Pictures from Last Safari Day

A warthog who just completed a vigorous scratching of his rear on that rock.

Zebras and their kids

Justin where we ate lunch.

Chris in front of our balcony at our hotel.

Our Final Safari Day

Ngorngoro Crater:

Today is our last day on Safari.  Tomorrow we drive back to Arusha for lunch and then onto Mount Kilimanjaro to get on an airplane.  We left the Serengeti this morning to go down into Ngorongoro Crater.  We arrived around 10:00 a.m.  The inside of the crater was beautiful.  We got lots of great scenery pictures.  Today’s challenge was to see the last of the big five: the rhino.  However I guess rhino are shy and hard to see up close because they do not like to be close to the road.  We saw three rhino today: one up close and two far away.  They did not move much and pretty much just ate grass the whole time.  Two wart hogs walked up close to the one rhino and it did not seem to even notice its presence.  I guess rhino are solitary animals so they are often found alone as the one we saw closer up.  We saw an abundance of wildebeest and zebras.  They graze together often.  We got to see a lot of baby wildebeest and zebras as well.  They stick near their mothers and we saw several of them nursing throughout the day.  We also saw flamingos, cranes, gazelles, an African dog, and buffalo.  We also saw a hyena chased around a lot of wildebeest which seemed funny to us since the wildebeest are so much bigger and were greater in number.       

We had lunch in the crater at a little pond.  We were told to eat our lunch in the vehicles because birds are overly aggressive there in regards to food.  We walked around the pond afterwards.  You could see several hippos deep in the middle swimming around.  We could also see and smell a lot of what we suspect is elephant poop.  It was everywhere which also made up glad that we ate in our vehicle. 

After lunch, we saw the highlight of our Safari.  We came across a cheetah stalking a gazelle.  We pulled over (along with ten or fifteen other vehicles) to see what happened.  The cheetah slowly got closer to the gazelle (which had no idea it was being stalked).  The cheetah finally made a run for it and the gazelle ran away.  The gazelle did not make it far before the cheetah attacked it and killed it.  The cheetah then feasted on the gazelle.  We could not believe we were able to watch this occur.  It made me a little bit sad though when our guide pointed out a baby gazelle hiding in the tall grass.  Obviously the cheetah had made an orphan of it.  The orphaned gazelle was all alone so we guess its chances of survival are very low. 

Tonight we are staying right on top of the crater.  We have an amazing view of it.  Tomorrow we leave for Arusha and to do some shopping on the way.  We are so glad to have had this experience together.  We cannot wait to share it all with you but please, don’t worry that we will make you look at endless pictures or listen to endless stories.  We appreciate everyone taking an interest in this and we cannot wait to blog about our next trip to Ethiopia to actually pick Crew up to bring him home.      

Pics from All Day in Serengeti

Our friend did not want us using his road.

Large pride of lions very close.

We saw lots of hippos today.  There had to be over 100 in this pool alone.

This is very rare. Looks up above the elehpants on the branch, a bit towards the trunk. There is a leopard in the tree.

All day in Serengeti

Our tent was surprisingly free from all bugs and animal visitors on the inside.  However, we did hear very odd growly noises and rustling that we thought were baboons.  It did not keep us up that long, as we are both exhausted from the sun.

Today we started out our day by having our normal breakfast.  I was about to order my meal and all of a sudden I heard a noise.  I looked up and saw two monkeys running around and playing on the top of the tent where we are eating.  We heard them running back and forth and chasing each other all breakfast.  We believe they were velvet monkeys.  We heard a very funny conversation next to us.  A woman said to her friend, “It is very windy outside.”  The waiter replied in a Tanzanian accent “Not windy, monkeys.”

We had a full day of Safari on the Serengeti.  As we were loading the camera with batteries, only 1 minute from our camp, we came upon a very large male elephant blocking the road.  We had to stop and realized there were 17 elephants grazing and passing through.  We were obviously too close when he shook his head and charged us twice.  Our driver quickly put it into reverse to remove us from danger.  It was actually a bit scary for a second.  After they had all passed, we drove 3 minutes up the road and saw the highlight of the day.  We saw a pride of 13 lions, including 2 young males (very hard to find).  They were only 8 feet from the road.  5-6 did not like us there and moved away behind a bush, but the rest stayed.  After about 5-8 minutes, there were 4 females left where we could see them.  Then, 2 antelope ran about 100 yards behind us over the road.  About 9 females went from laying down into attack position very quickly.  Unfortunately, they did not chase them, but was really cool to see their instincts. 

