Caleb day 4

   Today was awesome. I don't even know where to start!! First off you guys must have been praying because not only did Caleb finally eat food, he also slept last night. He did get up twice, but he slept!! We were so thankful. We think he is teething bad. His gums are really swollen so we gave him tylenol and that seemed to help.

Before we headed out for the day, we had a coffee ceremony put on by Tsige. I am obsessed with the coffee.

When we headed out, we drove by Kora on our way to the Alert hospital. Kora is the city dump where people live. They eat off of the food that gets dumped there. It was just...... there are no words. The smell alone makes you want to run for the hills, but there are people who have no other choice but to live there. Children and all. I wanted so badly to go meet some of them and love on them, but with Caleb we didn't feel like it would have been a good idea. I did get some pictures so you can kind of see what I am talking about (they will be on my facebook when we get home) After that we went to the Alert hospital. This hospital is where they treat the people with Leprosy and HIV. We went there so we could buy some stuff. All the money goes to them so we wanted to support what we could. Besides they love having visitors. We ended up getting the girls beautiful Ethiopian dresses and also the boys Ethiopian clothes. My girls are going to die! They wanted a dress so bad. Shhhh don't tell them.

We then went to the Holy Trinity Church. This is very historic for Ethiopia. Every single item in that church symbolizes something from the bible. It was built  by the Greeks. You will die when you see the pictures, it is nothing short of astonishing. The history behind it is incredible. We had a wonderful tour guide. He just loved Caleb and we learned something pretty amazing today. He asked what Caleb's name was and we told him Leykun ( that is his given name and will be his middle name now) The man told me he would not pronounce it and then asked us if he was in the Ormoyion (sp?) region. We said yes! (the place where he is from is 2 hours southeast of Addis) We later found out that the first language of Ethiopia is called Geez. That language is only to be spoken by the high priest and Leykun is of that language and means "Let it be".  We could never find anything on his name and  I am so glad we did.

Later on that night we met a bunch of adopting parents at a restaurant called Island Breeze. It was a crazy, hectic time and I was thankful to be able to spend time with families who have all been through what we have been through. We also met someone there named Bizrat. He has a relationship with our church at home and it was only God that we finally got to meet him. He was so sweet and I asked him what Leykun meant and he said the same thing as our guide. He also was able to pin point what region he was from just by the name. I find that so interesting.

We then of course went to Kaldis and Caleb had his first chocolate milk shake. He is such a Maser, he LOVED it!!!

Everyone here has been so nice. They keep kissing on Caleb and  telling us they are so thankful to see us with him. We tell them that we are so thankful that WE get to be his parents.
We did not adopt because we are "saving him" we did this because God told us to. I can't tell you how thankful I am that God would allow us to do this! We had no plan to adopt, we had no idea how we would fund raise to even do it, we had no clue about anything and yet God did it all. All He wanted was an obedient heart and He would take care of the rest. And He did!

I am so torn because I LOVE it here. I really do. God is the one that is doing that. God is drawing our hearts more and more here and we are not sure why yet. I am dying to get home to see my babies and have us all together as a family, but I am so sad to leave. This place feels like home. Not Florida. Curious to see what God is doing.

There is so much that we have seen and experienced. It is really hard to put into words. Hopefully when things settle down I will be able to wrap my head around it all.

Thank you all for following our journey. We could never have done any of this with out your support and prayers. We will be leaving here tomorrow and headed to Germany first and then New York where Caleb will be an American Citizen :) and then home! We should be arriving in Tampa at 8 pm. Thursday night.

Please pray that everything goes as smoothly as it can. I get so exhausted just flying with hubby and now we will have Caleb.

Oh and one last thing. I don't understand how people lose weight when they come here. I can't stop eating their yummy food and I must drink my weight in coffee everyday.

All for His Glory,