"A really fun day"

An update from Jeff - sent Monday at 6 pm west coast time.

Yesterday (Monday) was a really fun day. We got to spend about 4 hours in the morning with the kids back at our guest house. When we first went in to go pick up Mihiretu, he was standing up in his crib holding himself up. When he saw us he started laughing and sticking his tongue out. He has the cutest front teeth when he smiles. He was very happy to see us. We took him back on the bus to go pick up Tigist. She was excited to see us again, and jumped into my arms. When we got to the guest house, we played in the courtyard with the balls they have, and with some of the little cars they have that the kids can play in. Tigist is ridiculously athletic. We were playing soccer and kicking the ball back and forth for about an hour. Then she threw a little ball, and it was just silly. She throws like a major league baseball player. I'm not even kidding.

So that was a fun time with Tigist. Mihiretu was being such a good boy all morning. He was so happy and responsive today. He was playing with his blocks and a little toy car, and just having a jolly old time. We took the kids up to our room for a snack, and the kids both had cheerios. Tigist is a little mother and kept trying to feed Mihiretu, and give him water from the bottle. Then she would kiss him. They both had a snack and water, and then Mihiretu had an AWESOME blowout diarrhea all over my bed, and all over Kristen. Kristen changed him and let him play on the other bed, which he was perfectly content to do.

Then we all went down to eat lunch. They were serving injera with a lentil stew, a meat stew, and creamed corn. They both absolutely loved it. Tigist had about two full plates and Mihiretu had lots of injera. It was really fun. Tigist loves to wash her hands. When she is done eating or going to the bathroom, she washes her hands, then washes her face, then cleans her teeth with her fingers, then spits out the water. She did this probably about 8 times yesterday. She is fully potty trained, and went both #1 and #2 while she was with us yesterday. I got to spend some time with Mihiretu after lunch, and held him for about 20 minutes. He was really good and we played with blocks. He was looking at me, and putting the blocks in my mouth for me to bite, and then he would smile and put his tongue out. After about 20 minutes Tigist got fed up and asked for me to put Mihiretu in mommy's arms so I could pick her up.

Right before we were to take them back to the care center, the four of us were sitting on a swing outside, and Mihiretu fell asleep in Kristen's arms. He slept the whole way back on the bus, and then started crying when we had to give him back. It was a really fun day, but we do realize this is the honeymoon stage.

Today (Tuesday) should be more difficult as we have to go the US Embassy and wait there for a couple hours. Hopefully the kids will be able to take their nap there, since that is the time they usually take it. We take full custody of them this morning (Tuesday), so they'll be sleeping at the guest house and everything from now on. Hopefully the first full day goes okay, and we don't run out of gas too early. We can't wait to come home and have you all meet our kids. Talk with you tomorrow