The Post you've all been waiting for....

Hi all,

Well, here in Ethiopia it's 10:30pm, so it's 2:30pm on Monday your time. Well, today we met Eyasu!!! We've were so full of joy and anticipation this morning when we woke up. Everyone in our group was, of course. The other three families who are with us have ALL waited substantially longer than us (2-3 years in some cases) in their adoptions, so I think it was even more unbelievable and surreal for them in some ways. We got up and had breakfast downstairs with the group, then Ben and I prayed together back in our room. God has taught us so much through all of this. We left at 10:00am for the Hilton where we had our 'paperwork party', which went fine. Fami got us through our forms, then Duni gave some instruction and reminders about meeting our kids for the first time. Then, we had lunch there and around 1pm we left for the Transitional Home, where the kids live. Actually, there are two different homes now, but they're very close to each other, about a block away.

So, we all filed out of the van and traded cameras and video cameras around so we could record each others' first moments with our children. The van pulled out to go pick up Eyasu and one of the other toddlers from the home down the road and came back 5-10 minutes later. Then it began, and the nannies started bringing out kids, one at a time. Two other families went first, then it was our turn. Eyasu came walking out, holding hands with the nanny. He came around the corner and there he was!!! He's just really, really beautiful. At first, he was pretty serious and pensive. The nanny encouraged him to come right up to us, but he was slowing down as they got closer. We just smiled and said, "Hi Eyasu! It's ok" and tried to put him at ease. The nanny backed up and we just kept talking to him softly and eventually reached out to touch him. His eyes welled up a little for a minute, but then he was fine, never really crying. He let me pick him up then and we started walking around a little after those first pictures.

Over the next hour, we just started playing together with a ball we'd brought for him. We saw his first smile for us when Ben squashed the ball and let it pop back up. A few more came when we would get his belly button. But the biggest smiles came when we broke open the raisins! :) He would walk around with us and hold our hand as we went through the Transitional Home. We were able to visit in both, as he lived in both for a time. One is for the 2 1/2 yr old and up kids, or so. The other kids were just beautiful and fun to play with, and were well-loved. We were able to meet with the doctor at the home who gave Eyasu a clean bill of health. Eyasu was pretty quiet, and didn't say a whole lot to us during the time, but the doctor said that he was putting words together in short sentences in Amharic, so that's good. We were able to see the bed where he's been sleeping and talk to his nannies (through a translator). By the end of our time, he was really warming up to us and playing with the ball with us more and sitting in our laps. He even took a short rest on Ben's shoulder. It was a great day.

Then it was time to leave, which we all hated to do. But, we'll be back tomorrow to pick them up for good. Tonight, we went out to a nice Indonesian restaurant with authentic food on big pizza-pan sized plates of injera and also tradional dances. All you can say about the dancing is: whiplash. Or maybe: convulsing. More later. I don't know if we'll be able to post photos here. Thanks for praying, everyone!

They are hoping to get a picture to post but apparently they haven't been able to yet.... will post again when I hear more-Marianne