Happy St. Patty's Day!

I found these Green bagels at the Market today! Yum :)

Yes, we are Alive!!

I promise, I did have good intentions on updating about our trip. I had frantically called my sweet sis-in-law from the airport, so I could post to wordpress from Addis. Even with a computer and internet in our guest house (Addis Kidane Guest House, it was great!) the snails pace dial up barely let us check our e-mail.

We had a great trip, and if you want to be facebook friends :) you can see a good portion of our photos. I will choose some highlights in the near future (haha!) and tell about a couple fun things we came across. And to be a bit honest, after spending 6 weeks in Addis in the last 2 years, I am pretty burned out by what I have experienced and seen....which is another reason I have not blogged. As I look back now, the frustrating experiences are fading and I am remembering the good things!

Since we have been back, we have:

*taken my ET son Sami from school
*Sami has a possible Kidney Stone? TBD at Children's Hospital next month.
*went to Silver Mtn. in Idaho on a YL ski trip, not to ski but to play at their amazing water park!! And btw, it is a gorgeous resort!
*3 kids in indoor soccer
*4 kids starting baseball, luckily 3 are on the same team!
*went from homeschooling 1 kid in the fall, to hsing 2.5 this spring.
*working my butt off at the gym, gone from running 1 mile to 7 miles in 2 months.
*Lance will be on reduced salary after this month (I know, join the club!) Pray for fundraising!
*I got "reading glasses" Guess that comes with being 38. I was told to wear them only when I was reading or on the computer "working" for an extended period of time. I asked if blogging and facebook counted?? ;)
*We will celebrate our 14th Anniversary this Wednesday.
*Leaving to visit family in SoCal on Saturday.

I will post some pics, and hopefully i will blogging poolside next week. :)

Hello all.

This is Ilka, Karleen's sister-in-law, updating their blog. The Klopps are probably in the air on their way to Ethiopia right now! Anyway, they are not able to use blogger over there, so Karleen set up a wordpress account, that they will hopefully be able to use to update us during their trip. Use the address below to go to that page.

kloppfamily6.wordpress.com.

Need a Gift Idea?

Rent this!

Angels in the Dust. You can find it on Netflix. It was eye-opening in many ways, and an amazing story. You can read more about it at Dream Out Loud.

Updated Pictures

Proof that we are still alive and well! ;)

Thanks Josh, nice bunny ears!

A nice blustery day at Edmonds beach!

Lance's Grandma, Happy 90th!

My and my grandpa, happy 85th!

Life Goes On....

In the midst of utter chaos! We leave in 11 days. Newsworthy items:

*We have over 300 pair of NEW shoes donated and and at least another 100 gently used pairs to bring. We have purchased shoes in Addis (in large quantities) twice in the last year and the quality is not great. We decided this trip to make shoes our priority. We are starting to pack orphanage items tomorrow night as a team.

*All 6 of us visited the Travel Nurse last week. She had a spreadsheet ready! We had a 3 hour block of time scheduled, and luckily made it out sooner.

We all got the Flu "mist" (50 percent more effective that the shot last year). Sami and Tsion caught up on a couple vaccines. Our typhoid shot (good for 2 years) expired, so Lance, Zach, Josh and I all got the Typhoid pill....which lasts 5 years. The negative is you have to take 4 pills every other day, on an empty stomach. (Which means 2 hours empty, then one hour till food) A pain in the rear especially on Thanksgiving!

We walked out with a prescription for Malaria pills (we will be in Nazret for 4 days, although we only saw one mosquito last year we will take it), an anti-diarreahal (a good thing to have!) and Ambian for Lance and I.....although I may rethink that later....just Kiddin!!! And...no, I have not picked them up yet, and I will probably have to pick up an anti-anxiety pill first, cuz I am sure it is well over $500. Yikes!

*We celebrated Lance's grandmas 90th birthday last week!

*Lance's Mom received her Doctorate 2 weeks ago.

*Tsion was listening as I asked Lance to do something, and he didn't hear me. She looked at me and said. "Mom, sometimes Husbands don't do what you tell them. But you still have to love them because we are a family." Speaking of which.......

*Lance and I got a free night at the Red Lion, and spent a relaxing couple days in Seattle last weekend.

*We discovered the ExOfficio store in Seattle, and headed straight to the clearance room. We got some great lightweight clothes for the trip, for a fraction of the cost. And just so you all know, we will be packing 3 pair of underwear from there as well. ;)

*Zach and Sami have two more "outdoor" soccer games, Josh starts indoor soccer this weekend.

*We are finalizing our trip projects. The first few days in Addis will be important as we work on that. Please pray for wisdom and discernment for us during that time.