Our Journey to Ethiopia... Day 3

Once again, we awoke to the incessant barking of dogs. This is not to say this was the first time we had awoken that night. Abraham had been ready for a bottle four times once again. Tom and I switched off feeding and changing him. Thankfully he went back to sleep after each feeding. We got out of bed and greeted our son. As I picked him up, I got butterflies in my stomach. I kept thinking, this is my son - how amazing, how scary, how overwhelming, how miraculous, how crazy! It was definitely mixed emotions, emotions that I would struggle with even after we got home. I knew that he was my son, but having to be responsible for this precious little boy overwhelmed me - what a huge responsibility God had called me to.

We headed down for breakfast. Before ordering, I noticed that the power was back on. The power in Addis was fickle at this time because there had been a drought. Therefore, Addis was having to share power and we had no idea when the power would be on or off. I headed over to the computer and used the dial-up Internet to write to my mom and my sweet babies (well, they're not babies, but I still call them that :) ). As I typed my message to them, tears rolled down my cheeks. I missed those two precious children so much - my heart completely ached to hold them, play with them, to know how their week was going. My mom emailed and said that they were having a wonderful time and doing so well. Of course I was overjoyed, but this only made me miss them more. I ached to have them in my arms. After sending off the email update, I headed over to the table and ordered pancakes. I was expecting our normal Americanized pancakes, but was pleasantly surprised at the difference. Their pancakes are like crepes. I poured maple syrup over the top and chowed down. After breakfast all of us travelers converged down in the lobby. While there Megan and Shawn's children delighted Tom and I as well as our Abraham. I must say that Tewodros, their son is such a special young man. He cared for all of the children but seemed to be especially drawn to Abraham. He would come over and kiss his cheeks and hands. He would motion to hold him. We gladly passed him over to Tewodros. The way in which he loved our boy simply melted my heart. Yitayish and Seble would then jaunt over and kiss his face and hands as well (as is Ethiopian culture). It was so adorable! I miss all of the children we traveled with so much. It's like you become one big family and then suddenly have to say goodbye.

Abraham, Tewodros, and Yitayish (giving love).


Seble joining in the fun.


Yitayish sporting her groovy new hat! Love that smile girl!

In our schedule it told us that we would be touring the Fistula Hospital in the morning and then to Hannah's Hope later that day to head out for shopping. It then said we would head back to the hotel for dinner and then to bed. As a precursor, Almaz had written at the top of the schedule, "God bless the flexible, for they do not break." This would prove to be very true :). At about 9:30 we headed over to Hannah's Hope. We were all hoping to spend some time there with the children and then head out to the Fistula hospital. But, when we got there we were told that we were going shopping and then to a nice lunch at a nice restaurant where some beautiful paintings were being sold. This is where the being flexible came in handy :).

Abraham with one of his special mothers - look at that smile!

We loaded up all of our children and headed out for some shopping. Before we left we were told that we could choose what we wanted to do about people who would come up to the side of the van and ask for food or money, but that it wasn't recommended that we give anything. It could cause them to get hurt and cause more people to essentially "mob" our van. We were told that it was only a very short term solution and that they would be back in the same position again the next day. Tom felt like we should follow this advice and I respected that, but had a VERY hard time with it. Danny, Yohannes and Binyam took us through the city once again. On the side of the road we would see these big tarps with what looked like beans drying on them. They were everywhere. We passed shops upon shops of small items for sale. What I mostly remember seeing is bananas - bananas hanging everywhere! They drove us to a tourist area for shopping. Here's how I knew... there were a few other "white" folks milling around, and many, many peddlers on the street trying to earn enough Birr just to get by. The shopping was so fun because we got to see so many authentic Ethiopian "treasures" - at least they're treasures to us. As I was rushing through each little store I realized that I had forgotten my list of people I wanted to buy for back at the hotel. I didn't think we were going shopping until later, so I didn't put it in my $ pouch (if you're traveling - just keep your list with you :) ). It felt like a mad dash. I was buying this here, buying that there, oops what about that person, oh yeah, - I've got to get this for that person, ooohhh - I think Lowa would really like that...... on and on. We hit a point where it looked like people were ready to finish up. I wasn't done, but I didn't want to make anyone else feel like they were waiting for me. I later found out, everyone else felt the same way!

As we were all settling in the van, I had quite the experience. I was walking over to our van when a young boy came up to me and asked if he could shine my shoes. I had to decline because I was wearing flip-flops :)! Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I see this woman in a brown, police-type uniform coming up behind me with a raised bamboo stick! She brings it down and it lands smack-dab in the middle of the boys back. She yells something at him in Amharic (my guess is that she was telling him to beat it - ya' think?). The boy ran off and she settled onto the sidewalk next to our van. Then she looks over at us and gives us a HUGE smile! She starts cooing at Abraham and kissing at him from the sidewalk. All I can think is... "Well, I'd better be kind." I have Abraham wave and say hello with a big smile plastered on my face. All of a sudden another peddler comes up to our van trying to sell shoes. She whips that stick up and whacks the guy three or four times before he backs down. He had a few choice words for her, but scrambled off as well. Everyone (well, everyone besides the people in our van) paid absolutely no attention, as if they saw this all the time! She then turns back to Abraham and starts cooing at him again! It was like seeing Jekyll and Hyde come to life! She seemed like the sweetest woman you'd ever meet one moment and whip that stick out the next. We figure she was hired by the shop owners to shoo away unwanted peddlers that might take away business. Needless to say, this was quite the experience! After this experience, we waved our goodbyes and headed over to get some lunch.

A typical shop you see while driving through Addis.

Beans drying alongside the road.

