped for so many months because I’m not producing all he needs and it’s great to be able to give him only breastmilk in a supplement bottle or even in his rice cereal. 

Yakobe is doing great.  We had a breakthrough moment yesterday as the rest of my kids asked to play simon says.  Yakobe was Simon and it was awesome to hear his high pitched voice saying, “Simon says touch eyes”  “Simon says touch tree”  He was thrilled that he could have the kids run all over the place on his command.  He also discovered the tricycle.  He isn’t yet able to ride his bike but he is thrilled to ride the tricycle.  He actually wouldn’t get off of it to play Simon says!  He stayed on it most of the day.

Yakobe also has been playing soccer with Sam constantly and right now they are in the front playing basketball.  He is eating and sleeping well and we have encorporated him into our family chores.  He always does more than expected and I’m hoping my kids will follow his example!  I say wipe the table and he wipes the table and the chairs.  I say clean the bathroom floor and counters and he wipes all the cabinets as well.  I think instead of having him watch my kids do chores, I should have them watch him!  We’re still working on physical touch.  He seems really stand-off-ish to it.  He will hug but it is a cold hard hug, if you know what I mean.  Hopefully he’ll warm up in a few weeks.  He is very smart and reads English pretty well - he is just really hesitant to speak.

We’re Home

It’s busy here and I have lots to write - I’ll have to save it for another time - not too long though - lest I forget.  The flight home was exhausting - 48 hours with 2 hours of sleep.  Nathan is up every 2 hours through the night so I have to take advantage of sleeping while he sleeps during the day for now.

Yakob is doing well.  He doesn’t say much but he is smiling a lot and playing with Sam and the others a ton.  We went for a walk yesterday and he and Thomas held hands much of the time.

Here’s a photo of us all home!

Last Post from Ethiopia

Here is the latest installment from Marie.  Today is our last day in Addis.  We don’t fly out until almost 11 pm and arrive in Detroit about 10:30 am Sunday after changing flights in Amsterdam.  Hopefully we’ll be able to rest some on the plane.  Everything is going well.  The power is out this morning, but they have the generator on.

See you soon,

Mark and family

Friday, May 22, 2009

Today was very busy.  I woke up a little later, around 6am.  Abenezar slept better last night and I got better rest.  We had our usual breakfast and the waiter in the guest house restaurant gave me the recipe for their pancakes that my kids love.  I can’t wait to try to make them at home!  I asked also if he would teach me how to make injera and he said they don’t make it here.  He tried to explain to me how he makes it but between the accent and language barrier – I got just about nothing.  I think the trick is in the teff grain which is very difficult to get in America.

We asked the guesthouse what our total would be when we checked out tomorrow and they told us.  We had hoped we could pay for something on VISA, but so far we haven’t been able to and the guesthouse only accepts cash.  So, we went off to the Hilton to get $ from the ATM..  Thankfully it worked and we were all set!  After that we went to the baby house to try to get Abenezar’s photo album that we sent last November.  No one could find it.  We got the address to the P.O. box for the big kid house so Yakobe can send notes to his friends and maybe some photos.

We headed to the big kid house to get Yakobe’s photo album.  Somehow, Abenezar’s was there and not Yakobe’s.  Hopefully they will find it and send it home with another traveling family.  We hung out with the kids there for awhile.  Sam and Yakobe played ball with the boys and Abbie played parachute with the girls.  I brought all the leftover medicine we didn’t use for the trip and some sanitizing wipes and lice shampoo and rubber gloves.  I nursed Abenezar / Nathan and the caregivers were amazed.  They kept coming over to me and smiling and pointing and one of them stuck her head right over where he was nursing to prove to herself that it was true.  They are very supportive; they just find it hard to believe.

It was then time for Yakobe to say goodbye to his friends.  They each took a picture with him and then lined up to hug and kiss him and say goodbye.  His closest friends had tears.  They came to the car and waved and reached for him.  They know it is good that he leaves.  He will be going to America, which is what they all long for.  But, they will miss him and I know they are also jealous.   It would be easier I think if his friends knew they had families in America too.  Not many people are adopting the older boys.

