We met another family that was working with our orphanage on Monday morning at breakfast, which made us feel better about being at such an unfamiliar place. A driver was to come around 10:00 am to pick us up and go to the orphanage office to fill out paperwork before going to the big kid house to see the boys.
Long story short, the driver didn't come at 10:00 and by the time we did actually make it to the office, the person we were to meet wasn't even there! I kept thinking...we have waited this long, I guess another hour or two won't hurt, but I was super anxious to meet the boys! We hung out a little while with the babies at the orphanage...I just wanted to put them all in my bag and bring them home!! So cute!
We finally got our paperwork completed around 1:30 and hopped in the car to head to the big kid house to meet the boys. I was a big ball of anxious the whole way there. I didn't really know what to expect when we got there, but as we pulled up, they opened the big gate and we hopped out and went in. It was nap time so all the kids were asleep with the exception of the kids being picked up that day. They were all playing on the stairs and in the front of the orphanage...I can only imagine if I was nervous, what Charlie was thinking. Charlie made eye contact with both of us when we walked in and made a bee line down the stairs to Kenny first, then me. We got a hug and a smile that wouldn't stop! I got busy looking around for Sam and found him playing with a ball on the stairs. He could have really cared less that a strange lady had just scooped him up and was giving him huge hugs and kisses and was totally more concerned that he had dropped his ball! Charlie started rattling off something in Amharic to Sam and I can only imagine that he was possibly filling him in on the whole situation! Charlie took our hands and dragged us up the stairs into the orphanage office where we plopped down and proceeded to play for the next couple of hours.
We had brought backpacks with a few goodies in them for the boys and they both put on the backpacks and would hardly take them off the whole time we were there! As soon as Sam got a little more comfortable with me and I got him to sit in my lap, I realized that we probably had a pretty sick little boy. He was SO hot and coughing continuously. You could tell that he just didn't feel good.
The orphanage staff was great and filled out sheets on both the boys with their schedule, favorites, dislikes, etc and even printed us out a phrase sheet with some things that might be helpful to ask the boys. They were able to answer lots of questions and tell us more about the boys and their habits. They also took me around and showed me the orphanage and where the boys ate, slept, etc. They had a coffee ceremony for us before we left, which was my first experience with a tradition that I discovered I'm not very fond of! For one, all the roasting of the coffee beans and the smoke, just made Sam cough more. And secondly, I'm not a big coffee drinker and I'm terribly sorry, but what they call coffee was just plain yucky! Fortunately Kenny was there and after a few forced sips, I could pass on my little saucer to him to finish it off so I didn't look ungrateful! (Thanks Pookie!)
As we got ready to leave, we discovered that a second driver had not arrived like we had expected and that the tiny yellow car that we had arrived in, now needed to get 8 people back to our guesthouse. All 8 of us piled into a car that should have probably only had 4 people in it...and no seat belts, mind you. Who needs a seat belt when you are crammed so tight in a car that you can't move anyway??
I let the tears flow as we put the boys in the car. We looked up and all of their friends we hanging out of the windows yelling, "Bye Nuredin! Bye Edaso!" They were SO stinking cute and just a reminder that all four of our lives were changing forever!
I'll be honest...Monday night may have been one of the hardest nights of my life. We got back to the guesthouse, attempted to find dinner for all four of us (Kenny and I hadn't had a real meal since Wendy's in the DC airport on Saturday) and started the bedtime routine. The boys were actually doing really well with this huge transition, but their mommy had just had a really emotional day and had kept it ALL bottled in and it was just below the surface, ready to come out! Sam did end up having a pretty high fever once we got back and was coughing to the point that he would almost stop breathing because he would gag himself, which would scare him more, causing him to cry and start the coughing all over again. I felt totally and completely helpless because there was absolutely nothing that I could do to help him. No doctor. No meds. No one to tell me what to do. Just Kenny & I with a kid we had just met only getting like half the oxygen he probably needed! Couple this with the fact that I hadn't been able to get in touch with anyone back home and I was really just needed a short contact with America to know that all was going to be okay! (We did eventually get in touch with Nicole around midnight, which did wonders for my "lack-of-America syndrome"!)
The boys slept great the first night, with the exception of Sam's coughing all night, which kept me up, but didn't seem to phase him! (Can't say the same for Kenny since he slept on a tiny love seat, while the boys slept with me...we had requested an extra twin bed for the boys, but received a crib and a bassinet instead! Yeah, right...like they were gonna sleep in that!)
Next day, Tuesday...our first full day with the boys...
1 comment:
I like Nuredin's hat - did Ken give to him? Kidding! My heart just hurt when I saw your picture of the children at the window saying bye. We'll see you all soon. Much love. Lisa
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