Back In It (whatever "it" is...)

it took a third world country, two plane rides, several road trips, a great wedding, an earthquake, a category three hurricane, swamp fires, an accident far away, and a freezing summer night on a parking garage roof to make me realize several things about myself and God that i previously thought i knew but wasn't quite positive of before:

1) i am an extrovert. duh. but for those of you who didn't know me when i was introverted, you must understand i have been battling this intro-extro thing for a while. in the span of like, i dunno, two or three years, the way i deal with crises and struggles has changed from a "withdraw by myself into a shell" method to a "keep myself constantly distracted by people" method. really different. sorry about that guys, i mean, it's rough on me i can't imagine how weird it must be for those who have been close to me for a while to try and figure out this change.

2) i have two weeks until judgement day. wooooaaaah..... ok so for me that just means that if you're reading this, i am the resistance. (i'm such a dork....) i have till september 15 to pay up tuition or die. that gives me two weeks and 900 dollars to pay. am i in trouble?

3) no, because even though i can change from an introvert to an extrovert in a span of three years, God remains the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. immortal, invisible, God only wise.... almighty victorious thy great name we praise. those welsh dudes got it right, this guy doesn't change. the God who got me through last year will get me through this year.

4) i think a part of his plan has to do with my artwork... but i'm not sure what. any ideas (or anyone wanna buy some artwork?)

5) there is really no reason ever to make numbered bullets on my blogs. i do it because if i don't number stuff, i just write down what comes to my head with seemingly no order at all and it would look like this:

this morning i woke up and felt sick and i've felt anxious and sick all day and it turns out T really hurt himself today while he was playing basketball with rebel youth (the IEC international youth group he leads, well, he would say God leads it through him and the guys...) and he's in a lot of pain and my mom/girlfriend instincts have been triggered but hey guess what? he lives over seven thousand miles and two thousand dollars away so there's nothing i can do but pray which is what i have been doing all night and that leads me to

6) can you guys pray for me?

7) just to prove a point, be happy i write with numbered bullet points so that you don't have to read that crazy paragraph thing more than once.

8) satisfied that i have confused most of anyone who is gonna read this, i will end

9) on

10) (ADD)

11) this: in preparation for next summer, i am going to be collecting art supplies and money over then next year. this includes: kids paint, stickers, markers, construction paper, paper plates and paper towels, scissors, glue sticks and tacky glue, kids beads, and stretchy string for necklaces. there will be more things, but these are some of the things i am keeping my eyes open for and praying that God provides. i dreamed big for the summer and got ethiopia. now i'm dreaming big for ethiopia and can't wait for God to floor me.

12) other than prayers and supplies, i am also collecting IDEAS. if anyone reading this has an idea for any of this, let me know! or if you know someone who is good at ideas, pass this along to them and say, "hey, have any cool ideas?" that would be cool.

13) college isn't distracting enough. who knew.

14) GOD is more than enough.

15) is a good number to end on.

i'm gonna keep doing this.

hey guys.

safe and sound, i made it home. the plane actually landed an hour early, thereby proving that i was no longer in africa.... where everything and everyone is late. if that wasn't convincing enough, the gigantically huge, shiny white, clean as a whistle, overly organized baggage claim at dulles airport certainly screamed AMERICA! welcome home, tori. welcome home.

i've decided i'm gonna keep blogging. now, yall don't have to keep reading, i mean, what's the point? i'm no longer in ethiopia, the trip is over. i'm back to my wonderfully american life in nova where i can run in my neighborhood at five in the afternoon and see (maybe) one person in forty-five minutes who doesn't bother to look up when i go past. i'm back to my beautifully american life where there are traffic lights and traffic signs and if you don't follow those carefully placed signs you go to jail. i'm back to my blessedly american life where there isn't just one full toilet paper roll in the airport bathroom.... there are four.

yeah. so i miss africa.

i'm going back as soon as i can. now for obvious reasons, that will most likely be next year. but i am going back cause i left something behind, and i'm not sure i can live without it for long.

