LATEST UPDATE

Just talked to the fam, as of right now, everyone will be able to get on the flight to GR. They are estimated to arrive at Grand Rapids around 9ish. See you there!

ARRIVAL UPDATE

Hey everyone,

It's Mary again... just spoke with Mandi, they have a flight out from DC to Cincinnati (#5471). Then, they have another flight from Cin to GR (flight #5018 Delta), they are flying standby on this last leg, so they will not know if they will be able to get on it for sure until about 7:30 tonight. If they do get on the flight, they will be arriving in GR around 9:07pm.
Please check back around 7:30, by then we should know if they were able to get on their last flight.
Thanks
Mary

LATE ARRIVAL

Hi everyone,

This is Mary (Mandi's Sister). I heard from Mandi a few minutes ago and they are in DC, they have missed their flight so they will not be into Grand Rapids until around 10pm. There is no need to meet them at the airport at 4:30 b/c they will not be there. If anyone has any questions please feel free to call me 836.4022

Thanks
Mary

Day 9 Just a few more things before we leave

Today is Day 9. We will go to the airport at 7:00 tonight. We will be on the plane at 10:30. We woke uip this morning knowing we will not go to bed till Sunday night. Yikes! 

This morning we did a little more shopping. We had to spend our birr before we leave. We picked up some great souvenoirs. Now we are relaxing by the pool mentally preparing for our exhausting trip home. We have 2 hours before we leave to go back to the hotel to get our luggage and finishing packing.

 

 

Enjoy the last pictures from Ethiopia. Next post will be from the US. Home Sweet Home!

Lots of Love,

Rick & Mandi & Jakob

Tom & Kathy

 

PS We had a security guard approach us and ask us to take his 6 kids back to the US for education. Anyone interest in Exchange students???

 

MORE PHOTOS

Unfortunately I can not read your comments right away. We are unable to actually access our blogs from here. It is Ethiopian Law or something like that. So I have to email posts to the blog. My sister Mary emails me the comments every couple of days. Thank you so much for all your love and support. We appreciate reading them as much as you like reading the blog. They make me cry every time though. Jakob is so beautiful, I can't wait for you all to meet him.

I did get one highlighted from Benji at Easttown - MORE PICTURES!

So here are a few more.

 

Heard you had snow too, sorry about that. It is 80 and sunny every day!! Love it!

 

Miss you lots,

1 night and 1 more day!!!

All our Love,

Rick, Mandi & Jakob

Tom & Kathy

 

 

Day 8 - Day of Americanization at the Hilton

Today we took a day to relax. Ted, Jill & the girls and us went to the Hilton. We laid by the pool for about 3 hours. The kids have never been in a pool before so it was fun. The water was really warm and clean. We had lunch by the pool. It was beautiful. We had some clouds so it was not as hot as it has been. We had French fries and club sandwiches for lunch.

 

We did pick up the kids VISA's too, so we are all ready to go home. Just need our plane.

 

A little shopping tomorrow and hopefully 1 last trip to the pool, then we are out of here.

 

We have very much enjoyed our trip, but our beds, showers, and food sounds so good!!!

 

I will post again tomorrow before we go. Then we will be flying all night long. We are to arrive in DC around 8:30 am. We have a quick lay over, so I will not have time to post. Plan we are on time unless there is a post. If we get delayed, I will have many hours to post. :-)

 

Enjoy the pool pictures.

Jakob of course took a nap by the pool. He naps ALOT!

 

Lots of Love from Ethioia.

Rick, Mandi & Jakob

( Tom & Kathy too, they are still alive)

 

Dinner Day 7 - Crown Hotel

Last night Alemu took all of us to the Crown Hotel for a traditional Ethiopian Dinner. It was very good. The food was a buffet. We had Injera with different kinds of chicken, beef & vegetables. We had a sitter for Jakob. He did really well. He recognized us right away when we picked him up. There was a great show with dancers. We have video of it.

Here are a few pictures of the evening.

