January 11 Journal Email

It was wonderful waking up in the morning and having the family all together.  Mihret was a little unsure of Lyle.  As I laid in bed ignoring life for a brief moment, I smiled with complete happiness and peace.  It helped that the night before as I laid waiting for Lyle, I prayed about Mihret's visa.  I felt peace about it as well and knew that the next day (Jan 11) we would hear that it would be coming.

Mihret wouldn't eat breakfast from Lyle and she really kicked up a fuss going to him if I was around.  After a week and a half of tending to her and carrying her everywhere, I was totally okay to leave the room and let her settle in with him.

It was nice to finally pack a bag for being out for the day.  We got things together and were thrilled to go see some sights and do some exploring of Ethiopia.  For Lyle and I, each place we went to we had been before, but it was nice to see again and have Mikiyas learn a little more about where he was born and his heritage.

We headed up Mount Entoto to see the very first church built in Ethiopia, and where the emperor once lived and is now buried.  It also had a spectacular view over looking the city. There is a small religious museum there, which Mikiyas really enjoyed seeing the swords, shields and crowns.  The shield was made from hippopotamus skin.  Going up and down the mountain was beautiful too.  We saw many donkeys bring wood, grass and leaves down the mountain.  We also, again, saw the older women carrying 70-80 pound bundles of wood on their backs down the mountain.  They will earn less than one USD per day to do this very labour intensive job. 

We then headed to the weavers shop.  This is a place where the retired wood carriers work weaving when they are too old (or physically unable) to carry the wood.  For an amazing price, we were able to purchase beautiful scarves from them.  Although we didn't need quite so many, we bought lots to support these women and what they do.

We then headed to the women's pottery place.  There we purchased a few pottery items requested by friends and family.  I always love looking at the new creations they make, and even purchased a couple items for our home.

Lunch was done at a restaurant called Carnivore.  It did indeed have delicious meat meals. We had a good time getting to know the other people who were out being tourists with us, and staying at the guest house too.  This includes an eight year old boy previously adopted from Ethiopia as well, and now living in Coquitlam.  Mikiyas and this boy hit it off amazingly during breakfast and are almost inseparable now.  It's incredible how well they've taken to each other.

Mihret's second loaded diaper of the day was changed by Lyle!!  Both grandmas had great fun laughing at the escapade.  One even had a camera out.  I was instructing which was was the front of the diaper and how to clean her.  Lyle did really well on his first changing and managed not to gag.

We enjoyed a nice afternoon walk, getting some soccer balls blown up for the kids here to play with.  Mikiyas bought his first treat for himself since being here - a really nice red "Vintage" baseball cap.  He was thrilled with his purchase.

We spent the evening laughing hysterically at Mihret's amazing turn around of laughter and smiles.  She wrestles and is an incredible tease.  She's warmed up to Lyle a lot in one day. He is so lucky he did not have to endure the first week with her!

As an absolutely awesome end to the evening, we received an email from CAFAC letting us know that our visa was issued and sent out of Nairobi today.  It should be in our hands on Monday.  How perfect of a day.