We arrived at our guesthouse in the late evening on Wednesday night. It seemed like we would never get there. Those last few hours on the plane passed extra slow.
We woke up early Thursday morning to a rooster crowing, dogs barking, a cow mooing, and the smell of fires. This is the view from the roof of the Jemimah Guesthouse in Addis. Beautiful.
The staff at the guesthouse was amazing. So friendly and accommodating. We ate fast because we were so anxious to start the day. We were told that the Holt driver would be there at 8:30, but one of the other families had been told 9:00. At around nine, we went to the lobby to wait. When he pulled in at 9:15, I think we practically ran out the door. We were with two other couples who shared our court date, Jeff & Jennifer and Jack & Barbi.
The driver took us to the Holt Office, where we dropped off our donations, went through an orientation, and toured the building to meet all of the staff. After about 30 minutes, we were in the van again, headed to meet our children!!! We went to care center 3 first, to drop off Jack and Barbie, who are adopting two children who live there. As we waited for our driver to help get them settled, I took this picture.
We climbed the steps of the care center and Sister Martha came out to meet us. There were a bunch of kids crowded around inside the doorway. I immediately saw Little E, standing there in a yellow shirt with no idea how big this moment was. My heart started racing and I got tears in my eyes. I turned away so that he wouldn't see that. Some of his health updates say that he gets distressed by people crying and I didn't want to start off by upsetting him. We changed shoes on the porch and went inside. I looked at a bulletin board full of pictures until I was sure I had my emotions under control.
The nannies were working to clear the room out, but the kids swarmed us. I sat down in a rocking chair and they were all over me, wanting to be held and loved and talked to. They're all so beautiful and precious and it made me happy to know that almost all of them are going to join a loving family soon. As the room emptied, I pointed Little E out to Justin. He hadn't seen him yet. E was crying and a nanny was kneeling beside him and talking to him softly. We probably had big ol' goofy grins on our faces and I was itching to jump up and run over there, but I already have a three year old at home and I know at that age it's better to let them warm up and get comfortable before you smother them with hugs and kisses.
Soon, she brought him over to us, told him we were his enat [mother] and papa, and left. He just stood staring at us. We stood staring at him. Then he walked over to the television and kept pointing at it. He wanted us to turn it on. Uhhh uhhh. No way did I travel half way around the world to sit and watch TV. :)
We got out the bag of toys that the fab four sent him and he perked up immediately. He loved the green Ford truck the girls had chosen and started playing with that. Then he got out the crayons, but didn't want to color. He handed them to us one at a time, alternating between me and Justin, and then wanted them back to line them up very precisely. We did that game for awhile and then Justin couldn't stand it anymore and started doing his dad thing, tickling and playing and wrestling. Little E loved it! That's when we saw his first smile and I swear my heart was in a puddle on the floor.
Then I remembered that I wanted to trace his foot so I know what size shoes to bring next time. When I got out the pen and paper, E was fascinated. He wanted to play with the pen, which quickly evolved to he and Justin drawing all over themselves.
We then went downstairs to meet with his pediatrician. We were thrilled to hear him described as a normal, healthy little boy with lots of friends. Amharic is his second language, not his third like we were once told, and his speech has improved so greatly that the doctor actually forgot about the tongue tie until I reminded him.
We went back upstairs to watch Little E have lunch with his friends. Well, we attempted to do that. But again, the kids were all over us wanting us to hold them and take their picture. Guess what happened? Little E got MAD! I really think he was jealous of them wanting our attention. The solution was to take him back downstairs to our original room and feed him there. I couldn't believe how much food was in his bowl, but he scarfed it down in these insanely giant bites. When he finished, the nannies came to take him away for nap time. Sad, sad, sad!
We left and headed back to Care Center 3 to get Barbi and Jack and then went back over to the Holt offices to meet with our lawyer....
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