Day 5 - 9/23 & 9/24/2007

Well this is it, the last day – hard to believe that it’s the day that we go home today. Although I’m feeling like there must be so much more for us to see and do, I am definitely ready to get back to the kids and our own life. I think that “best pizza outside of Italy” finally put me over the edge, so today I will be having Immodium, water and bread all day long. At least if I starve myself for the day I know I can survive at least until we get home! This morning we laid low trying to sleep in, pack, etc. Basically, John had Eyasu take him to an Ethiopian Catholic mass (in English) while Sophie played and I packed. I did a little more souvenir shopping at the hotel – mostly books about Ethiopia that I had wanted to bring home. I had a lot of trouble finding any books at home on Ethiopia, so this would suffice. Some of the picture books are from 1995 and it looks like they must have had a “beautify Addis month” before the photos were taken. Granted, most of my pictures of the city are taken from the car window as we’re driving past the scenes, but it still is a very poor, run-down city.

At noon we headed back to the Gladney baby house for more pictures (I forgot to get any of the actual house and rooms during our whirlwind visit last time) and some last minute loving of Baby Zoe and the Mestas twins. Sophie’s primary caregiver, Almaz, was working today, so I was happy to be able to get a proper goodbye and more pictures with her. The twins were practicing sitting up and playing, which was very cute. There is so little space in the rooms (especially because they are in the middle of painting the upstairs, so 3 rooms worth of cribs and babies are in 2 rooms until that’s done), that I don’t think they get much time to practice sitting up, etc, so it was good to see that. We got lots of pictures and videos and then it was time to say goodbye. I don’t know who actually started, but saying goodbye to Almaz was one of the hardest goodbyes this week. We both were crying pretty hard and not wanting to let go. I’ve said it before, but it is so amazing to know how much your child was loved before you were able to get to her. We are so very lucky.

The outside of the baby home
The back - laundry day!

One of the three crib rooms - freshly painted

The many wonderful caregivers - many of whom were once orphans themselves.

Dear Almaz

Next stop was at the older Gladney foster home again, but unfortunately, it was naptime. We did get to peek in and some of the older kids were still awake, so we got some hugs and smiles and let them rest. They are so darn cute – I really hope that there are families waiting to come scoop them up soon.

After we said our goodbyes, we headed to a circus! Basically, Lucas, the director of Kechene orphanage sponsors a circus for underpriveleged kids in Addis. They must practice quite a bit to keep them active and out of trouble and they were PHENOMENAL! There was lots of acrobatics and more dancing. The kids were performing these unbelievable feats with huge smiles on their faces. Happiness seems to be a national trait amongst these kids – truly amazing. At the end of the show, they had an auction for a circus poster. The entire auditorium was filled with Ethiopian families and although we were helping Belay bid for the poster, when they heard that Americans were trying to win the auction, they would NOT let the poster out of Ethiopia. Everyone was laughing and it was all in good fun – they were really just trying to get the proud Ethiopians in the audience to be the ones to bid it up and raise money for the children’s organization. Unfortunately, we could not understand most of the auction (which lasted longer than the circus itself), but what we did understand is that Belay is THE man. He was cheered and cheered each time he got on stage. At another point, Lucas insisted that a foreigner get up on stage to voice their opinion about the show. Well, let’s see…it was either John, a German woman that works for Kechene, or me (out of a few hundred people). Lucas didn’t want to hear from his own employee and there was no way John was going up, so that left little old, emotional me. I’m sure John would have won a lot of money if he were a betting man – yes, surprise, surprise, I cried. I brought Sophie up with me and basically just said how amazing the show was and how proud I am that my daughter is from such a beautiful and interesting place. Everyone cheered and John was very proud. And I was very glad the circus was over :)

After the circus, we only had two hours until we had to leave for the airport, so Ryan and Abby came to the hotel to say goodbye and introduce us to Enoch and Marta – their children. Enoch is 1½ and adorable. Abby said she’s always thought that there was something similar about he and Sophie and I definitely agree – I don’t know what, but they do look similar to me. Marta is about 9 and is beautiful – she was very good with both Enoch and Sophie. We still had some packing to do, so the visit was short, but it was nice to meet their children and to thank them again for all they do. I think that they have a very fulfilling, yet difficult job. They get to help all of these adorable children get forever homes and see their hard work come to fruition. On the other hand, they also have a lot of “entertaining” to do – and so much of it is repetitive – they continually host families like us for a week at a time and they also have their own children that need them all the time. I have the utmost respect for them and all of the Gladney employees that we have workedwith. We certainly couldn’t have done it without them and I will remember that every time our sweet Sophie smiles.

We were able to have a last meal outside at the Hilton (we both stuck with chicken nuggets and fries!) and then head to the airport. The trip home was as good as we could have expected. For a 17 hour flight, Sophie did MUCH better than we did! She had a great bassinet attached right to the bulkhead in front of our seats, so she was either asleep or eating in our laps. The only problem was that Ethiopian Airlines decided that we needed to eat (with EVERY light on and all eyes open) every two hours. It was very annoying to me – I wish that they would have just let us sleep more than two hours at a time.

Final dinner in Addis

We were so happy to have a welcoming crew in DC. Customs/Immigration took a little longer than normal since Sophie has an Ethiopian passport, but it really wasn’t bad. Once we cleared through and rechecked our bags, we were greeted by John’s oldest brother’s wife and two of his daughters. We were also joined my one of my oldest friends (from nursery school), Melanie. It was SO nice to see familiar faces and to introduce Sophie to her new extended family. After a quick lunch (it’s amazing how good airport food tastes after being afraid to eat anything for days on end), it was back on a plane. Unfortunately, we had to sit on the tarmac in DC for an hour with no A/C , and it was HOT!). We stripped Sophie down to her diaper in DC so that she didn’t sweat through her clothes. Anyone who knows me probably wonders whether I was tempted to do the same (only because I’m a sweater of course)! At this point, we were so anxious to get home to the kids that we really didn’t care what happened.

Obviously, the best part of the whole trip home was actually getting home. We called ahead so my mom brought the kids out to the back yard so she could greet us and grab the video camera so we could record their reactions. They were so surprised to see us and it was SO GOOD to see them! Will was napping, but Matt and Katie couldn’t have been cuter. They were so gentle with her and very anxious to hold her, etc. When William finally came downstairs, I almost didn’t recognize him. He looked SO big to me! I remember that the biggest Matthew has ever looked to me was the day he came to see Katie in the hospital on her birthday. I guess it’s the relative size that really blows you away. My 2-year-old is a big boy now. All three of them were great with Sophie. I think having her smile and laugh right away makes the transition much easier than having a newborn that does nothing but takes Mommy’s time away. Of course, they all get over that anyway and are probably better for it, but nothing could beat watching the three of them make Sophie laugh on day one!