Looking Back . . . Sunday

So, as I promised before, I want to work back through our week in ET to post some of the pictures we got along the way. It just took too long to upload them on the internet connection we had over there.

Before I do, an update to our last post: I probably could've included this in the last post, but things are going really well with Isaiah. Pretty much as soon as we got home, I stopped getting those looks from him. And more recently, he has been seeking me out to be held, or just to come and sit with me. But, he still follows Joe around the house whenever he's home saying "daDEE, daDEE!" :o) He has really warmed up well to the family.

I slept on an air mattress in the boys' room the first night, Joe did the second night, and he's been doing fine by himself ever since. Of course, he is a 2 1/2 -ish little boy, so there are always struggles. Like, he hates going to bed. My guess is that he has just learned to cry himself to sleep. He would cry every time we laid him down, and continue moaning even after the tears stopped until he was asleep. We've worked with him on this, and he's probably coming to realize that it's all okay, and last night he went to bed for the first time without so much as a complaint!

While he's not speaking English regularly, except for "Daddy", it is very clear that he understands a lot of the basics. If he's in the right mood, he will try to repeat us. I guess the same as a baby, I'm very anxious to be able to understand what he is saying and singing - he likes to sing VERY loudly ;o) We have been amazed, though, at how quickly he understood basic words and commands and transitioned into his new name. Probably within a day or two he was responding to "Isaiah". The speaking thing is just going to take more time.

The blister/sore under his nose seems to be improving. We got some of the test results back as far as parasites, so he is on meds now for that.

Okay, so onto the pics ;o) In case it's confusing, I'm putting the captions under the pictures.

Sunday afternoon/evening was the only bad weather we had while we were there. As you can see, it was kind-of foggy/misty. We went with the Halls and Rings to a museum for the oldest church in Addis Ababa . . . we were all exhausted, so we tried to look interested ;o) The sweet guide was trying so hard, but his English was really hard to understand!
There was very loud singing/chanting coming, I believe, from this building, and could also be heard from our guest house on most mornings . . . especially when you wake up at 3:30 a.m. and can't fall back to sleep!

Our room at the guest house. We shared a suite with another family. We had our own bedroom and bathroom, and shared a living room and kitchenette. Our bedroom had a door to the front balcony.

The view from our balcony of the kindergarten across the street. On Monday morning we had so much fun watching the parents drop their little kindergartners off, and then watch as the teachers gathered all the children on the front porch to sing songs . . . in English! It was so adorable!! My favorite was listening to them sing "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hand-es" . . . I could've listened to them sing all day!

The front view from our balcony, and the courtyard of the guest house.

As we left the museum, the Hull's had some treats to hand out, and a huge crowd gathered around Ethan. This happened all week whenever we handed out food to street children. Unfortunately for Ethan, this day the Halls were the only ones with snacks with them. If you know Kristi, you'll have to ask her about the boy that came running up to our van when she tried to give him some candy :o)

The gate to the church. One woman was moaning very loudly and throwing herself all around - you can see her there by the tree.

Old graves . . . and T's head ;o)

A huge eucalyptus tree, that was a gift from Australia, way back when . . . I don't know, I wasn't listening that well ;o) It was interesting, though, to learn that the king made sure that his house was lower than the church (the church is higher on the mountain) because they believed the king was not above God.

I think this was the actual first church of Addis Ababa . . . but, again, his English was hard to understand!

I LOVE these trees . . . this is one of my favorite scenery pictures from the week.

Don't know why this pic is purple - I think my camera is dying.

The dogs that hang around the guest house - had to take pictures for my animal lover, Gracie!

Right side of courtyard of guest house.

Left side of courtyard of guest house.
The front of the guest house. Our room was the first-floor balcony, and our bedroom window is to the left of the first balcony in this pic.

Man herding donkeys down the road in front of the guest house.

Some views from the roof of the guest house. They also have a room on the roof with a play room and a nanny. We didn't know this before we went, but it was a huge help, especially the first night with Isaiah when we had no luggage and very few toys to play with him!