Court Trip Day 2

Court trip day 2 Today we left bright and early to make the trip to Hawassa.  We were able to catch up on some some sleep and felt rested and ready to go.  It was about a five hour van ride with Josh, and Laura Strode and her sister-in-law Katherine. The Strodes are adopting the most precious little girl.  Her husband was just deployed so she is here for court and her sister-in- law came with her.  It has been great getting to know them and also very awesome how God worked this trip out. You see Laura's little girl is from the same exact city as Brandt and the same orphanage. In fact, they were even in the same room at the orphanage.  It was great to get to take the trip to Hawassa with her and Katherine! Our kiddos were so close together for a short time! We stopped about half way on our journey to go to the bathroom and get coffee.  Folks, the coffee here is AMAZING. I mean, there is nothing like it I have ever had.  It is very strong. Kind of like drinking espresso. Wow, love it.  We are hoping to visit the coffee factory while we are here.   Once we got back on the road we drove the rest of the way to Hawassa.  We were shocked to learn that the entire way was on paved roads! We then ate lunch overlooking the lake.  Yes you heard it.  The lake is beautiful and we are staying in a hotel overlooking the lake. It is gorgeous and everything is green right now because it is the rainy season and is very wet.  Lunch was delicious. I am not lying at all when I say that I really enjoy Ethiopian food.   I am also glad to report that the Ethiopian restaurant we go to in the states is very authentic! I'm not sure if you know this but they eat their food with a type of "bread" made with Teff Flour called Injera.  It's not really like anything we have in the states.  You pick up you're food with the injera and eat.  The next part of the day was very emotional. We drove a short way to the orphanage that Brandt is from.  As you know although these orphanages do their best, they are always full and in need of a lots of items.  The babies here looked even more sad than the ones we saw yesterday.  You could tell the orphanage was in need of more supplies such as diapers and clothes.  We did bring some of the donations and were so glad that we had brought a lot of the baby clothes here.  We were given a tour of the small orphanage.  We were able to see the crib where Brandt slept and meet the nannies that took care of him.  Then they gave us a tiny picture that they had of him when he first came to the orphanage.  We are so glad that we took this trip.  It was very hard to see and process, but at the same time so good to be able to see and learn more of our lil guys history.  We thank God for the opportunity to visit this special place.  Once again another blessing from having a court trip this summer.  We were much more flexible with our schedule.  Thank you Lord Jesus! Tonight we were able to take some time to Skype with some family members and have good conversation with Laura and Catherine over dinner.  We leave tomorrow morning to travel back to Addis.  Did I mention that we were sad we didn't get to see our little guy today? We are hoping we get back in time tomorrow to go see him and hold him! There is so much more that I could tell you but I must force myself to go to bed even though my body has still not adjusted to the time change at all.   Thank you again for the prayers! God is just blowing us away!!