Ethiopian connections

The funniest thing happened this week. After celebrating my birthday in town, we met with the girl we met from Ethiopia a couple of weeks ago. She translated a letter we wrote to Rahel and put some notes on our pictures in Amharic to introduce our family to Rahel.
We met her at a home in Smithfield which ended up being the home of adoptive parents who happen to have adopted several kids from Ethiopia! This is random because the girl gave us this address as her home address. After a lot of confusion when the owners of the home arrived, we learned that this girl was in fact not adopted by these people, but that she lived on the other end of town with her biological family who were sponsored to come overseas. She was actually friends with the homeowners' kids but considers herself family.
Once we were all straightened out, we had a long and informative conversation on adoption and Ethiopia. Through this visit, we learned that all the "group" things that happen for Ethiopians are here in Cache Valley! I guess people travel from Salt Lake to come here to get together and celebrate Ethiopian holidays. What a small world!
We feel so blessed to have met our new friend while shopping one day. The adoptive parents we met were very kind and extremely helpful as well as informative. We have names and numbers for many of the people who live here in the valley that have either adopted from Ethiopia or who have been sponsored after winning the lottery to come here. Our new friends supplied us with numbers for friends and family that can be trusted who live in Et that can help us find our way around when we get there.
We also learned that the court system in Ethiopia shuts down mid August through September. I'm glad someone let us know that small bit of info - we didn't quite time things correctly considering this. We're praying that things will work out for an earlier pick-up date. Our dossier went to Ethiopia yesterday and is waiting for translation. Things are still running smoothly (which is a testament of the Lord's hand in this adoption) and on schedule. Thank you for your prayers and support. They are needed and very much appreciated (: