Update from 11/16/10

From Bet and Erik.....and baby!!! :

We love our boy! He is amazing. I am blown away each day that God would
give him to us. I am in awe of everything he does. He can easily push
himself up and every once in a while he goes on his knees. We have
tried putting something in front of him for him to go to. He scoots to
it, and we think he is really really close to crawling.

His eyes are mesmerizing. Sometimes he just stares at me and I think
about what must be going through his head. I love it when we get eye
contact and try to keep it as long as I can. He is easily distracted,
but I think that is because he wants to play with the big kids! There is a
room for the families that is wonderful. He loved just watching the
other kids play.

Our kiddo also loves music. We have a toy that he grabs and then plays
like a tambourine. Erik plays music while he eats and he loves that.
He is not a great eater. We would not have thought this as the photos
we have gotten make him look so big! It takes us an hour to feed him.
The nannies have had to help us because the way he eats is not
something I ever
would have tried. On his side laying down with a pillow and then
rocking his back. He actually eats better while he sleeps. Funny, huh?

When we come to get him each day, we are greeted with a HUGE smile!
When we leave, he cries sometimes, but I know that he is in good
hands. He just has to learn that we will keep coming back. He loves to
talk to us. He ooooooos and looks like he is about to whistle. So fun!
In fact, he really likes water bottles. So sometimes we joke when he
says, "ooooo" that he is saying his first word - wuha - water in
Amharic!

We love being with him. One of my favorite times is nap time. He will
sleep on me sometimes and I am just in heaven! LOVE it! Two days ago,
he had a fever, and his fever broke while he was napping on me - I
turned into sweatty Betty. (they call me Betty around here. :) Bet
means house so I got a name change for the time being.) He
slept a ton that day. But he is better today.

We come to the HOH around 9:30 and leave for lunch. Then we come back
in the afternoon and leave before dinner. We are staying at a home of
a pastor and his wife and daughters. We take the minibus taxi to the
HOH each day. Love it! 2 birr, or about 13 cents, each way!

Thank you so much for all of your prayers for our court date!
Unfortunately, we did not pass the first time. There was one piece of
paper missing because someone had a meeting. This is quite common and
we are assured it is not a big deal. So our new court date is Nov 25.
Please pray that we pass this time! We will not have to appear at that
date as we have already given our binding consent. It was easier than
we thought. All of the questions we were asked were yes or no
questions. The only thing that this should delay is our emailing
pictures of the Olson family of three. As soon as we pass court, we
will post some photos.

Also, we received our approval for our son's visa from Immigration!
Unfortunately, they cabled it to Russia - hahaha. So now we have one
more thing to fix, but it should be easy to change. With all of this
said, it looks like we are still on for our departure date of Dec. 25.

We are so grateful to God for his grace and mercy. He has been so good
to us on this trip. Our health is great and we are full of joy. Praise
God for his loving kindness!