This is our sweet little boy

This is the beautiful family that took care of us this week.

Meet our sweet little boy... Elijah Tekaye... He was so scared of us and we most saw tears from him. He allowed me to hold him, but Jeff couldn't get near. Elijah will be 2 years old in May.






This is the closest thing to a smile that we got from him.







He is having a banana for snack. You can tell he is completely unsure of what is going on.

We passed court!

We had an extremely busy day on 12/26, our day of court.

Firstly, we passed! Which means that the judge approved us, we had an approval letter from MOWA (ministry of womans affairs) - this is where the backlog was earlier this year, AND the birthmother was present to court and also passed (I am not sure what this entails).

We arrived at a court building before 9 in the morning. We were told that our appointment was at 9:15. We were the first ones present and waited in the hallway until they opened a sitting/waiting area. We waited here until almost 10am, when they finally started calling families into a room with the judge. The room and the hallway both filled up with birthfamilies, adoptive families (from France, Italy, and US - we were just guessing from eavesdropping in conversations and guessing at languages), and adoption agents.

Tekaye's birthmother was present. The Bethany person that was with us, pointed her out quietly to us when they arrived. We were not supposed to talk with her there. I have to say - it was hard to see her, but I was also happy to see her. I now have a face to pray for. She was such a small, petite woman. She seemed so sad and tired. Part of me wanted her to tell the judge that she wanted to take Tekaye home with her. I could not imagine what she must have been going through.

She was one of the first to be called into a court interview room. The interview must have lasted at least an hour. It was hard to wait, but we were able to pray for her. I am glad that we were there together. I felt at peace with the outcome, whatever it was.

We were not called into see the judge until after our birth mother was completed and then the judge had reviewed our paperwork.

We were the last family to see the judge and leave.... 11:45! The meeting with the judge was quick. We left there with a 'pass' from the judge - which is good!

I am not sure if he is officially our child yet. Our next trip will be to go to the US Embassy and then bring him home.

Since our court took so long, we were not able to see Elijah Tekaye again. But we were able to drop off a picture book that we made of our family to his caseworker. They will begin to talk with Elijah about us being his family to prepare him.

After court, we were taken to the Bethany office, where we paid some final bills and then we went to lunch.

Next, we were taken to a different guesthouse on the other side of town to take a training course that we signed up for. We learned a little about the culture, life, etc from the village that he is from. It was quite informational. We also were able to see a coffee ceremony (the roast raw coffee beans in a clay pot over a little fire, the beans are then ground, boiled in with water and served with cream/sugar). Their coffee is different. We are served coffee in a cup so small you can barely hold it without dropping it. But after 1-2 cups, you will have the shakes/jitters. Unlike a massive cup from starbucks. :) We also, were able to learn how to make injera bread-their main food- especially for those in poverty. The last thing we learned was about hairbraiding and skin care. It was kind of fun.

Next, we were whisked back to our guesthouse to quickly pack and eat dinner before we headed out to the airport.

Our travels home were smooth... I can't wait to squeeze my boys!!

I will update again with pictures....

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas,

For unto us a child is born.

It is so hard to be away from home right now, but we feel so blessed. So many people are praying for us right now and the family that is hosting us in this guesthouse is really spoiling us and we have met some great people both in Africa and traveling with us. You can feel God's presence here. You really need to read the story about the host family. They run this guest house..a Bed and Breakfast, to support their organization. They run a local program for feeding the homeless here and there is tremedous need here, we will have to try and explain in person when we get home..poverty takes on a different meaning here. A very Godly family. http://www.yezelalemminch.org/

Last night, we were served a Christmas Eve feast. The staff and the host family that lives here ate with us. They even have a christmas tree up for us. She made a very nice meal with lots of treats. After the meal, we all talked about Christmas traditions in our families and then just began telling stories. We have met 2 other families that are adopting, it is comforting having other people that you can share this experience with. It was a great way to end the day.

The weekend has been a little bit rough since we have had a little bit of 'down' time. That is when my mind starts to miss my family and my home and all things familiar to me. So ending the day with a great meal and time together was wonderful.

This morning we woke up to a beautiful warm and sunny day and another amazing meal... Birtukan served us a wonderful huge breakfast. Before breakfast her family and her husband and 4 children sang joy to the world in amharic. The local language here (Amharic) is just amazing, it sounds so nice. They also gave the famliy presents, t-shirts and other items. Her family and staff shared the meal with us and once again we shared more stories and traditions.

We all went our separate ways to church this morning. Jeff and I went down to an english speaking mass in town, but were there 45 minutes early..that never happens when we are home. So we walked into church and we were blessed to hear the mass in Amharic, it was fascinating, at communion they held umbrellas over the servers and those receiving but Jeff's favorite part was the singing. WOW...it was awesome. We need to download some of those songs.

