Ethiopia Week 2

Thanks so much for all your prayers regarding a place to stay in Addis! The original hotel where we were staying gave us a discounted rate for the remainder of our time here! Directly above is a picture of our view from our hotel room and a picture of one of their hospitable staff braiding Averi's hair! Though it is still much more expensive than we would have paid in Mekele, we are looking at the extra funds as an offering/tithe to this incredible ministry. Check out a video about their ministry at: http://vimeo.com/17683549

Our daughter flew down to Addis a few days ago and we have been spending lots of quality time together. We spent all day for the first 3 days at the House of Hope Transition Home (Pictured on top. Look at all that laundry!!!) Then, on Friday we were able to bring her back to our hotel, eat lunch together, go to the store for ice cream and balloons, and have a fun fashion show in our room with the clothes we brought for her! We have been surprised this week by how smart our girl is! She beats all of us in checkers pretty much everytime, she knows lots of adding and subtracting facts, she knows the English alphabet and can read some English words, and she put a difficult puzzle together super fast! She can communicate her needs with some English and acting things out with her vibrant personality! She knows more English than we thought she would and she mimics pretty much everything we say or do- She is such a fast learner!

Please continue to pray as we go back and forth to the orphanage. Transportation is pricey and we are trying to find ways to keep our expenses down. Thank you for your continued prayers for:

• Bonding with our daughter and the culture
• Good stewardship of time and resources
• Provision for extra unanticipated expenses (ie. transportation, hotel, food)
• Forming good relationships with the adoption agency and hotel staff
• Forming a great support network with other adopting families staying here
• VERY FAST processing of all our paperwork
• All appointments for our daughter go smoothly (Birth Cert, Passport, Medical)

Please pray we get our DECREE ASAP! Then, she will officiallyBE OURS and we will be able to post pictures of our girl on-line for you all to see!!!