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.