Ethiopia - 1st Trip - Day 2

These are the 1st pictures that I took on our descent to Addis Ababa. It was around 7 o'clock in the morning.

We landed at 7:30 in the morning. The weather was gorgeous; sunshine, cool breeze, but warm.

We made our way towards baggage claim and stood in line to get our Enter Visa. Then we got our luggage and stood in line to get our luggage x-rayed.

There were 2 other AGCI families on the flight with us and we were all picked up by a driver from the Riviera Hotel, where we stayed.

Once we got to the hotel we were given our itinieraries for the week. That's when we learned that we were going to see our kids at Hannah's Hope. We had just enough time to get our bags up to the room, freshen up, put clean clothes on and head back downstairs to the lobby to wait for our AGCI driver, Wass.

Wass picked us up at exactly 10:30 and took us to Hannah's Hope. After just 5 minutes we turned down a road and came upon the famous black gates of HH.

As we walked through the gates I wondered if I would recognize Eva when I saw her. Would she look totally different in a month's time? All the kids were outside. The babies were out getting "sunning time" and the older kids were outside playing. As I scanned the courtyard of all the babies, my eyes landed on Eva; she was in the arms of a Special Mother. I told John "I think I see her" and walked over to her. I said her name and then confirmed that it was her with the Special Mother.

It was a bit awkward because I didn't want to take Eva out of her arms, but she also was not trying to pass her to me. After a minute or so, the doctor came and took Eva from the Special Mother and had me follow her. She helped me receive Eva.

Eva cried the whole time, which we expected. The doctor took her back until she settled down and was almost asleep and then handed her back to me. I was able to hold her for quite a long time until it was time to go back to the hotel.

When we got back to the hotel, Wass told us he would pick us up again at 2:30. We were so excited to be able to get a second visit! We went up to the room and slept for 2 hours.

On the 2nd visit, we went up to Eva's room. She was sitting on the floor and as soon as I came into the room she started crying. My child does not have a problem with stranger anxiety, that's for sure! She cried and whined for her Special Mother, so we played with the other babies for a while.

Eva finally let me hold her and soothe her even though she whined a bit. Her Special Mother let me feed Eva but she would not cooperate. She turned her face, spit out her food, and would not look at me. Finally we had to sit Eva on her Special Mother's lap while she distracted her by singing and playing with a toy while I fed her. SUCCESS!!

Eva let me hold her again and even started playing with me for about 5 - 10 minutes. Shortly after, we had to say our goodbyes for the day and head back to the hotel. We got a couple more hours of sleep and then all the families were picked up by Wass and taken to an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner. We had such a great time and the food was wonderful. There was singing and dancing the entire time. I can't wait to go back again!