We headed to lunch at Habesha, known as the best Ethiopian cultural restaurant in Addis Ababa.  It was good.  Yakobe polished off the most injera.  Mark and I don’t know how he does it, that stuff is very filling to us.  We headed back to the guesthouse and fed Abenezar / Nathan and gave him a bath.  We then went downstairs to take a photo with our friends.  Melke then drove us to the weaver’s area of Shomeda.  We watched as the men wove on primitive looms and made intricate patterns using wood boards, foot pedals, and their skilled hands…carefully counting the threads.  It was amazing.  We left there and went to Haille Salassie arts and crafts market.  Mark found some wood crosses and we got some other gifts there.  We left and headed back to the cultural shops.  Yakobe really wanted to get a gift for each of his siblings to present to them in America.  He picked out some bracelets that match.  We finished up our shopping there and headed to the coffee store.  We bought coffee for gifts and were ready for dinner.  We ate at what Melke said was the best pizza place in Addis.  It was very good, but we think we still like the Green View the best.  Finally, we headed back to the guesthouse.  I am exhausted.  I am going to sleep.  Tomorrow we leave – I might not be able to update until we get back home and settled in.  Thank you all for praying for us.  It’s been an amazing journey and I’d love to share more when I get some rest.  Goodnight.

Thursday May 21

Thursday, May 21
I woke up this morning early and got an email update out.  Abenezar  / Nathan was up every 2 hours to nurse – which is fine – good for bonding.  I am a bit tired today but my stomach feels pretty normal which is great.  We had a nice breakfast at the guesthouse and arranged for all the families staying here to get in one big photo in the breakfast room.  We had power all day today so far!  After breakfast we headed to the big kid house and Yakobe  smiled as he hung out with friends and caregivers.  Most of  the younger children were in the courtyard getting their hair washed.  The ones not getting washed at the time sat quietly on the ground with friends.  Some of the little ones stood against the fence.  When we showed up, they began to sing in Amharic.  How beautiful are the voices of little children.  They sounded so full of joy and yet it made me so sad.  ..Sad because not all of them have families.  A family somewhere is missing hearing the beautiful voice of a little child or possibly a brother and sister singing together.  I longed for them all to have homes.  A little boy in a green long sleeved shirt kept smiling at me.  He went up to Mark and hugged on his leg and looked up into his face.  Mark scooped him up.  Another boy went to Mark and held up his arms.  Mark scooped him up too.  A little while later, Mark showed them his watch.  A crowd of little children hovered over the watch pushing all the buttons, amazed and enthralled.  I took a picture of Yakobe’s best friend and his sister.  I especially long to find them a home – preferably near us so Yakobe can visit once in awhile.  The boy is 7 and the girl is 5 (I think it is very accurate in this case.)
Soon we asked Yakobe to show us his bed.  One of the little boys with Mark wanted to come with us but the caregivers convinced him to stay with his group.  He led us up a couple flights of stairs into the room where we hung up ABC’s and color posters for the younger students’ school room.  He had the top bunk in the right corner by the window.  Then we went through the building looking for all his caregivers to take photos with him so he can remember who cared for him there.  One lady was his teacher.  She said he had no schooling prior to arriving at the orphanage 6.5 months ago and said he was very smart.  We have his school books and it’s great to see what he has been doing.  He is very smart.  He reads well in Amharic and also reads in English (not as well as Amharic of course).   He has studied math through division and has also done science and drawing.
Another caregiver (male) talked with us for a long time.  He asked Yakobe questions and told us what Yakobe answered.  We exchanged names and phone numbers and we will also get the address to the orphanage so Yakobe can send letters to his friends.  All his friends wrote him a note goodbye and we will save those in a book for him.  While in the lower level room which is the older kids’ school room, we showed the children how to play Goblet.  They seemed to enjoy playing.
