Pictures of Minte at the Guest House

Minte was exhausted the first day he came to the guest house with us. After he played outside a while, he collapsed sleepily in Dad's arms. I took pictures because he was too cute!!

(Dad is sitting on the front steps outside the dining room. Our bedrooms were inside this building and we could peek out our window in the morning and see the other families outside waiting for breakfast. When they were gone, we knew breakfast was served and we'd come downstairs)!

Minte fast asleep. He slept the entire way back to the Care Center until Dad put him down in his crib. Then he woke up. I have more pictures to share, but it's a pain right now to upload them on my blog. Can't figure how to make it easier. Like I've said before- I'm no computer genius.

Okay, here.. a video

Here is our Minte! Here he is laughing really hard as Ana snaps her finger in a car case. He is too cute... His laugh... oh my goodness... And he giggles a lot, so that's awesome!

I will post pictures soon, hopefully! We've got plenty of them!

Minte and Woody

We've heard from other parents that their kids from Ethiopia have trouble adjusting to their pets back home.

 Back at the guest house, there were stray, wild cats that hung around where we played. When I played with Minte,  I would point to the kitties and say, "Bye, bye kitties!" as they ran past. Minte caught on and everytime he saw a cat, he would point, look at me, and wave bye-bye. It was really cute and I hoped when we got home, Minte would connect our cats to the ones back in Ethiopia.

When we got home, Minte was already so upset from the car ride, that we guarded him from the cats. It wasn't long, though, before Minte noticed the cats begging outside the slider door. He got really excited and want to be HELD! Once he was up in the air holding us tightly, he would wave bye-bye to the cats, but as soon as we crouched by the cats, he freaked out.

It was a couple days before we got Woody. I wasn't around when Minte met him, but I guess, he jabbered  loudly to Dad about the huge animal by him! The rest of the day he freaked out whenever Woody got near him. He never really wanted to get down  in case Woody snuck up on him.

A couple days later, Minte felt really brave and when I held one of the cats to him, he touched it and then laughed excitedly! He kept petting it off and on. Now he hits the cat and will follow it around, chuckling and waving his arms crazily.

As for Woody, after a few days Minte felt brave enough with him to touch him and now, like the cats, hits him and laughs proudly. He still doesn't like it when Wood sniffs his face, but at least he can walk him now without freaking out!

My first Accident

I've been driving for 5 or 6 months and have been enjoying it so much, but yesterday I had my first accident.

I was driving Lucas, Ethan, and I, to piano practice and we had reached a dead end, so I pulled into the left turning lane. I didn't notice the semi, coming from my right turning left on to the road I was leaving. He misjudged his turn and I noticed he was getting REALLY close to my hood, as I waited for him to pass. Usually they get by, but he didn't. Lucas says he heard a noise.

The semi realized how close he was to me and stopped suddenly. He was driving cows to the slaughtering place nearby and when he stopped jerkily, the cows went nuts. The trailer was tipping back and forth from the banging the poor cows were doing. I went into reverse and the semi moved forward. He was about to hit me again, so I reversed more. I saw that the cars behind me had stopped way back to give us room.

Oh fun. So now thoughts were going through my head, "Now what??" "Do I stop here?" "Should I keep going?" "Is that stupid semi stopping to see if I'm alright?" (The answer to that was no)! I quickly flipped on my right blinker and pulled into the right lane, turned a corner, and pulled on to some flat dirt by the road.

Lucas hopped out to see the damage. There was some paint missing on the under side of the car and there was a scratch mark, but we weren't sure that they weren't there before. The most noticeable thing, though, was the cow doo-doo splattered all over the car! It was so disgusting!!! It looked like we had driven through a pasture with cows.

We got back into the car and went on our way again to piano. On the way, I called Mom who was concerned, (obviously), that we were okay and told me Dad would come look at the car. I told her we were at the teacher's house now and she told me that, (whoops!) I should've stayed where I was at the crash. Oh well.

Dad came from home to see the car. We assumed that the truck was on it's way to the cattle slaughtering place nearby, but when Dad was able to rub out the scratch and thought the paint missing was there already, he decided it wasn't enough damage to report the driver.

On the way home I was scared of the semis I passed and the majority of my turns, were left ones.

So that was my first "crash", though it's not what I would count as a real crash. A crash is when there's police and sirens, and a banged up car. Hopefully I won't experience that anytime soon.

Happy 14th Birthday, Luke!

Airsoft Guns..

"FREAKY" pumpkins

Projects like this one- a sandbox

 

Helping with the kids

Getting his hair done

And being goofy..

Lucas!

Happy Birthday, Lucas! Have a great day,(a day late)! :-) Happy 14th!

Today

The most exciting news today is that Luke's birthday is tomorrow!!! He is turning 14!

Today, Minte waked up at 5:30! We're getting there! (He is so messed up by the time difference that his sleeping times are weird).

Dad and Mom changed him, (and his sheets AND their sheets as he had a diaper problem), and gave him his milk and a bath.

Then they played with him and us kids started playing with him and squeezing him as we got up from bed. He is so happy!

