WOW! WHAT A DAY!

**Warning: this is an extremely long post . . . sorry!**

Okay, here goes.  I’m tired and emotionally drained, but I’m going to try to put into words what today was like.  We woke up this morning and started getting ready.  I had always imagined that I’d be really nervous and anxious getting ready to meet our son, and I wasn’t.  I was just really excited and very calm about the whole thing.  I’m guessing that there must have been some prayers going out on our behalf for me to be that way!  We ate breakfast downstairs at the hotel and then gathered fun things to take to Hannah’s Hope with us to use when playing with the kids.

At 9:30 Danny came to pick us up and take us to Hannah’s Hope.  It’s close to the hotel (probably about 5 minutes away), and you turn off of the main road onto a really bumpy dirt road.  Hannah’s Hope is amazing – so nice and very well-kept.  We pulled up to the gate, Danny honked the horn, someone opened the gate, and there we were!

Brad spotted our little man right away.  He was swinging on the far end of the swing set closest to where we pulled in.  I saw him right after Brad did, and tears immediately welled up in my eyes.  We didn’t get to meet him right away because we were escorted into the building to meet with Almaz, the director.  I didn’t want to be that girl – the one who cries immediately – so I tried very hard to control my emotions!

We sat down in the office, and I spotted Isaac Young’s pictures on a billboard.  Isaac just went home to be with his forever family a little over a month ago, and you might remember that we went to high school with his mom.  She had taken the pictures (she’s an amazing photographer) and sent them to Hannah’s Hope with another traveling family.  I loved seeing his pictures – all smiley – and knowing exactly who he was!  Also, on a bookshelf, I spotted the files for all of the referred kids.  Their names are written on the spine, and I saw so many familiar names from our AGCI listserve group.  And get this – the child’s first name is written and then his/her new last name is on there!  That made the tears start to flow again – knowing that those families are waiting to bring their babies home and knowing that those kids DO indeed have families!  Almaz came in, and we met with her to discuss court, etc. for about 15 minutes.  She’s just as wonderful as everyone always says – love her!

Then she took us out to meet our newest little family member.  We were told that he wouldn’t know we were his parents and that we’d probably mostly play with him in a large group setting.  However, when we walked out into the courtyard, he came walking out there all by himself.  So, Almaz just said we could play with him there alone.  It was AMAZING!  She told him we were there to play, and he immediately ran to me and put his arms around my legs!  I bent down and gave him a big hug.  We had a good bit of one-on-one time with him – playing soccer, blowing bubbles, playing with trucks, swinging, etc.  I couldn’t even believe we were there with him.  It was even better than I had always imagined – totally exceeded my expectations as I had set them pretty low knowing he wouldn’t know exactly who we were.

Well, we think he kind of started figuring it out, and by the end of the day, he knew who we were.  We were even being referred to as his “mama” and “papa.”  It wasn’t supposed to work out that way, and I don’t know if it’s entirely the best thing, but Almaz said we’d “play it by ear,” and that’s how it played out.

He is just perfect for our family, and we think he’s going to fit right in.  He did have a few moments where he seemed to get really sad and tears even flowed down his cheeks a couple of times.  My heart completely broke for him.  We sat with him while he ate lunch, and he wouldn’t even look at us.  It was all I could do not to cry because my heart broke for him.  After lunch, though, we went back out with him by ourselves, and he was fine and began to laugh and have fun again.  We know that he will certainly have moments of sadness, and he seems to really be a “thinker.”  We are just praying that God heals his little heart and gives him peace and joy in the midst of really uncertain times for him.

We stayed for four hours, and he cried when we left.  Once again, I had to hold the tears in.  I’m curious to see how he responds to us tomorrow.  We love him to pieces, and we just couldn’t have asked for a better time with him.  He’s so sweet and thoughtful and loving and sensitive.  He likes to try to figure out how things work, he’s very observant, and he LOVES to PLAY!  He played hard the entire time we were there, and I think he was exhausted when we left.  He really enjoyed playing soccer with us, and he loved hitting the beach ball back and forth.  He got a little pushy with the other kids when they tried to mess with “his” stuff, but Almaz said that’s completely normal (and I don’t know of any 3.5 year old who doesn’t do that anyway!).  We can’t wait to bring him home!

This afternoon we also got a taxi and went out sightseeing for several hours.  Our driver was Sisay, and he was very nice.  We drove up to the highest point in the city (1000 feet above where we’re staying, which already has a high elevation) and looked out over Addis.  We went to a small historic museum and then went to a restaurant and got some traditional Ethiopian food and coffee.

It’s been a busy, overwhelming day, but we’re extremely thankful and feel very blessed!  Tomorrow morning we’ll go back to Hannah’s Hope for a few hours, and then we might just relax at the hotel, as the rest of our week is pretty busy.  Thanks so much for the prayers and support!  It’s getting late here, so we’re off to sleep!  More to come tomorrow if we get the chance . . .