Tomorrow we will go back and gather the last few things of Yakobe’s.  The photo album that we sent him that he opened on Christmas is one of them.
After we left the orphanage we came back to the guesthouse and warmed up some leftovers for lunch.  We planned to go right after to the zoo.  Our driver, Solomon, took about an hour getting petrol and so we waited.  The children and Mark got to see a hummingbird while waiting in the courtyard.  When our driver came, we piled in and went to the zoo.  It’s strange how things are charged here.  It was about $4 for Mark and me to get in the zoo, 10 cents for each of the kids, and $2 to take a camera in.  The zoo was run down by American standards.  It consisted of mostly lions – probably about 10 or 12 of them in different cages.  One lion was up very close – so close that you could reach in and pet it.  We didn’t of course and in America you would never be allowed that close due to lawsuit issues if the lion got you!  The other animals were birds – some Egyptian geese and some guinea hens, monkeys – Ethiopian mountain monkeys (from the southern region), Kudus (like deer) and turtles….OH!  and a rabbit.  Seeing a regular rabbit in a huge cage next to monkeys was probably the weirdest thing at the zoo. 
On the way out, we noticed Yakobe’s face all lit up as he looked at the little amusement park.  He had his eye on the Power Wheels area.  They had about 4 Power Wheels that were set up in an area to ride on.  In Ethiopia children don’t have Power Wheels in their garages…they are an amusement park ride.  We got tickets for Sam and Yakobe to go on the Power Wheels ( 60 cents!) and Yakobe’s face couldn’t have been more excited.  He had a huge grin as he tried to figure out how to drive.  Sam, who was a bit bored but wanted to be with Yakobe,  was asked where he was from.  Sam said America and the worker said, “Ahhh America dude, no wonder he is a good driver!”  Abbie rode on the ferris wheel while they went on the Power Wheels.  She had a blast sitting with some students who practiced their English on her.  The worker running the ride knew the students and thought it was funny to start and stop the ride and freak them out.  Abbie loved it!
We left the zoo and headed to the bookstore.  We wanted to get Yakobe some children’s books in Amharic so he could read on the plane or even at home.  He and the driver picked out a couple and we picked out a bunch more.  The driver seemed to think we were buying too much, but the total cost for all the books was only about $8 and we won’t have access to Amharic books in America.  Yakobe was thrilled.  The book he was most excited about was the Amharic/English dictionary.  We also stopped to buy him a Bible in Amharic.  Yakobe seemed to be relaxing a bit with us – he even played with the handle that rolls the window up and down in the car.
We headed from there to get dinner.  We requested Italian and the driver drove far to a little Italian owned restaurant where all the profits go to charity to help Ethiopians.  The power was out so we had no lights upstairs while they used the generator to cook our pizza and lasagna.  It was kinda fun sitting in the dark with a little flashlight.  We even made shadow puppets on the walls while we waited for our food!  The food was good but not quite as good as Green View last night…but it was fun!
After dinner it was dark and we headed back to our guesthouse.  Yakobe immediately sat on his bed and began reading the books.  He whispered the dictionary words, practicing his English.  He is SO eager to learn.  Wow, I wish I could capture that passion for learning and give each of my kids a dose each day.  They do enjoy learning certain things as homeschoolers, but in America we are so spoiled.  Learning isn’t seen so much as a privilege but more of a chore.  I pray that somehow all my children will have excitement about learning. 
Not much else today.  Nathan has been great.  He is so happy as long as he’s fed!  Smiling, laughing, saying, “Mamama and Dadadada and Babababa”  He rolls a bit and can lay on his belly with his head up.  He loves to eat!

