She made her way to our group. We headed to the local school next. After spending some time there we said good-bye to the group and headed back to the hotel to pack up our things. First we made a quick stop by the Bejoe to give Genet some things and meet the lovely Belleme family!

We packed up and then met Surafel, the TOMS head in Addis. He has truly the most amazing story. One of grace and redemption. It was a gift to sit with him and hear of his heart for his country and the Lord. Surafel wears many hats in Ethiopia and is making a huge difference in the lives of many! We look forward to seeing him again in October.


After checking out we drove to the Gladney care centers one more time. Good-byes to everyone there, saw the Funderburk family one last time too. I spent some time with one of Eyasu's sweet buddies. They entered care together and by evidence of the many pictures we recieved of them together while we were waiting, these two adored each other! He is still there but prayerfully he has found his forever family! His face lit up when I gave him a picture of the two of them together from when we picked up Eyasu last November. He kiseed it and ran upstairs to hide it under his bed. We then met up with Eric, MC, Mohammed, two from Kidmia for a dinner at Makush. I love this place. Good food and beautiful art. I walked away with two pieces that I LOVE. They are so precious and of course gave me a very "special price!" Seeing the paintings hanging on the walls of our home- transports me back and I love them for that!

We took Kristin to the Bejoe as she was staying a few extra days to photograph Kidmia. So sad saying good-bye to her. I may not have mentioned before that she was my big sister in our sorority at Baylor. Don't you know the Lord just smiled at the time knowing that we had such greater adventures awaiting us in the future than what we thought was simply a few fun years together in school. She is a huge blessing to me and I'm ever thankful to have been on 2 trips with her to Ethiopia (SO FAR)!!

Off to the airport I went with the Julies!! I also had the pleasure to meet this Julie in the Bole airport. So precious. She asked me about Abe and I cried. I think being away from my little guy had caught up to me-- I was ready to get home. Julie, thank you for not thinking I was some crazy lady. :)

Our first stop was the hospital in Tercha. It services 800,000 people. 2 full time medical Drs. Yes, 2 to 800,000. They live at the hospital and average about 3 hours of sleep a night. We had a meeting with the Drs and a few of the administrators of the hospital where they discussed their most pressing needs. A huge need is for a new maternity ward. They said that if a woman came to the hospital with a very difficult case, the closest hospital that could treat them is a full days drive, on the bumpy roads. I have given birth 4 times, in a hospital, with an epidural and I just can't imagine that scenario. These women deserve better. We saw a beautiful woman that had labored for days, her uterus ruptured and she lost her baby. So tragic.

From the hospital we headed to the Dawro Development office for a wonderful celebration and special ceremony for our group. When we pulled up we were greeted by lovely dancers performing traditonal dances from this zone. They also had a Dinke which is supposedly the worlds largest wind blown instrument. The entire performance was incredibly entertaining! The shoulder shaking continues to amaze me!

Tameru said some very nice words about our group and time together and then I was asked to say a few words. :) Nothing I love more than a little public speaking!! It really was a great opportunity to thank them for their incredible hospitality and let them know how much we love their country. We were then presented with gifts from Ato Domani. So kind of them.

After the ceremony we went to visit the local high school. We had MANY pens to hand out and what started as an orderly line to pass out the pens got out of hand really quickly! We put a stop to the pen giving and went to tour the campus.

The kids were sweet, wanting to pracice their English. The head of Education for the area was there and gave a passionate plea for a new lab for the high school. He said how are they to compete with the other students for a place at the University if they have to take Chemistry without a lab. He was very charismatic and you could tell he loved these kids.

One final school stop on our way out of Tercha was by far the worst we had seen yet. No child should have to attend school in these conditions. They have no water source nearby either. The kids were very sweet and presented us with flowers.

We made a little pit stop along the way and just taking in the view was so overwhelming. I loved these moments, not planned, where you got to connect with the local people. We passed out some fingernail polish and other goodies. It brought us so much joy. A highlight for sure.

All day long we were surrounded by people, beautiful, kind, loving, thankful people. We were presented with lovely flower arrangements by some of the local girls at one point. Just a memorable moment.

