Ethiopian Travel Tips

We've been home for 4 days now, but it feels like an eternity to be separated from Judah and Addise. I'm grateful to be able to share our story over and over. I'm grateful for a lot of work to catch up on. I'm grateful for the ability to finalize preparations for them coming home forever. I'm grateful for time to process meeting our kids before we bring them home. For those of you headed to Ethiopia to meet your kids in the near future, here's a few lessons learned from our trip...

Places to Visit and Shop ::

• Ethiopian Guest Home - We stayed here and had an incredible time. They arranged all our transportation excellently. The staff was remarkable in every way. The rooms and shared bathroom were very clean and nice. The food was great. The drivers and translators were more than that...they became friends. We just LOVED staying here. We can't wait to go back because the staff truly became friends during our 5 nights.
• ALERT leper compound – shop here first because you know that your money goes back to these people who make the stuff right there. This has a fabulous selection of all types of Ethiopian goods [scarves, blankets, clothes, wooden crosses, candlesticks, bags, tablecloths and napkins, etc.]. This was the best selection of goods, fixed pricing, and the cheapest we saw! [Me with a resident of ALERT who taught me how to spin yarn. AMAZING!]
• Postal District – to get the rest of what you didn't get at ALERT
• Tomoca Coffee – the best coffee in the world! You can buy about a pound of coffee for less than $3. I’d also HIGHLY recommend ordering a macchiato. It’s maybe the best coffee I’ve ever had, and it’ll only cost you about $0.20. Take that Starbucks!
• Jebana pots [traditional coffee pot – outside of Tomaca Coffee]. They were $2 each! You can also buy little wooden coffee cups and saucers for about $1 each
• Merkato – the largest open air market in all of Africa! It’s beyond huge. It’s where all the local Ethiopians shop, but don’t really recommend for souvenir shopping. Our translator and drivers just drove us through the Merkato, but wouldn’t even let us shop there! It can be a pretty dangerous place; pick pocketing is very common for tourists.
• The Former Women Fuel Wood Carriers Project – scarves and leather crafts. We didn’t shop here, but it’s on the way to Entoto Mountain if you go.
• The National Museum – great overall look into Ethiopia history, culture, and traditions. It’s only a few birr for entrance. You could spend 1-2 hours here. Totally worth the time!
• Entoto Mountain – about 45 minute drive, depending on your location in Addis. Cost us about 600 birr for the driver and translator. It’s an incredible drive up the mountain and gives you an incredible view of ALL of Addis. There’s also an old church, palace, and museum at the top. We LOVED this part of our trip. We learned a ton about Ethiopian history and culture.
• Fistula Hospital – We didn’t have time for this, but have read lots of amazing things about this organization. I just finished reading Hospital by the River by Dr. Catherine Hamlin who started this ministry/organization with her husband over 40 years ago. This is beautiful justice work in action!
• Oromia region to visit a beautiful gorge/waterfall – 2 hour drive. We didn’t have time to visit here, but have heard great things about it. Be sure to arrange a driver in advance to ensure transportation. That was our mistake!

Entoto Mountain in front of an 150+ year old Ethiopian Orthodox Church [above] and view of sprawling Addis Ababa from Entoto [below]

Places to Eat ::

We ate for the most part at our guest house and nearby eateries, but we did get to eat at a couple AWESOME places!

• Yod – Ethiopian restaurant with dancing! This 3 hour dinner was super amazing!!! The food was authentic and delicious. It was a sneak peak into the diplomatic, high life of Addis [there are 105 Embassy’s in Addis!]. There was live music and dancing from all the regions and various tribal traditions throughout Ethiopia. We were enthralled and captivated by the breadth of culture and beauty of the country! This “expensive” meal for 6 of us cost around $30.
• Zebra Grill – great view in of Addis from a high rise building. They have a mixture of Western food and yummy Ethiopian food. The ambiance was really cool, it was quiet, and the view was spectacular. Dinner here was less than $25 for 4 people.

Gift Ideas for Your Adopted Kids ::
We wanted to make sure that we purchased some items from our kids' birth countries for their life's milestones and just connection to Ethiopia. Here's a list of most of what we found... [PICTURE: word next to my finger is "Ethiopia" in Amharic]

• 1^st Birthday – Traditional Dress for Addise
• 10^th Birthdays – wallet/purse
• 16^th Birthday – key rings
• 18^th Birthday – Traditional Ethiopian outfits
• Wedding – Hand embroidered table runner and napkin set
• Ethiopian crosses
• Names in Amharic
• Ball with Amharic letters for Judah to play with

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! We ADORED our time in Addis, and can't wait to go back!!!

The Big Reveal...INTRODUCING...

I know y'all have been waiting for a long time, so your patience is finally paying off. I'm sure you're not even reading these few sentences, just scrolling down the page to see pics of our beautiful children. Well, here ya go...pictures first; names last.

OUR FIRST FAMILY PICTURE [none of the dozen pictures are all of us looking at the camera!]:

Brian and I with our SON! He has awesome chiclet teeth. Brian's wearing his "ah-by-ay - dad" t-shirt, and I'm wearing my "eh-my-ay - mama" t-shirt.

