Maynard Mayhem

This family is in Ethiopia right now. They are picking up their son "Yirdaw" who they will name Eli. They are also planning on traveling to our boys orphanage and take some pics and drop off our goodie bag. I want to share one of the last messages they sent.


This morning we were picked up and taken to the orphanage! Once we arrived they took us up to a small room and we all sat around and talked. A lady walked in and said "who is Yirdaw's parents"....that would be US!!! So we followed her down the hallway right into the baby room and there was our boy sitting up in his bed waiting for us...as happy as could be! The best thing was they had dressed him in an outfit that Thom and I had set over here when David and Paula came to get Ellie...he was even playing with the toys we sent.

I talked to him over the side of the crib and he was laughing and smiling...I asked the nanny if I could pick him....they said "of course, he is yours". Instantlly we fell in love (although we were already in love with his picture)....we were able to watch the two other families meet their children for the first time cause we were already in the nursery! I was also able to feed Yirdaw his bottle for lunch - he fell asleep in my arms while I was feeding him so we cuddled for about 45 minutes before he woke up when we were in the court yard playing with the older children. We were also able to hear a little more about how Yirdaw came to the orphanage...so when he is old enough - we will be able to share some of his story with him.

We also saw some of the other kids that are being adopted by other familes...they all wanted their pictures taken on our digital cameras. JANA COOK....I LOVE YOUR BOYS!!!!! I loved on Jana and Kenny's "kids" for a long time while Thom held Yirdaw...I promise you pictures before Christmas!!! The boys carried around the bags that you sent and all the kids were following them around looking at what they had. I pulled out the pictures and I showed the boys pictures of you and Kenny!!!! I had a gathering of kids while we looked at the pics - the kids at this orphanage are amazing.

While we were there were over eleven kids dropped at the orphange...it was amazing (and that was before 1pm). One of the nannies took me to the room where the kids are dropped off - I asked if I could take a picture just to capture how many children were brought daily...they allowed me to take as many pictures as I wanted. In fact, the mothers were asking if I could take their picture with their children. It was such an neat moment for me to see those mothers and to love on their kids for a few moments. It was not all mothers that were there - some were other family members or friends that were dropping kids off. I learned of some sweet stories of why these kids were being brought - one mother tried to give her baby to Thom.

We came back to the guest house around 2:00 and the men went to the grocery store to get formula and cereal for our kids. Yirdaw fell asleep in my arms and I laid him on the bed beside me for his 2 hour nap. He loves to cuddle. He is a little bit smaller than I was expecting....his 12 month clothes that we have him in now are a bit big and we rolled up his pants - but he is healthy and he loves to eat!!!

Thom and Yirdaw are "running" through the hallway...oh yeah, HE WALKS!!!! He is still waddles a little bit - but he can make it a few steps without falling down!! We will eventually change his name to ELI - but he responds well to Yirdaw....so we're working on changing that...but no rush!!