MERRY CHRISTMAS!

And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Luke 2:10

Merry Christmas - Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Joy! This year the Lord has brought such joy to our lives in the adoption of our two precious Ethiopian daughters, Rebecca Bethlehem and her sister, Kathryn Jerusalem.

We started the adoption process last December and began our home study in January. A smooth start became rocky when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in February. For a few months, we had to follow Jesus into the hard places. What we found were that the hard places increased our sense of urgency in our call to adopt and more aligned our will and desires with His.

It was during this time of operations (I had five this year!) and rest that I felt closest to God and gained greater wisdom in my walk with Him. I discovered joy founded in Jesus can not be taken despite the hardships I faced. My illness was a time of darkness, confusion and searching but God was faithful to answer my prayers and lead me out of the darkness into light. On the other side of sorrow is great joy. We have found such joy that only comes from standing in the center of His will and watching Him orchestrate everything perfectly. He provided for my healing and has provided for our adoption in amazing and indescribable ways. 

King David recorded in Psalm 28: “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and He helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise Him.” and in Psalm 63: “On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.” During the hard times, we held on to the hope that is in Jesus. This Christmas, we are singing joy to the world because joy that is rooted in the eternal can not be taken away no matter what our circumstances. For our family, we see Christmas as a time of joy, light and hope in a fallen world. Jesus came into this world, overcame death and offers great joy to those that follow Him.

Our daughters' Ethiopian names further attest to His wonders. Their birth father's last name means “my hope.” Jesus gave me hope in my time of darkness. Bethlehem's name is from the city where our Savior was born and means “house of bread.” John records in his gospel that Jesus is the bread of life. It is through Him I have found my sustenance and purpose in life. Jerusalem is the city where our savior died and means “rain of peace.” It is because of His sorrow on the cross, that we can find true peace and unending joy.

This Christmas season: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Sprit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)

Christmas Blessings

SODERE HOT SPRINGS RESORT

The day before we left Ethiopia, we took a trip outside Addis Ababa to get a taste of rural Ethiopia. Tsehaywota hooked us up with a driver and Yoseph, from Compassion, went as our guide.  Our destination was Sodere Hot Springs Resort, about a 110 km or 68 miles east of Addis.  As we drove, we discovered the highway traveling east is the main route to Kenya and heavily traveled by diesel trucks.  We were glad we had an excellent, friendly driver, Sammy from Bama Tours.  We thought the name was pretty funny since we came from "Bama" fan country.

Even with an excellent driver, it was still quite disconcerting to see oncoming large vehicles as we constantly passed slower trucks on the road.  We passed the remains of a couple of major head on collisions and the fact that the van did not have seat belts made us feel a bit insecure to say the least. A few times we saw vehicles go off on the side of the road to avoid oncoming traffic.


It took us quite awhile just to get out of the city before we began to see the countryside. The first houses we saw were spread apart and still built out of blocks or sheet metal.

As we descended from Addis Ababa, which sits at about 8000 feet above sea level, to drive down into the beautiful Rift Valley, the rural houses looked like small round huts with thatched roofs.

We passed villages with small open-faced shops and melon stands along the roadside.

We observed farmers out in their fields stacking straw left from the harvest of the grain, Teff.  The large mounds were a beautiful golden color.

We saw farmers transporting their straw in carts pulled by small skinny, 13 hand, Abbyssinian Gala horses or on the tops of little donkeys.  Donkeys were often seen being driven along the side of the road carrying large jugs of water.  The horses trotted on the highway along with traffic pulling two-wheeled carts filled with people or farm goods.  A couple of times we saw old, bony used up horses standing lethargically along the roadside or in the road median.  Yoseph told us they are sometime left to fend for themselves when they are no longer of use.  People also were seen all along the road walking to a destination unknown to us.

We often passed farmers driving their herds of oxen or cattle.

So given what I have described, how long do you think it took us to drive the 68 miles to Sodero Springs?  If you guessed 3 hours, you were right!  Such a long drive required a bathroom stop in the beautiful city of Nazreth, a city of about 600,000 people.  Ethiopia does not have rest stops so we stopped at a nice hotel.  In exchange for their hospitality, we also stayed for coffee and sodas.