OUR DAUGHTER...those lips are irresistible! She LOVED it when I kissed them. Lucky for me :)

Kissing my DAUGHTER for the first time...Daddy with his little man and sleeping beauty. She slept like this for about an hour. It was the sweetest thing! He held on to his little monkey security blanket the whole time!

Brian held him for a couple hours like this. They read this photo book we made for them with the pictures of us, our family, and them. He couldn't stop "reading" the book and "studying" the pictures. I love how he's snuggled up with Brian here.

Our kids have no idea what's going on, but clearly we are happy. [This was right after I had bawled my eyes out after talking with their birth mothers, so I'm not exactly having the prettiest moment]

Ok, now that you've seen their faces, let me properly introduce you to our children: Judah Abebayehu and Addise Aster Tarike Diaz. Both of their names are FILLED with meaning! Names are VERY IMPORTANT in Ethiopia. In a country where there is not financial wealth, there is great pride in their names and where they come from.

JUDAH ABEBAYEHU: Judah is from the Old Testament [Genesis 29]: the tribe of the Lion of Judah, Jesus. His name means "praise". After such a season of grieving and loss for us, "praise" is what we give to God for the gift of our son. The Lion of Judah is also a primary metaphor in Ethiopia - rich in meaning for Ethiopians! We drove past the monument in downtown Addis Ababa. Brian has a tattoo of the Lion of Judah on his left forearm, a reminder of who Christ is to us. For years we've loved this name and had no idea what deep meaning it carried for our Ethiopian son. Abebayehu [ah-beh-BAH-u], Lil' A, is his birth name. In Amharic, his name means "my flower" and has a connection to the capital city of his birth country, Addis Abeba, by some spellings.

ADDISE ASTER TARIKE: Addise [ad-i-say] Aster is a name we've had picked out for over a year. It's Amharic. When we first discovered that name, we knew it would be our daughter's name. It was beautiful and perfect. And then we learned what it meant. Addise means "new life". I have a tattoo on my wrist that says "LIFE" in Greek. It's a daily reminder that Christ has come to bring us new life, to bring life from pain and death, to adopt us into a new life with him. Aster means "flowers" [remember Abebayehu's meaning!?!?!]. My name, April Lei, means "new life" and "flowers". God knew. Tarike [tur-eak-ay] is her birth name and it means "to make peace". What an supernatural meaning for a baby girl in need of a forever home! Someday she will need to make peace with her story. We pray we will be a central part of her healing journey.

Our heart overflows and LONGS to be united forever with Judah and Addise. Their names already speak of their destiny and calling. They will be a daily reminder of God's hand upon their life, even in their mother's womb.

We're so pleased to introduce you to our kiddos. We seriously can't wait for you to meet them!

** In the not so distant future I'll add some videos. The videos are where you see just how gorgeous they are, and how captivating their personalities are!

A Million Details. One Purpose.

Since we found out 6 days ago that we'll be leaving for Ethiopia in 2 days, we've been at Mach 2. Immediately 5 pages of lists started forming to get "things-to-do" out of my head and onto a checklist.

"Overwhelmed" doesn't begin to describe how Brian and I have been feeling. Overwhelmed at what we need to do to get on a plane. Overwhelmed to figure out work stuff while we're gone. Overwhelmed at the reality that we'll be holding our babies a couple months sooner than we anticipated. Overwhelmed at how God's re-written systems and policies enabling us and other families to be united with their babies sooner. Ovewhelmed that we might have a Christmas miracle in the form of the kiddos home! Overwhelmed at the prayers, comments, texts, calls, tweets, and messages from people like you exclaiming celebration, hope, prayers, and belief. Overwhelmed at a few incredibly sacrificial gifts allowing us to travel without any debt. Overwhelmed at the manna God's providing us every day. Overwhelmed at ridiculous offers to help us get outta here and get the kids' room ready. Overwhelmed that this is REALLY happening!!!

We are taking off for our trip on Thursday, and if you'd like to pray us through the journey here are a couple ways:

• Our court date on the 10th - pray that all that needs to happen in court on that day would be successful and that'd we'd become Lil' A and Baby T's legal parents that day.
• Bonding with our kids - we get to spend a few hours on a few days with our kids. Pray that God would knit our hearts together and allow that time together to to begin connecting our family together.
• Stayover in Germany - Brian and I have been gifted with a couple days to spend in Germany after Ethiopia. We hope to use those couple days together to celebrate, rest, and process our time in Ethiopia with our kiddos. Pray this time would be well spent, fun, and enlivening as we officially begin our journey as co-parents.
• Smooth Logistics - this isn't the most important thing, but obviously problems with flights, hotels, transportation, language, or courts could be really discouraging and unnecessary in our trip. Pray that satan wouldn't have a foothold in any of that stuff and we could have a smooth trip.
• Health and Rest - I've been fighting a cold for the past several days. Both of us haven't been sleeping well. We've found ourselves wide awake in the middle of the night. Needless to say, we're tired and a little under the weather. Not the best way to start a 24-hour trip to Ethiopia.

We hope to post while we're in Ethiopia. See ya on the flip side! :)