Breakthrough

It's 9:30pm here in Addis Ababa and we are trying to figure out how to watch listen to the UT game that won't even start for FIVE MORE HOURS.  It'll be 2:30am for us, but we feel fairly confident we should at least be able to listen somehow.  Before I get started about our day, here are three words: GO BIG ORANGE.  Enough on that....
Our day started out beautifully.  As I woke at 6am (my standard Africa wake time.  NOT my standard America wake time), I was thinking and praying about yesterday.  Our breakdown breakthrough yesterday was such a blessing.  While we are still here with interpreters and house staff who love adore Asnake, it is a blessing to have them helping us in these early days.  Knowing there would certainly be transitions that are hard on all of us, we feel grateful to have yesterday behind us.  Here is what the breakthrough taught Asnake:  we are going to love him no matter what.  Even when he is disobedient, disrespectful, or shuts down.  We aren't going anywhere and we aren't taking him anywhere.  It's ok to be sad and we are a safe place to say that.  Here is what it taught me:  We will survive.  We can have moments in days that are hard, but those moments don't make the whole day bad.  We can communicate and everyone walk away feeling more confident than before that we are family and we are glad about it. It wasn't a breakdown.  It was a breakthrough.
So, that is how my thoughts started today as the beautiful sunrise came up through our huge picture window on the wall opposite our bed.  It's quite a view.  One I won't soon ever forget.  Literally every morning it takes my breath away.  I tried to quietly get up and run to the bathroom and as I walked back through the room, I saw the cutest brown eyes open and making eye contact with me.  We both smiled to be starting our day with each other.  I snuggled him up in his a bed a few minutes, while his eyes were still glassy with sleep.  A few minutes later, he was up and ready to get put on his clothes.  He chose his outfit today (SO CUTE) and grabbed his socks and shoes.  Next, he brushed his teeth and we put hair milk in his hair.  When he has that in his hair everyone wants to eat him up because it smells SO GOOD.  He was ready to go by 7am and he sat playing with "motors" and stickers until breakfast at 7:45am.  TODAY WE HAD DONUTS for breakfast.. homemade, gluten-free donuts.  SO GOOD, but Asnake doesn't (obviously) prefer sweets for breakfast.  And, when I showed him the alternative breakfast of oatmeal, he nearly screamed, "NO."  I think it must've been what he ate every morning of his life until last Wednesday morning.  He's over it.  I can't blame him. So bananas is was.  again.
We had big plans for the day and they got started at 9am. Mengistu arrived and we all piled into the big (SUPER NICE) van.  We had to upgrade because another family arrived yesterday with their two biological children (both older teens).  So, with us, them, and the couple that has been here all week, we had a big van full.  We were heading out to Africa's largest market.  Y'all. THIS PLACE IS CRAZY.  Much of the market has recently been deemed not safe for foreigners to explore alone due to so much theft.  However, we (as in Mark and me and Mengistu) exited once to enter one small tent to look at some baskets I had wanted.  The young girl working was willing to cut us a deal while also making a profit, so MOMMA DID SOME CHRISTMAS SHOPPING.  We hauled it all back to the van and kept driving.  I wish I could adequately express to you HOW MASSIVE this place was.  Miles and miles and miles.  You can google it and get the exact dimensions I am sure, but suffice it to say it took us at least 45 minutes to drive it....give or take a few minutes for the cows, donkeys, and horses to get out of our way in the street.  I love Ethiopia.
Next, we made a few stops along the way at a sports store.  Brycen has his heart set on an Ethiopian track suit (jacket and pants).  We have found what he wants, but Mengistu is dead set on getting him the best price since Bry is using "his own" money to buy it.  After that, we drove to a place where women make scarves.  The women working in the dark, cool, "workshop" were once working carrying huge bundles of wood on their backs down (or up) mountains.  They knew the more they could carry, the more money they could make.  These bundles weigh hundreds of pounds and we have seem countless women still performing this laborious task. Every. single. day.  Older women and younger women.  So, a lady came and visited Ethiopia a few years ago and noticed this back-breaking job.  She allowed some of the women the opportunity to learn to make scarves as a way to earn money instead.  The workshop is full of looms and the work is tedious and repetitive, but it's not in the sun and it's not killing their bodies.  This was an eye-opening stop for us all.
