We arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Sunday evening, or actually on early Monday morning at 12:30am. I just had this feeling of apprehension of our arrival to Ethiopia and hoping that someone would be there to take drive us to our guesthouse. At that point, our trip had gotten off to a seemingly seamless start, which was incredible because of the last minute packing and arrangements we made!! It was to my knowledge that we would be staying at the Yebsabi guest house, since that is what our agency coordinator emailed me. Our luggage all came in (5 bags, 2 were donations) and then we headed out to find our driver from the guesthouse. I was eagerly looking for anyone from Yebasabi and looking at all the signs (with the guesthouse, or family they were there to pick up) however none were for us!! At that point it was probably 1 am and we were both so tired that all we wanted was a bed, even if it was rock hard. After the situation was presented to us (no ride), it really hit me about what a bind we were in! We had no burr (ET money) so I couldn't use the pay phones there and our cell phones were no longer of any use to us, besides the fact that none of these people spoke English! When I looked at our itinerary, it was then that I noticed that our reservations were at the Wegoss Guest House (where we stayed last time) and not Yebsabi!!! We had the telephone number for the Weygoss Guest House but now I was really confused. I supposed what happened is the Yebsabi was full and so we had to take our next choice, which was Weygoss. How confusing, but since our arrangements were so last minute, I hadn't fully looked over the itinerary. Anyway, I decided to see if I could make a local call on the pay phones, but I couldn't There was one man who noticed we seemed to be in a panic (umm, yes!!) and he did know enough English to tell me I could use his cell phone!! Thank goodness!! We rolled into our beds around 2 am!
It is hard to sleep in when you visit ET, anyway it was for me. They had the call to prayer around 5 am and then in another hour or so, and then traffic (horns blaring) and the people are bustling about loudly! I was up early, ready to go see my baby! Cade was still getting over his cold, so he had a harder time getting up! Our driver was also different then we expected. This is just part of the ET way we have come to find, though! Don't expect anything to be timely (although our drivers were very prompt), orderly, or on the itinerary!! We arrived at Bereket's orphanage (Enat Alem) around 9 in the morning and he was woke from his morning nap so he was still blinking around a bit when we got there, but he had no problem coming to me. In fact, he was checking Cade out when I was holding him, more than me! Cade held him and Bereket was just very serious, as he was when we first met him in June!! However, when we decided to break away, the nanny wanted to change his diaper, so she took him from me and set him on the floor to change his cloth diaper for a disposable diaper and Bereket started crying. Then the nanny was getting ready to put some pink pants on him when I quickly interjected, pulling out some black pants that I had packed for him! She looked at them and said, "OK!" When I talked to Bereket and told him Mommy was right there, he quieted and watched me until the nanny was done with him and then he eagerly came to me!!
When we finally got in the car to leave the orphanage, one of the head nanny's came to the car and started speaking Amharic to our driver. I asked if there was something wrong and Yosef told me that the director was not there and he told them to never let a baby go unless he was there! I was not letting Bereket go, that's for sure. They talked some more and made some calls and finally decided it was okay for us to leave! Bereket was very, very still in the car. It was probably only his third time riding in a car. He was very content just sitting on my lap, but the whole trip, he was very still and his big eyes were taking it all in!!
We went to our agency's in-country office and spoke to Tsedey (she is the one who escorted Eden home) and talked about our arrangements!! It was so good to see them again in the office!! They have done a lot of work for us on Bereket's case, doing interviews for our attorney and arranging Bereket's birth father to visit Bereket and other things!! I had such a new feeling of fondness for them all, knowing all the work they had done for us in order to get Bereket home!!
After that our driver took us exchange some of our US money to burr at a bank and then to the Friendship Market to buy formula for Bereket (he is still taking the bottle once before bedtime) and we also found Amharic children's music on Cd's for Eden and Bereket! We bought a couple of cases of bottled water as well!
After that it was on to lunch at Amsterdam Restaurant. Tsedey asked if we liked pizza and we told her, "Yes" so she told our driver to take us there. On our last trip we ate so much traditional Ethiopian food but we weren't sure we could stomach so much this time so this was very nice since the last thing I wanted was to get sick!
After that, we settled back into our guesthouse for a nice afternoon nap since Bereket needed one and we did too!! That evening we went out to eat with another Illien family. We ate at an Indian restaurant!! It was very good! Bereket did so well, although he didn't eat much. It was pretty obvious that he has spent most of his time at the orphanage in his bed. You could see he had a new-found freedom of just being able to walk around!! Back to Weygoss we went for Bereket's first bath. He was not too sure of the bath, but eventually he started enjoying splashing around, but he couldn't move too much without sliding around, so that was a bit scary for him. Bereket took his bottle and settled into his crib there for the night!! Wow, I couldn't believe what an awesome first day we had with him. Even more, I still couldn't believe we really had him!!
Bereket woken from his morning nap once again to see us!!
This picture was taken at Tsedey's office, in her chair. She gave him a ride and I think he liked it!!
First nap with us! What a sweetie!
First bath at the guest house.
5 comments:
Sweet to see pictures of your little boy and read of your adventures and first. Brings back memories. Hope you're getting some sleep!
Thanks for sharing! So special to "follow" your journey. What a sweetie!
He's adorable :)
Thanks for sharing Bereket's first day with us. How special and what a sweet boy!!
Thank you for sharing! What a special memory! hugs
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