First 2 Days

Greetings from the Land of the Most Defensive Drivers on Earth!  Seriously, riding around the city is a crazy experience.  We got picked up from the airport by an agency driver on Sunday night pretty late, and the ride to our hotel wasn't very busy traffic-wise, but there were a plethora of prostitutes around.  Between that and the fact that we had to turn around and go a different way multiple times because roads would be completely closed, our first impression of Addis Ababa wasn't the best one. We got to the hotel, and the clerk at the desk looked through the reservation book, which was a notebook full of handwritten notations of who was coming what day, and after searching for a while and us wondering if we really had a reservation, we got squared away.  We went to the room, and just about cried.  We were really tired, which didn't help, but it was still a shock to have a room that wasn't exactly American standard.  However, we got over it, went to bed, and the next morning we were ok with life.
We got ready for the day and the agency driver picked us up and took us to Sele Enat, the orphanage that Yeb is in and where our agency has an office.  Until a few months ago, the agency ran an orphanage there, but now the government orphanage has moved into it.  It's well set up, and we got to meet the agency staff here before meeting Yeb.  Both of the boys seemed like they have repeatedly been told about being adopted, and that we were coming.  We followed the agency worker down through the courtyard and over to a little classroom where a small group of small children were coloring, and as soon as we walked in Yeb looked at Kerry and yelled "Ababi!" (Daddy).  He came right over, gave us hugs, and kept repeating "Ababi" and "Mami".  Yeah, there was no warmup period, which we were pretty shocked by.  We could only stay a few minutes because the agency driver needed to take us to the other orphanage while he had time in his schedule, so we said goodbye, and felt awful as we walked away and he was crying.  Poor guy!  We walked back later in the afternoon to spend some more time with him, and were told that he had kept asking about us all day.  We headed to Kibabe Tsehay Orphanage to see Tam, and it was way different.  The first orphanage had the kids divided into small groups throughout the day, with quite a few nannies, but the second one has larger groups of kids, so we pretty much got completely mauled.  We met Tam in the office, and got to start introducing ourselves.  Like Yeb, he had been told his mom and dad were coming, and he didn't act like it was new info, but he was pretty shy.  He didn't say anything, but we pulled some toys out that we had brought, took pictures, and played with the camera for a bit.  When we showed him the photo album of our family and house, he had a blast looking at the pictures and picking out Kerry and I, and when he got to the picture of the house, he got really excited because there was a "Makina" (car) in the carport.  Yeb had the same reaction.  We definitely have 2 boys on our hands here. :)  Then he wanted to show us off to the other kids, so we followed him and the orphanage worker outside to a big playground area where the kids were, and we literally got manhandled by flocks of children.  It's so hard, because we want to give a little attention to other kids, but poor Tam couldn't get within a 10 foot radius of us, and we really wanted to keep spending time with him.  We resolved to get a soccer ball for today's visit to try to get the other kids doing something besides swarming in hopes that we could spend more time with Tam.
Today we hired a driver to take us around.  We're within short walking distance of Yeb's orphanage, but we're quite a ways from Tam's, so it's necessary.  We visited Yeb first thing, and had a blast playing on the playground with him and the other kids.  He is such a cutie!!!  He's bigger than we pictured, and has an amazingly infectious smile and laugh.  Seriously, I think all 3 of our children weigh about the same.  Then we went to see Tam, stopping on the way to get a soccer ball.  We pulled Tam out of the group activity he was doing, and decided to go up to the playground.  We figured it would be empty since kids were in group activities, but there were a bunch of kids there, and same as yesterday, we got swarmed.  One little girl bit my butt in an attempt to get some attention.  It was completely overwhelming.  Poor Tam.  In less than 10 seconds not only were his parents taken hostage, but the soccer ball that he was excited to play with disappeared with a crowd, too.  We tried unsuccessfully for about 5 minutes to get a group game going, but finally snagged the ball and Tam and headed to the deserted area by the buildings to kick the ball around.  He absolutely loved it, and it was fun to see him warming up a bit.  He was talking shyly, but was willing to laugh about the soccer game we were having.  He is super handsome, and is smaller than what we had pictured.  And skinny.  Not scary skinny, but he isn't a tank like Yeb.
Our visiting plan is to keep visits short and go with some kind of activity, and when the activity is done, we head out.  This is partly because even with 2 short visits the morning is gone, and with shorter visits it's a bit easier to keep the fun factor up.
We have eaten really well!  I was worried about tummy trouble, but it hasn't happened yet.  Even though we're eating out every meal, the food is real.  It's a lot more like a decent home meal than eating out in America.  And it's awesome how cheap everything is.  We ate lunch at a coffee shop yesterday for $7, including buying bottles of water to take with us.
After we visited Tam today we went to lunch at Lucy's Cafe right by the National Museum where Lucy's bones are displayed (oldest human).  We didn't realize how posh the restaurant was till we got there.  The food was good, and during the meal when the waiter came to ask how things were, Kerry asked if he could get some lemon juice for his fish, and there was a confused conversation between him and the waiter, after which we wondered whether or not Kerry would end up with a glass of lemon juice.  Sure enough, the waiter brought a glass of fresh squeezed lemon juice to drink.  We thought it was hilarious.  We actually drank it, it was a lot more mild than store bought lemon juice. We speculated that the people in the kitchen probably thought we were crazy for wanting to drink straight lemon juice.
We've had quite a few exchanges like that.  Between not speaking the language and the cultural differences, it's easy to get things mixed up.  A lot of people here speak at least a little English, especially business owners, but depending on how well they speak and the assumptions we and they have about things, it gets weird pretty fast.  Our driver today only spoke a little English, so that was interesting and frustrating to not be able to communicate.
Ok, I have to say at least something about the driving here.  It's insane.  And yet the roads and drivers seem a lot more safe than in the US.  There are only a handful of stoplights in the entire city, and the only lines on the road that drivers care about are the middle lines.  Other than that, everything is free game.  Horns are apparently the primary mode of communicating while driving, but people aren't angry, it's just the way to communicate everything from "hey, you're 4 inches away from merging into me" to "Watch out pedestrians, I'm not going to stop for you".
Ok, I'm done for now.  It's that time of day where the jetlag catches up with us and makes us feel like we're going to fall asleep standing up.  Better get moving so I don't fall asleep at the computer. :)

