"C'mon, C'mon Everyone!"

The latest update from Cyndi....

We were able to get on the Internet for just a second and I thought I'd let you know what we've done the past couple of days. Please know that we are praying for everyone back home in the path of the storm and the winds! If you happen down our street afterward, please see if our house is still there! :)

Yesterday (Thursday) was New Year's Day here, and everything was closed so we stayed at the guest house all day and played. We have some puzzle books that Minte really likes, a couple of videos with the portable DVD player, a hot wheels track, etc. One of the most fun things we played was making things with some pipecleaners I brought. I wish, wish, WISH I could upload some pictures! Everyone made crazy glasses and Luke and Minte made matching Ethiopia-colored bracelets. SO fun! As Luke tagged on to my last update, we had a pretty big hailstorm at one point, so it was nice to be huddled up all together inside. After it was over everyone but Mom went out and had a "snowball" fight! (More like slush...) I stayed upstairs so I could video from the balcony... yeah, that's it... Minte has told the story today to some of his friends about how he acted like he was throwing a "snowball" up to Mommy on the balcony and diverted it to the right... right on Dad's head. He is very funny! It was a very fun day to welcome the New Year.

We went today to the German embassy to turn in the paperwork for Minte's transit visa. We will pick that up on Monday. Then we went to the Ethiopian Museum where we saw "Lucy" (the oldest homo sapien from Social Studies... remember?) It's actually a replica and we heard she's in Houston. She's survived this long, surely she'll survive Ike... Then we went to the "Lion Park" where we saw the only black-maned lions in the world. They were HUGE and there was nothing but bars separating us. Very cool! (And a bit scary!) I can now say that I've been close enough to a lion when it roars to know that it does not have great breath. I never thought I would know that. LOL It is a fun memory for us all!

Afterward we went to the children's home where we had Minte's "Thank You" party with his friends and caregivers. He had SO much fun last night assembling the party bags for his friends and wrapping the gifts for his caregivers. I could tell it made him feel good to have something to give them. Last night he wrote in a card to Tegist, and since it was in Amharic I had to ask her today what it said. She cried when she told me that he had written “May God give you back all that you have given to me.” The party was a wonderful success. Bethany and Kyle did a very entertaining “Silly Mammo” puppet show, and we had pizza, cake and cokes. The biggest hit was Silly String. They had the most fun spraying each other… and I think some of the adults laughed harder than the kids! They had never seen anything like it! Each prize bag had an inflatable globe and a foam plane, some candy a bouncy light-up ball, and a “Silly Mammo” storybook (in Amharic and English.) Each caregiver got some pretty soap, some chocolate and a Texas t-shirt. It was a very special afternoon for all of us. I’m not sure if we will go back to the children’s home, so Minte said all of his good-byes and then he *skipped* to the car. He is really, really happy about his new life in America. I think he was hoping we were leaving for America today!

Later this afternoon when we were in our room, the funniest thing happened. Kyle started singing a song from the "Camp Rock" movie: "Let's start-start-start the party..." and Minte jumped in with "C'mon, c'mon, everyone..." and sang the song with him! The kids were so excited to know the same song (and of course, Luke and I were clueless!) Who knew they had Disney channel, or that Camp Rock would help us bond? So fun!!!

So many more stories, but not enough bandwidth!! Thank you for your prayers, and again, we are praying for everyone back home. We love you!!!