The Sullivan Family

Friday we had breakfast and our driver Alazar showed up around 9:30am. Alazar is on the AWAA driver list, if your ever wanting to venture off by yourself I highly recommend him, he speaks very good english and taught us so much! We decided to just go to the Entoto Mountains. The ride up the mountain we saw several people bringing down leaves and firewood. Most carry it down on their backs, but some use donkeys to carry the loads. They start off early in the morning and collect that carry down the load.

This older lady stopped for us to take her picture then ventured on with her load that she would sell for about 30 birr or about $2.30.

We checked out the farmland and the view, every once in awhile kids would come out to check us out.

We visited an Orthodox Church at the top that was about 130 years old. The Church was in the shape of an octagon and had 3 layers representing the Trinity. Priest were th only ones allowed in the center as the replica of the Arc of the covenant was inside and is believed to contain the Holy Spirit. The middle layer had interesting drawings depicting the stories in the Gospels and New Testament.

Behind the Church Building was the former Church which was carved from stone.

After the Church visit we ventured back down the mountain and did some shopping.

Then we ended the trip by picking up some good coffee to bring home.

My wife with Alazar, our Driver / Guide. He was great. Highly recommend him!

Eyob did great on the whole trip. The bumpy car rides do not even phase him. We came back, had lunch then waited to be picked up. Robel Picked us up around 4pm to go meet the Street kids he helps. We drove to the market area where they hang out, We had a minor car accident on the way there, a police motorcycle’s change broke and stopped right in front of us, our van driver (Robel’s Friend) slammed on the breaks and we stopped just short of hitting the policeman, seatbelts and car seats are un heard of there so I slid out of my seat, catching Eyob who was sleeping and after we came to a stop, the car behind us slammed into us. Eyob let out a cry, then immediately went back to sleep, everyone was ok. Robel’s friend called another guy to come get us. After about 30 minutes another van showed up and we were on our way.

We pulled up to the market and Robel told the kids to round up the others. We went to a little restaurant and all gathered. Robel ordered food and soft drinks for all of them as they watch a soccer game on TV.

All of these kids went to school. They go to the streets to try to make money to bring home. Some have parent(s) and some said they did not.

Samuel is 14 and has a mom. He said he was in 6th grade and showed me his school ID.

Robel tries to teach them not to beg, but to buy and sell. They sell anything from Gum to Tissue, and chapstick, as well as shine shoes. Shoe shining is big you see people everywhere shining / cleaning shoes, It is very muddy in Ethiopia so there is no lack of customers.

Saturday we needed to take our last donations to Mother Teresa’s Orphanage. Not an easy place to get to thats for sure. The drive was about 2 hours and got muddier and narrower as we went along to the poing of a traffic jam in the middle of a village about an hour away from Addis Ababa, Our driver was not the best at english and did not know exactly where it was located. Finally we asked the right people walking and they pointed us in the right direction.

We arrived at the gates and honked the horn. The orphanage was in the middle of the village in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. The doors opened up to show a nice, very large compound. We were greeted by a Nun from the UK. We unloaded our donations and she told us about the orphanage. There were about 320 HIV+ kids at this orphanage ranging from teenagers to babies. She took us down the hill showed us the Medical building and the play areas, guided us through a group of older kids, down to the area where the toddlers and babies were.

She then handed us over to another Nun who took us into the children’s area. We were not allowed to take any pictures inside the facility. All I can say was this visit was too overwhelming for me. We walked in, Bridget and Myself holding Eyob and we saw a lot of babies lined up crying and lots of children came running in from the other rooms, Bridget handed out some suckers and balloons as a small toddler riot almost broke out. Finally the Nanny came in and with authority had all of them sitting quietly. The kids played for awhile and then we left. This visit was too much for me. It knocked me down a level, I was sad and scared all at once, I did not want to let Eyob down as shameful as that makes me feel to say. The Church supports the orphanage, but they definitely have their work cut out for them. They ware strong, inspiring people there.