Happy Birthday Kate! And We Travel Tomorrow!

Holy Moly!  I woke up today, realized we are leaving in 24 hours, and got butterflies.  Mostly because I'm really excited, but also because we still have all the odds and ends to get done.  Like laundry.  And packing.  :)

Tomorrow is also Kate's 3rd birthday!  We realized that yesterday was the 4th Thanksgiving we've been together as a family of 3, because we picked Kate up from the hospital on Thanksgiving Day.  We have been so blessed!  Since we're traveling tomorrow, we decided to just make Thanksgiving  Kate's birthday party, so as far as she's concerned all the amazing food yesterday was solely for her birthday happiness.  We put candles into pieces of pumpkin and chocolate pudding pies, opened presents, and had a blast with the balloons my mom had hung from the ceiling as birthday decorations for her.  It was great to see Kate have so much fun with the whole birthday thing.  Last year she enjoyed it all, but this year she knew exactly what was going on, and looked forward to it all month.  She sang along to Happy Birthday, and pointed to herself during the song.  And randomly throughout the day she would tell herself "Happy Birthday Kate!!".  This is definitely a fun age!  The picture is her posing in her new dress up skirt made by Grandma and a new headband she got for  her birthday.

Even though I have a LOT to do today, I'm starting to see the end of the getting ready process, so I'm strangely less stressed than I have been all week.  Poor Kerry!  He had to tread carefully this week in commenting about how close we were to traveling so it wouldn't come across wrong to his half-crazed wife.  In his defense, because of his work and church responsibilities, I've been the one in charge of most of the getting-readiness, so he was feeling excited a little more frequently than I earlier this week because he didn't have to be in charge of "THE LIST".  But I think the worst is over, and last night we gathered a bunch of things on our packing list, so it's just clothing left to pack, really.

