Day 5 in Ethiopia ~ Wed

We got back from our last trip to Hannah's Hope about an hour ago, Here is the whole crew - they were an absolutely AMAZING group of people! Love you all!

The last trip to HH was emotional. We went to meet Almaz and get the children's passports and she opened up her heart to us, sharing that she wished there was no need for adoption in Ethiopia- but the fact is, there is and that she is not there working all the time just to give families children - she is there working because children need families! I was very impressed with her - she is stern & organized but so soft and tender too

Her heart for all the children is amazing.

We took another tour of HH, this time all out - went everywhere!

Love this painting as you walk in the "baby building".

We saw Micah Tirfe's room and bed one last time and I even was able to sneak in a little time with Andrea's little man (who is home now! Check them out at http://www.babeofmyheart.com/)

He was so cute and smiling at their family picture!

Some more special mothers tried to kiss Micah T. and he turned into my chest again - I couldn't believe he was already feeling that safe and comfortable with me. But we were able to give out plenty of hugs and kisses to all those wonderful women and men too! Micah was taken such good care of there - I can't say enough good things about HH!

We got back to the hotel about 2:30 and Micah Tirfe fell asleep on my chest :) Him and Matt then napped for over 3 hours!

I had had 2 too many Ethiopian espresso's at the bar that morning so there was no nap in sight for me! So I skyped with family and tried to send Andrea the pictures of her little man.

I miss Tyler soooo much and can not wait to see him!!

After the nap we got ready to go out for the cultural dinner. It was a lot of fun but all the people and noise kinda made Micah act nervous and crazy! He'd be happy one minute then reaching out to strangers the next, then back to us then back to other people in our group - he was all over the place! But over all it was a great time!

Check out the food platter that 3-4 different families shared! YUMMY! ha!

Matt chowed down and so did Micah!

This is Micah with Danny, one of the drivers - he is wonderfuL!

And here is Was dancing with one of the performers! It was sooo cute!

It's a good thing they took that long nap earlier b/c we didn't make it back to the hotel until after 10pm and then there was more family to skype with and Tyler too of course!

I am surprised at how well Micah expresses his needs - It has not been hard to tell when he is sleepy or hungry - It is so funny b/c we packed all this baby food and bottles and he won't have anything to do with it!

He sure does love Ethiopian food but had his first taste of french fries today, and oh my he loved them!

I am so thankful for all the AGCI staff here and their obvious love for the children. Even strangers here love on all the children. It is really sweet.

Tomorrow we will go to the orphanage where Micah was at before going to HH - I'm praying it's not scary for him and am bummed that the Stiver's leave tomorrow!

Day 4 Tuesday

Today was another jam-packed day! First though - Micah Tirfe slept ALL night long! From 9:30 last night to 7 this morning! Matt walked the floor with him again until he fell asleep in his arms.

This is what we woke up to...

We began at 9am going back to Hannah's hope, this time to drop the children off to play while we went shopping. (It is against the law to have adoptive parents out on the streets with the children they are adopting - well that's what we were told) I was uneasy about leaving him and hated it, but Almaz the director assured me he'd be fine -

He was fine for the most part, but cried when we left - though we saw them take him to his "special mother" and he stopped as we were pulling out onto the street. As we drove away we saw him get down and play with the other children.

Shopping was crazy! Negotiating prices is not my thing and the beggars were breaking my heart- It was definitly hard but I am so glad I went. We got alot of thing for the boys and our family. Then they took us all out to eat lunch together...

Once we got back to HH to pick up Micah Tirfe he had just woke up from a nap and was a tad hesitant to come to me but then I got out the goldfish (yeah bribary) and he reached his little arms up to me.

We saw the bed were he had been sleeping and hugged and kissed one of his main special mothers - it was good!

As we were leaving, another special mother came to hug and kiss on him and actually turned into my chest - that felt good that he was already feeling safe enough to turn to me.

He is so shy and serious, yet loudy and playful. He is wonderful.

We also were given a CD of pictures of him with his birthmother after the court appointment back in Feb. I haven't gotten the chance to sit a look at them yet - waiting for a quiet moment!

After hanging out in the hotel room for a while, Shannon (http://www.shannonforthisseason.blogspot.com/) called to see if we wanted to meet them in a big conference room at the basement of the hotel to let the kids run around - So we did and the hotel staff was nice enough to let us eat dinner down there and we a had a mini birthday party for Micah and let him blow out a candle on a little debbie cake! :) His first birthday was 2 days before we made it to him so it was nice to celebrate with our new friends and his old friends!

We skyped again with Tyler once we got back to the room and the boys showed each other their bellies! It was sooo cute and they played pee-pye too :)

We are now showered and heading to bed! Tomorrow we go back to Hannah's Hope to get final paperwork and go out for the cultural dinner!

Still here!

It just hit me the other day, that I had not even finished writing about our week in Ethiopia!!!
We have been home almost 3 months now!! Sorry to have been so slow and seemingly dropped out of the blogging world...which I pretty much did!
It's funny because we started this blog to help me make use of my time and keep me from going crazy during our wait in the early phases of this process, and now here I am chasing 2 boys around the house while I try to type this inbetween messes and boo-boo's!
Time?? What is that and who has it?!
By the time they crash at night, all I want to do is spend a few quiet minutes with Matt and relax!!!
Soon and very soon, I hope to finish the week of our trip and give highlights of our last few months home!!