We were ushered up to the porch of the Transition Home and asked to stand on the porch and wait for about 5 minutes. Then the nannies at the Transition Home brought to us the most handsome little 6 month old on the planet! He looked at us both and began to smile a BIG beautiful genuinely happy smile, and thus began three of the most wonderful hours of bonding time with our new son. He is such a happy little baby boy! He liked my beard! He would just feel it and look at it as I held him. He also liked Sarah’s long blonde hair. 🙂 We played with him a while, and then we took a walk around the transition home property. After walking, we went inside and Sarah gave him his first bottle(from us anyway. Those wonderful nannies there have probably fed him hundreds of them. 🙂 ) I got some wonderful video and pictures which I will share here after we pass court. Stay Tuned! After the bottle, we went inside and looked at his room. He shares a room with 7 other babies there. After our walk, we had some wonderful play time on the floor of his room. He is starting to learn to crawl now, and he is also teething! WOW! We also had the honor of feeding him some warm cereal. He really is a good eater, and has almost tripled his weight since he was brought to the the Transition Home.

The nannies there were so nice. One of them spoke very good English, and we were able to find out who Joshua’s best little friend was there. Also she shared with us little things about Joshua that made us realize how much she cared about our son and enjoyed what she did there. All of the nannies there really are full of the love of Jesus! One thing she shared with us that was so sweet was: whenever Joshua is worn out and tired, he begins to suck on his two middle fingers. 🙂 Sure enough at the end of our time with him, we laid him down to take a nap, and as we wrapped him in the new blanket we gave him (picked out by  his new big sister Becca 🙂 ), he gently put those two fingers in his mouth and began to suck on them as he drifted off almost instantly to sleep.

It was a marvelously wonderful three hours! Today we look forward to spending more time with him. God is so good and we are so blessed that the Lord has given us the honor of raising this handsome little boy who’s life was planned meticulously by Him even before time began. Pray for us tomorrow 7-23 as we go to court in Ethiopia and speak with the judge to give our consent to adopting Joshua. Pray for favor and that we will pass court quickly. Stay tuned for more updates. Blessings to you and your family from Addis Ababa Ethiopia!