Hugs & Kisses

Day 7 Merkato, Embassy & 2 More Days

This morning we went to the Merkato. We hired 3 security guards to
walk us through. It was quite interesting. We purchased some nice
fabric. It was very hard to buy anything there because it was so busy.
We left Jakob with a sitter this morning. He did very well. We were so
happy when we picked him up, he gave us a big smile.
This afternoon we had our Embassy appointment. We were not allowed to
use our cameras at the Embassy so we have no pictures. However
everything went well. We have Jakob's birth certificate. Tomorrow
morning we will run to pick up his VISA, then we can come home. YEA!
Today was a very busy day. We didn't even get a break for lunch. We
are getting ready to go to the Crown Hotel for dinner tonight. It is
the traditional Ethiopian Dinner with dancers and music. Should be a
fun time. Dad & Kathy are not too excited for the food, so they are
hoping to get some French fries before we go. 
Jakob is a very happy baby. He sleeps a lot and likes to play with his
toys. He loves to admire his fingers. Jakob also had his 1st sleep
over with nana & papa last night. I was feeling quite sick, so I took
some medicine and finally slept all night.
The country is beautiful. The people are very nice. However we are
ready to come home. Tomorrow we are headed to the Hilton to have a day
of relaxation by the pool. It has been a very busy trip. Only 2 more
days and we are headed home.
We are not sure what we want 1st a warm shower or a good dinner. It is
quite a toss up.
We should have fun pool pictures tomorrow.
Hugs & Kisses
Jakob, Rick, & Mandi

Day 6 and ready for the count down!

Today we took a trip to the Trinity Church. It is an Orthodox church in Addis. The stain glass windows were beautiful. We have lots of pictures, but can only send a few at a time to the blog.

 

We also took a few more stops. We had to pick up our coffee that we ordered yesterday. Kilos and Kilos of fresh coffee to take back.

 

Jakob discovered he has fingers. Rick caught him giving the peace sign. He loves to look at his fingers.

 

Otherwise nothing else new.

 

We are all very much ready to come home.

Miss you all.

 

See you in a few days.

Lots of Love,

Rick & Mandi & Jakob

Tom & Kathy

 

Like Father Like Son!

Yesterday when I came to update you on what was going on here is what happened.

Rick & Jakob cashed out : Like Father, like Son.
He loves the big screen TV at the hotel too. A perfect match for Sunday afternoon NASCAR and Nap!

Then Papa got a hold him and started having him train behind the bar. Never to early to get him to start serving! :-)

Who knows what they are up to now! Better run!

Everything still going well. Getting pretty antsy to get home. Not much sleep, but he is at least on MI time for us already.

Lots of Love,
All of us in Ethiopia

Day 5 - No Sleep

Jakob was so good last evening. After the last post we took him up to the room. Feed him and he fell asleep. How perfect! Well don't worry it didn't last. He slept for about 1 hour. Then he was hungry again. Then he fell asleep again. I laid him down he woke up. We did this 3 times. Now being 12:00 I gave up. Rick went to sleep and I held Jakob while he tried to sleep on my chest. He is very congested, so he is having some trouble sleeping. Anyway 3:00 I woke Rick up so I could sleep, but really couldn't just relaxed. 7:00 we were up for the day and ready to go. We went shopping this morning. We went to the Post Office District. We are not real sure why it is called that, but we did some shopping. Then we went to lunch and came back to the hotel. We were able to get some sleep. We finally figured it out that Jakob likes to sleep on his stomach. He is sound asleep so I thought I would come to post.

 

Everything is still going well. We are excited to get back home.

Tomorrow we are going to the Trinity Church and the University Museum.

We are headed to the Garden View resturant tonight for dinner.

 

Enjoy these pictures of Jakob sleeping.

We have successfully taken over 2000 pictures.

 

Have a great day.

Lots of love,

Mandi, Rick, Jakob, Rom & Kathy

 

Day 4 pictures!

Day 4
We went to a Museum this morning. Then we picked up Jakob this afternoon. The Museum was very interesting. I have lots of great pictures. I didn't attached them because I figured you would rather see pictures of Jakob. I will work on attaching them another day.

Hugs,
Mandi & Rick

Pictures of Day 4

Enjoy these pictures of Day 4!

Day 4 - Jakob is Ours!

We officially picked up Jakob today. He is so sweet. He smiles ALOT. He has not cried 1 tear yet. It is almost time for bed here, so we will see what happens during the night. I am sure it will catch up with us at some point. It was a very emotional day. I get tears just thinking about it. The kids around here are so happy and content. We brought them basketballs and played with them for a while. We have great video and pictures. Can't wait to show you all at home. They loved the suckers too. It was very hard to leave. The nannies love the kids so much. They cried, we cried. We got in the van and went to the next orphanage to pick up Ted & Jill's other child Jakob fell asleep on me and sleep for a good hour.

