Ethiopian Culture Day and a Trip to Austin, TX (by Dan)

Austin is one of our favorite cities to visit in Texas and when you combine that with an Ethiopian cultural day, you simply can't go wrong.  The Ethiopian Evangelical Church in Austin sent out invitations to adoptive families in the area so we packed up the kids and headed up for a day of fun and an overnight at a hotel.

While we were there, we met one woman who was from the same region in Ethiopia as Evangeline.

We met several more from her birth city - Harar.

While in Ethiopia, we were told that the Harari women were known for their beauty and their colorful garments.   They sure enjoyed connecting with our girl and we enjoyed them.

Needless to say, she got plenty of attention, although at three, getting loved on by a bunch of people you don't know doesn't always elicit a smile.  This spoke to the progress she's made, as she used to struggle with being indiscriminately friendly, a common post-orphanage behavior.

There was hair braiding for both girls.

Face painting...

Funny face making...

And for the smallest of the crew... naptime in mommy's carrier.

As kids are prone to do, they turned a sturdy built-in shelf in our hotel room into a place to giggle and play.

And we wrapped up the evening with a family movie night (how many Ice Age movies are they planning to make?)

One of the best parts of the entire day was sitting on the back porch of the church talking with the Ethiopians who so graciously invited us and the other adoptive families to spend the afternoon with them.  Drinking Ethiopian coffee and sharing stories about our lives and about Ethiopia was so enjoyable.

It was a wonderful way to celebrate one of the greatest blessings in our life, Evangeline, who we refer to as our Ethiopian beauty.

 A beauty, indeed.