Ethiopia - Day 1

We're here! After a 28 hour journey, we made it to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia! Our plane landed at 7 AM, which is 9 PM at home...and despite all the Tylenol PM and No Jet Lag, neither of us slept on the plane and both had quite a bit of jet lag!

We got checked into our hotel. We had gotten lots of advice from new friends who are also adopting from our agency about what to bring and what the hotel has and doesn't have...so we knew we should bring extra toilet paper, our own shampoo and hand soap. I am, however, shocked that they all failed to mention our night stand would be stocked with a lifetime supply of condoms! Definitely not in America anymore! ;)

Anyway, after we got settled our agency's Ethiopian staff picked us up to take us to the care center...we finally got to meet our daughter! The whole experience was just surreal...the drive through the city (ugh...more on driving here another time), the gates opening, going into the nursery, waiting for the nanny to change her diaper, and finally our beautiful girl was in our arms! The chubby cheeks, beautiful big brown eyes, little tuff of hair and cute fingers and toes we'd seen in so many pictures became a reality. We were there for 2 hours and she was so happy and content the entire time...and when one of her nannies talks to her she just lights up and jumps up and down, squealing. I love that she is so smitten with them!

Praying we get a good night's sleep tonight so we can start feeling somewhat normal again tomorrow!

A Bedtime Prayer

Tonight as we go to sleep, a young woman will be going before an Ethiopian judge and relinquishing all rights to the little girl she gave birth to 8 month ago.  I can only imagine this will be one of the hardest things she's ever had to do in her life.  It's been a really emotional day for me just thinking about what she must be going though during the long drive to the capital city.  (Watching We Bought a Zoo didn't help out my emotional state either!)  So, before you go to bed tonight, please say a prayer that peace and comfort would surround her.

 

There is also a possibility she could change her mind and decide to take baby girl home with her.  Honestly, we are so smitten with her already, we would be completely and utterly heart broken...and it's really hard for me to even think about that ending.  But I know in my heart that adoption is a second choice, that God intended for kids to be raised by the parents that gave birth to them.  So, I will also be praying if there is any possible way that her birth mom can raise her and give her a love-filled home...that she would go home with her mom tonight. 

 

If she does relinquish her rights, we will be on our plane 48 hours from now!  My brain is pounding for all the prep work, but it'll be worth it when we get to hold that sweet little girl...

This is a test....it is only a test...

Apparently Blogger is banned by the government, so I'm testing out email posting and hopefully that'll work for me to be able to post while we're over there.  (We leave in SIX days!!)  Testing out posting pics too, so here's as much of her as we're allowed to show right now!

 

I Had Christmas Down in Africa...

You know that acapella song "12 days" by Straight No Chaser?  The one that goes through the 12 days of Christmas and then randomly throws in "I had Christmas down in Africa"?  That's my new theme song for this season.  Why?  Because I'm having Christmas down in Africa this year!

We got our court date today...it's January 2nd!  That means we leave in like THREE WEEKS to meet our daughter and we'll likely be there for Ethiopian Christmas on January 7th!  How amazing is that??!

Sorry to keep this so short, but I now have a million new things to get done on top of the million I already had to do before Christmas!!  :)