THE KURTZ FAMILY........OUR ADOPTION JOURNEY

It’s not that I didn’t want to write the past few days, we just haven’t had time and we’ve both been bagged at night. But I have to say it’s been incredible watching the girls start to come out of their shells.
I’m looking at them right now, asleep in the bed beside me and I can’t help but feel thankful. Thankful for lives we enjoy back home, thankful for our kids, including the two new ones. Thankful that God has blessed us so richly. I know I will come home appreciating that a lot more.
The girls are so great. Denaye has been such a little trooper. She has scabies, but on her left foot it turned into impentago, and then that got infected. We took her to the doctor today and he prescribed some medications, so hopefully those will work and at least keep her comfortable on the trip home.
The girls are starting to attach to us. They’re more open and cuddly, which of course I love....but we saw a little defiance out of Denaye today and that’s good sign. That might sound strange but it’s true. When we first got them they would do whatever we said. When they start to trust you more...then they’re more comfortable being themselves.

We were visiting our friends Jim and Heather Blake at their hotel. Denaye and Maya were playing on the balcony and I told them to come in so we could go down to the pool. Maya came in but Denaye did not. When asked her nicely...she refused. Trust me she knew what I wanted, it had nothing to do with the language barrier. I finally picked her up and brought her inside. She threw a fit...but moments later, she was fine. I’m sure there’ll be many more moments like that.
The girls are also leaving food on their plates. That’s also a good sign that shows they’re starting to understand there will always be more so the don’t need to gorge. All we seem to be doing these days is taking the girls to the bathroom.....they both have the runs.....hopefully that will end soon.
There are times when they’re quiet, even a little sad, Maya more so than Denaye. We’re trying not to over-think or worry about what that might be about. Maya is afraid at night and she wakes with night terrors. It could be any number of things and we just let it runs it’s course. We just hold them and let them know as best we can that we love them.
But we are certainly enjoying the smiles and playfulness.

We drove out of Addis yesterday to a hot springs. It’s inside a resort. But the entrance into the resort was flooded because of heavy rains. Thanks goodness our vehicles were diesel.
In the hot spring were a couple of hundreds Africans and four white people with black kids. Needless to say we felt a little strange at first but it was fine. The African people were all very friendly and kind. Maya loved the water, it was her first time swimming and she especially loves sticking her head underwater. We’ll have to do more swimming when we get home.

Everyday has been an amazing experience. One of my favourite parts of the trip so far was the drive to and from the resort. I loved just watching the people as we drove through towns and villages. Africa is just an amazingly beautiful country. It’s hard to put into words.
We’re taking lots of pictures and will have many stories to tell when we get home. We’re looking very forward to that now. We want to get home and share our beautiful girls with everyone.
More thought later.

Rod