(no, not my camera. i did leave that behind, but i can live without it.)

i'm talking about that thing that made me cry when i said goodbye to my kids.

that thing that caused me to panic when we hit the kid.

the thing that made my chest stick out in pride when the orphanage kids helped me paint.

that thing that fell in love with the people, the culture, the city, the countryside, the rainy days, the sunny moments, the taxi rides, the mountains, and those really cute donkeys that are everywhere....

my heart.

don't worry, i'm going back for it. like i said, i can only live without it for so long.

and i left it in very capable hands... t's.

(oh, he's ma boyfriend.)

and i figure, blogging about what's going on in between ethiopia trips is still an ethiopian update if my heart is still in the country.

so if you're interested, stay with me folks! cause the wild ride isn't over. God is doing crazy awesome things (such as paying for my tuition... um, well, he's still working on that one;) and finding me the man of my dreams (yeah, t, in case you were wondering, that's you. i know you're gonna read this) and providing a way for me to go back next year (right, God? ....He reads my blog too) and providing a way for t to come visit me over christmas... (still reading, God? ;)

hey, any of you who have been praying for me, i have two messages. the first is thank you, thank you, thank you. your prayers have meant the world. the second is DON'T STOP! haha, cause your prayers still mean the world!

christ's love.... it's kinda overflowing in me. so give me a call and we'll have coffee and talk about it. cause that's the thing about Jesus. when he loves on us, we just have to go love on someone else. if any of you have any prayer requests, leave them on my facebook wall! i would be overjoyed to lift you up before the King.

ok bye.

the prayers of the righteous....

let the redeemed of the lord say so!!!!

and this redeemed one said God would provide for my tuition. and now i need your prayers everyone.

it looks like there might be a way for me to auction off some of the drawings i have done and plan to do from my time here, from the close to a thousand pictures i've taken.

(i lost my camera, pray i find that too. i know it's just a camera, but i named it "AlKasha" and he's my baby...)

(ok... he's not my only baby... ;)

please pray that the word gets out about the auction.

please pray that i am able to get the drawings done quickly.

please pray that there is a huge interest in my work among adopting families through awaa, plus anyone else who is interested!

please pray that God's name is glorified through the work of my hands. i plan on doing a little story that goes with every drawing about where i was when i took the picture and what it means... and God's name is intermixed throughout my entire story here!

pray!

A Spirit of Trauma

yesterday we hit a kid.

i was in a big green van driving to debre brahan, a city about 2 and a half hours outside of addis. i was going to the kids care orphanage there to paint murals for two days. i was a little bit upset too... cause i wanted to stay in addis so i could spend time with the kids at the TH for my last week, as well as some of the other people here who i have grown to love. my boss, mulé, was with me.

i was half asleep, crying to carrie underwood's "just a dream" when the driver slammed into something and quickly slammed on his breaks, screeching to a halt. i was startled, then i heard someone screaming. i thought, oh no... i think we hit something. i have seen a lot of donkeys and cows and dogs hit on the side of the road since i've been here. but when i looked out the back i saw something that i never expected and hope never to see again.

a shoe.

then mulé said, "jesus christ...." and i realized, we didn't hit something. we hit someone.

they pulled the kid out from under the car and put him in one of the small motorcycle taxis called a bajaj. then they rushed him off to the hospital just down the road. i thought i was going to throw up.... i was shaking and crying so hard i could barely breathe, and i couldn't even get out of the van for like thirty minutes. i couldn't eat lunch, and i didn't stop crying for like 2 hours.

we went to the hospital to see the kid, he was only like six. he was so small. he was also alive.

thank jesus.... the van didn't hit him head on, it hit him on the corner where the light was. the light of the van was crushed, i saw it when i got out of the van.

when i saw him, he was wrapped in a blanket, surrounded by people. he was in his father's arms and his dad was crying. his head and lip were swollen and his foot was wrapped in a bandage. i dropped to my knees next to his dad and just took his little hand in mine and prayed for him.... just crying and crying. i stayed like that until he went in for his x-ray about two minutes later.

