What 'A' has been up to...

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They safely landed!!

Amber just called me and they landed!!!! Just wanted to update everyone!!! -Lindsay

They are on their way home!

They got on the first of two planes on their way home 8 hours ago. They will land at DFW on Monday afternoon. Ayana and I are so excited that we can almost pee in our pants...Well, actually Ayana does still pee in her pants but I break that habit a long time ago! We just got back from church and Ayana is down for her nap. We looked like twinkies today at church: we both had on dark wash jeans and cream colored sweaters and we are two curly headed babes! We were so efficient in getting ready this morning that we went to the grocery store before chruch! Ayana had a hard time sleeping last night because she was up a few times. I would hear her babble for a few minutes and then she would go right back to sleep. She was wide awake at 5AM though so I changed her diaper, made a bottle and she went right back down until 9AM. Yesterday we went to see my mom becasue I had to get a tax document that arrived there in the mail. We all went out to lunch at Cheddars and Ayana was so cute. When the waitress walked up to get our order, Ayana would point at herself and say "Ayaya, Ayaya, Ayaya" like she was introducing herself. It was hilarious. She did that to anyone who stopped at our table. The rest of the day we just chilled at the house and played with toys. She had a hard fall yesterday and tripped on the carpet and went face first on to a toy and then the ground. She was screaming and crying so loudly it scared the bajesus outta me! I was standing a few feet away when she fell and it looked like it really hurt too. But after a few tears and 5 minutes of consoling, she was all smiles and giggles and back to playing and not even a mark to show her fall thank goodness! That's all for now...we are counting down the hours until Amber, Rick, and Savvy get home!!!!!

Day 6 with Ayana

Ayana is so great. We spent about 45 minutes on the couch reading/looking at her books. She loves the Elmo book the best. We looked at it for 20 minutes. She is so smart. I would say the names of items in the book and point to them. We went all through the book identifying items. Then I would say items and she would flip to the page and point at them! She knew all of them! Sometimes she would even say the names if she could pronounce them. I couldn't believe she could focus that long...She's only 20 months old and I'm 23 and I can barely stay focused on one item that long! But she was just sitting in my lap the whole time. Then she took a fascination to my socks. I'm actually wearing Amber's socks because I forgot to pack my own! Don't worry Amber, I will wash them before you get them back! She would take one off of my foot and take off with it so I would chase her around the living room and get it back. She thought that was hilarious. I would put it back on my foot and she would do it again. We put the socks on her feet and it was so cute. They went all the way up to her knees but she liked wearing them. I wish I would have taken a picture because it was soooo cute!

-Lindsay

We talked to Amber & Rick on the phone finally!

As soon as I came home from work, we called Amber and Rick on a new number they gave us. We actually woke them up because it was 3AM in Addis but they were excited to hear from Ayana. Amber said they were awake because the city was doing the Muslim prayer and they can hear it in their room. We had a five minute conversation without being disconnected. It was so exicting to actually get to talk to them and have a clear connection. Ayana was talking up a storm saying, "mama, dada, nana". It was great! We are going to call again tomorrow during lunchtime so they will be fully awake as it should be about 8 or 9PM there.

Email from Amber!!

"We miss Ayana so bad!!!!! But we are glad we didn't bring her. Too many risks to have her here. The polution is so bad that when I blow my nose, black comes out.
This morning we were at the prostitution ministry and this evening we rode out to a village outside the city where one american missionary couple are. They have started a ministry for the children to school and feed them. It felt like we were on National geographic.

It was a remote village with no electricity or water and they live in mud huts. They held a ceremony for the whole village to bless a new peice of land that they aquired to build a new school for more children. The school is about the size of ourt master bath and closet and it holds at least 20 children. CRAZY! The elders of the community were there to bless the land and to tell the people what was going to happen. They slaughtered an ox and cut it up and put it on a hige platter and used their hands to pass it out to everyone to eat, RAW! I didn't want to be rude but we just could not do it! They also cooked some of it but they were so dirty that I just couldn't eat it either.

They all ate like vultures becasue they hadn't eaten in days. Our group supplied the missionaries with the money to buy bread and the ox for the viallge to eat. Seeing the children there was devastating. They had ripped clothes and were so dirty. Some of the children had fungus growing on their heads and some of their skin looked unrecognizable. Some were covered in scabies and other skin infections. I felt guilty for feeling this way, but I was freaking out on the inside. You know that I am a germaphobe and I was absolutely freakin out on the inside for hours. It was horrible. We couldn't help everyone, there was just too many of them. It was so hard.
On the way home, we stopped at the pharmacy and got scabies creme. My skin is absolutley crawling!!!!

