First Day in ET - Keepin' It Real

Oh, it is so good to be back! The second we got off the plane and took a big fat breath of Ethiopia my heart was just about to burst. Our travel day was nothing less of eventful from delayed flights, to running from one end of airports to the absolute other in order to catch our flight, to bumpy flights and so on! We got into the guest house after 11 p.m. and thankfully had a good nights sleep...

For the sake of keeping it real...today was largely a sad day. We went to get CT from the transition house in the late morning because a lot of the drivers were at church...which we had actually wanted to do, but kind of forgot what day it was until it was too late! I am not quite sure if CT remembered us or not, but he was quite hesitant around us and stuck very close to his nanny...we expected this from him after getting to know him on the last trip. We played with the kids with balls, balloons, suckers and other toys that we brought and didn't show him much special attention so he could just get used to our presence. But the second he realized we were leaving it was an all out melt down...he screamed and fought us the whole car ride to the guest house until I just held him as tight as I could and prayed and prayed for Jesus to enter his heart and give him peace in this moment. He instantly quieted and fell asleep on me for the rest of the ride. After he woke up he was pretty sad again, so we loaded him into the ergo and went to friendship mall to walk around and have pizza since CT loves to sight see. He enjoyed it and fell back to sleep. There are so many places to serve in Ethiopia and on our way back home we came across a young girl with a baby who needed clothes and luckily we had some clothes, shoes, a toy and formula to give her. We know it was a small act, but we are thankful that it was something we were able to do for her and on this trip we are really praying that God will open our eyes to the ways that we can be His hands and feet.

When we got home he was sad off so we broke out the puffs... apparently he loves the taste of air because he pretty much ate a whole container as we sat on the bed and held and comforted him. We changed his diaper and clothes and put some really good lotion on his poor dry skin and went outside to play. He wouldn't let me put him down, but we blew bubbles and nate would toss us a ball and CT would kick it (as I was holding him!) across the court yard. He liked that game and we even got a few half smiles....so we played it for an unnecessary LONG amount of time! CT really turned the corner during our game and has done really well since then. We walked  to dinner to our favorite chinese restaurant and then walked to Kaldi's for some yummy ice cream all without tears. It was CT's first taste of ice cream (as far as we can tell) and he was SO funny! The first bite he acted like I gave him pureed peas and made the most awful face...after that he wanted more and more, but he would keep his mouth open after each bite until the ice cream melted and then he would close his mouth and swallow it. He is such a cutie!

We came back home, got in PJ's and rocked him to sleep (I did try to lay him down awake, but he decided that was not how things were going to go down!). And since my camera is in the room with the sleeping precious boy you wont be getting any cute pictures on this blog post, but our guest house got WI FI PUT IN LAST WEEK (!!!!!!!) so I promise to upload some tomorrow!!

Please pray for our sweet boy as he goes through this process of grieving. We are filled with joy that he is in our arms forever, but broken hearted by all that he has lost and is losing in just 22 months of life. Adoption is really sad stuff. Really. Sad. But thankfully WE SERVE A GOD WHO REDEEMS!! We praise him for the life of Chet Tamerat and we praise Him for all of the work He will do on his precious heart and that He makes beautiful things out of the dust...that HE makes adoption beautiful! (as pointed out by created for care shirt that I will wear tomorrow!)

He makes all things beautiful. Ecclesiastes 3:11

Much Love From Ethiopia,