June 11

Well Ezra is now in our arms. He is finally "HOME" were he belongs. Chris and I keep looking at eachother thinking "can this really be happening?" Ezra is a beautiful boy and brings such delight to us. We had a great time at the Kids Link transition home this morning. The staff are amazing and all of them just love Ezra and his quick easy giggles. He seems to have been a delight to the staff. We got his immunization records the little gifts (teddy bear, winnie the pooh and family photo album) we sent him. They gave us his blanket also. This will help him have some familiar smells and sights around him. Ezra (If you can tell from the pictures) is not a skinny kid. And today we found out why. He eats tiny star shaped noodles for lunch with hot sauce. The kid is 7.5 months and he eats hot sauce in his noodles. (actually everyone here does cuz Hot sauce is thier version of ketchup) So take note Tianna, Ezra and daddy will eat Franks Red Hot together when we get home:)

The staff has been calling him esuee (e-sue-yay) short for Esuendale (e-soon-dala). they have recently been caling him Ezra they pronounce it (eS-Ra). We dropped off a bunch of donations to the home and they were very appreciative so thanks to all those who donated stuff for us to take along.

Ethiopia is a beautiful country and the people very welcomming. Traffic and driving is insane!!! There is a reason visitors are strongly cautioned to hire driver to drive them around. I've seen bizaar driving habits in Mexico, Thailand and Asia but I have never seen driver drive like they do here... one hand on the steering wheel and another on the horn or frantically waving people aside... Also Ethipia does not have air care. If they did there would be no vehicles left on the road... If we want to address global warming in a real way Ethiopia would be agreat place to start :)

We are trying to set up a visit with our Compassion sponsor child as well as do a day trip or two to the country side. We hope to see Adama (Nazeret) were Ezra was born so we can take pictures of his birthplace and the surroundings.

Life here is wonderful and we are glad you are able to enjoy the experiece with us through the blog... Peace to you all!!! Please say a prayer of thanks to God for his faithfulness and goodness... It has been a tough journey...

Koen and Chris