Update 8

It is Thursday morning here in Addis. It is another sunny, warm day. Adam Girum slept here with us at the guest house last night and appears to be quite the munch mouth. He woke up and wanted to eat about every two and a half hours. Obviously, he enjoys bottle feeding.

Yesterday afternoon at around 4:30 P.M. the care center put on a Goodbye Ceremony for all the children leaving in this group. It was very touching. All the children had been dressed by their nannies lovingly in traditional Ethiopian clothing which they were to keep. The program began with the toddler and school-age children singing a song in Amharic followed by a rousing rendition of, “If you’re happy and you know it”, sung in English. After, one of the social workers expressed her wish that we would all take a positive impression of Ethiopia back with us and try, as far as possible, to raise our children with an appreciation of their Ethiopian heritage. They gave us a chance to speak, and the parents universally expressed thanks to the staff here for the devotion and loving care shown our children while in Addis.

Next came the children being called individually to dip their hands into paint put their handprints on the wall, thus leaving a durable record of their presence there. The handprints were placed on a wall-sized painting of the Ethiopinan flag. Even though this ritual occurs every week here in Addis, the CHSFS staff were clearly sincere and their expressions were deeply hearfelt.

Since we were unable to meet any birth family in Hosanna, we asked management (something you should always do if you want to do anything which may deviate from standard protocol) here if we could give the photo of Adam Girum (which was meant for the Hosanna trip) to the nanny with whom Girum seemed to have a special bond. We were told we could. After the goodbye ceremony we gave the photo of Girum and our family, together with a laminated photo of Jesus surrounded by children to this nanny and expressed our thanks via a translator. It was very touching. We cried and embraced each other.

Shortly before this, Girum had thrown up all the formula we’d fed him in the last hour or two. As he liked to eat from a bottle, we just kept feeding him when he felt hungry. No one could believe how much he expelled. This was in the middle of the goodbye ceremony and kind of embarrassing. The doctor was there and she told us what we already suspected: we had overfed Girum. Although well fed in the care center, he had simply ingested too much formula because he enjoyed eating from it so much. We have since scaled back how much formula we give at each feeding. Adam Girum seems just as satisfied with no more throwing up.

After the ceremony, the staff treated us to a piece of delicious cake and a bottle of soda. We enjoyed each other’s company and several of the children said goodbye to the care center for the last time. The event evanesced into a haze of tears and embraces.

It is difficult to appropriately thank these fine individuals who have done so much to help these children we’re adopting. It is amazing how close we’ve grown to these caregivers, the language and communication barriers notwithstanding.

We have been very lucky this week as we’ve traveled with five wonderful families. We’ve laughed, comforted each other’s children, taken meals and driven through the bustling streets of Addis together. Several will leave Ethiopia in the next 24 hours and we may never see them again. We hope, though, that we’ll be able to exchange information via email and hear how this amazing adventure will continue for them.