We then began to walk to a few of the water points. I didn't know exactly what to expect honestly. We were told to wear hiking boots as it would involve climbing and mud. :) We began to walk down a hill, a steep hill. The kids began to follow, the older men were trying to switch them with sticks to keep them from coming, and out they would pop out of corn fields, faces with huge smiles on them. We got to the first water project and it was amazing. Just a remarkable view all around! It was incredible to think that this was their water source. What was not too long ago, dirty, contaminated water that they shared with the animals, was now crystal clear! Glimmer does natural springs, deep and shallow bore wells. These were natural spring wells. They take an existing spring, cap it uphill, allow gravity to run the water down into a resevoir, then run it through purification into 2 spickets where the water comes out!!(I'm sure they would love my elementary explanation!!) I will never forget the faces of those filling up cans with this new, clear water! The impact is immediate.

We proceeded to walk from water point to water point. At each, the people would come out, singing, dancing, showing unbelievable gratitude for the gift of clean water. It was so powerful. At one project, I just sat up on top of a hill that was above the water point, just so I could soak it all in. Children came and sat with us, one little baby was being carried around by his sister (she was probably only 6) and he looked very sick. Just broke your heart, literally. I saw so many kids, with so much freedom. Little ones, 18 months up, just toddling around.....and I saw Eyasu in ALL of them. As he was relinquished at 2-- this could have been him. I know his uncle loved him dearly, it is just the reality of life there. Life is hard. Women work HARD to get the water, walk to the market, to come home to prepare the meals, etc. and this goes on and on and on. It occurred to me that children, taken from these rural areas, placed up for adoption, eventually into a home, would have issues with boundaries, rules, etc. It is so easy for us to place the feelings that we think they will have----extreme gratitude, thankfulness, security, etc when the reality is they often don't as life is simply so very different. They knew love in Ethiopia yet were had less restrictions............I never saw an adult look for Daniel all day long. It just made the love that I have for Ethiopia, my children from there, the children that I have prayed home, the children that will remain there grow to new heights!

After this one particular water point we started to walk up this particularly steep hill (did I mention we were VERY high up altitude wise???) and I was hurting. It was hot and this hill was not getting shorter. I felt like I was in decent shape but this hill (and the children blowing past us) made me seriously question that!! :) We got about halfway up and realized Kristin was still behind. Eric from Glimmer yelled up that she might be dehydrated. (She was carrying SO much weight in camera gear.) We kicked it up a notch as our water was back up the hill in our vehicle. I got to the car, retreived some water and ran back to where they were only to find an entire village in a circle with Kristin perched in the very center! All eyes were on her. I took her the water and she asked what we could do to divert the crowd. Sweet thing, I felt terrible for her. I think one precious man literally ran to his hut to get the chair that she was sitting on........oh are they hospitable or what???

Finally she felt well enough to move on. We walked towards our car and saw another large circle had formed, this time Julie Neal was in the center. Remember the drum that I have mentioned a few times? Well, Julie asked at one of the water points where she could find a drum like they had as it was just the kind she had seen in Awassa. Much talk went back and forth and she was told that they would find out. Fast forward to the crowd around her now. The pastor of the local Evangelical church in Dali wanted to present her with this beautiful drum. He gave a wonderful speech (via interpreter) about how thankful he was to God for bringing us there, how he prayed for our family back at home, etc.......it was incredible and we didn't have a dry eye. The drum that she had searched years for, was now being handed to her in this extraordinary way! I don't have pictures as I was so overcome with emotion, but know Julie H took some as did MC.

We were sad to say goodbye to the people of Dali as they each took a piece of our hearts. The drive home we spoke of our experiences, what we saw, what the Lord taught us. He showed us so much of Himself, so much of what breaks His heart, what matters to Him.

We also spoke of how impressed we were with the amazing work that Glimmer was doing in Ethiopia. Most of the projects that we saw were only funded in October. They are serious about being efficient and effective. They have a VERY clear model of what they do and they don't stray from that. They have excellent working relationships with the development associations that they work with and they are changing lives of those living with extreme poverty in Ethiopia. More on Glimmer later......

We were all enjoying the scenery and Julie N. told Asafe to stop the car. We all looked up and saw two boys playing soccer up on a hill with a rag ball. Julie quickly jumped out of the car and we were saying "na" for him to come. He looked scared as he should have been, not often do cars drive by, much less ones full of white women telling him to come! She threw him a brand new soccer ball and his face was one of the most precious I have ever seen. He LIT up. He looked at the ball, then at Julie and seriously as if manna from heaven had just arrived! I wish I had a better picture but we were so in the moment. One of the highlights of the trip for me.

Has it really been over a week?? Wow! This guy has been playing in his world series baseball tournament all week and we have spent more time waiting for it to stop raining than actually playing baseball, think I would have found time to post. :)

Arriving in Dali, we received the most unbelievable welcome!