I just returned from Baltimore, where I met Nancy and our daughter returning from Ethiopia with our two grandchildren.  Here's Nancy's story from Ethiopia, up to the time the internet went out.  Then the electricity, and finally no running water for the last week.

Your grandsons are beautiful, full of spirit. We've been playing with them, letting them get to know us. They're very receptive and loving.  I've already taken lots of video and pictures of them. Ethiopia is wonderful! The people are so sweet. We were awakened by beautiful chanting (loud!) this morning at what seemed to be around 3am. It went on for hours but I could sleep on and off throughout it because it was so soothing. I think we'll be hearing it every morning.   told Anna I felt like I was being purified without having to do anything.
The food is fantastic. The coffee is roasted right here by the chef! I just had some more coffee because three of the women were having a coffee ceremony - roasting the beans over a fire, incense burning, long fresh-cut grass around the area - and they asked if I'd like to join them. Delicious. They also invited me to have some of their
traditional food, Teff, which has a flavor unlike any I've ever tasted. It was great.
Just watched some MTV type videos with them. They said the dancers were doing traditional Ethiopian dances.
I wanted to go out today for a short tour but Anna is not feeling well so she's napping instead. I'm not sure we'll make it out tomorrow because it's a holy day - Timket (or something like that) to celebrate Christ's baptism.
Oh, the flight was fine. I thought getting up at 4am, having an hour and a half late take-off (a lot of that sitting in the plane on the ground) and then flying for hours and hours would be tiring, but is wasn't. It was just fine.

I just tried watching the inauguration (is that how you spell it?) on hulu, but after a long wait on this dinosaur of a computer hulu told me they only share there stuff within the usa. And yahoo's site said that I could watch it but when I clicked on it the page couldn't come up. I'll have to watch it once I get home.
The boys are just amazing! Today was our first day to take them out of the orphanage, which is just down the street, and bring them over here to the guest house. They loved it! They are just so cute, SO loving, so inquisitive, so beautiful. It will be wonderful to see them tomorrow.
The food here remains delicious. I just told Anna that I'm going to have to get a handle on portion size since there is no way that I'm not going to sample the multitude of dishes they give us at each meal. I've already gained weight, so action must be taken.
I'd better end this before the dial-up decides to end it for me.

Anna and I just had a laughing spree that made us wonder if we're experiencing some sort of traveller's hysteria. Anna says more specifically Third World Country Traveller's Hysteria. And then there's the itching and scratching all night long.......but it's worth it. The boys are worth it. But both of us realize how very AMERICAN we are!
We've had lots of extremely heavy rains and high winds. We were standing on our balcony during one of the storms when the huge satellite dish came crashing off the roof right next to us, sending us running into the room.
We spent our longest period with the boys alone today over here at the guest house. We've spent plenty of time with them at the orphanage but it's not the same as here where we can devote more attention to them.
The food continues to be delicious. Our cook loves teaching us new words. She and the others are so tickled when we speak Amharic.

Yesterday was tough, very tough. There's a lot to this adoption process. Anna and I  and the boys do our best to communicate, with Anna and me picking up as much Amharic as we can to get through to them. Yesterday made us very aware of the fact that we needed to know and use Cum! (Stop!) and Na! (Come!). The boys are processing through the various emotions that Anna and I are assuming they need to work through. Yesterday we were in the I'm-going-to-test-you-to-the-limits day. Anna and I were exhausted after two hours and it took about 5 hours of evening/nighttime stategizing to figure out today's approach. So, today there wasn't the slightest budging on our parts. Cum meant cum whether or not they had to throw some fits. We feel much better about the whole thing. The boys need stable, guiding, adult figures at this point, not the grown-up playmates that we started out as.
So, after having a delicious lunch followed by yet another coffee ceremony (frankincense and all!) and doing a little sun bathing under the 70plus blue skies, we're gearing up for round two of our parenting adventure.