Our time in the Serengeti today was slow.  The warm sun and the constant motion of the Land Rover kept putting me to sleep. At one point, our driver asked “Justin, are you very tired?” which we realized that we were probably both asleep.  We saw a ton of gazelles, impalas, buffalo, 2 African Fish Eagles, tons of hippos, elephants, giraffes, antelope, lion, 2 leopards in trees, zebras, and warthogs.  We really enjoyed watching the hippos snort, fight with each other, walk up on dry land very slowly, and poop right on one another (Justin especially). 

Tomorrow, we are off to Ngorongoro crater to go inside the crater where we are promised to see the last of the big 5 animals, the rhino.  We can’t wait. 

Pics from Safari day 2

Elephants in the Serengeti

Cheetahs in the Serengeti

Chris "roughing it" in her tent

More babbons in the road.



Safari Day #2: Ngorongoro Crater/Serengeti

We left our hotel yet again to venture out on our Safari.  We started our day in the Ngorongoro Crater.  We will be spending more time in the Crater our last day here at our hotel and for our last Safari day.  However our morning was spent on top of the Crater looking down.  We went to two different viewing points of the Crater which were amazing.  We also got a shot lecture about pre-historic foot prints found in the Crater which leads them to believe that prehistoric “people” lived here.  Of course we don’t believe this since we believe in creation, but still interesting to hear.  The lecturer said that every summer (June, July, & August) they still have geological digs here led by professors from all other the world.  I had my first non-toilet experience here.  The women’s toilet was a hole in the ground with two brick looking things next to it with no toilet paper.  I hope not to remember that experience again.  We saw lots of animals on the way to the Serengeti living along the road.  We saw a lot of zebras, giraffes (one which we scared out of the road), and gazelles.  We also saw some baboons playing in the road at one point and that only moved when our vehicle got really close to it. 

We had lunch at the border of the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti.  Our guide told us we could sit anywhere but we later realized (after we had finished lunch in the parking lot) that there were picnic benches with tables.  The Serengeti is huge.  We drove around looking mainly for cats today but we also saw elephants, zebras, gazelles, antelope, and hippos.  We saw a few lions, cheetahs, and leopard (the leopard was hard to see because it was up in a tree with its cubs). 

Our tent, well I would camp a lot more often if Justin could promise me a tent like this.  It has two queen beds in it, living room chairs, a desk, and a bathroom (including sink, toilet, and shower).  The tent is more secure in regards to the canvas it is made from.  It has screens to let in air and hopefully not bugs.  There is no lock so we are a little worried about our belongings while we are gone but we were assured it would be okay.  One of the rules here is that you are not allowed out of your tent after dark (about 6:30 or 7:00) without an escort because the wild life is so close to us.  This means you have to call for an armed escort, with an AK47, to go to and from dinner.  I realized why about ten minutes into our stay here.  Justin and I were getting settled into our tent and I walked towards the door to look outside.  I could not believe what I saw: four elephants eating from trees about 50 feet in front of our tent.  Justin and I quickly went outside to watch it.  Justin also noticed a hill next to our tent with 30 baboons sitting on top.  On our way to dinner we saw two baby sized gazelles and one large looking rodent (it was large bunny size but looks more like a hamster) which they have a name for but we have never seen it before. 

Tomorrow we spend more time in the Serengeti and spend another night in our tent. 

Pictures from Lake Manyara

View of a market on the way to Lake Manyara

View from the pool overlooking Lake Manyara.  I bet you wish it was pool weather...

Justin in front of our safari vehicle and driver.  We stand up and look out the top.

Some baboons that we saw close to our vehicle.

