wednesday

Mekdes' sweet face

Mekdes' face after seeing a picture of Ruby!

These little angels played with these bottles for an hour!

It was so wonderful seeing Mekdes and the children today!  We had run out of activities (play doh, crayons, balloons, etc) in our bag of tricks, so we brought empty water bottles from our hotel.  We were once again reminded of the simple pleasures that these children can find in what we would consider recyclable material!   One of the little boys would squeal with delight when he would knock down the bottles.  Other girls would carry around a bottle like it was their baby doll.  We have fallen in love with the Ethiopian people and their ability to find joy in the everyday.  Our schedule at the orphanage starts in the morning and we play outside, as they are outside most of the day.  At 11:30 am the children wash their hands and are served a traditional lunch.  After lunch it is nap time and that is when we leave for the day.  Today, Mekdes started crying when it was time to wash hands for lunch because she has figured out that the schedule dictates we will be leaving soon.  It just breaks our hearts!  The other children were so kind to her at lunch while she was crying.  They would rub her arm try to make her laugh.  After lunch we carried her up to the sleeping area and put her in bed.  We read her the photo book we had made of our home and family and she seemed to enjoy that.  I know I keep saying this, but I am dreading tomorrow!  Not as much for Shawn and me, but for Mekdes as she will have no understanding of why we are leaving or if we are coming back.  We have really gotten a chance to see her personality over the last week and that had been a treat!  Each day she opens up a little more.  She seems to be very head strong, independent, curious, has difficulty sharing (that ought to be interesting with Margo), and loves to be cuddled.  Some of these qualities are indicative of children in an orphanage, of course, but they also seem to be who she is.  And who she is is so WONDERFUL!  You will all love her!