After the long trip we rested, then had dinner, and went to the airport. The trip back was long and exhausting. In all it was about 30 hours with layovers. We went from Ethiopia to Amsterdam, then Amsterdam to Detroit, then Detroit to Milwaukee. Eyob slept most of the first flight, wanted to run around the airport in Amsterdam as we struggled to keep our eyes opened, then cried most of the Amsterdam to Detroit flight, unhappy neighbors for sure.. Then a quick flight over lake Michigan, where are family, kids and friends were waiting at the gate. It was great to be home!!!

Well it is now Friday, we leave late tomorrow night. On Tuesday we went shopping prior to picking Eyob up. Bridget picked up a few things for the kids and freinds. We also ran into Robel’s Street kids that he helps out. To make money to bring home and eat, they shine shoes, sell gum, tissue, or chap stick etc.. There were the women dressed in green with sticks that the shop owners apparently pay to keep the kids away, there were a couple of close calls, some of the kids seemed to treat it as a game though.

I met Samuel, bought some gum from him, he kept asking me about America. He told me he was 14, and was proud that he as in school. He showed me his school ID and showed me that it said he was in 6th grade. I paid him to take his picture. He later gave me a cross necklace as a gift. I really like Samuel.

We picked up Eyob later that day. He did pretty good, he started off real closed, quiet. He did not make a sound. He slept all night.

Wednesday we went to the Embassy to and had to be interviewed, about 5 questions or so, to get Eyob’s travel visa, he even got a little passport. Everything went fine there. We wen to lunch and Lucy’s. After lunch Eyob finally started playing, walking around and visiting others, then playing with another boy from our group, the other boy even had Eyob laughing as they would stick their head out in the rain drops under the canopy.

We then came back had dinner and played for awhile. He was starting to open up a little more. We went to bed around 9pm. 2am I awoke to the sounds of loud crying. I picked up Eyob and he quieted down. I tried to put him back down and he started screaming. The only thing that calmed him at this point was me walking in circles with him, every time I sat down he would scream “like a light switch”. This went on till about 5:30 am. He was tugging at his ear so we started with Tylenol, to no avail, then 2 hours in we gave him motron, I think that’s what helped in the end.

Thursday Bridget and I both were very tired. The plans for the day were to visit Kids Care ( The orphanage where Eyob was originally dropped off at when he was one), then Lunch, then Kingdom vision orphanage. Bridget was not feeling well and they both were tired so she and Eyob stayed back and slept while I went with the group to the 1st orphanage.

I had a good time at Kids Care. The kids could not wait to play with us, we brought donations, suckers, chalk, and even some “Jesus” hacky sacks! The kids were laughing and playing with us, it was awesome. They then made coffee for us and then we left.

I decided to skip lunch and go back to the room. There I found Bridget with Eyob still sleeping. We then all went to Kingdom vision, walking distance, but we had a lot of donations so we drove. Kingdom vision was really nice, most of the kids were sleeping though. One of the families in our group met the birth parents of their son there. We checked out the facility, then played with some of the older boys who were awake, and then left. As we were leaving all of the young kids and girls were coming out, we left the suckers and toys so they could all play.

That afternoon, we had the Dr. come see us about Eyob, concerned for an ear infection, he subscribe a low dosage anti-biotic. We called a driver and went to pick up the prescription and some pizza for dinner. Our driver was really nice and spoke really good english. He told me all about his country while Eyob and I waited for Bridget to come down with the pizzas. I learned so much from him.

