Happy Birthday, Mark!

So I mentioned in our last post that we spent part of Mark's birthday at an informational meeting with our adoption agency. But we did way more than that! It was a fun day.

I took the day off from work so that we could go to Indy to meet with our adoption agency. Mark is usually off on Mondays because his studio is closed. We decided to plan a couple of fun things to celebrate ...


First, we went to the Indianapolis Zoo! It was a beautiful day, even kind of warm for late September. The good thing about going to the zoo on a Monday -- it wasn't crowded. The not-so-good thing about going to the zoo on a Monday -- a number of the animals were "off exhibit" so that the zoo could work on repairs, cleaning, etc. It was like the animals were recovering from a weekend hang-over! We really enjoyed the giraffes ... we got there at feeding time and they were very fun to watch.

We also enjoyed the meerkats, polar bear, elephants and snakes (Mark yes, Wendi no).

We had packed a picnic lunch and enjoyed it outside of the zoo before heading to our meeting with our adoption agency. Our meeting went really well ... we feel really confident in our agency and look forward to working with them! We found out that we are the 13th family to be working with them to adopt from Ethiopia.

After our meeting, we made a visit to Trader Joe's. They have some great sauces and other treats that we just can't get in Lafayette. We also stopped at Whole Foods (formerly known as Wild Oats). We love browsing the aisles for exotic foods.

Next, we ventured to the west side of Indy to find an Ethiopian restaurant that Mark found online. He had been talking about it for nearly two weeks and how excited he was to go there! We pulled up, started walking to the door and then we saw that it was closed on Mondays. (it didn't say that on the website!)

Not to be deterred in his quest to find a new kind of food to try, we walked two doors down, past a Mexican restaurant to Machu Picchu, a Peruvian restaurant! Mark enjoyed his seafood ceviche and was a happy birthday camper. :)

We are looking forward to returning to Indy soon and dining at Abyssinia, the Ethiopian restaurant. (It's on West 38th Street near Georgetown Road on the north side of the street if anyone is interested!) We ended Mark's birthday celebration with dinner at McGraw's here in Lafayette with our good friends, Chris and Brian, on Saturday night. Mark wore his new argyle sweater vest. :) We have a running joke that I was supposed to marry a pastor who wears argyle sweater vests ... long story!