I am a bad wife

Here is Brian's blog post that got lost weeks ago. Sorry, honey!

Hey all,

Brian here. This is actually my first official post. Jen's been handling it all and doing an amazing job. Me, I've been taking a lot of pictures, a lot of video, and changing a lot of diapers. (Front to back!) It appears that Zoe likes having her diapers changed by me a bit more than by Jen in that she screams a little bit less. Though this makes me feel good, it's not the first title I would have chosen!

Anyway, it's going far better than any of us could have hoped. Zoe has really taken a liking to us, and I have a hard time imagining our family without her now, her personality complimenting the rest of ours so well. She's very outspoken and active, eager to communicate with everyone she meets, making clicking and buzzing sounds as she tries to strike up a conversation. If you click back, you'll get the biggest smile you've ever seen, followed by a wave, a laugh, a loud "Yaaa!" and perhaps some clapping.

Needless to say, this has been an incredible and exhausting journey so far. Take 23 hours of flying, a 10 hour time difference, and a city at high altitude, a 3 year old, and a new 10 month old, mix it all together and its easy to understand why we're all a little winded. There's irony too. Zoe, generally sleeps pretty well through the night, especially if stuffed with cereal and bottle before bed, while Evan, because of the jet lag, has been waking up a little after 3am every day, ready to rock! Gradually, this is getting better, with him sleeping a little later each day. At this rate we should be back to normal just in time to head home next Thursday and start all over again!

In addition to adjusting as a world traveling family, we've also had our share of very emotional experiences thus far. Jen posted her story yesterday of our trips to several orphanages in Addis, so that we might meet the children and see the conditions that they live in. It was incredibly moving for both of us. With my camera in hand, I quickly found myself surrounding by kids all wanting their pictures taken, posing with friends or doing stunts on the broken down swing set, I would alternate between clicking as fast as I could and showing them the pictures I had just taken. Sadly, due to the rules, I can't post the pictures of the kids to the blog, but I don't know at this point where I would begin as I must have taken over 200 portraits over the course of the day. There were so many, so many kids. And they were so polite, so humble, so friendly, eager to play with Evan and to show us around. For Evan, it was just a lot of fun kids to play with. It wasn't until we were in the infant room when he started asking questions.

"Why do they all sleep here?" he asked.

"Because this is where they live," I said.

"Why?"

"Because they don't have mommies and daddies to take care of them," I whispered, realizing that I wasn't sure I was ready for this conversation.

"Why?"

"Because their mommies and daddies are too sick or too poor to take care of them."

At that point, he clung to me very tightly, burying his face in my shoulder.

It was something that I'll never forget.

love,

Brian