We boarded a 13 hour flight from Washington DC to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia this past Saturday. I had an upset stomach the day prior to our trip and when I realized we were about an hour from landing in Africa I got sick on the plane! My nerves and excitement got the best of me I suppose.
This is Zebene, he owns the Grace Guest House were we stayed while we were there. He was so nice!!
We dropped off our bags and headed to the Transition House where Sanai is staying. My heart was racing out of my chest, the moment we had been waiting so many months for! We walked in and were greeted by several children. They started showing off by doing cart wheels, which we got on video! ha ha We headed into the house and into Baby Room #2...and there she was. She was laying on her belly looking up at the doorway and as soon as we saw each other she had the BIGGEST smile on her face. This child is seriously the cutest thing alive!!
She slept so good at night and only cried one time when another child at our guest house threw an apple and it hit her square in the forehead! We had so much fun loving on her and playing with her, we would fight on who got to hold her. We are already fighting about who will carry her when we go to pick her up in several weeks.
On Monday we had our court date - the moment of truth. We appeared before a judge in a room and she asked us a few questions like "Why Ethiopia?" "Have we studied about Ethiopia and adoption" and "Do you understand that after this moment she will legally be your daughter and your responsibility?" YES!!!! At that moment I could barely fight back the tears, she was officially our daughter forever.
After court we couldn't wait to get back to the house to give Sanai a big kiss! That's when we learned that Sanai's birth mother was in Addis and wanted to meet us. I feel extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet her and we hope that she found some sort of relief in knowing that we will love her and raise her with so much love. Her birth mother is such a brave woman and has been through so much in her short life. We left her with a picture of us and promise to send pictures to her so she can stay updated on her progress. I can't imagine what she has done, but I will always remind Sanai the sacrifice that her birth mother made to give her a better life.
On Wednesday we decided to venture out to the post office, which is a row of shops, to purchase some things. Well...being dumb American's was an understatement and after a pretty big miscommunication we were lost. Addis is a BIG city and none of the cab drivers knew where our Guest House was. We met a few guys who were eager to help us out and sent us on our way in a cab. Unfortunately, the cab driver didn't know where we were staying but after about an hour of driving around we finally made it back to the house. Whew!
There were 3 other American families there which was a lot of fun. The rest of the time we spent snuggling, kissing and playing with Sanai and a few of the other kids at the house that were staying with us.
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| Good Morning! |
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| Getting ready for the bath! |
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| Milk coma... |
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| Snuggling with Daddy |
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| Loving the bath! |
After a whole lot of tears we had to take her back to the Transition House on Friday evening. Our plane was at 10:15pm and unfortunately we have one more leg in the adoption process before we can officially bring her home. It can take anywhere from 4-8 weeks for everything to be finalized so please pray for my sanity during this time!
We are so looking forward to introducing Micah to his new sister! He was very disappointed when we got home and didn't have her with us :( Until then I will work on her nursery which I'm super excited to reveal!!
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