Ethiopia {Trip 1}

Here is the most recent picture we've received of our daughter! Taken by a wonderful family who was traveling for their adoption of two amazing boys who we fell in love with while we were there!
Call me biased, but isn't she absolutely beautiful?!!!  What a gift she already is to our family!

Ok...I've been putting this post off for long enough! Here is a recap of our first trip to Ethiopia and meeting our sweet Ava Hiwot. We were able to spend a week with our daughter as well as see parts of the beautiful country that will now be a part of our family forever. 

The purpose of this trip was to attend our court appointment where we appeared before an Ethiopian judge, who declared Hiwot to be officially and legally our daughter. While this was a huge step in the journey to bring her home, the Ethiopian adoption process requires two trips.  We now have to wait for the U.S. Embassy to give her clearance to come to the states.  As soon as we receive that (hopefully sometime within the next month), my mom and I will hop on a plane to cross the globe once again...this time to bring our daughter HOME for good!!! Just typing that makes my heart want to burst.  Saying goodbye to her was awful and we are aching to get her home.  

This post is to share with you all the highlights of our trip.  I could seriously write a book about the details of each day and the emotions of each moment, but A-that would take FOREVER, and B-much of it just doesn't feel right to share online for all to see.  Regardless, this is still kind of long, so grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!!

On February 27, after an excruciating wait, we got the call from our agency telling us that we had a court date and we could finally travel to Ethiopia to meet our daughter!! The catch was that we had to be in the air in just over 48 hours! And a crazy 48 hours it was, but I wouldn't change a thing.

Off we go!!!

We arrived in Ethiopia late at night on March 2 and were taken to our agency's transition home.  This is where the children stay once they have been matched with a family, as opposed to their orphanage.
  

  

                             Our home for the week.

Our window looked out to the courtyard where we could see all of the rooms where the kids were sleeping. The combination of exhaustion and knowing that my daughter was sleeping practically within arms reach made it all seem like a dream.  The fact that we would be meeting her in the morning and I would finally get to wrap my arms around her seemed so surreal.

DAY 1

I woke up EARLY due to the time change and I used the opportunity to write Hiwot a letter. I will just tuck it away and maybe give it to her when she's older.  I'm so glad that I was able to get all of my thoughts down during this sweet moment while I watched out my window to where she was sleeping.  It worked out nicely as I was able to get lots of tears out before actually meeting her!

The courtyard- this is where the kids play and you can see the doors to their rooms in the purple buildings.

As the sun came up we started to hear and see kids coming out from their rooms and suddenly I saw HER!!!  She was walking across the courtyard toward our building. We scrambled around to get our cameras and some sweet friends who were traveling with us for their own adoption volunteered to take video and pictures of the big moment. 

We went downstairs to the common (living room type) area and waited.  Before too long one of the older girls brought Hiwot into us.  

And of course the entire world stopped spinning.  

She shyly walked to us and I got down to give her the hug of my dreams. She was even more beautiful and sweet than I could have ever imagined. When I saw how shy and quiet she was, my main concern was making her feel comfortable. I told her how pretty she is and we all gave her hugs. It was kind of hard with the language barrier...  I knew she had no idea what any of us were saying!  Big brother Caleb came to the rescue by getting a bag of treats that we had brought.

The moment we had been waiting for!

  

We quickly discovered that she's a big fan of lollipops!

She began to come out of her shell as the day went on.  The big ice breaker was when daddy let her paint his nails bright pink! That definitely got some giggles.

  

Lucky for Paul, it was the kid friendly kind that just peels off!

I kept having to remind myself that we were actually there! With our daughter! Again...so surreal.

Being able to play with her, hear her precious voice and give her snuggles was amazing. 

She warmed up to Caleb and Weston quickly...especially when they were giving her lessons on the DS!

We spent the remainder of the day playing with Hiwot as well as all of the other kids. Unfortunately I can't post pictures of them, but suffice it to say that they were all beyond adorable and I wish I could have fit every single one of them in my suitcase! Caleb and Weston were quickly welcomed by two older boys and spent lots of time playing soccer with them.  Paul had a fan club of toddler boys who hardly left his side, and I had my own personal beauty salon with girls painting my nails and playing with my hair.  All the while, Hiwot didn't stray far from us and I made sure that she knew we were HERS!!

The general routine of the week was- spending the morning with Hiwot at the transition home and then heading out for the afternoon. They really wanted us to soak in as much culture as possible.  Of course I would have loved to spend every second with our girl, but we all really did enjoying getting a good feel for Hiwot's home country. Ethiopian culture is now a big part of our family so it was neat to see it all up close and personal. 

Day 2 

We went to the top of Entoto mountain which has a beautiful view of the capital city and is the site of one of the first churches in Addis Ababa. 

