Home!

We got home Saturday around 3:00. It's great to be home! More later...

Almost Home

Only one more flight to go to get home. We're overnighting in London right now. We fly out at 7:30 in the morning on a direct flight to Chicago. We're ready to get home. Monica and Jeremiah are asleep beside me on the bed. Tomorrow night we'll be in our own bed with all 3 of our boys in the same house!

We left Addis Ababa around noon Ethiopian time. We got seats in the bulkhead row which meant we got one of the bassinets. That was great. Jeremiah continues to amaze us with his personality. He barely fussed the whole flight. Most of the time he was either sleeping or just hanging out checking out what was going on.

Alright, I should get some sleep...sorry no pictures I'm too tired.

Still Here

We're still here! Sorry for not blogging more. I've heard rumors
that my sister is complaining about my lack of blogging. Keep in mind
that there's no wi-fi in our rooms here. You have to go to the
computer in the lobby and "hope" that they can actually get the
dial-up connection to go through. Even as I type this, I'm not sure
I'll actually be able to post this (It's working!)

Jeremiah Bemnet is doing great! He is such a good baby. He almost
never fusses and is usually very content. Not to mention the fact
that he is stinking cute. To keep the audience happy, I'll try to
include some pictures in the post.

Tomorrow we're going to try and tour the Fistula hospital as well as
possibly visit a government orphanage. In the evening, we'll get to
see the family who hosted us our first few days in Ethiopia. Tomorrow
is our last full day here. We called home today and got to talk to
the boys. We're ready to be home and have our family all together.

We heard that a few families back in the states got some great news
today. We are rejoicing with you in Ethiopia!

Today It Really Happened

I typed this a few hours ago but the internet wasn't working until now...

What an amazing day! OUR SON is sleeping on the bed right now. We
met the rest of our travel group this morning at breakfast and we all
anxiously awaited the arrival of Almaz. Once Almaz arrived we went
over some paperwork and then it was time to take "the walk". Because
we got to the hotel on Sunday afternoon, we had already taken a
practice walk the day before. Hannah's Hope really is very close to
the hotel. When we took our practice walk on Sunday we were able to
resist the temptation to knock on the gate. We just took a few
pictures, tossed back a ball that came over the wall, and went back to
the hotel.

Anyway, we took the real walk this morning with our group. We have 8
families in our travel group. Only one family was getting an older
child, the rest infants. We all got to see them meet their son who is
4 years old. It was a very special moment. He ran right to them and
was hugging them and was so excited to see them. If you didn't tear
up a bit watching that, something is wrong. The mom said later that
meeting him went better than she could have ever dreamed.

After that we went inside the building where the babies were. We
waited while a few other families met their babies. Then Almaz took
us to where Bemnet was. He was sleeping in his crib so we just looked
at him for a bit. After a while one of the special moms came and woke
him up and handed him to Monica.

Ever since we got him, he has been AMAZING!!! He could not have
possibly been any better so far. He's been happy and content the
entire time we've had him. If he's half this content and happy
normally we are going to be sitting pretty. Earlier I got a video of
Monica showing him Brennan and Sawyer's picture and saying their
names. Each time she would say "Brennan and Sawyer" or "brothers" and
point at their pictures, he would get all giggly.

It has been an amazing day! We are so incredibly blessed. Thank you
for all your prayers and support.

Saturday

We had a good day today (Saturday) in Addis. After getting about 10
hours of sleep and some breakfast, we headed out with our hosts to
find the Union Hotel so we'd know where to go Sunday. We found that
pretty easily. It was a little crazy knowing that our son was only a
few blocks away. I had actually seen the sign pointing towards All
God's Children so I knew we were close before I spotted the Union
hotel. I think we even saw the famous path that families take on "the
walk" to go to Hannah's Hope to meet their children. After we had
spotted the Union, we went to find a spot that's very meaningful to
Jeremiah's story. We found the spot pretty easily and spent a little
time there.

From that point, we went to a restaurant for lunch. They served
mostly American and Mexican food. After lunch we went shopping. It
was a little overwhelming trying to figure out what to purchase.
After walking in and out of many shops we started buying some stuff.
We got clothing for each of the boys and for ourselves as well as some
coffee mugs and a few various other items. We'll get another chance
to shop with our travel group later so we can figure out what we still
need to purchase.

