Saturday

The Connecting Hearts with the Forgotten Conference was good. Luc and I only attended two of the three breakout sessions and thought our second session was better than the first. It discussed challenges we will most likely experience when Lando comes home with us and gave tips to help deal with these challenges. It was also nice because we got to meet some AGCI families in this session, including one family who were in Ethiopia during January. We really enjoyed talking with them and hearing about their experience and tips while in country. We also learned about the possibility of bringing home 20 kilos of coffee. . .

I have no clue what 20 kilos of coffee looks like. . . 

I can also say we have never laughed so much, related to adoption, than we did during the opening session. Ted Kluck, who wrote Hello, I Love You: Adventures in Adoptive Fatherhood, spoke during the opening session. He shared his family’s experiences from their two separate adoptions of their sons. He shared how prayer supported them many times during their experience, as well as being able to laugh (many times after the fact). Who knew adoption, machine guns, needles, waiting “5 minutes,” and walking through a foreign country could be so funny. Luc is looking forward to reading this one. :) 

 

We did make it to Chicago for dinner at Ethiopian Diamond. (I do have to say, I was very disappointed in our Garmin’s, Daniel, directions. He so didn’t need to send us on the Dan Ryan and Michigan Ave at that time of day. Lake Shore would have been way nicer, aka the way he sent us home. Not sure what he was thinking. ) So far Ethiopian Diamond is at the top of the three Ethiopian restaurants we have been to. Our waiter was really nice and corrected my pronunciations with the food, instead of asking me to say the number. The berbere sauce for the sambusa tasted more like sweet and sour sauce, but was really good. (Okay, I love sambusa. I have yet to have one I didn’t like.) Luc really enjoyed his Yebeg Tibs Alicha and thinks he will go with the Yebeg Tibs Watt (spicy)  next time. I highly recommend the “Tour of Ethiopia” combo platter. We also experienced, for the first time, Ethiopian coffee. Yes, even I, the lover of Diet Coke/hater of coffee, drank it (multiple cups). It was amazing and not bitter like every other coffee I have tried. It was way better served black than adding sugar.

What trip to the Chicago area wouldn’t be complete for us than ending with a stop at Portillo’s. Luc got his ribs and I got my hot dog and Diet Coke.