weekend away

This past weekend Dave and I went away together before chaos comes to our house. We hope to travel early August to gather our sons from Ethiopia. I think I posted that they/we passed the court date on the first time around. Yea!!!

So, anyway, the girls spent the weekend with Grampa and Gram. Had a great time! They both ended the last of their swimming lessons for the season too.

Dave and I went to Denver. Had a great do nothing sort of day Saturday. Stayed downtown, had a nice walk on 16th Street Mall. Went to a picnic for families who have or are in process of an Ethiopian adoption. Strange to be the new person, but good to see others "like us". It was fun to pick out all the little boys who seem about the size of our boys.

Sunday we went to the Ethiopian Evangelical Church in Denver. It was a WONDERFUL experience. I think we will make a good effort to go there once a month or so from now on. We are unlikely to ever understand Amharic well enough to not need a translation. ( I did pick out familiar sounding phrases. Incentive to learn them. ) But, these wonderful people know that and are equipped with a little box with ear phones that you can listen to a translation with. The woman translating had the most beautiful annunciation and smooth voice. The service was so wonderful and uplifting and full of the truth of God and the Bible. It was just exactly what we needed at that time. God has a way of doing that! It will be a wonderful way to stay in touch with Ethiopia and what God is doing there. It is in Aurora so it is only about 45 min from home. I love to hear the languages of earth worshiping the one true God. In heaven I hope to hear all of them at once, but be able to understand every single thing. Oh, how wonderful it will be. I have to say, though, if there is a Heavenly language, which I don't think there is, it should be Amharic. That is one very very beautiful language. I love the tones, the sounds, the inflection. Beautiful. And the music. Not one song tune I ever heard before, but all that beautiful Ethiopian smooth, emotion infused music. I LOVE IT. East Africa is VERY different from West Africa. The translator gave us the words. They were almost straight out of the Psalms. Anyway, it was a very worshipful Sunday morning for us.
A funny thing..... they ask for first time visitors to stand up in the service to introduce them selves. Ok, we were the only white people there (feranji) so, it was obvious that we were visitors and they all were wondering what brought us in. Of course adoption is a logical answer. They were very happy to hear of this and the pastor said "bless you for this good and needed thing you are doing. Your sons will grow up to look like these beautiful people around you. " Yes in deed a very beautiful and handsome people. I was glad that they were glad for us to adopt "their" children. Ethiopians tend to claim all Ethiopian national children as "theirs". The village thing. A nice woman talked with us after the service and told us how to say the boys' names correctly. This was good as we have not been saying them correctly. I have to say, that in general I tend to not notice "race" or color. So, being the only white people there was not in the least bit uncomfortable. The standing up was, and would be anywhere! However, lately, I have been noticing people who have Ethiopian characteristics.
This is a congregation larger than our home church. I would say there were about 500 people there. The service started at 10:30 and filled up until about 11. The web site said it ends at 12:30. 1:00 was more like it. And well worth it too.

We went to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant for lunch. There were a few customers at the bar to watch a soccer tournament. Big sport. We had Habesha. It was good. I ordered mild and it was hot, my lips were burning. Dave had medium. HOT. It was a lot like Korma, an Afghan dish. You eat it with the bread, which is not at all like Afghan nahn. It is spongy pancake. Tangy. A big part of this was to see if my system can handle Ethiopian food. I took all my meds afterwards. I think I will stick to "tasting" rather than eating Ethiopian food. I was not so well after. But, the effects were nothing like I expected. For that I am really really grateful. The owner has just opened a restaurant in Addis. So, we got his brochures. He said go here, it is clean and safe. :) That is a very good thing to know. These are friendly and warm people.

We also read a Scientific American article on gene mapping. Fascinating!!!!!! More evidence the human race starting out in Africa, the horn of Africa to be exact. That would be Ethiopia! The gene studies are so interesting to me. Good thing since I am married to a science guy.

Anyway, a great weekend together, meeting other families, a wonderful church, food experiment..........

All for now.