Home Sweet Home

Ah yes, we are back on familiar turf after having used the first week of our two week language school break to travel through much of northern Ethiopia. The trip as a whole went well. No car problems, no MAJOR injuries or sicknesses, no days ruined by rain and no mental breakdowns having to drive 30-40 hours in a jam packed SUV with a 10-year-old and 12-year-old MKs sitting shoulder to shoulder in the back seat and some very differing personalities represented among the five adults (with the most random thinker being in charge).

In the end though, we look back on all that we saw and experienced and we are thankful. We went to a university graduation ceremony where our skin color alone made us “honored guests.” We camped on the side of the road, much to the entertainment of some locals. We went to a place called Lalibela, where 800 years ago a king/priest carved huge churches out of stone (with the help of angles of course!). Our presence caused quite a stir in an Amhara village where white people were obviously not a common occurrence. We visited a 400 year old castle in Gondar and spent a night in the beautiful Semien mountains (the home of thousands of “bleeding heart baboons”). We went to a famous Ethiopian waterfall on the Blue Nile River and we once again came close to Gmz territory which pulled at our hearts for our future work. We look forward to sharing the stories of our trip in the next week or two.

Tomorrow morning, at 3:15am, we pick up our first visitors to Ethiopia. Trent and Kristi who are coming to pick up one of their adopted children (the other is sadly delayed in court). With only 10 hours to unpack, clean, catch up on emails, write this blog and get some sleep, we pray for strength to be good hosts as we have looked forward to this visit for many weeks/months!