WoooHoooo

Today we got confirmation in the mail from Washington DC of the authentication of our adoption documents. Our documents have probably made it back to Grand Rapids, MI to the national Bethany Office and will be sent this coming week to Ethiopia, if it hasn't already been sent!!! I am so excited! I will start working on the baby's room once I know it has made it to Ethiopia. When we were in Kenya I got a beautiful hand-made quilt made by displaced women from all over Africa. I also have a gorgeous wall art piece that will go in the room. I only bought those two things in Kenya because I knew that I'd really want to fill the room with things that actually come from their nation.
Speaking of Kenya, my intention was to post pics of our trip over time as we have gotten back since we were strapped for pictures their but I haven't done that at all. So I'm starting tonight. My camera was blurred almost the whole time ( thanks Kara) and all 500 pictures are not close to perfect so I apologize in advanced....

This first picture is us with my family at Charlotte-Douglas airport. Bethany has no idea she is about to go half-way across the world!

This is our first morning in Kenya. We got to this hotel in the early morning, maybe 12AM? This is the night that Joey and Bethany slept like a rock and I couldn't sleep a wink because I heard something scratching on the tin roof and was convinced it was a big iguana trying to get into the room because we had pizza in there. I was also paranoid of the fact that we were in Africa and at any moment rebels were going to come rushing into our room and hold us captive for ransom! Silly girl. Neither ended up being true. There are no iguana's in Kenya or any rebel groups that I knew of. Bethany never slept in this crib they set up for her, she slept in between the two of us. She did like to play with this mosquito net, though.

Later that morning, Gerald, the driver for Samaritan's Purse and who picked us up at the airport, came to the hotel and took us to the Nakumat, a big chain of grocery/target-like stores in Nairobi, to shop for the 7 week stay. He was the sweetest little young man and he loved Bethany. He was so excited for Bethany to meet Ann Marie. He had driven the Fitzwaters into Tenwek about 6 weeks before. Gerald was a city boy by Kenyan standards. He had grown up in the capital city but his mother was from the Kipsigi tribe that surrounds Tenwek and had traveled to Nairobi to do more with her life. She was lucky to land a job and get married to an educated man. The majority of the rural folks who try to make it in the city usually end up in the slums of Nairobi with more poverty than they left. Gerald was a computer science major and loved his family, school, and was very grateful for his job driving. He was one of the few driver's for SP that continued to transport during the former uprising because he was Kipsigis and was not at risk for danger like many of the other drivers. Many still will not go all the way into Tenwek Hospital because at one time there was such danger because of their tribal connections.

I plan to chronicle Kenya by pics, so keep visiting for updates. Also, for Ethiopia news of when our dossier makes it to the country!!!