Ethiopia - Day 3 "Gotcha Day!"

Tuesday, February 16th

This is the day we were able to take the boys with us from the Transition House. They are forever and for always ours!

The morning was spent shopping (a row of small shops selling Ethiopian clothing, scarves, wooden carved animals, beaded necklaces and earrings, and small knick knacks) with the help of Famy and David. We bought two different outfits for the boys, an outfit for our nieces Samantha and Maddy Jo (but shhh, it's a surprise and they won't find out until this weekend!), and a shirt for both Mike and I. Then lunch at the Guest House (AMAZING chef!!!) and Mike and I went to the roof and took some pictures and video before heading off to "get" the boys.

This picture taken from the van in the morning on the way to shopping. It was very common to see people set up with food or other products right along the sidewalk:

Addis Ababa from the roof of the Guest House - you can see the mountains all around:

Still on the Guest House roof, the people and streets below:

There are chickens in this picture. They lived right in the family's back yard:

At the Transition House after giving care packages from other families to their kids, we get ours!

Ryan Elijah Ephrem:

John Michael Eyob:

Look at the trust Ryan Ephrem has already - he fell asleep in my arms!

Visiting with nannies at the other Transition House where the older children, including our boys, lived.

The boys in their beds:

Most of our travel group with their children back at the Guest House:

First moments in our room at the Guest House:

Thoughts/Advice to those coming after us:

1. We had high hopes of shopping for special little gifts for the boys from now until their 18th birthday - those died pretty quickly!! But that's okay, there's the Internet!

2. If you are adopting an older child, take lots of pictures quickly at the Transition House, there wasn't much time there.

3. Enjoy this day - it is truly the best!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ethiopia - Day 2 - "Metcha Day!"

Monday, February 15th:

Some of the America World Staff (left to right): David, our wonderful driver, and guides Robel and T. David was also extremely helpful on shopping days. THESE GODLY MEN ARE AWESOME!!!!!



Paperwork Party at the Hilton - we fill out the last of our adoption paperwork to be sent to the American Embassy in order to obtain the boys visas. We have lunch at the Hilton too (cheeseburgers - yummy!) but are so excited to meet the boys we don't eat a lot. This picture is most of the families in our travel group (8 families, 10 children being adopted into Forever Families! By the way, we are the ONLY first time parents in the group!!)

The America World sign is visible as we pull through the Transition House gate! Most homes/buildings have tall gates around them. Your car or van drives up and honks the horn (like a doorbell) in order for the guard to open the gate.

Our boys were at the second Transition House and were brought over by van along with three other older children being adopted. This is us just as the van has pulled in!

Waiting our turn to meet our children! That's T behind us (in the red shirt). Hi filmed our "Metcha" moments (and received a phone call at the same time which was really kind of cool because we have a conversation in Amharic recorded on our video!

Meeting for the first time!

Someone must have told John Eyob to give me a hug!! It was awesome!!

We actually have about 25 more Metcha picture moments (!!) but we chose our favorites for here.

After meeting our children, the families have about 2-3 hours to bond and play with them.

Bubbles were a BIG hit:

All we had to do to get our little serious man smiling was play a couple games of chase!

And he loved this inflatable punch ball another family brought and shared!

John Eyob spent a good 20 minutes coloring these pictures.

Water break after all our games of chase.

It was not only incredible to meet our boys for the first time but an honor to see all the other children meet their forever families. It truly was an indescribable day and experience!

That night we all went to an Ethiopian restaurant for an authentic meal and entertainment. We ate injera and hear various songs and dances from all regions of Ethiopia.

Ceremonial Hand Washing before dinner (and since we'll all be ripping off the same pieces of injera we want clean hands!)

This is injera, set on a small table in front of 4-5 people.

Our waitress pours the meats and sauces onto the injera.

The songs and dancing continues through dinner.

Getting ready to take the first bite!

One of the last songs before we left.

Thoughts/Advice to those coming after:

1. There are no words to describe this day - soak in and enjoy every moment!

2. It is really, really hard to sleep the night before. If I had to do it again, I would have taken something. (I am not one to drug up but I did only get about two hours if sleep.)

3. I would skip the spa after meeting the boys and rest at the Guest House before dinner if I had to do it over.

4. Take pictures of the America World staff right away. We didn't get any pictures of Famy, an AW translator who helped out on shopping days, at the Embassy, and at the orphanages.

5. Take your video camera to the Ethiopian dinner.

6. Don't forget to take lots of pictures of your travel buddies throughout the week!

7. If adopting older children, brings lots of toys (and water bottles) to play with in the afternoon. Big hits were bubbles, sidewalk chalk, big blow up balls, and balloons.

Ethiopia - Travel/Day 1

Saturday morning:
All our bags are packed (all 50 pounds and under - thank you very much! - one was even 45 pounds and I thought of all the stuff I could have added!) and we're ready to go!

9:15am:
Amy's Dad arrives to take us to the airport. Our flight isn't until 1:10pm but advice from Mike's sister is true, "it's always more fun to wait at the airport!"

10:15am:

Arriving at O'Hare. Amy's Mom says to bring her back two wonderful gifts!

Waiting in line at the United International flights line and totally surprised at the SHORT wait! We are through the line in about 15 minutes:

Our plane to Ethiopia!!! We flew both times at night and never got a great picture of the airplane:

9:30pm - ish

Somewhere over the Atlantic:

Sunday, February 14th, 11:30pm

24+ hours later, Yebsabi Guest House, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:

Advice/Thoughts to those coming after us:

1. Tylenol PM is GREAT!

2. It is better to wait at the airport than at home!

3. The Pizza Pretzel and Pretzel Hotdog at Auntie Ann's in Dulles Airport were great!

4. Use the bathroom at the back of the airplane (there are 2) instead of the 1 in the middle!

3/01/10 - Boys In a Box

Need I say more!

2/27/10 - Playing with Uncle Don

My brother Don offered to come play with the boys for a while this Saturday (and Mike and I were able to clean toilets - YEAH!). The boys LOVED playing with their uncle and have called his name out whenever they see his picture pop up on the computer.

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