Saturday, September 25, 2010

Ethiopia, Day Four

We left Awassa after a very hearty breakfast. Did I already mention the food in Ethiopia does not disappoint? I feel sorry for those parents too scared to try anything because they are missing out. Our trip back to Addis Ababa was uneventful. I think we were all still pretty emotional from the birth family meeting. I know Ben and I were getting anxious about taking custody of TK that night. The drive back only took a few hours and once we got to the hotel we rested a bit and walked to the supermarket to buy TK's formula and cereal.

We took custody of the kids at 5:00. It was very anticlimactic, just went into their rooms and got them. TK seemed to recognize us despite not seeing us the day before. He's such a happy baby though, all smiles pretty much all the time. We would have liked to have been able to ask the nannies questions about the kids but when we asked Sister Martha she seemed surprised we had questions. We met with the pediatrician for 5 minutes and were promised his vaccination records and told that he is a very easy baby which we kind of already surmised.

Once we got to the hotel, which is right next to the Care Center we just played for a while. TK fell asleep during dinner. I think he would do better with 2 shorter naps than the one 3 hour nap he's been getting. We got his schedule from the main Holt office on our first day here, it had a list of his activities as well as the foods he is eating. I think they print out a generic one for all the families because I have a hard time believing that a 7 month old is eating fried chicken and drinking tea. Although I guess you can puree anything if you have the right equipment. We are pretty anxious to get him home and on a different schedule and make his food for him. If you know anything about Ben you know he loves to cook. If you've been lucky enough to have him cook for you, you know he is phenomenal. I can't wait to see him make food for his son!

I cannot tell you how much I love his smile:







One thing that we didn't realize about taking custody is that we're taking custody in a hotel. I know, I know, you would think we would have realized that but when you're in a hotel and your baby falls asleep at 7:00pm and you only have 2 channels on the TV in a language that you don't understand, you really long for the comforts of home.

It was a difficult night for me. TK slept between us and he is a bed hog! He moves a lot during the night and was sideways at one point. I kept waking up because I was worried that a) I wouldn't hear him if he woke up (pretty silly since he was RIGHT next to me) and b) that he wasn't breathing. Yes, I KNOW. Totally irrational. But I bet there is more than one parent who has done this. Also, I'm prone to worrying and grandiose worries at that. Add that to being a new mother and you have a person who could probably fit some sort of diagnosis in the DSM-IV.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Love that first picture. And I took the exact same brown and blue striped shirt when I went. We had room 207 and were very, very happy with it.
I threw away our son's schedule since clearly whomever was doing the cutting-and-pasting wasn't paying enough attention. However, now I wish I had saved it for him, even if it was inaccurate.
Can't wait to read about the rest of your journey.
Kerry