Sunday, January 30

Introducing Galeta

While he will not be home for a couple of months, G-boy is now legally our son. Hallelujah!!! We have loved him for so long and it makes our hearts burst that we are legally each other's now! And therefore we can now show you a picture.


G-boy's name is Galeta and he is sweet, smart, well-adjusted, and handsome. Aren't all Soutter kids? (wink, wink).

We got to spend time with Galeta each day from Sunday through Thursday. We so enjoyed him.

On Sunday we met him at his orphanage in Gimbie which is 12 hours west of the capital. Our van pulled up outside the gate and honked the horn. Most orphanages, guest houses, homes are behind locked metal gates. Here is a picture of the gate and our van waiting.


Galeta had been waiting excitedly. He couldn't wait for the nannies to open the door of the orphanage so he jumped out the window and ran to meet us. Here is the window he jumped out of:


We were hardly out the van and there he was. We all hugged tightly for several minutes and Su and Rob cried. What an incredible moment in time. The son we had been pursuing and praying for and loving for a year was suddenly in our arms. We can only imagine what he was thinking.


Galeta held our hands and walked us inside and showed us around the orphanage. Several things stood out right away:

Galeta obviously loved his nannies very much and they loved him as well; most of them cried when it was finally time for Galeta to leave for good.

Galeta loves little kids and did an excellent job taking care of all the younger kids around the orphanage. We had such a fun time watching him gently carry the kids around or ensure they had a toy to play with.

Galeta has some well developed gross motor skills. We had a brought a ball and Galeta could catch and throw with no problem. Soon he was ready for a higher challenge and would use his hand to bat the ball back when it was thrown.


We also discovered that Galeta was excited to have new brothers and sisters. In addition to the ball, we brought Galeta a small picture book with photos of the family. Galeta turned from page to page and kissed the pictures of his new siblings. Our hearts sang.

We will post more about the next 2 days traveling back to the capital with Galeta, about our time with Galeta at the new orphanage, and about the other adventures that we were given in Ethiopia.

So come back tomorrow. . .or if you'd like our posts sent to your email, enter your info below and hit the subscribe button. An email will be sent to your email address to confirm that you do indeed want our posts sent to your email so you will want to open that email and click the button.

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More soon. Thanks for coming alongside us. We could so tell ya'll were praying for us while we were gone.

14 comments:

  1. Tears are just streaming down my cheeks. This just touches me in such a deep place... I cannot even express. The closest thing to words I can put to it is, "Praise God!" because this is all His beautiful, amazing, perfect, loving hand/heart!

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  2. In tears as well. I am so happy for all of you and Galeta. Only God could write this story is right! He is so good!

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  3. Your boy is beautiful!
    You made my week! Thank you so much for the pictures and taking extra special care of my A.

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  4. I cannot find words to express the love in my heart. This is the greatest gift from God, the love between parents and children (adopted or biological) and the love we share with each other! I know that God will continue to bless the Soutter family!

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  5. An amazing and beautiful journey of love, your giving hearts (the entire Soutter family) makes me smile each time, I feel blessed to be your friend, can't wait to hug Galeta, he seems so sweet and spunky :)

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  6. Wow. He jumped out of the window to meet you!! Talk about bursting hearts! What a sweet meeting you all had. Thank you, God! Can't wait to hear more!

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  7. My heart is so happy right now. The picture of the three of you said it all to me, and caused my heart to yearn and pray for the other children there, watching love happen in front of their eyes. How I pray that God plants a seed of hope in THEM for this to happen for them, too, and moves in the heart of his people to prepare homes for them.

    I rejoice with you, my friends. I rejoice on the addition of your son! I rejoice in the joy that all of you have and that soon, very soon he will be in your arms for good.

    Hallelujah!

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  8. Praise God! Thank you so much for letting us follow your journey...we are giving praise to the Lord for your new son!

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  9. Hallelujah! I'm rejoicing with you! He is just gorgeous. I'm thrilled for all of you.

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  10. So glad to see your post and to see that He is "officially" YOURS! Oh what a handsome fella He is and seems to have such a sweet spirit! Can't wait to hear more of your journey soon! Look forward to getting together!

    Shannon

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  11. praising God for such a wonderful time for you guys!!! and what a beautiful boy he is!!!

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  12. He's beautiful and looks like a sweetie. Congratulations! (Again! And Again! And Again!)

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  13. I am so happy for you and your beautiful amazing family. I am crying and will probably read this over and over. Beautiful journey, beautiful story. God's amazing Grace and provision. A story that reminds me so much of the Gospel. :)

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  14. What a beautiful boy!! His smile just lights up his face. Congratulations on adding another precious treasure to your family!!
    Much love!
    Lisa

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