Friday, July 31, 2009
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.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
The journey home begins!
Just a very quick note, because the van is waiting...We are on our way home!
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
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...
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...
Monday, July 27, 2009
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).
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).
Hopefully a post that will go through...
This is Chad writing as I sit in the Business Center of the Addis Ababa Hilton. We have had issues with our internet connection at the guest house, so I am hopeful we finally get an entry in. We will have to input some entries when we get home to fill in the blanks that I don't have time to write right now (as well, I was hoping to post some photos, but even that won't happen until we return to the States)...
When we went to the transition home, Eyob came running out with is his nanny, Tesfanish, and announced with bright eyes, "WELCOME". I will date myself, but if you imagine back to Fantasy Island, you will get a pretty good picture. The only downside of our visit is that of the 11 pieces of checked luggage, the only one that did not make it was Abby's bag (we took the Semlows' advice and moved some clothes around the other luggage to handle this if it happened) which also had the gifts for Tesfanish and the other nannies.
We got to see several children who are awaiting their parents (two beautiful sisters are meeting their new mom and dad now, as I type).
We have also been able to do some things that we will look back on fondly--attended a church service and ate a traditional Ethiopian meal. We had Doro Wat (a spicy chicken spiced with the local spice berbere) and Bere Tibs (a grilled beef dish) that we ate with Enjera (you need to look this up online because I cannot do it justice--it involves the use of fermented, decayed something).
We are out today to confirm our return tickets (please pray about this because due to an error with the travel agent that was compounded by Ethiopian Air at this moment we do not have a ticket home for Eyob), do some shopping, and visit a coffee warehouse. I will continue to try to get another post out from the guest house, but this may be the only one incountry. And we thought we faced posting challenges in China!!
When we went to the transition home, Eyob came running out with is his nanny, Tesfanish, and announced with bright eyes, "WELCOME". I will date myself, but if you imagine back to Fantasy Island, you will get a pretty good picture. The only downside of our visit is that of the 11 pieces of checked luggage, the only one that did not make it was Abby's bag (we took the Semlows' advice and moved some clothes around the other luggage to handle this if it happened) which also had the gifts for Tesfanish and the other nannies.
We got to see several children who are awaiting their parents (two beautiful sisters are meeting their new mom and dad now, as I type).
We have also been able to do some things that we will look back on fondly--attended a church service and ate a traditional Ethiopian meal. We had Doro Wat (a spicy chicken spiced with the local spice berbere) and Bere Tibs (a grilled beef dish) that we ate with Enjera (you need to look this up online because I cannot do it justice--it involves the use of fermented, decayed something).
We are out today to confirm our return tickets (please pray about this because due to an error with the travel agent that was compounded by Ethiopian Air at this moment we do not have a ticket home for Eyob), do some shopping, and visit a coffee warehouse. I will continue to try to get another post out from the guest house, but this may be the only one incountry. And we thought we faced posting challenges in China!!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
We made it!
Just a quick post to advise we made it. We are about to leave for the transition home to get Eyob!
Prayer update:
1. Praise - all the luggage was allowed with no penalty.
2. Praise - the flight was not too bad and we got some sleep.
3. Prayer Request - every bag made it but Abby's. We took the Semlow's advice and had moved clothes around to other bags so she has clothes to wear for a few days. The biggest issue is that this is the bag with the gifts for the nannies and a special gift for Tesfanish, his primary nanny. Please pray that it is found quickly so we can get those gifts to everyone.
Prayer update:
1. Praise - all the luggage was allowed with no penalty.
2. Praise - the flight was not too bad and we got some sleep.
3. Prayer Request - every bag made it but Abby's. We took the Semlow's advice and had moved clothes around to other bags so she has clothes to wear for a few days. The biggest issue is that this is the bag with the gifts for the nannies and a special gift for Tesfanish, his primary nanny. Please pray that it is found quickly so we can get those gifts to everyone.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
In DC
We are recovering from our day in a hotel near Dulles. What a day!
We got to O'Hare at 1 thinking we were in good shape since we flew out at 4. Turns out we needed every minute!
We found out that we could check our luggage all the way through to Addis, but it was all or none. We made quite a sight on the sidewalk moving clothes and stuff from our regular bags into a carry-on. Then we waited in a very long line to check all of us and our 11 bags in. (Keep praying for waived fees--that 11th bag might cost $250)...from there to a very long security line...by the time we reached the gate they were boarding.
Things were looking good, when a big thunderstorm temporarily shut down the airport--the neat thing about that was that as we were waiting Air Force One landed.
The flight went great and we made it to the hotel about 9 pm. We planned to walk across the street to a Chinese restaurant when the skies opened up. The boys and I ran through the rain to the Chinese restaurant...as we got to the door we realized they were closing! Luckily, there was another one nearby that we ran to. We were soaked by the time we got back to the hotel.
Now out of wet clothes and full of great food we are settling in for the night. Tomorrow morning we will leave DC on a 15-hour marathon to Addis Ababa. The next time you hear from us, we will be in Addis and will likely have Eyob. We will probably blog on Saturday evening local time (Addis is 7 hours ahead of Bloomington).
Stay tuned...
We got to O'Hare at 1 thinking we were in good shape since we flew out at 4. Turns out we needed every minute!
We found out that we could check our luggage all the way through to Addis, but it was all or none. We made quite a sight on the sidewalk moving clothes and stuff from our regular bags into a carry-on. Then we waited in a very long line to check all of us and our 11 bags in. (Keep praying for waived fees--that 11th bag might cost $250)...from there to a very long security line...by the time we reached the gate they were boarding.
Things were looking good, when a big thunderstorm temporarily shut down the airport--the neat thing about that was that as we were waiting Air Force One landed.
The flight went great and we made it to the hotel about 9 pm. We planned to walk across the street to a Chinese restaurant when the skies opened up. The boys and I ran through the rain to the Chinese restaurant...as we got to the door we realized they were closing! Luckily, there was another one nearby that we ran to. We were soaked by the time we got back to the hotel.
Now out of wet clothes and full of great food we are settling in for the night. Tomorrow morning we will leave DC on a 15-hour marathon to Addis Ababa. The next time you hear from us, we will be in Addis and will likely have Eyob. We will probably blog on Saturday evening local time (Addis is 7 hours ahead of Bloomington).
Stay tuned...
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