Are you home by now? I noticed that it was 3 degrees in Ithaca yesterday morning. I think it was 75 here.
We had a good morning playing with the boys and other children at the orphanage. It seems to go better if we go next door and see them rather than bring them here to the guest house. Karesso had a grand time wearing my fleece. I had left it on a chair and he spotted it and just had a fun time parading around in it. I played ball with a sweet, sweet little girl for about 45 minutes. I had decided I'd play until she got tired of it and I was surprised at how long she could go at it.
Anna and I just made arrangements to have a driver come and take us shopping tomorrow at 2:00. Luckily he knows English!
We just finished yet another delicious lunch (mehsa), had our coffee ceremony (pared-down version) and now I'm going to read my yoga book and do some yoga.
Anna's going to read and take a nap. Life moves s-l-o-w-l-y here.

Life is curious....sitting at a computer in Addis Ababa critiquing my family's Wegman's shopping spree. (It took about 3 minutes to bring it up.) Are those coffee yogurts my welcome home gift?
Anna and I finally got out of the compound yesterday. We had been waiting for her intestines to settle down to the point where she felt she could be away from a toilet for a few hours. It was exciting to go to the Hilton to do money exchange and then travel on to a shop for shawl and jewelry shopping. We ended with a visit to a grocery where I picked up some chocolate (thank you Belgium!) and some Ethiopian wine. We haven't opened the wine yet because just as we got back to the compound our taxi driver sent our guard across the street to buy us some Ethiopian beer. He told us he had ordered St. George beer, the best Ethiopian beer. It was very good and put Anna in an extremely happy mood last night. She was giggling away and calling me a "food pusher" because I had insisted that she eat a bit more injira (Ethiopian bread) and shira (fantastic heavily-spiced chickpea dish) despite her attempts to cut back on portion size.

We had a good morning playing with the boys and other children at the orphanage. It seems to go better if we go next door and see them rather than bring them here to the guest house. Karesso had a grand time wearing my fleece. I had left it on a chair and he spotted it and just had a fun time parading around in it. I played ball with a sweet, sweet little girl for about 45 minutes. I had decided I'd play until she got tired of it and I was surprised at how long she could go at it.
Anna and I just made arrangements to have a driver come and take us shopping tomorrow at 2:00. Luckily he knows English!
We just finished yet another delicious lunch (mehsa), had our coffee ceremony (pared-down version) and now I'm going to read my yoga book and do some yoga.
Anna's going to read and take a nap. Life moves s-l-o-w-l-y here.

Anna is very excited and happy this morning because Matt will be here in 24 hours.
I'm looking forward to our birth family trip. We'll leave here at 6am Sunday morning and travel 6 hours south to Awassa which is close to the boy's home. We'll be meeting with the boy's relatives. I hear that there is gorgeous landscape and lots of animals to be seen during our travels.
So, this morning Anna and I started the Malarone in preparation.

Matt arrived this morning along with 4 couples who are also adopting here at Wide Horizons. I think I've eased my way into being the official videographer of this special trip and was allowed to tape the entire first scenes of Matt meeting his sons. To say the least, it was very heart-warming.
We had lunch awhile ago and Matt is napping while Anna reads the adoption book that Lisa and John sent. Matt says it's excellent. I'm revving up for my 4:00 videotaping session with the boys and their new papa and mama.
Oh, Matt brought me 3 large extra dark chocolate bars. The man rocks.
The weather is absolutely gorgeous here, with today being even prettier than the others. Amazing. I check the Ithaca temperatures regularly and just the thought of them gives me the shudders. Maybe we should get the kitchen fixed up and consider moving. Something to once again think about.

The crew arrived home safely, though still groggy or sleeping.  The boys slept on the plane; the adults didn't.  So, there was a mis-match this afternoon when the boys were ready to play and everyone else wanted to sleep.  Paul (Matt's brother) helped out.  The boys went to sleep at 5 pm.  Now, the adults are catching up on sleep.  Sunday maybe their clocks will reset.