First Day.

This morning we arrived at sunny Addis at 7:30am.The flight went well and seemed to pass rather fast. Brian and I probably only slept for a total of 1 hour each, but surprisingly, we were not tired when we arrived. Brian, in total Brian style, made about 20 friends on the plane while I watched movies and chatted to the college student sitting next to me.

After arriving at the Guest House we called a driver and got many things accomplished on our list. We had to change over dollars to birrs, get some shopping done for some friends (we got Lecha a super cute dress), shop for diapers and formula. We also were able to find Kebebe Tshehai Orphanage. When we arrived with the donations (many of the ones today were from Ingrid and Melissa…thanks!) we met with the head nurse. We told her that we also wanted to donate formula and diapers and she asked if we would  come back on Monday or Tuesday. So, Brian might have to take a trip there himself later in the week. We also bought a LOT of coffee.

We went to spend some of the money that was donated by our family and friends for the orphanage. We had 11,000.00 birr to spend, and after filling up two carts, and almost completely clearing out one grocery store of diapers, we ended up spending only 4,800.00 birr. WOW! Our friends and family is amazing. The orphanages are going to be thrilled.

Tomorrow we getting up early and heading to the Entoto Mountain. Our driver is going to take us to church. He told us it was a very special day tomorrow, so we are very excited!

According to our schedule, we won’t see Kokeb until Monday. Our Embassy Appoinment is Tuesday and that is when we get to take her into our care…for good.We are the only ones at the Guest House until tomorrow night, so it is a little quiet here. We miss our friends from our previous travel group. By the way, Bereket, thanks for the sweet message you left for Kokeb. 

Elijah and Mekebo: We miss you a lot but we know that you are having a great time watching Christmas TV specials with Papa and Grandma. Remember how we learned about “E.T. Purrs on the Red Nile Med”? Well, we flew over the MEDiterranean Sea and the Nile River. We were also really close to the Red Sea. We get to see your baby sister on Monday. I can’t wait to show you pictures!

We hope everyone has a great weekend! Peace and love from Ethiopia.