My 2 Ethiopian Girls: We Are Under The Tuscan Sun!

Saturday, August 2, 2008

We Are Under The Tuscan Sun!

We arrived safely in Italy and have already fallen in love with this country. This will be a short post to let you know we are here and show you a few pictures of our Villa.

The flight was uneventful and looooOOOOOOng. I didn't sleep a wink and had the "jimmies" (I call restless legs this) the whole way. At least on the way home I will be in the company of a precious little Princess to keep my mind occupied on this long trip home.

We were greeted at our villa with a glass of wine and an Italian Toast. Happy 20^th Anniversary to You … from Francesco, the owner of this place. It is 100 years old and was built here by his grandfather. His Great grandfather saw the view from this hilltop and sold some his land to build this villa in 1903, I think. I’ll post pics of the rooms later, but it is in great condition and I feel so far away from everything that I know.

But let's first look at some pictures of this amazing place
we're staying at...Villa Astrea

Entrance to the Villa

The Villa

View from the Villa

More property on the Villa

Waling thru the Villa

Dinner 5 minute walk from the Villa

On our walk

The Tuscan Sun ...

Jimmy ... being petted by David

3 comments:

Lory Howlett said...: Oooooohhhh! You're making us want to return to Italy....already! Have a wonderful time as you prepare to grow your family by one little girl. God bless!; August 2, 2008 at 12:44 PM
Leah Reeves said...: Wow, looks amazing!!!!; August 2, 2008 at 8:12 PM
Amber said...: It looks like something out of a movie! It's amazing! I have to go! I can't wait to read more. You are getting so close to seeing T!; August 2, 2008 at 10:17 PM

Post a Comment

Welcome to our Site ... This is our Journey of our Adoption from Africa and our Life in Denver.

This journal (blog) is about adoption, our change of life from California to Denver and our little girl who we have adopted from Ethiopia. Our daughter came home to us after 9 months of tons of paperwork and she has come home to us on August 18th, 2008.

I highly encourage you to post comments at the end of any post if you'd like. I update every few days, so sign up to be emailed each time I post something new. It's a great way to keep updated.

So far, this has been an amazing journey. The adoption process is more "stuff" than you can imagine leading to what has been an incredible change in our lives. This journal is from my heart to you the reader and to our daughter whom we just recently met. It is also dedicated to the biological parents of our adopted girl who may or may not be alive. I do know that Tigist was placed in a safe place to be found by police, who then took her to an orphanage. In doing so, they saved her life! I applaud her Mother and/or Father's courage in the decision to offer their child a life full of opportunity. They decided to put her up for adoption by relinquishing her in such a way. This is such a touchy subject, yet very personal to both the biological parents and us. We will always honor them in the lives of our daughter...they will never be forgotten! That....I can promise.

Where we are in the adoption process....

We picked Tigist up in Addis Ababa August 9th, 2008. She is home, healthy and very happy!

We passed court on June 23rd 2008, traveled on July 31st, met Tigist on August 9th, and arrived home on August 18th.

What has changed is that we are not adopting two girls, which is what we started out attempting to do, but ended up with one amazing little 2 yr. old. Just another reminder how this process can be so unpredictable.

Why does our blog title says 2 girls...well, we sponsor a very sweet 12 year old girl in Ethiopia and have adopted another. So even though we weren't referred 2 girls as was the plan, the title coincidentally still applies to Our 2 Ethiopian Girls! One here, one there! We eagerly await the letters and pictures Fatuma sends us and we send letters and photos too.

The meaning of the Ethiopian flag

(adapted from a Yahoo group web posting and Unicef-Ethiopia)

Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world, and the only African country that has no history of colonization. Upon their independence, many African countries adopted the colors of the Ethiopian flag - green, yellow and red - that became known as the Pan-African colors.

The official flag of Ethiopia consists of three equal and horizontal bands of green (top), yellow, and red with a yellow pentagram and single yellow rays emanating from the angles between the points on a light blue disk centered on the three bands.

The significance of the colors on the Ethiopian flag are interpreted to have a connection to the Holy Trinity, as well as the three main provinces of Ethiopia. The red stripe stands for power, faith and blood. The yellow strip symbolizes peace, natural wealth and love. The green stripe represents the land and hope.

The yellow pentagram on the blue disk, also known as the National Coat of Arms, is a symbol of the current government; it is intended to reflect the desire of the nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia, as well as of its religious communities, to live together in unity and equality. The star represents unity of the people and the races that make up Ethiopia. The five rays on the outside of the star represent prosperity, and the blue disk represents peace.

My 2 Ethiopian Girls

Pages

Saturday, August 2, 2008

We Are Under The Tuscan Sun!

3 comments:

Current Ethiopia Time