After that, we went to a local market to try to collect some pieces for our traditional coffee ceremony kit for our house.  Nothing says Ethiopia like a coffee ceremony.  So, Mengistu started us out at street level in this market.  We meandered through until we found part of what we were looking for.  But, he wasn't pleased with all of it so he asked if anyone else in the market sold what we were looking for.  They pointed down.  It was the first time I realized the market extended DOWN THE MOUNTAIN.  We were able to use steps hewn out of the rock of the side of the mountain to tumble walk down to where the "kitchen store" was.  All along the way we continued to draw a crowd.  We were a lot of white people at once and for this market, that was unusual from what we learned.  Like, the police came to watch us by the time we arrived at the "kitchen tent."  We found some of what we needed, but not all. Mengistu was dead set on finding it all, but I assured him since we were 14 miles a long way from the van, that we could certainly look for the rest another day.  And, besides, our donuts were LONG GONE.
So, we all piled back into the van and off we went to Sishu... the same burger and fries place we took Asnake to the first day we were able to take him out of the orphanage.  It was packed (it's Saturday) and we had a larger party, but it was all great.  Throughout the LONG car rides, Asnake was in my lap or Mark's lap by the window (of course).  It was on these long rides that I realized that Asnake hums or sings all the time.  Now, this may not sound like a big deal to you, but this is a normal conversation at our house (some of you KNOW this is true):
Me: hey Babe.  Can you be quiet for just a second while I listen to this?
Mark: Oh.  Was I making noise?
Me: Yes.  you are always making noise.
Now... I don't typically mind Mark's hums or singing at all, but on occasion I NEED IT QUIET.  So, to see Asnake do the same thing brought tears to my eyes.  God knew when He was knitting this sweet boy together in his birth mom's womb that he would be in our family.  And, he hums and sings constantly, just like his dad.  He sang "Good, Good Father" a blue zillion times and it was the sweetest sound.  I am sure if it sounded sweet to me, it had to be a sweet, sweet sound to Jesus.
Oh! And while we were at Sishu, we all drank out of glass bottles and Asnake learned to make his a whistle.  This isn't a really big deal, but when his world opens up in the smallest ways and SHEER DELIGHT covers his face, I can't help but take notice.
We have known the past two days, especially, that Asnake is imitating everything he sees (good and  bad).  This morning Mark said, "You are my baby," and Asnake repeated it back to him.  We all laughed. Then, when Mengistu heard him do it he whispered something to him and then when Mark said, "you are my baby," Asnake replied, "you are my daddy."  And then I died.  Again.
You all will think this is funny... the ladies that work at the guesthouse are amazing.  They love on us and on him and serve us so well.  Tonight after dinner one of them said, "Asnake, what is your mom's name?"  He looked at her so funny, raised his little hands with his palms up, and said, "Um. Mommy!"  Like, how could you not know?  That's when I realized he didn't know we had other names!  So, now he knows (hopefully) that I am Carrie and his dad is Mark.  SO CUTE.
After Sishu and playing music with our glass bottles we headed to Kaldi's for "buna."  Asnake ate every bite of his lunch (an adult meal) and when we got to Kaldi's he seemed relieved to know he didn't have to get something.  It was so funny. We all sat, getting to know one another and then we decided to head back.
While we were at Kaldi's Mengistu mentioned something to me that he had shared with Mark last night.  I will try to type it without crying, but if I do, you won't know it anyway!  Apparently at Asnake's original orphanage there had been a girl older than him (quite a bit older, like 10 years older).  She apparently read to him when he was a baby and toddler and was the one who looked after him.  Mengistu told me today, "She was the first one to ever read him the Bible or tell him about the bible."  Apparently, she heard through the infamous grapevine that Asnake had left with his family and her nannie called Mengistu saying this sweet girl was so upset thinking he had already left for America without a chance to say good-bye.  I was sitting in Kaldi's with my mouth gaped open and tears hot in my eyes.  Mengistu asked, "Do you think it would be ok if we took Asnake to see her before you go."  YES.  I want to hug her, kiss her, and tell her SHE TOOK PERFECT CARE OF HIM.  She told Mengistu he is the closest thing to a brother she has ever had.  OH MY GOODNESS. These kids look after one another and become family....brothers and sisters.  So, we have plans to go to her orphanage next week so they can see each other again (it's been since Oct 2014) and we can take 7,000 pictures make memories with her that will last a lifetime.
