Court trip post #2

Monday, June 13th is a day we will always remember.  It was a lot like the other three days I gave birth.  We began the day with breakfast at the Jemimah House.  We had fried eggs, the yolk was white!  Otherwise, everything was completely like here.  We got ready to leave for Wolayta, which was scheduled for 10:30AM.  We left at 11:30AM.  :)  We got very familiar with "Ethiopia time."  We got to know the other couple traveling south with us.  Their daughter was in the same care center as ours.  We traveled with a Holt social worker, a driver, and the four of us.  The van was very nice (a Toyota, Jessica!) and our driver VERY skilled.  The road was paved the entire way, but filled with people, animals (cows, donkeys, goat/sheep), and other vehicles.  Our driver did an amazing job navigating all the hazards at high speed.

We stopped twice, and sat down both times.  Once for Cokes, and once for lunch.  We were beyond anxious to get there, but we quickly learned this is not a drive through culture.  :)  Our social worker filled us in on all the crops (it was planting time), and what people were doing, where they were going, where we were.  We were restrained and only asked twice, "are we there yet?"

 The beautiful countryside, and tukuls (round houses).

 Our lunch stop and our first taste of Ethiopian food.  Beef tibs and Injera, delicious!

 The van and our driver and social worker.    

Sodo

The walk up the hill.

The gate of the Wolayta care center.

The courtyard, trying to get the mud off our shoes.  Our daughters are here!!

Our girls sleep in the orange bed together.

Finally in Sodo!!  The town where are girls are!!  It had been raining all day and was really muddy.  Our driver and social worker were talking for some time.  We finally discovered they were concerned because the van couldn't drive all the way to the care center because of the mud.  We all pretty much screamed, we will walk, we don't care how far!!  Thankfully, it wasn't far in the mud.  We all made it up the hill, laughing.  The children were also laughing at all the funny white people.  :)  We made it to the gate, and were let in.  At this point, I'm in the last stages of labor, and so much adrenaline, I hardly remember walking in.  :)  I know that we changed shoes, saw E through the window, she was so excited.  Mark went in first, E ran to him and kissed him.  We didn't recognize F without braids in her hair.  I felt so bad.  E is so outgoing, funny, and reminds us a lot of Callie at her age.  F was very reserved at first, but warmed up at the end.  She let us both hold her and snuggled in.  It was so wonderful to spend time with them.  We gave them gifts.  They LOVED the family books I made with their pictures on the front cover.  The punching balls and stretchy bands were also big hits.  The barbies, not so much.  We traced their feet and hands, loved them, held them, played with them...  And all too soon, our time was up.  It felt like 5 minutes, even though it was 2 hours.  We both felt so good about their health, their caregivers, everything about them was perfect.  We officially felt like the parents of 5.

Court trip post #1

I know, I know...  We've been home for weeks.  I've been slacking!

Here goes...

We left June 11th on the 6pm flight out of Des Moines.  We weren't able to check in online for some reason and when we arrived at the airport they had no seats for us.  Ummm, we're going to Africa?!  The flight was oversold.  We literally got the last two seats 5 minutes before boarding.  Sigh of relief!  Mark made me laugh by telling the lady, "we don't care if the seats aren't together.  We'll be together for over 24 hours on a plane anyway!"  We made it to Chicago and to the international terminal.  Through security again after a stop for some pizza.  Then we met the first of the families going to court with us.  They were so sweet and we swapped stories for a bit before loading up on the all turquoise flight for Istanbul.  Most of my memories of that flight were of how they feed you constantly and how they kept turning all the lights on!  It was the middle of the night for us, but daytime in Turkey.  Mark spent his time watching movies (mostly Harry Potter) and I mostly slept.  :)

We arrived in Turkey just in time to walk to our next gate, take a bathroom break, and go through security yet again.  Our next flight was a mere 5 1/2 hours, which seemed short after the 11 hour previous.  We got to Addis around 1AM local time.  We were wired, and not at all tired.  We went through the crazy visa process.  (Here's your $20 US, thanks for the sticker).  And then headed through customs.  We collected all of our luggage and met the driver for the Jemimah House.  The first memory of Ethiopia was "I can't believe we are here, and it was cold!"  The ride to the hotel was about 5 minutes, we checked in and went straight to our room.  It was quite nice.  It was now 2AM and we were not tired!  I read until my Kindle had no battery and then closed my eyes for a few minutes.  The next day was our trip south and meeting our girls!  You all know how well excitement and sleep mix?!

Our room in Jemimah House

The Jemimah House

Happy Birthday E!

Meeting E!

Our precious daughter, E, turned 6 on July 4th.  Sadly, we had to celebrate without her.  I can't wait for her to be here next year.  We love you, E.  And we can't wait to celebrate your birthday when we get you home!

