Ethiopia, Day 1

We arrived into Addis Ababa last night with an uneventful flight and taxi ride to our guest home.   PTL.   Safe and sound in our guest house, we were awakened at  2:30 a.m. to Orthodox prayers from about 3 or 4 churches across the valley (we sit slightly up on the hill).   While Ethiopia is an impoverished country by many standards, they do not spare any expense on their PA systems.  Honestly, it sounded like we were a block away from Bryant Denny Stadium in a close game.   On and on the prayers went on into the evening and then at 4:00 a.m., there was a most blessed, blessed silence.  Cue the rooster.  Then more prayers.  Finally, all the neighborhood dogs started to match the pitch of the prayer caller and all we could do was laugh and cry at the same time.   Somehow with the help of ear plugs and utter depletion, we fell asleep.  

We went downstairs and met the other families who are staying at the same guest house.  What a difference daylight makes.  I cannot tell you how absolutely delightful they all are.   We all joked about the prayers and introduced ourselves over french toast, scrambled eggs and Ethiopian coffee.  We compared stories (how many kids at home, are you here for Embassy or Court appointment, where are you from, what kind of formula did you bring, etc.).  It was nice to be among other families who have all experienced international adoption and all its blessings and....non-blessings.  

After lunch, Paul fell in to a coma and I went with Jada and Todd, a fun couple our age also adopting their first child, to a market for some souvenirs and then to a coffee shop.  We bought a ball for some of the neighborhood kids who play in the alley behind our guest home.  These children are perfectly happy to play with a sock full of pebbles and a tree branch, so the ball was a huge score for them.  They are so warm and loving to us.  I hope Benjamin has inherited their sweet Ethiopian dispositions and that he will have enough imagination to find adventure and possibility in found or common objects. 

Tomorrow around 9am, our lives change as they hand over Benjamin to us, his forever parents.  PARENTS!   I am reminded of the words of Khalil Gibran, "Your children are not your children, they are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself".   However you come into that wonderful, mystical force of parenthood (biological or adopted children), you are changed forever.  I imagine your DNA is altered and your heart grows a fifth chamber that your children occupy for the rest of your lives.  Through God's grace, we're being given the opporunity to continue the life of one child on this earth.  Even if you joke and tell us “wait till he’s thirteen”, we are looking forward to it all.  Let the adventure begin.    

With love,

Mandy & Paul