Ethiopia Day 2

I realize it's been way too long since I blogged about our first day in Ethiopia. The amount I would love to share is overwhelming, and every time I sit down to write, I just can't seem to get "pen to paper." But, I'm going to follow through today, though I most likely won't include quite as much detail as my first entry.

Ben and I really felt the effects of jet lag on Tuesday night. We went to bed around 10pm and were wide awake around 2am for about 4 hours. Miserable. But, we made the best of it. We watched some Discovery Channel, talked about the previous day's events, and laugheda lot. Around 5am, I heard a strange noise coming from outside of our hotel. It didn't stop, so finally I opened up the door to our balcony, and this is what we heard:

It was the Muslim Call to Prayer. There was a mosque not far from where we were staying. This was pretty eerie, and very sad. We went back inside and I began to pray for the souls of those who were praying to a god who is not living, and who does not exist. I told Ben we sh

ould start singing worship songs at the top of our lungs, but we decided the other hotel guests might not appreciate that.

We finally got some rest, and when we woke up we got ready to go back to the Transition Home to spend some time with Abe. We arrived during naptime, so we got Abe out of bed and we took turns cuddling him while he slept. He is a GOOD sleeper!

When he woke up, he was still a little unsure of opening up completely to us, but he had definitely warmed up to us since the day before. The nurse offered to let us feed

him, but he wasn't having it! That was a little discouraging, and scared us a little bit, honestly. Would he be comfortable with us when we take him home? Will he let us feed him on the plane or pitch a fit? We had to just adjust expectations once again and realize this is only the 2nd day we've spent with him. This is normal. He does eat well though, and that is good. He's pretty content, actually. The nurse also got him up and helped him walk, or "DAH-dee" in Amharic. He likes to walk, although he can't quite do it on his own yet. After that, we just spent some time playing. This is when we realized that he LOVES wearing Daddy's hat. :)

Overall, Day 2 was a good day. It had it's challenges, and we went back to our hotel with a lot on our minds. It was really good to Skype with family that day and just kind of "detox" in the room with Discovery Channel for a little bit. Later than night we decided to try the Italian restaurant at our hotel. It was really good, actually! We had a nice table in the back with a really pretty view.

It was good to just kind of process the events of the day together and enjoy each other. All in all, it was a hard, but good day.