We came back to the guesthouse after Kaldi's and had a couple of hours to sit and relax.  I don't know what it is about sitting in traffic a van for hours, but it wears me out!  The boys played a bit more football inside and then a serious game of hide-and-seek.  Nothing slays me like hearing Asnake say, "Mom, Dad, you go here and close your eyes.  Then, count."  Got it.  Then, he hides and find him and he giggles to no end.  Then, we repeat it 72 times.  Or, we throw his t-shirt at each other when he takes it off and roll our r's while it's in the air.  I don't know why it is so funny, but apparently it is HYSTERICAL... especially when the t-shirt accidentally lands on the top of our (tall) closet and Asnake is searching for it everywhere.  When he finally spotted it, he fell back on our bed laughing SO hard.  We FaceTimed a few friends and talked to Corbin and Hudson.  They had big weekend plans and seemed to be doing just great (in other news, Corbin passed his 5 minute multiplication test this week and we all WENT NUTS.  Because, that is, after all,  kind of like winning a noble peace prize).
At 5:30pm we headed downstairs to dinner and discovered Asnake isn't a big fan of super spicy food. They ladies here spoil adore him and made him injera with I-don't-know-what, but it was red with berbere (Ethiopia's staple spice).  We had an entirely different meal than him.  The entire time we eat everyone at the guesthouse table was tickled because we could here him breathing hard and drinking trying to get the heat out of his mouth with every single bite.  It was the cutest thing.  Just after dinner, the adults were all sitting around the dinner table talking and the family who leaves tomorrow to fly north to meet their three new children, were confessing they were anxious (UNDERSTATEMENT).  Who wouldn't be?  But, we all grabbed hands spontaneously and started praying for them, for their three kids, and for their family (they are the ones with their 2 biological teenagers here).  This road has been beautiful and it has been long... they get it.  And, the excitement you feel meeting your child for the first time (just like in pregnancy) is enough to make you lose sleep.  But language barriers, culture shock, unknown or unrealistic expectations, and undoing institutionalized care IS NO JOKE.  TIMES THREE.  We reminded them of the truth of the scriptures... that they are equipped for what God has called them to and it's going to be overwhelming.  And beautiful. And hard.  And rewarding.  There were so many times in our wait I couldn't understand what God was up to.  I often confessed to Him that I know He owed us no explanation for why the wait was so long, but if He could give us a glimpse, I would be forever grateful.  Hand-in-hand around that table, He whispered to me, "THIS WAS PART OF THE WAIT."  This exact group of people, in this exact season, at this exact guesthouse, going through the exact same emotions.  Turns out, yesterday wasn't the only one.... I was able to thank Him for that clarity and that

breakthrough.

He is so trustworthy and kind.  Even when the way seems lost and the light is dim.  Even when we are overwhelmed with uncertainty or unsure of what He is doing...
Yesterday a friend of mind (looking at you, Angie Tyner) posted a photo on Instagram of her margin in her bible at Psalm 77:19, "Your way was through the sea, Your path through the great waters, yet your footprints were unseen." In her margin she had written this:
Your road led THROUGH the sea, Your pathway THROUGH the mighty waters, a pathway no one knew was there.
And my eyes immediately filled with tears.  HE IS THE WAY-MAKER.  His path was unseen by us, but all along, HE KNEW THE WAY.  It's easier to go around or give up when it seems impossible.  It's something altogether different when we lean in, hold on, and watch Him MAKE A WAY.

I am just loving this place of sitting back, resting in His promises, taking Him at His word and watching him

BREAK THROUGH.

Praise You, Jesus.

Until WE'RE home,
carrie