The Good, the Bad, and the Downright Nasty….

A post from Wes (from January 30)….

Tomorrow starts a one-week countdown to our court ruling, well to see if MOWA (Ministry of Women’s Affairs) has put positive comments on our case. We will have at least another 7 or 8 days of being 3-hour parents. So I ask that our blogging community be in prayer for us as we Hold Fast to His promise this week. He has brought us here; we are following the Our Shepherd as He orders our steps.

Today we got the chance to bless a couple, Steve and Amanda Bishop, with taking video and photos of their Meetcha Day. It was a very rough start to our morning, as our driver was a bit late. Dinknesh, the Illien liaison, had told us it was better to be early and we ended up being 30 minutes late. But…everyone else was a little late. The meeting didn’t’ start till 10:00am and we all met up and were all right on schedule.

Tsion orphanage has a lot of older kids and was located in a part of Addis that we had not been before. It may seem weird but it was much hotter there than on Bole or at our Enat Alem orphanage. When we arrived we were ushered in to the Director’s office, he wanted to make sure which family was meeting their children today…I guess our video camera and our Canon 5D camera were a bit confusing to him. After they sorted out the details that Amanda and Steve were the parents-to-be, we went to the front porch.

They ushered all the children out on the porch and lined them up. Now, I am not a professional videographer but I was making do with our small Canon HD handheld. The problem was I didn’t know which of the children was supposed to be the Bishop additions. Then I see two children break away and hug Steve and Amanda and I got my shot. It was something great to see in person and I hope it translates to the HD recording. I have no doubt that Nina got great shots, shots that the Bishops will have to relive this day for many years to come. There is nothing that can take the place of images of meeting your children for the first time.

We stayed with the Bishops for the next 3 hours to capture all that we could, so that no special moment would be forgotten. It was a 3-hours flurry of gifts, IPhone home-movies, photo albums, and broken English and even more broken Amharic (on our part, both the Bishops and the Mullins…we tried, as we got out our translation books and went to work. They loved us trying, and we got lots of laughs from the Children and Nannies). In a weird perchance, Steve actually got in to a conversation with one of the older boys who knew a little Spanish. An American from Utah, visiting Ethiopia, conversing in Spanish is just bizarre…but hey what ever works, right?! It was really cool just to see Steve and Amanda just loving on all the children, they seemed right at home. Steve had a group around him in a circle and Amanda had a circle around her. We were so happy just to be a part of it.

We ended the day in the courtyard kicking around a soccer ball; it was a nice way to wrap up our time. Oh, and I showed one of the older boys how to dribble a soccer ball like a basketball…I turn every ball into a basketball, it is the greatest sport ever invented!

Then we had lunch at Lime Tree, which is an awesome place to get good Pizza and a Good Cheeseburger. Also they give part of their earnings to help feed children, so it is a good meal and a good cause! After that we went to see our little ones at Enat Alem.

It was weird seeing them so late in the day, at 3:00pm instead of 10:00am. Alex and Eliana were a little crunchy (your welcome Brandon and Lisa) today. They were so tired and so fussy. After a few minutes Desta, one of Alex and Eliana’s favorite Nannies, fixed some Rice Cereal. Alex flat tore it up. I mean I was shoveling it in and he was slurping it down. It probably took about 3 minutes for him to eat his portion. Then Desta took some of Eliana’s (she is having trouble eating it, she needs really small bites) and after that fixed him some more. It was like the Rice Cereal Monster.

But we have BREAKING NEWS!! Alex is getting his two top teeth…and Eliana is getting her FIRST!!! So the Crunchy-ness and fussing was probably due to teething.

The cutest thing that happened is that Alex cried to come to me today, a few times, the bad news is one of those times Nina was holding him. He is definitely a Daddy’s boy.

The other News is that Both Alex and Eliana had really bad Duces today! That is they went number 2, well it was more like 1 ¾! It was so funny!! Eliana was sleeping and we had laid Alex down to try and get him to shut his eyes, so we gave him a bottle. Then I hear the “Glurrr, spurrrrrtt, Glurrrr, ppbblt…” and it went one for a while. It was a guaranteed gross-out diaper change. Then as if in harmony Eliana wakes up and I hear the same noises coming from her bed. Alex was pretty bad, but Eliana was down right epic!!! It was so bad she needed a bath!! Ahh, sharing poop stories over the Internet; I really feel like a true parent.

We ended that night with some Ramen Noodle and Pepsi! And yes I did eat another Snicker’s bar…what am I supposed to do? They are sitting right on the shelf in plain sight. I would like for everyone to know that I did last almost 2 weeks before I ate the first one.

Tomorrow we are going hiking and then in the afternoon, going to punch the clock at Enat Alem, for our 3-hour shift. One more week! ONE MORE WEEK!

Wesley Out!

The children all got bracelets and little geckos made by
Steve & Amanda's children in the U.S. They loved them!

Apparently, some puppy pets do exist! This one was at the orphanage. Although this cute pup's poor mother was left chained up, growling at passers-by.

I followed one of these rules. Can you guess which one?

This boy and his brother really wanted us to come back the next day (they are so sweet! And they need a family!). They loved playing ball with Wes. Most Ethiopians aren't too familiar with basketball. Wes will use any kind of ball to teach the game.  :)