Day3:
At 6 am I decided to be proactive and a little bold I guess and e-mail the embassy requesting that they clear our case and asked for a Embassy date for the next day and also to rush our paperwork after embassy date so we can pick it up on the 13th before we leave. Not to much to ask right. lol... Well it paid off. We received an e-mail this morning around 11am saying we cleared and a Embassy date for the 12th... Prayers answered and was great news to receive after we got home from Jemo. I don't know what we would have done if they would not have cleared us. Makes my stomach sick thinking about the predicament we would have been in. We kinda made this trip on blind faith and hope because we wanted to meet the birth aunt since she was here for her Embassy date.
So, recently our church made the decision to partner with Hope Chest in Addis Ababa at the care site called Jemo. Since our church decided to partner with Jemo my wife and I have been really excited to visit the site and be apart of an awesome opportunity to learn from an amazing culture and people. Today was the day I got to visit Jemo. It was awesome, but I kept thinking how much my wife would have loved to be here. But we will definitely be back... I was a little worried about what Ariyat and what she would think we were doing but when we met Helina she explained everything to Ariyat and we were on our way. When we pulled into the site the boys were playing soccer and the kids were surrounding our car. The boys grabbed our driver Binyam and I and dragged us into the game. When I looked up I couldn't help but notice that my team included a bunch on small young boys (who were still better than me) and our driver who was in dress clothes. The other team consisted of 6 older boys all with there high school team soccer jerseys on. The boys sure thought it was funny to make me chase them all over and then watch me bend over in agony trying to catch my wind. I am going to go ahead and blame it on the altitude.
After my heart attack, the Reverend pulled up to the site because she wanted to meet with me. She is an amazing lady who is the first female Reverend in Addis Ababa. She walked me through her vision for the church, the children, and the children's families. When she was talking to me, you could not help but feel her passion and love. It was truly awesome. The trip ended with the best of all. She asked me to stay for a coffee ceremony which is such a treat and while we were sitting in the church waiting for the coffee. All the children funnelled into the church and went up on the stage and started singing upbeat christian children's songs while the older boys played the keyboard. I can't wait to share the video of this to all of you when I get home. Helina noticed Ariyat singing along to the songs, which she must have known, so she asked Ariyat to go up on stage with the kids and she had the biggest smile on her face as she walked up there and started to sing with them. We said our good byes to the Helina and the Reverend (her name is slipping me at the moment) with the excitement for the day we can come back because I know Kris will fall in love with all the people at the site like I did.
When we got back to the hotel and ate lunch Ariyat looked at me and said "la ten ya" which means It's time to go to sleep. She crashed until supper and then we got to spend another night with Brad and Kathleen, who are adopting a sweet little boy, for supper at Antica. I really enjoy our conversations and sharing stories. Nice to have families here that relate to your situation.
I am looking forward to gettin Embassy behind us tomorrow and finding some oil for Ariyat's hair. (forgot to bring) Keep getting comments that say "I need to use oil, her hair is dry". Oops
Ps. Enjoy this photo of my little girl feeling pretty good about her outfit. Love it...
At 6 am I decided to be proactive and a little bold I guess and e-mail the embassy requesting that they clear our case and asked for a Embassy date for the next day and also to rush our paperwork after embassy date so we can pick it up on the 13th before we leave. Not to much to ask right. lol... Well it paid off. We received an e-mail this morning around 11am saying we cleared and a Embassy date for the 12th... Prayers answered and was great news to receive after we got home from Jemo. I don't know what we would have done if they would not have cleared us. Makes my stomach sick thinking about the predicament we would have been in. We kinda made this trip on blind faith and hope because we wanted to meet the birth aunt since she was here for her Embassy date.
So, recently our church made the decision to partner with Hope Chest in Addis Ababa at the care site called Jemo. Since our church decided to partner with Jemo my wife and I have been really excited to visit the site and be apart of an awesome opportunity to learn from an amazing culture and people. Today was the day I got to visit Jemo. It was awesome, but I kept thinking how much my wife would have loved to be here. But we will definitely be back... I was a little worried about what Ariyat and what she would think we were doing but when we met Helina she explained everything to Ariyat and we were on our way. When we pulled into the site the boys were playing soccer and the kids were surrounding our car. The boys grabbed our driver Binyam and I and dragged us into the game. When I looked up I couldn't help but notice that my team included a bunch on small young boys (who were still better than me) and our driver who was in dress clothes. The other team consisted of 6 older boys all with there high school team soccer jerseys on. The boys sure thought it was funny to make me chase them all over and then watch me bend over in agony trying to catch my wind. I am going to go ahead and blame it on the altitude.
After my heart attack, the Reverend pulled up to the site because she wanted to meet with me. She is an amazing lady who is the first female Reverend in Addis Ababa. She walked me through her vision for the church, the children, and the children's families. When she was talking to me, you could not help but feel her passion and love. It was truly awesome. The trip ended with the best of all. She asked me to stay for a coffee ceremony which is such a treat and while we were sitting in the church waiting for the coffee. All the children funnelled into the church and went up on the stage and started singing upbeat christian children's songs while the older boys played the keyboard. I can't wait to share the video of this to all of you when I get home. Helina noticed Ariyat singing along to the songs, which she must have known, so she asked Ariyat to go up on stage with the kids and she had the biggest smile on her face as she walked up there and started to sing with them. We said our good byes to the Helina and the Reverend (her name is slipping me at the moment) with the excitement for the day we can come back because I know Kris will fall in love with all the people at the site like I did.
When we got back to the hotel and ate lunch Ariyat looked at me and said "la ten ya" which means It's time to go to sleep. She crashed until supper and then we got to spend another night with Brad and Kathleen, who are adopting a sweet little boy, for supper at Antica. I really enjoy our conversations and sharing stories. Nice to have families here that relate to your situation.
I am looking forward to gettin Embassy behind us tomorrow and finding some oil for Ariyat's hair. (forgot to bring) Keep getting comments that say "I need to use oil, her hair is dry". Oops
Ps. Enjoy this photo of my little girl feeling pretty good about her outfit. Love it...
KC
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