I have so much more to tell but I am so tired. Call when you want, no matter what time. We love you guys and miss you so bad!

Give Ayana a big hug and kiss for us! Love you,

Amber, Rick, Savannah"

That's all I have for now. I'm going to try and call after I get home from work so Ayana can talk too.

-Lindsay

Day 4 with Ayana

Ayana is doing amazing well. She slept all through the night and went to sleep as soon as I put her down. The dogs started barking at 1:30AM so I went downstairs to check everything out and change her diaper. I guess the dogs brought her out of that deep sleep so when I started changing her diaper, she woke up. So I made her a bottle and she went right back down. In fact, she was still asleep when I left for work at 8:20. I woke up at 7:25 to unlock the door and open that gate for Ester but I forgot to unlock the actual lock on the door handle so poor little Ester was locked out. I came down stairs to get something and I saw her car in the driveway but she wasn’t inside. So I went to check the door and it was locked. I felt so bad. She was sitting in her car so went out to get her! She was only been out there for 5 or 10 minutes but I still felt bad.

Last night we went over to the Dudley's because I was in need of some home cooked food. I called Shelley and said "If I have to eat another frozen meal or fast food I'm going to barf!" I wanted to make enchilada casserole but I don’t really know how to make it for one. So we went to the Dudley's and I cooked enchilada casserole. A didn’t get to enjoy my famous casserole because I thought it might be too spicy for her so she had a little chips and guac and some mandarin oranges.

-Lindsay

Boyd Update

Amber sent me this email:

"Lindsay,

We have not been able to connect by phone, what a bummer! I am really missing Ayana so badly.

Don't have much time to talk because the internet comes and goes and the power goes out at least once a day in the whole area.

We are all doing fine. God is working in amazing ways. We are emotionally drained and heartbroken.. What we saw today was more devastating than anything I have ever seen or imagined. I can't even put it into words at this time. PLease continue to pray for our safety and health as we continue our mission. I have been journaling when I can so I can share details when I return.

Thank you for taking good care of Ayana and please try to call the number I gave you so we can talk.


Love you.

Amber, Rick and Savvy"

Email from Amber...

We tried to answer the phone when you called but we kept losing connection. How is A doing? We miss her real bad.

Today we went to a drop in center where they run a place for kids who have lost a parent or both and need somewhere to go. This was not an ophange but a place they can go to school and get fed. They go home at the end of the day to a relative. They were all extremely poor but so happy for us to be there to spend the day with them. When we got out of the van, over 100 children bombarded us. They were so appreciative to have someone spend time with them. They looked as if they had not bathed in months and their clothes and shoes were torn. The smell was bad but I remebered that God hung out with the people no one else would hang out with. They were precious human beings. The kids loved Savvy's hair. They kept touching it and trying to braid it. We were able to give a lot fo donations, including much needed shoes.

Later in the afternoon, we tried to visit Toukoul, the orphanage where A was adopted from. Even though we had an appointment, they would not let us see the children at all. It was very disappointing. I may try again later in the week as I don't plan to give up that easy.

Love you

Amber

Day 2

Last night A woke up at 3AM so I came downstairs, put a bottle in microwave, waited for 48 seconds to pass and when I went to grab the bottle, it slipped out of my hands and splashed all the way down to the ground. It went down the double ovens, onto the cabinets, all over the floor & all over me...EVERYWHERE! Ayana was crying, I was drenched in milk and it was 3AM. All I could do was put another bottle in the microwave, change A, and clean up! I may have said a few choice words along the way but after one diaper, 2 bottles, a few kitchen towels, and a quick shower and a fresh pair of jammies for me, it was back to catching some zzzz's. Ayana woke up at 9. We ate breakfast and called Rick and Amber. I spoke to them briefly last night and they wanted to talk to A but it was 10:30pm our time so I told them I would call them back today so they could talk to Ayana. I called them twice but there was no answer. So I gave A and bath we got ready for church. While we were upstairs getting ready, they called my cell phone twice but I didn't notice the call until we came back downstairs. We called them again and finally Rick answered the phone. We got disconnected after 30 seconds so we called back and got to speak for about three minutes before getting disconnected. A got to talk to 'mama' and 'dada'. She looked at the phone and smiled and said 'mama?' 'dada?'. It was cute. We went to church afterwards, A had a nap as soon as we got back home, had chicken nuggets for lunch, applesauce and roast beef for dinner and down for bed at 8! There was lots of playing and laughing in between all of that, of course. -Lindsay