i was in a funk the whole taxi ride back to addis after that. met up with my best friend and cried some more. i talked it out, prayed it out, vented, walked numb through the rain... then finally was able to eat and drink. i started to smile again. i had a lot of people praying for the little one, and for me.

at around 9pm, the director of kids care came to find me. she told me that she found out that the kid is ok. he has no internal bleeding, he is conscious and doesn't look like there will be any brain damage. his spine is a bit off, and he is in a lot of pain. it will take some time to heal. but he is going to live, he's gonna be ok.

praise jesus... i let out a breath that i didn't realize i was holding when i found that out. i prayed with my dear dear mamacita about my own heart in experiencing this trauma... and found that i was able to sleep without thinking about his broken little body being pulled out from under the car. i was able to see jesus pulling him out instead, covering him with his healing hands. i read this morning in 1st corinthians that we have the mind of christ. i know that when i knelt in front of the little guy and his dad and just cried with him... that is what jesus would have done as well, and in a strange way, that has given me a peace that passes understanding about what happened yesterday.

i'm ok. the little one is ok. and god is still sovereign.

and that.... is a blessing.

continue to pray for the little one and his family please. they are not out of the woods yet.

only in africa....

africa. the only place where a chicken can cross the road, and nobody gives a crap.

sorry it's been so long since i've blogged. i've been a little busy, lots going on here.

the first big update is that it has become abundantly clear to me that i am supposed to be an art teacher. i have a burning passionate fire in my heart (or is it my stomach? that's on fire too...) when i think about coming back here and teaching full time. the coolest thing is... these guys want me back. when i asked about next year, the answer wasn't a matter of if... it was a matter of when. wow. and i was all concerned about whether or not i'd even make a difference.

the second big update is that today is my first real day of not feeling sick at all. which is great, cause i am about to leave the city for the second time, i am driving like 6 hours to awasa, another city i'm told is beautiful. the first time i left addis was last saturday, i went to adema with katie and jeff, my favorite adopting family so far and proud parents of six, two of which they had to leave behind at the transitional home until their embassy date in about a month or so. they went to adema to meet their son bedilu's nanny, the lady who found him and nursed him back to health. the meeting was beautiful, i was so privileged to be there to experience it with them. lots of tears, but tears of joy and thankfulness.

the third big update is that i will be leaving this country, but leaving behind around 25 fully finished murals in four different orphanages. i have been busy. next year i will hopefully do much more in other orphanages i didn't get the chance to visit here. i can't wait to show you all pictures.... and i might even be offering my services as a kids wall mural painter for ANYONE who wants it in the states. (girl's gotta make a living somehow... and i discovered that this is something that not only can i do... but gosh darn it i can do it well!)

update number four is that i'm not sure if i will be able to pay my college tuition.

and update number five is that i'm not worried about it because of update number one. if jesus wants me to be a teacher, i will be a teacher. so why worry about something as insignificant as money? besides,

update number six is that teacher or no teacher, ethiopia or states, college or work... first and foremost... (and this is pretty much the most important thing i have learned while i've been here which is funny... cause i had to go half way across the world to learn something i could have learned in my own neighborhood) i am called to be a follower of jesus christ. and it is the most amazing call on my life and i intend to live according to this call. free of fear, free of worry, free of pain, free of the bondage of anything the evil one might throw at me. christ in me, the hope of glory. nothing else in this world is that AWESOME.

sorry, i simply had to get that out. oh, and update number seven... i'm coming home in a little over a week. but my heart... stays here.

i love you all. can't wait to see ya and share pictures and experiences.

"snap snap snap" (or, awesome things i've seen here)

1) 2 chefs walking in chef hats down the street.

this one was funny cause it wasn't like "oh, that's just something you'd see in africa." no, that isn't really something you would see anywhere. it was so random i laughed so hard!

2) the cutest pee ever.

so, sometimes when you are three and ya gotta go.... ya gotta go, right? so there are all these ditches for water all over the place, like they don't really have underground pipes here. and we were driving, and one of the dad's new son really needed to pee.... and he couldn't hold it, so the bus driver just stopped the bus on the side of the road and new dad hopped out and held his kid back as he peed into the ditch. then they hopped back in the bus and we drove off.

