She's Back!

Denise Baker is headed back to Ethiopia, and will be blogging once again on Destination Ethiopia. She will be working for Adoption Link and hopes to spend some time at Layla House as well.

If you aren't aware, Denise was a volunteer at Layla last year for 7 months while Marta was there, and has become a friend of ours through our travels there and at home since she came back. She is an amazing person, and such a good writer.

Go and check out what she has going on - you will be sucked into life in Addis in no time.

We love you Deniseye! See you soon!

My Friend Leslie

I found out the other day that my friend Leslie Gould has a blog. Our parents have been friends since we were little, so Leslie and I grew up together. She and my sister were 3 years older than me, so really I was tolerated at best, or allowed to be the subject of their fun. They must have been somewhat kind though because I have nothing but good thoughts and memories of Leslie. My sister on the other hand is a topic for another day. Certainly I entertained her.

Leslie is also the author of books, good books. I read her first book, "Garden of Dreams" last year, and I REALLY enjoyed it. It is very real, and touching and sad, and I think a great first book. Even if she wasn't my friend I would say that, just not here on my blog.

Her second book, "Beyond The Blue" is in the stack of books on my dresser that I am currently working through. Leslie and her husband adopted a daughter from Vietnam, and this story is about adoption, though not their personal story. I haven't gotten to the point in the story yet, but she tells me my daughter Joy has a cameo in the book. It was at the editing stage while we were in China bringing Joy home, so she wrote her in. That has to be worth buying the book all by itself!

So, check out Leslie's blog, and better yet, buy some of her books. Tell her Rich sent you and you won't save a dime, but you'll still get a great book!