Pictures From Our Trip

We are back. Our trip went fairly good, but of course after any trip, I'm exhausted. : ) Here are some pics for your enjoyment.

Rachel & I in Minnesota:



Uncle Bob & Aunt Liz with Rachel at the sculpture garden:



Rachel's favorite sculpture:



Rachel with her 2nd cousins, Megan & Micheal:



Grandma Frey and Rachel riding the carousel...pure joy!

We Are Off....

Rachel & I are leaving tomorrow for a week long trip to visit my grandmothers. First we fly to St. Paul, Minnesota. We'll be staying with my Aunt & Uncle, and be visiting with my Grandma Zilen. Then I head down to Iowa to meet up with my Grandma Frey. We then head straight to Missouri. My cousin's wife is graduating from college, so we are going down for that. We'll be there for a couple of days and then drive back up to Iowa where I'll spend a couple of days before my flight leaves on Wednesday. I am looking forward to spending some time with my grandma's. They both are getting older, and I treasure all the time I can get with them!

***Adoption update: I talked with our social worker today, and she said she was writing our homestudy now, and should have it done by the end of the week! We are getting anxious!

Eating Ethiopian

We tried Ethiopian food for the first time the other night with Tamara & Brian. It's pretty spicy, so luckily since we are used to Sri Lankan food, it wasn't too bad for us. Unfortunately Rachel didn't like it, but we'll have to try some other things next time we go.


For those who have never gone, I'll try to explain what it's like. There is a big plate brought out with injera covering the plate. Injera is kind of like a big crepe. It's their type of bread, but Jesse thinks it's some kind of potato product as well. It's really spongy.... it's interesting. Not bad, but not that great either. On top of the Injera they put different garnishes on it, and then you order different types of meat or veggies. We tried a chicken dish, beef dish, and a lamb dish. We all liked the lamb dish the best, with the beef dish coming in a close second. The chicken dish was okay, but not as flavourful as the other two. You use the injera to pick up the meat and garnishes...no silverware. Again that wasn't a too big deal for us, b/c of our experience in Sri Lanka. It was fun to get a little taste of the culture, and we are both happy that we like the food! : )

Ethiopian Get-Together

I've joined a couple of Ethiopian Adoption Yahoo Groups since we started the process, and although I don't post much on them, I do get a lot of information from them. One of the groups, is specifically for this part of the country, and they had a get-together yesterday. So Jesse, Rachel, & I all decided to go.

I have to be honest, and say that we were a little nervous at first. One thing that we've noticed from these yahoo groups is that some people are very outspoken on how they feel about everything. And often times I feel like adoption becomes their platform. I know this isn't necessarily bad, but I guess it's just not where we are. I haven't felt that way about the local group, but we were still nervous that maybe we wouldn't fit in.

Well we were pleasantly surprised. We met some wonderful families, and it was so nice to see all these Ethiopian children running around. It was great to hear how much this group has even grown in just one year. They said that at their gathering last year, there were only two children, and a bunch of families waiting to go pick their children up. Well this year there were about 10 children! And since the weather wasn't all that nice, a lot of families didn't come.

On the ride home from the picnic, Jesse and I were so excited! We couldn't help but have huge grins on our faces. We just can't wait to bring whoever God has for us home! Rachel talked the whole car ride home about how she couldn't wait to be a big sister. Yesterday I think just made it more real to us, which is nice, b/c sometimes I think you can become a little removed from it, since it's not like pregnancy, where the throwing up constantly reminds you that you are going to have a baby. : )

We're Adopting

So as you can see I've done some revamping of our blog. Hope you all like it. : )

Jesse & I are very excited to be on this adoption journey. We always knew that one day we would like to adopt, and we can't wait till we have another little one join our family.

Adoption has always been apart of my life. My father was adopted, I babysat for a little girl who had been adopted, both my parents had jobs at one point or another working in some way with adoption, etc. I think the turning point in my life was the summer after my freshman year of high school, I went on a mission trip to Albania with my parents. While I was there we visited an orphanage. The conditions were horrible. Albania had just opened up it's borders, and the country was a mess. It was so sad to see babies and babies just laying in their cribs. Most of them were twitching, b/c since they had not been held their nervous system did not develop right. I also had a chance to work in a wonderful orphanage in Kenya for a summer, while my parents lived there. Both these experiences really made me realize that I would some day love to adopt. Thankfully, God brought me a great man, who felt the same way. Rachel is also really excited about having a new brother or sister, b/c I think she is definitely getting a little bored with me. : )

Erik & Lauren

It's official! My little brother is getting married! This past weekend he asked a beautiful woman, Lauren, to marry him. The best part is that we had been informed before hand, and invited to a surprise engagement party on Saturday Night. So Friday night Tamara, Brian, Jesse, Rachel, & I all headed down to Chattanooga, TN. (a 9 1/2 hour drive) We got there Saturday afternoon, just in time to get ready and head over to the engagement party.


