Chillin' In Addis

Thursday, June 3 we were instructed to be at Sele Enat (the orphanage that Joshua's paperwork passed through) to meet with his birth family. It was a disappointing visit as no one arrived. Abebe explained that sometimes birth family does not care to meet the adoptive family, other times they can not travel for one reason or another, and still other times they get confused about the day they are to meet. While I am very sad to not have information to give Gebeyehu about where he was born, what his parents were like, why he was named Gebeyehu, etc... (I had a list of like 30 questions prepared.) I trust that this was part of God's plan. Meeting with birth family was something I prayed over a lot and I trust that God knows what was best for our son. However one thing I would like you all to pray for as our son grows is that he will feel complete in who he is as a child of the King without knowing much about who his earthly birth father and mother were.





This is a picture of Joshua and I waiting for his Ethiopian family. He smiled really cute for this picture but in reality he was quite nervous. We were all really relieved when it was time to leave because of Gebeyehu's obvious discomfort.

I was able to ask Abebe what Joshua Gebeyehu's life would have been like if he had been raised in Sidama. He explained that in a "good" (his word not 100% sure what his definition of good would be) family, he would have gone to school until about 8th grade. He then would have become a farmer. He would have raised coffee for cash and maize, wheat, and barley to eat. Life would have been much work with no tractor, power, or running water.

He also explained that the boys at the care center love cars so much because they are seldom seen in the villages. Abebe remembered that as a boy he would see perhaps one car a month. When they would see a car all the boys would run and chase it getting covered with dust or mud because it was just such a thrill to be close to a car.

My days in Addis Ababa with Joshua were filled with play. It was such a treat to not have to worry about anything other than hanging with and learning about my son. Here are some of the ways we filled the afternoons:

Playing kwas (ball)



Eating! Being able to point to a snack cupboard was FUN!

Watching people walk by from our balcony. There was always action to view -sometimes we saw donkeys heavy laden with sacks of grain, stray dogs, children walking to school, etc...

CHOW! (pretending to go bye-bye was by far his favorite)

Joshua helped to decorate the cards we gave the nannies with stickers.

BUBBLES!

Gebeyehu loved to climb on top of his suitcase, close the closet doors, and pretend to drive. He would yell "Chow mama!" Blow me a kiss. Climb inside and start with the noisy car sounds. Then he would "arrive", climb out and yell "Hey Mama!" Giggling like crazy when I pretended to be surprised to see him.

Several afternoons while Gebeyehu and I played and napped at the Guest House my mom and Krissy did some exploring. I will see if I can convince Krissy to blog about those experiences. The only day Gebeyehu and I did any exploring was Saturday and I will post about that soon.