3) puppies eating a sheep head.

yeah. it was pretty gross. but the puppies were really small and cute. t.i.a...?

4) 7 am soccer game in the middle of the road.

i was running down my favorite morning run road the other day, when i happened upon a full out soccer match right in the center of the highway. it was early enough that cars only came by every ten minutes or so, so they just played in the road. legit.

5) t opening a coke bottle with his teeth.

self explanatory. actually, then i saw a girl do it, so she was even more awesome. sorry t.

6) a really really big hummingbird with a curvy beak.

7) break dancing and rapping at youth group at iec. honestly... you had to be there.

8) caleb, the four year old who speaks fluent english and amharic. man i'm jealous....

9) honey latte!!!!!!

10) lions at the lion zoo getting fed and then roaring at each other.

although.... right as i was leaving i realized that i was getting stared at more than the lions were. greeeaaaaat. we also saw monkeys getting fed cookies and then i really wanted a cookie then i got some so it's all good:)

11) cars driving through two feet of water on a washed out road like it was no big deal.

12) finally... and probably the most awesome thing i've seen here... and he will so kill me for writing this... t eating entire pizza slices in one bite.

that's all i can remember for now.... trust me. there's way more! hp7 was not one of the awesome things i've seen here though. book was way better.....

ANCHI FIRENCH!

that means , "hey you, white lady!" and i get that alot. it's easy to remember, cause firench means "white person," or "foreigner" and it sounds like French, and french people are foreigners to me, so there-ya-go. sorry brendan harris;) i still get stared at a lot, but i found a way to combat it... put on headphones and listen to music while walking alone. it works wonders, it really does. i still get stared at and called out at... but i can't hear it!

speaking of headphones... i wear them out when i run, which has been every morning this week. i am so proud of myself... cause the altitude, constant climate changes (hot to cold to hot to cold....), and stares and jeers, and that random guy who decided to race me two days ago, make it not as fun to run here as it is to run in comfort of my own neighborhood in suberbia, northern virginia, or the cool, air-conditioned, tv plastered gym at cnu. honestly, running has been working wonders... it has been expanding my lungs so i have less trouble with breathing and stuff, and i feel better starting the day with a quick run (endorphins hurray) and i think it's gonna make me not sick anymore. (oh, and to make people go away even more, yesterday i ran with that shirt timi gave me in sanibel... timi you know the one;)

speaking of shirt... i went shopping the other day and bought a white scarf and someone who's really cool bought me a yellow one which i totally love more than the white one (there, it's in writing;) i also bought a necklace, it's just a simple wooden cross on a black string that cost 15 birr, or less than a dollar for you americans reading this (which is pretty much all of you). the cross is significant because a) it's something all the orthodox christians wear pretty much, so that's like half the christians here cause the other half are evangelical. i am not orthodox... so why would i buy one? well, because b) every single kid at the transitional home is wearing one. understand? i am never taking this thing off, so i hope you guys like it!

as a side note.... i am gonna try to post some pics to facebook now so pray the internets hold up. also, tomorrow i am going to see harry potter 7p2, so nobody give me any hints!

Why Addis Doesn't Have Roller Coasters

i have had the rare privilege of driving with david when he wasn't driving adopting families. what does that mean? well, basically, david is a crazy driver when he DOES drive families. what i didn't realize was that he has actually been holding back. i almost screamed several times, and my grip may or may not have tightened on t's arm during the fifteen minute ride of terror. it's a good thing i love roller coasters....

i am writing this blog from the youth group gathering at IEC, the church i have been attending for the past three weeks. it's a great church, international hallelujah! reminds me a lot of my church at home, christian fellowship. last week's sermon was about practicing the presence of god when you are afraid, which was brilliantly timed because i was just getting over my hospital visit.

