Saturday, May 28, 2011

visiting the sheraton- Day 16

Aubrey woke up this morning with some stomach issues but seems to be better this afternoon.  Our plan for day was to go to a local market (recommended by Dave who owns the guest houses) and then to take a trip up the mountain where you can see all of Addis Ababa.  When we driver showed up we foudn out that the road was closed due to Ethiopia's Presdients Day (he has been in office 20 years now).  We decided to go visit a park that the owner of the Sheraton built (you pay a small fee to get in) and the road was closed there too so we just went to the Sheraton and waked around, it was like being in the states.  The kids loved the fountains and then we spent some time on a playground there... again some neat firsts for the kids!  We had a coke to drink and then headed back to the van.  Rusty tried to get some money out of the ATM machine and it took his card but we were able to get it back and also get some money out.  We had lunch at the guest house and now the kids are napping.  The rest of this afternoon will be slow as will tomorrow and Monday.  We can pay about $5 a person and go back and swim at the Sheraton and have lunch there (they have very American food)!  We still plan to go to teh market and to the top of the mountian and maybe to the big park.  The kids do better if we get out for a while rahter than staying here.

The day isn't over but we do have internet now.  There was a conference here the past 2 days and all the internet was down so we may have a little better access from here on out.

Hope is a new child.  Crawling, eating, laughing and acting like a healthy child.  She is still a little congested and her nose is running but she feels so much better.

Benjamin is laughing more and more and I think understanding that he is a part of our family.  He doesn't listen when you call his name and he runs off a lot still.  He can open the gate to where we are staying so we have to watch him closely.  He has made big imporvements for sure and we are ready to get him home in an environment where there are not so many things to tell him NO about! 

Pray that we get our Embassy appointment and all goes smoothly Tuesday.  We will arrive in Nashville (after an 8 hour layover in DC) at 5:30 on Wednesday... can't wait!

Will try to post pictures in my next post, if facebook (Elizabeth Jeter Rutledge) is easier I will put them there.

1 comment:

Courtney Cassada said...

i just love love love reading all your posts!!! you're almost there! HOME! not sure if you can tell since you're living it...but benjamin and hope are already making such changes and adjusting to their new lives! it's amazing!