Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Ethiopia day 2

Today we woke up had breakfast met the other families and were off to meet our babies. There were 4 families staying at the guest house. Us, the George's, a family from Minnesota Sarah and Phil (who were getting 2 babies) and a family from Maryland Josh and Maureen (who were also getting 2 babies). They were each great people and we instantly had connections with each family. It was a nervous ride to the orphanage. We were just so full of emotion. When we arrived at the orphanage they asked each of us the kids' names and they went to get them ready. All 6 babies came out at once. It was so great seeing Stella for the first time. Hearing them call out Tizibit (pronounced Tizipt) and me receiving her as her mom! I was overcome with joy! She is so beautiful and tiny and just perfect in every way. Out of the 4 couple Stella was the oldest baby so she was a little more nervous than the other kids. She cried and whimpered a little bit but over all i thought she did really well. i held her first while Andy was videoing the first time meeting. She went to Andy really well, still whimpered but nothing to bad. We arrived there at 9:30 and was able to stay until about 11:30. it was a little weird you are finally holding your child for the first time and then they just come and take them back. I didn't know quite how to feel. i do know our hearts were so full. I understand that they do that so they can feed them and put them down for nap, there is just no communication as the nannies didn't speak much English, if any. So we were going to come back at 3:30 so we were good for the time being. We were now on our way to the new hotel that Toukoul just bought. That's where we would eat lunch and dinner. We met Megan who had adopted a little 10 month old boy and had been in Ethiopia for 2 weeks already. It was good to talk with her and hear her thoughts. Wendy is the chef, and such a good one. He did a fantastic job. We were so happy with our first meal. Lunch seemed to be the big meal of the day. It's always served in 3 courses, salad first then the meal then fruit/dessert. After eating we were able to walk to a nearby market to buy some diapers, our luggage was to full to bring a lot. $15 for 40 diapers but we needed them so we bought them. It was great to walk outside, the weather would float between 65-70 degrees, their winter! Light jacket weather. After our walk it was time to head back to the orphanage, another surprise to us we would get to see the babies twice today! How wonderful it was to see them all again. Stella did much better this time and by the end she was laughing and playing great with us. We again stayed about 2 hours. Stella did this sort of leaning thing with her head that seemed to be her way of coping with what was going on. i was so glad we were able to recognize what was going on. It was great to see the babies for a second time today. The have a living room style room set up for the families to visit the kids in. It was great to sit around and see all these new families sitting and playing together. Next we were off to the hotel again for dinner. After dinner we went back to the guest house. Tonight we decided to switch rooms with Phil and Sarah, our room had 2 cribs in it and theirs only had 1 so it was better for them. however Phil was a big guy, at least 6'4/6'5 so i felt bad giving him those tiny beds. But it did come with their own bathroom, where as in the house we shared a bathroom with Mike and Laura which was fine. Andy went back to the airport to get our luggage-it was delayed. They got back around 10:30 and off to bed we went. I thought I would sleep really great seeing how the night before I didn't get much at all but it rained all night long, no not rain, DOWN POUR is more like it, very loud. I did sleep but it was definitely off and on.

Ethiopia day 1

Hi all, I thought I would take some time and share my thoughts about Ethiopia, actually while we were there I kept a daily journal so I will just copy what I wrote at the time. Sorry no pics yet, they will come eventually.

We arrived late Saturday evening-by the time we got to the guest house it was 11:30 and of course they had dinner ready for us. We didn't get to bed until about 12:30. Sintayeu our lawyer was there to pick us up at the airport, it was great to see a face we already knew. When we got back to the house he gave us the best news of all, we would have breakfast and then the cars would pick us up to see our kids! We were all so excited as we were told we most likely would not get to see them seeing how it was Sunday. So needless to say even though I was totally exhausted I did not sleep much at all that first night. Not to mention we were put in a room with two "twin" size beds. I say "twin" because my feet hung off about a foot. The flights there were not bad. We almost didn't make it on our second flight. We were not booked all the way through and did not know to check in a head of time. At the very last minute they squeezed us on the plane. Needless to say our luggage did not make it on. It should be joining us late tomorrow evening.