speaking of hospital visit, i returned to the hospital for a check up on tuesday. i waited 2 hours for a 2 minute doctor's appointment where all he did was poke me in the stomach and tell me i was fine and to finish my antibiotics. hurrah for doctors. (ok... i love doctors. but i didn't really love this one.) and i figured out what made me sick! it was the coffee i drank at abenezer orphanage. and how do i know it was the coffee and not the food? i was at abenezer today and i forgot my lunch so i had some food from there again... teehee. no worries, i feel fine! i guess that's one way to find out, right?

speaking of abenezer, i have painted... thinking... calculating... 6 murals there! and i have painted 6 murals at the transitional home so far, with plans to do many more. as soon as i can, i will post pictures. the kids here have a thing for spiderman... i did two spidermans. one for the TH, one for abenezer. dang. i guess internationally.... marvel really has beat out dc.

this week was pizza week. we ate pizza every day to make sure i was getting better or something. well, now i never want to see another pizza again. we rated the places we went, 10, 6, 5, 4, 2, 6, 8. and i so cannot wait to eat injera again.

youth group is about to start so i'm gonna scoot. love yall, thanks for your prayers. there's other stuff happening here too... but i'll blog about that later maybe. or maybe i'll just keep it a secret;)

T. I. A.

american hospitals are like hotels.

just so ya know.

once upon a time, there was a 20 year old american chick who visited ethiopia for an art internship with awaa. while she was there, she was sent to the ebenezer orphanage (last thursday) to paint for them too. she loved the orphanage more than anything else she had experienced in ET as of yet, because a) she could take pictures of the kids, b) the kids helped her paint the classroom mural (so so so fun and so cute! can't wait to show pictures), and c) the kids were amazing. while she was there, they offered her ethiopian food lunch, and because she loves injera so much, she said, "ok awesome!" she had a wonderful lunch, and then they offered her coffee. she loves ethiopian coffee too, she again she said, "why not?!" when they brought her the coffee, it didn't seem as hot as it should have been, but she didn't really think anything of it.

you see.... she thought she was invincible. superwoman. untouchable. the boss.

so at around 4:30, her buddy t came to the orphanage to pick her up. she gave final goodbyes to the kids, and promised to come back asap. three minutes later, her stomach started to hurt. twenty minutes later, it was getting worse. an hour later, she couldn't walk.

t asked her if she wanted to sit down, she said yes. he asked her if she needed to go to the clinic, she said, "oh hells to the no!" but as the minutes passed, she felt worse and worse. then she broke into a cold sweat and turned white as a sheet and said, "um, yeah, dude. take me to the hospital."

the next three hours were kinda a blur for her. she remembers moaning in pain in the back of the taxi, vaguely recalls entering the er and being dumped into a bed. ethiopian doctors asking, "what happened?" and her replying, "it just hurts! i don't know!" then they grabbed her wrist and sedated her oh joy. (i still have a bruise, and that was the most traumatic part of the whole experience.) from 6 till about 8, she couldn't walk. then the painkillers kicked in and they did a whole bunch of tests on her to find out what her deal was. she got: sedated, blood drawn, an IV antibiotic, and a painkiller shot (in the no shot zone... goodbye dignity.) she finally left the hospital at like midnight.

the next morning, she went back to the hospital at 8:30 to see the doctor. she waited 2 hours to see him for 8 minutes, all he did was poke her stomach and write her two prescriptions which she has been taking two times a day since then. she rested all day friday, and by saturday was back on her feet, a little tired but otherwise unscathed.

the end.

epilogue: this story is based on a real life experience by me last week. i missed my wonderful american hospitals a lot;) for everyone who knew what happened from my parents or facebook or a dream you had about me or whatever and prayed, thank you so much. t was with me the whole time, and his friend from church, marut, was there when he was not. he called like, everyone and their brother who lives around here and asked them to pray, which i'm convinced is the reason everything went so smoothly, and the reason why i wasn't scared.

god is sovereign, even in an african hospital. oh, and i know i'm not invincible now;)

the 2 year olds have adopted me

hey yall. the purpose of this extremely organized blog is to try my very hardest to describe the beautiful two year olds that i occasionally help with when i'm not doing art with the big kids or painting on the walls. these kids have adopted me, i kid you not. and i don't even know all their names cause a) the nannies don't speak english b) i would forget, and c) it's more fun to do nicknames! so here they are:

Meron - this little angel was one of the first kids to approach me when i went in, and coincidentally the only name that i actually know! she is the cutest little button i have ever met who loves it when i pick her up and swing her around, and loves to be tickled, and loves to sit in my lap and do absolutely nothing. can i say favorite?

