What's Next?

Recently we got an e-mail along these lines from a friend. “So, umm…what’s the plan now? I seem to have lost track.” When we originally came to Ethiopia, our plan wasn’t to be in Addis for nine months. Here’s the brief update along with some vacation pictures. Zanzibar shots may drag on a bit, I have whittled it down, just not well. :) 

 We hope to finish our language study in Addis near the end of May. We will take about a week to pack up here and then go North, to Mekele, for about one week for a team meeting. The team meeting is only a few days but we will have to spend two days driving there and two days in return. We hope to spend at least one day before the meeting locating the girls’ birth father. We may do two visits. We would really like to take the girls to our first meeting but also want to make sure it will be a safe environment, so Lordwilling, on the second day, we could return with the Littles. Back to Addis Ababa as we get our groceries for the summer (until the next time we come back to Addis). This is a big job involving many stores and souks to find what we want. 

We will hire a flat bed Isuzu to drive up with us as we will order furniture here and also appliances. We were able to buy a large portion of used furniture from German man who needed to leave the country in one week and sell all of his things. We will soon be finding a carpenter to make our beds. This will all make the journey north with us. 

Once we are living in Injibara, we will probably return to Addis four times a year. There are many reasons why this  number could be higher. At this point, we know we need to return in August for a homeschool training I can attend. We will see how this all shakes out once we live in the north. Jon and I are anxious to move forward in the reason why we came. Our Amharic has a long way to go but just because we move, does not mean our language training is done. It will be a continual pursuit, as we prayerfully stay motivated!

Feel free to send us any questions you have, we would love to answer them. 

Catching a sunset

Shells, shells and more shells. Because of the tides and the lack of beachcombers, intricate rare shells were everywhere, even conch shells. Because I did not want a shell collection to haul around, we took a picture of it and let the girls take a favorite shell. If they know you, they probably picked up a shell for you. I take full responsibility you didn’t get one mailed to you. 

Low tide left an ocean floor ripe for exploration. We mainly saw sea urchins and jelly fish. I was also stung by jelly fish so was a bit more hesitant to explore. Around noon, we could walk hundreds of feet into the ocean and maybe about one kilometer out, there was an exposed sandbar. Jada and I were walking to it one day and had almost arrived and in the crystal clear water, I saw we had walked into a family of jellyfish. I scooped her up made a beeline for the shore! 

Little A keeps a good distance to point to a sea urchin.

Jon invented a game where they ran from the pool to the ocean yelling, “FREEDOM!” I am unclear of the objective but I was supposed to chase them. People poolside weren’t sure whether to be amused or annoyed at the three wet bodies streaking past, making a run for the ocean. 

After a few minutes in the ocean, they ran to land and would dramatically grab the sand like they had been stranded. 

And these girlies, they learned to swim. Not just a little bit but running wild leaps into the deep end. 

 I didn’t know if I would ever see the day.