Travel to Yirgalem-Part 1

This morning, we ate breakfast early in the morning at our hotel and then waited outside for our driver, Solomon, to pick us up. He drove us to the Gladney foster care center to pick up the kids and when we arrived, all of the children were outside getting their hair washed and combed (and the girls were getting braids)! We heard the cutest little squeal and when we looked over, Yalfal was sitting on the porch stairs waving at us while getting her hair done by one of the caregivers. There were children everywhere on the front lawn, freshly bathed and clean ready for the day! It was great to see the older girls helping with the younger children and we even saw several 5 & 6 year olds braiding the younger little girls' hair. We have never seen little fingers move so quickly with the outcome being a head of beautiful braided hair!

Once they were all ready to go, we all hopped into our van and off we went to travel 6 hours south of Addis Ababa to Yirgalem where the children were born and lived with their family until May 2008. We were so excited to be able to travel with the children and spend lots of time with them, the drive was actually really fun! They were so entertaining and we were able to get to know them much better during our travel. We had stopped at the store to buy some crackers for them to snack on since they wouldn't eat the fruit snacks we brought with us and the Teddy Grahams we brought from home were running low...they LOVE Teddy Grahams! They kept saying, "Bis-coot! Bis-coot!" (which means "cracker" or "biscuit") and it was so precious to see them eating and so happy!The crackers (or "Crickers") were a hit!After we played for a long while and had some snacks, they both fell sound asleep in our arms and we were finally able to stare at them and study every little detail of their little sweet faces. They both have the longest eyelashes EVER!! She has the most beautiful heart-shaped lips and he has the greatest plump pucker! They are just stunningly beautiful and we are so incredibly proud of them (if you couldn't already tell)!

Travel to Yirgalem - Part 2 to follow...