Ethiopia Trip

I figured today would be a good day to write about my trip....

Once again, I had a very nice time in Ethiopia. Because of Ada's age, I was not allowed to leave the guest house with her except for visiting the Gladney home, visiting her first mother, and her embassy appointment. If I did want to leave, I had to hire a caretaker to come in and watch her, which I did twice in order to shop and go to the cultural dinner.

In McKinney, we celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve morning. Braegan, Nati, and Claire then took me to the airport, and I left around noon. I flew to Washington D.C. I then spent the night at the Hyatt Hotel. It was the loneliest/most exciting Christmas Eve night I've ever had. It was just kind of weird. I was exhausted, and went to sleep at 8:30, and then woke up by myself on Christmas morning. (Side note - the man that helped me find my shuttle to the airport, the woman that brought me my dinner, and the man that drove me back to the airport were all Ethiopian) I then left around noon again and went over to Ethiopia without any stops. (I think it was around 12 hours) I flew Ethiopian Air and it went really well. We landed in a warm Ethiopia with Ethiopian Air playing "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" by Bing Crosby.

I was then driven to the B.Joe's Guest House and got there around 10ish am. I was told I would not have Ada until the next day. Because I was by myself and exhausted, I actually wasn't that disappointed. I just went straight to sleep. No other guests would be at the guest house until the next day. So.... it was a pretty quiet day. I actually for the first time ate by myself at a restaurant that night. OK, I'm going into way too much detail... sorry about that.

The next morning, the other two families came in. Rob and Ami came to adopt a baby boy and John and Cynthia came to adopt a baby girl. Those four people are about the four neatest people I've ever met. I had a blast with them. Shortly after they came in, Genet (Belay's sister) brought our children to us. Ada came up the stairs first. I think people are most curious about the initial meeting. It's not at all as glammed up as people think it is. It is not a private meeting, and your child is going through quite a traumatic experience. Ada did well. She let me pick her up. I just said, "Hi Adanech" a few times. She sat in my lap and faced me, but wouldn't look at me. After a few minutes of avoiding my eyes, she gave me about a second long stare. That was good for me. The two babies did wonderful in their meetings.

During that whole day, Ada didn't make a sound. She did smile a couple of times though when I gave her some gifts in our room. The first night went well. In the morning I started playing with her by hanging her upside down briefly, and then I heard her laugh. After that, things just kept improving. She started opening up to me more and more over the week.

On Tuesday we had our embassy apt, which went well. Belay met us there. Ada was exhausted and crawled up in his lap and fell asleep in his lap. That night we went for our cultural dinner also with Belay, which was amazing. One of the ladies there that ate with us was one of the ladies that brought Nati to the foster home. Belay asked me for the pictures I had brought with me of Nati, and she was able to look through them. I loved that Nati had been remembered.

Here are a couple of videos of the dancing from the cultural dinner:




On Wednesday we went to the Gladney Foster Home and were able to tour it with Belay. I was able to hold and love on babies that were waiting for their parents to come pick them up. Ada said goodbye to her special mother who gave her a beautiful dress. We then had a coffee ceremony there which was really nice.

Here are Malia, Ada, and Ricky at the coffee ceremony:


On Friday Ada received her visa. We then went to say goodbye to her first mother that afternoon. It went well.

Throughout this whole trip, I was able to drive with Dawit, who was fantastic. All of the drivers are great, but there was something extra special about Dawit. We plan to all travel back as a family in a couple of years, and it will be great to see him again.

Here is a picture of Ada with Belay and then a picture of Ada with Dawit.



That night, we began the process of going home. I was really nervous about this trip. It was much longer than the trip to Ethiopia and I would be with Ada. Luckily the other two families were flying with me. We didn't get to sit together, but it was nice knowing they were there. There were probably 20 other children on the plane being adopted. All of the children really did well. It could have been a loud flight, but it wasn't. Ada threw a fit when we took off, but once I was able to get the seat belt off, she slept the majority of the time. Ada slept between me and a very tall Sudanese man. She kept kicking him in her sleep, and I kept trying to block her feet. After several times, he told me to not worry about it. At the end of the trip he asked me to take a picture of him and then he wanted to take a picture of Ada and me. He had gone to Sudan to visit his family, but was headed back to the US to go to school and work in Vermont. We landed in DC again and had a few hours of a layover. We then flew to Chicago. I sat next to a really nice lady that was on her way to S. Korea to teach. The flight went really well until we hit bad weather. I'm not thrilled about flying to begin with, and the plane dropped quite a bit at once. I was so happy to touch ground again. The next flight was Chicago to Dallas (home). I was crying on the phone before I got on that last plane. I was pretty much done with traveling. Ada slept while I was crying. When I was able to calm down, I woke her up to get back onto the plane. She then began crying. Somehow I remembered the Amharic word for "gum". I hadn't said it since Nati couldn't speak English. I told her the word, and she nodded her head, and calmed down immediately.

The flight went great, and we landed. Braegan, Nati, and Claire and my parents and Braegan's parents were there to meet us. The trip was over. And, I can't wait to go back to visit. I LOVE Ethoipia.