Travel Journal: Day 3 & 4: Getting to Know Abraham and Addis Ababa

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.  God sets the lonely in families. - Psalm 68:5-6

Some of the sights and sounds of Addis that stood out to us:

Lots of blue taxi vans, poverty everywhere, goats and cows wandering the streets, crazy traffic, colorful buildings and street vendors, warm and affectionate people who walk down the street with arms around each other or holding hands.  Mangos, bananas, corn, tomatoes, onions, avacados, oranges and limes.  People sleeping in cramped, makeshift structures.  Homemade scaffolding.  Smell of exhaust, animals and body odor.  Bright and beautiful flowers and warm sunshine.

Best of all, Friday was the day that we finally got to meet Abraham!  I was nervous waiting for his nanny to bring him out.  When she finally did, I was taken back, both by his chunkiness and by his pink flowered sleeper.  For a second I thought they had the wrong child, but then I recognized his face.  Oh my goodness, what a feeling to hold the child in your arms that you have fought so hard to make a part of your family.

He let us hold him without crying or complaining  He was so big!  So much bigger than he was when he came into care.  I fed him a bottle and he fell asleep in my arms.  He smiled for us and laughed toward the end.  He connected well with Adam.  It was so good to see him and hold him and kiss him. 

We spent a few hours at the care center getting to know Abraham and seeing the facility where he's spent the past 2 months of his life.  We went upstairs to see the bigger kids and my heart melted.  I ended up staying in there for a long time with Samuel while Dad held Abraham downstairs. 

I was overwhelmed and fought tears the whole time, because each and every child wanted to be held, wanted to be hugged, wanted eye contact and attention.  I hurt for each of them, but found comfort in knowing that they were each here in this "transition" care center because a family was on the way for them.  Thank you, Jesus.  I sat down on the floor and a few little girls who couldn't have been more than 3 or 4 years old went to work happily braiding my hair into cornrows.  I held as many children as I could, and so did Samuel.  My heart broke when the biggest boy there, who was not much smaller than Samuel, also put his arms out to Samuel to be held.

And Samuel did. 

Samuel held that little boy as best he could for a long time, simply because he knew that child needed his love.  I wanted to cry.  Seeing Samuel in this moment alone made me glad that we brought him along. 

I went back downstairs with a heart heavier for orphans than it ever had been before.  We played with Abraham some more.  He has very low muscle tone.  His head had to be supported when we held him, and he wouldn't bear any weight on his legs.  I layed out a blanket on the floor and put him down for some tummy time and his nanny quickly swooped in and flipped him over.  OK, obviously tummy time will have to wait!  He seemed like such a peaceful and content little guy, and I think that God gave us an immediate love for him.

When it was time to go, Abraham cried when we had to set him back in his crib.  I was sad to leave him, but I remember thinking that was a good sign that he cried.  He wants us.  He knows that we are his.

We joined the rest of our travel group for a meal at a kind of scary restaurant.  I was afraid to eat much.  Dad, of course, was not, and completely made up for any culinary adventurousness that I lacked.   A boy who lives across the street from the hotel, Danny, joined us for dinner.  He became our unofficial tour guide, translator and culture coach.  He introduced us to fir fir and to his favorite American songs on his cell phone.  He was a little older than Samuel, and the two became fast friends.

The next morning, Saturday, our travel group went to a cultural museum, which was a very interesting and helpful way to learn about the diversity of Ethiopian culture.  There is so much to this group of people.  We sat down and had coffee and drinks there at the museum, and Samuel had his first Coke.  After the museum, we went to a nice restaurant for a good lunch and (of course) more coffee. I started to learn that while I truly enjoy Ethiopian food, it was hard to feel totally comfortable with the food preparation almost everywhere we went. 

When we got back to the hotel, we had a few hours to hang out in the care center with our kids again. More time getting to know Abraham, his likes and dislikes, and watching the way his nannies interacted with him. I so enjoyed seeing one of his nanies in particular interact with him. She was so affectionate with him. She nuzzled her nose into his neck and kissed his chubby cheeks and squeezed his thighs to elicit smiles and laughs. I loved it. I felt so thankful that God was allowing me to see this loving person who I had prayed for so often.

That evening we went to a cultural dinner, where we were served a buffet of traditional Ethiopian foods and treated to lots of live music and dancing.  Many people in our group had their appetites ruined when "dinner" (a slaughtered lamb) unfortunately pulled up right when we did.  Other than that, the music and dancing was very entertaining, and we enjoyed it very much. 

The song for today is "Fireflies" because it was Danny's favorite, and one that he and Samuel sang back and forth together throughout the week.  We spent many a stroll down the streets of Addis with Danny, singing as we walked.  "'Cause everything is never as it seems...." 

Samuel's Entry: Addis Ababa is very poor. I was amazed at how poor it is. There is one doctor for every 43,000 people here. The hotel is very nice compared to other places. It was horrible. You can't say much more than that because horrible describes everything about how poor the people here are.
When they brought Abraham out, I thought, "Wow, he's really chubby."