The Journey

Most of you who follow our story have seen that I have slowly been sharing about the trip. I have told many of you that it was the best and worst trip of my entire life. It truly was an emotional rollercoaster. Many of you have been private messaging us, calling us, and texting us and asking us, "What is next? How do we pray? When are you going back? What is the timeline?" First of all, I have to stop and say once again we are so blessed to have such faithful, loving, and supportive friends and family. Seriously, you have no idea what you all have meant to us and how you have truly impacted our lives and this process. I know many of you have been so sensitive and cautious of how to approach us and love us, and we want you to know that everything you have done has not been overlooked, and we are sorry if we haven't truly expressed our gratitude in ways that confirm our love and appreciation to you. I am a woman, so I am guilty of spider webbing (going off on another

Dear Ethiopia, I had ideas and expectations of what I would encounter when we met. You see this was not my first trip to Africa; be slow to judge me, Ethiopia. I am not the white American girl who thinks that all of Africa is one country.  No, I knew you would be different, but I wasn't quite sure how.  My husband and I have both been to several third world countries, so we were preparing ourselves for the extreme conditions we would see. Ethiopia, like many of the other places I have traveled, your living conditions for so many people broke my heart. To see young boys (some probably not 5 years old) living on the streets and working as shoe shiners and doing other little jobs to make it day to day is something I hope never becomes normal or acceptable in my eyes. Unclean water for people to drink is clearly a huge world problem and is no different for you. We visited a church that is home to many HIV positive, mentally disabled, and physically disabled. These people are the

In case you didn't know, Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. One of the coolest traditional events we got to take part in was the Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony. These happen all over Ethiopia daily. Coffee is a part of life, and we happily embraced it! Throughout our trip, we had  A LOT of coffee and what was so interesting was each cup tastes a little different, but each cup was the best cup of coffee I had ever tasted! Buddy the Elf would have been screaming at the top of his lungs, "YOU DID IT! WORLD'S BEST CUP OF COFFEE!" We knew these coffee ceremonies were a big part of culture, but we didn't quite understand it all until we were there. I knew in an Ethiopian coffee ceremony, you had three cups of coffee, but I learned that many traditional and especially older people drink three cups, three times a day. Our guide told us her landlady does a coffee ceremony every day, three times a day, and she makes her a cup every morning before she leaves and when s

Sorry I have been slacking on the blog! We had very limited internet while in Ethiopia, but I definitely want to take some time to write about the trip and so much more.  I am hoping to write quite a bit in the next week! But for now, here is the picture you have all been waiting for. We officially have another Woodson in the world. We can't wait to bring him home! From the day we started the process to the day you gained our last name, it has been 157,420,800 seconds  2,623,680 minutes  43,728 hours  1822 days  260 weeks and 2 days 4 years, 11 months, and 27 days But holding you in my arms made every second, minute, day, week, month, and year worth it. We love you.