Trip journal - Day 2

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, university, etc.) are quite beautiful.

Our darling boy became very overwhelmed with the sights and sounds of the car ride (probably only been in a car a few times before), and curled into our arms as much as possible.  He slept for a while until a coffee stop.  We bought bags of coffee for gifts -- roasted right on the spot.  Mmm, smells good.

Abel lights up when he gets to play ball in the courtyard at the guest house.  He tried playing when we got back, but I think he was too tired to enjoy it much. 
By lunch, Abel was very glum.  He ate some baby cereal, then cried from the high chair.  These were some of the first cries we've heard from him.  It broke my heart to hear him cry.  Scott was holding him, but he actually reached for me.  Bittersweet.

I brought him back to our room, wrapped him up in the blue fluffy blanket, and he was asleep in my arms within minutes.  He whimpered a few seconds when I transferred him to the crib, but was asleep again in a second.  He sleeps through the booms and bangs and squeals of the kids playing in the courtyard.

It makes our hearts sad to see him overwhelmed with the outings and still uncertain of us.  Saying Amharic words to him seems to help some.  We hope to continue building trust with him throughout the week here.

It makes our hearts happy to have him sleep in our arms and cling to us with cuddles.

This afternoon, the plan is to go to the Hilton for money transfer and email.  Looking forward to letting those back home know how we are.  Miss our sweet girl, but are grateful for the time alone here to get our boy more comfortable with us before we leave.

Comments

J.E.Oppenheim said…
How precious to get these glimmers into the first few days of your new lives together. God so clearly brought this little boy to you, and has been preparing the way in his dear heart. We think of you so often, and pray for you throughout the day! So much love to you all.
July 8, 2010 at 9:09 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Driving on

Image
After eleven years and 127,000 miles, Scott's Saturn has driven on.  That amazing little economical Saturn saw us through life in the college dorms, life in married student housing, our first apartment, our first home, our first relocation, and the addition of our two kids.   We're happy to say it ended up in good hands, with my cousin, Angei, and her husband, Adam.  We had a wonderful time visiting with them for a speedy 12 hours, before they needed to drive it on to its new home.  We even got to show them some small town fun at our annual Christmas parade. Thank you for the loyal service, Saturn.
Read more

Meet Abel!

Image
We are praising God this morning!  After two unsuccessful court dates, we passed court in Ethiopia today! And what verse should I read this morning, but Psalm 34:3... "Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together."    (When I read it, I was hoping beyond hope that I would be able to post it on here after we passed court!) Now we are finally allowed to introduce our son to you!  His name is Abel (which means "breath").  We love his name and are so excited to raise our son in the legacy of the Biblical Abel, a faithful and righteous man, and the first prophet (Luke 11:46-51). These are the pictures I have been longing to share.  The first is the referral picture -- the first glimpse we got of our little boy. Here are the pictures we took of us with Abel's picture, which we put together on a ring to send to him.  (We're hoping he'll get to see those now that we have passed court!) The following are ones that families trav...
Read more

Teaching supplies

Image
I have an inkling that teaching supplies do not spark a wide-eyed wonder in most of the readers of this blog.  I also have a feeling that most people would wonder why I "wasted" my time, staying up until 1:00 am on Friday night and working another three hours on Saturday morning to reorganize the aforementioned supplies. Well, teaching supplies do spark wide-eyed wonder in me -- always have.  And over the years that my supplies have been in my garage, they have gone through times where they have become very hard to reach -- through the layer of lawn mowers, ladders, strollers, spare chairs, and so forth.  The whole reason I have these supplies (and have added to them from garage sale finds over the years) is to use with my children and with children whom I teach.  Having all these goodies available while teaching Adrianna and her friends preschool over the last two years has been invaluable.   But it reached the point with my supplies where that lay...
Read more