The party was great. Lauren's family, who lives in Nashville, were all there, and all of their friends were there too. My parents, who are in England, although very sad that they couldn't be there were able to join us by webcam!


We are all very excited for Erik & Lauren. Lauren is a wonderful person. I have enjoyed getting to know her a little, and am really looking forward to getting to know her better in the coming years. She has such a "realness" about her that is very refreshing. Everyone in my family just loves her, and she fits in just perfectly. I think the world of my brother, and I am so glad that God has brought these two together. I am so excited to see what God has planned for them in the future.

So.... Congrats Erik & Lauren! We love you!

Easter

Here are some pics of Easter... Hope you all had a great day!

Rachel looking for gifts from the easter bunny:


Church easter egg hunt:


Lunch with Tamara, Brian, and our friends Ryan & Candice:


Uncle Brian helping Rachel dress up in her new princess ballet outfit:

Circus

Rachel went to her first circus this past week. She loved it. (okay Jesse & I enjoyed it too) She especially liked the elephants & cotton candy.



An hour before the circus started they let everyone on the floor, and you could try on costumes, see the animals, and meet the clowns. What do you think of my new look?

For Daddy?

Rachel & I went to the pet store & got to play with one of the puppies there. Rachel was in heaven. She loves puppies. She insisted that Daddy would love to get a new puppy...I'm not sure why she would have that impression, since Jesse is constantly trying to get rid of the one we have. : )

Warmer Weather

Since we are finally getting warmer weather, Rachel is getting to enjoy her bike that she got at Christmas. She especially loves the Princess helmet & knee guards...Jesse tries to get her not to wear the knee guards, but she insists.


She also loves playing with water...


although sometimes she misses. : )

Ballet

Rachel went to her first ballet class last Thursday. & big surprise she loved it! It was so fun to see her in her little outfit. Unfortunately, their class is in a room with no windows, so I couldn't watch, which would have been really fun! We only get to go in for the last class, I can't wait.

Rachel's New Room

Here are some pictures for you all of Rachel's new room... she is loving it!

Leaving

I just realized that I haven't even let you all know when we are leaving Sri Lanka...it's funny how you don't think about putting up basic information like that on for everyone. So this might come as a shock to some, but we are actually leaving tomorrow. Our flight leaves at 2am on Tuesday (Dec. 5th), but we will leave our place by 10pm Monday to make sure we have enough time to check in.


So needless to say we are in packing mode. We are actually almost completely packed up, so tomorrow we will just have some time to enjoy one last day in Colombo. So far we have 13 bags to check....I know we feel very embarrassed about bringing 13 bags to the airport, but in our defense 3 are full of IJM work stuff. They are all at the weight limit or a little above, so hopefully we get someone nice checking us in, who wont charge us for extra weight.

Going Out With A Bang....

There was another bombing today in Colombo. It was in the neighborhood just north of ours. (Don't worry we are fine.) Again like the previous suicide bombings it was very targeted. This time they were trying to get the president's younger brother. They failed on getting him, but right now the news is reporting 3 dead with 14 injured. Chitra, the lady who's been cleaning our place and teaching me to cook, was only blocks away from the explosion when it happened. Everyone here is getting more worried, and looking at ways to leave Sri Lanka. It's so sad because Sri Lanka has so much potential! & this war is just ruining the country. Please keep Sri Lanka in your prayers. & especially all the friends we are leaving behind, please pray for their safety.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Since we were feeling a little lonely & jealous that we wouldn't get a big Thanksgiving meal this year, we took off for the beach. We went about an hour and a half south of Colombo to Bentota. Man, it was beautiful! We were surprised we hadn't heard much about it. This has to be the best beach Jesse and I have seen thus far in our life. Granted we haven't been to Hawaii, which I hear there is no comparison, but still they were amazing.


