"Everyone loves her"

An update sent from Jeff at 9:15 Wednesday morning (Portland time).

We picked the kids up yesterday (Tuesday), and had a goodbye ceremony at the care center. It was fun, but a little long and all the kids were crying by the end. We went to the US Embassy and got our visas, it only took about an hour and was pretty easy. Then we came back to the house for the rest of the night and dinner. It went pretty well, except Tigist had a terrible cough, and could not stop coughing at one point.

Tigist coughed most of the night and was pretty fussy, so neither Kristen or I got much sleep. Mihiretu slept great though. Both kids are so much fun. Tigist makes Mihiretu laugh so hard, she tells him what to do. They just love each other, she is always kissing him and it puts a big smile on his face. Kristen is spending most of the time with Mihiretu, because he cries bloody murder if she leaves him now. Today (Wednesday) was a fun day, we stayed at the guest house all day and played with the kids. Tigist took a nice nap, then had another coughing fit so we took her to the doctor. They said she had an infection and gave her some medicine. We just gave her a dose, so hopefully she will be able to sleep better tonight.

Both kids eat like maniacs. They really will eat a whole plate of food each. Plus they eat cheerios nonstop between meals. We just gave both of them baths and got them nice and clean, and are getting them ready for bed. We leave for home tomorrow night!! We can't wait for everyone to meet them. For right now, we don't think it will be too bad to have people around the first couple weeks. There are 7 other families in the guest house right now, and it is going just fine. Tigist is the life of the party here, everyone loves her. She runs around hiding from me and yelling "daddy" all day in her cute Ethiopian accent. We might not get to write again, so if not, we will see you when we get home.

Please pray for Tigist's cough and infection, and that the flight is not absolutely awful.