Ethiopian Adventure

Dearest Friends & Family,

Tomorrow, Brian & I will embark on an incredible adventure. We will be leaving Denver with the ultimate goal of bringing home our daughter. It is remarkable to us that in just two short weeks, our lives will be different and we will have memories far different from anything we have done before.

For us, the adoption process really began with Brendan. That was an interesting story in and of itself, which maybe I will post another day. Suffice it to say here that Brendan is one amazing little boy. We are so blessed to have this incredible child in our lives that we couldn’t wait to grow our family with another one. So, more than a year ago, we began the process of filling out papers and forms – enough to kill at least a few trees! Our wait kept getting longer and longer, but it has all worked out for the best, which we knew it would. Just before Thanksgiving we received our referral (the point where they match you with a child and send you all of the information on her) for our daughter. Then, just a few days before Christmas, we got the notification that we needed to be in Ethiopia to pick her up on January 15th. (If you do the math, we had a few days more than three weeks between finding out about the trip and actually having to be there!!)

Brian was actually not even home through all of this. When we got the referral he was in Israel training for a new job, and when we got the notification for traveling, he was stuck in Germany, not able to get home because of a huge snowstorm in Denver! He finally made it home on Christmas day and we have been running around trying to get everything we need both to travel to Africa and to bring home a new baby. I think we are just about ready!

Between Brian coming home and now, our dear friends, Travis & Vanessa, hosted an adoption/going away party for us. The friends that were able to join us very generously gave items to donate to the orphanage. We haven’t finished packing yet and the donations are taking up more than one large suitcase! I have been overwhelmed at the kindness and love that has been shown to both us and the children none of us have even met yet. (The picture is most of the group that was able to come.)


So, our trip itself is going to be multifaceted. We fly tomorrow from Denver to Frankfurt. Our next flight doesn’t leave until the following morning, so we are going to spend the afternoon by finding the Bahá’í House of Worship just outside of the city. (For those of you who don’t know we are Bahá’í, well, now you do! Feel free to ask questions about it if you want to know anything.) We will leave for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Wednesday the 10th. We will stay that night in Addis and travel to Uganda the next day. We will stay in Uganda for two nights, and go see the Bahá’í House of Worship in Kampala, Uganda. (Sensing a theme here? Funniest part is that we have yet to go to Chicago to visit the House of Worship in our own country!) We will return to Addis on the 13th and stay until the 19th. We will get back to Denver on Saturday the 20th – only to turn around and move to Utah on the 23rd. Whew!!!

While we are in Addis Ababa, we will be staying at the Hilton. They SAY they have internet, but we have also been told that the internet in Ethiopia can be a bit slow. Our goal is to try to post messages here as often as we can, along with a few pictures so you can share in our adventure (but only if you want to!). If there aren’t any messages here, well, then you know the internet wasn’t cooperating, and we will fill you in when we get back! J

Thank you to everyone who has wished us well, given support and offered prayers for our family. We couldn’t have done any of this without you.

Love,

Lori

P.S. If you have made it this far, rest assured that I will not be sending out more emails to annoy you! If you want to continue reading as we continue our trip, just check back in here - totally up to you.