Today was great. We barely even stepped foot out of the hotel, which meant we could have somewhat of a "normal" feeling day for the first time. Erin is feeling better - not 100%, but better. Her fever was gone, and then came back some - so now she's on medication keeping it down. We're hoping she'll wake up feeling back to her old self!

There was a TON of just good ol' fashion family time today. Lots of giggles and smiles and playing. Still a few tears and screams, but after establishing a timeout chair, we were then able to give Ellie a choice of "sleep" or "chair." For nap time, she immediately chose the chair (because she's stubborn). After about 3 minutes, she chose to sleep...for about 30 seconds. Back to the chair, and then back to sleep. And then she was out! She never cried through any of it!!! Amazing! Putting her to bed tonight was much the same. She cried some, but she went to bed MUCH more quickly - and I got to snuggle with her more. =O) I can't even begin to describe what a difference this is. Last night, as I was rocking Elijah to sleep, she was standing beside me when she started falling asleep! She refused to be in bed and she was so tired and stubborn that refused, and therefor stood until she couldn't do it any longer. So yeah...today was much better!

Today was a glimpse of real life - SO much better and easier than what we've experienced prior to today. Ethiopia is quite a bit different than Rwanda. We feel much more out of place here. There are a lot of beggers on the street too, many of them children. It's very hard walking the block or so to the grocery store which a child of a different color. Speaking of...the lady cleaning our hotel room today said (pointing to Ellie), "She is dark. You are white!" Ha! Good thing she caught that and let us know! We get just as many stares as we did in Rwanda, but here it seems even more bold. And I've had 4 people try to get our kids to stop putting their fingers in their mouth (they do this when they're tired...most of the children from the orphanage seem to do this). It's certainly something we'll be working on when we get home, but people here don't understand the situation and think you're just being a bad parent, and they are very pushy about it. I also had two different ladies tell me Ellie needed a sweater because it was cold (it was not).

The only thing that would have made today better would be doing it at home. Nonetheless, we are beyond grateful for our amazing little family that God put together. We'll try to get more pics up as soon as we can!