Skip to main content

The Other Side Part 8: Sight Seeing and Play

Thanks for visiting our blog about our journey to adopt our son from Ethiopia!  It's been a long process and we are finally blessed to share the stories from the other side of the earth, in beautiful Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  Catch up on previous post to this series by clicking Part 1 and Part 2 Meeting Our Son and Part 3 Warming Up and Part 4 Company and Culture, and Part 5 Seeing Growth. Don't miss Part 6 Taking Custody! And Part 7 here! 

Sleep Tight His Presence at Night - our first night together with Tarik is a post explaining the emotions of our first night with Tarik in our custody.  It was a joyful night to finally have him in our arms, but a difficult night of new emotions, new sounds and faces for little Tarik.

Sight Seeing:

Over our trip to Ethiopia we were blessed to visit a few places in the city.  Just a walk through the city was eye-opening and beautiful.  Below is more of a picture walk of the places we saw and spending time with our friends who graciously showed us their city!


Semien Hotel Lobby

 Area around the Guest House







Our friend's shop, Ester's



 Totot's Restaurant 

 Adama City







On the way to Adama
Yes, wild monkeys!



Christian Church 

 Eating dinner at our friend's house


 Out to dinner at Tamiru's favorite place

National Museum of Ethiopia









 National Zoo of Ethiopia



Shopping plaza indoor


 Neighborhood kids singing with Todd and Tarik




 Around town






 Hanging out with our friends at their place. And they made all our favorite foods!


Our friends and their grandmother. 



Play: 

A little photo walk through the things that we did with Tarik while we were at our Guest House. There is only so much you can do, so we had to get creative with blankets, tents, couch cushions, and laundry baskets!  We played ball outside when we could and the rainy weather allowed us.  Other than that, we played with the few toys we brought and enjoyed getting to know each other as a new son with his family! 

First day we had custody, we visited our friends house.  Tarik, like a 2 year old, went straight to the toilet paper for some fun! 
 He kept busy sweeping the grass and rose pedals from the coffee ceremony.
 A little Wii-Game time with "Just Dance"  kept the energy going!
 And Tarik's first bath! He loved it!  At the foster home he would get showered off to clean.
 Playing in the sunshine with our friends.
 Getting spoiled by Uncle Tamiru giving Tarik treats!
 Back at the Guest House...playing in the closets.
 Laundry basket fun...
Water bottle and putting in and out the straws!  Come on! That was a good one!
Couch house fun with his orphanage-mate and big sis.

 Sweeping up again.  This kid!
 Little tents and blanket play...

 Ahh, and resting with his momma.  My favorite part. 

These days we had prayed for and dreamed about for so long.  We cannot say how thankful we are to be finally posting pictures and sharing our story of bringing Tarik home!!!






Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Airplane Tray Table Cover for Travel!

In my part of the world, the popular sport of choice for this season is sewing.  Sewing?  Yes, well, it's a winter sport for me with its challenges, obstacles, and skills to be improved upon!  Not to mention that it hasn't been above 10 degrees Fahrenheit for near a month and with wind chills at -25 to -40 tonight, one just has to stay inside in the comfy cozy walls of home! Out comes the sewing machine and projects left behind from seasons past.  This time, I decided to tackle a new project that will be put to good use in the future: an Airplane Tray Table Cover for future traveling!  Thinking of sunny Ethiopia just brightens the mood from the winter blues too! After searching the web, and viewing images of other "airplane tray table covers" (search it, you'll find them), I decided to create my own.  This is pic is of my first attempt.  Overall, it turned out fine and I am happy with the end result.  To give you an idea, this would slip over...
Post a Comment
Read more

Miserly Moms Recipes

After posting some ideas about tips for the family budget, I had many positive responses and am encouraged that many of you will be putting forth an effort to set a food budget and stay within that budget.  Take a visit here to view the previous post. Miserly Moms by Jonni McCoy is an excellent resource for money saving tips, menus, recipes, and family organization.  After looking it up on Amazon, apparently my copy is the "collectable" edition...oh geez, that makes me feel old.  There is a newer edition that Jonni has available in a Kindle version for $7.99 .  Note: Kindles weren't invented yet when I was starting out as a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom)  Ha.ha.laugh.   Here are some highlights from the book (the one made of paper) :   1. Don't Confuse Frugality with Depriving Yourself  2. Remove Little Wasters of Your Money 3. Don't Buy Everything at the Same Store 4. Make Your Own Whenever Possible 5. Eliminate Convenience Foods ...
1 comment
Read more

Details, Details, and What Can We Do?

It's a girl!  Thank you for the excitement and prayers of joy for us as we announced our next adoption! We have kept our finger on the pulse in the adoption world since bringing home our son, and all I can contribute finding out about this adoption is by the direction of God the Father.  He "places the lonely in families!" - Psalm 68:6  I know that everyone is anxious to know more details, trust me, I know it's part of the excitement to hear the scoop! What I can say is that she is 7 years old and very petite.  She has brown eyes, brown curly hair, and beautiful brown skin.  Her smile is contagious and her eyes show that she is spunky inside of that tiny frame.  She loves to laugh and eat pie! What I can't say is all of her story.  It's very complicated, emotionally complex, broken. And at her age of understanding all that is going on around her, well, it's her story and we want to respect that privacy for her.  While this is a time of joy...
Post a Comment
Read more