Minte had his wheat cereal and afterwards figured our how to open the plastic wrap around a case of gum. He was proud of himself. (Mom took away the gum and he started screaming. So she told him to say please so he quickly rubbed his belly and got the gum back! He is so smart!) (Later, too, Dad was holding him as he screamed and squirmed so Dad asked him if he wanted to get down and Minte quickly shut his mouth and pointed to the ground. He is catching on to things so fast!!!!) (Okay, one more thing, yesterday we gave him one of those  straw cups and he quickly caught on to how it worked)!! 

Now he is leaving to go to the doctor, so I have to go.

Minte

No pictures yet, but I will share a little more on how Minte's doing.

He's as cute as can be. Has the sweetest toes and beautiful, huge eyes. He is very ticklish on his side and especially his underarms. He likes wearing clothes! Yesterday Dad and Mom put on his shirt and Minte freaked out because his legs weren't covered. He pulled down his shirt as far as he could!!!

Minte loves papers and dropping or throwing them on the floor. It makes him laugh really hard when someone gasps or says, "Uh-oh!" or "Oh No!"

Seeing people hurt themselves by pretending to hit themselves, makes him laugh. He cracks up, too, when Ana or Ethan fall down when he throws stuff at them, (a good game to get him started on!!! :-) One time they ran across the foyer and slid on their knees. Minte thought that was hilarious and fell down to his knees too.

Minte really likes music. Dad and Mom bought him an Amharic children's c.d. and when we play it, he starts bouncing with his arms in the air and shaking his head. He has some cute moves!

This kid is also very smart. He needs to see someone do something about once, and he gets how to do it!!!! He likes buttons and loves pulling the lever on his Elmo plane.

Minte also gives occasional kisses, (mostly to Dad when he doesn't want to him to do something!!!) and will pucker up his lips.

We are Home with Minte!

Minte is adorable! He is so cute and lovable! We just love him!

We are so excited to have him home and TO BE home. It's nice to have our own, soft beds and our own hot showers, AND we can brush our teeth under the faucet!

I feel like I'm not sharing enough about Minte on this blog, and I want to show pictures and videos, but we are waiting to show the kids and everyone the pictures before we share with everyone else. So hopefully tomorrow I can share some pictures!

Thank you all for your prayers during our journey!

Mom is sick with some sickness she got during the last few days of our trip. Everytime she went up the stairs to our room, she would have to sit down and would feel nauseous. The plane trip was not fun for her obviously. So although she's glad to be home, she is still not feeling great.

Hope to share more with you guys later.
Emily

Today is Ana's Birthday!

 Today Ana is turning SIX! She's no longer a baby, she's a big girl.

 One of Ana's favorite things is to play with our cats, (she's holding Collar Dude in this picture).

 She also likes posing for pictures.

 Here she is being a goof ball.

 If you get to know Ana, you are bound to see her cracking up as she is in this picture.

 Ana baby, (whoops!)

6 years ago, Ethan, Luke, and I went to stay with our friend's until our Grandma got here, because Dad and Mom were leaving in the night to meet their new baby girl. They named her Adriana Mae Vander Hart. When they brought home our new, chubby, sister with so much hair, we were thrilled! And today we are so thankful for Ana Mae.

Happy Birthday, Adriana! Have a great day! We love you and will see you very soon!

VanderHarts are in Ethiopia!

Hi everyone! It's Lindsey here. Emily just called us and asked me to write on her blogs because she has no internet access. 


They arrived in Ethiopia safely and are adjusting well to the time change. Emily says Minte is ADORABLE! They got to see him three times the first day and the third time Minte ran to Mrs. V. with his arms up. They are so thankful for the prayers on their behalf. They went to the the market today and bought quite a bit. They had to bargain a lot which Emily says was strange. She says Minte is a big tease and that he smiles and rolls his eyes at his Nannies. They aren't allowed to take pictures until he starts to live with them in the guest house.


I'm off to write on Em Wants More. Keep praying!

Today is the Day!

Right now we are waiting to board our plane. We are way early, but that's good I guess.

We packed forever today! We filled 6 suitcases, 3 carry-ons, and have 2 "personal belongings". We began at 6 this morning. Dad and Mom still had some papers to get ready, but that's done now. They double and triple checked all their papers so we should be good.

Mom and I have to wear skirts as much as possible. We have to dress up too, at least 2 times.  I can't believe today is finally the day we've been waiting for for MONTHS! Minte, here we come.

We made friends with the people who checked us in. The one lady had to wait on a phone for a while so in the meantime, she talked to us about where we were going, why and eventually we showed her a picture of Minte. She and another lady thought he was cute and were sorry they weren't working the day we come home so they could see him.

Today I heard someone talk in another language and it made me think, hey wait, we are going somewhere where there isn't going to be many people speaking our language. How cool!

Right now I have pretty good internet access, so hopefully this will continue so I can keep you updated on our traveling. There are tons of business men and women over here. No kids. Not that I'd say anything to them anyway.. :-) 

Sorry about how random all this is. It was just whatever popped in my head as I typed. Another random thought - laptops make cool noises when you type fast! ;-)

Talk to you later when I'm able to again!
Emily