Hanging with the boys

Some of our favorites

Not sure how these will show...but here goes: Our little friend, David who was in most of our pics from the orphanage always standing, the girls who take care of the babies, Gilbert & Shitowa with Meg & Josie, and two cuties from Mother Teresa's.

Christmas Day 2008

Christmas morning! Maybe a little overwhelming, but thanks to family and friends, Josie has a wonderful first Christmas :)

HALLOWEEN 2008

Little did this little lady know that she would be home with us just in time for Halloween. The Biehl Boys had decided on a Star Wars halloween (again)...and thanks to a couple of wigs from Ned's sister, Princess Leia and Darth had mini-me's!

Welcome to San Diego! 10-29-2008

Tucker is instantly in love with Miss Josie Alliette. Ned's parents met us at the airport with all three boys - decked in adorable "I love my little sister" shirts from the Boucher family. We were thrilled to see family and SO THANKFUL to be back in the USA!

One final bright spot as we prepared to leave Ethiopia...the Ethiopian Olympic men's gold and women's silver medal winners in the 5000 and 10,000 meter races were married at our hotel. Olympians in Ethiopia are superstars and millionaires. The ceremony was beautiful...it started at another hotel for breakfast and brunch and then came to our hotel for dinner and the final celebration with a mini-Bellagio style water display.

Haves and Have Nots

The hotel we stayed in was gorgeous and ridiculous against the poverty that surrounded it.

Just outside the wall of our hotel was the water and waste facility...there were people living in the tire dump that bumped up against the outbuildings. Very sad and surreal.

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

After a week in Kigali, Rwanda, we arrive in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It would be an understatement to say that there is a stark difference between the two cities. The entire population of Rwanda is about 10 million people; the city of Addis Ababa alone has 3 million people.

There's no doubt that Ethiopia has an incredible history...but it's honestly the dirtiest, smelliest and most void of humanity place we've ever seen.

Signs of polio and other diseases run rampant on the streets - people with twisted limbs, dragging body parts on the rock plagued sidewalks...we actually saw a man with a hole in his thigh the size of a grapefruit. No one even noticed this man and I could only imagine that at home dozens of people would be calling 911 or offering to help him. The disparity between the "haves" and "have nots" was unimaginable.

While stopped outside a tin-roofed shack that was an average grocery store, a woman was emptying buckets onto the edge of the street. It was on the third bucket that I realized she was dumping human waste - and this seemed pretty commonplace even in the city.

Every taxi ride began with a crazy set of arguing over the price of the ride and everyone knew someone that could take us somewhere, show us something, sell us something - egad.

We found a few shiny spots in some compassionate folks at the US Embassy, a pediatrician from Poland who examined Alliette on the spot and lovely man at our hotel who offered to drive us around the city to find some gifts.

Goodbye Home of Hope

Literally at the gate - leaving!!!

Wednesday, Oct 22nd - Alliette leaves orphanage

This is a surreal day. Our paperwork is complete and we were able to take Alliette out of the orphange as our daughter today. One would think that the sisters or especially the young women that care for these babies would be sad to see a child leave. But these women have the purest of intentions and they were so happy to see Alliette go into the arms of a mother and father. We've never experienced anything like this!

On the left of the picture is Sister Graciase (like the Mother Superior) and on the right is Sister Allison who has worked with us since meeting Ned on day one.

Dr. Agnes Binagwaho

There are a few moments in life when you know you've been in the presence of greatness...Ned and I were immediately struck with the incredible Dr. Agnes Binagwaho. Ned had the fortune of meeting Dr. Agnes while in Rwanda earlier in the year. She agreed to act as our pediatrician (at that time she was the Rwandese appointee to the World Health Organization on AIDS).

As we meet her on our last night in Kigali, she has now been appointed to the highest non-political post in the Ministry of Health in Rwanda - wow! Her energy and quick-as-a-fox humor are contagious! Lucky for us she was between jobs and had three hours to spend sipping wine and eating samosas (my new favorite - shredded lamb and herbs neatly packed in a triangular dough).

Dr. Agnes completed Alliette's medical exam before we even arrived in Rwanda and would not accept payment. We told her we would be happy to pay her usual rate. In her true honorable style, she accepted the payment and then handed it back and asked us to donate it to Mother Teresa's Orphanage...