Friday, March 30, 2012


Hello friends and family!! I just wanted to give you a quick update on what is going on in the Anderson household as of late. Well, we are moving full steam ahead! Running around collecting paper work for the completion of our home study. It's interesting trying to track down old information, but nevertheless it must be done.

Once again our wonderful adoption worker Meredith has been a great help to us in every way. She has given us a great fund raising idea that I believe can be very fruitful. This one is for all of you coffee drinkers, or those who know someone who loves coffee. There is an awesome organization called "Just Love Coffee Roasters" who helps people raise money for adoptions by donating money from all items sold on our online store. They will donate a portion of everything that you buy from the link I am going to provide. I bet that you didn't know that the coffee bean originated in Ethiopia did you?

While in Ethiopia we hope to be invited to an Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony! Ethiopian coffee ceremony is one of the most enjoyable event you can attend.
The ceremony starts with the woman, first bringing out the washed coffee beans and roasting them in a coffee roasting pan on small open fire/coal furnace. The pan is similar to an old fashioned popcorn roasting pan and it has a very long handle to keep the hand away from the heat. At this time most of your senses are being involved in the ceremony, the woman will be shaking the roasting pan back and forth so the beans won't burn (this sounds like shaking coins in a tin can), the coffee beans start to pop (sounds like popcorn) and the most memorable is the preparer takes the roasted coffee and walks it around the room so the smell of freshly roasted coffee fills the air ...
The roasted coffee is then put in a small household tool called 'Mukecha' (moo-ke-ch-a) for the grinding. Most restaurants at this time incorporate modern coffee grinders into the process, this is to save time and it does not take much from the ceremony. For those interested mukecha is a heavy wooden bowl where the coffee beans are put and another tool called 'zenezena' which is a wooden/metal stick used to crush the beans in a rhythmic up & down manner (pistil and mortar).
The crushed fresh roasted coffee powder then is put in a traditional pot made out of clay called 'jebena' (J-be-na) with water and boiled in the small open fire/coal furnace. Again the boiling coffee aroma fills the room, once boiled the coffee is served in small cups called 'cini' (si-ni) which are very small chinese cups.
As you sip your first cup of coffee, you've gone through the full process of watching seeing the coffee beans being washed, roasted, grinded, boiled & now the culmination you're drinking them. By now the process is finished at most restaurants, but traditionally Ethiopians stick around to get at least a second serving of coffee and sometimes a third.
The second and third serving are important enough that each serving has a name, first serving is called "Abol"; second serving is "Huletegna"(second) and third serving is "Bereka". The coffee is not grinded for the second and third serving, a portion of coffee powder is left on purpose for these two ceremonies.

This is the kind of coffee you can buy from Just Love Coffee Roaster to help support our adoption. Please go and visit our site Here and take a look around! Thank you all so much for the support! Please remember to share our blog and get the word out! May the Lord bless and keep you.

Baby Anderson, the more I read about your country and culture the more I want to share it with you. I can't wait to have Ethiopian Christmas, or have our own Coffee ceremony and keep your family traditions going. I love you and am praying for you daily. Daddy










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