Almost home!!!!!!!

Well I don't have much time because hopefully we'll be boarding soon, but just wanted to let everyone know all of our flights have gone as well as they could have!  Both of our long flights actually got in early so we had over 5 hours in Minneapolis!  We got through customs and immigration very smoothly and all of our bags were here!  The twins did great on the both flights--slept a lot so that was good!  Mom, Dad, and I all got a few hours.  On the second flight I didn't sleep at all..I studied organic chemistry for 7 hours...I know that sounds like a joke but it actually happened--must be going crazy from all the time changes and weird food!! haha  Well I'm going to go get all my stuff packed up so we are ready to board! (I'm just a tad excited to be home--missing my friends quite a bit!!) I'm not sure if Mom is planning to blog to say how the twins react to the house/rooms/everything but if not, thank you for all your prayers and support!!

Kesh

Last day!

Hello!

Well it's finally time to go home!  Uchan and Apiyo keep saying "today go to America" but we're not really sure if they know what they're in for!  This morning we slept in and had breakfast then got everything packed.  We had a small lunch at the hotel while we were waiting for our driver to get here then we went to Entoto Mountain.  On the way up we stopped because Benium's (our driver) aunt was worshiping on the mountain.  That sounds very odd but today is a holiday for the Ethiopians so it was really quite normal.  The holiday they are celebrating is John's baptism.  On the top of the mountain was a huge church--it was gorgeous!!  We got a tour of the museum that had a lot of artifacts dealing with past emperors, kings, and priests.  We could not go into the actual church because of the holiday.  When we were going back down the mountain, we saw several thousand people walking in their traditional dress to a church.  Sometimes there were so many people that the roads were blocked--it was crazy!  Next we went to the Post Office (the street where all the shops are) and picked up a few things! I am very happy because I got a coffee set and nativity set for a good price and those were the only things I really wanted to buy on the trip!  We went to the Green Valley Hotel for supper.  We got pizza and it was soooo good!  They make all the dough by hand and shred the fresh mozzarella right before they put it on the pizza--wow!!  Now it's 5:30 and we're just hangin out at the hotel.  Our flight leaves at 11:30 so we don't really need to be at the airport until 9ish but we're out of things to do!  I think we'll go to the bakery next door to try some of their fasting cake to waste some time (fasting just means no meat and it takes place on every Wednesday and Friday).  That's about all that happened today!  Uchan and Apiyo are amazing :)  Uchan is quieter and very very smart--he's good at reading letters/numbers and is pretty good at addition.  Apiyo is also very smart but not quiet at all!! She is quiet/shy in public and when we're eating and such, but when she's in the hotel room or in the van with just us, her personality comes through...and wow does she have a lot of personality!!  She is very sassy and dramatic and just plain weird....she'll fit right in with our family! (example: tonight at supper she took a piece of bread and took the edges off...except instead of eating the middle and leaving the edges like most people, she left the middle and dipped the edges in her Pepsi!! Like I said..she's a unique duck).  Uchan watches Dad and does pretty much everything dad does. Apiyo is like a parrot--she repeats everything you say.  This is resulting in them learning a lot of English words fairly quickly.  They don't always get the context right but they're trying!! Well we're going to get cake now so I better wrap it up.  Prayer requests of the day: good health/travel for everyone, especially mom.  I don't know what is exactly wrong but I don't think she's feeling well and her back is hurting so a 24 hour trip won't help.  Also just for understanding and calm nerves for Uchan and Apiyo!  Hope you all are doing great!!

Kesh

Goodbyes..

Salem!

Today went better than we were anticipating-it was the last time we brought the twins to the Care Center/school to say goodbye to everyone.  We had lunch with whoever was around (yes, I did have a few bites..and yes, I did survive :) haha).  Then we had coffee with Yared (the head honcho of IAN Ethiopia) and I gave them all of the items for Mortar Board (I'm the president of the Mortar Board Honor Society at SDSU and for our Christmas project we collected items to bring to the kids--we filled an entire suitcase!! #proudmama ....couldn't resist the # Jur ;) lol)  On the way back to the hotel, we stopped to get more hair extentions for Apiyo.  While we were waiting for Dad and Benium to get back, a completely naked man came and sat next to our van. Apiyo's eyes got about as big as saucers until she covered them and started giggling hysterically. It was quite the event! We came back to the hotel and everyone took a nap..besides me-I did homework..hell must be freezing over right??  I got some supper at the hotel and then we left for the traditional Ethiopian supper.  It was pretty entertaining to watch Uchan and Apiyo because they could actually understand what was being said and they were laughing so much, it was adorable :)  We went to the supper with a couple that we met today that are also adopting through IAN and are from Colorado.  She is a nurse so that was fun to talk to her!  Unique story with that couple-they were here with Children's Home around a month after we were here getting Ahbea and Aysha and now they're here with IAN!  Also, both sets of children are from the same areas in the country (Ahbea and Aysha and their first child were from Hosanna and now Uchan and Apiyo and the child they're adopting are from Gambella) ..just kind of crazy!  We just got back to the hotel room and are all pretty tired.  Tomorrow morning we are checking out around noon then going on a scenic tour in some mountains and shopping.  I should be able to post tomorrow but if not we fly out tomorrow night at 11:30 (2:30pm in Iowa) and will be in Sioux Falls at 6:30pm on Saturday!!  Please pray for safe travels, healthy bodies, and for all the new/potentially scary experiences for Uchan and Apiyo!  Amesegenallo!!

