second best day ever.

the second best day ever.

{wrote this the day after we met the kids}

if yesterday was the best day ever (meeting the kids!), then today was the second best day.  it started out by eating amazing pancakes at the guest house, telling old family stories around the table and then we headed to the foster home around 10.  We got to hold and love on our sweet babies.  It was a warm & sunny afternoon and we put camp + asher in outfits (and hat for camp & bow for asher) that we brought and took some family photos!  Camp smiled immediately when we saw him & we can already tell huge improvements in his confidence.  A lot of the times he holds his fists all clinched up but today he was letting his arms & hands fly free.  Asher was cute as ever -- every time Alison had her camera up, she was looking right at the camera.  She is a sassafras already!  We love them both so much & it seemed like today they remembered us and knew who we were.  Time flew by as we held & loved them!  A few things - Asher was so sweet discovering her hand!  Camp was a smiling guy finally - way more alert.  We are so in love!  

After seeing the babies we got our drivers to take us to Korah.  We weren’t sure if we would have enough time to get over there & back but I’m SO GLAD we went.  My parents sponsor a boy through Project 61 so we wanted them to meet him - although he wasn’t around that day, I”m so glad they got to see the place & meet the people that we love so much.  It was such a fun surprise to see our 2 sponsor girls Tsion & Abenezer, my son Eyob and so many other of our friends!  It was like a big family reunion.  We hung out in the church & Debs always had a group of younger girls around her and Russ was a big hit with the younger boys with his baseball videos on his phone.  Everyone found friends & after an hour and a half it was sad to leave.  Stephen and I will go back this week before he leaves Wednesday & get to do home visits with our sponsor girls homes.  It’s going to be a great summer getting to hang out and continue to build relationships with these beautiful people. 

After Korah we went back to Kaldis for some yummy coffee - then it started to pour down rain as we got to the foster home.  A perfect, cool, beautiful rainy afternoon to snuggle with our babies.  It never gets old & we can’t get enough!  They love their Bunni & GP too - getting some good time in with them.  It’s always sad to say goodbye when we leave.

We went to the traditional restaurant last night, even though we were all tired, and I”m so glad we did!  Immediately we ran into friends & then more friends and more friends.  It was a big reunion!  My voice seriously went horse from talking so much & so loud over the music.  We had a fun table in the back, got a bottle of wine, and my mom LOVED the dancing.  Alison & I had some really good time catching up and Stephen even got up by our table and danced!  (I have video to prove it!).  

It was such an amazing day.  a dream day.  not only are we in ethiopia meeting our babies and starting our family but we have gotten to spend some time with the people that already felt like our family here in Ethiopia.  Once again, I just can’t imagine life before camp + asher + our love affair with Ethiopia.  It’s been the biggest adventure of our lives and I’m so blessed to get to have such an amazing godly man leading the way!