The waves were great, b/c they were quite small for Rachel to play in, but they also had bigger ones farther out, so Jesse had fun as well. Usually Rachel is scared of the ocean, but she overcame her fear, and had a fun time playing in the waves. She also learned to swim in the pool by herself. (well with arm bands on)


The hotel had a great location. On one side was the ocean, while on the other side was a river. So Jesse was able to go water skiing as well. We also went to a turtle hatchery, and went for a catamaran ride on a lake. So as you can see we stayed pretty busy. We had a great time...it almost made up for missing out on family, friends, and food. : )

Just Watching the Game

itunes did a great thing this past week, they decided to put up the Michigan vs. Ohio State game, so people could download it. Since we have not been able to watch any football this season, we were quite excited to be able to watch a game. We waited and waited for the game to come up on itunes. We figured it would at least be up by Sunday, but no we had to wait till Monday afternoon to be able to start downloading it. Once we started to download it we were in for another surprise, it said it would take 16 hours to download! So for the next two days we tried to download the game. We finally had it all downloaded by Tuesday evening. So we invited Moga (a guy who works with Jesse) over to watch some American football.


So even though we had to wait forever to watch, and we had to watch it on Jesse's small computer screen, it was still great! Rachel cheered for the Buckeyes (thanks Brian), while Jesse cheered for Michigan. Moga even seemed to enjoy it. : ) Jesse just wishes that they would put up the Husker games too.

Laundry Day

I know you will all be excited to know that this post is about laundry. But I feel I must fill you in with what it's like here. : )

First off if you want to get any laundry done, you have to make sure that you start by 8:30am, or it won't get done by the time you go to bed. We do have a wash machine, but as you can see by the picture it is a small washer, and not only that, but the 2:49 on the washer....that is how long it takes to do a load...yes 2 hours and 49 minutes.


So after the laundry is clean, you then have to hang it out to dry. Not a big deal, but in rainy season, it can be a pain. And since it is so humid out, it takes all day to dry, & I mean all day. This is again why you have to make sure you put the laundry in first thing in the morning. If you can get it out by noon, it is usually dry by about 8pm.


Then the next day is ironing. Because everything is line dried, it's not very soft, so ironing tends to help. Thankfully Rachel loves to iron! : )


I miss the old days when I could do 3 loads of laundry a day, and it really only requiring about 15 minutes of my time. But I am very grateful I don't have to do it by hand!

Ahh.. The Pitter Patter of Jackboots in the Morning

This morning, at around 4:30 am, we were torn from our slumber by a sudden, loud and assertive BANG-bang-BANG on our door. Jesse jumped up quickly, tossed on some shorts and went into the living room. By the time he got there, the would-be visitors were banging again and yelling "Police." Somewhat out of it from the dream that he was still halfway in, Jesse went to the door and cracked it open, asking what they wanted. He faced six people in full military garb - five men, one woman and three machine guns - who didn't appear to want to explain the purpose of their visit. The group started moving into the house and Jesse asked them to wait while he made sure that everyone was properly dressed. They politely obliged, but swiftly moved into the living room as soon as the bedroom door was shut after Jesse asked me to get dressed.

While I got dressed and Rachel wandered into the living room, asking what was going on, the commander of the little brigade demanded our passports. Of course, Jesse had left his passport in the office, making for a few tense moments, as he imagined how they would react when he realized that he didn't have what they were demanding (they ended up accepting Jesse's driver's license). One soldier kind of poked his head into the room while they looked over the identification, asked us questions about where we came from and wrote some stuff down. Apparently satisfied after about five minutes, they left as quickly as they came, moving on to the apartment across the hall.

Obviously this was a first for us. While we had heard about the police "sweeps" in the night, we had not yet had the opportunity to experience it first hand. Rachel thought it was kind of fun and new - Jesse and I found it new, but not fun. After the adrenaline worked its way out of our systems, we all settled down for the rest of our night's sleep.

Here's a picture of a traditional military man w/ machine gun. Jesse didn't think it would be a good idea if I asked the people this morning if I could take their picture for our blog.

Kid Friendly

One of the things that I love about Sri Lanka is how kid friendly they are. People love kids, and always make them feel as comfortable as possible. For example, at one of the restaurants we love to go to, there is a room full of toys & a babysitter. Rachel loves going here to go play while we wait for our food to come. It makes going to dinner so nice!