Kesh

Relax/zoo day..

Salem!

Today we had a pretty chill/relax day..we slept in until around 8 (never thought I'd consider 8am sleeping in--yikes!!) then headed up to have breakfast!  Jurnea-I tried th cornflakes with hot milk..not my favorite but definitely not the worst thing on the buffet (ingera).  We came back to the room and hung around until around 12:30.  Then we went to the zooo :)  I can't remember the exact name of the zoo but it had something to do with lions and it was very appropriate as there were probably 15 lions at this zoo!! We went to the post office (street with a ton of little vendors) and got some coffee on the way to lunch at the Bloom.  We all pretty much stuck to the same thing we ate yesterday--we're very adventurous, I know ;) We went to the Care Center for awhile and Apiyo got her hair braided and extensions put in...it looks quite a bit better than my attempt yesterday!! Tressa-Mom says we may be calling you for help very quickly!  When we got home from the Care Center we had supper and now we're just hangin out in the room.  The twins took a bath and now they're kicking the soccer ball around and giggling alot--best sound in the world :)  Prayer request of the day-Mom hasn't really been feeling well all day..her stomach has been acting up and today she looked like she was about to faint on numerous occasions.  So if you all could just pray for her to be feeling better that would be great!!  I guess that's pretty much all I have for today!  Tomorrow we have a coffee ceremony at the Care Center and we're going to a traditional supper--I'll blog about it tomorrow but just thought I'd fill you in on the plans :)  Hope everything is going well back at home!!

Kesh

Embassy Day!

Salem!
Today I have Apiyo helping me on the blog :) This morning we were  all up pretty early--I got up around 4:30 and just dinked around until Dad and Uchan finally got up around 6.  We went upstairs to have breakfast and we were very happy to see that they had buffet today!!  After breakfast we took showers and got all prettied up for our Embassy meeting.  The twins were the most adorable little people I've ever seen!!  Apiyo had on leggings and a skirt with a sparkly white shirt and Uchan had on black pants, purple button up shirt, and a purple/black striped tie--WOW!! soo very cute!!  The Embassy date went very well and was very quick..we will have all of their paper work on Thursday at 10am!! We came home and changed quick then went to the Bloom for lunch!  I took Jurnea's advice and got the spaghetti and was not disappointed at all--nice call Jur :)  We discovered that the twins like pasta so that is huge because we can definitely make pasta for them when we get home!  After lunch we went to the Care Center for a little over an hour so Uchan and Apiyo could play with their friends.  Apparently last night there were some tears from the other kids because they missed the twins so much!  It's hard to be certain because of the language barrier but it really seemed like everyone was glad they came to play so I'm sure we'll do that again tomorrow!  On the drive back to the hotel, all of us fell asleep!  We all are super tired so hopefully we'll be going to bed soon!  I can't think of anything else at the moment-if I forgot anything I'll write about it tomorrow!  I hope everything is going well for you all!!
Kesh&Apiyo

First day with the twins!

Hello!!

This morning we went to get the twins--yay!!  We were only at the Care Center for around an hour--in that time Uchan completely owned me in basketball and soccer!!  We came back to the hotel to have lunch.  Thank goodness the waitresses could talk to the twins so we knew what they wanted - Apiyo got tibes and ingera and ate a ton of it and Uchan got an egg sandwich and fries--definitely something we can work with in the States!! We came back to the room and have pretty much been chillin here all day!  We colored for awhile and played with play-dough and they've watched Tangled a couple times already! Dad walked down the road and brought pizza back to the room for us for supper..Apiyo wasn't interested at all in eating the pizza but Uchan put down 3 pieces like a champ right away!!  Apiyo did eat a bun and some Cheerios though so that was good!  After supper we gave them a bath--they both definitely love the water!!  Overall I think everything is going pretty well-Uchan seems to be adjusting a lot better than Apiyo so if you all could pray for her that would be wonderful.  I'm not sure if she's not feeling well (she ate a lot of spicy tibes and a whole bottle of fanta for lunch) or if she's sad/missing the Care Center or a combination of the two.  Other than that, everything has gone very well today!!  I think we'll head to bed soon--everyone is pretty worn out from the eventful day!  I'll post tomorrow after we go to the Embassy!

Kesh

We made it!!

Hello from Ethiopia!!

We just got checked in/settled into our hotel room.  I don't think anything relevant/exciting happened on the plane--I slept for 95% of the 18 hours we were on the planes :)  All of our luggage arrived with our plane so that was pretty exciting.  The weather is pretty nice--is 12:30am and its around 60 degrees so I am verrryy happy about that!!  We met a couple from Arizona--she is 26 and he's 29 and they are here to adopt a 9 year old boy and were just here 4 months ago adopting an 11 year old--pretty amazing people!!  Also, we met a lady from Michigan that has taught in Kenya and now is in Ethiopia to help work in a hospital so that was really cool to talk to her!  We're going to go get some sleep though so we have energy to eat cornflakes with hot milk (right Jurnea?!) and go pick up the twins tomorrow morning!!  Hope everyone is doing well! :)

Kesh