Daddy and Thad - Thad always looks way more awake than Daddy. That is because Thad still wakes up 1-2 times a night to eat and Daddy gets up to feed him.

Savannah and Thad -everyone adores this boy, of course what's not to love, do you see that smile?

Kamby with the best big brother in the world!

Uniquely Dax, he thinks he is the coolest boy ever. He puts on his rag, his shades, and this case his cubby vest and gets attention from everyone!

Thaddeus Joel is always smiling!

Kamby and Thad just learned to sit up, they love playing together on the floor.

Isn't she so beautiful!

Princess Graci Jia is turning 4 in a couple of weeks.

Ethiopia Video Part 1

Alyx is making several videos of our trip. This is the first complete one. This one depicts the average living conditions of what we saw in Addis Ababa. Future videos will show the babies and their trip out of the orphanage. I cannot figure out how to post a link or the video on this blog so here is a link you will have to copy and paste. Enjoy, Alyx did a great job!

http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=7de35e409230e7ef0a48&sp=1

Goodbye 2009 and Hello 2010

Savannah and Kamby

The boys love it when Alyx gets on the floor.

Precious sisters!

Our littles and our little littles!

Best friends forever!

Is this a handsome boy or what?

I feel as though I may be over thrown someday.

There is not one thing I would change about 2009. It has been an amazing year full of God's grace and abundant life. We feel blessed beyond measure to have all our beautiful children both newly joining our family and rejoining our family (Savannah). I have so much trouble finding the time to keep a blog updated and I am not an inspired writer so that makes it more difficult. I know that many have been concerned for Thad and his health and I do want to update on him. His lungs are clear for the moment and we are no longer giving breathing treatments. He is still very nasally congested but that is just going to take time. He is breathing 10x better now. He has a pretty severe ear infection in his right ear and it has caused him a lot of pain and has been oozing since we got him. He is on a strong dose of antibiotics and hopefully will clear soon. Kamby is doing awesome. She sleeps all night and is a happy, healthy baby girl. Thad is super happy as well despite his health issues. Both babies are eating well and putting on weight. We eagerly await 2010 and what God is going to do. We have no regrets and very much look forward to experiencing Him in the coming year - however He decides we will do that!

Family of 8 picture - Christmas Eve

Ethiopia Part 2

The platters of food at the restaurant that Lee and Alyx went out to.

As if traffic and people were not enough to deal with we had contend with people selling goats down the middle of the roads. Little boys would herd goats across traffic at all hours of the day. A pave alley way down the way from he market we went to. Most are not paved but very rough dirt roads. Again, I called it an alley way because that is what it looks like but it is actually just a road.

Tire shop this is the Big O of Addis Ababa.

The tin shed that the guard who opens the gate gets to sleep in. This is inside the gate to the lawyer's office.
Gate to the lawyer's office.

Lee was amazed at the construction going on. If look closely you will see the scaffolding is curved wood tied together. Woman as well as men work on these and they are on almost all construction.

Our travel group, the Busic and Hallock families. We all had lunch and dinner together almost every day.

Some one's home. The homes ranged from this to apartments to the occasional nice private residence behind a steel gate. They all were right next to each other there is not separate parts of town, at least not what we saw.

