Meeting T & K's birth family.

Update on boys. Rick went in to get T today and today he only wanted daddy. When we got K alone he told me stories.

The following is about our birth family visit from yesterday.

Yesterday we met T & K's birth family. The day started at 6am. We traveled with another couple who adopted twins and their children were from the same village. The trip was about a 6 hour drive into the country. It was absolutely beautiful.

All the pictures we've seen on National Geographic were before our eyes. After about 3 hours driving we got a flat tire. As we changed it everyone came out to look at us. Then with one hour left of the journey we stopped at a hotel. Just before the driver told us he was going to leave us there, while he went to get the tire fixed, we had read in a tourist book it was the armpit of Ethiopia and not very friendly to westerners. While we waited we had coffee. The best coffee I've ever had.

Three men came up and introduced themselves as part of our group. One was the social worker for the area, one the sponsorship coordinator and the last was our sons' uncle. How amazing to be able to sit and speak to their uncle. He is the brother of their father. His English was pretty good. He looks like K.

It was an emotional day and I just wanted to get all the information my sons will ask later. I kept staring at the uncle trying to memorize everything. The driver came back and we all piled into the car. We drove for about another 1 ½. The uncle told us the other couple and our sons are related. We didn't get the complete picture of how because although their English was good it wasn't great. So we decided to call them cousins.

The uncle was giving the directions as we drove into a more rural part. Then we stopped and we had to walk the rest of the way. We walked through corn fields mostly. Finally we came to a small clearing with about 4 "houses." Outside we learned it was our birth family. The other couple took pictures and video of our visit. We met the birthmother, all the siblings, grandmother, grandfather, aunt and probably others. There were about 15-20 people at the visit. First everyone was introduced.

When we met the birthmother she and I hugged. It was a long strong I don't want to let you go kind of hug. With arms still holding each other we locked eyes and smiled. After the introductions the social worker read my letter in one language and the uncle translated it for the birth family. She gave no reaction until the second to the last sentence. I didn't know if we were breaking social norms in the content or what. We had listed about four qualities we wanted to teach our boys. The last one was to be Christ centered. She started to quietly cry and shared why. The social worker told us she had been praying a Christian couple would adopt her sons and that was what mattered most to her.

Then we asked questions. One was to describe the day the boys were born. She started to cry/laugh. It appears the day we met was K's birthday in Ethiopia. Sunday was July 12, 1999 and K turned one. She had a sign on the wall inviting the whole village over to celebrate his birthday. Is that not amazing?

Then we shared pictures and took pictures. She made us a wonderful meal. Home made bread, home made cheese, ensect (sp?), avocado's and banana's.

There's more to the visit but I'm going to sign off here. I don't want to press my luck. The power has been going on and off since we got here.