A video

We took several videos while we were in Addis. Most of them are of our boys so we can't post them yet, but this is one from the roof of our friend's house. Listen closely to the Orthodox priest on their loud speaker. I have no idea what they chant/sing, but they do at all hours of the day and night. And they are long winded, it's never a short "call to prayer" like the Muslims. These guys go on and on and on!

Church

We have a Newfrontiers church in Addis that we got to visit on Sunday. Waymond gave a little welcome that was interpreted. It was great to meet all the people there. They were even nice enough to sing some simple and repetitive songs during worship so we would sing along.




























This is the entrance into the compound area where the church meets.

Home sweet home

We finally made it home! I can't wait to sleep in my own bed tonight! We left Addis Wednesday at 2:30pm and arrived in Seattle at 12:00pm on Thursday. And that is with gaining eleven hours! We are so so tired. And I hope this post makes sense because I'm feeling really tired.
On the last leg of our trip from Amsterdam to Seattle we were trying to imagine doing this with the boys! I think for our Embassy trip we will fly Ethiopian Air and do their Seattle to Washington DC to Addis flight. The flight from DC to Addis will be long, but I think the less stops with the boys the better (for us all!). We are hoping our Embassy date will be set within 6 weeks but it could be up to 8 or 9. We just wait and get ready to bring the boys home. Now that we've met them we have a better idea of what they will need and what their sizes are.
We have so many great photos and videos of the boys but we were asked to not post them until we've passed court. So as soon as I get the email, I'll be posting them! We had such an amazing time with them and the rest of the kids.
But for now enjoy some of the sites:

This is just outside Addis from the airplane window. The government leases land to people for farming. It looks amazing from the air!














I couldn't resist taking this from the airplane window. This guy was loading bags on our plane and he had wrapped his safety vest around his head to help with the heat and sun. Very cleaver!














This was taken from our bedroom window the morning we left. Beautiful sunrise. We got up early to spend one more morning with our boys.














We did a couple of touristic things with other families there for their court date. These next two are of a couple of old orthodox churches.





























This is near where we stayed for our other three nights. We have some friends who live in Addis and were gracious enough to let us stay with them and their family.














The view from our friends' house. They live in a newer area of Addis.
























































The dust there was crazy!














This is scaffolding on a building that is being built. Everything is concrete and they use eucalyptus trees and nail them together all the way up the outside of the building. It looks very frightening!














The lobby of the hotel we stayed in for three nights. The lobby was fancy and the rooms were nice in Ethiopian standards.














Our room














A little decoration on the outside of the African Union. It was just down the street from our hotel so we walked by to check it out.















The driving in Addis is impressive! It is more or less a free for all, but a little guidance. You get in serious trouble if you hit a pedestrian and giving the right away in a traffic circle are about the only rules I observed! The lines painted on the street are merely a suggestion or decoration. They don't really drive in a lane at all. You just beep your horn if someone is encroaching on your space or if they need to get out of your way.

The food

Not only did we consume much coffee, we consumed much good food at breakfast, lunch & dinner! We did not go hungry!! And now we have to find a favorite Ethiopian restaurant in Seattle.

































The Italians failed at their attempt to colonized Ethiopia, but they left their tasty mark!

Back in Amsterdam

Well we found out that the internet in Addis Ababa is so slow it was impossible for us to pull up our blog let alone to post anything on it! And we can't post any pictures of our boys until all our paperwork gets passed in court. With that said, please enjoy a few pictures of our trip (a few at a time):

We drank lots and lots of tasty coffee including having a traditional coffee ceremony at the Baldwin's house!

A few pics while Leigh naps...

Leigh's lounging in a soft chair at Starbucks in the Amsterdam airport while I (Waymond) went to find a place to plug in the computer to charge. So far we've traveled 5000 miles on a 9 hour flight from Seatac to Amsterdam. The sun just came up...but we feel like we should be going to bed!

















Leigh and her tea at Seatac
















How far we've flown so far.
















Dinner
















Polar ice caps.

Hello Amsterdam

We made it to Amsterdam! 9 hour time difference, currently it is 8:30am. We have a couple hours of lay over and then we board for Addis! I'll try to upload photos later, but we are running low on batteries and cannot get our converter to work! Having a coffee - need a nap!

At the airport

We made it to our gate. Waymond just got coffee. Next stop Amsterdam! Ethiopia here we come!

Getting ready

Our bags are packed (all in the photo plus two boxes of books) and we are pulling out a couple of movies to take with us on our plane ride.

We leave tomorrow (Wednesday) at about noonish and we arrive in Addis Ababa in the evening of Thursday. We do loose eleven hours on the trip due to time zones, but it's still a long long trip!

Thanks for everyone's prayers and for those picking up our mail and staying at our house and generally keeping an eye on things!!

We are going to hit the hay shortly and soak in the comfort of our bed and just generally being in a bed! We've heard good things about the place we are staying in Addis! We can't wait to start our adventure tomorrow! We hear that our hotel in Addis is near an internet cafe so we are hoping to touch base often, but our cell phones won't work there.

Ethiopia and such

Check out the article from the News Tribune, here. Written beautifully by our friend Tom Llewellyn.

By the way our boys got our welcome gift. How cute are they and they are filling out a little more! They have their Tacoma shirts on that we made for them. We get to meet them on Friday!! The count down has begun at our house. And, suit cases and backpacks are being packed, and repacked. And somehow we are trying to metally prepare of a 23 hour trip to Ethiopia on Wednesday! PRAY FOR US!! :o) We have books, magazines, laptops, snacks and each other to keep us busy!

Snow, snow, snow

Well "they" said we would have a colder wetter winter and I guess they've been right. Here are a few shots of our most resent snowfall.

hey hey

Happy New Year everyone! I unexpectedly have most of the evening free so I'm trying my first Ethiopian recipe, Niter Kibbeh. It's more or less flavored clarified butter. Ethiopians use this butter in cooking other dishes. I'm going to try to cook Doro Wat later this week, so I need the butter for that recipe.

So right now I have butter, onions, ginger, garlic, and many other spices simmering on my stove. In about an hour I'll strain out all the chucks and viola... Niter Kibbeh.



I'm so excited!! I'm well on my way!! I'm not sure if I'm ever going to be confident that I'll ever be able to make Ethiopian bread, injera.

Waymond just realized the other day that our boys will already like spicy and super flavorful food and he was super excited! They are already like their dad! :o)





Finished product. I'm not sure how close to the real deal it is, but I'll give it a go in the recipe.