Today is Friday, and I awoke with the Roosters crow this morning, about 6am. We all 3 slept through the night. I am sitting in the empty dark lobby drinking last nights coffee ( it was in a thermos, so still warm). We are going to not go with the rest of the group to the coffee tour, instead we called the driver from last night and asked if he would take us out into the country so we could see and take pictures of the Africa that we are familiar with. Have an awesome day, Love the Lord with all your heart mind and soul, and love your neighbor as your self.. -JC

Mark-

Well today started off early, I woke up at 3am granted it was about 8pm in Wisconsin, but I was up, no going back to sleep. Bridget tells me she woke up about every 10 minutes all night long. We started the day with breakfast in the Guest house with the rest of the group, we then went to finish all of the paper work and have lunch at the Hilton, The inside of the Hilton was such a contrast to what was outside the walls.

We then headed to the Transition home and the brought out our kids one by one alphabetically by our last names. We chose before hand who was going to take video and pictures of who. This was quite the nervous moment.

We finally met Eyob, its funny how I feel that I know him so much already. He just for some reasons seems to fit right in. He was super laid back, he likes to really just observe everyone and everything. After awhile though he started to warm up and was following Bridget around. The best was when I was sitting on the floor and held my arms out and said “Eyob”, he slowly looked then very slowly shuffled he way into my arms, resting all of his weight on me. That was awesome! We got to sit and play with all of the other kids and then talk to the doctor on staff and the nannies..

Afterwards all of the womem went to a Spa and the guys returned back to the guest house.. I was super tired, and am sure Bridget was too. We then went out to dinner with the whole group, our guides, drivers, and some of the agency staff to a traditional local Ethiopian restaraunt. They had music and dancers. It was really cool, I felt I was just staring at the entertainment with my mouth open
the whole time in awe. They were incredible..

Tomorrow we pick Eyob up for good!!

Well we finally made it to Addis Ababa Ethiopia, It was quite the trip. We started in Milwaukee, WI just Bridget and myself with 4 carry-on’s and 11 checked pieces which contained mostly donations for the orphanages. We tried to get Delta to donate the extra baggage cost to no avail, so we thank Bridget’s mom and dad for that generous donation.

We flew to Detroit in which the flight took twice as long due to weather. Our connecting flight to Amsterdam was at final boarding before we were even able leave the first plane. We ran about 32 gates with 4 bags to make the next flight to Amsterdam, just to have it sit and wait for weather.

This delay turned the 8 hour flight into 9 and we then missed our straight flight to Ethiopia from Amsterdam. Bridget also just realized her brand new glasses had NO prescription, how does that happen, then as luck would have it security confiscated all of her saline solution, so now my wife was blind ;D KLF Airlines booked us on a flight to Dubai, and bumped us to business class. This was a huge multi-level plane, I must say business class was very nice. Fully reclining seats, personal entertainment systems, lots of space and extras, I actually enjoyed that flight, and that says a lot coming from me who hates flying. This flight took about 6 hours, or “a little over 2 movies” ;D

We hit Dubai and had about a 6 hour layover, we hung out, I drank too much of the extra strong coffee, we played some games, took some pictures and browsed the stores in the airport.
We then waited to board our “dated” plane on Ethiopian Air for the last 3 hour leg of the flight.

This is where the drama hit, They were weighing peoples carry-on’s and charging extra or denying peoples items, everyone was getting upset and it turned kind of stressful, we waited until the line was gone at the very end and they asked us about all of our 11 pieces that we had checked, they asked for the coupons for the bags, but Delta never gave us these “coupons”, they said we had to pay for them or they would not load them on the plane, and wanted cash! We tried to get them to call delta to no avail, we ended up finally paying again for all of the bags again but were able to get them to take credit, we are hoping for a refund, “and another upgrade for the inconvenience!!”.

Three hours later we finally made it to Ethiopia. We are tired but so glad to finally be here. I must say the drive from the airport to the guest house, was quite overwhelming, with all that was going on in the streets. It’s just a whole different world..

We are so thankful for this journey and the ability to be able to go through it and adopt a beautiful boy. We are so so so blessed, and I thank the Lord for all of it, none of this would have been possible for us with out Him paving the way.

Mark-