Photo Update

When I think I used to blog several times a week, I laugh at how it was possible! Toddlers are napping, J and A are with Jon at the 5 F’s project and the afternoon clouds have rolled in, ready to dump their contents on our mountains. Since pictures are worth 1,000 words, I’ll maximize my window of time.

Tiger loves the rain. It is cold though and we usually don’t let him play in it. 

We haven’t hit our coldest nights and Miss T has started wearing what I would call a snowsuit to bed. She has been sleeping so much better than just a normal footed pj. We call her, “Snow Leopard” and she toddles around, not aware how cute those little ears make her.

And Tiger, he is our ‘SUPER HERO, FLY!” Self-proclaimed when we tie a cape on him.

Our time in the south was great. Meetings were super-productive and encouraging. There aren’t many spots for the kids to play at the guest house where we stay in Addis, especially during rainy season. So this play room was well-loved. This was my attempt at having our four kiddos create a perfect picture with their four heads sticking out. #wishfulthinking

While in Addis, in a sunny and desperate moment, I tried the babies in the stroller out on the street. We couldn’t make it far because of giant holes in the sidewalks, piles of trash and other obstacles but it was so heartwarming watching people have huge and then endeared reactions to our youngest set of twins. Let’ s just say it was a good conversation starter. A large truck even pulled over to smile and the babies and tell them, “Hi”.

I spent the better part of a week, trying to track down immunizations for the babies, especially Miss T as we came when she was 2.5 months and we are in areas where diseases nearly eradicated in the Western world are common here. We praise God for the protection on our kiddos health. We found some that we needed but are awaiting others to be sent from another country. I knew the process wouldn’t be straightforward but was not expecting it to be this bad. Tess in a taxi is also another lose-lose situation. Please pray with us about this. 

We heard rumors a Pizza Hut had opened. one of Addis Ababa’s first chain restaurants. The rumors were true and all six of us were giddy. Aubrey was in Mekelle but Pizza is kind of her thing, so she did eat some leftovers when she joined us again.

On our 9.5 hour trip back to the north, Miss T slept 30 minutes.

Tiger slept about 20 minutes

and the girls…

slept about FOUR HOURS. Ha!

We arrived home to no water and significant power problems. The power company came and fixed touching power lines and then Jon was on his own to fix all the other damage. I was concerned we were going to lose everything in our freezer, but Jon has become a Jack-of-All-Trades and even though he doesn’t consider himself to be an electrician or plumber, after a few days, we had both! We still have some problems but we can life with them until Jon can think of a different solution. Any electricians/plumbers want to visit?

Medical cases have come…a few easy and straightforward but also a new baby, 2 weeks old, in a desperate situation. It’s hard. This is a whole post for another day but the weight of inequality is sitting heavy.

A visit to the local orphanage, the story of a new little one, found two weeks ago, abandoned at the bus station. So much need into which we pray “Jesus”. Lately, my prayers have been mostly the word, “Jesus”as I groan into prayer. 

Thank you for reading along, praying and also for all who commented on the last post. More on this topic formulating in my mind. ;)