Jamabo (Hello in Swahili)

We finally started our Safari today.  We started our day in Arusha, Tanzania and drove about 3 hours south to Lake Manyara.  Our guide took us to three tourist shops along the way.  He told us not to buy anything but to compare prices and we would stop at the one or two shops that had the best prices for the things we want on Sunday.  The locals here make (at least for the tourists) wooden carvings, marble decorations, oil paintings, and beaded necklaces.  We also looked at the Tanzanite stone which is found here and is hard to get other places.  We did buy a wooden bowl and a Tanzanite stone today.  The prices are much more expensive here so sorry no one but us are getting souvenirs from here.  Ethiopia was very cheap and these prices are the same or more expensive then the United States.  We had a nice time also looking at the trees, landscape, and people that we passed by.  We saw giant (I mean giant) termite hills – over 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide, more school children, people buying and selling at the market (market takes place on Wednesdays and Saturdays), local buses with so many people on them they were sitting in each other’s laps, and sheep/goats being herded by adults and also six or seven year old boys by themselves. 

We arrived at our hotel around 12:30 and had about a three hour resting time before we went on our Safari.  Justin and I enjoyed lunch, settling into our room, and putting our feet into the swimming pool (since we didn’t have enough time to swim).  Did I mention our hot the weather is here?  It was perfect swimming weather today.  We also saw three baboons right next to the pool area hanging out. 

We left for our Safari a little after 3.  We went to the Lake Manyara National Park right near our hotel.  You can actually see the park from our hotel room.  We were able to see a lot of baboons, a lot of different types of monkeys, impalas, water bucks (they look like big deer to me), hippos, one giraffe, and four elephants.  We also saw the smallest gazelle in Tanzania (it looks like a baby but it is full size).  It was amazing to see the animals in the natural habitat with the impalas, wart hugs, and baboons roaming together freely.  I really enjoyed seeing baby monkeys hanging from their mother’s stomachs while the mother’s walked around on the ground.  Our highlight was probably the elephants and giraffe.  It is amazing to see such big animals out in the wild.  Tomorrow we drive to the Serengeti for two nights.  We will be staying in a tent so stayed tune for how that goes.  Open air with lots of mosquitoes and no one to watch our bags while we are out should be interesting.     

New Info on Court Date

We just received word that we have a February 9th court date.  We also confirmed that the MOWA govt letter is the only thing outstanding.  That is a positive thing and means there are no outstanding investigations.  If the MOWA govt letter is there, we will pass and could travel for embassy to pick him up anywhere from 2-6 weeks after that.

Thanks for praying.

Pictures from Travel Day #2

Volcano view from the airplane just outside of Addis.

A view of our huts we are staying in tonight.

Chris next to some cool bananas.

Travel Day #2

Travel Day:

Today we left Ethiopia for our next adventure Tanzania.  We arrived to find out our airline moved our flight back a half an hour.  We learned that Ethiopian airlines just do whatever they went.  When we arrived in Washington DC they moved our flight up half an hour and we over heard people behind us say that they can decide during the flight to make unexpected layovers or to not make layovers that were scheduled.  It makes things very interesting.  We arrived in plenty of time and waited at our gate.  There were no loud speaks so they had an individual called out our flight number and every on the flight got up to board (no need for sections or areas of the plane to board first).  We walked down to the runway and got on a bus that took us to our plane.  We had a smooth ride with a lot of fun views of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania.  We had a brief layover in Kenya before we came to Tanzania.  We did have a rough landing in Tanzania.  We think our pilot likes thrill rides. 

Our tour company had someone meet us at the gate right after we bought our Visas.  We helped us at baggage claim and through customs.  They were no scanners at customs so they were really looking through everyone’s bags.  However the man that was helping us seemed to know the workers so he just asked us “first time in Tanzania” which we relied yes and he let us go without looking at a single bag.  It is nice to know certain people I guess.  Our guide for the week greeted us and drove us to our hotel that we are staying at tonight.  On the 45 minute drive, we got to see a lot of the landscape and people including coffee plants, mountains, school children walking long distances home from school, and many people hanging out in the shade (did we mention it is hot here).  We are spending our first night in Arusha, Tanzania before starting our Safari tomorrow.  Our hotel is amazing with hut like rooms, beautiful plants, flowers, and fruit trees everywhere.  We also got to see a monkey eating from a fig tree right by the hotel lobby and a toucan looking bird in a tree by the hotel’s restaurant.  Tomorrow we go to Lake Mamyara National Park to see elephants, giraffes, buffalo, lions, and zebras.  Can’t wait.  Stay tuned to more pictures on facebook. 

