First week in Colorado

We were able to spend two weeks in Colorado with Jeni's parents and two weeks in New Mexico with Tim's parents. All four weeks were very full, but so much fun! It's so hard to choose just a few pictures...

Here's a picture of my two kids with my two brothers. Joseph loved his uncles! In the top picture he is putting a hat on Uncle Ross's head. When he was jet lagging, he fell asleep on Uncle Andrew.

Here's a couple of fun pictures of Faith with Tim's sister Karla and her husband Matt! Matt has Mondays off so that first Monday we spent with them. We called it "Altfeltis Day!"

This first week that we were in Colorado it was a big priority to go to the doctor. Both kids checked out well! Thankfully my mom was willing to go with us to help out! She even took Faith to get her blood taken...that was brave!

Here they are looking at the fish in the doctor's office:

It snowed so much while we were there!! It was beautiful!!! Tim and I hadn't seen snow for more than three years and Joseph had never experienced it.

Here's a pic of Joseph being carried by his Uncle Andrew, my brother.

My cousin, Jane, brought her kids over and they all had a good time playing!

My Aunt Lisa (Joseph called her Lili) flew in from Oregon. I hadn't seen her for years. It was fun to see her and my kids loved her too!

It was fun for Joseph & Faith to be with their cousins, Karla's kids. Here's some pictures of our time with them.

We had a party at our house. We didn't take many pictures once everybody was there, but here's a few before there were many people.

Grandma enjoying her grandkids:

We go way back with little Emily's family. It sure is tough to get a good picture of 2 two-year-olds:

Colorado was beautiful!!! I always tell people that it's the most beautiful state!



Joseph loved sitting on Grampa's lap. Here's the proof:

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arriving into Denver

After spending a week in Ethiopia, we were excited to bring our little girl home for our families to meet her. Of course they were also excited to see Joseph as it had been more than a year since they had seen him.

Faith became a US citizen in Denver because of the IR3 visa that she had stamped in her Ethiopian passport at the US Embassy in Ethiopia. She didn't realize what a big day it was, but we did!!

We were surprised to see lots of family waiting for us as we left immigration. We didn't expect to see Tim's cousin's family from Colorado Springs, what a blessing!! We were happy to see Jeni's parents and Tim's sister's family! It was a party at the terminal in Denver International Airport!!

Here's some pictures that were taken that day...

We're walking through the doors at immigration. What you can't see very well is Joseph running straight to his Grandma!!

It was a flurry of activity. In this picture you can see Tim hugging his sister and my dad hold Jojo.

My parents were in love with this sweet girl at first sight!

This is Tim's cousin's wife holding Faith. Everybody took a turn holding her...I'm pretty sure Faith loved all the attention. :)

Joseph and his cousin, John, sure had a good time running around chasing each other!

It was SO COLD in Colorado so these kids got all bundled up for the car ride home!

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a couple videos

Here's a couple videos from Ethiopia.

This first one is of Joseph and Faith playing together at the Guest House we stayed in while we were in Ethiopia.

Playing together from Tim and Jeni Saltzman on Vimeo.

This video is of Faith on the flight from Frankfurt to Denver. She was soooo loud!!!!

Faith talking from Tim and Jeni Saltzman on Vimeo.

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Our time in Ethiopia

We are home from picking up Faith in Ethiopia, visiting family in the States, and getting her passport. Now life is starting to settle down again. We're finding a new normal. (Once we get through jet lag, that is.)

I finally have a little bit of time to start blogging about our trip. I guess I'll start from the beginning when we went to Ethiopia.

This is the Ethiopian Flag that greeted us as we left the airport.

Our airplane arrived in Ethiopia at 9:00 am. We were picked up and taken to our guest house. We frantically unpacked and prepared ourselves for bringing this new child into our lives. A few hours later at 12:30 we were picked up and taken to the Thomas Center where our little girl was waiting for us. On the way we were told that she had just gotten out of the hospital earlier that morning. She had been there for 5 days for pneumonia...again. :( :( We were shocked and scared. Is she going to be okay???

Needless to say we didn't sleep well that night because we were constantly getting up to make sure she was okay. Her cough sounded awful. Thankfully a nurse was came to our guest house the first night and twice the next day to check up on her and to give her an injection of antibiotics. After a couple days she was clearly getting better.

Here's a picture of Faith when she woke up that first morning. When they handed her to us the day before they had done her hair in a bunch of little pig tails...so cute! We didn't take any pictures that first day...we were really just focused on making sure she was okay.

Here I am feeding the happy girl. She has enjoyed having enough to eat and plenty of bottles of formula.

She's been this happy since the day we got her!!! We're just as happy to have her in our family!! What a blessing she is!

It was obvious from the beginning that Joseph and Faith like being brother and sister. Joseph loves his little sister and she loves him! She watches him and laughs at him...it's fun to watch. He often needs to be reminded to be gentle. He loves to give her kisses.

The next few pictures were taken the morning of the US Embassy appointment. It was a big day as we got her visa to go to the States.

Such a happy girl!! Gotta love her!

The next few pictures were taken outside of our guest house inside the compound. It was SO beautiful! There was plenty of grass for Joseph to run around in and the weather was great...about 70 degrees or so.

This sign was inside the Thomas Center in the family gathering room. It's written in Amharic and I believe it says something like, "Welcome to adopting families!!!"

We liked the pictures they posted too! It's so fun how they photoshopped Faith into our family picture!! :) :)

Two happy kids hanging out together!! :)

It was bitter sweet to be in Ethiopia. Of course we were delighted to be there picking up our little girl, but our hearts were heavy as we saw so much poverty.

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