Well, what a day!! SO much was crammed into it, just one night - a few hours actually after landing here in Ethiopia! Usually we would have arrived Sat night and met our son on Sunday with plenty of time to play with him before scooping him up, and then have the US embassy appointment on Monday...but, today because because we all arrived late due to the volcanic ash - we met our son over just a few minutes before scooping him up and then heading right to the embassy!
Starting at 6:10am Matt and I woke up late- we needed to be fed and ready to go over the final paperwork at 6:30 am! So our day started in a rush to get ready, then we met up with other families at breakfast and went to the lower level of the hotel to go over the final paperwork with Almaz. This was when she told us we'd be picking up our children quickly - no time to play and ease into some kind of transition - just pick them up and get back on the bus to make it for the US embassy appointment at 9:00am.
On the way to Hannah's Hope, Almaz looks back at us and says "Tirfe will have a hard time with this" - So we prayed right then for his little heart to connect with ours...
When we arrived, it was crazy - we waited for parents of older children to get off the bus first and meet them and so while we waited to be called off the bus, we stretched out the windows to get our first glimpses of the REAL him!! Once they told us to get off I tried to blow bubbles and show him a ball quickly, but then Almaz just kinda put him in my arms and shooed us back on the bus! He began to cry when I took him this sad little scared cry that only intensified when we got on the bus that came along with these big crocodile tears. I just held him close to my chest - I'm sure he heard my heart beating out of my chest and I began to hum various songs - about the third song "Jesus loves the little children", he stopped crying and for a little while just layed there with his head on my chest, gripping my shirt, still as he could be.
Not long after he sat up and we tried a few things to get him to warm up and when we played "pee-pye" we got our first smile! It was amazing! Still on the road to the embassy, I was able to give Tirfe (Micah) to Matt and Matt held him and Micah petted his whiskers and Matt held him through the whole time at the embassy appointment. The appointment wasn't as scary as I felt like it was going to be and once we were done, we were playing with Micah as we waited for others and Matt got Micah to laugh! Then on the way back to the hotel, he fell asleep in Matt's arms.
He woke up when we got to the hotel and was nervous again when we got to the room, but we played with Leggos on the bed, fed him goldfish and Cheerios and let him play with our cell phone. After that he was ready to go back to sleep and I was able to get him to lay his head on my chest and we all took a nap - he slept on my for almost 2 hours - it was precious time!
Once he woke up we "skyped" with mom and Pam and most of the family and he just really began warming up! He blew kisses at the computer, waved and laughed some more! He'd get down and run around the room and run right back to us :) It was a great afternoon!
About dinner time we went to the restaurant at the hotel to get a menu and ran into our newest best friends who were from KY too! He invited us up to their room to let the boys play and so we ordered our dinner through room service and all hung out together. Their son is 4 and Micah loves him and always lights up when he sees him - they just played and chased each other laughed - It was so great because Micah would get down and play and always run back to us! We couldn't believe how quickly he knew he was ours :)
Once we got back to the room it was going on 9pm - we tried a bath, but it scared him, so we gave him a baby wipe bath, put new pj's on him and Matt walked him around the room until he fell asleep - He is in the middle of our bed sleeping as I write! God is soooo good! Tomorrow we will get to go spend time at HH and go shopping at a local market!
(Tuesday coming soon!)
Filling out the remaining paperwork EARLY Monday morning
My super excited/nervous face as we are on the way to get our boy!!
First glimpses of Micah from the window of the bus
Our first meeting- I joked that in my mind, there was music playing and birds chirping and the whole nine yards...but actually it was super quick, I was fumbling for anything to get him to warm up to us and yes he cried and cried hard, but not for very long, just minutes really!
Holding him close during our first minutes together as mommy and son...
Matt packing him up the stairs of the hotel to our room after the embassy appointment...
Playing with daddy and his Legos
And then the smiles and laughter began to come naturally!!
