Americans = Ipods

The transition house is in desperate need of new furniture so after a quick trip to a couple different stores we found a set we liked, affordable, and comfy enough to be mine and Christy's future beds.

Since my mom had a day planned of boring meetings, Christy and I decided to go shopping on Churchill street. And this experience was incredibly more enjoyable than our shopping encounter in Egypt. We were pleasantly surprised to find that no one grabbed us or attempted to chase us down after leaving their stand. We seemed to find everything we wanted to buy fairly quickly and made our way to a restaurant for lunch (which I'm pretty sure is the first time we've had a real lunch since we've been here).

Then we went back to the office (after our taxi broke down about 10 times on the way there). And there we got to give out the second ipod since we've been here. I'm pretty sure that they're starting to assume that Americans just give out ipods like candy! The secretary, Betty, had never used one before but was excited to see that we brought her one as an appreciation gift for all the hard work she's done. And it once again was such a big hit!

Dinner at the New Flower consisted of leftover pizza from the Hilton yesterday, and ramen. By then it was only 6 PM and we were done for the day and we weren't used to being done so soon! Not wanting to waste the rest of the evening, Christy, my mom, and I walked to Kaldi's coffee for some mocha coffee and fruit drinks. Yum! The night was still young (yet pitch black!!) so we walked around the mall and took pictures from the balcony like the "forenge" we are. A coffee outing still did not kill enough time, so Christy and I sat on the porch with a nice cup of tea and enjoyed the peaceful, perfect weather we had.

We're enjoying our time in Ethiopia very much and absolutely love spending time getting to know the kids better. They've all been a joy and I wish I could tell you all how special each child is. They are the reason that we've been enjoying our time here so much. We are still unsure of our plans from day to day, but as of now we will not be able to visit our orphange in Kamashi (a 14 hour drive west of Addis and close to the Sudan border). But we hope to still find a way as Kamashi is one of my favorite parts of our trip. It's a beautiful yet grueling drive, but the boys at the orphanage are so great that it makes the whole trip worth while.

Thanks for watching the blog!

P.S. We found a spider in our room! It was scary and I didn't like it. Christy and I have found spiders in our room at school but this was bigger and worse. But... I guess I can't complain to much. It's better then the huge rat we found in our room last time I came...

Dancing Babies!

Today was Sunday and we attended Bedside Baptist here in Addis Ababa and celebrated the Sabath the way God origianlly intended. We rested.

Later on we all went to the transition house to video kids and get pictures of them to send to their adoptive families. After a couple hours of videoing one baby after another and taking note of their developmental progress, the older kids finally woke up from their naps and were ready to play! The most fun we had was when we broke out the ipod we bought for the house. We taught the nannies how to use it and were very impressed with themselves and their ability to use it. Christy and I had fun getting the kids to dance to the music we brought. It took them awhile to get warmed up, but after starting out with a few zumba moves they were having just as much fun as we were.

And as a reward for a day of hard work we went to the Hilton for pizza and to use the internet :-)