1 month ago we arrived home!

Okay, so this post is a little late:-)  But I just wanted to say 1 month ago on Friday (the 21st) we arrived at JFK.  Sick (me), tired EXHAUSTED (me), giddy with excitement (B), overwhelmed with happiness to be together again (Ababa)...home!

 

B enjoying his 5 hour layover in Frankfurt while I laid across three chairs, burning up with a 103 degree fever and trying very hard not to vomit or fall asleep (either of which would have left my 2 year old roaming on his own through the airport).  He loved the layover...and the flights...and customs...and the wait for Ababa who was stuck in traffic jam from an accident...and the car ride home...me, not so much:-).  I am so glad to be home!

It feels like an eternity since we got back.  In New York City it feels like you are living 3 lives at once, at least that's how it feels for me.  I work full-time at a very intense (unnecessarily so) fast-paced company, am a full-time hands-on mom in the morning and at night--bottle, breakfast, dinner, bath, stories, snuggles, etc., and am gearing up to start my MBA program again in January, and navigating the health insurance/readoption/name change insanity that greets newly adoptive parents when they arrive in the U.S.  I surf the web with three windows open at the same time, skimming back and forth from page to page, talk on the phone while typing, while sorting through/reading papers on my desk.

In Ethiopia it was me and B, and for the first two months Ababa.  We got up, snuggled, had a bottle, ate oatmeal, played and read stories, snuggled some more, walked to a restaurant for lunch, read more stories, had more snuggles, napped together, walked to a restaurant for dinner, read more stories, had more snuggles, took a bath, went to bed together...rinse and repeat...for three months.  Occasionally we would take a cab or minibus somewhere, have an activity like going to the Lion Zoo or Entoto Mountain or a market, or a day trip further afield to Bethel Womens Center, Desta Mender, or Debre Zeit, but almost every day we were just chilling at the Weygoss, usually cocooned in our room.  We met some awesome people and I am grateful to have been able to stay in Addis for so long, but it was long, and hard, and boring, and stressful b/c we had no idea when we would get home and couldn't plan any trips as everyday there was something that "might happen" that kept us in Addis; however, life in NYC was kind of a shock after those three months in Addis with our much slower 24/7 together lifestyle.

Honestly, it feels like we have been home way longer than we were in Ethiopia, even though we were in Ethiopia for 3 long months.  In fact, Ethiopia is quickly fading from my present thoughts.  Although in some ways it is easier this way, I don't want to forget.  In fact, I want to learn more.  I want my eyes to be opened to the beauty and suffering and reality of life in Africa, and to pray for healing; restoration; practical, sustainable solutions for economic and social issues, and above all for transformation of people's hearts and souls.

I have no idea what that looks like or how I am supposed to be part of it.  For now, we are sponsoring a beautiful little girl in Ethiopia and a gorgeous little baby in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the atrocities that have happened there/are happening there that are rarely, if ever, mentioned in the US mainstream media are horrifying)!  We believe that the organizations we are sponsoring these children through are operating ethically; are fiscally responsible; and are working for effective, culturally informed and sensitive solutions to big problems.  But sponsoring 2 children is not where we feel this ends for us.

Although my immediate thoughts are no longer in Ethiopia all the time, I will never be the same as I was before I went.  I saw suffering, poverty, strength, and hope in orders of magnitude that I never thought possible.  I see depths of loss, and confusion, and love, and strength in my son's eyes that I didn't know were possible.  And I know that as small as I try to make Him, my God is so much bigger than I could possibly imagine.

He loves the old women who carry unimaginably heavy loads of wood down Entoto Mountain, and the legless beggars crawling on their hands on Bole Road, and the leprous weaver with no hands at ALERT, and the teenage street kid huffing glue in Meskel Square, and the man who pees openly in the water cistern on the side of a busy road, and the widow with three young children who silently sits on the rocky side of the road and holds out her hands....He loves them all, he knows their thoughts, their hopes and dreams, their pain, their hurts...just as much as he knows mine...just as much as he knows the "richest" king or the most "powerful" investment banker/corporate chairman/politician.  That is the deepest and most important thing that Ethiopia taught me.  We all have the same value in God's eyes.  We are all made in His image.  No amount of money, or power, or social status, or good health can change that...how amazing, and humbling, and mindboggling is that?!?!?  All this stuff that we spent 24/7 chasing (money, power, success, health...), doesn't really matter at all.  In the long-run, it does not increase our value in God's eyes one tiny bit, and all these things that we find truly horrifying (poverty, sickness, weakness, powerlessness...), they don't devalue us one iota in God's eyes.  How is that possible?  I don't know, and I don't understand, and it stretches my mind, but I do believe that is true!

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. I John 3:1-2

I don't know where our lives will go next or what the future holds for our family.  But I know that God has an amazing plan for our lives, a plan to use us in some tiny way in his amazing plan of redemption.  For now, we are in NYC.  This is where we believe we are supposed to be...for now...This is the family we are meant to have...for now...and we are trying to trust that God will lead us where he wants us.

