Our Last Day in Ethiopia

All is done, visa and passport in hand, and we leave for the airport in 3 hours. Nick is feeling better (had a fever yesterday) and I cannot praise our driver Melke enough...he is truly a Godsend. Today we went to a hair salon....you just can't imagine it....a tin building...where women come out lovely. As another mother and I sat whiler our daughters had their hair done, a herd of water buffalo or some type of long horn cattle were herded right by the window along the dirt, rock road. Truly a complex and diverse country,
So My girl has an opinion of her own, DEFINATELY. ON clothes, food, hairstyles...oh MY! I wanted her to get braids, hoping it would last awhile. she said she wanted loose curls they use a curling iron on...I said ok...after an hour in curlers under a dryer, she sat in the chair and they straightened her hair (temporarily) with a flat iron!!! After one strand, I said, wait, is that what she wants....and she said yes!

So, even though I did not like it...I agreed. She looks lovely....but very much older than her age! EEEEEK! But as she looked in the mirror with smiles, showed our driver, showed her brother back at the hotel...it is worth it. Not a style I will like her to have all the time, but for now...her first salon visit...she is happy and feels pretty.

She is wearing a bright "California" shirt....and is ready to get on the plane! Her first plane ride.

I am so blessed with God's care for us and blessings. It has been an interesting mind shift for me this week, to shift from who I thought I wanted to daughter (a young little girl of 8 or 9), to seeing who this is that God has given me care of....a beautiful girl/lady...with a life and way all her own...He has entrusted me with the second half of her "childhood" and I am now aware, my job is not to make her my daughter, but to see the blossoming girl she is and nuture her on her path to adulthood. What an honor.

She loves playing with another little girl, about Mary's age...so I am sure she and Mary will be fast buddies.

I am not looking forward to the next 24 plus hours...23 of them on a plane and 10 of them sitting in airports...but we will be home soon enough.

Thank you all who have prayed ...during this trip and for the 2 years previous. We are on the home stretch!

Next post will be from the good ol USA....after a bit of sleep!

At the airport..our last goodbye to dear Telefich. (sp?) they were good companions! Telefich and Dagem and family, Ben and Sue, were off to Montana.

First stop on US soil. Washington DC airport.