We are here!

On January 25, 2011, I returned from Ethiopia without John and Sena.  On January 25, 2012, John and I departed for Ethiopia to meet Addise.  The first leg of our trip was a bit rough.  Air travel and I do not agree and taking only a half dose of my plane "medication" was not a good idea.  Let's just say the takeoff out of Chicago was BRUTAL!  The landing in London was equally brutal and resulted in some serious motion sickness in spite of the fact that I had taken motion sickness medicine before leaving Chicago.  I took another dose and passed out at Heathrow for a couple of hours and woke up feeling much better.  Heathrow is enormous and resembles a shopping mall and I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed it if I had felt better.  We made our way to our gate and before long were on the flight that would take us to Addis.  Shortly after 10 pm, we were on the ground in Ethiopia and memories came flooding back almost immediately!  I was so thankful that there was a very short wait in the visa line and all of our bags arrived intact.  Before long, we were on our way to the guest house.  We had a big day ahead of us on Friday and sleep was very welcome.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Today was the day that we met our daughter!!  We were picked up from our guest house around 9:30am and driven to the transition home.  I could not believe that in a matter of minutes we would meet our little girl!  I recruited our driver to be our camera man and we waited for a few minutes in the courtyard while they got Addie ready.  The nurse soon appeared with a precious little bundle in her arms!  She has the most gorgeous eyes and long eyelashes!  We talked to her for a minute and then I took her from the nurse.  She wasn't terribly keen on that idea and immediately puckered her lip and began to cry.  We were so happy and she was so sad!  That didn't last long, though.  Daddy took a turn holding her and she decided rather quickly that she is a fan.  She began to show us her smile (she has dimples!) and seems to be rather proud of her four teeth!  We spent a couple of hours playing with her and the other children at the transition home and then it was party time because today is also her first birthday.  We brought some goodies from home and made arrangements to have a cake to help celebrate the occasion.  I am so thankful that we were able to be here for her special day.  I'll post some pictures once we pass court.