Buddy - this little guy is probably the most friendly boy i have ever met (yes, he is a boy... i wasn't sure if he was a boy or girl for days and then one of the nurses changed him and, yes, i peeked) his laugh is infectious, and once i start picking him up and throwing him down, i really am not allowed to stop. can i say other favorite?

Handsome - oh my gosh this little gentleman is always wearing overalls and he loves to go bump bump bump on my legs/back/feet/arms.... his smile makes me weak in the knees.

Angel - this lovely little girl was a little shy at first, but she warmed up fast. she loves it when i put things on her head, and she shakes them off and gives them back and i put them back on her head....

Beautiful - this little girl is BEAUTIFUL nuff said. she has a small bald spot on the back of her head, and her eyelashes are so long!

Little G - what i imagine garrison fuller looked like as a baby. no joke. (if you don't know garrison, ask my bro timi.) btw, timi, seriously, you know that pick of you and g when you were like four? this kid.

Little One - the smallest kid in the room, he is so so so so so sweet, i just love holding him, and he looks up at me with his big eyes and toothy smile and.... sigh.....

The King - if you decide to devote a small amount of attention to his majesty.... you better be prepared to devote ALL your attention to his majesty. but he has the most beautiful eyes so it's totally ok that's he's a bit of an attention hog.

Charger - actually, the only reason this little guy has a nickname is because he is one of the only kids i've met here who actually annoys me! whenever he comes over to me, he like, charges me and gets all up in my business, he runs over other kids and almost pushes me over. it makes me laugh, but whenever i see him coming i'm like, AAAAGGGHHH!

Mister Extrovert - wants to be everyone's best friend. except for the other two year olds. he just wants their toys.... (wink)

there are a few others, but that's all the nicknames i have come up with so far. i stayed out of the 2 year old room for the past few days cause i've been a little sick, possibly their fault. but i'm doing better now, so i went in for a bit this morning, and i was completely drained of energy after one hour. they all saw me giving buddy lift-up-drop-down-rides.... and well...

love yall, will try to update again soon with interesting tales of the amazing adventures i am having such as shopping for more paint today in the piazza and smelling something that made me wish i hadn't been born.

~tori

as a quick unrelated side note, i started painting a superman mural next to the spidey mural, and t said supes looked better than spidey so TAKE IT MARVEL FANS. (wink)

borrowing t's computer (it's a pc so bear with me...)

hey guys!!!!!

i know it's been a while, but honestly, the wifi here is extremely unpredictable and stuff.... so i'm borrowing my very good friend t's computer. (if t reads this tho, he knows that i haven't decided if we're friends or not;)

so everyone. wow. i love ethiopia. i love the people here, the kids, (all the kids! the babies, two year olds, older kids... the travel crew...) i love the air here, the altitude, the city, the movement, the shops, the FOOD. the transitional home, aster's house (duni's mom), the swiss family that lives next door, the church i go to, the crazy thunder storms, the random donkeys and sheep everywhere, the stray dogs and cats, the really big doves that coo outside my window every morning (that was for you dad) and did i mention the food?

i started my art classes, thank you everyone who donated or still wants to donate art supplies! they are so helpful, cause shopping for supplies here is no fun at all. me and mule (the head supervisor guy here) went shopping two days straight and still didn't get everything we needed. big thing i have learned to do tho.... make due with what you have, and trust God, and everything will go swimmingly.

