Paperwork Completed

This morning I removed the twisted braids from her hair and proceeded to comb it out. It was not as difficult as I thought it might be. I put some moisturizing lotion in her hair afterwards to define the many curls and let her wear it natural with a cute headband. I think we are making progress!

After an early breakfast, Abebe picked us up and we headed to the Thomas Center. We got on the van and joined another couple who were on their way to meet their 10 year old son. They had adopted his 2 siblings 6 months ago and found out there was a third child waiting to be adopted so they were coming to bring him home. We had met the young boy last week while visiting Sifan. He is so precious and loving. He was so very excited to be joining his family and they were equally excited to be bringing him home. We snapped a picture for them of the moment they greeted him. While they were enjoying time with him, Abebe helped us on the computer with trying to send out pics for you to enjoy! Abebe is amazingly helpful and always trying to accommodate. When asked for something, he always responds with “no problem, nothing is impossible” This is just the kind of man you want doing all the leg work to get these precious babies home. And he is ALWAYS at work. When asked if he would like to go to America one day, he responded, no, not yet anyway, I have too much to do here in Ethiopia for the children. He is so compassionate and goes the extra mile all the time. YWAM is blessed to have him as their representative here in Ethiopia. And we are blessed to have spent time getting to know him these 2 weeks.

Next we traveled to the CHI offices where we would complete our paperwork for the adoption including the necessary papers to present to the US Embassy tomorrow. These were completed without a hitch and then we returned to the guest house. It was not quite lunchtime, so we decided we had time to take a stroll down to the local market where we purchased a coffee table for our Ethiopian coffee ceremony at home. Hmmm…Battle is still trying to figure out how we are going to get it home…I agree with Abebe…nothing is impossible! J

We returned from the market and watched Sifan chow down on some rice with Zuchinni and spinach. I had a tuna sandwich and Battle had French fries they prepared here in the kitchen. They are a little crunchy but quite tasty!

After lunch I got Sifan down for a nap. She fussed a little today, only about 10 minutes ,before falling asleep and then sleeping for close to 3 hours. We napped and read a little while she slept. When she woke up, she was happy and playful. We played on the bed for a long time. She especially liked playing with a balloon. When she accidently popped one, it startled her at first , but then she thought it was funny and was not scared.

Battle walked down the street and found a place to rent what look to be boot leg copies of American movies. We thought it would be fun to share our American tradition of a movie night with Tsebay and some of her family members. We asked if we could pop some pop corn for the occasion and then we all sat down with our lap top and watched The Princess And The Frog. Our Ethiopian princess got to see her first Disney movie right here in Ethiopia. We had to help explain what was going on throughout the movie but I think everyone really enjoyed it! Tsebay was amazed that Sifan sat through the movie at her age. I must say I was too. She sat for most of the movie watching intently without moving a muscle. She also enjoyed her first taste of pop corn and I think she will be having more. It made for a fun evening!

After the movie we came upstairs and gave her a bath and pajamas. She took a whole bottle and went right down. She is sleeping soundly as I type. It is Monday night here in Ethiopia. In just 72 hours we will be preparing to board the plane for home. Now that I have my girl and have explored her country and met many of the people, I am ready . My heart is now longing for home.

With great love from across the ocean!