 

There are not words that can describe our emotions from today. We are so happy to have him and play with him. Here are so more fun pictures of him.

 

Tomorrow is shopping! Not the Merkato, just shopping around town.

 

Time is going too fast. We are having a great time. My cold is getting better.

 

To all families that are coming out here - the elevation is 7000 feet. If you get altitude sickness be prepared. Also I have had trouble with bloody noses due to the dryness and the altitude. So lots of Kleenex and portable humidifier would be great.

 

Lots of Love,

Mandi & Rick

 

Back in Addis

Hello Everyone!

We just arrived back in Addis, so I could upload all of our posts to the blog. We can't see the blog from here, so I am not sure how it all turned out. You should see Day 1, 2 & 3 with lots of pictures. The pictures are difficult to send.

Everyone is doing well. No one has been sick, other than my cold that is driving me crazy. We had a great time in Alaba and Awassa.

We will be meeting up with another family tomorrow and getting our kids tomorrow.

We are so excited about getting Jakob. Should have great pictures to post tomorrow night.

We should be able to post daily now.

 

Lots of Love,

Rick & Mandi, Tom & Kathy

 

daily pictures

More Day 2 Pictures

More pictures

Enjoy!

Day 2 - Saturday Long Van Ride, Alaba, Awassa

Today we started out at 6:00am. Way too early for all of us! We jumped in the van and headed to Alaba. We stopped ½ way for breakfast and then continued on. We all order French Toast thinking it sounded so good. Well they don't have syrup. Many close calls along the way hitting cattle, people cars, etc. They just decide to roam in the middle of the road. It was a long ride. During our ride today we road in a 5 speed van. Well we lost gear #5 and #2. We are hoping to make it back in the same van, but it is very questionable at this point. We reached Alaba and had lunch. We met with the family that took care of Ted & Jill's Zuri for almost 2 years. I got to video tape as they interviewed the girl with questions. After that we headed to the where Jibril was found. He was found covered in clothes outside of a nice man's gate. We went into the home where he stayed for 1 month. He was 1 month old when he stayed there. We met with the couple's son and were able to ask him a few questions. Then there were lots of children from the area following us around and we were able to hand out suckers to them. It was fun. Then we headed back to Awassa and arrived at our hotel. We were happily surprised; the hotel is very new and beautiful. It is so clean and state of the art; everything but internet of course. The showers are amazing. Didn't try it yet, quite complicated to turn on. It is all digital. We headed to dinner. We had Margaritta Pizza. It was very good. Then we went to this other bar and had a few cocktails. Awassa is an up & coming town that is really growing and modernized. Looking forward to our Hippo ride tomorrow and getting back to Addis.

Hugs,

Rick & Mandi

Tom & Kathy

PS - The van just needed transmission oil. So it was fixed in minutes.

 

Day 3 More Pictures

Day 3 - Sunday Hippos, Van Ride back, Happy Easter

We woke early this morning and had breakfast at another hotel. They had pancakes w/syrup. Yum! Then we went for a boat ride to see the hippos. They were pretty cool. The boat ride was fun too. Then we jumped in the van to head back to Addis. We stopped along a beach on Langano Lake. We walked on the beach and had some lunch. Then we were in a long ride van ride back. We stopped after a few hours for some soda at Tommy Restaurant & Bar, then finished our last leg of the trip. It felt good to be back in our hotel. I was nicely greeted with clean laundry on the bed that I had left on the floor. I just put another pile on the floor, hoping tomorrow we will come back and have clean laundry. None of us really feel like sitting right now; but are heading to dinner in a little while. We plan to meet with Alemu again tonight. He is going to go through all of our donations with us and let us know who we should give them to tomorrow.

In the morning we are headed to a Museum, Lion Zoo and more. Then in the afternoon we get to go get Jakob. There will be lots more pictures to post after tomorrow.

Sorry we had no internet while we were on our 2 day tour. We should be able to post daily now.

Happy Easter Everyone! We miss you and will be home in a week.

Lots of Love,

Rick & Mandi

Tom & Kathy

PS They are still alive!