Thanks for all the responses on our blog and facebook about court.  We have no new information about when it will be rescheduled or what document was missing.  We emailed our travel coordinator at our adoption agency and hope to hear something back by tomorrow.  We will let you know and please continue to pray for little Crew.  We want him home with us in Illinois.  We will not be staying longer on our trip because of this delay.  They will reschedule court without us and an agency representative will attend on our behalf.

court date

Court Day:
We were called to court this morning so we left  between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m.  They took us into a very crowded room with nowhere to sit by the time we arrived.  The room was full of birth parents, orphanage representatives, adoption agency representatives, and prospective adoptive parents.  The court clerk would open the door and speak in Amharic or broken English so we really relied on our guides to help us know when it was our turn to go into the court room.  The trend seem to be the orphanage representatives went first, then the birth families went into (to give their consent for the adoption), and last the prospective adoptive parents.  We got the privilege to go last in our group so we waited about 2 ½ hours in that room. No one in our group passed because the government letter was not there so we had fairly low expectations for ourselves (although I was still hopeful).  We went into the court room and gave our passports as identification.  The judge (a very young looking woman) addressed us.  She asked us about eight questions related to our adoption which were all yes answers.  She then told us that she needed to review a document so our case would need another appointment.  We are not sure what that document was or when that appointment will be (chances are it was the government letter but we have no idea since the judge did not specify).  We asked the agency representative once we left the room what that document was that was missing but he did not speak very good English so he could not tell us.  Our guide said it was the government letter but he also told someone earlier in the day that we had a government letter (us specifically) so it is anyone’s best guess.  Please keep praying for us and little Crew. 

We left court to go to lunch and then to visit Crew for the last time.  It was harder to say goodbye to him today but he looks so happy when we drop him off in his room it made it easier to leave him.  We know he is happy there and is being well taken care of.  Of course we would rather have him at our house but God is giving us peace while we wait. 

Tomorrow we are off on our trip to Tanzania for our Safari.  We are excited but a little nervous of the unknown of a new country.  The “hotels/tents” we are staying in supposedly have internet access so hopefully we will continue to blog and post pictures (on facebook) each day. 

Church & the Spa

Day #5

Today is Sunday so they took us to church this morning.  We went to the International Evangelical Church.  One of our guides is a youth pastor at this church.  They also have services in English.  It was a very American style church.  The service was formatted exactly how we could have church (singing, message, offering, and more singing).  We knew 5 out of 7 songs that they sang.  The pastor was white and so were the majority of the people leading worship.  If I had closed my eyes I would have thought we were at home.  There were people of many different nationalities there.  They also had services in French and Amharic so I’m sure if we had gone to those services the format would have been different (I’m assuming). 

We again spent the afternoon with Crew.  It was shorter than the past three days because we went to church which made the time go by too quickly.  We again got to love on him, feed him, and take pictures.  He seemed really happy today.  We left all his toys and clothes we had brought him because we do not know if we will get to see him tomorrow with court.  I hope we will get to say good bye one more time. 

After the orphanage, some of us went to the spa.  I had a pedicure which I paid $15 dollars for.  It was really nice.  My chair had a back massager and the foot tub looked exactly what we have at home.  The lady was nice and spoke pretty good English that did my pedicure.  She gave me a paraffin wax treatment as well which was so warm on my feet it heated my whole body.  It was wonderful. I did worry some about fungus but tried not to think about it. 

Tomorrow is the big day, court.  We don’ know if we will have our appointment in the morning or afternoon until tomorrow morning.  We have to be ready by 8:30 a.m. but we won’t know if we have to wait until afternoon or not.  Please continue to pray for us.  We are trying not to get our hopes us in case we do fail.  We know and feel assured that it is in God’s hands. 

PS Justin is thinking about staying up to watch the Bears game over the internet but it starts after 11 p.m. here so he might have to read about it online.  Depends on what the internet service is like tonight.  

