Travelogue - Day Two

It's Christmas Day. It's mid-morning before anyone mentions it and the response from most people is "oh yeah - it's Christmas". All the other families in our travel group are staying at the same hotel. There are several other American families there too - adopting through a different agency.

Those in our group all have a hint of anxiety in their voices. This is the day we all meet our kids. We don't get to do that until closer to noon (it was torture). We all made our way to the agency office across town for our orientation. We reviewed the schedule for the week. We learned a few key phrases in Amheric ("I'm hungry", "I'm sleepy", etc.) and met the in-country staff who have coordinated all the details in Ethiopia.

It was finally time to head for the Care Center. You could feel the tension and excitement from everyone.


We walked up the steps of the care center and entered the front room. They had set up a circle of chairs for us. There was a table in the middle with cake, popcorn, and cups. Along the right side were two rows of toddlers dressed in traditional Ethiopian outfits. The Care Center staff was passing out candy (taffy and full-sized candy bars). "Sister", the head nurse (she's not a nun - they call nurses sisters in Ethiopia), welcomed us.

We were prepared for others to talk and provide some information on how this process was going to work. There really wasn't any. All of the sudden they started bringing children in and calling people's names. We all looked at each other and said, "Is this really how this is going to happen". It was chaotic and weird.

After a few kids had been delivered (that's really how it felt) to new parents in the middle of the circle, I saw Colin coming down the stairs and poked John in the ribs. I hadn't spotted Seth yet. There were a few kids in front of Colin on the stairs so we had to sit and wait our turn. More torture. Colin finally made it down the stairs (being held by a nanny) and we heard "Low - Vit Family". But still no Seth. They delivered Colin to John and I scanned the room. There he was - he had been sitting in the rows of toddlers the entire time and we didn't know it. I felt bad that I hadn't picked him out from the crowd right away. I kissed Seth on the cheek and he appeared unmoved by it. He wasn't timid or scared. Just kept eating his taffy and looking at the ground. Colin sucked on his thumb and stared at John as if to say, "What a strange looking person you are." People clapped and took pictures and video. I cried but tried to hide it so Seth didn't think something was wrong. I wanted him to know that it was all going to be okay.

We quickly got out of the way for the next family that was already being called to the center of the circle for their meeting and picture taking.

We sat back down in our seats with two kids on our laps. I stroked Seth's arm - he kept eating candy. It smelled like oranges. Colin was on John's lap, turning arond several times to examine his face and stroke his goatee.

Before we knew it - the nannies were delivering two HUGE pieces of cake to the children. Seth seemed disinterested so I gave it back (he had orange taffy in one hand and a huge chocolate bar in the other). John took the other plate. Colin grabbed the fork and stuffed his face full of cake. The staff brought two more pieces for the parents. We declined. My stomach was turning and churning already with all the excitment.


After the excitment calmed down, John and I took the opportunity to head to the playroom where the other children were playing. Seth headed for his friends and John followed behind - keeping his distance (we didn't want to smother him). I held Colin and we watched from the sidelines.

Seth was happy playing with his friends but kept his eyes on the floor. But then we noticed that whenever he would do something that he felt good about, sliding down the slide, or swinging on the swings - he'd quickly look up to make sure that we were watching. When he saw that we were, he'd look back down to the floor but smile sheepishly.

The plan was to spend time with the kids for a couple hours before their naptime. It felt like 5 minutes when the nannies came back and took the kids away. Part of me felt sad that they were leaving but the other part of me felt relief to have some time to process all that had happened in this short time. John and I both took a deep breath and headed back to our hotel for some lunch.
Several of the families ventured out in the city for lunch at a place that looked like Starbucks but served sandwiches and hamburgers. This is where my love of Ethiopian french fries began. It became my fallback food when I couldn't find something else on a menu to eat.

Christmas Dinner

We had more meetings and paperwork at the head office that afternoon. Then it was back to the care center for more time with our sons. We played in the playroom some more. Most other families were adopting infants so they sat and rocked their babies and watched our family play. Seth and I stacked blocks. This is where I heard his quiety little voice counting blocks with me (see previous post). Seth warmed up to us well and when it was time to say goodbye, John asked for a hug. The nannies understood what John wanted and told Seth in Amheric. Seth quickly turned around and wrapped his arms around John's neck. I could tell it was a good strong hug. I held my arms out to signal that I wanted one too. Seth ran over and hugged my neck tight. It felt amazing. He smiled at me and I kissed his cheek. The nannies brough Colin back over for some goodnight kisses.

The boys stayed at the Care Center overnight to ease into the transition of being with us. We spent time with them during the day and they could sleep and be cared for by the people they had become used to at the Care Center.

We headed back to the hotel for dinner and phone calls home. We had an international calling card that would get us about 7 minutes of talking time with each of our families.

It was an exhausting but wonderful day.

Coming up on day three - A trip to a museum (I would rather have been with the kids) and more play time.