Anonymous Gift

Lucas and I now have enough money to pay for our first trip to Ethiopia!

Someone, a very sneaky and anonymous someone, blessed us with money for our first trip (whenever that may be). Both Lucas and I were floored and humbled by this when we found a note on our door that had a generous amount of money inside. Our letter was signed "from God" and we're so thankful that we are loved both by Him and our anonymous donor.

I don't cry often, rarely shed a tear. Ask Lucas- he thinks I have a cold heart (but then I say- hey, at least I don't bawl when flipping through the TV channels and stopping on a clip of a horrible Ben Affleck movie). So thanks to someone for helping clean out my dried, dusty tear ducts this week- which I'm sure can only be good for my health and heart. A friend once told me that she never cried about much until she became a mom. I must be practicing.

Thank you, thank you.

Love Ethio food!

Lucas and I have had the chance to eat a few more meals at Ethiopian restaurants in the last couple of months. We had Ethiopian at Nyala in Fort Collins with Lucas' fam. We had a great time showing Rick and Claudia how to eat with their hands and were happy to have Lucas' brother Barry join us! I found some of the pictures (from my phone- sorry about the quality):

A traditional version of an Ethiopian place setting

While Nyala was good, we discovered our FAVORITE Ethiopian restaurant in Denver this week: Queen of Sheba (at Colfax and Quebec). This is by far the best quality of food we have had yet. Our Wednesday night rotating dinner group decided to take a break from cooking this week and head out for a new food adventure. It was Doug, Hayley, Rob and Stephanie's first time with Ethiopian food. Of course Lucas and I were so happy to teach everyone about our new love of this food. A sweet older Ethiopian woman runs the place, and was very happy to explain the dishes and let us try samples of the Tej (sweet honey wine) before we ordered it. The Tej was more effervescent and Sake-like than at other places, which I liked. Also the Sambussas were amazing and all the meat and vegetable dishes were spiced extremely well. We will be taking people here from now on to introduce them to the food. There is also an Ethiopian market (Merkato) next door where we can buy Injera- the spongy sour bread used as a utensil to eat- when we finally cook some of the dishes from our cooking class.

Lucas and I had a chance to get away to the mountains last weekend where the weather was perfect and the aspens were changing colors. Very relaxing after a hectic work week. 

Grandma Dolan writing her memoirs on her special Chinese red desk in her cabin sun room.

enchanted forest

Family cabin in Bailey, CO

Mom and Sari

Josh and sister Sarah

Happy Fall!