CCC Annual Beach Day

Each year our church holds a sand castle contest out at Wrightsville Beach. While Hope labored to build a credible castle, Haley ate all the leftover sand. We're so fortunate to have two girls who LOVE the beach and the water!

Haley's Baptism

And the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call . . . Acts 2:39

What a sweet day for our family! Haley was baptized on Sunday. She and her sister, Hopey, both wore Ethiopian dresses to celebrate.

As our pastor baptized her, she responded with peek-a-boo. Naturally!

What better way to celebrate than by diving into the donuts!

I love that face!

Peek-a-boo little bean!

Crazy grandparents!

First Trip to the Aquarium

Last week we all ventured out to the aquarium for Haley's first trip and Hope's 59th trip. Hope has always loved the aquarium, but she had much more fun exploring with her grandparents than just plain old mom. She enjoyed reprising her role as "Julie" (cruise director from The Love Boat) as she guided Roberta all around. Her are some photos of the morning shot by Papa Ken.

Al Fin

We were scheduled to fly out on Friday of our week-long stay in Addis, but not until 7pm, so we had time to visit a coffee factory that morning. Ethiopians are quite proud of their coffee heritage, and apparently Starbucks gets much of its coffee from the eastern coffee-producing region of ET, Harar. We came away with several pounds of coffee and a nice aroma clinging to our clothes: a mixture of roasted beans and Haley's spit up.

This ends my slew of photos that I'll post from our trip. I did not have my camera out nearly as much as I had hoped because of Haley and I being so sick on the trip, but we still got enough photos to bring back all the memories of an exhausting and life-changing week.

Oops - we got separated from the tour group. So what do we do? Take pictures, naturally.

Waiting for mom and dad to buy their coffee.

Parenting is a kick in the pants!


Give her 18 more years and she'll be a good little coffee snob!

These women earned $1 per day in wages.

Sorting through the beans for quality control.

A few random shots from our first meeting day. Looking just a bit tired . . . my allergic reaction to antibiotics I was taking was starting to get worse here.

T was our guide for the first half of the trip. He was always patient and kind - incredibly helpful (even when I embarassed him by asking him to translate some poopy questions I had for the nanny!)

A meal at a restaurant specializing in traditional Ethiopian cuisine: injeera. I could do without the sour, spngy bread, but everything in the middle was soooo good. Spicy!



Robel was our guide for the rest of the trip: an incredibly intelligent man! He was an excellent guide with a heart for Ethiopia's orphans.

Shopping in Addis.

This boy is an orphan living on the streets - one of 23 taken in by Robel. Robel has taught the boys how to earn a meager living by shoe-shining or selling gum instead of begging. He also pays for all of those boys to go to school.

More from ET

Yeesh - life got busy! But I'll try to post highlights of the rest of our trip over the next few days.

Our first family picture - outside our hotel in Addis Ababa.

Bath time was an event in our hotel! Little peanut fit nicely into the kitchen sink. She loved the water and still does.

Interrupted

So I just had to interrupt the flow of our trip pictures to show how our little peanut is doing now. It is amazing to see the transformation of this little girl in just two weeks, and hopefully it is an encouragement for other families to consider adopting just one of the millions of orphans worldwide.

When we took custody of Haley, she had an ear infection and a sinus infection. This all caused her to vomit (projectile!) at every feeding with a horrible, gagging cough. And, yes, this continued on our 30+ hours of plane rides. Let's just say we where not the most valued passengers on those cramped planes. Eight of her outfits later, I gave up and just decided to let the smell engulf me, praying for a quick trip. At first, Haley was a bit lethargic and would not look at me. She could not sit up by herself, and she exhibited certain self-soothing behaviors whenever she got upset. My sweet girl was gorging constantly. Then vomiting it all up.

But two weeks later, she is a different child. And I'm getting to know her all over again. After several doctor visits and an indulgence in modern medication, she is now happy and healthy. She lights up when David is around and gets pretty cranky if I'm not holding her when I'm around. She no longer gorges, but instead seems to have built a confidence in her surroundings that I didn't expect for another few months. She sleeps through the night - sleep, glorious sleep! She not only sits up on her own, but she has also started to crawl. And my favorite part: she stares and coos at me all day long.

Someone once told me that I was lucky to get my children "the easy way." It's a ridiculous statement, really. But in the end, it is always worth it. The years of paperwork, jumping through someone else's hoops, the sickness, the travel, the horrific plane rides that drive you to the edge of madness. But we know a truth that will never change: God created Haley to be our daughter from the beginning of time. Her story and ours is neither a coincidence nor a surprise to Him. We went to Ethiopia because that's where our daughter was. And we would walk through that fire again and again, as many times as it took to bring her home.