Ethiopia Day 3

Our mornings in Ethiopia were wonderful!

By Day 3 our bodies were a step closer to accepting the time change and we had been able to sleep through the night and get up at a reasonable hour.

Each morning we woke to religious chants heard over the city loud speaker.  

By the time we were up, showered and ready to go down stairs to the dining room for breakfast -

there were children walking down the alley outside of our guest house going to school.

Every school through out the city had their specific color of uniform.

The Ethiopian's take schooling very seriously, as they know education will bring them out of poverty.

Unfortunately, not every child goes to school.

So as some went to school there were also some boys in the alley with their shoe shining supplies looking for a customer.

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Every morning seemed to be even more exciting -

'cause we knew we would see our kids!

Our adoption agency had an itinerary that they gave us before we left - but we had to laugh -

let's just say, we were on

"Ethiopia time"

and Ethiopia times seems to be quite laid back!

"An hour" can mean anything from 2-4 hours.

We were very thankful for this free spirit because our 

2 hour scheduled time with our boys 

turned into 4-6 hours!

We are so thankful for that wonderful time to bond 

with our kids and to love on the others 

who are waiting for their parents,

and especially to love on those who still 

have no parents to call their own.

(There are 6 at the Care Center - this will be another post)

 

The Care Center staff allowed our boys to stay out of nap time to be with us - 

this quiet time was so precious!

When all the kids are out we hated to ignore anyone, 

but we really needed this special quiet time, 

so we could get hugs like this...

and smiles like this...

We also were able to see the kids in their school classroom.

They have 3 hours of school a day,

and are learning English.

Donovan was in the older classroom, 

he knows his ABC's and how to count to 10.

Both Donovan and Elijah love to look at picture books 

and tell what animals they see.

They were so proud of their English that we were unable to get them to teach us any Amheric.

Donovan loves to color and draw.  He loves markers.

Elijah does a great job too - 

he loves using a pen,

a red pen makes him very happy.

Donovan loved seeing our little photo album of some previous photos of him, Elijah and their friends.

Our evenings always a bit bittersweet.

We were thankful for the time with our kids, 

but we were exhausted - 

a very emotional exhausted.

We new we would wake up the next morning 

ready to see our boys again,

but we also knew that meant we were another day closer to having to say 'good-bye'.

And Tuesday night was not very restful, 

as Wednesday morning was our Court Appointment!

Praying they have our MOWA letter!