Grace Turns Two

Some pictures by Katie:

Ethiopian Food

My foray into Ethiopian cooking has been met with mixed success. The first thing I tried was entitled "Ethiopian Sloppy Joes". It was so spicy that no-one would eat it. Even Eric and Amy, who love spice, could not tolerate it. Unfortunately this did not set a good precedence for trying anything else Ethiopian. Everytime I get the orange cookbook down (from which the Sloppy Joes came) all the kids cry "you're not making Ethiopian food again are you?" I did manage to find a cabbage side dish that everyone seems to like and I have also tried a few chicken dishes which have turned out okay. So when Eric and I told the kids we were going to an Ethiopian restaurant last evening we were pretty much met with groans. But we persisted and headed out. At first I wondered if all the kids were going to leave hungry, but after getting used to the idea of the different food all of them did quite well and we did manage to find food that they all liked - except for Grace.

This is pretty much how Grace spent the meal - rubbing the food off her tongue and saying "hot". She left somewhat hungry!

Dogwood Festival - Piedmont Park

A gorgeous spring day and even in the midst of the city there is much beauty.

WE PASSED COURT AND SHE IS OURS

She is now legally Tigist Eric Elder (in Ethiopia the father's name is the middle name). We have known her as Nigisti (that is what she is called in the orphanage -possibly a nickname for Tigist but we are a little sketchy on that).

Here are some pictures from the first care package that we sent. (I could not post any pictures of her until she was declared legally ours, but we did receive several of them.)

The translator is reading the letter we wrote when we introduced ourselves - and she is wearing the tie-dye shirt we sent her.

Looking at the photo book we sent:



Blowing kisses to her new siblings:

It was a long process, but we are excited that we are now so close to bringing her home. It looks like we will travel the week of May 10. It is a little hard to grasp that we have a daughter halfway around the world that we have not even met! Thank you Lord for this new blessing.

Mayfield Dairy

Today our home school group had a trip to the Mayfield Dairy. This was a nice distraction as I didn't have to sit at home waiting for THE PHONE CALL.

Nice Hairnets!



The best thing about the field trip was while we were at the dairy I did receive THE PHONE CALL and we increased our family size by one!!!!!!!!!

Easter

Easter, as usual, was spent at church and then my parents. We have a nice dinner followed by two hunts - one for the younger children and then one for the teenagers/adults. The adult hunt is rather competitive and we always have a great time. Some of Scott's friends from Tech joined us and we enjoyed some great fellowship. It was a beautiful day, and most of all we are thankful that the reason we celebrate this day is that Christ rose from the dead and has given us life.

Siblings