Going "Home"

Nick and I are leaving for Ethiopia on November 29 and we could not be more excited. Ethiopia feels like home to us, but this trip is going to be a little different. Although we thought our next trip would definitely be related to our adoption, God has a plan that I have to believe is greater than my own (otherwise I would go crazy), and we are heading back just to check in on a few projects and love on some of our favorite people. We usually have our trip planned out day by day, what we want to accomplish and what we need to get done. I feel like that mentality is the only thing that kept me going for two months the first trip. Otherwise, I would have been a bawling mess for most of the trip processing all I had seen and done. Instead, I waited until I got home and had to study for my physical therapy boards to do that :)

We have a rough idea of the people we want to see and the projects we'll visit. We'll definitely be seeing our friends at Hands for the Needy in Korah (a sponsorship program supported through Children's HopeChest), visiting Bring Love In for the first time to meet the family we help sponsor, and loving on all the kiddos at two of the government orphanages Kebebe Tsehay and Kechene.

We may even do a tiny bit of traveling outside of the city! We are typically so busy working from the time we hit the ground to the moment we arrive back at the airport that the idea of getting out of the city is a blur. I guess that's not true, actually, as we helped with a week long shoe distribution in a community outside the city, but I mean outside-outside the city. The few places we're entertaining is Lalibela and Bahir Dar. Lalibela is known for their ancient churches carved out of rock.

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 Near Bahir Dar is Lake Tana and the Blue Nile Falls.

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Axum is apparently the most ancient city in Ethiopia and is home to some amazing stone obelisks. According to Wikipedia, "The Ethiopian Orthodox Church claims that the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Aksum houses the Biblical Ark of the Covenant in which lie the Tablets of Law upon which the Ten Commandments are inscribed."

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The history of Ethiopia really astounds me. How do we chose where to go?! In fact, I stumbled across this itinerary called The Ark of the Covenant: in search of the oldest treasure of all humanity. I wouldn't mind just re-creating that because it looks Ah.mazing. Too little time to do it all! Any recommendations from you seasoned Ethiopian travelers?!