I realized that many of you might not know that we won't be bringing the boys home this trip (sorry to disappoint anyone!).  The government of Ethiopia requires 2 trips for adoption.  During this trip we get to meet the boys, visit them each day during the orphanage visiting hours and have a court date where we become their legal guardians.  Once that legal piece is done, we come home, and the adoption case gets forwarded to the US embassy in Ethiopia.  We'll then be assigned a visa appointment where we'll get the boys visas and then can bring them home.  The visa interviews will be in 4-8 weeks, depending on how quickly things are processed.  As expensive and annoying as it is to have to travel twice and leave the boys there until we go back the second time, we are grateful that we'll  be able to soak in as much of Ethiopia as possible.

And since we're not taking Kate with us or bringing the boys back, our packing is uncharacteristically light.  Which is ironic because apparently if you're flying to or from central Africa you get 2 checked bags free per person, plus the carryon.  We're totally taking an empty suitcase to bring things back in.  Beyond visiting the boys during visiting hours, we just get to be tourists, and we don't want to count on having any time next trip to shop or sightsee, so we're going to go all out this time around.  I have ideas of a few things that I definitely want to find at the markets, including some traditional baskets, traditional Ethiopian clothing, and hopefully a nativity set.  Other than that, we'll just see if anything strikes our fancy.  Kerry was set on bringing home a spear until the sad realization that it wouldn't fit in a regular suitcase.  I can't say that I'm heartbroken.  :)

Here's a picture of the things we're taking to give the boys.  The agency said to keep it really simple, and to not plan on seeing any of it again, so we won't leave the photo albums with them.  When we get back from this trip I'll print out more pics of them and add to the album, and officially give them to the boys when we pick them up the second trip.  The pictures in the album currently are of Kerry, me, Kate, the boys, and our house.

Travel Calendar, and Amharic Dictionary App Ripoff

Fairly early on in the international adoption process, we decided not to bring Kate with us when we traveled.  There were a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the 25 hour plane ride with a toddler and ensuing jetlag and tantrums.  We also wanted to be able to focus all of our attention on meeting our boys and starting to get to know them.  It was pretty obvious that staying with Grandma and Grandpa would be a much better option for everyone involved, except for maybe Grandma and Grandpa if Kate doesn't sleep very well (sorry!).   In addition to getting everything ready for Kerry and I to travel, I wanted to try to help make the time while we're gone fun for Kate, too.  She's starting to understand the concept of calendars, so  I made one for the days that we'll be gone, and enough toys and treats that she can mark off the day and then get a surprise.  I did this same thing this past summer when we staffed scout camp and Kate spent every night and part of the day with Granna for the week and a half we were there.  It didn't seem like Kate really understood the whole calendar thing as well then, and I'm hoping that this time around she'll understand it a little better.    If nothing else, she's pretty excited about the toys that we picked out today!  And it somehow helps me feel like a much better mother.

In other news, last night Kerry and I bought an Amharic Dictionary App that had audio as well as written translations, which is what we really need.  We looked at a few apps that were similar, and all of them had reviews that were mixed, with some saying that the audio didn't work and some saying that it was the best app ever.  After taking a gamble on the cheapest 99 cent app, it turned out that the audio didn't work.  Sad.  But don't worry, we also downloaded a free Ethiopian music app that's pretty much the greatest, so the night wasn't a total bust.

First Ever Blog Post

We finally did it!  After meaning to set up a blog ages ago to document our adoption goings-on, and meaning to get together with someone who could walk me through this, I procrastinated by pushing the thought from my mind by either telling myself I had too much on my adoption to-do list that needed to happen that day (valid excuse), or simply deciding to avoid it by doing something not so valid such as watching the most current episode of Once Upon a Time, or Dancing with the Stars, or...nevermind.  However, the fact that we are flying to Ethiopia in less than a week has finally motivated me to just get it done.  I hope that this blog can be a way to keep friends and family up to speed with what all is going on as we travel and then become a family of 5!