After a short stop at a grocery store, where I was able to get a
macchiato (#2 for the day), we went back to the house to drop things
off before heading to supper. We decided to go to a traditional
Ethiopian restaurant for supper. I loved it! The food was great,
especially the dora wat. After we finished eating we had a cup of
coffee. On the way back we drove past the Sheraton hotel. It is
huge. We were going to go in and see it but security wasn't letting
anyone in. So, we headed back to relax for the rest of the evening.

Tomorrow we'll go to a MKC church service, eat lunch with our hosts,
and then sometime in the afternoon/evening we'll head over and
check-in at the Union Hotel. Maybe we'll take a practice walk up the
path...

For all the coffee lovers out there, the stuff over here is awesome!

That's all for now

We're in Ethiopia!

We're in Ethiopia! We got in this morning at 8:00. Everything on our
flights and went well. We didn't get much sleep on our way to London
so by yesterday afternoon we were hitting the wall. We pushed our way
through and didn't sleep until we got on the plane last night. I
slept most of the way to Ethiopia. We got through the visa line and
security just fine. Our hosts were there ready for us and we're
relaxing in their living room right now. I'll write/post more later
but just wanted to send a quick update.

It's Time!

First of all, we got some great news yesterday. JB & Carla finally have a court date (June 4th).

In a few minutes we'll be leaving for the airport. I think we've got everything packed. I discovered that you shouldn't trust your bathroom scales when weighing your luggage. I'll try to post as much as I can during the trip.

London & Addis Ababa, here we come!

Test with picture

Just testing out my ability to post pictures to the blog via email. This is Brennan when he was a "little" guy. He was a chubby little guy.

Free up baby room....Check!

Tonight Brennan and Sawyer are sleeping in the same room. We've been needing to get Sawyer moved into Brennan's room so Jeremiah can have the baby room when we get back. We setup the bunk/loft on Wednesday and Brennan has been enjoying sleeping on the top. Sawyer is too young to use the bottom bunk so we borrowed a crib (thank you JB & Carla) and put it under the top bunk. Sawyer went to bed in his "new" crib without any problems. The night is still young but so far the transition seems to be a success.

Purchase Tickets....Check!

All right, the tickets have been purchased! We're leaving on Wednesday evening out of Chicago and flying to London. We get into London in the morning and we have about a 12 hour layover so we're going to take the tube into town and see Big Ben and Parliament (hopefully not as many times as Chevy Chase did).



After a day in London we'll catch a 9:00 PM flight on Ethiopian Airlines that will make a brief stop in Rome and then head on to Addis Ababa. I think we get in around 8:00 AM on Friday.



We'll spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday experiencing Ethiopia with an amazingly generous family from Pennsylvania that is living in Addis right now. Using some connections at church, we've managed to Mennonite Our Way all the way to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We're very excited for the opportunity to spend a few days seeing Addis before we meet Jeremiah. Hopefully we'll get somewhat adjusted to the time change too before we start taking care of an infant.

On Sunday afternoon/evening we'll check into the Union hotel where AGCI has families stay. I believe there are at least 5 families in our travel group. Monday will be the big day when we meet Jeremiah for the first time and have our embassy appoinment. There will be other activities like shopping and a cultural dinner during the week. I think most families will head for home Thursday evening but we'll be leaving Friday at noon and flying to London. We have an overnight layover in London and then fly out in the morning to Chicago.

That's the gameplan. We're leaving in NINE days! Wow we have a lot to do. On Saturday Monica helped Target get off to a strong start for May sales. We've got a little more stimulating to do to the economy between now and when we leave.

Since we have three bedrooms and will soon have three boys, we've known that we needed to do some combining of rooms so Jeremiah had a place to sleep. The plan has been to put Sawyer and Brennan in the same room. We've known this for awhile but it took some time to figure out what we were going to do for beds. We decided to go with bunk beds and I would make them. It needs to be more of a loft at the beginning so we can just put Sawyer's crib underneath until he's ready for a big boy bed. So this past Saturday, with the help of my father and father in-law, the project took finally got off the ground. Here are some less than stellar shots I took with my cell phone. We're one light sanding and a final coat of poly away from it being done!