A beautiful day in Addis Ababa. The mornings are perfect with 60 degree weather and totally sunny skies. Gennie and I picnic in our room for breakfast - I am so glad I brought peanut butter with us! She can't wait to get to the pool but the hours and hours a day in the pool have been hard on her toes! The concrete has worn little blisters on them.





Kim and Simenesh are spending more and more time together and Simenesh smiles whenever she looks at Kim. She is a real sweet baby.







Tomorrow is our last event -the goodbye coffee ceremony. The Embassy is processing the visa documents today instead of next Monday as originally planned so we are hoping we might be able to change our tickets and come home earlier.

We are sorry to hear about the bad storms in the States. Hope all of you are not experiencing bad weather. Wish we could send some of this sunshine home!


-Very Grateful

-Very Grateful
We visited the US Embassy today and finished the last of the paperwork! It is completely official now. No pictures allowed at the Embassy. Latest pool news - we met a wonderful couple from Ann Arbor. They are here teaching for four months.

We visited the orphanage and met all the other families adopting children this week. Genet was really good with Simenesh and loved playing with her. Simenesh loves to interact with Genet and is very happy. She makes cute little sounds and laughs easily. We met one family who brought their two children (8 and 11) to Ethiopia and they are adopting a 10 month old and a four year old! That should be a wild plane ride back!

Kimberly went shopping with all the families In the afternoon but Genet opted for more swimming and making more new friends. The life guard was very surprised that Genet could swim and blows his whistle for her when she walks by because she is very impressed by his whistle. Genet has also befriended the lady who sits in the lobby and provides traditional coffee service to guests. The smells and sounds of Addis include the aroma of the fire for the coffee preparation, the coffee and the amplified sounds we hear throughout the city of the call to prayer.

Leaving Minneapolis!




Flying with Momma and my new best friend




Made it to Ethiopia





Meeting Baby Simenesh










-Yesterday Kim went to the village where Simenesh was born and met her birth mother and other relatives. She visited them in the house where Simenesh was born. It was an amazing day.

Gennie swam all day. Made friends with an 80 year old grandpa and swam with him in the morning. And in the afternoon she swam for three hours with two young boys from Scotland. They thought it was great fun to play with all her princesses in the pool. Something they never did before. She loves it here. Our luggage finally arrived!



VeryGrateful

We had a very easy trip over. Genet was the best traveler. She walked through the plane and found many friends and one little girl came and sat with us. Genet, kim and i made it to Addis just fine but none of our luggage did so Grammie is washing clothes in the shower in the morning and drying them on the balcony. I may not be able to send pictures until we get our luggage. We played with Simensh in the afternoon and Genet was very happy with her little sister. Simenesh has the best smile and laughed when she was playing with Genet. We woke to the call to prayer this morning and Kim is traveling today to visit Simenesh's birth mother. It will be a long day for kim but Gennie and I will be at the pool! I have limited time on the internet with Genet at my side waiting for pool time but we will try to check in every day! Love from Ethiopia!

Our tickets are bought and we are ready to go! Simenesh is waiting for us!



-Very Grateful