Happy New Year!!

Certainly a New Year’s to remember!!

First of all New Year’s Eve. 

I was perfectly happy to spend New Year’s Eve 2012 in my typical  fashion:  going to sleep at 9 pm.  But my new neighbor, Jennifer Morris (J.Mo) wasn’t having that.  At 9 pm she knocked on my door (waking me out of a deep sleep, mind you) and asked if we wanted to come to their room and watch a movie.  So we had a slumber party!

The only problem was that Bamlak was the only real slumberer—Bedasa and Skirui were having a bit more trouble sleeping.  In between bottles, diapers, and power outages, we did manage to watch half of I Am Legend with Will Smith and walk out on the balcony at midnight to the sounds of fireworks (just the sounds, mind you) and cheers.  J. Mo had a bad case of jet lag, in addition to fitful babies, so she ended up going to the lobby at 2 am to Skype with Tom.  She did not sleep a minute all night, poor thing.

When Bami and I went over to their room in the morning, the enforcements were there (two chamber maids) playing and dressing the boys. I hope they don’t lose their jobs with all the attention our babies are getting from them!

This morning we gathered the troops and went over to hang out with Mark and Rondi at the Sheraton pool.   Despite some blow out diapers and vomit which required me to completely retire my shirt, we had a great day.  The weather was perfect and the babies slept in the shade and Bami had her first swimming experience with Mark.   Rondi and Mark actually had her giggling and laughing up a storm which was a joy to see and hear.

We had dinner at the Italian restaurant and Dr. Rick came by with his broken lap top and two cancer samples for Mark to bring back to the U.S.  Mark can feel good that he is  not only saving Rick’s tushie by helping to get his lap top fixed, but that he is actually saving lives by getting the samples to the lab. 

Because the Ethiopian government is still being pesky about blogging, I am asking Dorrie to post this with some of my favorite pics from the day.

I am SO excited to begin 2012 with Tali Bamlak.  She is absolutely incredible and I can’t wait for you all to know her and vice versa.

Blessing for a healthy and joyful 2012 to all.

Love from Addis,

--Jen and Tali B