Day 4 - Crew's Original Orphage

Crew’s orphanage:

Today we deviated from our travel group to go on a visit to Crew’s original orphanage.  It was extremely emotional for both of us.  It was so hard to fight back the tears.  I held it together until we got into the van to drive away and I just couldn’t anymore.  The orphanage Crew was originally in for one month is a government run orphanage.  It is for children who are abandoned only. Police or other responsible parties (that is what they called it, I’m assuming social service workers) bring children who are found abandon in the city of Addis.  It was in really bad shape with a lot of children in it.  We went to the baby room first and the smell was overwhelming when we entered.  We counted 25 cribs with almost two babies in each crib with two nannies.  Many of the babies, we’re crying with bottles next to them.  The nannies cannot hold bottles with so many babies so they prop them up with blankets.  The problem with this is that once they loss it they cannot get it back.  Justin and I walked around the room with a toddler in one hand feeding babies their bottles with the other hand.  This is when I really wanted to cry.  These poor children don’t get anyone looking at them while they eat.  It just made me think about how I would sing, talk to, and kiss my children while I fed them as babies.  I also thought about little three month old/7 pound Crew living there.  We definitely learned that he is a fighter.  After being abandoned and then surviving an orphanage like that he must be strong and we are excited that God has plans for his future.  Plus we get to see those plans happen which also makes us feel lucky.  After the baby room, we went to see toddlers (1 to 3 year old) and older children (4 to 7 year olds).  We handed out granola bars, gum, suckers, matchbox cars, and balloons.  The older kids were pretty aggressive with us but who can blame them when they have nothing.    

We rejoined our group for lunch and the afternoon visiting Crew.  He is so adorable and seems more comfortable with us every day.  It is going to be really hard to leave him.  We talked with one of our tour guides about where Crew was found and he said there is a big slum there.  Poor Crew, in a poor country he was born into one of the poorest areas in town.  This probably explains the abandonment with poor medical care for mom and no money to buy formula or food.    

Pray for our last day here (Monday, Jan. 24) we have court and have to say good bye to Crew.  We feel attached to him already which will make it very difficult to leave.  We also pray to pass court the first time so we have less of a wait until we can bring him home to join our family.  While we are on prayer requests, please pray for my stomach to feel better.  I started feeling sick just before lunch today and haven’t gotten rid of it yet.  I’m not sick enough to lie in bed all day but definitely need to sit down at times.  I’m hoping to sleep it off.   Thanks for all the love and support we have felt through the blog.  It really makes us feel good and makes being away from home much easier.

Day #3

Today we traveled around to two orphanages in the morning.  Our agency works with these two orphanages a lot in terms of finding children that are eligible for international adoption.  (A side note, what happens in international adoption is that children are relinquished to a local orphanage, paperwork is processed, and then some children become eligible for international adoption, this is when our agency gets involved moves them to our orphanage and then a family is matched with that child.) So we went to the first orphanage not knowing what to expect.  What we found was a lot of kids that need a lot of love.  The kids seemed to be well taken care of (relatively clean clothes, shoes, and food, we saw them eat lunch at one orphanage).  The kids were all really craving attention, love, and of course the toys/snacks we brought them.  We handed our fruit snacks, granola bars, matchbox cars, and plastic dinosaurs and animals.  The kids loved it but mostly just wanted you to hold them and love on them.  The second orphanage was about the same scenario except the staff performed a traditional coffee ceremony for us.  It involved eating popcorn, heating the tea kettle on coals, and pouring a person a small cup of coffee.  The coffee was good but had a different consistency then ours in the States. 

This afternoon we went to the orphanage again to see Crew.  Today we had the opportunity to give away care packages that other families sent with us for their children living in the orphanage.  We got to meet seven children representing four different adoptive families (mostly older children above the age of 2 and only one baby).  It was wonderful to be able to take pictures and video for the adoptive families and give a little extra attention to these kids.  They were super excited.  We also got the opportunity to see the nurse practitioner to talk about Crew’s medical history at the orphanage.  He has had a lot more illnesses then we knew about but seems relatively healthy to us.  We enjoyed some more bonding time with Crew and learned something new about him.  He likes to fight his naps.  He got fussy and it probably took me about a half an hour or so to give him to fall asleep.  He wasn’t crying terribly but still wasn’t too happy.  Crew also made a babbly noise today which was so fun to hear him talk. 