An Ethiopian table cloth, bowl and elephant salad forks. Just some of the things we got while shopping.

These beautiful pictures are made from banana leaves - stunning.

As we were driving, I was sitting next to the window holding Abraham, gazing at the people and sights of Addis. The van came to a stop and suddenly a young woman came right up to me and started cupping her hands toward her mouth as if to say, "I'm starving, please, may I have some food?" As I looked at her sorrowfully, I saw a young baby girl strapped to her back. The baby looked right at me with her bright, beautiful eyes and smiled. "What is the world! How can anyone just ignore this? I'm not supposed to give this woman some food so that she can feed her dying baby? She's going to end up in the same position as so many other mother's who have had to give up their babies because they're literally starving to death." The emotions of sorrow, anger, frustration, helplessness all jumbled together within me. I looked at her and felt frozen. As I was staring at this poor woman, the van pulled away. "Lord, why is this happening?" We continued driving and as I was dealing with the emotions of what I'd just experienced, I looked out of the window on to see a woman sitting up against a telephone pole with her head lolling off to the side. She was sitting an an old cloth with her legs crossed. She had a baby strapped to her front. The baby was motionless and the mother could barely keep her eyes open. How my heart broke for her. I could not begin to imagine having any of my three children have to endure such hardship. I vow that if I ever go back, I will give money and food to women with babies who are starving. That I can never turn my back on again.

As we pulled into the parking lot of our lunch stop, you could tell this was an upper end of town. The shops looked very different - more upscale. The stairs leading up to the restaurant were made of marble. As we walked in, we saw rows and rows of beautiful and original oil paintings. We were told that these were done by various Ethiopian artists who had graduated from a program much like a fine arts college. They were all for sale - YES - I was hoping we'd get to look at and buy something like this. Tom and I talked about it and decided we would spend the extra cash to get a beautiful painting. We wanted Abraham to have something visual in our home that would remind him of where he was born and the beautiful culture from which he came from. I have to say that was one of the best decisions we made. We all sat down to lunch and I feasted on a vegetarian pizza - pretty tasty I would say. Tom had some sort of pasta that he enjoyed thoroughly. Abraham was quite tired at this point (I would be too if I were getting lugged all over the place). The poor little man was used to his nice, comfortable environment at Hannah's Hope. And, here we were - these strange people who were taking him everywhere with us, holding him, kissing him. I'm sure he didn't know what to think. We traded off feeding him a bottle and walking around bouncing him on our shoulder. He was such a trooper, but tired and I think starting to get very confused. I just couldn't stop kissing him - I was (and of course still am) so in love! We paid our bill and headed out. Trying to get out of the parking lot was quite a spectacle. The way in which they cram cars into tiny spaces amazes me. I couldn't believe Binyam's skill at getting that van out. If it were me, the van would still be there today!

The parking lot of the restaurant where we got our painting.

These are the types of shops that were around the restaurant that we went to for lunch.

The Ethiopian painting we have in our home. It reminds us of the people, colors and culture of Ethiopia.

Our last stop was to get some Ethiopian coffee. While driving to get our coffee we saw this young boy, maybe 12 or 13. He spotted our van right away and sprinted to follow us for 3 1/2 blocks. When we got out of the coffee shop, there he was with a huge grin on his face. All of the sudden his young sister (maybe 6) shows up. These children had no shoes, were wearing filthy rags and looked as if they hadn't eaten in days. But do you know what stuck out to me the most? The boy's BEAUTIFUL smile. He couldn't wipe that smile off of his face. We all gave them our leftovers from lunch (I was not going to say no to these children). We asked if we could take a picture. He smiled his big, pearly whites at us and then said, "That's two dollars." Smart Kid!!! We all had a good laugh and he got his money :)!

The young boy and his sister. What beautiful children...

We headed back to the hotel. After eating dinner, we all were desperate to go to Hannah's Hope. We had barely been there at all and we really wanted to see the older children. We all headed over once again! As we walked in a young boy walked up to each of us and said, "Hello, I'm ---. Nice to meet you." Oh, man this kid was/is amazing! Then all of a sudden, all of these children rushed out in a flurry of activity. I bent down and started hugging, tickling and trying to converse. It was beautiful! The children went immediately to the other children that were being adopted and gave them huge hugs - it was simply one of the sweetest things I had witnessed since being there. Then the soccer started up. Tom played long and hard. (After we got back to the hotel, he told me he felt really ill from playing soccer so hard - hilarious!). And then the bubbles came out. A couple in our group was so wonderful and had brought enough bottles for each child to have one. They had a BLAST! Of course, it started to rain so we all piled under the baby shed. Needless to say, there were many spills (both the bubbles and children). The ground was so slick from all of the bubbles and wet feet tracking water in. We finally had to ban bubbles (so sad). I wish I could post pictures, but it's not allowed. They are quite adorable and funny. Despite the bubble fiasco, we had a blast just playing, talking and watching these gorgeous children knowing that each and every one of them would soon be going home to a forever family. That eased my heart from the things that I had seen earlier that day. Some folks worked on unpacking donations while the rest of us played. I saw a lot of donations and LOVED it!

It started to near bedtime and it was time to settle down. Abraham was more than ready to be put in his bed as well. We all walked back to the Union. Tom and I got Abraham ready to sleep, got our pjs on and crawled into bed. As we lay there, we prayed together for all of the children and people of Ethiopia. We prayed for God's helping hand and His grace. We prayed that the suffering would end and that His people would hear His calling to be His feet and hands to those who do not have. We prayed for our children and the blessing that He had bestowed upon us. I shut my eyes with the visions of starving mothers, babies and children knowing that it would be forever etched in my mind and heart....