Ethiopia Day 5 (Tuesday)

Day 5 of our trip was nice. Elias was really starting to seem like he was feeling better. He also started to seem like he really enjoyed being with Brian and I. It was our second full day together and the first day where he started to show a preference toward me as opposed to strangers. In Ethiopia it is culturally acceptable to grab a stranger's baby from their arms and dote all over the child. At the Union, at restaurants, anywhere we went...someone was taking the baby from me to hold him, make faces at him, and kiss all over him. Usually if I had him in the Moby people would refrain but sometimes they started pulling him out of the Moby without even speaking to me first. I never quite got used to this. Anyway, on this day Elias started to fuss and cry when someone would take him from Brian or I. I almost always held him when we were out and around other people so usually they were taking him from me. Twice on this day someone took him from me and gave him back immediately when he started fussing. Once it was at the hotel and once at HH. Both times the Ethiopian women commented that he already knew his Mommy. After such a hard first day with him this was absolute music to my ears.

Playing with DaddyBreakfast and a snooze with Mommy

Day 5 for us was supposed to be a shopping day but we ended up having our appointments at the U.S. Embassy which had been cancelled the day before. The nice thing was we got them done first thing in the morning since there wasn't an actual appointment time like there normally is. We hopped into the van and took a half hour ride to the Embassy. The building was very stark looking...actually it reminded me of the Russian Embassy we used to live by in Washington, DC (on a much smaller, cheaper scale). The building was painted white concrete if I remeber correctly (we weren't allowed to take cameras with us) with barbed wire at the top like a prison. It wasn't big and had we just been driving by I never would have guessed it was an Embassy at all. The U.S. certainly isn't dumping a lot of money into this office :) We walked through 2 security check points and passed up a few different rooms full of Ethiopians. I guess when you are going to your own Embassy you get to pass up the lines and get treated like a VIP. Makes sense I guess, although I felt guilty getting to walk past everyone just because I was white/American.

We went to a waiting room where we all waited for our names to be called over an intercom. Since only 3 families were in our travel group it went super fast and within 15 minutes we were leaving. Brian and I were last. We walked up these steep stairs and there we found a bunch of windows like you would at the DMV and another waiting area (again like the DMV, again filled with only Ethiopians). We walked right to the window. An American guy who obviously wasn't all that thrilled with his job asked us a couple of questions (i.e. What happened to his family? Did you give the family anything? Is this the child you were referred?) and said "Congratulations" (in a monotone, I hate my job kind of voice). That was it. Very anti-climactic. Then we made the 30 minute van ride back to HH.

Our travel itinrary had been completely screwed up. We now had absolutely nothing planned the entire day and it was only 11am. Almaz decided that maybe we should do the cultural dinner tonight instead of waiting another day. We were all for it. At this point I had not been out in the city except for the drive from the airport (at 3am) and the trip to the embassy. I was itching to see Addis.

Almaz invited Emily along to the cultural dinner so she came over to spend the rest of the day with us. This ended up being our only day that we did not get to see Alemu and Israel.

We were now on day 3 with Elias (our 2nd full day) and he still had not pooped. After that first rough night where he refused to eat we noticed he also was not pooping so we started making all of his bottles with a mixture of juice and water. Bethany had warned me beforehand that the American formulas are richer and will cause constipation. I would have had no idea what to do but my brilliant friend and experienced Mommy told me to take along the little Gerber juices and instead of using all water to make a bottle use half juice/half water. Well we were on our 3rd day with no poop despite the juices. We were hanging out in the room and Emily and I were on the big bed and Elias and Brian were on the small bed looking out the window. Elias was on Brian's lap. All the sudden Emily and I hear, "I think poop is leaking." Then Brian takes it up a notch in volume and panic level and says, "Poop is leaking on me!" Again the volume goes up even louder in a a voice of sheer terror Brian yells, "He's pooping on me!"

By this time Emily and I are laughing so hard we can hardly breathe. Eventually we stop laughing at Brian and decide to help. We gave Elias a bath while Brian changed his shorts. Luckily he had on his board shorts so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Auntie Em with Elias hanging out at the Union hotel.
"You people are always taking pictures...stop!"
Ysaac and Elias Hana and Elias

The older kids loved Elias so much. They were all so good with him. Ysaac and Yohanes would take him anytime they could. We would be hanging out in the lobby or eating a meal and I would look around to try and "find" my baby. He was always surrounded by the wonderful kids in our travel group. Of all the kids, Hana was the most fond of Elias. I am pretty sure she loves babies in general but she had a special love for "Besu." Anytime we were walking as a group (usually just to HH or back to the hotel) Hana would be my shadow. This may come as a shocker but it was not because she thought I was amazing...she wanted to be by her Besu. I love Hana - what a sweet girl. At one point she was trying to figure out how far Illinois and California were from each other.

Taking advantage of working internet while the opportunity was there.

The Abyssinian Cultural Dinner

Here it is in all its glory. Ethiopian food. The older kids were in heaven!

Elias did surprisingly well at this event. We ended up not getting back to the Union until around 9:30pm and his regular bedtime was 6:30. Elias absolutely loved all the music and dancing. There was so much to keep him entertained by. We put him in his p.j.s before we went but there was no way this kid was going to doze off with so much going on.