Gotcha

I bought a couple of items and I am really excited about them! We really want to immerse our child in his/her culture as much as possible. We love Ethiopia and hope that our child grows up knowing a lot about his/her beautiful country. I was really pleased to come across these. Also, some day I hope to be reading the books that we've bought on Ethiopia and point out these two items in our house that are actually in the books! So when I saw these I decided we needed them! The best part was they were relatively in-expensive!

This first two pictures are of a container called an Agelgil used by Ethiopian herdsmen to transport their food. A sort of traditional lunch box. The interior shell is handwoven straw with a lid whose exterior surface is covered with sheep skin hide and decorated with cowrie shells. The shells are meant to bring protection and good fortune. Not that I had intrest in the fortune, for God provides all we need- however it explains the shells which I thought were just pretty and for looks! The cover is held in place by a leather strap that seals the top and there is an additional leather strap for easy carrying by the herder!

The other picture is a real authentic tribally used water bottle. It is made out of real leather hide with a wooden stopper and leather strap for carrying. Also with decorative beads! I'm not sure if there is a story behind these beads though! This kind of water bottle was used by Afar tribesmen during their nomadic wandering in the extreme heat of the Danakil depression (the hottest recorded place on earth)!

In Support of Ethiopia

Apparently Ethiopia is starting to make international headlines for fine leather goods. I have included two links that briefly speak about their increasing notoriety. For an interesting video piece, check out the Reuters.com link below (click entertainment, and then "Made in Ethiopia"). You must have high speed internet to view this video without waiting for a long time.

http://nazret.com/blog/index.php?title=ethiopia_the_leather_industry_boosts_val&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

http://www.elia.org.et/

http://www.reuters.com/news/video

That's all folks!

Okay, the spider we actually did NOT see on the trip, on the contrary I saw it tonight when I was trying to get the pictures to download. I HATE spiders and needless to say this guy was soon stuck to the bottom of my shoe only to have me running around panicking. The dogs were sweet and came running to see the what the commotion was about (David's at work). The spider then fell off my shoe and my dog stepped on it and then it was on her paw. Oh my! I panicked some more and shewed the dogs outside. The girls decided that they needed to come right back in so after a thorough paw check we were spider free and they were let back in. Sorry for those of you out there who are NOT spider killers...

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Pictures!

More pictures

For whatever reason our computer won't let me post any more than 2 pictures at a time...

Oh, the places you'll go!

This weekend we headed out to the Texas hill country. David and I have been wanting to go for quite a while. David had just got off nights so we headed out to a state park that wasn't too far away. We spent our first night at Stephen F. Austin State Park . It wasn't too bad but I don't think it quited down until 2 a.m.! After that we both ended up waking up early- go figure! So we went hiking. They had a neat area to hike in. Not a big area of hiking but there were lots of bridges and you could follow a stream around. We saw a whole herd of deer and some really neat woodpeckers. Then, David drove me to a town he used to go to as a kid and we ate picnic lunch by the river. The water looked like ocean water it was so clear and blue. Then we drove to Blanco state park. We arrived and tried to reserve a camping site but they were already booked so we drove to Guadalupe State Park and by the time we got to the lady they had two "water" spots left. We were pretty excited to hear that b/c they told another couple that was in front of us that they were completely booked, which they were, in the areas that had electricity. We set up our tent and then went down and swam in the river. It was pretty chilly but it was fun. The water was flowing so fast though a couple of parts that it about knocked me over. We swam up the river for a while and then sat down and let us push us down stream. We went back to our camp site, cleaned up, and drove to the closest town. We found what I think was their only sit down restaurant. The food was good! We had ribs with beans, corn, and bread! It was a MUCH quieter park! The next day we went back to Blanco and then to Pedernales Sate Park. Pedernales was by far and away our favorite park! Talk about amazing and beautiful. We went to a bird observatory and watched some birds and then went to see the falls. The falls were really neat, not that there were any big waterfalls just little tiny ones every once in a while. But, you could hike up the river bed on the big rocks. We would have loved to stay and hike longer but after a little while it got dark and we felt a sprinkle or two. We had saw a picture of what that area looked like flooded after 5 minutes of rain and figured we had better head out! We look forward to going back there some day and can't wait to take our child- the places he/she'll go!

