TRIP REPORT - WE'RE HOME!!

Finally home after an exhausting, but event-filled two weeks in Ethiopia. I left on Saturday, February 2, flying via Ethiopian Airlines. My husband's cousin Jane met me in DC and it was so nice to have someone else along. There were adoption bumps and challenges from the time we hit the ground, learning that her paperwork wasn't yet complete and we'd need to start out early the next morning with the govt. offices asking for special favors to get it done in order to leave within 2 weeks to get home. Not exactly what I wanted to hear, and I was thankful I had some Tylenol PM to help me get my rest that first night. The next day was successful on 3 different accounts, with the various offices whose approval we needed to move forward with an embassy medical exam for Eyerus later that week. I was happy to hear this, as it meant that Eyerus could leave the care home and go with us to Mekelle the next day. We headed back to the Hilton and waited anxiously for the nurse to bring her to us in the lobby. When we thought we saw her coming, I said, "oh no, that's not her....she is too little." But as she got closer, I realized it was my little girl - and she was SO TINY!

I scooped her up and just held her close for a long time. She kept giving me alternating kisses on my cheek, and I used my Tigrinya to greet her and ask her how she was and if she was afraid. She told me "no" and just kept bravely smiling and kissing me. We thanked the nurse, who had brought her to us, and then headed up to the room. As we headed up the elevator I couldn't help feeling a bit helpless, even with my basic conversational Tigrinya, and the fact that I had met this little girl 7 months earlier. Here we were, my cousin and I, with this little tiny 9 year old girl who spoke hardly any English, and as we headed into the elevator I thought, "wait...what am I going to DO with her? Umm...someboday help me!" She was completely surprised by the elevator, and I realized that of course, she had never been on one. This was the first of many "firsts" she would encounter that week, and in the coming months. She loved the ride, and after the second trip, wanted to push the buttons, just like all my other kids, every time. The first day was lots of fun - we discovered that she is quite an amazing little girl. As she pulled each item out of her new backpack, she kissed each one, including the new princess panties, saying "thank you mom - oh, thank you!" I found her English to be much better than I was expecting. And when I opened up the "My first 1000 words" book and pointed to a few pictures of fruit, telling her what they were, she then took over...pointing to the word and sounding out "wat-er-mel-on". She can read? I pointed to one letter and she said, "w - wu, a-aaah" I had no idea when she had learned this, and was relieved to find that homeschooling would go a little better than I imagined.

She fell asleep after finishing her dinner that night, while sitting in my lap. She was absolutely beat. I took her up and changed her and put her to bed. She looked adorable in her nightgown, but i quickly realized that she was more like a size 6/7 rather than a 8/9 like I had brought for her. Basically, she was the size of my 7 year old at home. Same height, but 5 pounds lighter. Tuesday was another day full of action, with her first airplane flight to Mekelle, visiting her old care home, eating traditional food, and seeing friends. It was SO nice to land in Mekelle that morning - I have to admit that tears came to my eyes as we touched down. I really felt like I was finally "home". I had missed it so much!

Mekelle was an action-packed 5 days with not enough time to see everyone I wanted and to accomplish all that needed to happen. We saw Eyerus' old home, and her friends, and the cemetary where her mother was buried. We visited our Fields of Promise projects, and met with staff, gave recommendations about the care home, did intakes on 7 more kids, took video of about 25 kids at 3 different locations, went to a rural area where we learned that they really need a small care home to help take care of immediate needs of chidlren, etc. We met with our 42 blind students, who were such a treat, took video of all of them, told them about all the neat things we had brought for them, and heard about how well all of them were doing in school. I visited the home that our caseworker had found for the girls, and LOVED it - so we committed to renting it for 2 years and signed a lease. Up to 13 of the girls will be able to live there once we get it furnished and make some minor renovations. My favorite activity was to use something I had learned from the book, "There is No Me Without You". In it, Melissa Green mentioned a time when Dr. Rick Hodes had asked the Ethiopian children how many bellybuttons they had, and then told them that Ferunjees have 3. I tried this, using my Tigrinya, to a group of street kids huddled around me one day. It was such a hoot. They just giggled and couldn't believe I really had 3...then I asked one if she wanted to come closer and take a look, and when she got to my shirt, I jumped at her really quickly and said, "Boo!". We all had a chuckle at that one, and I have to admit I did it a couple more times during my trip. Another fun time was introducing whoopee cushions from the dollar store to the rural community. Some things in life are universal - and the children absolutely loved these!

Back in Addis, we spent our time shopping, swimming at the Hilton, and worrying about when Eyerus' visa cable would arrive at the embassy. My poor husband was taking care of the other 4 kids and calling senators and emailing and calling govt. offices trying to help me get home. This part wasn't exactly "fun" - so I won't go into detail - except to say that on Thursday afternoon when I finally had the visa interview and was told we could leave the next day, I was quite happy. By this time, 10 days into our trip, Eyerusalem had of course stopped being super-compliant and had begun to exert her will and let us know with her protruded bottom lip when she wasn't happy. I knew enough from our son's adjustment to know that I needed to be firm from the get-go and not over-indulge. To go from so little stimulation to so much all at once is really overwhelming. I realized that just like our other 4 children, this one had her own little sin nature, and would take patience, work, and consistency, just like the others. I was really looking forward to getting home by this time, and I have to say that I was happy to get on that plane and take off Friday night.

The homecoming was sweet - as we walked off the plane, there were my other 4 kids, and my husband, all holding flowers and a balloon and waiting to welcome their new sister and daughter. She kissed all of them, and was excited to finally have some other kids to play with and be around. I was thrilled to be able to share her with Steve, knowing that he would be just as impressed as I was, and would LOVE watching her discover each new thing, as I had been doing for 12 days.

The only hard thing about leaving was knowing that I was leaving behind so many needs, so many friends, and a people that I had grown to deeply love. I was already looking forward to going to work on their behalf - that is, after i catch up on my sleep. Jet lag is a real bummer! Thanks for letting me share!

Pam