Our Monday morning started off a bit slower than expected...but it turned out okay. We were looking for Temeche in Korah but had some miscommunication. In the meantime, we saw some boys Kim knew from the last time she was there. They knew Temeche. So after a few phone calls, we found our lost boy and made some new friends at the same time.
We were going to H4H's Bethel House after lunch so we had just enough time for a little souvenir shopping for siblings and children at home. After lunch at Lucy Restaurant, we headed to Bethel.
Lovely Gelila was our translator for today. Later this week I'll introduce you to the business she started to help Ethiopian women.
Brock was happy to finally eat lunch!
Hope 4 the Hopeless has three locations. The Bethel House is such a wonderful place for these kids! I love the stairs in the house! I know that sounds silly but those stairs make it a home. The kids who live there are so welcoming and have lots of hugs to share.
One of the boys Kim's family sponsors shared his story of how he came to live at Bethel.
When it rains, we play soccer inside the house! (See the stairs?!)
This is a view of the dining room and kitchen at Bethel.
We returned to the guest house just before dinner for what was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. It all goes back to the Mestas family. Not only have they kept in touch with Habtamu all these years, but they managed to keep in touch with the birth mom of their three adopted children. They have been able to exchange a few photos and letters over the years. When they found out I was returning to Ethiopia and knew their birth mom was near Addis now, they asked if I would take them a package. Of course I said "yes!" This family was my first introduction to Ethiopia so this evening holds a special place in my heart. I will never forget it!
I love this story. You see, when their birth mom, (we will call her T), gave up her 2 year old son and infant twin girls, she thought she was dying. She was HIV positive and wanted her children to be in a family. So she made the difficult decision to take them to the orphanage. However, God had a bigger plan than she understood. After her three children were adopted by the Mestas family, she was able to have food and medicine for being HIV positive. (Medicine is easily accessible but it does not work without food. That is why providing for food is such a huge need - and blessing - to Ethiopians infected with HIV. Sponsorship does change lives!)
Once T began eating daily meals and taking medicine, her health improved. Later she met the man sitting next to her in the photo. They married and now have two young boys. God is so good!
The wifi was working at the guest house (yay!) so we face timed the Mestas family. T saw her three babies (who aren't babies anymore). It was such a sweet moment! We were all crying happy tears. I could see the Mestas kids - T's kids - dancing around so happy to talk to her.
Brock, Jimmy, T's husband, T, Emily and Sabrina
Emily's part of the story...Ellie Mestas Mickie (the youngest of their biological children) and Emily grew up as very close friends. Emily's family as well as our family were in a home school co-op with the Mestas family when they were adopting. We all watched God work to bring those three little ones "home" to the Mestas'. Emily's family has since adopted a little boy from Ethiopia.
Here's another part to the story...Jimmy is Jerry Mestas' nephew. Three weeks before we left, Jimmy signed up to join our team. He raised all his money in less than three weeks! When we got to Addis, he was there to meet his cousins' biological mom. Once again God made this big world seem small!
{Eileen Mestas wrote a book about their adoption journey. For more information on that book that gives much more detail than I did on this blog post, go to www.morethanIcanhandle.com.}
We spent some time getting bags packed as we were leaving very, very early for the countryside the next morning. We were all in bed by 8:30pm!
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