Read all about it.

As promised- here is a picture of our "Ethiopia book section". This also shows some Ethiopian cd's we own and the pictures are MOSTLY all Ethiopian. My sister made me the card for my birthday it's pretty cool. The stamps in the frame are from Ethiopia too.

It's a bird, it's a rabbit, NO! It's the furminator...

I have never been one for those "as seen on t.v." type products. However, last time we were at the vet we saw a video for the furminator. It looked like something our house needed (2 dogs, 3 cats). Before you think we are crazy for having so many pets (and I do agree with you) we only intended on having two cats and then I decided I wanted a dog. Two more pet rescues later we have a whole petting zoo. It's really hard for me sometimes b/c I like things VERY clean and neat. With 5 pets it can be impossible. So I decided to try to keep the fur in the house down to a minimum and used the furminator today. It really worked like the video showed. The picture is fur from all 5 pets, of course I had to have the cat beside it so you can see how big the hunk of fur really is. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing like crazy so what you see is only a small amount of fur that wasn't carried away somewhere.

On to the important news- we are officially Gladney approved! Our homestudy (hopefully) has been sent to CIS by Gladney and we are praying for our fingerprint date to be issued to us ASAP! Then we are hoping and praying for fast processing on those! It is our last step to getting our referral.

The school that I work at was on our local christian radio station Friday (KSBJ). Youth For Christ hosted what I would call a youth ralley for our school. It was pretty sweet. A local band came and talked to the kids during lunch. Then the event was that evening. It was pretty cool to see God back in school! All throughout the week we had verses posted throughout our school and they raised money and purchased t-shirts so that all of the kids could have one.

I recently received a Kids of Courage, The Voice of the Martyrs magazine. I went to lunch and when I came back there it was on my desk. I was pretty excited because it was specifically on Ethiopia! It had a LOT of great information in it: a recipe for Dabo Kolo, an Ethiopian snack, how to tell time in Ethiopia, some Amharic words, some information about Ethiopia, and of course stories about kids and families who have stood up for their faith. I had to hunt for a bit but found the person who gave it to me. She figured that I probably knew all of the information in it (which I definitely did not) but thought that I might like it. I was thrilled to say the least and have added it to our little library. It made my day that she thought of me and gave it to me. I don't think she knew what a gift she was giving!


I have really enjoyed cooking lately and have found quite a few good recipes. I am getting ready to make some injera and other Ethiopian food but have been focused on some other things for right now. Today I decided to make eggplant sandwiches.I was a bit skeptical but they turned out pretty good considering I had NO clue what I was doing. Also I had no clue what to look for when I was buying the eggplant. I added a bit of my own ideas to the recipe and put some ham and some other spices in the mix. Not too shabby but also not something I would have very often! ;)

When all else fails try, try again!

This post is actually from a couple of days ago. We have decided that when it comes to the internet cable might be the way to go. The dilemma we face- we don't have anything cable so it would be expensive. Of course we don't have satellite or anything close to that either. A phone line and dial up. Not that we could complain. Our phone and internet are VERY cheap! However it really does take hours or days to get to where I can even post a blog! Thus the reason for the lack of them ;).

Whats new? We recently found out my sister and her husband are going to have a baby! Congrats. to them! Of course it is too soon to know if they will have a boy or a girl. It will be neat for our baby to have someone close in age to play with! Right now it sounds like she'll have hers before we get ours so they could be REALLY close in age. All of the kids on my husbands side are a lot older now but our baby will have all sorts of cousins!

