A new approach

We realized today at the Hilton that we have no problem accessing our email account remotely, so we are going to attempt to use email to post directly to the blog.

After I completed the last blog, Melissa asked me all sorts of questions about what I commented on in our successful blog and I realized that in the vein of "men are from Mars..." that I failed to comment on the really important stuff, instead focusing on the administrative stuff. So here is my attempt to comment on the important stuff: Our incountry cell phone number is 011-251-091-0103887 (we have already added the US exit code and Ethiopia country code).

Eyob is doing remarkably well in the transition to life as a Miller. He has a very winsome personality and enjoys entertaining us and others. He knows more English than we were expecting and is able to repeat what we say very well. In addition to "welcome", we love the way he says brother (sounds like "brozzer") and sister (sounds like "seester"). He is sleeping well at night, and typically wakes once in the middle of the night for a drink of water. Although I am sure it hurt Tesfanish's heart, I think she did a remarkable job of preparing him for the transition. She is truly a wonderful woman and one we want to make certain Eyob remembers as he grows up. We can build on the strong foundation that she built.

We have really enjoyed Ethiopia Guest House and would strongly recommend it to anyone coming to Addis Ababa to adopt or do mission work. We have really enjoyed getting to know the families that are here as well. It is neat to see such a diverse group of families from places like Chicago, Austin, Dallas, Denver, and Santa Barbara, with a similar call to adopt from Ethiopia. It has been really great to hear everyone's story of how they got to this point and it has been such an encouragement to us.

Praises:
- The flight went very well and we managed the time better on this flight. Sleep was less of a problem.
- All of the luggage was allowed without any fees.
- Abby's luggage that was lost was found with everything intact.

Prayer requests:
- Eyob's ticket issue is still unresolved and we ask for your continued prayer. The problem has been escalated to the person within Ethiopian Air who can choose to resolve it so we travel as planned or choose not to, pushing us to a later flight (not a desired outcome).

Believing that the ticket issue will be resolved well, we are planning to land at O'Hare about around 1:20 pm on Friday, July 31st. From there we plan to drive to Bloomington and go to our neighborhood park between 5 and 6 pm to see any of you who can make it.

More to follow...from Ethiopia we hope (if this works as anticipated, I will try to push some photos through to the blog as well).