Home

It seems so surreal to be sitting on my couch and typing on the computer. We had an uneventful flight home but boy do i wish we were still in Ethiopia. We have had such an amazing trip. Besides the details of what we did every day its hard to communicate what we experienced.

First of all we met our son. How to put that into words - seeing him in the flesh - hearing his cry and his laughter. His eyes sizing us up and then the inevitable cries - he is not keen on strangers. We know that this is a very good sign. Soon it will be us that he is clinging to... He is sweet. He is tiny. He is funny. He has really good hand eye co-ordination which was good to see. We just sat and drank him in - all the while playing on the floor with the rest of the babies in the room. None of them cried at us... just our boy :) He actually crawled straight to me... talk about melting a momma's heart. Mike provided lots of entertainment with his hairy legs - the babies seemed to love that!!!!

We met so many kind people in Ethiopia. So many people and mostly strangers went out of their way to be friendly and kind. Not sure that you get that here. They are just loving people. One sight i especially loved to see was men walking down the street arm in arm or holding hands. Its just plain a sign on friendship - they love to show affection. In one of our adventures i found a man taking my hand and guiding me down the street and it was a sweet sign of friendship. You just don't get that here.

We saw many things that you just don't take pictures of. An old woman living on the street with 2 young babies. Vultures and dogs feasting on a fallen cow on the side of the road. In two different occasions we saw friends carrying a sick person to the hospital/clinic. It seemed like a futile attempt as in both cases they were miles and miles from a town. In the second case the people were tearing their hair out and already mourning. We saw a funeral procession and it seemed that the whole town was out in mourning. Some times it just doesn't feel like to take a picture but these things and more are engraved in my heart and brain.

We toured just a small part of the country and we saw vast beauty. Rolling hills and mountains, desert and cactus and beautiful farm land. We saw lakes and rivers. We saw amazing birds, monkeys, camels, goats, cattle, horses and countless donkeys. We saw people getting water - walking to the river, filling up their yellow cans and walking home. Water gathering takes up so much of their time. The lucky ones had donkeys and carts for carrying but mostly they carried it themselves.

We are home here in Canada - but already we miss our second home. The sun, the beauty, the hospitality, the simple way of life. We miss our boy. Since we didn't pass court, we didn't get a good visit just with him... We were at the orphanage about 4 other times for other purposes and so got sneak peaks at him. But it was just comforting to know he was just a few streets away. Now we seem so far. I know it won't be long till we are back again and so it makes it a bit easier. Saying our good byes to our friends in Addis will much harder next time!!!!