This is an interesting one. Let's go back to Fall 2010. Recap: In Fall 2010 I started working at the University where I now teach (and LOVE). I contacted the director of global missions and we started making plans for the first trip to Ethiopia.
On this first trip I went with the 5 students: Amber, Audrey, Ben, Betsy, and Nicole. It was an AMAZING trip. We spent 5 days at Acacia Village, which was the transitional home for Christian World Adoption, the adoption agency we used when we adopted our son. This center was not in existence when we adopted Eli, however. It was a HUGE blessing to meet social workers and nannies who remembered Eli. I might add that they remembered him because he had a big head - which was cause for concern and required us to have additional paperwork and approval since it was possible he had hydrocephalus (for the record I'm pretty sure he just had a big head). So the big head... made him memorable :)!
After the week I spent with the college students in Ethiopia, an additional mission team arrived and the students accompanied them out to the villages of Ethiopia to be encouragers to new churches. The trip was a great success. The students enjoyed both aspects of the trip for very different reasons.
So, when Fall 2011 came around and we started making plans for the trip for this past summer, we were attempting to duplicate the same trip. Our itinerary looked very much the same. This trip was set to include Audrey (from the trip the previous year) along with Bettsy, Britanee, Koty, Lauren, & Meagan. As we met to get acquainted and start thinking toward the trip, Audrey mentioned wanting to go to a "real orphanage." You see Acacia Village is a transition home, meaning the kids there are in between being orphans and being legally adopted and traveling to the US.
At first I kind of groaned inwardly. It would be more work to search out somewhere else to go. But I felt that Audrey had a reasonable request and where did I turn? Yep, you got it, to the families I met in Ethiopia (who are now my Facebook friends) when we adopted Eli. I started asking them questions and was put in touch with one of the members of the Board of Directors for the Orphanage.
So I started talking to our (new) director at our univeristy about going to this Orphanage. Because we had already made plans with Acacia, we decided one day would be about right at this new Orphanage, just to kind of check it out. You know, see if it would work for future trips, but not spend too much time there this time since other plans had already been made.
A series of interesting events unfolded after this.
#1 - Audrey (who had suggested this) was going to be unable to make the trip ... but notice if she hadn't been going to go originally I would not have sought this option out.
#2 - Acacia Village contacted us to say that they had only 8 kids (not couting babies or toddlers). Wow, what a shock! It started to sound like 6 of us spending 4 full days with only 8 kids might not be the best use of time. So, we made some changes. We decided to spend only mornings & early afternoon with the kids at Acacia. Then in addition to the one day we were planning to spend at the Orphanage, we would spend the other 4 days there after the kids were out of school each day. This seemed a reasonable compromise. However, it was a costly one in terms of transportation because the Orphanage and Acacia were not all that close to one another.
#3 - The one full day we were able to spend at the Orphanage was the first day of the week instead of the last. The reason we were able to spend a full day there that day was because it was a National Holiday for Ethiopia. Thus, the kids were out of school and we got to spend the whole day with them! This aspect will take on even greater significance as I tell you more about Our Girl later :).
So, to recap, a team member that did not end up going on the trip suggested we go to an Orphanage. The place we planned to go ended up not being a good option. We ended up at the Orphanage during a week with a Holiday, allowing us to spend more time with the kids, and providing the setting in which I met Our Girl.
I know this is SOOO mean... but I'm loving writing out the journey like this. Stay tuned for there is so much more to come!
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