Goats

This post is dedicated to all of our incredible family and friends who made it possible for us to make a significant donation while we were in Ethiopia. As many of you know from previous posts or our announcement, there are millions of orphans in Ethiopia and thousands upon thousands of them are in orphanages across the country. Our agency works closely with several of these orphanges in Addis and the surrounding area to identify children who are available for adoption. Of course, we are eternally grateful for their dedication and commitment to these children, but our hearts were also aching for the many children who may never be adopted. These children live in dire conditions, and scarcely have a good meal or even water sources that they can drink from. We gently put a call out to you to join us in making a difference for these children by contributing to a donation that would go to providing goats, sheep, fruit and beverages for the orphanges.

A highlight of our trip was to have the opportunity to work with the in-country staff to dedicate this contribution to those who need it most. Presently, most of the city is fasting per the Christian Orthodox calendar, so we made arrangements to provide a full festive meal for 4 orphanages next month to celebrate Easter. So when you are ready to carve your Easter ham here in the States, take a moment to pray for the children who will be feasting on a meal, compliments of you, and perhaps the best meal they may have all year.


From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for helping us feed the children in Ethiopia!

The Druckers

Home sweet home!

We made it...exhausted, but safe, and as I write this, we have 4 sleeping babies upstairs. Amazing.

I'll write more in the coming days to tell you about the remainder of our trip. The internet was a bit particular, and then of course the whole twin thing, and time change, prevented us from getting on as much as we would have liked.

Love,
The Druckers!

More Pictures!

Big storm & big day!

Happy Wednesday! Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to write us comments, we just read through them all, you have no idea how fun it was for us- to be a world away and hear from family and friends is great.

So...thanks to MK we got pictures up, and I promise more are on the way. Yesterday we had a fierce storm throughout the entire city- we're talking violent, which of course then means no internet and loss of power. Through it all, we felt blessed to have a roof over our heads, and meals- there are so many here that were left to fight the storm out on the streets.

Today was a big day for us and the twins. We returned to the care centers that our agency owns and within minutes, they were both whisked away by their special caregivers. The caregivers take the children and dress them in traditional Ethiopian clothing and spend some time saying goodbye. We worked hard at being patient with this- we found that all the other families had their children returned to them fairly timely, but nope, not us. We were told that the twins were very popular, and therefore it was a good hour before we saw them again. Cooper was sleeping, but when he woke up, he had the biggest smile on his face, which made my day (he wasn't so happy about leaving us).

While I was hands free, I took advantage of the time to find all the children I promised pictures for, and also to spend some special time with our other favorite set of twins. Oh Heide & Mark, I can't wait to talk to you, boy are you going to have your hands full!! And then I met these other precious, sweet babies- Erin, Kaite, Damon & Kathy- your babies are beautiful, healthy and happy!! I'm still on a mission for a couple more families and hope to be able to snap pictures for them- it was VERY chaotic, and there are so many babies, it was overwhelming.

Staff at the care center prepared a coffee ceremony for us. She began by roasting the beans and then grinding them and adding the water. Most of you know that I am so not a coffee drinker, but I felt compelled to give it a try-whoa...for my first cup of coffee, I really chose a cup with a punch- holy strong coffee! I'm pretty sure that it was the freshest coffee any of us will ever have, and it was neat to watch it be prepared.

After the coffee ceremony we went out to lunch with all the other travelling families to a restaurant called "Top of the View", it was fantasic, and yes, a great view.

Now we are back at the guesthouse, and I don't think we'll be going anywhere else today, we're already exhausted. Avery is fast asleep, and Cooper is trying is hardest at cutting some teeth- pretty sure Christian's fingers will look like raisins in a minute, he's been gnawing on them non-stop.

Tomorrow we will be visiting Holy Trinity Church, a famous Christian Orthodox church, and then onto our embassy appointment. The embassy appointment is what generates the twins' visas to leave the country- so we're praying for a successful appointment!

We can't wait for you to meet the babies...oh, you will fall in love instantly!
oxox

Monique, Christian & Memere

Pictures!!

Babies!!!

We're here...and we have the babies!!! OH MY GOSH, they are absolutely gorgeous, and we are so blessed.

Our flight over from Dubai was uneventful, and we landed in Addis right on time. It took a bit to get our Visas and then collect our bags, no trouble, just everyone getting off the plane at the same time and everyone needing to do the same thing at the same time. We quickly identified the other Gladney (our agency) families and before we knew it, Travis (in country staff for our agency) was walking toward us and greeting us with a huge smile. Travis kindly asked us if we wanted the babies today…um, YES!!!

Our guest house is situated in the southern end of Addis, and the Gladney Care Centers are in the northern end, so we happily volunteered to go to them, rather than have to have someone drive them out to us. We stopped by the guest house first to let them know we were here and bring our bags in, but we didn’t waste much time, our babies were waiting! We were able to call the girls back home and talk to them literally minutes before we saw the babies- it was perfect.

Our agency arranged for a driver for us- his name is Fitsum, and he is great. Fitsum took us to the Care Center where Travis met us outside and led us in. Sweet Travis took our video camera and recorded the whole magical experience for us. We scooped them up and truly, they folded right into our arms…as if they have been waiting for us, as we were for them. We stayed for about 30 minutes talking to the caregivers and the nurse, and then I had an important mission before we left. Our friends Heidi & Mark are waiting on a court date to bring home their twin boys who happened to be in the same house- no way was I leaving until I saw the boys! I knew they were shy, so I gently peeked in on them and cannot wait to go back on Wednesday to spend some time with them and about 6 other munchkins that I will be taking pictures of and loving on them while their parents back home wait for news of court dates- i'm so looking forward to this!

Humbled. That's what we are. Ethiopia has humbled us, and we have barely been here a day. I'm not sure that you can prepare for the extreme poverty and conditions of this country until you see it first hand. The beauty is clearly all in the people, everyone is incredibly kind, and equally in love with the twins wherever we go.
I'm working on uploading some pics- that may take a bit. Stay tuned.

I'm a mom of four...!!!!
Monique