Back to Ethiopia - Part 1

I know it's been SO long since I've blogged. Honestly, I just had a hard time putting "pen to paper" during our LONG wait. When we left Addis in July, we were told we would be coming back again in 4-8 weeks. Our return trip ended up being about 4 months later. I won't bore you with all of the details of things that occurred during our wait...let's just say that the US Government doesn't work quite as quickly as the Ethiopian government. But...their motivation is absolutely for the best of the children and families. We learned more today at our Embassy interview why our case was prolonged. That may have to come in another post.

We found out last Wednesday, November 30th that we were approved and got our Embassy date the next day. Then it was a MAD DASH to try to get airline tickets at a reasonable price, hotel reservations, and get us packed & ready to go. The Lord went before us in all things. On Wednesday, the hotel we had stayed at in July told us there were NO rooms available for the first 2 days of our trip. We kind of panicked as hotel rooms were hard to come by and we really preferred to stay somewhere "familiar." The next morning, a room became available for our entire stay! Also, we had been given an amount by my grandfather to help offset airline costs. It was looking like that was not going to cover everything...then again the Lord came through and we got tickets for $600 less than the amount given to us. So many things fell in to place. We know the Lord was at work in all of it. (and still is)

We left on Monday afternoon and had a short layover in Frankfurt, Germany, then on to Addis. We kind of felt like pros this go around. Everything was much less stressful...which was good because once Abe came, a whole different kind of stress entered the picture. :) (good stress, of course) We got checked in, and found that our hotel was completely decked out for Christmas. AWESOME! We got some good sleep that first night (Tuesday night in Addis) and couldn't wait to finally have our GOTCHA DAY with Abe the next day! :)

Here's a video of our first time with Abe again after many months. (*note: most of the videos are with Daddy...mommy did the videoing this time so I'm not in many.) He actually was all smiles when we entered the room! That was an incredible blessing! We didn't get pictures or videos of our first encounter with him this time b/c we wanted that to be a private moment. So, he was pretty shy again when we actually picked him up and held him, but that's just his personality at first. AND...we found out later that day that he was super, super sick. Mommy & Daddy got him feeling much better once we had some time with him at the hotel and got some medicine in him. Anyway, here's a video of our first few moments with him.

We spent some time there with the caregivers and they had another Coffee Ceremony for us. YUM! Then we got to take him back to the hotel and just get to know each other. Pretty special night! Here's a "teaser" of our first morning together. Will post again soon with more videos and highlights of our first full day as a family of 3 (well, 3 1/2, let's not forget sweet Izzie!).

Abby & Ben.