Day Five

Sorry to delay this post so much! I have been deliberating on whether to make a cool video to show you but since I want to bind this blog into a book I decided to just post all of the pictures instead. I promise to edit the video and post it in a week or so.



This was Monday, the day we met Olivia! We wake up around 6:30 am after being up several times during the night because we still aren't adjusted to the time change. We go downstairs for breakfast with everyone and are super anxious about going to Hannah's Hope. At 9:15 Almaz arrives and we start going through all of our paperwork. We also exchange some money to birr with the real Johannes, put in our coffee orders for coffee to bring home, and ask Johannes to pick up an Amharic bible for us. Then Almaz goes around the table and tells us a little bit about our kids and how she thinks they will react. She gets to us and says, "Shataye is the princess of Hannah's Hope and gets whatever she wants." Everyone laughs and says how she will fit in perfectly. Almaz tells how the day will go and what to expect at our Embassy appointment later in the afternoon. I just can't wait to get my baby that I don't really remember what she said..... I just knew that time was not moving:) Then we all get up and everyone was getting ready to make the walk over to the orphanage. I remember everyone talking in the lobby with Almaz and Tisha and I standing outside trying to get everyone moving:)

Trying to concentrate...

So Paul had the camera and I had the video recorder (the flip, which I love!). I was so nervous that watching the video now makes you a little sick! We walked around the corner and up the cobble stone hill and then we were at the gate. The gate that I have been dreaming about for 13 months, the gate that I have watched so many other blog families enter to get their precious ones wishing it was me, the gate of all gates outside of heaven:) Almaz told us the older kids would be going first so we all walked in and I was looking at the older kids when Paul said, "There she is!!" I was caught off guard when all of the sudden a special mother walked up to me with my little Shataye. She wouldn't come to me at first but after I offered her some fun toys she got on the ground and started playing with me. Then when I gave her some Gerber Puffs she let me hold her! She was so tiny and perfect. They brough out her little lamb which she apparently needs with her at all times.....great, another monkey to keep up with:) Paul and I spent time holding her and feeding her some snacks until she fell asleep in my arms. Almaz had warned us it was right before nap time and now I know that when she is tired she will just conk out anywhere! I held her for a little while and then took her inside and laid her down so that we could run back to the hotel to get everything ready for the embassy appointment. It was hard to leave her but I knew that if I hurried, I would be the first thing she saw when she woke up, which would make the transition back to me easier.

The walk




The GATE




Thats the baby house where Shataye lived.


Spotting Shataye.



This is the toy that was confiscated by the embassy.

Her Lamb.



Daddy's turn, stuffing her face:)

falling asleep....

the very last time

After we got back, she was still snoozing and I had to wake her to get on the bus. We took a longer way to the embassy I think to show us the poorer side of the city. I was too focused on Shataye to really pay attention to anything though. We got to the embassy and they took away our little toy that she loved because it had batteries (TIP don't bring ANYTHING with batteries). We sat in this little waiting room and she did not really like it because she didn't know us and she only had a 30 minute nap that she was rudely awakened from:) We were called next to last and I have know idea what happened at the window between Paul and the embassy man because she was screaming the whole time. It seemed to go well and I remember Paul telling me to raise my hand and say yes. I just do as I am told. We finally left, got our toy back, and went back to the hotel where she fell asleep for two hours on the bed. Then we met the other families downstairs for dinner and I found out that she loves table food. Then it was back upstairs for a bath and bed. I asked the desk to bring us a baby bathtub and the lady brought up a moses basket. I had to take her into our bathroom to try and explain what I wanted and she finally understood. Olivia was not a big fan of her first bath (which I failed to take pictures of because of the screaming......bad mommy) but she has loved them ever since. She was almost too big for the moses basket but the only way she wanted to sleep was directly on top of me and sweating. After she fell asleep, I eased her to the basket so that I also could get some rest. I sometimes toss and turn a lot so I am always afraid of waking my babies if they are in bed with me......we aren't against co-sleeping but it just isn't for us:) I was glad to see that she slept just fine in the basket right next to my bed. I remembering worrying about Jackson as I went to sleep that night, but now that both of my kids home with me I can finally get some real rest!


Paul also kept a travel diary so I will give you an excerpt of the embassy appointment since it better captures the moment:)

1:10 – On our way to the Embassy for our Visa appointments.

1:40 – Oh my, is this a bumpy ride, kids are bouncing everywhere. We are taking the scenic route because we pass the National Museum and the Lion Zoo after driving for like 30 min. Yesterday we got from the museum to the hotel in 10 min.

1:45 – We see some Addis life on our journey, it was interesting to see the women crushing the berbery pepper into a powder

2:00 – Arrive at the embassy.

2:10 – Go through the first metal detectors and then sit on benches to be called into the building.

2:17 – Enter the building, show passport and go through second metal detectors. Now they put our bags through the X-ray machine. Something in my backpack makes them go crazy, turns out to be the umbrella. Then the diaper bag goes through, this also makes a scene. This time it is the rhyme and learn baby book that gets confiscated because it has batteries. Like a child's toy is a security threat. It is complete bedlam in the tiny screening room at this point, since all the baby toys in our group are creating panic for the security people. All the while Obama and Hillary smile down on us from the wall.

2:30 – Finally through the screening room, we head outside and then inside and upstairs for our name to be called at a window.

2:50 – Shataye is exhausted at this point and begins to cry. Even the yogurt melts and cereal don't calm her.

3:00 – DeeDee takes her downstairs to wait.

3:15 – I head down to make sure things are OK. I find that DeeDee has calmed her by removing her shoes and putting them on lamby, her stuffed lamb that she has had a death grip on since we first met.

3:25 – Our name is called. Shataye is crying to Almaz has to take her. We answer some questions at the window and …

3:30 – We are done. Everything is official. Praise God.

3:45 – All families are done and we head back to the bus.

4:10 – We take the shorter smoother way back to the hotel.