Like I said we visited the babies each day and then we would do adoption business and a little sightseeing when we were not with them. The hotel (guest house) we stayed at was very nice but humble. At first we found it charming and then found it a little rugged. We really longed for a shower that had some water pressure other than gravity and that did not scald you and then freeze you in the same second. Lee kept saying "at least we have a shower" so we tried to look on the bright side. Since I was so extremely taxed from the travel, the emotion of the meeting the babies, and from being in Ethiopia I slept great at night and slept long. Lee on the other hand did not. He usually does not require much sleep and with the time difference he was up wandering around at all hours of the night. But since the hotel is locked up inside the steel gate at night and you are not allowed out he was pretty bored. He spent a lot of time playing solitaire by candle light. Poor Alyx could never get on the right time. She was up in the middle of the night every night, wide awake and bored to death. With no TV, computer, or even accessible electricity it made for quite long nights for those that did not sleep. We were fed quite well at the hotel, all meals were prepared for us. They were European food not Ethiopian dishes. For breakfast every day all we got was toast. Except one day we got eggs with our toast and another day we got toast and french toast. We laughed a lot! I learned very early on to stay away from all meat and anything with a questionable sauce. Lee and Alyx ate everything though. Lee made it the whole trip with out even indigestion, Alyx did not. The day we were to leave Alyx spent the night on the bathroom floor with severe food poisoning. When one of our guides came by to check on us she told Alyx, "well, now you can say, I have been to Africa". Alyx did not think it was amusing. Praise God she got it all out and was able to travel home with out being sick. Lee and Alyx went to an Ethiopian restaurant one night with one of the other families in our travel group. They really enjoyed the food and the entertainment. The husband from the other family was violently ill the entire next day. He had the lamb or as the guide said "maybe it was a goat who ate a bad leaf". Again no one was laughing. I opted out of dinner due to fear of getting sick and great fatigue. It was really hard to get around in Addis. The traffic and smog is horrible. I had a constant sinus headache. There are no traffic laws and it was absolutely insane the way the people drive. I was so tense, especially when we had the babies with us (of course car seats are unheard of, we didn't even have seat belts). I was always sure this car trip would be our last. When we were not fearing for our lives driving, we were sitting still while beggars and people surround our car trying to get our attention. Since it was so hot we had to have the windows down. People would surround us asking for money. We tried to give it out but the need was so great. People would mob and just keep coming if we showed any sign of helping and if we were sitting in traffic too long it became very difficult to manage. Every one that we had a personal encounter with was very nice and friendly. As I mentioned we were not prepared for we what experienced so we looked completely awe struck most the time. I will continue more late but I need to get some rest now. My baby boy wakes between 4-5 am and is ready for the day. He goes to bed between 6-7 pm but I don't get there until later. He and Kamby both get up to eat every 3 hours. As soon as everyone is well we will teach them the Brady method of sleeping.

Ethiopia Part 1

Our first day meeting Thad and Kamby, outside in the orphanage garden.
The kids at the orphanage just loved Alyx and the girls wanted to have their pictures taken individually with her.

The kids loved taking goofy pictures and then looking at them on the screen. They especially loved Alyx videoing them.

Inside the guest house at the toukoul (orphanage) the first time we met Kamby.

My baby boy!

My baby girl!

Daddy and son meet.

Although finding time to blog is very difficult, it has been most difficult deciding what to blog. It is easy to show our babies and our new family of 8 but I have no idea how to put into words the heart wrenching sights and sounds that are Ethiopia. We were definitely not prepared for what we experienced while in Addis Abbaba. We opted not to leave the city just for health reasons and cost. But what we experienced inside the city was more than enough. All the people that served us were the most gracious and friendly. The diversity of people within the city amazed us. Among the crippled, poor, and children in the streets were very well dressed, well off people mixed right in. It wasn't like we drive to a nice area and then a poor area, every area is poor with some nice buildings and such every so often. We arrived Sunday afternoon and were taken to our hotel then immediately to the toukoul (orphanage) to meet the babies. We kept thinking that we were turning down alley ways but it turns out those are the roads. Everything is behind a steel gate and someone has to open the gate to let the cars in. Our beautiful babies responded very well to us the first day. We spent about 2 hours with them, they smiled and laughed and never cried. We visited each consecutive day until Friday when we checked them out of the toukoul for good. I will post more on our trip and the babies later when I have more time. Right now, at home, they are doing well overall but battling illness. Thad has rsv/bronchialitis w/ an ear infection and Kamby has an ear infection and cold. They are sleeping and eating well and in very good spirits.