Who knows what another month could bring...or a year...or five years...or fifty years...

Truthfully, despite this long-winded post, right now, I am just happy that I got some pictures from our trip into an album:-)  Although we only took photos on our crappy cell phones (and downloaded some from our awesome friend L who is a good mom and actually brought a CAMERA on her extended stay in Ethiopia, imagine that:-), I put together an album last night on mypublisher.  I can't wait for it to get here.  It captures most of our highlights from the trip.  I wish I had taken better pictures, that my giggly, adorable son, didn't plaster a look that would put an undertaker to shame on his face when he hears a camera shutter click (while proudly and earnestly saying "Mommy, I smile"), and that I had included some pictures of souvenirs/crafts/markets, and that I had taken pics of the Mercado and the Weavers Market and the awesome, giant fruit stand on the way to church and at the NGO bazar...etc.  But you know what, mostly I am just glad that I put the photos in an album and that we have it for B and for our family:-)  

Money in Addis

Practical Travel Info: Money in Addis

It is quite easy to get money in Addis, but like everything else, there are some quirksJ

We have a Mastercard debit card and our bank does not issue Visa debit cards, so we knew that we were limited to only using Dashen Bank in Addis.  If you have a Visa debit then you have more options.  Fortunately, there are two Dashen Bank ATMs and an actual Dashen branch in the Getu building right up the street from the Weygoss.  Unfortunately, there are usually lines as everyone in Addis seems to prefer Dashen ATMs--they can be used with Mastercard or Visa, you don’t have to have a Dashen account to use them (you have to have an account with many of the banks in Addis in order to use their ATM machines), and they don’t charge extra fees.  More unfortunately, the ATM computer network has issues and individual machines frequently break-down or are out of service, so there is a pretty high likelihood (I’d say about 40%) that the ATM won’t be working.  The Dashen ATM on the outside of Getu seems to work better than the one on the inside of Getu.  There are several more Dashen ATMs around Addis, including at the Hilton and the Sheraton. ATMs dispense 100 birr bills.

We tried not to let our birr completely run down, but sometimes it did.  We brought about $400 US in $20 bills as our emergency stash for the 9+ weeks we were in Addis and are so glad we did!  You can change money at most banks, the Hilton, and occasionally in very small amounts at the Weygoss front desk in a pinch—we had to do this several times!

With the exception of our guesthouse bill, we operated on a cash-only basis in Addis.

Laundry at the Weygoss is quite expensive but was the best price we could find.  It was exponentially higher at the various laundry/dry cleaners we visited in person.  Having one week’s worth of clothes washed (keep in mind we wore everything at least twice and often more and B was pretty neat and had no intestinal issues or accidentsJ) was about 400 Birr.

We budgeted $170/week for food, water, laundry, and internet as well as $50/week for transportation and $25/week for souvenirs.  Our estimates were pretty accurate. We under spent on drivers and over spent on souvenirs it was basically a wash in the end J

***Be careful walking around with large sums of money (US or Birr) as pickpockets are rampant. Especially watch for the kids with boxes (of gum, tissues, whatever) they will use that as a ruse to pick your pocket.  We were never pick pocketed, but we often surprised kids by pulling their hands out of our pockets.  Many of our fellow guests who were not quite so street smart/observant were pickpocketed.  We kept our USD in a belt we bought for Ababa (looks like a regular leather belt, but has an interior zipper where you can put folded money) and in my wallet which was inside our diaper bag which was inside our backpack which had the zippers locked with a small combination lock***

Guess who leaves in 5 days?!?!?!?!

Our shots are done, only two more oral typhoid vaccine tablets to take, bags are packed (full of donations of formula, diapers--cloth and disposable, and shoes), hopefully our visas will be processed this week, and we are racing to finish our big projects (me--work and school, Ababa--the kitchen and various other projects around the apartment).  We had a wonderful "toddler shower" on Saturday and enjoyed spending time with our friends and B's future BFFs:-)  We had our official travel call with our agency this morning, and we can't believe the time is almost here!

I leave Saturday and Ababa next Tuesday (don't get any ideas about breaking into our place as we have someone staying there while we are gone, and our friends will be keeping an eye on it as well:-)

Please pray that B's aunt's court date goes smoothly tomorrow and that she has peace about her decision, that our MOWA letter is written before we travel for court, and that our travel and court date goes smoothly.  Most of all, please pray for B (and for us) that our hearts are open and we can begin this journey of becoming a family!

Human pin cushions:-)

We got our travel vaccines today, including yellow fever, polio booster, and typhoid (oral vaccine), plus a tentanus booster and a Hep A shot for me.  Feeling kind of yucky, but trying to power through!

One week from tomorrow is my last day in the office until the end of September.

I have no idea how we are going to get everything done at work, home, and school before then, but somehow it will work out.

A huge thank-you in advance to all our friends and family who are helping whether through watching woosha while we're gone, being so kind to throw us a "toddler shower" to celebrate, being patient when I am stuck at work until all hours of the night instead of keeping to our original plans, etc. THANKYOU!