for all of you that prayed i would not be lonely, cool story. second night i got here i prayed a desperate cry of "please jesus, i need friends cause otherwise i am gonna be stuck in this house every night from five till bed time and i will be bored out of my mind!" the very next day i met t. t is awesome (don't tell him i said that), and has quite literally taken me out everywhere you can imagine in addis pretty much every day. so now i feel comfortable enough to go out by myself, like this morning i woke up at 6:30 and went for a run down the main road! (almost died... 2000 meters altitude is no joke on your lungs) so t and i play punch buggy all the time, and it's hardcore cause there are a lot of volkswagon bugs here, and we play no mercy style so i have two twin bruises on both my arms right in the sensitive spot. (btw, did i mention how much i love the food here?)

ok, so i started teaching. it's going well i think... i also started painting. i have painted a sun, two sesame street murals and a spiderman mural. the kids absolutely love the art, they love when i do art for them, and they love doing it themselves, so i actually feel like i am making a difference! praise God.

ooh! culture fact: people here love to help. like, the servants spirit here takes my breath away, i feel like a princess. well, i also get stared at a lot. like, a lot. another culture fact: i might be the only ginger in the entire city.

i have like a billion pictures but i can't post them until i get wifi for my own computer. which will hopefully be soon.

wow, this blog is a little scatterbrained.... i promise the next one will be more organized. maybe.

miss you guys!

LADIES AND GENTS, WE HAVE WIFI!

selam!

i am currently sitting at the lime tree cafe, a small restaurant above a massage parlor and spa. why is this place significant? well, they make amazing pumpkin soup for one. for another, the spa downstair does a lovely pedicure, with hot wax and a massage all for fifteen dollars! but most importantly, this place is AWESOME because it has free wifi! yes!

hmm.... i feel like i'm forgetting something.... what was the other thing about this place that makes it so special....?

oh yeah.

it's in bole. bole, addis ababa. bole, addis ababa, ethiopia. bole, addis ababa, ethiopia, africa.

that's right folks. still jet lagged, four days in, with a three month visa (thanks to you guys who prayed about that), staying all alone in a guest house built for like eight families (duni decided i should stay with her parents instead of her, and her mom ester, otherwise known as mama, owns her very own swiss-ethiopian adoption agency! go figure. the guest house is usually filled with adopting swiss families, but right now it's just filled with me.), and a little sick... stomach ache boo.

the plane ride was awesome, they served coffee with every meal and i sat next to a bunch of ethiopian kids from maryland. they were, by the way, the best seat mates ever. i was nervous at first, like every other person who sits next to a bunch of little kids on a thirteen hour flight, but i swear... these kids were fabulous.

at the addis ababa airport.... wooooow scary. small, crowded, understaffed, hot. but in line for a visa, a man and his daughter helped me get through everything, they were SO sweet. actually, i met a whole bunch of people on my trip who were sweet and helpful:

madan: ethiopian, british, californian. WHAT a fabulous combination... i pretty much fell in love with him when he asked to borrow my ipod charger at dulles.

my wonderful seat mates.

guy and his daughter at the airport: the dad talked in amharic so he was able to help me, i was pretty lost. and believe it or not... i ran into the daughter at a restaurant two days later. coincidence? in a city of like four million? i think not.

lady in customs line: she was so sweet, she told me if i couldn't find duni, she would stay with me.

duni: reminds me of ruth bethany, i kid you not. (love ya ruth!)

travel guys: they interact with and lead the adopting families around. there's yonas (very sweet... sitting right next to me so ssshhh!), job (haven't seen him much, but he was the first person i met at the airport.), david (he let me speed talk at him at the airport when i was nervous and tired, thanks so much david!), and finally - T (the ethiopian equivalent of matt hayes. teases me all the time, won't give me a break i kid you not. makes me feel like i'm at home;)

ok. so the transitional home (TH) is amazing. there are two homes, older kids and younger kids. and i have very very very sad news. i am not allowed to take pictures of the kids at the TH, because they are all someone else's kid. now, i will hopefully by visiting some of the orphanages in the area while i am here, and i can take pictures there. so far, i have spent an entire day with the two year olds, that is, 9 - 5. WOW. how do the nannies do it? these little guys are EXHAUSTING. they are also the most beautiful little bundles of energy i have ever seen, and can't express how much i love them.

