Ethiopia Day 3 "Gotcha Day" (Sunday)

When I woke up I headed downstairs to call Emily and tell her to come on over. She and the boys were eating breakfast and then they planned on coming over. I ran upstairs and made Brian get up. Then I started unpacking and organizing everything as if 8 and 10 year old boys care what a hotel room looks like. Once we were dressed and ready we went downstairs to wait for them. Although I had hardly had anything to drink the past 48 hours I found myself having to pee every 10 minutes. It must have been the excitement. Of course this meant when Emily and the boys arrived I was in the bathroom and could hear Brian yelling through the lobby, “Autumn, they’re here!” I hurried out and had my first glimpse of Almeu and Israel. They were very shy but let me hug them.

Once they saw the breakfast buffet at the Union they were hungry again so we all sat down and ate. I kept telling them how excited we were to meet them. Anything we said was met with shy grins and eyes cast downward.

Views from our room at the Union Hotel:We hung out with our three siblings for the next few hours. We gave them presents from us and ones Mom and Dad had sent. We also gave them Pop Rocks. It was hysterical. Israel kept sticking out his tongue and drooling all over the place. We have it on video but Brian accidentally left the video camera charger at the Union and the one we have at home apparently needs that same cord so until we go shopping the videos will have to wait.

When we checked in the night before we had received our schedule and found out Almaz would be there to take us to HH at 2pm. Once the time was getting closer Emily took the boys back to the house and came back to the Union so she could take pictures and video for us. We headed downstairs to wait the last 15 minutes. At this point I became nervous. For the first time in this whole experience I had butterflies in the stomach and was filled to the brim with anticipation. We all sat there staring at the clock and wondering how late Almaz was going to be. Ethiopian time is a lot like Hawaii time. Almaz got there and dropped a bomb. Instead of doing paperwork the next morning like our schedule said she wanted to do it right then. She thought it would take about a ½ hour. At this point it was 2:15 and I was barely keeping a lid on my excitement. We sat and did paperwork, albeit reluctantly.Finally we headed on THE WALK to Hannah’s Hope. I had seen pictures but was overcome once again with the feeling of relief and unbelief that it was finally our turn. The walk was very short. We turned a corner and the first gate we saw said All God’s Children. My eyes started to well up just knowing Elias was inside. When we first walked in we had the pleasure of watching the other families meet their children as they were all older. It was a moment filled with pure joy and I am so blessed to have been able to witness such beautiful meetings. Almaz kept wanting to hurry us along and somewhat reluctantly we stopped watching their reunions and went to experience ours. We walked around a building and then climbed up back stairs. As we entered in the door I could hear a baby screaming. We walked down a short hallway and I saw Almaz pause. It was Elias. And he was the child who was screaming. She picked him up and I was upset. I didn’t care that he was screaming it was my turn. She kept saying she wanted to calm him down first and I kept smiling and saying that was fine while secretly wanting to snatch him from her arms. Eventually she let me hold him although he never calmed down. He would keep crying and she would take him again. At this point I was irritated that I couldn’t just try. I felt so bad for him. The poor baby was absolutely inconsolable. It was so shocking and unexpected everything is kind of a blur. Over the next 2 hours we went through 4 special mothers plus Almaz, bathed him, fed him, changed his diaper, changed his clothes, massaged him, rocked him, held him, and bounced him all to no avail. Finally one of the special mothers was able to get Elias to fall asleep. We walked upstairs where Almaz instructed me to pick him up in his bouncy seat and carry him down windy stairs. You’re kidding right? I just got my son and now I am going to drop all 19 pounds of him as I fall down stairs? It certainly wasn’t the most graceful thing but we made it. We watched him sleep for about 45 minutes. He looked so peaceful and content.During that time we played with other babies and took pictures of Elias. When he woke up Daddy was sitting on the couch watching him and he woke up smiling. He was happy and giggling. We took turns holding him. He would go back and forth between seeming okay and wailing at the top of his lungs. Whenever he would scream someone would run into the room, take him from our arms and try to get him to stop. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Sometimes I was frustrated, sometimes I was thankful for the help. The meeting was not at all what I expected. My heart broke for Elias. I wondered if we had made the wrong decision as he seemed happier at HH then with us. More than anything I just wanted him to be happy and he seemed scared.

Eventually I put him in the Moby Wrap and we found out almost right away how much he liked it. He would still cry but with some bouncing and singing he would calm down. It was a battle. By this time we were the only family left at HH. Almaz talked to us for a while then we walked ourselves back to the Union.

Back at the Union we found ourselves exhausted and overwhelmed. The baby fell asleep at 6:30pm right as planned. Unfortunately he didn’t stay asleep. We ordered dinner in the room as Elias was sleeping in the Moby. By time it got there Brian was snoring and my sister and I were looking at each other with looks that said, “What have we gotten ourselves in to?” Shawn came up that night and offered to check out his ears. It was then that we found out he had a double ear infection. After learning this we noticed that in the bouncy seats that the children spend a good deal of their time in, milk from the bottles, drool and tears will all flow right into their ears at that angle.

Luckily Emily took pity on me and graciously offered to stay the night and help me. Elias ended up waking up 5 times that night. Each time was a fight that ended with Mommy having to put on the Moby. Brian did so well with him and was almost always the first up. He would change him and feed him but that is as far as Elias would let him go. Whenever Daddy tried to put Elias to sleep all he wanted to do was play. As soon as I was up he would calm down and eventually fall asleep.