Day 7

Thursday was our last day with our son in Ethiopia. We had to take him back to the transition house that afternoon, so we didn't fill up our day with any activities... just loving on our kid!

The sheep and shepherd roaming down the road at the guesthouse.

Tony and I really enjoyed our time together on this trip!
The gate at the guesthouse.
We ate lunch at this little pizza place that is within walking distance from the guesthouse. The pizza there was not what we were used to (obviously) but was not bad! We had pizza, fries, a big water and a coke all for less than $5.00! I took my camera on our walk this time to capture all the neat little things that we had been seeing every day.

The fences are lined with broken bottles on top to deter intruders.
Lots of little shops in the most random of places... The sold onions, bananas, tomatoes, soccer balls, water, sodas... and other odds and ends.
A typical home in the area we were staying.
A little roadside shop.
The crazy construction going on just across the road from the guesthouse. We were told that construction is a very dangerous job! Many people die... No wonder!
Our lovely abode for the 4 days we were in Ethiopia. What a nice time we had there... what great people we met there...and what a joy to spend time with our son there!
More construction

About 4:30 in the afternoon, we took a trip with our friends to drop off Joel and our friend's daughter at the transition house were they will stay until we are able to return to get them. Joel took a little nap on the car ride and I just enjoyed holding him... I carried him upstairs and gave him lots and lots of kisses and Tony snuggled him and then I had to give him lots more kisses to last for a while! He just smiled his big sweet precious two-toothed grin and I just sobbed. I thought I had been prepared for leaving him. I was wrong. My heart was broken. I had to leave my son across the ocean. There was no choice, no making things different. I am so thankful that we got to spend the few days with him... But I was so hurt when we left him. One of the older nannies just hugged me as tightly as she could. A couple of others were crying with me. I was comforted that these kind women were the ones taking care of our son.

As I got in the car with the other mom (who was understandably upset as well) we talked of how God loves our children more than we do. When our children are with us, we are fooled into thinking that we have control... but when they are without us (or us without them) we are confronted with the fact that we are never in control--but God always is. And that is the biggest comfort of all.

I can't even express in words how it felt to drive away and go on with life. The other mom and I talked about how strange and sad it was that our arms were empty. We just went on and tried to think of other things and talk of other things...

We had decided as a group that we would go eat at the Island Breeze again. We enjoyed it so much and it was our last evening in Ethiopia. We had to be at the airport by 7:30 (or was it 8:30), so we only had time to get dinner, pack our things and head home. Thankfully, we had a wonderful driver who made the most of our time in the car and gave us a great tour of many parts of the city on our way to dinner! We saw the HUGE market (our driver said maybe even the largest in Africa???) and saw several different areas where the items for sell were specific to that area--like toilets, or gates, or scrap metal.

After a nice (but a little sad) dinner we headed back to the guesthouse were we packed up, said our good byes to the staff and headed out....

Our last picture in Ethiopia--until next time.