May 20 - Embassy Day

Wednesday, May 20 – Embassy Day
Today was full of emotion.  Most revolving around the embassy – some just processing information given about Yakobe and also information and circumstances with a friend’s adoption.  We woke up to sunshine in Addis – very beautiful.  Unfortunately we had no power and the generator was broken for most of the day.  We showered (warm still – yea!) and went down for breakfast.  We all felt well enough to eat normally.  Yakobe had some eggs and toast and fruit and seemed to enjoy it.  We played some games in the guest house living room and then went up to call our new driver, Solomon.  Since it was clear, we decided to take Yakobe up to Mt. Entoto to see all of Addis Ababa before we leave Ethiopia.  We stopped for water and then for gas.  Petrol, as they call gas here, is expensive and stations are few.  So, we waited in line and finally got fueled up.  The smell of Addis is getting to me.  I feel as if I have my head up to a bus pipe all the time.  Especially with the generators running through the city burning the same stuff – well, it just reeks.
We then headed up the mountain.  Apparently, Solomon’s car wasn’t made for mountain going.  We made it about ¾ of the way up and our car overheated.  Solomon stopped and poured water over the radiator, opened up the cap and whatever else you do when your car overheats.  He even borrowed water from a village lady who lived on the side of the mountain.  In Ethiopia it seems everyone is a friend.  You don’t get turned up noses or cold shoulders…well at least not among the people we have seen and people are literally everywhere.   After about 20 minutes Solomon tried the car without us in it and it worked….barely.  So we all got in and went very slowly to the top of the incline we were on.  Once we flattened out, Solomon picked up a bunch of speed so we could make it to the top…and we made it.  We went back to the same place where the boys took us to see the view.  I asked if they would explain what they said to us in Amharic for Yakobe and they talked with him the whole time.  I felt very uncomfortable not knowing what they were saying to my son.  What if they were saying mean or dirty things – I wouldn’t even know…UGH.  We saw the view and I think Yakobe enjoyed it.  The term “ants in your pants” has taken on new meaning as the ants that were all over climbed up into my pants and I ended up looking pretty ridiculous hitting my legs and bottom to try to kill them as they bit me.  The boys also took us to see a cave used by Ethiopian orthodox priests – it was very cool..  We walked back and paid them for the view and cave and went back down the mountain.  We headed back to the guesthouse to get a snack and grab our paperwork for the embassy.  Yakobe seems to like granola bars too.
At 1:00pm we headed to the embassy with Solomon.  I’m not sure what I was expecting, or maybe it was because I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the whole thing was very emotional.  Our driver pulled over and we got out, not really knowing where we were or where to go.  He pointed across the street – his English isn’t near as good as Melke.  So, all 6 of us walked toward the embassy.  It didn’t look much like an embassy.  It had the coat of arms on the side of a big black iron gate and a smaller pedestrian gate that we went into.  Nothing fancy, just very typical of Addis.  We went in and had to remove belts and watches, turn off cell phones, and give up cameras.  They searched my bag and we went through the metal detectors.  They gave us a number for our items and we proceeded through some more doors to go through more metal detectors.  Finally, we were directed through a courtyard to the area where we actually recognized some other adopting families.  We still didn’t spot either of our agency representatives.  Thankfully, about 10 minutes later, both of them showed up.  They greeted Yakobe and ooohed over Abenezar.  I would’ve thought the U.S. Embassy would’ve been nice.  We are the richest country in the world.  We are the most powerful.  Somehow it doesn’t matter embassy-wise.  We sat in stinking, stuffy, heat with about 60 other people.  Then the loud speaker called a family – not from our agency – and everyone cheered.  Tears came and I realized that this was it.  This was the last hurdle to jump in this adoption.  Once we get through this interview, there is nothing else besides flying home.  Yakobe and Nathan didn’t realize the journey we’ve been on.  They can’t understand what these pieces of paper really mean…but we do.
After about an hour, the first family called for our agency was us.  We heard,”Tabar Family proceed to window number 5”.  Here we go.  Everyone cheered.  Tears of joy held back – I don’t want to freak out Yakobe.  We climbed the stairs and stood in front of window number 5.  The very white, American man asked us several questions and we answered them for each of our boys.  I watched with a rock in my stomach from the excitement and stress of it all as he stamped, “Approved” on each of our boys birth certificates.  They’re ours – really, officially, completely.  We’re going home.  Walking down the stairs was tough and surreal.  We waved goodbye to the other families in our agency waiting for window number 5 with papers in hand.  Everyone cheered again and said, “Congratulations!”  God is so good!
Driving away from the embassy, my stomach hurt.  I talked with God.  Am I really qualified for this, Lord?  Did you really mean to pick me?  And He assured me that He equipped me from the beginning because He knew what He would call me to.  My two new sons are freed with a stamp that says, “Approved”.  They are free from the poverty and hard life of Ethiopia.  They are free to get an education.  They are free to have a mom and dad and siblings who love them – assurance that they have a forever family.  They are free to go HOME.  But more importantly, Christ freed them.  We know we were totally led by God to adopt both Abenezar / Nathan and Yakobe.  Christ freed them so that they could be free indeed.  We pray they will both know Him at a young age and follow Him no matter what comes in their path in this life.  America is a wonderful country…but we look forward to an even better one – and the stamp, “Paid in Full” will allow my sons and ALL who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to one day go HOME.
After the embassy, we had a delicious lunch at Green View Restaurant – the kids had pizza – Yakobe LOVED it and I tried to eat some rice with vegetables – my stomach just wasn’t right.  Anyway, it was a nice lunch.  We headed back to the guesthouse and the kids went to play in the courtyard with other adoptive families.  They had a blast.  Nathan was a bit cranky – I think from his schedule being totally messed up from dragging him to and fro and so I stayed with him up in the room for awhile before going down.  I got to send an email update and chat with a friend and then I came up and we all got ready for bed.  Tomorrow we will go back to the big kid orphanage for some sibling pictures and to gather some items we left.  Hopefully Yakobe can say goodbye and we can have some closure and perhaps some grieving before we’re on the plane home.   We leave Saturday night.

