Well, we just finished pizza with part of the parents in our adoption group...time to start getting ready for bed. Ted and I have been eating mostly at our hotel, because our schedule has been unpredictable and we're so tired when it's time to eat, that we haven't had energy to venture out. Our hotel is like a compound in and of itself--set-up to keep the unwanteds out and the desirables in...tonight Malawi was celebrating their National Day at our hotel, so there were all these embassy diplomats arriving in BMWs...there was an SUV with an American flag, so we thought it was either Barack or someone in important. Turns out it was the US Ambassador to Ethiopia and his wife. I tried to make Ted hop off the hotel bench to meet them, but I had to be the assertive one, instead. I introduced myself to them and told them why we were there. Not sure what else was said, except that we told them we were the first group to have to go twice. The ambassador's wife thought 2 trips would give us plenty of time to meet our child and bond...we think we could have gotten that accomplished just fine in one!!!!
Anyway, we can't post pics yet, sorry :(. We may be able to once we pass court on Monday. We saw Gez this morning--Ted got him right after he woke up from his morning nap (we slept in a little). The morning was spent playing in Gez's room with all the children on the floor--the room is probably about 15 X 15', and we had all 6 of them on the floor playing. We think that mostly they play in their cribs because one nanny cannot possibly control the situation with the kind of chaos that ensued today. There are two one-year-olds who are "firecrackers" and are just in to everything! So, we were pretty worn out after spending an hour with them on the floor. We're not sure how one nanny takes care of all of them. It appears that they work in about 24 hour shifts--sleeping in the chair like I mentioned yesterday. We have noticed that Gez is a real snuggler and he loves stuffed animals. He kind of gets mesmorized when a lot of people are around--today we took him out of his room to feed him lunch, and he seemed to like the one-on-one attention. He's pretty mellow, which is good for the two of us, but we'll see how much is just the environment that he's been in and how much is his personality. He loved watching some older boys today when they were eating their lunches!
He really likes his daddy, too. I am glad because, believe it or not, my biceps were a little strained today from carrying him around yesterday. It appears that he is wearing some 9 month clothes, but he really is probably about in the one-year size. He took more steps today, but I think we'll be doing some PT when we get home since he hasn't been using his legs. Not many of the children bear weight on their legs due to being in cribs. And, many of the kids (mostly boys), including Gez, have larger heads because when their malnourished, what nourishment they have goes to their brain/head to try to keep them alive. We think that Gez will grow into his a little more, but he is really beautiful just the way he is.
THANKS TONS for your prayers and thoughts. We love this little guy and can't wait to get him home. Please pray for all the children who are waiting for parents and have had difficult circumstances so far. There is one baby named Isaac with congestive heart failure who appears to be gradually dying...we saw pictures of him when he was younger and he was much larger than he is now. It's hard to tell if he got adopted tomorrow whether he would survive the flight home and surgery to correct his condition. It is really heartbreaking and makes me wonder about so many things...but there will be more time to process all of this later. Some fascinating stuff we learned from a mission's pastor tonight about the work they are doing.
So, goodnight...shopping tomorrow at the local market before we see Gez. Forgive us, God, we are not comfortable enough to travel to church on our own tomorrow :(.
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