Ethiopia day 1...

This is the daily journal I wrote while we were in Ethiopia...so it is kind of rough, but it is just all what we did and felt as it happened. Sorry it has taken a mere 3 weeks to get this out. Oops.

We made it to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia! The flight here was grueling…almost 11 hours in layovers, 36 hours of flying, no sleep for the first 24 hours and lost luggage along the way, but alas we touched down in Addis and it was all over! We arrived on Sunday morning, May 25, and met Travis, our in country rep and Tefasse our driver and they took us out for lunch at a café called Kaldi’s. It looks exactly like Starbucks, right down to the logo and they mimic a lot of the items that are in our beloved American Starbucks. They made us delicious macciato’s and fresh squeezed orange juice. They were both the best we’ve ever had! Then, we were off to the supermarket to buy a few items- mainly bottled water, since the tap water here would make us sick. (side note: ummm, yeah, or maybe we would get sick even if we didn't drink the water. :)Travis and Tefasse took us to the Ayat House- where we will be staying for the rest of our time here. This is the front yard- so beautuful! On the way to the house we saw so many beautiful, sad and interesting things…donkeys wandering all over the place, cows and goats hanging out in the cemetery, with vultures flying low over it as well. Eeks! There are just so many people wandering around the streets. Many of them are selling things, anything from pieces of broken glass to large sticks to build fences with. The poverty is quite overwhelming, but the people seem to be so happy with their lives. It is beautiful.
We arrived to the Ayat House around noon and we went to our room to shower and brush our teeth (unfortunately, we forgot our toothbrush) while Travis went across the street to go get Malak from the Gladney Foster Center for us! It was the fastest shower of our lives as we were a little too excited and wanted to go see our son for the first time! I'm so excited. And I just can't hide it. I'm about to lose control and I think I like it. Woohoo.When we finished we went down to the living room and waited…it felt like forever and finally we heard the front gate open and Travis called out, wondering if anyone around here was looking for a baby. J He walked in the room carrying a precious little boy who was dressed in his favorite pink shirt with poofy sleeves and a butterfly on it and jeans. He is so handsome! (even when wearing girls clothes) As soon as I saw him a started to cry and then he handed him to me and I cried more. Eric and I ooed and aahed over him for quite some time, just taking in everything about him.His skin is so much darker than we could tell from pictures, his hair is very short and wavy except for one side has a patch that is a little longer and curly, his skin is literally as smooth as anything you can imagine, it is heavenly! He has two teeth on the bottom! And he likes to bite his mom and dad’s fingers…hard! He is a drooly mess, all the time. Travis told us that he is always content just laying there, and that he is the most even tempered guy he’s ever met…but now we have seen all of the other sides to Malak that others may have not seen yet. He seems to be comfortable with us and we can make him laugh easily.
We were finally alone in the house and we had the rest of the day with nothing to do but play with our son. It was amazing to just sit with him and play with him, find his ticklish spots and just stare at this boy that we have been longing to hold for so long! We are completely smitten by him! As we got to know him more he started relaxing and letting go- he would lay on the bed with daddy and just scream at the top of his lungs, he made himself laugh so hard, he just kept on going! Then he would coo and talk and then yell some more, it was so hilarious (even he thought so) that we were cracking up. My cheeks hurt from laughing so much.
He went down for a nap and so did mom and dad who were wiped from traveling for three days, but it only lasted about 45 minutes. He was so happy when he woke up so it was hard to be annoyed at the lack of sleep. We then gave him his first bath (with us) in the bathroom sink, we tried to let him sit in it but he would only lay in it with his legs crossed, it was funny to see him lounging in the tub.