2 little monkeys sleeping in their beds...

Disclaimer: The following blog was written by the new proud papa.

Tuesday, September 4 (Happy 10 month birthday Kidus!)
We originally were informed that his birthday was November 1, 2006, but
yesterday we received his NEW BIRTH CERTIFICATE with us as his parents and
the birthdate was November 4, 2006. Hakuna Matata (Lion King - Look it
up!)
The day started out with little to no sleep for all of us. Thanks to
my son, we were up quite a bit during the night. Poor little guy had a
bad stomach ache and had trouble sleeping in his crib, but thankfully
Kidus found a much better spot for sleeping...on Mommy's tummy for a good
2-3 hours. I find that I have changed in ways that I never
thought I would. I noticed this the first night with Kidus. When I lay
down to sleep, I focus on his breathing and listen for it every time I
wake up, which is a lot as I am a light sleeper. I love when he reaches
for me and snuggles up to me. God has given us so much and we give him
all the glory for uniting us with Kidus.
After getting around in the morning and eating breakfast, I went to the
local supermarket to purchase some baby formula (Nan 2), and was very
impressed with the store. I went in by myself and spoke some Amharic and
found the formula. It was an adventure. My wife is sitting next to me
thinking that I suck at blogging because I'm taking so long, however she
just informed me that she appreciates my writing style. So there.
After it stopped raining, we went shopping with the Hahn's. Our family
purchased "traditional" outfits to hopefully wear at Kidus' dedication.
Our driver, Sammy, is very nice and helpful, but he doesn't say much.
He knows a little english and a lot of hand signals and head nods. Thank
goodness Deanna was there as she was a baracuda when it came to haggeling.
She was hanging in there with the best of them! Once she began to walk
out and take her business elsewhere, the price we wanted showed up. She
is amazing! Anyway, after a few hours of shopping, we came back to the
house and had a late lunch that included zucchini lasagna.

Writing on Wednesday Now.
Well, Tuesday night Alemu took us to the cultural restaruant with
dancing and singing. Deanna stayed home with Kidus because he was tired
(and so was she) and because it was going to be a late night. When we
left, it began to rain hard and then hail. The restaruant was very cool.
It was a buffet style with traditional dances and songs
throughout the night. There were also times when the dancers involved the
crowd in the dances. I myself was part of a dance. I took videos of all
the dances and took lots of pictures so Deanna could still be a part of
it. And speaking of Deanna, after we left, the house lost power so she
was reading by candle light for a couple of hours and of course couldn't
finish the blog.
Today, we visited two churches, Trinity Church and St.George (or Kidus
George). They were both very beautiful and had lots of interesting
historical items. This was Kidus' first time out and about with us and he
did great. He enjoyed seeing all the new faces and was very popular with
the locals. It was our intention to have him with us for all "safe"
outings, but he wasn't feeling very well so we decided to leave in the
care of the ladies of the house.

Thursday, we have the Embassy appointment and we hope to get back to
the Enetalem orphanage to get pictures of more children. (That is code.)

The pictures are of Taylor and Kidus performing their favorite
activity.

Ben: Thanks for the help. We tried everything and still no luck. We
will share more pics when we get home.

Thank you everyone for all your prayers and comments on the blog. We are
able to read them as they are emailed to us. We will try to blog more
before we leave on Friday evening, but no promises.

The Norris Clan