Ethiopia 2012, Team 4, Last Day in Ethiopia!! Time to Say Goodbye!

 Our last day in Ethiopia for Team 4!! Wow!! How do you put all this into words and take home everything we have experienced together? 

The first thing we must do is say our goodbyes. 

We traveled over to Korah to say goodbye to some of our favorite people. 

 I just LOVED seeing my good friend, Sumer, from Project 61, and also Kari Gibson from Man Up and Simply Love! We all have like minds and hearts and it is an honor to walk alongside these awesome women of God on the ground in Ethiopia and see all the lives that they change every day! 

 All of our team latched onto the different children that they had bonded with over the week to say their goodbyes. 

 It was great to see Sami, who just returned to Ethiopia after his stay in America! 

 We won't forget these little faces!

 Our next stop for some goodbyes was over to Hope 4 The Hopeless shelter. 

 Again, everyone had their special kids to say goodbye to. 

 We are leaving behind lives changed forever and miracle stories to tell. 

 One last game with the kiddos. 

 As we were ready to leave, we all went in and sat down with all of them and said a prayer. 

 We told them what a pleasure it was to serve them this summer. We hope to continue to gather support and sponsors for this amazing organization over the coming months. 

 Time for goodbyes. 

Todela will always hold a special place in Team 4's hearts as the boy in the countryside that God led us to in order to bring him to the shelter and give him a future and hope. 

 These are two of the leaders at Hope 4 The Hopeless. Awesome men of God!!

 Goodbyes are always hard when you know you are leaving the country and you don't know how long it will be until you see them again. 

 This little guy below came up to me and said he wanted me to tell my daughter, Lauren, goodbye for him. He misses you Lauren!! So I took his picture waving goodbye to you :-) 

You may remember the amazing story of Brahanu, from Team 3. He was another street child that we found living alone and it just happened to work out at the shelter that they just had a bed come available for him when he needed it most and they took him in off the streets for us when we asked. 

He was so thankful! 

Now he was so sad we were leaving! It broke my heart to say goodbye!

Like I've said in the past, once these older boys find someone who believes in them, they give you their heart and trust. It is hard for them to watch us have to leave. 

We promised him we would see him again in the coming months. 

 Bless his heart! He is such a precious boy with a tender heart! 

 We all love you Brahanu and will see you again. 

 Even when we were driving away in our bus the kids were still saying goodbye to these sweet kids.

 He was giving the heart sign to Collin as we drove away. Seriously, it's so hard to say goodbye!

 One last glimpse of this one watching us leave...

 All our hearts wrapped around these kids. Many from the team left part of their hearts with them. 

 My daughter and son on this trip got to meet our adopted son's birth sister on this trip. She is such an amazing girl. I was so glad they got to meet her. 

 After a quick shower I got to say goodbye to one of my favorite post office boys above. 

 Then I made my way out to the neighborhood boys who had been coming to church with us all week to say goodbye. Amy caught me on camera telling all of them to continue going to church and be honest, good boys and read the bibles we gave them. Of course they assured me they would ;-)

 After we passed out a few more bibles to the boys standing around the guest house, Bink decided to have a short bible lesson with them before we left, with the help of Bissy translating. 

It was a sweet sight! 

 We all loaded up and headed over to the airport. 

We said goodbye to those of the team that headed out in different directions once we got to Washington. 

What an absolutely, amazing trip!!

We had 4 totally awesome teams this summer during June and July!!

THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO PRAYED OVER OUR TEAMS!!

It is because of everyone's prayers that we were led to help the people that we helped. 

I couldn't ask for better teams of people from all over the US who came together to be 

Ordinary Heroes to everyone they came across in Ethiopia!!

We made a lifetime of memories as we watched one life change after another....

including those of our team members! 

TEAM 1, 2, 3, 4.....THANK YOU, THANK YOU!! 

I AM SO BLESSED TO HAVE WALKED ALONGSIDE YOU TO SERVE IN ETHIOPIA!! 

Want to join us next year? New OH Team Ethiopia trip dates coming soon along with a new video of our time captured in Ethiopia. Enjoy this little sneak peek!