Ethiopia 2 - Guest House

I realize that I've mentioned our guest house many times, but have not shown any pictures yet!  Here are a few photos of the place we called home while in Ethiopia the second time:

This is our front gate, behind which is the TDS Guest House.  Our room was the top corner.  You can see our bedroom window, and our balcony behind the arch above the yellow gate.  Also pictured here is one of the sweet security guards who always tried to get a smile out of Feven.  Each person who worked at the guest house was so kind.   

Here is the view down the street if you were standing facing the house and looking left.  Very beautiful.

Our balcony.  

Feven loved to take in the view, and Zac and I enjoyed sitting out here in the cool evenings after Feven went to sleep. 

Our balcony overlooked the garden area.  We often sat at the tables and visited with other guests.

The kitchen where we cooked some meals and washed many bottles.

 

We ate breakfast at this table each day, and relaxed on occasion in the community living room pictured here.

 

Here is a picture of our room.  This is the bedroom/living area.  Past the first arched door is the dressing area, then the bathroom.  It was very spacious and gave us plenty of room to run around with Feven.

A photo of just the living area.  Notice the little munchkin in the crib!

 

Here's our bathroom, where Feven screamed at the top of her lungs when we gave her the first bath in the tub.  I'm pretty sure every guest in the guest house heard her!

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

 

A Trip to Duluth

On Monday Zac and I celebrated 7 years of marriage.  We decided to spend a couple days in Duluth for our anniversary.  It was special to take Feven to a place that has meant so much to me since childhood and also has become a fun getaway for Zac and I as a couple. 

Here is Feven's first time eating at Grandma's Restaurant.  Due to recent flooding in Duluth, many tourists stayed away which meant that we had no waiting at Grandma's and got patio seats facing Lake Superior!

We played in Canal Park while watching a large ship come in.  

Feven took off across the lawn with her stroller.  She prefers pushing rather than riding these days.

After supper we bought huge ice cream cones and strolled down the boardwalk as the sun set.  

Here's Mama and Feven getting some giggles together!

I showed Feven how to choose good rocks for skipping.  Part of her choosing process involved tasting the rocks.  

Somehow that helps you know how good they'll jump across the water.

We started with throwing the rocks in.  We'll work our way slowly toward skipping rocks.

Daddy and Feven playing on the rocks.

Who's the best mommy?  YOU!

Giving Dada a kiss.  :)

Ethiopia 2 - A Beggar, A To-Go Box, and How My Life Changed Forever

On our first trip to Ethiopia we weren't really approached by beggars because our guest home then was in more of a residential area.  This time, though, our guest house was situated among large, beautiful houses with close access to many nice shops and restaurants.  The area had a reputation of wealth, and the homeless and poor knew that this would be the best location for them to look for handouts.  

I struggle with how to respond to beggars.  It feels so wrong in the core of my being to look away and pass by them; however, I have learned that if you give to one, others will flock to you in hopes that you will give to them too.  That draws a lot of attention and can quickly empty your wallet!

Whenever Zac and I would walk down the business street just blocks from our guest house, we would see beggars on the sidewalk.  One woman in particular caught my attention.  She was sitting on the sidewalk with her two children.  Zac and I were walking toward her, Feven in my arms.

When this woman and her children saw us, her two children started walking toward us.  They called out to us in their language to give them something.  Their hands were outstretched and their voices pleading. 

I held Feven, who I was taking with me to the states to have a life of provision and blessing, while a little girl not more than a year older than her was walking beside me, no shoes, in tattered clothes with dirty hands, begging.  These two little girls started off similarly in life, yet both are on extremely different paths now.

My breath caught in my throat and my eyes pooled.  I pray I never forget how it felt to be walking down the street side-by-side with that little girl.  The disparity was heavy and tangible.

As I type this post tonight, I wonder where that little girl is.  It's the 9:00pm hour here, which means 5:00am in Ethiopia.  Where is she waking up?  If it was a typical cool night, did she have a blanket to cover her small body?  Did her tummy growl as she drifted off to sleep, or did she get food last night before she went to bed?

We ended up giving some restaurant leftovers to the begging woman that day, who seemed grateful.  Perhaps we helped that family to go to bed with full bellies that particular night.  However, I know I can do better than just sharing my leftovers.  These people are deserving of my first-fruits, not my measly leftovers or excess.




May I always have clarity to see the difference between need and want.

May I never choose comfort over helping others survive.

May my heart always break when I see others in pain, and my eyes always water when I see despair.



Lord, keep me from getting comfortable here.  I can do so much more.

New Fashion

Feven was supposed to be sleeping in her crib, but she was more interested in playing in there.  One time I saw her stand up and noticed a large hole in the back of her shirt.  Nope, it wasn't a hole, but rather the neck of her shirt...on her back...what?  After I took her out of the crib, I had to snap a few pictures.  From the front, it looks like a neon shrug!  She must have had to really pull to get her neck out of the shirt, because when I went to right it, I had to tug fairly hard!  Oh, Feven!

Ethiopia 2 - Scared Eyes

We rushed back from Assela to the House of Hope on Saturday.  We got back later than expected due to heavy traffic coming into the city, and we were trying to hurry because one of our friends was flying back home that evening and needed to gather her luggage at the guest house before going to the airport.  We picked up Feven in a complete flurry, quickly asking for the gifts we had brought for her the first time and trying to make a trade with a blanket we brought for a blanket that smelled like the transition home.  We said rushed goodbyes to some of her nannies with the promise to come back on Monday and say a "good" goodbye.  In our haste and scurrying, we forgot to ask for any kind of schedule for Feven.  In fact, all of our care questions regarding Feven remained in our closed notebook, not a one of them able to be asked.

We quickly piled into the agency van and drove to the guest house in the end-of-day traffic.  Feven looked a little concerned after having been rushed into the arms of (almost) strangers and taken into the van.  I held her tight and tried to reassure her that she was okay.

The rocking of the van calmed her, and soon she grew heavy in my arms and I knew she was asleep.  As we didn't have any sort of schedule, we figured that her sleeping was good and we should try to keep her that way.  We gingerly exited the van upon arrival at the guest house, and slowly made our way up the steps to our room.  We placed her gently on our bed where she continued sleeping.  Parent victory number one!

Now what?

Zac and I sort of just looked at each other in the stillness of the room and tried to comprehend that we were now a family of three.  Feven was in our custody, ours forever, and today was day one of our life as a family.  Simply amazing.  Finally, after all the waiting, the ups and downs, the struggles and joys, she was ours.  We were together. 

After some time she began to stir, and we both looked at each other with excitement in our eyes.  She was waking up!  We could play together!  We made our way over to the bed, one of us on either side of her, and quietly greeted her as she opened her eyes.

I won't forget what happened next.  Her eyes grew big, and without moving her body at all, she moved her eyes first to look at me, then Zac.  What I saw in her eyes was not love or excitement to be with us, but rather fear.  Her eyes took in the room around her, a room unknown to her and even how she got there unknown to her.  She had such scared eyes.

My heart broke for her in that moment.  I didn't know how to reassure her effectively that she would be okay, or how to tell her how great life would be from here on out.  All she knew was that she was not in the place she knew and loved for the last 9 of her 11 months on this earth.  She was in the care of strangers.

Oh, my little darling.  Hang in there.  Good things are to come, I promise.  You may be frightened now, but it will be small compared to the great joy you will feel in being loved so deeply by Daddy and I.