Tuesday May 19th Meeting Yakobe

Tuesday, May 19, 2009
I woke up today at 4:00am and nursed Abenezar / Nathan.  He didn’t seem to want to go back to sleep, so I went downstairs to use the internet.  It worked!  He fell asleep in about 5 minutes so I walked him back up to our room and put him in his crib.  I then went down and did all the updating.  A friend via internet who is also here picking up her children chatted with my while I updated.  She woke up at about 5am.  Everyone else woke up about 7am still feeling a bit sick.  We had coke and dry toast for breakfast.  There was no hot water today so we had cool showers.  Our orphanage director, Ashenafi, showed up with our new driver, Solomon at about 9:00am and we left at about 9:45am to meet our son, Yakobe.  The ride there was interesting.  We went down side street after side street, each one seeming to get worse as far as ruts and holes and rocks and mud.  The last few streets we went on had horse drawn carriages due to the road conditions.  Our driver went very slowly.  The horses in Ethiopia are very small and skinny – kind of like a pony in America, but very thin.  The area of town where the older kid’s orphanage is contains more upscale housing by Ethiopian standards.  They appeared like middle class condos or apartments with nice fencing around them.  Most houses in Ethiopia have some sort of fencing around them – the majority being a kind of corrugated steel.  The roofs are also made of the same type of corrugated steel.  We pulled up to the big kid’s house about 20 minutes after leaving our guest house.  Our driver, Solomon, honked his horn and the guard opened the doors and we drove right into the gate.  We unpacked all our suitcases of donations and went into the room where they were preparing a coffee ceremony for us.  It is customary in Ethiopia to welcome people with a coffee ceremony.  Coffee, sweet popcorn, and spiced bread is served.  They went to get Yakobe and he greeted first Mark and then me with a big but shy hug.  It was strange as no one really knew what to say, especially with the language barrier.  We brought him a t-shirt that matched the ones we were wearing.  The t-shirts say, “Wild About God” and are bright orange from our church.  Abenezar / Nathan also wore one (more like a dress on him!)  We then visited all the different rooms and met different aged children.  We delivered gifts that waiting moms and dads had sent and took photos of the children with their gifts.  We are going back on Thursday to take pictures of sibling groups.  We hung up some alphabet letters for the younger kids’ school room.  It is amazing how much they teach them in school.  The orphanage is doing an excellent job.  And again, like the baby house, everything was immaculately clean and neat.  The children are well loved and cared for.  We went down to the big kids’ school room and met Yakobe’s friends.  He has a best friend who is 7 years old who has a 5 year old sister.  They are almost paper ready and it is my mission to find a family to adopt them – hopefully who lives nearby so Yakobe can visit with his best friend.  He is a very sweet boy.  We went outside and played parachute with the children – they loved it!  Yakobe and Sam kicked the soccer ball around a bit too.  There was a bleating sheep tied up in the yard where all the laundry was hanging.  The friend whom I chatted with early this morning bought it for the orphanage.  It is a big treat for the children to have a fresh sheep for dinner.  In Ethiopia it is ordinary to buy a sheep, slit its throat and cook it for dinner.  All the children will watch and be excited.  I am certainly full blooded American on that one – Yuk!  We asked that Yakobe’s head be shaved to avoid any lice issues and then we sat down for the coffee ceremony.  The popcorn and bread was very good (bread a bit spicy) and the coffee was delicious.  We chatted with the main female caregiver and Ashenafi translated for us.  We found out a lot more about Yakobe’s background – of which we will not share in order to respect his privacy..  When he is ready and if he wants to, he can share it with others.  After I nursed Abenezar up in the top of the building (beautiful view of Addis) we headed back to the guest house.  We ordered lunch – Ethiopian for Yakobe, spaghetti for Mark, Sam, and Abbie, and a chicken roll up for Marie.  While we waited for it to arrive, we hung out in our room and played some games with Yakobe like Uno, Swipe, and Goblet.  We brought some kids’ videos in Amharic too for him to watch for about a half hour..  After our lunch finally came and we finished eating, we went outside to the courtyard.  We enjoyed kicking the soccer ball and throwing the football back and forth.  Abbie played with the two girls my early-morning friend adopted and Sam played with Yakobe.  There were some other children down there too who joined in from time to time.  Mark and I enjoyed talking with a couple from Norway and one from Germany, also both adopting.   The dad from Norway talked with Mark the most and is a Christian.  They shared about how knowing Christ changes your perspective on everything.  It is good to know that there are “crazy” people all over the world doing “crazy” things for Christ.  We came back to our room and Abenezar had his first bath by us (on video).  Yakobe took a shower and we all got ready for bed.  Just as we were about to pray, the power went on and off several times…and of course, just after we found the flashlight and lit the candle, the power came back on!  Mark prayed for all the children, I kissed them each goodnight, nursed Abenezar and then sat down on the bed to type this in!  Hopefully early in the morning I can get this to my dear friend who is updating my blog for me!  Tomorrow we go to the US Embassy for our interview.  Our appointment is at 1:30pm and is said to take anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours.  We plan to eat out afterward at a good restaurant near the embassy and if it is a clear day, we will go back to Mt. Entoto with Yakobe.  Thank you all for praying for us…this is incredible!

