Our home away from home.

For all of you curious WHERE we spent a lot of our time while in Ethiopia? This post will satisfy.

We were so excited to be able to stay at the Wellspring guest home this trip. When I was in Ethiopia in January (and stayed at a friend's home) we were in need of a driver and Ephrim was the consistent highly recommend name I kept getting from people, when I asked about a reputable driver. Ephrim had availability the entire time while we were in country that trip, so we spent a LOT of time with him - and loved every minute. He is the reason that Megan was nearly fluent in Ahmaric when we left (or at least tried to be so) He and his wife (Yeshi) have a guest home, the Wellspring, that was moving to a new location the week we were there - so we had gotten a sneak peek of the new house right before we left (it wasn't going to be ready for a few more weeks) and we were AMAZED. Since my friend's home wasn't going to be available to stay in when Jason and I came back for our court/embassy trip - there was absolutely no doubt where we would be staying when we returned - so we told Ephrim to keep a room ready for us!

Below are some pictures of our beloved home away from home!

The front of the Wellspring's 3 story home

We spent a lot of time out here with Ephrim and Yeshi's kids (more outside space on the side not pictured)

Since we stayed for a long time? Yes. My undies hung from that clothes line!

 

Living Room

Stairs to our room.....3rd floor

Not our bathroom (as we had one in our room) - but a main bathroom on the 3rd floor

Same bathroom (different angle)

Really bad picture of our room (as we were packing to leave, but the only one I could find)

3rd floor balcony across the hall from our room - we spent a ton of time out here!

 My attempt at a panoramic (3 picture) view from the balcony ;)

 

Construction of the building to the far right was happening throughout our visit, fun to watch!

We had a Kaldi's coffee within walking distance.....we took full advantage of that!

The most amazing thing about staying in a home like this? With a family? Is that you actually become part of the family.....incredible. We truly feel like left some of our family IN Ethiopia.

Little Miss with Eprhim and Yeshi's daughter - she LOVED having a baby around!

Our amazing hosts ;) Eprhim and Yeshi

The Wellspring moved to a new location in March, but their website doesn't yet reflect that in pictures (or room configurations, there are actually 9 rooms at this point, with 3 more being finished out soon in the building behind the home). Actually the pictures currently on their site are of the their former guest home, so if you do find yourself looking at those pics? You are actually getting a look into the home of our friends T.J and Leah, who live there now. Ha! (which was our internet hub while in country, since the new guest home was SO new they didn't have a wifi yet - however, the router for the Wellspring was coming a week or so after we left, so soon and very soon T.J and Leah will no longer have to be the hub. Ha!)

There you have it folks - our home away from home. What an absolute pleasure it was to stay there.

We look forward to going back yet again.......next time? With all of our kiddos!