Our last day in Ethiopia !

Today was a bittersweet day.... We are all sick and its really cold in Addis at this time of year (rainy season) and we have not brought enough warm clothes for us and the children so we wore the same clothes over and over every few days... so we are definetly ready to leave and SOOO excited that we will soon be home with our girls...

However on the other end of things.. .we are leaving SOOOOO much behind... the people of Ethiopia and their warm culture and love for their children and ours... we are leaving our children's birth family which loved them as long as they could...we are leaving the families that we have come to know and that have shared gotcha day with us and our girls.... also leaving the guest house staff which are like family and soo helpful while we were are here....we are leaving our guest house room where we have watched our girls sleep for the first time, given them their first baths and all the other special first moment that we experienced with them this first week....
Itis hard to explain the feeling when you are packing and to know that it will be a while until you return to Ethiopia to experience all this again..

We are also leaving Selamneh which is such a wonderful man and was soo great with our girls... They both loved him very much and we will remind them of him so that they will still know him when we are able to get together with him again... hopefully sooner than later !





We are bringing lots and lots of pictures, videos and memories back with us for the girls but it will not be the same as being here.... We are looking forward to the day we will land in Ethiopia again once our girls are older and to be able to see Ethiopia through their eyes !

Here is Marika all ready to leave with her own little backpack (looking at herself in the mirror in our room)...