Today we went to a local restaurant owned by an American.  They served Mexican food, burgers, and pizza.  I ate chicken quesadilla so I get to say that I ate Mexican food in Ethiopia.  Justin had buffalo chicken fingers.  Who knew you could get so much American style food in Ethiopia.  I was definitely not expecting it. 

Shopping

Day #3-

Justin and I feel a lot better today after having a good sleep last night.  Justin almost slept for 12 hours he was so tired.  Our alarm died in the middle of the night so it was good that our neighbor was awake or who knows what time we would have gotten up this morning.  We had a leisurely morning with eating breakfast and talking with other couples at our hotel.  A few new families came in last night so we got to see a few new faces.  Breakfast was great with freshly squeezed pineapple juice, scrambled eggs, and Ethiopian pancakes (the cook here makes Western style meals). 

We headed off for a morning of shopping.  We weren’t sure what to expect, but we were able to buy more than we expected.  The people who ran the stores were all extremely friendly and very happy to help you (I’m sure when they see white people, they see money), but Ethiopians in general are very relationally based people.   We bought clothes for all three of our kids so I’m already thinking Christmas card picture for 2011.  This was a far better experience than we had anticipated.  It is considered rude if you do NOT haggle, so we did, but very little.  With response to one of my offers, a shop owner said using motions “how can you expect me to run if I don’t have any shoes” meaning, I was way too low.  Shopping here is right next to a busy street and is just little areas sticking out near the walking area, only about the size of a closet that you can only fit 1-3 people in at a time.  As soon as you come in, you are greeted by a very friendly person who will help you buy anything and everything in the store.  As you walk from store to store, you are assault by beggars and street kids.  There were ladies there with sticks to help shoo them away.  It was fun to see the store owner use a 1970s calculator to sum up our stuff (which had no price tags on it as everything is negotiable) and see a four digit number and not freak out. 

After shopping we had lunch at a restaurant called Lucy (named after the oldest skeleton in the world of a prehistoric person who was found in Ethiopia).  The meal was delicious although I’m starting to think they make everything with jalapenos because my meal was a little bit spicy. 

Then we again spent the afternoon at the orphanage visiting with Crew.  He was a lot more content with us today and hardly cried at all.  I even was able to get him to smile and laugh a couple times.  We changed his clothes into an outfit we had bought him so it was fun to see a little more of his body today.  We also had the opportunity to visit the orphanage for older children (3 years old to 14 years old).  They had the kids line up and sing and dance for us.  They sang Hark the Harold Angel Sing, If your Happy & You Know It & some other songs.  It was so cute; we wished we could have videotaped it. 

Tonight went to a traditional Ethiopian dinner with dancing and singing entertainment.  We really enjoyed the dancing, singing, and the food.  The food was their Ethiopian bread and then you dip it in bean paste, vegetables, beef, and something they said was like peanuts (a paste as well).  I had Ethiopian food in Washington DC and this was much better.  The dancing and singing was like nothing you have ever seen before.  There were three women and three men dancers. The women moved their heads in a circle (which would cause us neck or back spasms or at least make us very dizzy) and the men moved their chest and shoulders in ways I cannot even describe.  It was amazing.

 Thanks for all your comments on our blog and prayers that are being said for us.  We really feel supported and loved here.  We do feel like we have seen God over here in the beauty of the land and the kindness of the people.  Thank you Lord for making us all different so we can show more aspects of You.    

