Tonight is Our Court Night

How do we feel? We feel a strong peace and intense joy. We feel the prayers of those that love and concern themselves with thinking of us. We feel that God has it all in His hands. We feel sure and secure.

Monday night we met with Richard, a guy from Ethiopia and I would like to take notes about our meeting.

Greeting-The common thing is to kiss on the right cheek, kiss on the left, and kiss again on the right. Women to women and men to women do this. It's instead of shaking hands.

First Impression-When you get off of the airplane at the beginning, you may find many sick, crippled, poor people begging. Even some leppers. He asks that we remember that often times this is an act and looks can be decieving. The ones who are really in need are not able to even make it to the busy streets or able to beg due to health and poor situations.

Safety-He wears shorts inside his pants and keeps his valuables in those interior pockets. He wouldn't recommend going outside Ethiopia. However Kenya isn't so bad. He also said that the media, BBC usually, exaggerates the current wars and rumors of violence from what he has seen. Just like he watched movies of America and was afraid to wander in the large cities for fear of violence. The media may not always be so trusting.

Food-Injera is the basis of nearly every meal. People can make it homemade or buy it at the store. He compares it more to a pancake than anything else. This is eaten with lunch and supper. Left overs(which I forgot the name) is eaten for breakfast. He also said that when we hear of a food shortage in Ethiopia it means that the main ingredient to make injera is lacking in supply. That causes the food shortage since it is such a staple. Soda is served in bottles, glass mostly but plastic is becoming more popular.

Travel-The large 15 passenger vans are cheaper then the smaller cars. They each are called taxi's and the price can be negotiated. Sometimes the driver will really try to over charge you. Travel light when sight seeing.

Clothing-The women wear a shawl around their shoulders and sometimes over their heads. Many of them also have a green ink tattoo going down the side of their face. A line with dashes. Not sure what it stands for.

Children-The street children are many and they have great needs. Often times they are orphans.

Adoption-
I feel like this is a valuable insight that my husband and I neither one thought of. This is only one story but a point of view I have never heard and I hope it doesn't offend any of you adopting families. I only hope this brings a new light to our thoughts here. This is his familys story.
His mother is over a ministry in their church IEA called "people in need". They deliver packages of needs to those less fortunate in the surrounding areas. She brought one to a very sick mother with HIV. Sitting beside her was her 10 month old little girl. Richards mom continued visiting, bringing goods and sharing Jesus with this women. The women asked her to adopt her baby as her own as she knew she was going to die. The village people heard about this and one day, they kidnapped the baby. They sold the baby to an orphange and Richard's family was left heart broken. As we would be. I believe this is why the government has stopped all abandoned cases for the moment. This was an abandoned case, as the mother never got to sign the baby over to anyone.

I know it is hard to think about, especially for those of you who are in love with that little joy. But maybe this will help us see the other side. That the government is looking out for it's people. Not just pulling our hearts around at it's will and abilities.