When we got back to the transition home, I got a special treat! I was holding Hiwot on my lap and she fell asleep.  I got to hold her sleeping for over an hour and I loved every second!

Day 3 

This was the big day! We went before the Ethiopian judge and were declared her parents forever!!!

Here we are afterwards, ready to celebrate at the Sheraton Addis.

And of course we spent more time playing with our sweetie.  She is obsessed with bubbles!!! 

Day 4

This was the day I had been most looking forward to. We traveled to the city of Adama which is where Hiwot is from. I knew that this was our chance to soak in as much as we could about her past. We were able to visit her original orphanage as well as learn more about her story.  It was a very emotional day, but it was a true gift to be able to learn details about her life that I would have otherwise been left wondering about.

The city of Adama

Feeding the monkeys!

I have to take a moment to brag about these two AWESOME travelers!! They handled two nearly 10 hour back-to-back flights to Ethiopia, dealt with having our time of days/nights flipped, HOT weather, third world conditions, and driving in a van for hours like TOTAL ROCKSTARS!!!! We were SO proud of them and so were the other families that we traveled with, as well as Woudneh (or agency's in-country director). We love you Caleb and Weston and are SO glad that you got to come with us to see where your sister is from!!!  (Isaac held down the fort at home with my mom :)).

The gates of Hiwot's orphanage

We really enjoyed meeting Eden, the founder of Noble Action orphanage. She takes amazing care of the children there and is doing wonderful things in her community including educating moms and helping with orphan prevention. We would love to work with her in some form in the future!  We'll see what God has in store.

That was the longest day of the week, by far. When we got back to the transition home I practically sprinted to Hiwot's room, but she had already fallen asleep in her little bed :(. 

Here she is, sleeping with the quilt I made for her and one of my necklaces that she wore almost the whole time we were there.  Of course the necklace ended up staying with her!

Day 5

Thursday morning I got out some necklace making supplies. All of the kids loved it. Hiwot made one that said 'mom' and I made one that said 'Hiwot'. 

Up to this point Paul and I both really tried to focus on being in the moment with her, but knowing that we would be leaving the next day started to weigh heavy on us.  There were several times when I just had to go to my room to pull myself together and put on a brave face for Hiwot.  I was going through the day with a constant lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. 

That afternoon we went to a resort on a lake.  It was beautiful and kind of a nice reprieve from the "normal" conditions. We were able to enjoy an American style lunch overlooking the lake and then the boys went kayaking! It was super HOT, but we had a great time. To all of you LL/WS families- I highly recommend this outing!

Our view at lunch

Day 6

The day we had been dreading.  Luckily there were no outings planned for us, so we were able to spend the entire day with Hiwot. We were scheduled to leave the transition home after dinner that evening.  We tried to make the most of the time we had left. We were able to have some of the older kids translate for us and we made SURE that she understood what was going on and that we WOULD be back for her. 

More nail painting!

We put a family picture by her bed. I hope it's still there!

I snuck away for a quick shower before our long flights home and to finish getting us all packed up. When I went to find her eating dinner I could tell that she was sad.  I just held her and started bawling. The older girls were saying "don't cry, don't cry" and brought me tissues.  They had clearly seen this before.  She just snuggled into me and I held her for a long time. I had brought her a new pair of pajamas, so we walked to her room to lay them on her bed.  By now they were loading up our luggage and we were all a complete mess! 

Here's proof.  My poor boys were so sad to be leaving their new friends and Hiwot. 

All loaded up.

I cannot tell you how much we loved the other families that we were there with.  When it came time to leave, I started panicking because I didn't want to just leave Hiwot alone in the dark courtyard.  My sweet friend Jessica (who is adopting one of Hiwot's friends) was kind enough to take her and hold her for me as we drove away.  I literally felt sick and I cried most of the way to the airport.  

I don't know how I would be making it through this waiting period if it wasn't for my faith.  I know that God is holding her in his mighty hands right now and that is where I find comfort.  Looking back over the past year I have seen God at work throughout this entire journey.  It is so humbling and amazing to be a part of his plan for sweet Hiwot.  When people tell us how great or amazing we are for adopting, I have to chuckle.  WE have been blessed beyond our wildest dreams all because we stepped out in faith.   It is so true that God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called.  We are proof of that! All the glory goes to HIM and I know that Hiwot will be home in his perfect timing.

We would love your prayers for our case to be submitted to the Embassy this week! I will be sure to keep everyone updated. So many of you have shown us such generous love and support over this past year.  We will never be able to thank everyone sufficiently, but I hope that when you look into the eyes of my daughter, you will know that you are a part of her story and we are forever grateful.

Mommy's coming back soon sweet girl!!!