Playing Soccer in the middle of nowhere

We had taken a bunch of soccer balls to give away to kids.

Here we stopped along the road to give one to 3 kids that were beside the road. They were so excited and very grateful.

The Gorge

Camels along the road

Portugese Bridge

Portugese Bridge -400 years old
Babboons at the Bridge
The Gorge at the bridge

Leaving Tomorrow to go home

We are doing good. Patrick had been sick again for about half a day...nothing major. We have all been realy good health wise.
We are having a good time. We have been out to the country side for 2 day trips. One on Saterday and one today.
Saterday we went to the Portugese Bridge. A beautiful drive and a beautiful place. There is a gorge there. Today we went to what they keep calling hot springs, but it a pool with clean spring water. It is warm water. It was very nice. We went with a few other people. There was 8 white bodies(really white) in a pool full of Ethiopians. They had quite a show.
The Ethiopians had a great time, it was a school trip and most of them do not know how to swim. So they all stood in the shallow end of the pool.
That was quite a trip for them to go there. They also have an olympic size pool there but it was empty for a cleaning. The water was almost like bath water, so warm.
We also fed the monkeys bananas. They come and take them right out of your hand and eat them.
On the ride there we saw camels and hyenas.
We gave away soccer balls during these trips. Wow...the smile that puts on their faces. Everyone here loves soccer (football). We stopped along the road and got out and started to play with 3 kids. They thought it was great. And then they got to keep the ball. They were so greatful.
We were all wondering what they would tell their parents when they took it home.
We have had some amazing experiences happen here (good things and sad things).
But tomorrow we will try to do one more short trip and then pack and get ready to fly out at 1:20am.
I will post some pictures. I will post some video when Iget home. It does not work from here.
We thank God each day that we are healthy and that we can experience this country.
It has been really great.
We will see you when we get home.

A trip through Marketo Market

This market we were not allowed to walk. We were told it is not safe.

It would take 4 days to walk. A lot of pick-pocketing. If we wanted something our driver would stop and get it. It employes 2.5 million people.

Court

We went to court yesterday. We had disappointing news. We were not approved. We had met a couple from BC and they drove with us and they were also not approved. What happens is MOWA (a women's group who oversees all adoptions and children related things here in Ethiopia) did not sign a Letter of Approval for the adoptions to go through. They are not signing any more Letters of Approval for the next 10 days because they are moving offices. (this is what we were told). So for the next 10 days for sure anyone who travels to Ethiopia to go to court will not be approved. People have not been approved for things like a miss spelling in a name, a stamp not dark enough..etc. So now our next court date is Feb.25, but we do not have to be there because we already saw the judge and she has asked us the questions she needed to. But she is waiting for the Letter of Approval from MOWA. MOWA is really the ones that decide who adopts and who doesn't. We are basically approved, otherwise they would have told us long ago that we could not adopt...now it is all just paper work. So this sets us another 3 weeks further, we can not finish the Citizenship until this is approved. We have found out from many familiues who are here now with us that every story is different. No agency does things the same.

Our real disappointment is that we will not get to see our daugter again during this visit. We will not get to travel to her village.

We did get to see her before court at the orphanage. They take out a few kids and let them play around and you can watch. We were not allowed to go to her or touch her. But the kids are all very friendly and we ended up playing with them and their soccer ball. They right away go the boys. They were all very happy and well looked after. Our daughter sat down beside Patrick on the step and another girl asked Corey to button her little sweater. It was good to see her and the nurse said she was very happy and always smiling and playing. She said she warmed up very easy to the boys at the orphanage so that was good to hear knowing she will come home to 4 big brothers.



It is back to waiting, it will happen just not as fast as we want things too.

But we have remembered that God has been with us during this journey and He will continue to be with us.


So do not worry to much about us, we are having a good time. We are going to make the most of this experience. We are going on a day trip tomorrow with the other couple from BC and a lady and her daughter from BC. Church with them on Sunday, and another day trip on Monday.
We are done touring the city for now ...we saw shacks, nice houses, more shacks, beggers, lots of taxis, and bus taxis. A lot of people all the time walking and going.

This is our view.