Our week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

In an effort to get caught up on blog posts and keep them in order, I have been backdating my posts and will continue to do so.  I know some of you already know that since you have emailed me and said, "what is going on .... we know that you are sneaking posts in because they weren't there the last time we checked!".  Ok. Ok.  I have been busted and I have a confession to make.  Ready?  I am not one of those women who can keep up with email, keep up with my blog, read others' blogs and raise a family all at the same time, so I have to backdate posts and pretend I have been keeping up to date all along.  SHOCKING, I KNOW!  I am not sure what is wrong with me because many other seemingly normal women appear to do it effortlessly (and have many more kids than me), but I am failing at it miserably.  To be honest, I have sat down to do it many times over the past few weeks, but I get caught up in the pictures and video clips and don't know where to begin.  However, since I have decided to return to work next week (a month earlier than planned) because everything is going so smoothly, I figured I better get caught up on the blog or I never will get it done. 

So  .... our week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:

A recap - we arrived in Addis on Sunday mid morning and, within a few hours, were on our way to Hannah's Hope to meet our daughter.  The meeting went extremely well, and it was the perfect beginning to our new life together.  After a few hours spent at the orphanage, we headed back to our hotel and had a quiet evening playing and bonding with Abbe.  She slept the entire night (in her own bed), woke up a little confused after about 12 hours, but gave us the biggest smile once she remembered where she was.

Monday:
We had our Embassy Appointment this morning and had to leave the hotel fairly early.  Tony and I were both wide awake around 3:30 a.m. since we had gone to sleep when Abbe did at about 7:30 the night before.  We RARELY get that much sleep, so we felt very rested - it was so nice.  In an effort not to awaken the sleeping beauty, Tony sat on the bathroom floor and read a book while I check email on the bed.  We were ready to go by the time she woke up.  We got her dressed (in the same clothes since our luggage had not arrived), had a quick breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then we were off to the Embassy.  The other families traveling in our group were so awesome!  They all had much younger children and were having to work much harder than us with the night-time feedings, poopy diapers, spitting up and crying spells, etc.  Their children (all boys) were so adorable that the only word I can use to describe them is DELICIOUS!  Every time Abbe saw them she would practically maul them with kisses.  It was great getting to know them a little during this time.

When we arrived at the Embassy, I was shocked by the reality of it all.  I had anticipated some GRAND building with massive amounts of security and some soft music playing in the background (not sure why), but instead it was a stark cinder-block building set right off the road - seriously, not even a sidewalk separating the first building and the street (haven't they heard of car bombs?), good but understated security and absolutely NO soft music.  Once we made it past this first building, we were in a little court-yard waiting area right off the road (Again, haven't they ever heard of car bombs?). Our group stayed standing because there was litterally no place to sit. I wish I could have taken pictures to show you the LINES of people waiting for just a chance to travel into the United States. And that was just the people waiting outside who hadn't even made it to the LINES of people waiting inside the building.  They literally just stared at our group of white people and smiled and waved once we made eye contact with them.

After about 10 minutes we headed through security in the second building, which went smoothly except for when the lady-guard kept telling me to remove the batteries that I had in my bag ... Me: "Um, I don't have any batteries in my bag!" Her:  "Remove the batteries in your bag!"  Me:  "I don't have any batteries in my bag!" Her "REMOVE THE BATTERIES IN YOUR BAG!"  Me: Rifling through the bag .... Oooops!  Me: Removing the batteries in my bag!  Oh, I forgot to mention there were ABSOLUTELY no pictures allowed anywhere near the Embassy.  Nor were there any cameras, cell phones or batteries allowed through security, so we had to "check them" all at the guard gate which really didn't seem like a very good idea.

Once we made it through security, we headed into a nice little courtyard that lead to a walkway down to an Embassy building overflowing with people in a waiting area.  We walked up to the clerk's window along with another couple from our group and asked where we should go.  We were told to go upstairs, so we did.  At the top of the stairs was a guard and another waiting room overflowing with people.  The guard just stood up and pointed us to window 8 (like a bank teller type window set behind glass).  When we got to window 8, we were told to go to window 2.  By this time, Almaz, the director of Hannah's Hope had caught up with us and, out of breath, said "What are you guys doing? You have to wait in line downstairs!"  We told her that we were just doing what we had been told to do.  Later it became a joke that we would have been done a lot quicker if we had done it our way instead of hers. :-)  In the end, we only had to wait about an hour to an hour and a half for our entire group to be processed.  Still much faster than many of the people waiting in line.  As a side note, the people waiting at the Embassy were dressed in their absolute best while Tony and I showed up in dirty clothes consisting of Jeans and button-up shirts.  I felt so underdressed!  We made it through the Embassy appointment without any problem and headed back to the hotel to relax for the rest of the day.  Once there, we sent the only clothes we had to the hotel laundry service for a good scrubbing.  Thank God there was no fire in the hotel because Tony, Abbe and I were basically naked until our clothes came back.

Tuesday:
Today was our big shopping day at the market in the heart of the city.  It was amazing and eye-opening and crazy and fun all at the same time.  We were treated like royalty by all of the shop owners and found out later that the police officers that were hanging around were actually acting as security for us to keep the street beggers at bay if they got too aggressive.  After shopping for a few hours, we ate at a nice Italian Restaurant (Isn't that funny?) and then went to a grocery store to buy some common Ethiopian spices.  While we were out, Abbe stayed at Hannah's Hope.  When we dropped her off that morning, she was so excited to be back that she didn't even seem to care that we would be leaving (which worried me a little bit), but while we were gone, she began to cry and ask for her Mommy and Daddy back.  This is such a great sign that she was already attaching to us.  When we got back she came running up to us and gave us big hugs and kisses.  That definitely made us feel good!

