6 REMPELS!

So the first 8 months with Emmy at home have been soo amazing! We have made so many memories and also had some challenges.
The pictures above, are Emmy's first day home. She was fasinated with the TV. My neices came over to meet her. They just fell in love with her!
Our first week at home was very, very exciting but also hard. Bill and I missed Ethiopia so very much that one day, I fell apart and was determined to move there. (Anyone else go through this?) I can't describe exactly what it was we missed. Just the wonderful people, the smells, the slow pace of life. I loved being able to feel like we made a small difference in someones day. I can't describe my longing the first 3-5months to go back.

Overall, things have gone fairly smooth with Emmy a part of our family. The one thing we noticed almost instantly, was how quickly we could spoil her. She "Americanized extremily fast!" We were so amazed in Addis at how long she could sit and play with a few bottle caps. That certanly is not the case now. She is always on the move!

The flight home went so much better than we had antisipated. Emmy fell asleep almost as soon as our flight left Addis. She slept all the way to Frankfurt. What a blessing. The only problem we ran into was... because she was 2 years old, she was required to buckle in her own seat. She was terrified. She had pretty much been attatched to my hip since the second day. She screamed so loud the whole plane could hear her.

When we arrived in Toronto, I felt mixed emotions. I could hardly believe that a short time ago we were half way around the world. I had missed Denniel, Breahnna, and Jonah so VERY much that I could hardly WAIT to see them. I also felt a sadness to have left Ethiopia. If Bill and I had had our children with, it would have been tempting just to stay there. (Not really) But we did love it there.

There was a huge snow storm in Toronto so needless to say, we had a delay. We didn't know how long the delay would be. We were so nervous that we would miss seeing all our friends at the airport. So we were an hour late in leaving, but the flight was fine. I knew I should sleep but just could'nt. All I wanted was to see my kids back home.

When we landed and walked past the doors to see our children, all I heard was my Breahnna screaming MOMMY!!!! Oh how precious!! I had tears welling up but fought them back not to scare Emmy. I had never left our children for more than one night so this was huge!!

Well, just as I had thought.... It would take me sooo long to finish my trip that I would forget the details. I do want to say that we had an amazing experience and would not trade it for anything in the world. What an incredable journey to our precious daughter. Emmy, We love you so much more than I can ever tell you.

I do want to share about the moment we went to the airport to come home. We were filled with emotions. I will never, ever forget the feelings all jumbled inside of me. Were we doing the right thing for this beautiful little girl? We prayed that we were. We were taking her away from everything she knew... was this really best?? As we walked into the airport, I took one last deep breath of the smell that to me will always be "The smell of Ethiopia." When we arrived.... it was the first thing I remember and when we got onto the plane to go home... it was the last thing I will remember.

The people in Ethiopia will always be in my heart. There is not a day that goes by where I don't look at my precious little girl and think of how incredibly awesome God is!!!! The hearts of most of these people are soo big. So many of them had nothing but would help us in any way they could. Thank you to all the wonderful people we met and loved in Addis. You won't be forgotten.

I know it's terrible how long it has taken me to finish about our trip. Four children and renovations is all I can handle these days. We are finishing our basement and I can't wait. All that extra space.



So going on about our trip..... I think it was day 6 that we were able to arrange a visit with our sponsor child. His name is Kirubel and he is the same age as my girls who are six. I still well up with tears when I remember that long awaited meeting with him. He is SOO precious. He lives with his mother, older brother, and baby sister right in Addis Ababa. He had stayed home from school the day we came so he could meet us. He greeted us with a handshake and a big smile. He understood who we were. We sat in there home the size of our bathroom and talked with him about school and sunday school and things he liked to do. I will never forget this experience. Oh, how I wish it was easier for us to visit him. Compassion Canada found Kerubel and I am so glad we are able to bring a little light into his life. I soo wish we could do more. We only spent about 20 minutes with him but it is on my list of most amazing experiences. We had brought him some gifts of school supplies and a soccer ball and needless to say, he absolutely loved his soccer ball. The smile on his face when he saw the ball was priceless. It was hard for me to leave him knowing that I would probably never see him again but just love him soo much.

I'm soo sorry about my extreme lack of posts. I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to remember the days after a while. I just thought I would share bits and peices about the rest of the trip.

Day three was a huge day for us. Alot happened! We went to Entoto.(The top of the mountain that overlooks Addis Ababa. What an amazing sight. I've done very little traveling so all these new sights were so exciting to me. On the way down from the mountain, I noticed that Emmy had what looked like a fainting spell. We now believe that it was a possible silent seizure. (We have her EEG soon to check it out) Anyway, with me being already emotionally drained, I took it really hard. I was worried and really wanted to take her to a doctor. We did later see a doctor who also thought it could be seizures(mild ones)

Anyway, we went to the most awsome restaurant for lunch that day. I had fries and wow were they good.

After lunch we spent a little time shopping on Church Hill Road. I loved shopping. I found so many great things for our children. Dressess and jewelry. A drum for Jonah.

Later in the day was more emotional again. We met with Emmy's bio father. He was wonderful and clearly loved Emmy. I am so glad I can share that with her one day. What a huge blessing for us to be able to visit with him.


DAY FOUR!!!!
Day four was spent going to the pottery. This was sooo exciting for me. I just loved seeing the talents of these woman. I spent $100.00 american. LOTS!! It's all over my house now and I love it. We also went to the Laga school. WOW! The wonderful man who runs the school does a great job. The children seemed so happy to be at school. The children just soo longed for touch. They were so excited to shake our hands and especially getting their pictures taken. They then wanted to see the pictures on our digital. They were such wonderful children. Emmy had a toy cd player and the children tried their hardest to press the buttons for her. One girl especially caught my attention. She looked so very shy and kinda stayed to the side more. When I held her hand, she grasped it as hard as she could and cried when we left. I felt soo bad for her. I had stuck a little pony in my pocket and gave it to her hoping to make her feel better. She put it in her pocket and smiled. When I retell stories like this, I still cry.... Is this normal? Am I losing it????

Our second day was filled with an eager antisipation to go pick up our daughter. It was the BIG GOTTCHA day!! We once again woke up at 4am and waited for the sun to rise and the beautiful smells to fill the air.

We went down to have our breakfest and relaxed until Mesfin came to pick us up.

To our surprise, Emmy came right up to me and hugged me and seemed ready for a new day. We had brought her a balloon again and she loved it. Oh how it melted my heart to have her willingly give me a hug and sit with us. Many thoughts filled my head and I would have to admit I was a little nervous.

The only thing that got Emmy nervous for a few minutes was the car ride. Clearly this was not something she had done alot.

We spent our first day with Emmy doing different things like going to a few shops and getting some food at the market. We decided to go back to the guest house earlier since it had been an emotionally draining day.