Ethiopia

We are going to go backwards because I never remember to do it right. So we are starting with Wednesday night, the cultural dinner. We were looking forward to getting out of the hotel with Addis and equally excited to eat some traditional food.
She loved the food and ate alot of it, even the spicy stuff. I am definitely going to have to make some of it at home. The injera was so good, it was the best we have had. I guess that's not saying much we have tried to make it and we had some at the hotel.

The music and dancing was so fun to experience. We got a lot on video to show her as she grows up.

When Addis is out in public, she clams up and doesn't smile or anything. She enjoyed the music (she danced)and food but kept the same dazed look on her face.

Our hotel room was in the front and we could look out and see people walking all day long.

Addis is such a silly girl. She loves to listen to music and dance. She has a great personality and is fun to be around. I am loving getting to know her, how blessed we are to get that chance.

On our shopping day, we had to take her to Hannahs Hope. She was confused when we came back but she was fine. This is her favorite special mother.

The new HH is BEAUTIFUL. I am so happy for them that were able to get this compound and move all the kids into such a nice environment.

This is looking at the gate in between the two buildings.

There are so many smaller rooms for storage, classrooms, bathrooms,etc.

Shopping was quite an experience. Immediately we were bombarded with children and people begging you to buy something from them. The little kids would sell gum or shine your shoes. Our first instinct is to give them something, but we were told that if others see you pull out money, it can create a bad situation where more and more people surround you wanting money. One boy wanted me to buy some gum and said, " USA, Obama" Which I then replied, "NO thank you, I didn't vote for him." They eventually stopped coming around as much. The shop owners were very nice and helpful to us.

Addis, I can't believe she is with us. It is such a weird feeling to see, feel, hear, smell this dream we have had for so long.

She is a girlie-girl. She loves accessorizing(which is bizarre, because I don't. I like simple) Here she is trying to put on leggings. She gets excited if she sees a different outfit and has to put it on.

So she found the headbands and had to put, not just one, but all of them on at once. She doesn't like bows but loves bands and hats.

She loved her bath time. Playing in the tub was a good way to get her going in the morning. She would wake up a little confused by her surroundings but then we would put her in the tub and she would come out of her shell and play and giggle with us. It was really hard not to keep her from drinking the water, she is a fish. Well, she will drink forever if we let her, no water is safe around her.

So here was my first sign, I had in my possession a true girl, she loved her shoes(even though they were too big, fashion over comfort) and wouldn't let me take them off even to sleep.

Our first night together, she fell asleep in my arms. Oh, this is second heaven, right here.

Her crib at HH. They didn't have any of the stuff we sent her. She even had a doll exactly like the one we sent but she was white with blonde hair. We were sad to think she might not have ever gotten it.(It could have gotten lost in the move)

This is coming through the gate. The room on the left is a classroom for preschool children.

This our room at the hotel. It was nice and good size. We were in the front of the hotel and the traffic was pretty loud, but not at night so it didn't affect our sleep.

Leaving the airport in Bismarck ND, off to Ethiopia to get our little Wibnesh.

She let me hold her and she didn't cry, but you can see how sad she is. It was so hard to be so excited but when we put ourselves in their shoes, we could see how confusing and sad this moment would be.

We cuddled for a while and watched the other kids play.

She was so scared of us and we tried to get her to come to us, using toys and food. The food worked.

Our first glimpse of our little girl, in person. Almaz is on the right. We can't say enough about how wonderful she is. She truely cares about the children and helping them get adopted.

Thursday we went to HH again in the morning. We were concerned Addis would be confused but we felt she had done so good bonding with us and we wanted to do something. It was a mistake. She cried when she saw her special mothers and wanted nothing to do with us. It was heartbreaking to see her go through that. We went back to the hotel as soon as we could. When we were back, she was fine again, playing and talking to us. Which, she is a parrot, she repeats everything we say. She says things in Amharic too, but we have no clue what it is.

We hung out in the hotel until it was time to go to the airport.