Monday May 18TH

Monday, May 18

We spent the day all sick.  Throwing up and the other too.  We felt a bit better by evening and Mark tried to cook us some rice.  In America if there is a glass top to your stove, you cook on it.  Apparently in Ethiopia you are to remove it before cooking!  Thankfully no one was in our kitchen when the glass top exploded.  The guest house staff came and cleaned it up and all was well.  We watched a movie and headed to bed.  Tomorrow we meet Yakobe - we are all excited and hope we feel better!

Sunday May 17TH continued

Sunday, May 17 continued

After pumping, we headed out to the Ethnological Musuem.  It is inside of the University of Addis Ababa where Melke told us many students are killed every year by the soldiers because of uprisings.  The museum was very interesting and we learned a lot about King Haille Salassie and saw his dressing room, bathrooms, bedrooms, etc.  We also learned about other regions of Ethiopia and the tribal customs still practiced.  Addis Ababa is a big city, so no tribal stuff here.  After the musuem we headed to dinner.  All of us wanted burgers and just a break from injera!  Melke took us to MK’s.  The burgers tasted a bit different but good.  Unfortunately, we all got VERY sick from this meal and spent all day Monday in bed taking turns taking care of Abenezar.

After our meal we headed to the orphanage to take custody of Abenezar / Nathan.  It was VERY difficult to take Nathan from the only mother he’s ever known.  Genet is the worker assigned to him and she was sad with him leaving.  She dressed him and took him to his room to say goodbye.  I couldn’t hold back the tears as I accepted him from her.  The workers are wonderful. They care so much for the children.  But, Abenezar leaving means more babies can come in and more babies can have forever families.  I hope she knows how much we love him and that he will be well cared for.

We headed back to the guesthouse and enjoyed our very smiley baby.  I tried nursing him about 15 minutes after we got back to the guesthouse and with a little help from a silicone nipple shield, he latched right on.  I was able to slip it off and he nursed just like a pro.  God is so good and I know all the prayers for Nathan to nurse have made a huge difference.  We hung out in our room and went to sleep.  Nathan slept well - I only woke him up once in the night to nurse and he slept until about 7am.

Sunday May 17th

Sunday, May 17

It’s 2am and dogs are barking outside.  They woke me up and I need to pump anyway.  The power works well right now and I am able to use the wall plug.  In Ethiopia there isn’t always power.  On Friday, our power or fuse or something wasn’t working and the fridge was off for several hours.  Thanfully they got it back on as I don’t want my milk to be wasted.  Yesterday there was no power at all for many hours.  The hotel started up a generator but it was like a brown out that caused the lights and electric devices to dim and brighten, go off and come on.  Our power returned in full aorund 10pm and we could see without our flashlight.  Mekle says, “Do you know T.I.E.?”  I said, “No.”  He said, “This is Ethiopia.”

We went down to breakfast a little earlier today.  Lots of rooster crowing this morning and the usual prayer chants from the Orthodox Church echoing through Addis.  We dropped off a bag of laundry to be washed and actually got a short email to go through!  Afterward, Melke picked us up and we stopped for water and bananas.  WE headed to Shomeda market and went in many shops before finding Abbie her blue outfit.  Shomeda was nice.  It was a bit more crowded than the cultural shops but WAY better than Merkato!  We left and headed to the Makush Art Gallery.  Since everything was over 2000 birr, we proptly left. We found a restroom and Pepsi at a coffee shop and headed back to the cultural shops.  Pepsi and Coke and really all pop in Ethiopia is sold in small glass bottles.  Haille Salassie (another shopping area) was closed.  We had fun negotiating and the boys remembered we had banana from a couple days ago. We got paintings on ox skin, a silver necklace pennant (silver is very cheap in Ethiopia) some animal figurines, tiny baskets, little drums, and some traditional carved stools.  We headed back to the guesthouse and had lunch from what we brought - tuna and chicken salad on crackers - protein bars, etc.  We all updated our journals while I pumped..

THUNDERSTORMING _ MORE IN NEXT MESSAGE