Deep Breath

Jon went to Injibara and back and, praise God, our water is flowing through the pipes again! He also heard the power is only on occasionally and so we hope to buy a generator to take with us. 

It was an emotional weekend for us, actually, the biggest one yet. I pulled out a photo album of our family and our extended family. The girls looked through it and I thought it would be good, but it made them a BIG sad. It’s so hard to watch them hurting. They know we say our goodbyes to Raquel tonight and it all contributed to lots of tears. Jon and I are so glad they can process things with words but it is also heartbreaking. J is more of an internal processor while A is learning ways to say what she is feeling. I’m crying right now as I remember it. As tears slid down her cheeks, she said, “When I am sad, I just tell myself, ‘It’s okay, we are close, we can just get on a plane and visit people we miss’ but I know it’s not true! We are so far away!” So, we cried together and talked about the privilege our family has of being sent to another land but how this doesn’t take away the real hurt. 

Raquel is a dear woman and has become a close friend to all of us! Oh, we’ll miss her!

All the girlies with Raquel hair.

Ok, this next one kills me. :)

Eliza arrived from Australia on Wednesday. We are so thankful Raquel and Eliza had time to overlap and we praise God for His provision for us. Right now, just keeping the family fed, clothed and stable and a somewhat clean space around has me at full capacity so I don’t quite know how we would be getting along without these young women who have sacrificed to bless us. 

We met Eliza when she landed in Ethiopia and had talked with her on Skype before. Her family is long time supporters with other SIM Ethiopia friends. We are so glad she was willing to come without even knowing us!

She is the second child of seven from a homeschool family and has a natural gift to connect with kids. 

Our girls have finally expressed an interest in learning Amharic and we’ve hired a language helper for them for our few weeks while in Addis Ababa. They are easily embarrassed when they make a mistake and like to give up but we are praying they can get over that feeling and press forward onto language learning! Their teacher could not be more kind. 

And this guy, only days away from his first birthday. I don’t know how that happened. Time is going faster with my second set of babies. Two top teeth are threatening to come in and he has taken his first steps, cruising on everything and crawling around in the evenings, biting anyone’s ankle that’s exposed. It’s hilarious and tickles so much. It seems like he actually knows he is playing a game like he is an animal. He’s imitating words and in general, melting us all with his adorable self.  Thank you for praying for his eye. I took him to a clinic as he was quite miserable and then we walked to a nearby pharmacy for an eye drop. I put him down for a nap with intention to start the drop when he was rested and he woke up chipper with a non-oozy, non-red eye. We are so thankful! 

Another guest at the guesthouse said that Tiger can make money with his eyebrows and it’s true, his expressive eyebrows fit in perfect in Ethiopia. He can raise one at a time and even make them look like zig zags. 

Miss T fell asleep in my arms and woke up with sleep lines that looked like whiskers. Her expression looks like she gets how funny it is. :)  She is a sweetie, lights up when someone smiles at her, is grabbing for everything, wants all food in her mouth (we’ve not started any solids yet) and if the room is quiet, she’s got a lot to say! We are loving see her little personality come through! 

I love these babies!

Praising God for our village, here and all of you, loving and praying from overseas.