After hanging around Hannah's Hope for a few hours and playing with all of the children, our group headed back to the Hotel to relax for the remainder of the evening.

Wednesday:
Today is the day that I have been anticipating and dreading for so long.  We got to meet Abbe's birth-mother this morning.  We were one of only two families in our group that had this opportunity.  Even though it had been planned in advance, sometimes the remaining birth-families don't show up for their appointment.  I had intially been really FREAKED by the thought of it, then I was excited about it, then I found out that the children attend this meeting too, so I was back to being really FREAKED by the thought of it.  We had recieved an initial interview sheet that had been conducted with the birth-mother when we were in the Chicago Airport on our way to Ethiopia.  Tony opened his email on his iPhone and started to tear up just reading it, so I opted not to look at it until we were at the hotel.  Prior to our meeting, we needed to prepare a list of questions that we wanted to ask that would hopefully give us a look into our daughter's past and answer any future questions that she/we might have.  NO PRESSURE!

We were the first family to head over to Hannah's Hope that morning.  It was the most surreal trip. I couldn't really take in any of the sights along the way ... in fact, the entire trip was a total blur and seemed to go by so fast.  I honestly don't remember anything about that morning other than worrying that my hair and makeup looked really bad for such an important meeting - I know that is totally stupid, but that's what I was thinking.

When we got to Hannah's Hope, we were told that the Mother and the translator were already there waiting for us which made my heart leap/sink.  YAY, she had actually shown up!  OH NO, she had actually shown up!  Almaz said to follow her to her office so that she could talk with us first.  As we walked down the hallway, she scrambled to shut the door to another office so the people inside couldn't see us walking by.  WHAT!?!  The birth-mother was in that room?  Right behind that door?  Waiting for us to talk over a few things before she could see her daughter for the last time?!?!  I was struck by the entire scenario.  Seriously, I wish I could say that I was completely PRESENT for the whole meeting, but it's a blur.  I cried during most of it and wasn't sure what was being said due to the delay in translation.  I have yet to watch the video - I'm not ready yet.  (Our case manager, Kiersten, happened to be at Hannah's Hope at the same time and video-taped the entire meeting for us.  She's So Awesome!).

Recently, while wading throught the 1500+ pictures that we took on our trip, I came across a picture of Tony and I taken at the moment Abbe's birth-mother walked into the room.  I share it with you only because we both look so stinking FREAKED that once I saw it, I started laughing so hard.  It's good to laugh at yourself, right?  Seriously, don't we look like a pair of deer in the headlights?  It makes me chuckle every time I see it.  It's one of those things that wasn't funny at the time, but it sure is now.

The meeting went very well and I am so glad that we had that opportunity (It's easy to say after the fact).  It was very emotional for all of us, but so very good too.  I won't give any details here as we are saving those for Abbe, but we were able to get a lot of questions answered and some really great pictures of all of us together.  As hard as it must have been for Abbe's birth-mom, she said that it was an answer to her prayers and a dream come true to know that her daughter would be loved and provided for.  Tony and I were a mess!  Abbe cried a few times - I think it was because all of the adults were crying and it was unsettling for her to see that.  However, right after we left she was totally fine and just wanted to give us hugs and kisses (and play, of course).  I am convinced that we have adopted the most well-adjusted child EVER.

That afternoon we had our final paperwork meeting to get Abbe's passport and entry visa as well as her documents to clear U.S. Customs when we re-enter the United States.  We took a bunch of pictures with our travel group and then went back to our rooms to rest before our big night out.

Our Travel Group

Kiersten, Me, Abbe, Almaz and Tony

Almaz and Abbe

Later in the evening our group was taken to a traditional Ethiopian cultural dinner complete with music and dance performances (think dinner-theatre).  The performers were amazing, the food was yummy and time to just relax and have fun as a group was so cool. 

We all showed up for dinner a little tired ...

But once the singing and dancing started, everyone perked right up.

What a great day!

Thursday:

Today was the day we would travel to Bethzatha Children's Home Association - the government orphanage that all of our children had come from (Hannah's Hope is just a transition home not an orphanage).  There was a definite difference in the facilities from what we had seen at Hannah's Hope, but it was clear that the children were cared for and that the staff was doing their absolute best. 

There was laundry everywhere!  Can you imagine doing laundry for that many children WITHOUT  a washer and a dryer?  And she is still smiling!

It was quite an experience and we are so glad we got to visit.

Later that afternoon, all of the other members of our group would be heading to the airport to catch their flights home (we were not flying out until the next morning).  They all went back to the hotel to pack while we headed back to Hannah's Hope with the members of an overlapping travel group. We took this opportunity to play with the children one last time and allow Abbe to say goodbye to all of her friends and caregivers.

And here is the travelling group that over-lapped ours.  They were the first group to travel under the new two-trip rule, so they weren't able to bring their children home on this trip.  They did, however, get to spend lots of time getting to know their little ones and will be returning to bring them home very soon.

Well that is the end of our week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  We will head to the airport first thing Friday morning and begin our trip home.  What a great experience!