Come On Over

OK. Not sure if Randy will find time to write the rest of his memories down or not. So this may be it for this blog. Please come on over and join us on our 'family' blog. The link is on the right hand side of your screen. This blog was really meant for adoption 'stuffs'. Now that we are all home, we are concentrating on becoming a family. Lots of joy and happiness, so be sure the check in from time to time. If you should have questions on adoption, please leave me a comment. I LOVE talking to others about adoption. I think it is a wonderful way to build your family.

Coffee Ceremony

The Coffee Ceremony began with a lady in traditional Ethiopian dress preparing an urn of Frankincense and lighting it on fire so that it would smolder and release a rich, but not overwhelming fragrant scent. We were told that Frankincense, which comes from the bark of the Boswellia tree, only occurs naturally in Ethiopia. It is for this reason that Ethiopians believe that the wise man, who brought Frankincense to the birth of Jesus, was from Ethiopia. The lady then built a little fire that would be used to roast the coffee beans. The roasting took quite awhile, but when the beans got close to being complete she called everyone over to smell the wonderful aroma. During this time popcorn was also made and passed around. Popcorn is quite a treat in Ethiopia. All the while the coffee was being prepared all the families had a great opportunity to talk and get to know one another. Ryan explained to us that the real heart of a coffee ceremony was the chance to get people together to talk. I have to say that it worked out very well.

Finally the coffee beans were completed roasting and the lady then ground them up by hand. She then put the ground coffee beans into what looked like a cast iron pitcher filled with water and placed it over the fire to brew. I wish that I had watched this part a little more closely, because the coffee was very good and I’m now finding it very hard to believe it was made with just a cast iron pitcher. Finally once the coffee had brewed she gave each person a small cup. We were told that it was considered impolite to drink less than three cups. I can definitely see why coffee ceremonies are so popular in Ethiopia. It gives people a wonderful reason to get together to and enjoy great company and great coffee.

Wednesday of the Trip (part 1)

Wednesday would turn out to be a very busy day. It was also on this day that Mesfin helped me in a tremendous way solve a problem that I hear Mommies deal with all the time. Namely, what to do with the kids when you’re trying to take a shower and get ready in the morning. It turned out that Mesfin’s is a very food motivated young man, so much so that all you have to do is put a bottle within arm’s reach and he’ll grab and start drinking away. So I laid out a blanket in the bathroom and made him a bottle which luckily kept him happily occupied for the duration of a shower and getting dressed each morning, which was very nice. After getting ready we would go upstairs for breakfast each morning. The food was very good, at least the part I got to eat that Mesfin didn’t.

Our first activity of the day was to go to one of the Gladney Foster Care houses for a traditional Coffee Ceremony. It was here we got meet the other families adopting through Gladney. There was Peggy, Chris, Jess, Wendy, McKay, Stephanie and of course Mike and Amy who rode over with me from the Bejoe house. Also while we were here we got to meet some of Mesfin’s caregivers and nannies, who as soon as they saw him, whisked him away and promptly dressed him in more appropriate Ethiopian attire which you have probably already seen on the blog. They were wonderful and you could tell in their faces and Mesfin’s that there was a huge amount of love and happiness shared between them.

Stay tuned for the coffee ceremony.......( I Have no idea why the font is screwed up)

First Full Day

The next morning I woke up by 7:00am and was upstairs for breakfast by 8:00 where I met Mike and Amy from Lincoln, Nebraska who were also staying at the Bejoe house. They had arrived a day before me and already had their new son Mussie, what a cutie. I would definitely like to thank Mike and Amy for allowing Mesfin and me to tag along with you guys on the many occasions during the trip. It was great to have someone so nice staying in the same house to hang around with, since I was otherwise traveling alone with Mesfin.

After breakfast Ryan and Travis arrived with Mesfin. It was amazing. He looked exactly like the pictures we had received over the past months. I felt like I already knew him although I was just now about to hold him for the first time. Mesfin and Travis had become pretty good buddies, so at first there was quite a bit of crying when I tried to hold him. Over the course of about an hour he really warmed up to me and from then on he and I did great.

At this point we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Before leaving for lunch (with Mike, Amy, and Mussie) I also met Eyasu who handled driving Mesfin and I around for the week. Eyasu was great, he made it so easy to get where we needed to go and was yet another super pleasant person to be around. I’m not sure but are you seeing a pattern here. I know its hard to believe, but this trip was filled with unbelievably nice people, I certainly hope I can somehow keep this streak going. Eyasu took us to a restaurant called the Family Restaurant, which true to its name is what you would expect it to be. It was like you took a typical family style restaurant in America and dropped it down in Addis Ababa. Later that night when I was reading though my Lonely Plant travel guide on Ethiopia, it actually had a write up on the Family Restaurant. It turns out that the owner used to be the head chef at the American Embassy in Addis Ababa, so it makes perfect sense that he understood American tastes.

I think at a high level Tuesday’s activities set the tone for the remainder of the week: Eat - Adoption work – Eat – Rain – Eat. The only variation seemed to be on certain days there was more adoption work inserted and more rain inserted at different places. So for anyone traveling to Ethiopia this time of year, if no one has told you yet, it rains…. A lot…. Everyday. Bring an umbrella…. Everywhere you go.

The Trip Over - by Randy

Here are some clips from the 'story' Randy is writing to help him remember his trip.

I remember when preparing for the trip to pick up our new son in Ethiopia my feelings were a mixture of excitement and a bit of worry about how he would react to me.

On the leg from Atlanta to Frankfurt, Germany I sat beside a very nice gentleman on his way back to Israel after visiting his son in who lives in Atlanta. Although his English was limited it was infinitely better than my Hebrew and we chatted for hours on just about anything you can think of. He was very nice and had led quite an interesting life. From Frankfurt we flew to Khartoum, Sudan for a short stop and then on to Addis Ababa. On this leg I sat beside another very nice man from Italy who was living in Switzerland. He was on his way to work on a water project at Lake Tana in Ethiopia.

Finally, after the 21+ hour flight I was greeted happily by Hanuk and Ryan from Gladney at the Addis Ababa airport. When Hanuk asked me were I lived and I told him Atlanta, I literally burst out laughing when he said, “So how are things goin’ in the ATL!” It turns out that Hanuk lived in the US several years while he attended college in Texas, so his English and knowledge of American culture was extremely good. After driving me the short distance to the Bejoe guest house, I remember Ryan telling me that he and Travis would bring Mesfin over the next morning around 9:30. Now keep in mind its around 10pm local time, however, I was wide awake at this point and my biggest worry was over sleeping since I didn’t bring an alarm clock with me.

to be continued...

Still More

He was LOVED by his Nannies

Inside Holy Trinity Church


Rodeo Addis-Just Like Texas!


Breakfast at LaParisian (Thanks, Jess)

Random Pics

Guest House (albeit a bit blurry)


Coffee Ceremony


Crater Lake as seen from Dreamland (I believe)

These are some of the scenes in Addis Ababa and the surrounding area. Obviously, there are scenes that are not as beautiful. There are also scenes of a city being renovated as well as scenes of the beautiful people living there. I am not allowed to post pictures of children who have not been placed with their forever families but let me assure you, they are all very beautiful. The other 'people' pics will have to come later when Randy can explain who they are.