We arrived home in time for lunch.... we have eaten so much today! She served us a huge meal - she is a wonderful cook.... after lunch, we went down to where her family lives and they performed a coffee ceremony. The basically roast the green coffee beans over a fire, then hand grind them, and then we had coffee! mmmmm..... and guess what?? MORE food! Tons of cakes and cookies! This is not even their Christmas. They do not celebrate Christmas until January 7. So they are going out of their way and doing all of this for us. The kids also sang us a couple of cute songs. It was very nice.

Tomorrow, we have a very busy day.... Court first thing, then we have a training session, orphanage visit and I think that we are going out to have a traditional ethiopian meal in a restaurant. All of this before our flight takes off at 11:45pm. :)

Here is Jeff to share....
We have met so many Godly people here, it has been an overwhelming blessing, you feel humbled by the faith of the people around us. From a famliy that is on there 4th adoption to another family that is on there 2nd adoption, and then the host family. You have to read her story..in summary she was a world vision sponsored child..and now is giving back 1000 fold by helping orphans and the hungry here locally. And sponsoring this guest house for those adopting coming from the states.

I think the hardest part of the trip so far was visting the orphanage. Very similar to the one we visited in Russia, very clean, and the children's physcial needs were being taken care of..food, warm bed, and very loving caregivers. So we will be taking Takeye home with us in a few months..but what about the other children..there was this little girl who was in his "room"..she couldn't walk and needed a special seat to help her sit upright. She smiled at everything. I wonder what will become of her...where is God? I obviously do not have an insightful answer, I can only pray that God will watch over her, but my mind turns to the Gospel from a month or two ago...Matthew 25..and we will be seperated sheep from the goats and we will ask when did we see you Jesus? I wonder..did I just see Jesus?

Christmas Eve day

It definitely does not seem like Christmas Eve today. I have never been anywhere as warm as this at Christmas time.
On Thursday, we went to the Bethany office to have training about court and fill out paperwork. After that we met with the caseworker who has monitored Elijah Tekaye and she went over his records and paperwork with us.
After we were done with the caseworker, we were finally able to go to the orphanage. When we got to the orphanage, Elijah was sleeping and they woke him up. We were able to play with him down in a play area with our caseworker. He was very scared and cried a lot. He also has a bit of a cold and didn't seem to be feeling that well... poor guy. He wouldn't take his eyes off of Jeff. He only just sat on the floor and wouldn't play. We then went back up to his room - with the rest of the kids his age. They thought that maybe he would perk up a bit. We were able to play with the rest of the kids his age and watch them have a snack. I did get to pick him up and hold him for awhile and play with him. He is a cutey pie. He never really gave us a smile.
We do get to see him again on Monday.

Today we went siteseeing with one of the Bethany guys. He is also a professional tour guide. :) Was fun and then we also went to a restaurant and had a traditional meal.
Cant wait to see you all...

We made it!!

Wow, that is a long flight...5-6 movies, video games and a book and a half later.... we made it here at 8am on Fri! Ethiopia is 8 hours ahead of US time so it feels like midnight to us, but it is warm and sunny, my body is so confused.

The only glitch so far has been getting our luggage, something broke and they couldn't get it from the plane to the conveyor so we waited quite a long time for our bags..If that is the worst that can happen then we can live with that.

Everyone here has been so nice. Our experience so far has been very good. We met Abel at the airport and he brought us to the guesthouse that we are staying in. We met another adoptive family on our way in this morning. I look forward to meeting them later. I heard that we are going out for a traditional dinner tonight at 7pm. I hope that I can make it that long!
Jeff and I were able to take a brief nap, shower and just had lunch. I have been up so long and had so many meals that I am not sure what meal we are on or when we are supposed to sleep!
Today we will go to the bethany office for them to review our court meeting with us and then we will go to the orphanage.
I will update later and hopefully have pictures!
Jeff and Amanda

Our Christmas Gift

Off we go to Ethiopia... It started this morning with a wakeup call at 3:30am and a 6am flight out of Detroit to Washington DC. We feel tremendously blessed to have so many people covering us and our boys with prayer. We skyped with the boys this morning and they already asked where their little brother is. :) One short flight down, 26 more hours on a plane....

Many of you may know that Jeff and I are adopting from Ethiopia. We are in Washington DC airport waiting for our flightto the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. We land Friday morning at 8am and plan to see our son for the first time that day. We will be in Addis over the weekend and then will head to court on Monday. Monday night we will be back on a plane to head home via Rome and then to Washington DC. It will be many hours in a plane and away from our boys. We would appreciate any and all prayers for us, our boys and our new son, Elijah Tekaye. We will try to keep you updated depending on our internet availability.

God Bless and Merry Christmas!