Travel to Ethiopia/Day 1 in Addis

We left Wichita Thursday morning. It was much more difficult telling the kids goodbye than I had anticipated, but we reminded ourselves that we are taking a big step to getting our fourth child! So, off we went!
Here, we are on our last flight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!
We are flying over the Nile River!
We are getting closer!
We arrived in Addis Friday night. We checked into Ethiopia Guest Home. Just a few minutes later, another couple came in. Immediately, I recognized them as the Collins', another CWA family who has been walking this journey with us. Shannon and I have prayed for each other for almost a year! It was sweet to connect in person.

Here, I am standing on the balcony of the guest house. Saturday, we got ready and headed out to do some shopping with Mark and Shannon. Here are just some of the sights we saw while driving through the city:

Here is the view from our guest house.

Wooden scaffolding. We had heard about this, but it was remarkable to see it in person.

A man weaving.

Chris wanted to go by the stadium where Ethiopians play soccer and train for running. He even got to go down on the track!
This picture is a bit blurry because we took it in the van, but this was a common sight! Animals were everywhere.

There were so many road-side markets.

I forgot to get pictures of us shopping. I was too busy checking off my list! But, we went to the Postal District to get authentic gifts for our kiddos. We had a lot of success. After shopping, we headed back to the guest house. We actually moved to a different house for the rest of our stay. After freshening up, we met up with several other CWA families for supper at the Iron Tree restaurant. We found out later that this restaurant had internet access. We wished we had known! Oh well.

Our first day in Ethiopia was full. We had one more day to fill before getting to see Isaiah!