Not long after our stop we reached our destination.  Yoseph kept asking us if we wanted to buy soap and we kept thinking "Why in the world do we need soap?"  When I think of hot springs, I think of the mountains with a cold river running through it and hot springs bubbling up in it.  One just jumps in and swims in the mixture of hot and cold water.  So we passed on the soap and drove up to the springs.  A lady quickly told us that the men's area is separate from ladies so I had to go by myself.  I walked down some concrete stairs, bathing suit in hand, to a surprising site of three mostly naked females bathing with their soap under hot water spurting from pipes into a concrete structure. Too embarrassed to change into my bathing suit, I dipped my feet in the water a couple of minutes and hurried back up the stairs to sit under the shady trees.  Later, we walked over to the Awash river running next to the baths and were glad that we weren't required to get in it either.  I think I read it has alligators and hippos in it.

The resort also had an Olympic size pool but we declined swimming.  Later, I felt bad that we didn't offer to stay and swim so Yoseph and Sammy could enjoy swimming.  They probably don't have the same access to pools as we do in America.  They assured us that they didn't like to swim so that made me feel a bit better about our oversight.

The highlight of the resort though was monkeys!  There were monkeys everywhere, in the trees, on our van and trying to get in our van.  They were so cute.  We had some crackers so we fed them but quickly learned they would try and jump on you to snatch the entire pack!  One small child made the mistake of stepping on a monkey tail and 3 other monkeys quickly came to the monkey's defense as the child's mother quickly snatched her child up to safety.

Our second highlight of the trip was stopping in a field on our return trip to see a mother camel and her newborn baby.  The farmer and his nephews came up to see what we were doing and allowed us to take pictures for a few Bir.

On the way home, Yoseph wanted to stop at a nice resort on a lake for coffee.  The resort was gorgeous but overpriced.  They wanted 200 Bir each because we could only have coffee if we bought a complete recreation package.  Needless to say we took our pictures there and drove on.

Here are a couple more scenic pictures from our trip.

And finally, here are David, Sammy and Yoseph at a more accommodating hotel having coffee and cheering to a successful trip!

COMPASSION

On Thursday of our trip to Ethiopia, we visited Compassion.  Tsehaywota Taddessee, the country director, treated us to smooth, creamy Macchiatos and a roasted barley snack.  I'm not a coffee drinker but the Macchiatos were absolutely delicious!  He gave us an power point overview of their work and then showed us around the office.  One things we observed as we passed through the hallways was the camaraderie of the employees as they gathered together at coffee break stations in the hall to talk and laugh together. David actually ran into someone in their IT department that he had met previously at a Compassion global summit. It is a small world!

After visiting the headquarters, we were driven to the Compassion project, Amist Kilo Mekane Yesus Church Development.  It is operated by the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus, a Lutheran church. Compassion always partners with local churches in assisting children in impoverished areas.   We met the Reverend and the project director who treated us to a coffee ceremony.  Reeds are placed on the floor to show hospitality to one's guest.  The small freshly brewed cups of Ethiopian coffee were served with sweet popcorn.  The boys liked this!

Following our ceremony, we went out to the courtyard to meet the children who had just been dismissed from school.  Seventy plus kids swarmed around us, all wanting to shake our hands.  What joyful and welcoming little children!  We thought how cool it would be if the boys could sponsor a child that they met there and stay in correspondence.  The director matched them up and we took pictures only to find out later when we arrived at home that the two boys were recently sponsored and the paperwork just had not reached the project yet.  We still hope to find another match from the same project.

Matthew 18:2-4 - He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.  And he said:  "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven and whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me."

ADDIS ABABA

This week has been busy getting back and getting ready for Christmas but I wanted to write more on our Ethiopia experience. I also want to note that we did not get to meet the girls' grandfather. We were told that he is a protestant pastor from a very rural Southern area and it took him 5-6 days of travel just to get to court. He had already left for his return trip when we arrived.

Ethiopia was an amazing and incredible experience for the entire family. We arrived late Saturday night and soon discovered it would take us 3 hours to get through the visa line, customs, baggage and out of the airport. David stood in the visa line while I watched the boys sleep, sitting up against a wall. There was no order to the flow of the line and I noticed that David did not move at all as people unobtrusively merged in front of the polite Americans in front of him! Twice the power and lights went off in the crowded airport. We thought that might delay things if computers went down but later discovered the officials using old fashioned desks, pens and paper to issue visas.

