Ethiopia- Days 5 and 6

The last two days were spent just hanging out at the HH. On Wednesdsay we had to check out of the hotel, so we spent the day at the HH and went out for lunch. At lunch Kevin and our new friend Victor, took a picture of our vaccine banner. The place where we got all of our shots is trying to get pictures of their banner all over the world. So it came to Ethiopia with us. We now get free vaccines for a year. When we got to the HH on Wednesday a lot of the kids, including Jonah, had been taken to get their vaccines. So when we pulled in we saw all the babies outside laying on the floor. Yonas stayed and hung for a awhile. Everyone at the HH loves the kids.

You can see in the picture there is one really sick child. He is 1 1/2 years old. He looks like a 2 month old. He has heart failure. If he were adopted when he first came to the HH, he would have been fine. He needed surgery and now it may be too late. A US doctor was going to be coming in the next few weeks and was going to see if they could get him back to the US to do surgery. At this point, he may be too weak to go through surgery. They take such good care of him and love on him just like all the other kids. Ethiopia does not have good hospitals and no one can afford the surgery. Hopefully they can get him some help.

Mulat came at 7:30pm to get us to the airport. We had a 10:30pm flight home. We said good bye to Jonah and left. The plane ride home was long and uneventful. We got back here at 8:30am. Estelle picked us up from the airport. We came home, got JT from school and went to Ruby Tuesdays for a much needed salad. We were not allowed any fruit or salad on the trip. JT seemed surprised to see us. We told him all about Jonah. He even tried on his new Ethiopian clothing.

We had a great trip. We just got a call yesterday from Wide Horizons saying we should expect to be back in the middle of August.

Jonah turned one on July 19th. We had pizza and cake in his honor. We can't wait to get him home!

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Ethiopia- Day 4/ Court Day

Day 4 was Court Day. You don't always pass court. We were told that the birth parents had all been to court a few weeks earlier. We knew Jonah's mother had shown up and relinquished her rights to us. But, if one little piece of paper is missing or not signed, you don't pass and then you wait again.

Mulat picked us all up. We were not allowed to have cameras so we have no pictures. We were told we could be in court all day. There were 10 families that had to go through. We saw a few couples from another agency sitting in the waiting room. They told us some of the questions the judge asked. When the first family was called in, they came out 3 minutes later. That was it. 3-5 questions and they were done. So then they called Yonas Ararso and in we went. She asked us the questions and that was it. We were officially his parents. The questions.... Why did you want to adopt from Ethiopia? How will you deal with a mixed raced family? Have you met Yonas? Do you understand that this is irreversible? That was it, we were parents of two little boys.

It took 45 minutes for all of the families to get through. We were amazed. Mulat took us all back to the hotel. A group us wanted to do some more shopping. Mulat came with us and took us to a "mall" and then we went for lunch. Then back to the HH for the evening. We spent time with Jonah and Kevin enjoyed playing some soccer with the guard.

Ethiopia- Day 3

Mulat picked us all up in the morning to do some shopping. He took us to one street and we had 1 hour to shop. We had to bargain for everything, which I wasn't very good at. The prices are so cheap I didn't really mind paying the first price they told me. But we did get the price down from where they started so we did well. We also got our shoes shined by two little boys. Our tennis shoes mind you. They kept saying, "No problem" when Kevin tried to explain that you don't shine tennis shoes. But we got the shoes shined and had some wet socks to prove it! They wanted to charge us 10 birr each, which is less than 1 dollar. (13 birr= $1) After he shined the shoes he wanted 20 birr each. So Kevin just handed him 6 US dollars and the kid looked like he just went to heaven.

Our shoe shiners.

After we went shopping Mulat drove us through the Merkato, the big market. He said we can't shop there because it's too crowded and there is a lot of pickpocketing that goes on there. We went on a Sunday which was a "slow" day and it was packed. They sold everything there. I really liked the chickens. People would buy them and carry them by the feet while they were still alive.

We then headed to a coffee shop. I only bought one bag but I did buy a toothbrush from a boy in front of the store. It is made of wood and I guess once you start to chew on it, bristles form and then you brush/pick your teeth with it.

After shopping we headed back to the hotel for lunch.

Notice the goats walking head on into the traffic.

Then we went to the HH for the evening.

One of the guards at the HH. He also make scarves.

Ethiopia- Day 2

We didn't do much on day 2. We went to HH in the morning up until nap time. We headed back to the hotel and ate lunch with 2 others couples and did some shopping there. We headed back to HH around 4 pm and stayed until the kids went to bed. Kevin taught a boy how to juggle. He was being adopted from a family that was there in the group before us. Here are some pictures......

