it's crazy to think that we leave this place tomorrow. in some ways it feels like we've been here for months, in others its like we just got here.
today started out a little dicey. i woke up at my usual 6 am after getting my first full night of sleep without taking anything! i hopped out of bed (which i think might be the first time i've ever used the words
'hop out of" and 'bed' in the same sentence). i was anxious to get downstairs and call home. yet once i got down there i realized the wifi wasn't working. no call home, no email, no blog. i was kinda bummed but knew that this sort of thing happened. i mentioned the problem to the manager-- the sweetest girl ever-- and she tried to reset it with no luck. she assured me the IT guy would be here in a half hour. that was at 7 am. i tried to find the email that had all of the ET staff's number so we could call and get a ride to the orphanage and AAI offices. yet the email wasn't there... i had to be connected to the internet. no problem, the IT guy would be there by 9 i was sure. wrong! ET standards of time mean give or take a couple of hours!!! by 10, still no guy. mille (the manager) was aware of our situation and was trying to find us a solution. we couldn't just call a taxi to take us cuz we didn't know the address... just as my stress levels were beginning to escalate (due purely to the fact that i wanted to get to the orphanage by 10 to insure at least 2 hours with elliot before his nap) the owner of the lodge walked in. he is an irish guy who married an ET woman. when mille told me who he was, i went over and thanked him for such a great place to stay. we have been loving it here i told him, and all the staff is just amazing. he was sweet and said he would pass on the message to his wife. i went back to sit with b and we were about to head out to find an internet cafe to get the phone numbers to be able to get the address for the taxi. but since our phones don't work here, we would have to walk to said cafe, get number, walk back to lodge and call. just as we were getting ready to leave, mille comes up and said, joe (the owner) will have his private driver take us to the cafe to get the number! we were so happy. yet it ended up being that joe paid him to take us wherever we wanted. so we made it to the cafe, got the number, had the driver call our ET contact, get the address, drive us to the AAI offices, wait outside for 10 minutes while we chatted with our lawyer, then drive us to see elliot in plenty of time to be with him. seriously SO god!
when we arrived at hilawe for our second visit, i felt much more comfortable. all of the older kids were at school so it was much more mellow there. we went upstairs and saw our baby boy in his little bed... still in his new jammies:) so, so, so cute. we got out some stickers we had brought him and he spent probably 45 minutes peeling off the little star stickers and putting them on my hand. he was pretty infatuated with it. the staff suggested we go down to the first floor for some privacy. when we tried this on sat, elliot became pretty tense and started to cry. today was no different. as soon as we got back upstairs, he was fine again. today we were in our own private room upstairs which was a step up. baby steps to get him comfortable with us. after he lost interest in the stickers we moved onto some legos they had in the room. he built for awhile with b and i. we tried to show him some pics and videos on our phones, but he was obsessed with pushing the one button on the iphone... just like big sis T. today was the first day that b got to hold him. they looked out the window at trucks for awhile, typical boy. next they brought lunch in. same exact thing he ate on sat... and i have no idea what it is. it looks like a mix between pasta and rice cereal. i can't wait to feed this boy when he comes home. he's gonna have a world of flavor awaiting him! saturday he didn't want us to feed him, so the nannies did. today was the same, but since the nannies were gone we didn't know what to do. so we just gave him the spoon, and lo and behold he was a happy guy. he did pretty well feeding himself, and we realized that he is most likely left handed. so fun! b is left handed, but none of our bio kids are and i'm pretty sure left handed people are smarter than right handers:) after his successful feeding we said goodbye as it was time for his nap.
as we made our way downstairs, there was a family coming up. we all kind of stalled on the stairs at the same time to put our shoes on and we realized they were there meeting their 6 yr old son for the first time. ahhh, broke my heart in just the right way. seriously so adorable. i, the only one crying at this point, offered to take their picture all together. as soon as the dad picked up ermias, the boy, ermias with a huge smile kissed both him and his new mom on the cheek. it was so raw and so real. i felt so happy to see one of the older kids going to have his very own mom and dad. after chatting with them a bit they told us they had a bio son that was 6 also. so fun.
we also met a couple other adoptive families that day. a couple from texas with 2 bio boys adopting a 1 yr old baby girl who is absolutely adorable, and a single mom adopting a 1 yr old girl with down syndrome... angel here on earth. seriously, seriously amazing.
once we got back to the lodge we were were lost without abraham. elani (other staff member) told us he was at the mechanic working on the van that broke down yesterday. i decided to call him and see if he wanted to hang out with us. he answered and i said, 'abraham, we miss you!' he said he'd come over in a couple hours and take us shopping- we'd take the blue donkeys again since the van wasn't fixed yet. i'll have to fill you in on more of his role here and his story one of these days, its pretty remarkable. shopping was pretty hard core and very mexico. we went to the popular toursit shops and as you walk by they say, 'JUST get in here!' its very funny but also very commanding so you listen! once inside they are shoving everything in your face. if you look at one necklace, they take all the necklaces in the store ad lay them before you. very aggressive! we bought a few gifts for people back home and came away pretty sure we got taken. but all for a good cause since most of the stuff is handmade here.
the afternoon winded down as abraham took us to the fancy hilton to use the atm. we cruised around there a bit and were amazed at how fancy and international the place was. we had a drink by the pool and then headed back to the lodge. since yesterday was the first day i hadn't napped, i was falling asleep on the way home. we skipped dinner due to a late lunch and i fell asleep at 8.
another great day in addis! tomorrow will be amazing as well as we get to go to court, or so we think! please be praying for favor for us.
