The Wall Bloggers

Sunday, June 27, (wow, one month ago already) was our final day in Ethiopia.  With just one other family and ourselves at the guest house, the place was eerily quiet.  We arranged for the driver to take us to the international church nearby for the morning worship service. The church facility was amazingly modern, and we were greeted by pastoral staff and church members who spoke perfect English.  One of the pastors knowingly asked how long our "pregnancy" was, and many doted on Abel.  The entire service was in English, with people from all over the world in attendance.  The song leader was from New Zealand and the pastoral staff was even from several different countries. The most beautiful part at the service was the music.  We sang songs we knew, but that wasn't the best part.  Praising God with His body from throughout the world, singing that we would, "Shout to the east and the west..." that "Jesus is Savior to all, Lord of heaven and earth," wa

A final note about our Friday night in Ethiopia (a continuation from the previous post)... As the darkness drew in, the children who always seemed to be playing in the street put on an impromptu show for us. Scott and I heard beautiful children's voices from our downstairs rooms, but could not see over the huge gate surrounding the property. We quickly went up to the third floor balcony, where we saw a sight such as I have never seen in the U.S. So many children I have worked with in the States, and none of them would know how to put on a show like this -- no props, no electricity, no sound system... just pure glee and joy in simplicity. The children formed dancing circles, singing at the top of their lungs in unison. They passed through and around each other in perfect formation, the older children alongside the younger ones. One beautiful older girl was always in the middle of the circles, dancing with the rhythm of a trained dancer, with a glowing smile radiating through her e

Friday, June 25, 2010, 8:12 pm Birth parent meeting was today.  We all went into it with mixed emotions:  nervousness, curiosity, fear, sadness for the birth parents... We were all ready 20 minutes before Ficker was scheduled to arrive, and we hauled our orphanage donations out into the courtyard, and then waited anxiously.  When it started raining, everyone jumped to get the donations inside, where we all crammed into the tiny entry by the stairs, waiting with even more anxiety. Ficker brought a woman with him, and there was confusion over whether she would watch our kids while we were away?  No, one of the housekeepers would.  The woman he brought was a translator.  The housekeeper came out of the kitchen to take the kids -- she was suddenly holding a screaming child, a nervous Abel, and herding two older kids into the dining room.  It looked a little intense to me, but all I could do was tell Abel, "Ciao," and leave her to care for our boy. We drove through the wel

Thursday, June 24, 2010, 8:40 pm This morning, we went to the Hilton for email, while Ficker dropped our papers at the Embassy.  When he picked us up, he told another family that their medical form for their son was missing.  Yikes!  He quickly went about getting it tracked down while we drove back to the guest house. At the Hilton, two separate Ethiopian men doted on Abel and asked us his name and where he was from.  One of the men asked if we had other children.  We were just amazed by how supportive they were of adoption. From wake up this morning, Abel was out of his shell more.  By the time we went to our visa appointment this afternoon, he was so wiggly (like I would expect from a one-year-old! - instead of being over-cautious, as he was before) that the Embassy advisor was wishing us, "Good luck on that long flight home!" The Embassy was a little intimidating, with its check ins at different windows, metal detectors, following signs outside to a different

Wednesday, June 23, 2010, 9:16 pm I keep falling asleep in the evening when Abel does -- must be the lingering effects of jet lag.  Then I wake up for a little while to go back to sleep around 9:30.  Melatonin has helped quite a lot to get a full night's sleep. -- It has also helped Patricia and Christy! We stayed here at the guest house this morning, and the task was paperwork for our visa appointment tomorrow.  Abel woke up at 6:00 am, instead of his usual 7:00, and was still tired and grumpy.  We tried playing and gave him a bath (5 minutes of him screaming while I washed him), then he fell asleep in Scott's arms and took a 45-minute nap!  He was still grumpy after breakfast, but finally after 10:00 this morning, he went into the play room with me, and started really opening up.  Strangely enough, much of our play was with my chap stick tube! He was just starving by 11:45, so we gave him a lunch of baby cereal and got him down for a nap by 12:15.  He sle

Tuesday, June 22, 2010, 8:30 pm I was awake at 4:15 this morning -- got seven hours of sleep (not too bad!). -- Was nice to have some quiet time to myself.  But by nap time, I was very sleepy. This morning's event was the Lion Zoo.  I have to say, it was a little unusual: a circle of cages with a male and female in each.  No tree, no dirt for the lions, just cement and bars.  They even let you walk close enough that you truly could put your hand in the cage -- scary (?!). This afternoon's event was the National Museum, with many artifacts from Ethiopia's history.  Ficker played tour guide for us, and made it much more interesting than it would have been on our own.  The displays were very plain, but the artifacts represented key parts of Ethiopian history.  It was obvious that there is much national pride in the bones of Lucy (the oldest human remains ever found). I felt crummy upon stepping into the building, and wonder if it was from the mold/leaking ceiling on the

Monday, June 21, 2010, 1:20 pm As I write, Abel sleeps in the bed in front of me.  He clutches his tiny truck with his right hand as if it were a teddy bear. We have now had him for over 24 hours -- wow.  We have seen a few smiles -- a couple for us, and a few for his friend Bereket (Jeff and Christy's son), and a few for the staff speaking Amharic and kissing him affectionately.  As he grows more comfortable with us, he gives us more sounds.  One sounds like "Up" and one sounds like "Buh, buh" (maybe for "Bereket"?). We went on a driving tour of Addis this morning.  The city reminds me of Los Angeles -- strange correlation, I know.  There is much green and many hillsides and streets one above another.  Unlike L.A., houses are made mostly of scraps.  Dogs roam free.  People are on every street.  Some smile and/or wave as we go by in our van full of American families with Ethiopian kids.  The tourist points of interest (palace, monuments, universi