Day 3 - Monday "gotcha day" and embassy appointment

4-19-10
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!!

Day 2 Sunday 4-18-10

Here we are with ALL our luggage in the Ethiopian airport!!

Getting ready to get our travel visa.....
~

~

Sunday evening 8:10pm (Ethiopia time) ... 3:10am back home
We have arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!!!!

(Now at the room....)

The plane ride seemed sooo long but God gave us the strength to endure it!

After getting off the plane, we had to go right to the visa line so we'd have a travel visa. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, plus we had so many families who had no clue just like us, with us! Then the sweet Browns who got through the visa line before most of us, gathered our luggage for us and we went out to meet Johannas, the AGCI coordinator - all 7 of 8 families on our trip were on our flight so we got to go through it all together! We are in room 103, it is nice and has Internet, which is of most importance so we can skype with Tyler!!

Off to go unpack and sleep it is now almost midnight here and we have to be up and ready to meet the woman who runs it all over here at 6:30 in the morning!! Our boy will be in our arms in a matter of hours!!!

The water heater in the bathroom :)

Our nice big bed...this was definitely not "roughing it"

Can you see our air conditioner?? Yep, that fan :) It was cool at night though, so it was actually just fine!! So sad that we were comfy in our hotel room and less than a block away, people were living on the streets...oh more to come....

Day 1 of travel 4-17-10

Better late than never...Slowly I hope to type out what I journaled during our trip to Ethiopia to bring Micah home...
4-17-10 Sat. Morning

Well we are a little behind! We were supposed to leave for Detroit then on to Amsterdam and to Ethiopia yesterday, BUT a volcano erupted in Iceland and changed everything! The ashes from the volcano caused problems in the sky and cancelled our flights along with many others and closed several airports! After a full Friday afternoon that was suppose to be spent flying, but was instead spent at my kitchen table on the phone, crying, while trying to find new tickets...we finally did - by the grace of God!
We were originally told we wouldn't get to Ethiopia before Tues morning, causing us to get to Micah 2 days later than planned and make us miss the originally scheduled embassy appointment for Monday morning. However, our travel agent tried one more last thing as we were letting that new plan sink in - and called us back with a new option that would get us there by Sunday night, flying from Indianapolis to DC then to Ethiopia with a small stop in Rome....WE WERE THRILLED!
Many other families are flying into DC also and we will meet them there for the big long flight to Ethiopia. (see picture of some of the group below)
I'm not sure how our week will go now, but I do know we will be holding Micah on Monday!The time is finally here- we are on our way!!
The hardest part so far was leaving Tyler last night!! We had to get up at 4 am to make it to Indianapolis on time, so Tyler stayed the night with Angela (my sister in law) as originally planned. We heard from her this morning that he had a good night and I know he will have a fun week. I just can't wait until we are all home and together!

Sat. evening 4-17-10 8:20pm
We are finally on the plane that will take us to Micah Tirfe!!! 15 hours on this plane is ahead of us, but he is worth every minute!!

- (unknown time)
We are now in Italy!!! Still on the same plane that we boarded in DC but stopped for more fuel and soon we will be on our way! 5 1/2 more hours until we are in Ethiopia!! Praising God!!



This is the tiny plane from IN to DC

Us in the IN airport with our luggage...

Me clinging to my scripture book, homemade by none other than Contagious Cristie! (www.contagiouscrisite.blogspot.com) It kept me calm on that scary, tiny plane!

At the DC airport now, admiring the plane that will take us to our boy!!

Only 2 couples from our entire travel group aren't in this picture and only 1 couple wasn't at the airport! It was a blast to meet everybody before we were worn out from that looooong plane ride!!

This was a site for sore eyes when we sat down on the very plane that I wasn't sure we'd ever get on!!

(more of our trip coming soon!)

Home!

We've been home one whole week today! Crazy to think about, because it seems like it has always been like this!

Tyler and Micah are getting along really good, sure they fight for the same toy and get rough when they're sleepy, but nothing at all out of the ordinary!

Micah seems to be attaching to us good too, daddy is his favorite for sure though! :)

My days are filled to the brim it seems, but there are more and more moments where they are off playing together quietly and I am slowly getting more laundry and dishes done!

Each day brings somthing new and I am constantly laughing at them!

I hope to soon blog about each day of our trip in Ethiopia, God showed us so much and I want to share it all!

Hello from Ethiopia!!!

Introducing Micah Tirfe Walter!! This was taken the day we got to pick him up!! I can't believe how well he has done with us, the first 10-15 minutes he wasn't so sure, but soon after he was smiling, laughing, and now at the end of the week he runs to us and giggles and seems to really understand that we are his parents!!

Sorry this post is so late, but the Internet just got to working really good here.

Our flight is at 4am Sunday morning (east Africa time) - with the 7 hour time change we will arrive at our last airport in Indianapolis around 10:30pm then a 3 hour drive home. Please pray our way home is safe and Micah does well...it is 4 planes all together and around 19 hours of travel time not counting the drive home for a boy who has never been in a car seat!

God has been so good to us and I am so thankful for all of you who have prayed and followed this journey, though our time in Africa is coming to an end, our journey is JUST BEGINNING!!

volcanos, virus, vrooom!

Oh My! What a day/night this has been and is going to be!

First we get word last night that a volcano that erupted in Iceland is causing major ash issues and so planes can't fly or it messes up the engines! So alot of flights are cancelled! We checked on ours and right now we are still not cancelled, but other families have been and so we just don't know how the week will play out. We are supposed to be there Sat night and holding our son by Sun afternoon, but with delays, there is just no way of knowing what will happen! Right now we will just start our journey as planned! I feel like this is Satan's way of trying to steal our joy and allow anxiety to creep in but I refuse to let it happen!!

On top of that, Matt has been up vomiting all night!! Since 1 am to 6 30 this morning! He is asleep now and I'm just praying he feels much better when he wakes up! I don't do flights very well so I need him to be recovered so he can help me! :)

Our first flight is this afternoon around 3pm to Detroit, then to Amsterdam, then to Ethiopia
I hope be hearing the VRROOOM of the plane engine that will take us to our son very soon!!!

Thank you all for praying for us during this wild journey that is really just beginning!!

Getting ready

When I was packing some things today, I couldn't help but try on the baby carrier one last time! There will be a sweet little boy in there in just 5 days!!!!!!!!!!

As the time gets closer to leave, it is definitely getting me more torn up when I think about not being with Tyler for a whole week. He will be having a blast with both sets of his grandparents and will probably barely realize we're gone, but we will miss him sooooo much!!!

I made him a little goodie bag for everyday that we are gone, just filled with something little each day...balls, bubbles, cars, stickers, and for the day we leave when he will stay the night with his 3 cousins he is getting 4 little water guns! :) Aunt LaLa and Uncle G will love me for that one :)

My favorite day is the Friday we come home, Matt picked out a little plane for both the boys and Tyler will get his that day so he'll know we are on our way home with his little brother!! Can't Wait!!