Just after Christmas, my husband Cary and I had the amazing privilege of joining our Pastor, Peter, and his fiancé, Jill, on a trip to Gojo, Ethiopia. Our church has been a part of this town by supporting 53 orphans for the past three years, and a year ago joined with churches in Gojo to build a school there. We got to go for the purpose of loving on the children that we call “ours”, check in on the school’s progress and needs, and to support the local churches. Personally, my purpose, obviously aside from loving on all of the sweet kiddos we met who are now forever in my heart, was to document all that we saw, especially our 53 children and the progress of the school to share with those here at home who have supported and who might support this cause in the future. To say this trip was incredible is an unbelievable understatement. I knew it would change me….I had no idea how much. As I’ve worked on processing the photos (there are so so many) I am overwhelmed with emotion, but mostly love and gratitude to have met the sweet people, kids and adults alike, that have forever impacted my life.

Since there are so many photos (and of course I want to share them all….I won’t…but if you want to see them, you just let me know! I’m happy to share! 🙂 ), I’ve decided to blog each of the days that we were in Gojo individually….and still…tons and tons of photos. Hope you enjoy!

We stayed in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, for the first few days of our trip so we could acclimate to the time change, see a bit of the city and meet with some local pastors. Then we headed up the mountain to Gojo.

It was this moment…when a troop of baboons crossed the road…that I truly felt like we were in Africa. So crazy!

Even with overcast skies, the hillsides were gorgeous!!




When we drove into the town, children came running from all directions to see the Americans in the truck. It was the most surreal thing. These children are looking through the gate of the guest house we stayed at









The moms work during the day, so the older kids take care of their younger siblings. These young girls with babies on their backs pulled my heartstrings the most.

And then we went up to the school to say hello before the students went home for the day. It was CRAZY in the best possible way! Ha! This was my view out of the window of the truck as we drove up.We visited with the students for a bit. They’ve learned a bit of english in the four months they’ve attended this school, so all of them wanted to ask us, “What is your name?” and “How old are you?” Then, they noticed my camera and swarmed saying “One Photo!! One Photo!!” It was very funny!!

On the grounds of the school, there are also 20 or so street kids that hang out…I guess it’s somewhere to go where there are other kids…



The students of the school put on a short performance to welcome us, and served us bread and buna. (Ethiopian coffee…which I discovered is the center of all social gatherings and meals…it was wonderful!)






oh.my.heart.

More to come!