Ezra and Mama

Well, here is the update I told you I was going to post several weeks ago. Ezra is growing, and continues to reach milestones each week. (That is about as detailed as I am going to go.)

We needed to take some pictures of Ezra in his Ethiopian outfit before he outgrows it, which will probably be next week.

Ezra's favorite place is in his mama's arms
He is pulling himself up to the couch and walking alongside the couch. Probably only a few weeks until he trys to walk by himself.
There have been several occassions that Ezra crys for a while before he actually falls asleep during his nap time, but this is a favorite position of his...face plastered to the mattress sheet while he is perched up on his knees and his little bottom sticking staight into the air. We kind of think he is going through a growth spurt...he has been taking 2 1/2 hour naps, twice a day, and sleeping between 12-13 hours at night.

Ezra's favorite activity...

Sometime in the next week or so, we will give a full update of how the first month has gone. This coming Saturday will be 4 weeks we have been home from Ethiopia. One thing we have definately learned...Ezra loves his bath time!

Heidi & Ezra's Baby Shower

Yesterday, we were blessed by many people who graciously helped us get started with this new life with a child...and another one on the way! (See blog post below) We were humbled by the care and generosity of so many people.

3 moms, 3 kids

Connie made this centerpiece for the shower. If you look closely, you can see that it is made from a bunch of diapers. We are learning that diapers are some of the best gifts for new parents!
Some of the ladies who were still at the shower after everyone else had left.
Papa Greenup with Ezra!

Yep, here comes another!!!

Yep, that is a positive. Heidi is pregnant. This picture was taken back in the beginning of July, we were just waiting until the end of the 1st Trimester to tell people that she is going to have a baby! So as of yesterday, she is 13 weeks along.

Due Date: March 15th

This week: The Ordinary & Extraordinary

Common and Ordinary

Uncommon and Extraordinary

We are home!!!

It is soooooo good to be back home. After a long 36+ hour travel from Ethiopia to Spokane, we arrived late Saturday night. There were many people who came to the airport to welcome us at our late arrival. It was a very emotional time, but truly a blessing. We have been sleeping a lot and changing a lot of diapers...yes, I said 'we'. I have been changing some...though you might think this is hard to believe.

I'll try to post some more pictures later, but today begins our life back to normal...however normal it can be now that we have a son.

Day 6 in Ethiopia

Ezra reading his Bible for the first time!

Day 6

• We had another night of decent sleep and visited the National Museum today. It was ok, but we had the Orthodox church chanting incantations the whole day, and it nearly gave us a headache.
• We are all fairly tired and if there was a flight leaving Addis on Thursday night, we would have taken it, but Luftansa has no flights leaving on Thursday, so our normal schedule it is.
• We had a dinner with our adoption coordinator and the other families adopting from our agency. I have attached a few pictures of what we ate. It wasn't that bad, though it wouldn't be top on my list. The ladies (mom and Heidi) stayed home with Ezra, so I represented our family. The ladies went to sleep and Ezra got 12 hours of sleep…a record!!!
• The highlight of the evening was having the opportunity to talk with Eyob (the head administrator for our adoption agency here in Ethiopia). I asked him some questions about our son and he opened up a great story to me...
  
  He said that Abera (Ezra's Ethiopian name) came to the Addis Ababa care home early February of this year. After he got to the care home, he tested positive for HIV and everyone at the care home was brokenhearted because they had come to love this boy. Eyob said he remembers the day very specifically. Before Abera was taken to AHOPE, all of the care workers gathered and prayed 'that God would allow for the HIV to be taken away so that this boy Abera could get a home and be adopted.' Well, several months passed by and after a few months Abera was retested and tested negative. The care workers, staff, and Eyob were praising the Lord in thankfulness for His mighty work. Eyob said that CWA has had 250 children adopted from Ethiopia this year. I asked him how many children he has known who have tested positive and then tested negative? He said, "Abera has been the only one." It was really touching to hear him tell this story and I could see zeal upon his lips and tears of thankfulness filling his eyes. Just guess how I was responding?
• We are hoping to visit AHOPE tomorrow sometime to see place they care for AIDS orphans. Ezra Abera spent a few months there, so we want to stop by and thank them and extend our greetings to them.
• Our flight leaves Addis Ababa at 10:55 pm. Please pray for a smooth trip, espcially with Ezra and the long long flights.
• This will probably be the last post until we arrive in Spokane Saturday evening at 7:55 pm if everything goes as scheduled.

Here's a meal in Injera. Any guesses as to what it is?

This man is collecting garbage from the muddy river...