Outside the HH. These kids were doing something with corn.

Ethiopia-Day 1

We survived the 15 hour flight over. We didn't sleep much at all and arrived in Addis at 8 in the morning. We got the hotel (which is very nice and just like any other American four/five star hotel) at about 9:30am. As we walked into our room the phone was ringing. I answered it and it was Mulat who is the Horizon House driver, he said he was

in the lobby. I told Kevin that I guess he just wanted to introduce himself to us. So, we dropped our luggage and headed downstairs. We were greeted by Katie and Reed who are from Florida and met Mulat. Then he said, "Ok, let's go." Kevin and I looked at Katie and asked what as going on. We soon found out that he was there to take us to the orphanage. After not sleeping 24 hours and just stepping foot into the hotel room, Kevin and I just looked at each other and laughed. So we got into a van filled with some other families. Some from Chicago, California and Minnesota. Off to Horizon House we went. (There are 10 families on the trip with us)

Driving- I can not even describe the driving. It is just best to close your eyes and not look. I have seen 1 stop light in the last 2 days we've been here and one time it wasn't even working. People are walking in the street along with the goats, donkeys, dogs and we saw one cow. The drivers just weave in and out and surprisingly we have not hit one living thing. It's just nuts.

Horizon House- Driving down an alley and 2 honks later, a gate is opened by a guard and there we were. There are two rooms. One for the younger babies and the other for the 1-2 year olds. We went in and I looked around at 6 cribs. Couldn't seem to find Jonah. Then the nanny pointed him out. I didn't even recognize him. He just came to Horizon House five days ago and they had cut off all his curls before he got there. So, we see a huge brown eyed child staring at us ,just smiling. Just like in his picture. He just sat and smiled and we picked him up. We spent about 2 hours there, just hanging out with Jonah and all the other babies. We fed him lunch, which he devoured, and then they all went down for nap. They are on a tight schedule. I love it!

We went back to the hotel to take a nap and then headed back to the HH (Horizon House) for the evening. They had just gotten a bath and Jonah smelled delicious. He has a runny nose and a few other minor issues that will be taken care of now that he is at HH. As the head nurse told us, "He's with us now, don't worry. We take good care of him." The nurse and nannies love Jonah and all the babies for that matter. The babies seem so happy and are smiling and love the nannies as well. The place is very clean and well cared for. After dinner, which he again devoured they all get ready for bed. Love the schedule! We said goodnight and put him to bed.

Restaurant- We went to an Ethiopian restaurant with 2 other couples. Everyone is great but we seem to be hanging out a lot with Katie and Reed from Florida and Robyn and Don from Minnesota. Again, down an alley way and the doors open to a really nice open restaurant. We ate, or should I say ordered ( I ate nothing!) Ethiopian food. I didn't like it all but. But they had singers and traditional dancing for 2 hours and it was great. We then headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

Ethiopia- Lets just say that whatever you think it looks like, it is probably 100 times worse. Everything is run down and everything seems like it could collapse in about 2 seconds. We are not allowed to walk around without either of our 2 drivers, Yonas and Mulat or with the guard from HH. There is a bad perception here from Americans coming to adopt "their " children and slave trading and selling babies. Obviously that is not happening with most of us but it does happen and for our safety they want us with someone who can speak the language. Every single person we have met has been very nice. Yonas our driver is the best and has been taking us back and forth everywhere.

That's all for day 1. More to come.....

Ethiopia Bound

Ethiopia, here we come......

We found out a few days ago that our court date could be July 12 but to not make any arrangements because some paper work was missing and we would not know for sure until the end of the week. That leaves us with less than 1 week to plan. So we found out today that we are confirmed and ready to go. We will leave next Thursday the 8th and return the following Thursday. Well, we will leave Ethiopia on Wednesday and be back home Thursday. Because of such short notice there are no tickets on Ethiopian Airlines. They have a direct flight that stops in Rome to refuel. Good and bad. You don't get to get off the plane but you get to Ethiopia faster. So kevin has until 4:00pm today to make arrangements with a travel agency to get us to Germany then to Ethiopia. Needless to say, this is not enough time to really get ready but we have no choice. We have all of our paperwork ready to go and need to get one thing notarized. We are pros at that!

I told JT today that we are going to see Jonah and that he will be staying with Bubbe Stell and Grandpa Al. He didn't have much to say. But he will love being with them and will have a great time. We will give him a present to open each night when we are gone. Just some little things I have been saving up for him.

We will get to see Jonah next Saturday. We will be able to hang out with him and take photos. By Monday the 12th, if all goes well, he will be officially ours and a US citizen and pictures can be posted.

More to come.......