Passports Mailed

I just mailed both our passports to the National Passport Processing Center for renewal. I sure hope they make it there and back before we need to travel to Ethiopia!

Ethiopian Food Take Two

On New Years Eve Josh and I had “take one” of our Ethiopian food adventure. It was not the experience we had envisioned. The restaurant was “iffy” to say the least. This time we tried The Queen of Sheba in Addison and it was GREAT! We met up with my mom, my brother and a few of my cousins which made it even better. The staff was wonderful and the food was so good. Here are a few pictures of our Ethiopian dinner:

One of the most charming-and practical! -aspects of Ethiopian hospitality is the “hand washing ceremony” at the beginning and ending of every meal called “SEN’NA BERT.”Injera – Spongy, flat, sourdough bread used to pick up your food. You could ask for a fork, but they will give you a hard time about it!

The Queen’s Dinner – A taste of just about everything on the menu. I can’t say I loved all of it, but now I know what I want next time. Heart for Africa necklace that my cousins surprised me with (thanks Tavish, Dan, Danyel, and David)!

6 Years ago today!

There is No Me Without You

I started this book the day we went to our Information Meeting at Gladney…way back in October. No, it does not usually take me eight months to read one book. This book is different. Every time I picked up this book I found myself only being able to make it a few pages before I was overwhelmed by all the obstacles the people of Africa have faced and continue to face. That being said, it is a wonderful book that filled me with hope. I know that once our adoption is complete we will not stop trying to help the people of Africa. They will become a part of our family; to whom we will always be indebted and devoted.

Never being one for book reports, I’m including a review of the book from signsoflifebooks.com.

There are 4 million orphans in Ethiopia today. 1.5 million of these are due to HIV/AIDS, the rest to famine, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and other maladies from which people rarely die in the west. With only 75 million inhabitants, Ethiopia simply does not have enough adults to care for these children. To make matters worse, out of 190+ independent countries in the world, Ethiopia is at or near the bottom of any list of economic indicators you care to choose.

A few years ago Haregewoin Tefarra was a happily married middle class woman in Addis Ababa. Then she lost her 54-year-old husband to a heart attack and shortly thereafter her adult daughter to AIDS. Shunned by many friends and family members due to the severe stigma carried by AIDS in Ethiopia, Haregewoin felt as if her life had ended. She applied to the local church to be a hermit and live in a shed in the graveyard, close to her dead daughter. A wise priest had a better idea. Would she take in an orphan girl? Why not, she reasoned, her life was over. It wouldn’t matter one way or the other. A few days later the priest brought her a teenaged boy with the same entreaty. I may as well let him stay, she thought, my life is over anyway. Since then over 400 orphans have passed through her doors. She has poured out her heart and they have given her back her life.

This is the story of one woman’s fight to save the children of her country. Without training, without government support or funding, without help from any human source, Haregewoin has tirelessly struggled to save a handful from life on the streets, prostitution, AIDS and death that surely awaited them otherwise. Here also are the stories of a few families who, like the author and her husband, have adopted some of these orphans into their homes in middle-class America.

Melissa Fay Greene is an award-winning journalist who has published several social-conciousness raising books and numerous articles in notable periodicals from the New York Times to Goodhouskeeping. She is passionate about her topic and so can be forgiven for her occasional leftist rants and simplistic solutions (big drug companies = bad, Bush administration = bad). We’ve all heard about the AIDS orphan tragedy in Africa, but its easy to think of it as “way off over there”. This book puts a human face on the problem and brings it home. You must read this book - but be prepared to be changed.

Ethiopia – The Birth Place of Coffee

(After meeting our babies, this may be what Josh is most looking forward to!! No, I am not letting him bring his French press!)

Ethiopians have a very beautiful traditional coffee ceremony, its unimaginable for most Ethiopians to start a new day with out several cups of coffee. Coffee is the best drink an Ethiopian family offers to honor guests, as coffee ceremony is the best occasion for a get-together with neighbors and friends. Ethiopian coffee ceremony might have been created with the discovery of coffee itself in its south western heartland, in particular place called “Kaffa” from which, many experts of the uniquely fragrant and relaxing bean believe, the firm coffee has originated and joined the international lexicon. Coffee, café, etc.

Recent Activities – Adoption, etc.

Fr. Josh getting "Fun Flushed" by a preschooler!

Mom in the shade at St. Gregory's Springtacular.

The hard working "Whitfield Family Expansion Project" sales team.

Josh at our garage sale.

Our useless attempt to discourage garage sale hagglers.

Josh and Belle hanging out with our friend, Luke.