Ethiopia Day 1

We slept through the night our first night in Addis, which was wonderful! We woke up between 8 and 9 and started getting ready. Ben began calling the number we were given for our agency in Ethiopia around 9am, and we could not get through. It was kind of frustrating because you can't call out yourself - you have to call the front desk and ask them to call out. That guy was probably really annoyed with us. :) Finally, after about an hour and a half, I took matters into my own hands. I looked up the number for the American Embassy in Addis and got through to them. They transferred me to a super helpful lady in Consular Affairs, and within 30 minutes our driver from Hope called our hotel room. Crazy! He picked us up about 10 minutes later, and there the adventure really began...

Our driver's name is Ermias {pronounced "Air-ah-may-us"}. It's Jeremiah in English, so he said we could call him Jeremy if we wanted to, but we stuck with Ermias. Gotta be authentic, right? He was really friendly, and he immediately put us at ease. He had a little white car that he apparently rents from someone so he can drive families around for Hope. We started off toward Hope - not knowing if we were going to meet Abe there or what. Ermias told us he needed to get some gas, so we headed toward the nearest gas station. This is what is interesting...when you need gas, you pull up in the general direction of the gas station and honk. If they have gas they signal to you, if not, they ignore you. They did not have gas. Ermias

seemed frustrated, but he said he had enough to get us to Hope, which was back the other direction. So we started out again and passed our hotel, and then had to go up this hill which was also a big curve. We didn't make it up the hill. The car stalled out about halfway...here's a little video for you.

We were there for about 10 or 15 minutes. Ermias was frantically calling all of his friends with cars to see if anyone had one he could borrow. At this point, we had no idea what was about to happen. But, we surprisingly stayed calm. And I didn't even take a Xanax that morning - it was all Holy Spirit. :) He's definitely capable. Finally, he got a hold of a friend who could help a

nd within minutes we were back on our way in a new car. Lots of people had warned me about the driving in Ethiopia - honestly, it didn't phase me at all. It's not that much different from the driving in Dallas - except we actually have regulations you're supposed to follow. Ermias says, "The government gives us regulations for driving, but we drive by negotiation." Perfect way to put it. It works. He drove us through the city and to Hope and we had some good conversation along the way.

We pulled up to Hope and were escorted inside.

Everyone is SO friendly. We met Tsige {pronounced "seh-gaye"} who works in the office. I had heard her name before, so I felt some sense of relief at a little familiarity. She asked us who our child was, we told her "Adane," and she left the room.

After a couple of minutes we were taken into the Infant Room at Hope - Adane was there! We thought he was still in the orphanage, so we were so excited! We got to meet him for the first time! It's difficult to communicate the emotions and thoughts of our first meeting. We both will tell you they are not what we thought they would be. A picture was painted for us of our first meeting before we left - we thought there would be this little boy who would be anxiously awaiting his parents and he would run to us and we would embrace and weep with tears of joy and excitement. There was definitely joy and excitement, but our little boy was much smaller and younger than we had anticipated, and didn't quite understand the situation. Also, we had immediate concern over his health and welfare as soon as we saw him. He's healthy, but does have some minor health issues as all of the children do. We immediately knew and felt that he was our son, so we were curious, concerned, excited, humbled...overwhelmed. I held him and we asked questions about him and just tried to get to know him a little bit. I can't post our initial video here until we pass court, but that will say it all and explain a lot. Abe was very scared - his little mouth tips down, and every once in a while a silent tear would come down his face. Poor baby. It took him a couple of hours to relax and warm up. We have videos from later that same day where he really starts to open up and take to us. It's just a process...but a good process. It's like any other new family - whether you just gave birth and are bringing your baby home for the first time, or you're adopting. You all have to get to know each other. We are a family. We were immediately hit with that truth - Abe is not a project, or a mission, we're not the rescuers....he's our son and we're his parents, just like any other family God puts together. It was awesome to immediately know that and feel that. We praise God for that truth.

We spent some time cuddling and playing with Abe in the Infant Room. At one point, his daddy says that he felt this overwhelming sense of warmth while he was holding Abe. {don't get too excited...Abe had wet his diaper all over Ben's legs} It was actual warmth, haha! They use cloth diapers at Hope, and they just don't do the job. We got one of the nannies and she took him off to change his diaper and his clothes. Tsige invited us to come into another room where the rest of the nannies were. Apparently, they were preparing a traditional Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony for us! This was awesome!

{Tsige is the one on the right} They roast the beans on the flame, then boil the water, then crush the beans outside {can't show that video yet b/c Abe is in it}, and then combine everything again on the flame. They also make popcorn on the same flame. This coffee is seriously the best coffee I've ever had. We tried other Ethiopian coffee in Addis, but this lady makes the best!

We had a really great time in this room because all of the workers were there and then they brought in all of the babies. That's when Abe really started warming up. We learned a few things about him on Day 1:

1. He's not a big crier - he won't pitch a fit (at least not yet) to let you know he's sad or upset.

2. He is a "wimp" - he'll do this little (CUTE) whimper cry when we wants something or doesn't like something. But he gets over it really quickly.

3. He likes his Mommy. :)

4. He thinks Daddy is funny. :)

5. He's a cuddler!!!!

6. He's really content.

All in all, it was a really great day. When we left he waved "bye" to both of us. {can't wait to post those videos! he has the cutest wave!} It was hard to leave, but we were both emotionally and mentally drained. Ermias drove us back to our hotel, and we holed up processing the events of the day. We got to Skype with some family and friends, and we ordered room service. We were exhausted! But so thankful for the first day of the rest of our lives.