Days 9 and 10

Day 9
Day 9 began with a trip to the Gladney Care Center for a follow-up appointment with the doctor. He said Sophia Mekdes was doing much better and to just continue her medicine until it was finished. We came home for a little bit and then headed to Dreamland.

This is a view of Gladney Care Center #4, for those of you with children there.

Dreamland is a hotel and restaurant about an hour away on Crater Lake. It is beautiful. The drive was much smoother than I had been told, which I appreciated. The road is very busy and is a main route to Djibouti, so it has a lot of importing and exporting going on. It was nice to get out of the city and see a little bit of a different side of Ethiopia. We had a nice meal and headed back to the city.

Day 10
Today we began our day with an attempted Easter photo shoot with miss Sophie. It wasn’t too successful, but I will post a few of the pics we captured.

Today we had the VERY emotional journey to the government run orphanages. We visited all three and I can’t even put it into words what it was like. Belay, the Gladney in-country director, was our guide through the orphanages. We video-taped him talking about all of the needs of each orphanage. He also spoke about all of the programs Gladney has implemented. Gladney is the main adoption agency involved with the orphanages and impacting the lives of the orphans there. I so wish I could post pictures of the children, but it is not allowed. I can show them in person, but I can't post them online.

The first orphanage we visited was Kolfe, which is for older boys. I think they take boys in the 11-20 age range. I am sure that is not the exact range, but close. Here are a few pictures from Kolfe. They are working on renovating the facility and also developing income generating programs for the boys.

The next orphanage was Kebebe Tsehay. It is home to babies up to seven year olds. The baby room was one of the saddest things I have EVER seen. It reeked of spit-up. They had three workers for probably 25-30 babies. The babies had their bottles propped up and they were the tiniest babies you have ever seen. They have a big problem with communicable diseases. One of the babies got chicken pox and they didn’t catch it until it had spread. They lost eight babies in one week. Think on that for a minute. I asked Belay how much it would take to pay the salary of one caregiver. His response, “$50 a month”. Please think about that. $600 a year could be the difference between life and death for these children. $600.

There were so many precious children. Michael and I fell in love with a little girl about five or six years old. She was so sweet and loved Michael. She has a little brother who looked to be about two. We asked if they were available to adopt and Belay said their mother refused to relinquish them, meaning they would stay in the orphanage forever, if that didn’t change. I teared up watching her and leaving the orphanage today.

The final orphanage we went to was Kechene. This orphanage is home to babies, younger children and older girls. We loved it. It was very peaceful. The children seemed so happy and LOVED having their pictures taken. I need to get them all printed and send them with another traveling family, so the girls can have them. Pictures are like money here. EVERYONE wants pictures.

We have so many thoughts running through our head. You cannot see what we have seen and not do something. Part of our hearts will always be here. I can’t wait to share the pictures and videos with our family and friends. Please pray about what God might be calling you to do today. Is it adopt? Is it to finance a project? Maybe it is something small or something great. Please ask God to open your hearts to the possibilities ahead of you.

Bono

There are several celebrities who are trying to make their mark in history by jumping on the humanitarian bandwagon. Although we will never know the true reasons for their philanthropy, they are, at the very least, bringing attention to the needs of the poor. One of these people is Bono. Bono received the NAACP Image Award’s Chairman’s Award in 2007 for his work. You can watch his speech on the following video:



In his speech he says, “Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die". Think about that. These words impact me. They feel like a heavy load sitting upon my shoulders.

I was born into an upper-middle class family. Hunger and death were nothing that I ever worried about as a child. My parents never had to question from where the next meal would come. As parents, they still worried. Their worries were not of money or food, but instead they worried about my future. They wondered what I would do with my life and they did everything they could to make sure I had every opportunity to be whoever I wanted to be.

I remember, from a fairly young age, questioning the reason for my existence in this world. I remember skiing down the slopes in Colorado and wondering why God put me on the Earth. I have always loved solitude. I loved to go skiing and sing all the way down the mountain. It was in the beautiful, open world that I could really think. I remember thinking that it seemed kind of pointless to be put on this Earth if we were just going to die eventually. I also remember thinking how strange the concept of humanity was in general. What were we all doing here? Yes, I was eight. This just shows the kind of weird kid I was. This thought eventually progressed into the thought of how different my life would be if I were across the world. As I got older and heard stories of little girls getting raped or killed, I always felt so lucky to be born into the family I was. I knew that one of those little girls could be me. Their innocence was taken away at such a young age, while mine remained intact. This brings me back to Bono’s words, “Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die".

As an adult I still wonder why God put me on this Earth. I know God has called me to great things. My life has a purpose and part of that purpose is to help break the cycle of poverty. I have yet to determine what that entails, but I look forward to finding out.