Ethiopia - 2nd Trip - Days 1 & 2

Wow! It's been so hectic since we got back with little Eva. My poor husband has been sick since the day after we returned. Undoubtedly he caught something from one of the 450-something passengers on the plane. Who knows what's in his system after flying 16 hours. I'm so glad that he was able to bond with Eva as much as he did while we were in Ethiopia. I know that he hates not being able to spend time with her while he's home because of being so ill.


So...having said all that, let's get to learning about our second trip!


February 25 & February 26, 2011


I've decided to combine these 2 days into 1 blog because, really, it felt like one long day.

At 2:30 am we awoke to our 3 alarm clocks after having gotten about 2 1/2 hours of sleep. The car was already packed, so we just got up, showered, dressed, and headed for the airport.


It took us awhile to get checked in at Columbus. We had a letter from our adoption agency explaining about our donation bins. That didn't matter. All I heard was $200 each. That's $600!! WHAT!! I lost my breath. I had only figured $100 each, at the most. However, John reminded me that God is taking care of it and everything will be alright. Thank God all 3 bins were underweight. The good news was that it was a one-time fee; no extra charges at Ethiopian Airlines.

I didn't take a sleep aid this flight and only slept for half the flight. And fortunately John slept just as long, if not longer than me. By the time I woke up, we had just finished crossing the Atlantic Oceam. That's a pretty big ocean!! I tried to go back to sleep by watching movies, playing solitaire....nothing worked. I just wanted to be there already and every hour felt like an eternity.


I was so excited to finally see the sunrise. not long after that sunrise, we touched ground. It took us awhile to obtain our entrance visa and get through customs. Thank God all 4 pieces of luggage and 3 donation bins made the trip totally intact.

We made it to out hotel around 9:45 and saw one of our HH drivers who told us that he would be back at 1 pm to take us to Hannah's Hope. I unpacked all of our stuff while John caught a nap, then I laid down at 11, hoping to get a nap as well. I woke up at noon, took a long hot shower and was ready to go by 1. We weren't sure if we were going to bring Eva back to the hotel. Our case manager said we were scheduled for Sunday, but also Eva has been on medication and her last dosage was also on Sunday. We didn't know if we needed to change her clothes out or what, so we brought a diaper bag full of stuff with us to HH.

Once we got to HH, we saw Almaz, HH director. There were 5 families on this trip that were picking up kiddos for Embassy. All 5 of us had a meeting with Almaz to discuss our Embassy interview, what to expect, what to bring, etc. That lasted about 10-15 minutes and then she sent us off to get our kids.

One of the families had been in Ethiopia since Thursday with their little boy, so they followed the other families around with camera and/or camcorder to record our moment. When we got to Eva's room, she was being held (of course :-)) by one of her special mothers. I said hello, gave her a kiss, then took her from the arms of the special mother and headed right for outside. A little bit of fussiness at first, but then she settled right down.

I don't know how long we got reacquainted with each other, 30 or 40 minutes maybe, and then it was time to head back to the hotel....WITH OUR DAUGHTER!! We went back upstairs to say our goodbyes to the special mothers and the special mothers to Eva. We gave them their photo books (Thank you Molly!!) and said about a hundred thank yous and headed out. My poor baby - she cried, she screamed, she clawed me to try to get to her special mothers. Once we got back outside she was able to calm down. When we rode off on the bus, she was totally quiet, looking out the window - she is a total people watcher!

When we got up to our room, Eva was very fussy, crying a lot. The first thing I did was change her clothes and give her a bottle. It took quite a while but around 4:00, all 3 of us laid down and fell asleep. Eva woke us up around 7:30, so we changed her diaper and gave her another bottle. She was asleep again by 9 o'clock and slept for the rest of the night.

What an emotional and traumatic day for our little one. In less than 4 months she's gone from being with her birthmother to 4 very amazing special mothers to her adoptive mother and father. I pray that God is comforting her spiritually as we try to comfort her physically and emotionally.