Our travel guide described Addis Ababa as “shambolic.” It is a city of 6 million people and very little urban planning. The majority of the residences are corrugated metal sheds with no modern conveniences. Eucalyptus firewood is used for cooking and the early morning air is filled with smoke from the fires. Many concrete structures stand unfinished. Some have flimsy wooden trestles against them for the workers to stand upon as they construct. A modern building may be haphazardly thrown in among all the other types of structures. Small individually owned shops line all the streets. The vendors come out to passing cars and try to sell their wares through the open car windows. Furniture shops consist of dusty old furniture placed alongside the road. 

 A touch of rural is also seen in the city as men drive their small donkeys down the street and through the traffic. One might find a cow foraging for a scrap of grass next to the road or goats being driven through the streets. People line the streets at all times of the night and day.

Orderly chaos describes the flow of traffic. We saw maybe one stop light during all of our outings. Intersections are not 4 way stops but every man for himself as each vehicle jostles their way through the intersection. There are few traffic lanes and the number of lanes of traffic vary depending on what is blocking any one of the lanes. Diesel fumes fill the air. Blue and white taxis pervade the streets. After watching the flow of traffic we better understood why it took us so long to get our visas at the airport! Both systems lack rules and consist of merging. I would not be bold enough to ever drive in Addis! I thought it interesting that Toyota vehicles dominated the streets. Clearly the people know what type of vehicle runs for a long time!

Traffic does not yield to pedestrians. People trying to cross the heavy lanes of traffic remind me of the game frogger. I was amazed that we did not see anyone hit during our week's visit although we saw many come quite close. I even saw small children crossing the street by themselves. At one point, a crippled man scooted out on his rear into traffic trying to approach our car for a handout. Traffic was often at a standstill and women with their babies would come asking for help for their babies. It is against the law to give them money and I spent many sleepless nights in tears as I thought of the verse from Matthew 25:45: “He will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” A few times I snuck a pack of crackers out the window and was met with grateful eyes.

Despite all the poverty we came across, we saw such beauty. Even though traffic was chaotic, the drivers were overly patient and calm and it seemed to work for the most part. They had a system in all the madness. The Ethiopian people are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. Both the men and women have beautifully refined features and smooth light chocolaty brown skin. I did not see one over weight Ethiopian. The people seem accepting of their life circumstances and know no other way of life. They are incredibly friendly. Their beauty is reflected in their colorful baskets, clothes, scarves and other items. Our visit really opened my eyes and confirmed how much we take for granted in America and how self-absorbed, materialistic and wasteful a large majority of people are in America.

We visited an Ethiopian Baptist church with the director of Ethiopia Compassion. It was an amazing experience to watch the people joyfully worship with no time constraints. Tsehaywota took us back to the hotel after 2.5 hours and church was not even over. Tsehaywota translated parts of the sermon to us and the topic was on living a life of faith and service to God and not for ourselves. He spoke of not compromising our faith with what the world says is acceptable and redeeming our time by living for God such as the apostle Paul. These are all messages that God has impressed upon my heart the past few years.

The hotel food had a mixture of western style food (cooked differently from what we are used to) and national food. David, Michael and I enjoyed a few national dishes. Stephen went on a starvation diet that he made up for upon our return! After a few days of looking at the same menu, it was difficult to get an appetite up for any particular dish. We had to remind ourselves that we were lucky we had food to eat as many of the people outside the hotel were probably living on one scanty meal a day, or less. We also observed that the children at the care center ate the same lunch daily, injera bread with lentil sauce on top.  Injera is a flat sourdough type bread made from a super grain called Teff.  It is highly nutritious.

We were treated to an outing up nearby Entoto Mountain. It is the highest point in Addis. - above 10,000 ft. elevation. The former Emperor had his residence and Orthodox church at the top. As we drove up the mountain, we saw women slowly walking down the mountain with enormous bundles of eucalyptus firewood on their backs. They go up the mountain, cut the wood, fasten it together and carry it down. They are only able to make one trip a day. It looks like back breaking work and only for a meager amount of money that they are able acquire from selling the firewood. Eucalyptus trees are grown because they reach maturity within just a few years. As you can see from the photos there is a huge disparity between the Ethiopian church and castle compared to European cathedrals and castles.  The people pictured in front of the castle are two other families that traveled with us and our driver.

That pretty well summarizes what we experienced in Addis Ababa.  Of course, most of our time was spent at the care center and our hotel.  Next time I will tell you of our trip to Compassion and the rural countryside.