(Sunday, August 22)
Today is Gotcha Day. The day we get G FOREVER.
After breakfast (a couple of hard boiled eggs for me), we appropriately started the day going to church. What an amazing way to start this monumental day!! Wass picked up 14 of us, and we headed to IEC (International Evangelical Church). We were a little early and was greated by Pastor Gary Thrett. He is from North Carolina, and he had done mission work in Ethiopia in the early 90s before returning a couple of years ago to led IEC.
It was an awesome feeling to be worshipping there in Addis Ababa, thousands of miles away from home, with people from all over the world. On any given Sunday, many different countries are represented - as many as 60 can be there on 1 Sunday. I was so aware of God's pressence in this place. My heart was overflowing with praises, and I was so aware of how small I am, and at the same time, I was in awe of how big and great my God is. Singing "God of Wonders" and "Mighty to Save" had more meaning than ever before. And, even though the place was full, I felt like it was ALL for ME.
The entire worship theme for this Sunday was "Becoming A Person of Joy". Many of the verses and songs were ones that spoke to me during our wait. And, one of the verses in the sermon would help me during the upcoming hard moments - ...the joy of the LORD is your strength...Nehemiah 8:10
The service lasted about an hour or so, but I believe I could have easily worshipped for hours.
After church, we went to Kaldi's Coffee. It is the Ethiopian version of Starbucks but about 1/12th the cost. I don't drink coffee, but it was nice to visit with everyone one last time before we all got our kiddos.
After our little outing, it was time to go back to the hotel and get everything together for our informational and paperwork meeting with Almaz, Wass and Yohannes.
Almaz is the director of Hannah's Hope and a rock star in the AGCI world. Before you meet her, you feel like there's no way one person could be that great. After you meet her, you realize that she truly glorifies God with her life and deserves rock star status.
We are making sure we dot all of our "I's" and cross all of our "T's" for our US Embassy appointment tomorrow.
Our group is ready to go get our children!!!
When we arrive, we park just outside the gates. You can hear the children playing. Then as soon as they open the gates, G comes bolting out. He is ready to go.
He again comes right up to us and says Momma and Daddy and lets me hold him.
We had brought stickers for the children. You can tell they get stickers alot. They put them all over their body. It makes perfect sense when you don't have paper readily available.
G with one of his special mothers
G with another one of his special mothers. According to his paperwork, he had 4. Unfortunately, I only got to meet 2 of them. They work in shifts. They love the children so much. It is hard for them to say good-bye.
I am deeply grateful for the love that these women show these children. It is amazing to see children's pictures of when they get there and when they leave. Transformation is happening way before they get to come home.
Upon arrival, G wanted my sunglasses. And, he loved his new cup with cars (makinas) on it. They don't use sippy cups there, but we thought it would be wise for the plane ride home. The sunglasses along with his sippy cup proved to be two of his comfort items while in Ethiopia.
He is just so beautiful! To think, HE came across the waiting children's list.
G with Almaz
Even though children come and go, and there are about 60 children there at one time, she remembers each one's story and really seems to know their personality.
When it was time to leave, G said good-bye to everyone and was eager to get on the bus. To say that this boy was intrigued by cars would be an understatement!!
He was all wide-eyed back to the hotel just asborbing everything. When we got to the hotel, we had dinner. He ate fine. We shared some traditional tibs. He wasn't into the injera though. I thought all Ethiopians loved injera :)
We got to our room, and he was all wide-eyed wanting to check out everything!!! We thought we would give him a bath. He wasn't having anything to do with that, and we weren't going to force it. It was initially hard to get his shirt off when it was time for pjs. Once he figured out that he was changing into pjs, he happily let us change him. We didn't even try to brush his teeth.
Now, G has been sleeping in a crib for the last 6 months, and now he has a bed - where he can get down and explore. Transitioning from a crib to a bed can be tiresome all by itself, but throw that on top of a very active, energized 3 year old who wants to explore everything, then you get a small glimpse of what that first night was like. He absolutely didn't want to go to bed or stay in bed. From our adoption education, we KNEW that bedtime would most likely be very difficult. Children will fight it, because sleeping is a time where they lose all control. At this point, their bodies are the only thing that they do have control over.
After a little over an hour of trying and some crying, we decided we'd bring out the old friend, Benedryl. Normally, we wouldn't have used this, but we had to be up EARLY the next morning for our US Embassy appointment, and he had been coughing quite a bit early. Sleep was a necessity. I'm not sure if it was the Benedryl, or if he was just done, but he finally fell asleep.
I slept beside him in our bed and probably slept for about 4 hours. I woke up with every little move he made. I was thankful when he woke up and told me he had to potty, and then went right back to bed.
Happy Gotcha Day G!!! We love you!!!!!!
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