I woke up feeling exhausted and worried about Minow. We had machiattos and crossiants at the pastry shop in the Hilton complex. Today is the day of waiting. We were waiting to hear from Gail about Minow’s status and what needed to happen next in the process for us to be able to get him home ASAP. Again let me just say how hard the staff in Addis works, they are amazing and after having seen the “behind the scenes” work I am amazed that our adoptions can happen as fast as they do.

We called Gail after breakfast and found out what time one of us needed to go to immigration. I decided that I would go–I really needed to be doing something that would seemingly help us get Minow home. Hubby, his mom, and my brother went out and explored the city, as hubby really needed to get him mind off of what was going on. Minow was still in the hospital and would be staying another night. We did not talk to the doctor, maybe in hindsight we should have. Immigration was a bust, the passport was not ready yet. But it was really interesting. I was ushered into a room by Yared that had on long bench on the back wall and 8 shorter benches. These are what we would consider regular size benches. There must have been 150 people sitting on these benches. This is so not something you would see here in America where we are all concerned about our personal space and about what I want/need. No one said no to someone else who wanted to squeeze on their bench. They all moved down and it was completely uncomfortable. But I had myself wedged on the end of a bench after being offered the 2 inches of space.

The people in Ethiopia are so amazing. That evening hubby and I debated about going to the hospital to see Minow. I couldn’t bear to go see him and not bring him home. Maybe that makes me a bad mom, but I couldn’t do it. I didn’t want my early memories of him to be filled with the image of that hospital. I couldn’t do it. So, we had dinner and watched the hours tick by until the next day. We were certain we would be bringing him with us then.

We went to bed the night before knowing that Gail would be picking us up at 11am to go to Wanna to get our babies. We did not know at this point if Minow was still in the hospital or not. The anticipation was nearly too much to bear. But there we were with our diaper bags and carriers ready to bring the children we have loved from afar into our families–there were 2 other families there with us, also picking up babies. I could hardly think and was completely unable to put toghether any words. Gail picked us up–about 15 min late and we all squeezed into the SUV. We asked about Minow and found out then that he was still in the hospital and that they would be bringing him to Wanna around 12–well as I now know they meant “ethiopia time”; no not the 6 hour time keeping difference, but the “nothing is really done on time” time. We were then also informed that we would be going to immigration with Minow to get his Ethiopian passport and then he would have to go to the hospital. This was hard. I wanted him to be well and we were worried.

We arrived and wanna and were taken to the baby house and we watched as the other 2 families received their babies. It was bittersweet. I was happy for the other families but I was also so very jealous that we were not yet united with our baby. We watched and waited and waited. I took pics of the other families and other babies while we were waiting, but it was growing more and more unbearable as we waited and watched the time past. We were there for nearly 2 hours before Minow was carried in. We only noticed it was him because we asked. NO one was there other than the care givers to explain to us his condition and I was not given him right away. We saw him, but he had spit up so they wanted to change him and I did not have he ability at that moment to articulate that I wanted him and I wanted him right then and there.

Holding him for the first time was absolutely amazing…

He was sick, he looked sick and had a fever. I was worried for him, but was happy to be holding him. My heart just melted and I no longer even thought about how long we had waited to see and hold him. Watching my hubby hold Minow for the first time was also so very amazing. It was the first time that he had ever held a baby and it is so cool that our baby was the first.

We were then whisked off to immigration. This was an experience and part of the process that happens behind the scenes. We had to be there because we were trying to get an expedited passpor for Minow. I have never seen anything like it, people everywhere, just waiting and moving from office to office and lots of business done with nods and handshakes, etc. We never waited in line and we were ushered from here to there and it was hard to believe that anyone actually is ever able to get a passport. I enjoyed it, only because I got to be with my son. I knew that when we were done we would have to leave him in the hospital. I was not looking forward to that. I was not worried about leaving him in the hospital because I knew and accepted that fact that he was still sick and needed more than I could give him, but it did sadden me to leave him, but it was easier than I thought. Part of that is due to he fact that I was not yet attached to him.

We left the hospital hoping that the next day we would be able to bring him home.

We have arrived home unscathed from 24 hours of actual traveling, that does not include the 3 hours early we arrived at Bole Airport prior to our scheduled departure of 7:05am. I can hardly believe that it–the adoption-really happened but as I sit here at 2:30 am watching my little Minow sit in his swing and “talk” I know it couldn’t be more real. I have been awake for nearly 48 hours now–I am not counting the short cat naps I managed on the planes. I just wanted to update that we are home and that our boy is the most amazing boy in the world. We had such and experience in Ethiopia and I will post about each day starting tomorrow. Also, I will keep my blog running, but the quest has come to fruition. I now need a new name for the blog–suggestions please…..

Lots of pics to come.

We have been in Ethiopia for a week now. Today was the day we were to be flying home with our little Minow. Our Embassy interview is tomorrow as our agency has worked hard to get that for us so that we could leave as soon as possible. We tried to get a flight out and Friday was the earlies day we could fly out on our same route. We could not change our route, and even if we did we would still have arrived home on Friday Sept 1st, just a little earlier in the day. We are leaving the Hilton today to move to our agencies guest house. I will miss the Hilton but am looking forward to being in a house. There will be 2 or 3 other families there and that will be really nice.

Minow is doing great. He eats, sleeps, eats, plays, eats, sleeps, eats….you get the idea. He smiles constantly and only cries when he is hungry. He can sleep anywhere and that is really nice. He hasn’t slept in a crib yet, we have had him sleep in bed with us–which I will admit is something I said I would never do, but I can’t bear to be away from him. When we get home I will put him in a crib, I think…who knows.

We took a day trip yesterday to Sodere and Debre Zeit and Nazret. The country side is so beautiful, I really recommend that everyone take a day trip out of Addis to see the country it beautiful. It really puts things in perspective. We were thinking about going to Axum next week since we will be here, but we haven’t decided. It is really hard and tiring traveling with a baby, especially when you are only traveling for a day or two. Well, I will post pics when I get home. I will be taking more photos at Wanna this week and maybe at Layla if we can make it there.

Well, I will post more when we are back in the states about the whole experience which as been amazing.