today started out a little dicey. i woke up at my usual 6 am after getting my first full night of sleep without taking anything! i hopped out of bed (which i think might be the first time i've ever used the words
'hop out of" and 'bed' in the same sentence). i was anxious to get downstairs and call home. yet once i got down there i realized the wifi wasn't working. no call home, no email, no blog. i was kinda bummed but knew that this sort of thing happened. i mentioned the problem to the manager-- the sweetest girl ever-- and she tried to reset it with no luck. she assured me the IT guy would be here in a half hour. that was at 7 am. i tried to find the email that had all of the ET staff's number so we could call and get a ride to the orphanage and AAI offices. yet the email wasn't there... i had to be connected to the internet. no problem, the IT guy would be there by 9 i was sure. wrong! ET standards of time mean give or take a couple of hours!!! by 10, still no guy. mille (the manager) was aware of our situation and was trying to find us a solution. we couldn't just call a taxi to take us cuz we didn't know the address... just as my stress levels were beginning to escalate (due purely to the fact that i wanted to get to the orphanage by 10 to insure at least 2 hours with elliot before his nap) the owner of the lodge walked in. he is an irish guy who married an ET woman. when mille told me who he was, i went over and thanked him for such a great place to stay. we have been loving it here i told him, and all the staff is just amazing. he was sweet and said he would pass on the message to his wife. i went back to sit with b and we were about to head out to find an internet cafe to get the phone numbers to be able to get the address for the taxi. but since our phones don't work here, we would have to walk to said cafe, get number, walk back to lodge and call. just as we were getting ready to leave, mille comes up and said, joe (the owner) will have his private driver take us to the cafe to get the number! we were so happy. yet it ended up being that joe paid him to take us wherever we wanted. so we made it to the cafe, got the number, had the driver call our ET contact, get the address, drive us to the AAI offices, wait outside for 10 minutes while we chatted with our lawyer, then drive us to see elliot in plenty of time to be with him. seriously SO god!
when we arrived at hilawe for our second visit, i felt much more comfortable. all of the older kids were at school so it was much more mellow there. we went upstairs and saw our baby boy in his little bed... still in his new jammies:) so, so, so cute. we got out some stickers we had brought him and he spent probably 45 minutes peeling off the little star stickers and putting them on my hand. he was pretty infatuated with it. the staff suggested we go down to the first floor for some privacy. when we tried this on sat, elliot became pretty tense and started to cry. today was no different. as soon as we got back upstairs, he was fine again. today we were in our own private room upstairs which was a step up. baby steps to get him comfortable with us. after he lost interest in the stickers we moved onto some legos they had in the room. he built for awhile with b and i. we tried to show him some pics and videos on our phones, but he was obsessed with pushing the one button on the iphone... just like big sis T. today was the first day that b got to hold him. they looked out the window at trucks for awhile, typical boy. next they brought lunch in. same exact thing he ate on sat... and i have no idea what it is. it looks like a mix between pasta and rice cereal. i can't wait to feed this boy when he comes home. he's gonna have a world of flavor awaiting him! saturday he didn't want us to feed him, so the nannies did. today was the same, but since the nannies were gone we didn't know what to do. so we just gave him the spoon, and lo and behold he was a happy guy. he did pretty well feeding himself, and we realized that he is most likely left handed. so fun! b is left handed, but none of our bio kids are and i'm pretty sure left handed people are smarter than right handers:) after his successful feeding we said goodbye as it was time for his nap.
as we made our way downstairs, there was a family coming up. we all kind of stalled on the stairs at the same time to put our shoes on and we realized they were there meeting their 6 yr old son for the first time. ahhh, broke my heart in just the right way. seriously so adorable. i, the only one crying at this point, offered to take their picture all together. as soon as the dad picked up ermias, the boy, ermias with a huge smile kissed both him and his new mom on the cheek. it was so raw and so real. i felt so happy to see one of the older kids going to have his very own mom and dad. after chatting with them a bit they told us they had a bio son that was 6 also. so fun.
we also met a couple other adoptive families that day. a couple from texas with 2 bio boys adopting a 1 yr old baby girl who is absolutely adorable, and a single mom adopting a 1 yr old girl with down syndrome... angel here on earth. seriously, seriously amazing.
once we got back to the lodge we were were lost without abraham. elani (other staff member) told us he was at the mechanic working on the van that broke down yesterday. i decided to call him and see if he wanted to hang out with us. he answered and i said, 'abraham, we miss you!' he said he'd come over in a couple hours and take us shopping- we'd take the blue donkeys again since the van wasn't fixed yet. i'll have to fill you in on more of his role here and his story one of these days, its pretty remarkable. shopping was pretty hard core and very mexico. we went to the popular toursit shops and as you walk by they say, 'JUST get in here!' its very funny but also very commanding so you listen! once inside they are shoving everything in your face. if you look at one necklace, they take all the necklaces in the store ad lay them before you. very aggressive! we bought a few gifts for people back home and came away pretty sure we got taken. but all for a good cause since most of the stuff is handmade here.
the afternoon winded down as abraham took us to the fancy hilton to use the atm. we cruised around there a bit and were amazed at how fancy and international the place was. we had a drink by the pool and then headed back to the lodge. since yesterday was the first day i hadn't napped, i was falling asleep on the way home. we skipped dinner due to a late lunch and i fell asleep at 8.
another great day in addis! tomorrow will be amazing as well as we get to go to court, or so we think! please be praying for favor for us.
1 comment:
thank you for sharing your experience. I am falling in love with Ethiopia even more through these posts.
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