Today we woke up, got ready, ate breakfast & headed to Hannah’s Hope. I wasn’t feeling great, so I took some anti-nausea medicine right before we left. Thankfully it worked, and by the time we arrived about 10 minutes later, I felt good (SO thankful we decided to get that prescription filled the morning we left Nashville!).
We didn’t know how our little guy (it’s so hard to not use his name on here – can’t wait until we can!) would react to us, but he was really happy to see us again!!! I spotted him as the gate opened, and he ran up to the van as our driver pulled in with a huge grin on his face! He jumped up in Brad’s arms right away and didn’t want Brad to put him down. Then he came to me, and I sat down and held him for a while. He was facing me with his head on my chest, and he just hugged me and wouldn’t let go. It was an incredible feeling, and one that I’ll never ever forget!
We stayed at Hannah’s Hope for about 2.5 hours and decided to leave earlier than yesterday so he could nap. He seems to do really great until lunch time and then he gets tired and a little more sensitive and emotional. We pushed him in the swing for a while, played soccer (he only wanted to use the soccer ball we brought yesterday and not any of the other ones – sweet!), played with Play-Doh, blew bubbles, ate lunch, and read a book. After lunch he didn’t want to share us with the other kids and got upset and started crying when they interfered with our play time. Almaz came out and invited us to go sit with him and read to him on the porch. She also gave him a piece of candy, which never hurts with kids! His tears soon dried up, but he seemed tired so we decided to leave and let him take a nap (which is part of his typical schedule). Both days we’ve left, Almaz has made the transition by letting him pass out suckers to the kids, and that seems to distract him pretty well.
We noticed several things about him today: 1) He’s really observant and takes everything in around him. 2) He did NOT want to “squish” up his Play-Doh and wanted to leave it in the neat little block it was in when we opened it. We eventually “squished” up another color and let him hold both of them. He seems to want to hold onto whatever we give him so the other kids can’t get it! I’m sure we’ll have to work on sharing once he’s home and it’s the appropriate time. 3) He built a little tower with big legos and wanted to make sure we both saw it. He even carefully carried it to the other side of the courtyard to show it to Brad. We made a big deal out of it like we were really proud, and he just lit up! 4) He’s a good eater. Yesterday they had injera and gomen, and today that had pasta that looked kind of like spaghetti. He ate well with his fork and has good coordination. He likes to drink mango juice, too. 6) He’s pretty quiet around us and doesn’t talk much like some of his buddies. There are probably a lot of factors behind that, but he’s pretty good about communicating what he wants non-verbally. The language barrier is definitely tough at times. He does talk every now and then when he gets excited about something (like when we replayed the video we had taken of him – he just chatted away pointing to the screen and telling me all about it!).
We did some sightseeing yesterday so I decided to include a few pictures. It’s so hard to not post pictures of him or of our time at Hannah’s Hope (which is most of our pictures), but we can’t legally.
These were taken in the airport as we traveled over . . .
The first one of these was taken on our sightseeing trip yesterday. The second one is the view from our hotel window . . .
Inside of Sisay’s taxi & a view of the city from the highest point in Addis Ababa. It was really cloudy & rained, but it was still beautiful . . .
We went to a really nice traditional Ethiopian restaurant with Sisay after we toured the city. I think we’ll be going back here Thursday evening, too, with a couple of staff members from Hannah’s Hope. (That’s Sisay with Brad) . . . .
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