after i get my supplies, i will start my camp. please pray that the camp works out, the language barrier has been difficult. please pray that i pick up enough of amharic to get by... it sounds like a miracle but i believe in miracles. please pray for friends for me... it's pretty lonely at night. pray for the families as they pick up their kids... they are really nervous it's so cute. please pray i get to know bole really well, cause then i can go out by myself. and pray i get a cell phone.

oh... and it's cold. and cloudy. so those of you who expected tan/blonde tori... sorry to disappoint;)

oh! and it's over 2000 meters above sea level here. yeah. you dudes who went to arequipa with me... you know what that's like. especially since i live on the third floor.... ugh stairs.

oh oh! and i will post pics to facebook soon.

ok that's it for now.... love yall.

chao.

at the embassy

today was hell. well, not really. i'm quite sure that hell is a horribly rotten place that cannot possibly be compared with today. but sometimes people use the term "hell" to describe an unpleasant experience. and today was unpleasant.

i got a horrible feeling in my gut last night that something was wrong. and something was wrong indeed, turns out, i can only get a three week to thirty day visa at the airport in addis ababa, so i needed to get my visa before i left. i came to this realization at 11am. the embassy closed at 2pm. i couldn't find my extra passport photo, i had to drive to the awaa office to pick up my application and other necessary documents, and i had to do all this in less than 3 hours.

now, i'm not one for long stories when my back hurts, it's hot, i still haven't finished packing, and i have a bloody blister on the back of my heel. but without trying to extend the story too much, i have to say i was terrified. all the worst case scenarios in the book were racing through my head at three billion miles per hour and my stomach was twisted in knots (and i hadn't eaten anything all day and i hadn't had any coffee and i had bad dreams all night)

usually when stuff like this happens two things happen. i cry like a baby, and i pray. but to be honest, i was so sick to my stomach i couldn't do either. the only prayer i could muscle out was, "oh, jesus, please... jesus.... don't let me hurl." so i called in the backup, texted "help!" to a bunch of my sisters and bros in christ. they came through for me for real, and peace immediately started to flow through my heart at least, making its way slowly to my stomach.

then i found my passport photo. hurrah!

kristen hansen (my wonderful angel) was waiting for me at the awaa office with all my paperwork ready to go, so i grabbed it and followed her directions to the ethiopian embassy over on "every embassy in the world" street.

ok.... this story is getting too long. i didn't get the visa, but everything worked out. it just means that i have to get my visa there, it might be more complicated, but that's just another reason to trust God. oh! and i met a lovely ethiopian lady named lula, who gave me her number and told me to call her. and there was this beautiful little girl with a poof-ball on her head who kept smiling at me and giving me high fives and fist bumps and i was totally in love with her.

basically, my wonderful trip to embassy land really accomplished one thing: it gave me a peace of mind about my trip again. i am still nervous, but i am no longer freaking out. i know it's thanks to your prayers.... so thanks guys. like, really, thank you so much. and i would like to take this moment to say:

God, you are awesome. but not like, you put on sunglasses awesome. like, you own the whole world awesome.

what it's like to be scared

i don't have my visa, i've been told i can get it in the country. i feel unprepared. i haven't heard from the woman i am staying with who is picking me up for two weeks, i don't even know if she has received my emails. i am so nervous, it's making my stomach hurt. i am so scared. i am leaving in less than two days. i might cry i am so scared, scared with no one to blame it on. it's funny how when you are about to enter into an unknown so new that you don't even know what to expect, you feel like you need to blame it on someone. as if it were someone's fault. haha.

God says trust me. if i trust him, i will be safe, secure, surrounded by love, i won't fail. but i am still so afraid. right now, i need prayer more than anything.

it's starting to hit me

hey guys.

right now i know that i need prayer more than ever because i've been really depressed for the past day. which is ridiculous. because things are finally happening for me, i booked a ticket, i'm packing and getting ready to go. and i know that the closer i get to departure time, the more scared i am going to get, which is where the depression sets in. so please.... please pray for me. because with your payers, when i am flying over the atlantic next tuesday.... i'm gonna like the view.