Our first trip to Ethiopia had a lot of challenges with us being one of the first travel groups to go on the new two trip requirement. Thankfully, the second trip had less issues and overall went really well. We stayed at a different guest house this time and met a lot more adoptive families from both our agency and other agencies. It was so wonderful to share this life changing experience with some truly wonderful families. We were able to have Meseret stay with us the entire trip this time. Besides the embassy appointment to get her visa to bring her to the US and our visit to the orphanage, there were also several cultural outings offered by our agency such as a trip to the national museum, shopping and a traditional meal and coffee ceremony. Here are some more pictures from the second trip.

Ethiopia has a very high unemployment rate so it's not uncommon to see large groups of people sitting in public areas passing the time.

This is a traditional style dwelling that we saw on the drive through the country to the orphanage about 3 hours away from Addis. Although as Pete pointed out I somehow managed to get a picture of the only stone dwelling as most of them were built with sticks or mud.

Everywhere we went, animals shared the road with the cars.

It's not uncommon to see men walking with their arms around each other or holding hands.

The traditional coffee ceremony where they roast the beans. It smells SOOO good!

Mezi knew exactly how to eat the stew with her injera (the flat bread.) We are practicing making injera now that we are home.

An 18 cent cup of coffee.

Mezi is very observant and mimics everything we do. With two older brothers to show her the ropes she is adapting to her new life and home very quickly. Needless to say we feel very blessed!