Our 5 kids!

We will be getting back to blogging soon. It is amazing how life with 5 children impacts what you get done in a day!

Lost in translation

Melissa and the kids came by the office today as people have been clamoring to meet Gabriel. Afterwards, they went to State Farm Park to hang out at the pool with some friends. It was Gabriel's first experience at the pool and he was very excited and very loud. We have found that God has already blessed him with a voice that carries long distances.

Compounding this is the fact that in Amharic, the word for going pee is "shinte" which is pronounced "shint". You can probably see where I am going...when Gabriel had to go today, he would call out to Melissa "shinte, shinte". To say that there were a few raised eyebrows would be an understatement!

He played so hard today he crashed on the way home...


Gabriel and Sarah Beth are getting along well...

Homecoming

With five kids we are beginning to realize that not only is our life not our own, neither is our time! We will be posting thoughts and pictures from Ethiopia, we promise. Here are a few photos that our friends, the Semlows (recent parents to a set of three siblings from Ethiopia themselves!), took at our neighborhood park when we got home...

Home!

We are home and getting acclimated to the new normal of 5 kids. We will be posting photos in the coming days while we begin to fill in the gaps during our time in Ethiopia.

Eyob and Sarah Beth are doing very well together (in fact, better than we thought they would).

Delayed an hour

For those meeting at our neighborhood park today we have been delayed one hour in DC so we will get there between 6 and 7 now.

The journey home begins!

Just a very quick note, because the van is waiting...We are on our way home!

Embassy appointment

Yesterday we had our Embassy appointment and so now the only thing that remains is to get Eyob's travel visa.

Quick update: Praise – the ticket issue has been resolved.

For anyone coming after us, we cannot recommend Ethiopia Guest House strongly enough. We have especially enjoyed the community meals. We have met so many families that have such amazing stories of how they have ended up in Ethiopia adopting a child or children. It has been such an encouragement to us. When one family is struggling with an issue other families come alongside and share words of encouragement or some advice from personal experience to help.

Eyob continues to do well with the transition with us. He is enjoying his brozzers and seester very much. We have found that when we go out anywhere he gets very quiet (which is very much out of character for him) and so we will be glad to get home to begin some sense of normalcy. Have to get ready for the day, more later...