Us at Lucy’s for lunch

Crew’s hand in Chris’ hand

Crew’s foot over Chris’ foot

View from the top of our hotel

Travel Day #1

After a tearful good bye to our children (my tears no one else’s), we are off on our adventure.  We made it to Indy by 10:00 Eastern Time on Monday.  We praise God for the good weather conditions in that we did not encounter the ice that the weather predicted.  We got a nice restful 3 hours sleep before we got up at 2:45 a.m. to start our day today (Tuesday).  We made it to the airport and through security by 5:00 a.m. to get to our flight that was supposed to leave Indy at 6: 00 a.m.  We left Indy around 7:30 because of icy conditions in DC and a late pilot.  We arrived in DC at 8:30 which gave us plenty of time to catch our 11:00 flight.  We have been in the air about seven hours at this point.  Justin and I are lucky enough to not have to share our three seat area with another person so we can stretch out a little bit.  We have slept some and watched some movies.  We were amazed to see the sun set at 3:00 p.m. (Eastern time) with the changing of time zones.  We are getting increasing excited to meet Crew.  We are down to about ten hours we think until we get to meet him.  How we have longed for this day and how it feels so surreal that it is actually almost here.  I told Parker before I left that I was sad that I was leaving him and that I was going to miss him trying to prepare him for the fact that I was going to cry before I left.  Parker said “I’m not sad at all.  I want to meet my brother.”  It gave me such great comfort to know that he truly understood the outcome of our trip and he could rejoice with us to meet Crew. 

Justin and I in the DC airport.  We had no idea what a 12 hour flight meant. 

A quick Note about Grandpa Michels:

Justin’s grandfather (Chester Michels) passed away on last Friday.  We are saddened that we are missing his funeral service today.  I thought we could post a few memories of Grandpa Michels in his honor since we cannot celebrate his life with our family.  I am newer to the Michels family (almost 10 years now) but Grandpa treated me as if I had always been in the family.  He even bought me Christmas presents before Justin and I were married.  I have one particularly fond memory of Grandpa and Parker playing together.  Parker was about 18 months old and loved Grandpa’s walker.  They had a game going in which Parker pushed the walker towards Grandpa and he would make noises and faces at Parker.  It was very cute.  I know Justin has memories of Grandpa loving ice cream and always offering them pints of ice cream when they came to visit him.    Most of all we remember that Grandpa was a God honoring man who raised Justin’s Dad (Steve) up to be a Godly man as well.  We appreciate the morals and values he installed in Steve as a child that he followed as an adult as well.  We know that you helped make Steve the man he is and in turn shaped the man Justin is as well.  I know that as his wife I truly appreciate and love that.  Thank you Grandpa. You will be missed.

Day #2-

We arrived in Addis Ababa this morning at 8:30 a.m. (local time) actually 11:30 p.m. our time.  The 12 hour flight was not as bad as I was anticipating but Justin and I probably only slept a few hours.  We thankfully flew through the lines to get our VISA, exchange money, and go through customs.  We were picked up by a local driver that our agency uses and taken to our hotel.  There was one other couple from our agency on our flight with us so we did it together.  We received our itinerary for the day and left for lunch at 11:30 a.m. (about six couples).  We ate at an Italian Restaurant for lunch.  Justin and I both had pizza which was different from home pizza (no sauce) but still delicious.  Then we drove over to the Transition Home to finally meet Crew.  They had us line up by last name (which we were last).  I started to cry for other people watching them be united with their children.  It was finally our turn.  It was amazing to see Crew and actually get to hold him in my arms (our arms but I of course hogged him).  He did not cry immediately but started to cry about 30 seconds to one minute after they gave him to me.  He cried for about ten minutes to begin with and then settled down to only cry intermittently throughout our time together.  I know Crew was just getting used to us today and we expected the crying.  I know in my heart that the crying really meant “Mom/Dad I really missed you and am so glad to see you guys today.”  He was interested in the toys we brought and smiled when we tickled him.  I also got to give him a bottle (which he could have raced Parker for fastest bottle drinker) and he took a little nap.  Actually Justin and I took that opportunity to take a quick cat nap as well.  We got to take Crew back to his room and meet some of his nannies.  They were all really nice and we could tell that both Crew loved them and they loved him.  It was a nice feeling.  Now we are back at our hotel and exhausted. We are looking forward to a full night sleep (not on an airplane or getting up early).  Hopefully the loud barking dogs and praying Muslims will cooperate with that plan.      

 Justin and I waiting in front of the Transition Home for the nannies to bring out Crew.  I was fighting back the tears.  I would love to post more pictures of today but the rest of of  Crew and we cannot do that until we pass court. 

The packing process has moved into phase 2.  We have begun to fill the suit cases.  We were able to fill up 2 just under the 50 pound limit.   

The kids had a great time opening all the boxes and putting them into ziplock bags. This allowed us to save space.  However, after we finished the two bags, we realized the pile of stuff to be packed did not look that much smaller.  Thanks to all who have donated supplies for us to take to the Transition Home.