Ethiopia July Court Trip Photos « The Sullivan Family

Ethiopia July Court Trip Photos

by Mark Sullivan on Jul.26, 2011, under Adoption, Ethiopia, Mission Trip

The night before the trip (friday) we took the kids out for ice cream!

The next morning we said goodbye to our younger kids and sent them with their Aunt and Uncle to play with the cousins at their cottage.

At the Airport in Milwaukee on Saturday with all our bags and donations.. The airlines were nice this time and waived the extra baggage fee.

Had to spend the night in D.C. to wait for our flight the next morning.

Aboard the plane on Sunday. Long flight from D.C. to Addis Ababa Ethiopia, about 13 hours straight across. I loved the new USB Chargers to keep my iPhone charged (books, music, and podcasts) and always love to catch up on all the movies i never get to see.

When we got there on Monday morning we were surprised to find out the girls were not there. They were still in Adama. We would go on Wednesday to see them. So Hailey got her nails painted, and we rested and went out to dinner.

The next morning on Tuesday Hailey woke up with me at 6am to go have coffee at Kaldi’s down the road.

Next we headed to take donations to an orphanage and play with kids. (Cant show pictures of the kids here as they are adoptable.)

Next we went to Korah and met with Berhanu who gave us a tour of the Great Hope church and we played with kids and got to meet Baby Juddah’s mother and family. See more info here: http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/287455 We also met with women that make the jewelry and Hailey picked out some for her friends.

Next we met up with the Shannon’s http://www.theshannonfamily.com/ who run http://www.embracinghopeethiopia.com/ a day care that allows women that used to have to beg, a chance to go and work. They provide meals and structure for their children and and some jobs for some of the women. They give a chance for these women to get back on their feet and retain their dignity and provide for their family. An AWESOME ministry. I somehow was so busy talking i realize i did not get any pictures other then shots of Korah from his roof that had a great view.

Wednesday we took off to Adama. We bought blankets of the girls orphange. We met the girls and played, then went out to lunch, including the girls best friend. We bought a lot of items for Look Development http://www.lookdevelopment.org/ to sell in their store. Look development really saved our girls, they were the girls sponsorship program. They went above and beyond to help them and help us move forward with the adoptions. I cant thanks Yemeserach, Tesfa, Bazile, the Kidd family, and the DeSarro family enough!

Next we went to visit the neighbor that helped our girls I could barely hold back my own tears when I saw the tears coming down one of her daughters eyes.

Next we went to see the girls home that they stayed in together. It was so surreal to be there one year later on the same road, standing in the same yard, of the pictures we saw from the Kidd family with the story that led us to them. The last picture is Bazile, the girls social worker that did all the paperwork to get them in the orphanage. He is a great guy!

On Thursday we wen to court in the morning and met the girls. We passed court in lieu of the MOWCYA recommendation letter. We then took the girls to the new care center and then spent the rest of the time hanging out, playing ball, getting hair done, going to the movies and arcade, eating, and whatever we could find fun to do with them. We would take them back to the care center at night and pick them up in the morning.