And our malls always have a huge kids play area. One big department store here offers free babysitting while you shop. Why don't they have this in the states? Jesse is quick to remind me "liability" --isn't he a great lawyer! : )

Happy Halloween!

Hope you all are having a fun Halloween. Rachel is a little sad that she can't go door to door saying "trick or treat" and getting lots of candy! But Jesse brought some candy home for her today, and let her pretend to go trick or treating, which she thought was quite fun.

Here's some pics of her "carving" her pumpkin.



Okay so I was going to try to post some more pictures, but for some reason this is all blogger is letting me post....so i'll try again later.

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

We've been getting a lot of rain lately. In the past 24 hours it has stopped raining for about 20 minutes total. The average rainfall in October is 348mm. In comparrison Virginia gets about 782mm of rain a year. So as you can tell I'm a little rained out. : )

Usually it is nice in the mornings and then around 4 gets cloudy & then starts to rain from 5pm onwards into the evening. We've also had some incrediable lightning storms too. God did give us a nice surprise the other day though. It was a beautiful rainbow. Here's a picture, looking at it from our balcony. (the picture doens't really do it justice-but do they ever?!)



Jesse's working hard putting the proposal together. He has to have it done by Nov. 11th. It looks like we will be coming back to the states early December. We are looking forward to seeing friends & family again, but not really looking forward to the cold weather. : ) Although at this point I think I would rather have snow than rain.

Pics of Rachel

Not much exciting stuff has been going on lately. But thought you might want to see more pics of Rachel, so here you go.

We went to an aquarium this week. It was pretty good. Lots of fish & they even had a small shark tank with 3 ft. reef sharks.


Today we went down to the nice hotel pool & then went to play on the beach. Rachel loves pretending she's a mermaid.



She's still too scared to go in the water, but that's probably best...I'm not sure how clean the water really is. (it's pretty close to the city, & I've seen what they throw in up there) : (

The Big Game

Today there is some tension in the Rudy household. You see, as most of you know Jesse is from Nebraska, and a die hard Husker fan. While we were still living in Virginia, one of our good friends, whose from Texas, taught Rachel how to do the hook 'em horns sign. Rachel caught on real fast that this really annoys her dad. So she is constantly running up to Jesse shouting "Hook 'em horns dad" with her hands making the sign. With which Jesse replies, "Go Big Red!". Rachel gets a real kick out of and so it goes on. : ) Today the Huskers play Texas. So far Jesse can't find a place to watch it, which I think might be a blessing for their relationship.

Settling Back In

Sorry that I haven't been on in a while. This past week has been a little hectic. Rachel & I got back to Sri Lanka Monday morning. And although Austria is only a 4 hour difference, we have been suffering trying to get back on a normal sleep schedule.

Rachel also has been sick all week. Some type of flu, my dad has had a similar thing as well this week. Thankfully she is finally back to her old self. But b/c of that I got behind on everything.

I didn't even get to unpack until Friday. & we had an ant problem in the kitchen, so everything had to be cleaned out. One great thing, is that while we were gone, we had the lady that cleans the office/John's place, come and clean our place once a week, so she came this week as well, and boy was that wonderful! It was great to finally feel a little more settled.

We are having problems with our vonage phone too. It will work at the office, but not at our house. Hopefully soon we can figure out what the problem is. Here's a picture of Jesse trying to rewire everything to try to get it to work. : )

Family Time

Just an update to let you know how we are doing. Last Friday (22nd) we flew to Vienna Austria to spend some time with my family. My sister & her husband had already arrived 2 days before we got here. We had a couple of days to hang out with them here in Vienna, before we all piled into a van and headed to Croatia. We picked up my brother & his girlfriend in Italy on our way down.


My parents had booked a guest house for us all, it was amazing. There were actually 3 little cottages, so we all had our own space, and a kitchen/living space outside for all of us. The owners were wonderful & it was just the perfect place! If you are ever going to go to Croatia,(which is beautiful) you need to stay here! We stayed in Croatia from Monday till Friday, and then drove back with everyone to Vienna.


We then just had a couple of days in Vienna before Jesse, Erik, & Lauren all left on Sunday, while Tamara & Brian left on Monday. So it's just Rachel & I left for the next week. It will be great to just have some relaxing time with the folks. : )


Also some great news! IJM has decided to let us stay in Sri Lanka. We feel really relieved on this decision. & Jesse is ready to really get back into work. Thank you for your prayers!