When Matt and Renee came back from Ethiopia with their child Henok they brought us these really cool, traditional, Ethiopian outfits. They were made at by people at the leprosy hospital. We were pretty bummed b/c going to wear them when we had our last "Ethiopia" day but ended up leaving them at home on accident. We have got to wear them a time or two but not for very long. Just to run some errands. The Petsmart people looked at us a little funny when we went there :)! So I am excited b/c we hope to get to wear them in a few weeks when we head out!

Meant to post earlier in the week...

I feel like I go long periods of time without blogging, and Chelsea zips along and puts them out with greater frequency. I guess that’s just the way it is sometimes with shift work. She sure was kind talking so nicely about her husband. I have to admit, there are a few Texas State Parks that we would like to traverse before we have a little one, as they wouldn’t be the best or easiest places for an infant. I suppose the biggest news we have that keeps coming is Chelsea’s significant progress with the Amharic language, and our gradually increasing Ethiopia library. They provide little distractions for us…and I must admit, it’s pretty exciting to hear Chelsea increase her vocabulary and adjust her accent.


NEWSFLASH! That was a post I meant to do earlier this week! As it turns out, I do have some news to add to our posting! We have received our FBI fingerprints from West Virginia! It was very exciting to us! Now we move on to just waiting on CIS fingerprints and scheduling...one more loose end tied up! God's watchful eye and perfect timing continue to strengthen us, as well as deliver the patience we need.

Cat-tastrophy

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080301/sc_afp/ethiopiaundrought_080301181407
Some news in Ethiopia. It's so sad to see things like this.

On to some good news! I see a few people have got their referrals! Congrats. everyone! Now we hope things go smoothly with your court dates.

I was typing some of this and my cat jumped on my lap and then went to find something better to do. Next thing I know my dogs were barking like crazy. I look out the window and my (indoor) cat is outside and the dogs are chasing him. One of the dogs is bread for bear and boar hunting so anything she can hunt is exciting for her. She doesn't bother the cats inside but since he was outside she was on the chase. By the time I ran outside they have the cat cornered by the fence and are barking away at it. Our dogs have been to SEVERAL training classes so I told them to leave it and they were good and obeyed. They were not so sure they wanted to give the cat up completely so I made them go inside while I got the cat. I was really confused on how he got outside and found our garage door wide open. I was on my way inside only to find both cats were outside and rescued them both. I still am not sure how the door was opened and how they got out there and outside... oh well though. They are safe now! Crazy day at our house.

As you have all read I have been trying to think of ways to be patient about WHEN our adoption will happen. I am one of the least patient people I know and it kills me to not know when something might happen. So I have found a way to be patient- I am going to look at the wait as more time that my husband I can spend together just as a couple before we are parents. Besides, once we get our child it we will no longer be just us and we will no longer be able to take off and go places whenever we want like we do sometimes. I have a great husband and love the time we get to spend together. It's not that I have changed my mind and am not overly anxious for our child- but this thought has really helped me be patient. I am looking at going to some places that might be hard to take a baby to that we can go to this spring and maybe summer. There are a few national parks that are pretty remote that you have to hike to camping spots that we have wanted to go see. The glass is always half full, right, you just have to know which glass to look in ;)!

We have quite the library building as far as books on Ethiopia. I think our favorite book is a “Welcome To My Country Ethiopia” book. It is very simple book that is meant for younger children but is full of good information. I also like “When the World Began, Collected Stories of Ethiopia” and "Fire in the Night" by Jane Kurtz. I will have to take a picture of our little library, but I have a few more books on the way and want to wait until they come so that I can get a "good" picture.

I have got one section learned off of the Learn Amharic CD (out of about 10-hacer sections). I was pretty excited about it. I printed out some flash cards to learn the words better but they were in Amharic with no pronunciation help. A lot of good those did me so they headed to the trash and I pulled out our Amharic language book instead. One more trip to AddisAbaba restaurant and maybe I will be pronouncing all of the words right!

I really just wanted to post something today too b/c it has been a little while since I have posted anything. Unfortunately there is nothing new or terribly exciting as far as whats happened for us. So I just thank God for every moment he blesses us with and for always being there each step of the way!