Memories from Ethiopia - Flowers in Addis Ababa

There are so many pretty flowers all over Addis. The city's location and warm weather makes it an ideal climate for many different kinds flowers.

I will start with roses. We saw many of them every day at the Hilton hotel.


The rest of the flowers I found all over the city.

Enjoy!

If I Get Pregnant In Africa .... ?

Do any of you write down what your children come up with? (This one was too funny not to share it with the world).

All of you know that we have four kids and all of them are eager to share their thoughts with us at the diner table every night. This is a small part of our conversations last night.

Nate announced that he was going to built one hundred huts for his one hundred children (the number of his children has been slowly moving up each time the boys start talking about their future families). Then he changed his mind and told us he will build one hundred and two huts. One for his wife, one for him and the rest for the children (Sam's family will be much smaller). I believed after a good laugh we all would move onto another subject. But Nate wasn't done. Nate asked us with the most serious face this question: "If I move to Africa and get pregnant will my babies be brown?" (note that our children refer to black people as brown). At this point we were all about to loose it. After the laughter died down we did explain to Nate that a babies color depends on the parents and that he won't be getting pregnant. Oh I love this guy. I love his way of thinking and his love for others.

I cannot wait to visit his one hundred and two huts in Africa.

Fall is Here - Catching up

I know I haven't posted what we have been up to for a long time. Well fall has arrived in New England and we are all enjoying it. The Tupperware tubs with warmer clothes made it down from the attic and we are now tripping over the summer and fall clothes that are all over the place (I do not like this in between clothing season). However ,most of the summer stuff made it up into the attic or is waiting to be given away.

We are also in full swing with all the fall activities including boys soccer and Emma's dancing which she loves by the way.

I was sick a few weeks ago and everybody has a runny nose as I am writing this blog ( I was told this is a back to school bug). Other then that we are doing great.

It was time to get some pumpkins and I also wanted to get more tomatoes for tomato sauce so we stopped at the farm last week. The boys were in no mood to take pictures.
We fed the goats (well the boys did Emma and Jo stayed a safe distance away from them). The biggest hit at the farm were the turkeys. I could not get the boys from their cage (Nate got all excited about Thanksgiving).


Emma was the only one willing to take pictures with flowers.

pumpkins everywhere


I do love fall in New England (I feel a little different about the winters though).

Corn field on the way home.

Fall colors in our neighborhood.

Sunday reflections

Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make music to our GOD on the harp. He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills. He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call. His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man;

The LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Psalm 147:7-11

Memories from Ethiopia - Textures

I am slowly getting though my pictures from our trip. Anyway here are some textures from this beautiful country.

Can anyone recognize this wall? It is from the TH. I loved all the palm trees around the city of Addis. The temperature was perfect to begin with (around 80 F with low humidity everyday and sunny).





Walls

Steps to the kings palace on Entono mountain
Wall around the palace

roof inside the palace.

Memories from Ethipia - Windows & Doors

I will start this blog with a picture of the door that means a great deal to us. For those who do not recognize this door it is a door to TH (transitional home) where Jordan stayed for four months. We got to walk through this door several times during our visit to Ethiopia. The first time we actually got to drive though it and believe we are one of the few groups who actually got to drive though it.

The next three pictures are door to a church on top of Entono mountain.


I will end this blog with another door that means a lot to us. This is the entrance to an orphanage where Jordan came from.