Update from Ethiopia

It is morning and we have just awoken after a long day. We ate a delicious breakfast and are looking forward to an Ethiopian feast after the morning is spent at the Ethiopian National Museum. This should be an interesting visit. Lucy is housed here. She is the oldest found skeleton in the world. CHSFS has done amazing work here and I have to say that the founder of the Ethiopian program whose name is Asnaka is a visionary man. When we got here it was a little overwhelming to see your baby and realize that he is yours when you have never met him before. They do a great job at slowly introducing your children to you. When we got here we had a social report that had been done by the social worker which had all kinds of information about his likes and dislikes and habits. They had asked us to read it before meeting him. They do this so that the transition will go smoother. Everyday we get to see and play with little Girum and everyday the transition is smoother and more natural. I think tonight we will bring him back to the guest house for his first night with us. We will pick him up after the museum because we will be going to the embassy this afternoon. Then we will keep him with us until the morning. After we return him to the nannies, CHSFS will take us shopping. It should be nice, as the agency sends two people with us to help us communicate with the merchants. Massi, is Asnaka’s brother and a GREAT house manager. His job is to take care of all of us and make sure we get whatever we need and that we stay safe. He does and outstanding job of it and takes his job very seriously. Just try to go out at night, or do something that might be the least bit risky and he springs into action. He is an incredibly hard and dedicated worker as so many of the people here are with CHSFS. More importantly, he is great person who exudes genuine warmth and concern for all the families here in Adis.

A couple of things that I did not mention about yesterday that I meant to say: We had an amazing driver on our Hosanna trip who seems to have a thriving tour business here in Ethiopia. He spoke perfect English and thus was able to give us a lot of insight into Ethiopia and its various cultures. He kept reiterating how regretful he is over wasted human potential and resources in his country, especially in a land as rich and fertile with so much potential as Ethiopia. This is a beautiful country with incredible people and possibilities. Like I said yesterday, the people here are bright and intelligent, but often there is not enough opportunity. As Shawn and I were talking to all of the little children in Hosanna they wanted to talk English. Shawn asked one of the little boys, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” He answered, “ A doctor to fight HIV and AIDS” It brought tears to my eyes to hear that. Right after that we drove away and the driver shook his head and said, “ it is so hard for me because these children may never have that opportunity. It will be very difficult for him to accomplish that. As smart as he is it will be very difficult.” These children are smart. It was so amazing to me how much they wanted to learn from us. They were hungry for our attention and the chance to practice their English.

Our travel group is great. Six families, 2 couples picking up twins. One couple picking up a sibling set and three of us picking up single infants. Everyone here is very positive, which is extremely helpful in this situation. It has been so wonderful to have other families going through the transition with you that are sharing your same feelings. It is great to have each other. This is another wonderful thing about CHSFS. They have taken care of EVERY detail. I just can not say enough about this agency here. Asnake is going to go over his new plan for the center. We have seen pictures of it on the wall. It will be like a high school campus. With a birthing center, a school, a building for education to help the people of Ethiopia learn how to do many things that they can then turn around and gain employment through CHSFS at the center. It is quite amazing. When you meet people like the ones at this place it makes me rededicate myself to helping others.

New post- We just got back from the Museum. We thought we were going to the National Museum but first we went to the National Institute museum on the campus of Addis Ababa University. When we finished the driver said, “ we go now to the National museum and we all looked at each other and wondered what we had just been to. However, it was already 11:30 and we knew Ethiopian food was being served at the guest house at 12:00 and we had to be to the embassy by 2:00 and have picked up our babies. So we kindly told the driver we wanted to go back to the guest house. We will be able to visit the National Museum on Thursday I think because we hired the driver that we had on Sunday to pick us up on Thursday for a half day tour. The Museum that we visited was great and gave us a good insight on Ethiopian Culture. It is actually the palace of Hallie Salassie(sp?) It was quite neat. The mirror still had the bullet hole from the coup in the 1960’s.

I will write more later as we are going to lunch and then to pick up our sweet baby at the center. I hope it goes okay tonight. He is so good natured while we have been with him so I hope that does not change. We have packed our bags with the bare minimum for our embassy trip as we have been told that they will search everything, make us drink any form of liquid to try it including the formula, even try on the lotion if we bring it. Funny thing the embassy of Togo is across the street from here and I have taken a couple of pictures of it and no one has come out running. Where is Togo anyway?

Off to lunch!

Well we are back from the embassy! That was sure fun. Amazing to see what our American Tax dollars can build in Ethiopia. I would have loved to have gotten past the front part of the embassy headquarters and walked around so that we could have seen the grounds. From the inside gate they looked beautiful. We had to go through two metal detectors and then Shawn was asked to try the liquid in the diaper bag. Good thing I had not mixed up the bottle yet. We then went inside and sat and waited until our names were called. After that we went upstairs and answered a bunch of questions to a American woman behind some glass. She was very nice and then said you passed. So now Adam is official and we can go get his Dutch transit visa. Hope that goes as smooth. Funny thing at the embassy there are big signs that say no photography. Vicki in our travel group was leaving the embassy and was across the street from the embassy walking to the van and thought she could get away with snapping a photo. So she did and then started walking to the car. She had not even gotten to the car when the guard caught up to her demanded to see her camera and the pictures she had taken and then watched and rechecked as he made her delete her photos. So when they say no photos they really mean no photos.

The CHSFS worker Martha then took us to the Hilton for us all to confirm our flights home which is a must do in Ethiopia. Then we walked over to the pastry shop and purchased a slice of cake from the bakery. It was a nice bakery the kind in the US where the slice of cake would be $5.00 US. We purchased it and it was 90 Birr. Equal to $1.00 US. I about fell over. Martha told us that was expensive to Ethiopians. I was taken aback because to me it was a real bargain.

We have Girum back with us at the guest house and he is a dream!!!! I don’t think he did anything but a few giggles today. He is so good natured and alert he looks around and is happy to be here. He did a great job at slurping down two 6oz bottles in 5 hours time so I think he will take to this bottle feeding well. He is now sleeping very peacefully next to me on the bed as I type. He is sooooo sweet and darling. He has a ton of hair and his locks are loose and soft curls. We will see how tonight goes. It is probably the only thing I have not been looking forward to: Waking up with a hungry baby in the night.



I forgot to tell you the cute thing his nanny did yesterday. I walked into his little room and she was cuddling him. It has been obvious from the start that she loves him. She handed him to me and as I was hugging him she put her hand on my arm and said with a darling smile. “I LOVE YOUR BABY!” and I knew she meant it.



She then took out her cell phone and showed me his picture on her cell plate. I started crying. How lucky He has been to have someone to love him so much until I could get here to pick him up. She ask me if she could please have a picture of Girum and if I would send one to her later on his birthday. It was so sweet I again got big huge tears in my eyes.

This place is amazing. Have I said it enough?

Well this is the longest email ever, I know. So I had better log off. We are shopping in the morning and then have the afternoon off to hang out with the baby. Tomorrow night we will be going to the Crown Hotel for a traditional Ethiopian dinner and dancing show. We hear that it is fabulous and we can not wait. So we will write again soon.