Fear and our God

We had a great long weekend together.  Our son, Carson, broke down some major fear barriers.  It was so fun to watch him blossom.  He's our worrier.  He worries about swimming, when he hasn't done it for awhile.  He worries about tubing behind the boat.  He worries about jumping off the dock.  We had tried all summer to convince him to do these things.  We've tried bribery, friends have tried peer pressure, as has his sister...  To no avail.  Until, I had a duh moment this weekend.  He again had said he would tube and when the time came around...  He was crying, worried, scared.  He wanted to back out.  I asked him to pray with me.  I prayed that God would give him a spirit of courage.  That he would not be anxious but through prayer he could ask God to answer his prayers.  We agreed together in prayer.  And guess what?!  Our BIG God, who cares so much for our little requests, came through BIG TIME!!  I've never seen such a transformation in our Carson.  He went from a worrier, crying, scared, to tubing multiple times, once alone!!  He jumped off the dock!!  He went down the slide at the pool by himself and swam to the side.  And then jumped off the diving board by himself and got to the side.  Praise God!  So amazing for our little 6 year old to see God work in his life in one weekend in such a big way.

Amazing tool!

If you're like me, you have tons of digital pictures saved on your computer.  Once in awhile you print and then wonder...  "When will I ever have time to do anything with these pictures?"  Recently, I've become more aware of photo sharing via video.  LOVE this for events, adoption stories, gifts etc.  I'm definitely not talented enough...  But AHA, in steps a friend I grew up with and he's super talented. 

He takes your/my pics and voila!  Something beautiful.  You chose the music and send him the pictures.  He has recently started his own business.  I wanted you guys to see his work, and his beautiful fam.  They are the proud parents of three girlies, and one is from Ethiopia!  And, oh by the way...  don't you think his wife could be a model?!  Love the pictures of her in the Ethiopia video.  

Ethiopia Slideshow from Jesse Larvick on Vimeo.

He can also do videos for graduations, memorials, or a year in the life.  Really, the sky is the limit!  So, give his new business a look.  I know you won't be disappointed.  This describes it all, by the artist himself. 

Vada Harvey Tribute from Jesse Larvick on Vimeo.

We're home!

We returned home from our court trip last Thursday.  And I'm just now feeling like writing about it.  Amazing trip, yes.  Difficult to put into words, yes.  A little hard to talk about because it makes me sad, yes!  I didn't expect that.  I knew it would be hard to leave them, but didn't anticipate the sadness the trip home would cause.  I was so ready to hug the other 3 kiddos.  I was so grateful to my parents for keeping them so that we really didn't worry about them a bit.  But, I wasn't ready to not want to share details and talk about the precious time with our girls, and their beautiful home country.


I've shared stories and pictures now with a few people including my sister-in-law who might as well be my big sister for my whole life.  She was so sweet to put my sadness into words...  "Erin, of course you're sad.  It's like you had a baby and had to leave it at the hospital."  Perfect analogy, really perfect.  That's exactly how I feel.  It felt strange to me to miss them soo much when we were together for just 2 hours.  But I do.  Heartache...  I want to be with them.

I will be posting my trip journal soon.  We were so, so busy the whole time we were there.  And our travel group?  Really, there couldn't be a cooler group of people.  We loved them all.

Court trip!!!

Mark and Erin’s trip to Ethiopia

This is our very brief trip schedule.  Please pray for us while we are gone!

1.       Leave from Des Moines 6:10pm on Saturday, June 11th to Chicago O’Hare.  Leave from Chicago to Istanbul, Turkey at 10:30pm (11 hour flight) and arrive at 5:05pm Sunday, June 12th.  Leave from Istanbul to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at 6:50pm and arrive in Ethiopia finally at 12:15am Monday June 13^th!!  Ethiopia is 8 hours ahead of us.

2.       Pray for a few hours of restful sleep before we get up early to drive south.  We will drive 6-6 ½ hours to Woyalita, Ethiopia.  This is where the girls are in an orphanage.  We will spend about 2 hours with them.  Pray for God to supernaturally extend this time, for us to connect, and for our departure as we leave them behind.

3.       We will then drive another 2 hours for Lewi, Ethiopia where we will be staying the night.  Pray for protection for us from mosquitoes that carry malaria.  We will be taking precautionary medication and will likely use a mosquito net this night.  Malaria is only an issue in the south not in the capital city.

4.       Tuesday we will drive back to Addis Ababa.  Pray for protection on the roads as we share it with many walking people and animals.

5.       Tuesday afternoon will likely be sightseeing and shopping. 

6.       Wednesday we will meet with our Ethiopian lawyer and our big court date.  Pray that all the paperwork is in order and we will hear the words, “they are yours!”  We are pretty prepared that this will not happen, as the last court groups have been missing one important piece of paper.  The ministry of women and children in Ethiopia has to sign off on all adoptions.  As of late they have been under intense scrutiny by outside sources due to unethical adoptions.  Thus, the process has become much slower.  But….  We believe in the power of God and believe it will all happen in His perfect timing!

7.       Wednesday afternoon will likely be more sightseeing/shopping until we head back to the airport to leave at 1:15am Thursday, June 16^th!

8.       We then arrive in Istanbul at 6:40am, then on to Chicago leaving at 11:20 am and arriving at 3:15pm.  We will be back in Des Moines at 7:20pm on Thursday. :) Whirlwind!!!  

      Please pray for the kids as they stay home with my parents while we are gone.  Pray for a fun week for them, safety, and good sleep for all.