Meeting Merete

Now that I have a chance to go into detail, I can describe a bit more of what we've been up to these last 3 days!

Wednesday: Long boring day! We left the house at 9:45am, got the airport just in time to wait around for 3 hours. Then we landed in DC and waited for another 4 hours. By 8:45pm we finally took off for Ethiopia!

Thursday: At some point, Wednesday turned into Thursday. The flight was long, but all 3 of us did very well. The food they gave us was actually pretty good. We had lunch, breakfast, and dinner. We had personal video screen on which to watch one of 5 movies, but none were really kid appropriate. E slept the first half and stayed up a bit the second half, which I think helped him sleep through the night once we arrived at our guest house.
Once we landed in Ethiopia, we stood in line for our visas, then stood in line to show passports, then got our luggage and went through customs. By then we had meet two of the other families traveling with us. We all made our way to the bus, but not before Han got scammed out of $20 (someone pushed his cart and wanted a tip). Another family got harassed for a tip once we left (people helping load up the van), but we had figured otu what a reasonable tip amount was by then.
I couldn't see much from the bus because it was already dark, but I can say that paved roads are not the norm. At one point I think we drove through a construction zone, which was rather bumpy. For our driver is excellent and the rides haven't been as scary as I thought they'd be from previous descriptions (maybe that'll change!). Anyway, we made it to the larger guest house, which is hosting most of the families and is where we have our meals. They also have the best courtyard and E is constantly asking when he can go play there. That is also when we got Merte's social report! It was so amazing to see so many pictures with him smiling! They had nothing but nice things to say about him. Like I said in the previous post, he tends to be shy at first, but he's gotten over that at the care center and he plays every well with the other children. He's a lefty (finally, a comrade!), he sleeps well, potty trained, all that good stuff. It was close to 9 when we made it to the smaller guest house, where we are staying. I was sleepy and dizzy, but decided to take an ambient to ensure I'd have a restful night. Apparently it took much faster and harder than it had when I had practiced at home, 'cause by the time I took my shower, I feelt like I was half asleep. Apparently I helped E brush his teeth, but I don't remember any of that. I was completely out and slept like a rock until 5:30 am, which isn't much earlier than I wake up at home.

Friday: The big day, when we meet Merete! But first we headed to the larger guesthouse for breakfast (pancakes). Then we went to the school, where the 3+ children were. There were 2 other families with school aged children. They took us to a room and brought us out one family at a time to meet our children. One woman went first, and within a couple minutes she had her daughter back in the same room with us. The other couple went next, but they didn't come back in. Han took that chance to go to the bathroom, and of course that's when they called us to go in! They had someone following us with a video camera to capture everything). They took us to his little classroom, where he and 3 other children were working. I spoted him right away and he gave me this sheepish little smile and just started at me. I talked to him and smiled but didn't want to freak him out by just grabbing him. Suddenly he got out of his seat and gave me a huge huge and lots of kisses. It was so amazing to finally be able to hold him! He's such a little guy, but he looks very healthy. He hugged Han and E, then we all headed outside to play. He and E started throwing the ball to each other and laughing. There were other families there with their children, plus a bunch of other children all playing together. We shared Merete's bubbles, which were a huge hit with everyone. Merete loved the little cars E gave him and held on to those practically the hole time. Merete and E then raced up the jungle gym a few times and eventually everyone was playing with everyone else. There is an adorable 6 year old girl who doesn't have a family yet, but she was so sweet with all the other kids and wanted to play with the adults. The teachers/nannies are so wonderful! They encouraged each child to spend time with his/her parents, but in a very nice way. They also seemed to enjoy playing with Elijah, who was playing soccer with anyone who'd play with him. Every so often Merete would come running to me or Han for a hug and kiss, then he'd run off to play some more. I think he knows we're his :-) Around 12 we went back to the guest house for lunch (btw, the food is awesome!), then the boys crashed while I sent off that first blog. We then headed to the CHSFS offices for an orientation meeting and tour of the office. They have an amazing set up. They keep every piece of paper about the kids in binders, they go over all of your paperwork in great detail, and their media department is amazing. They ahve tons of tapes of raw footage from which they make the child's life book and DVD. They go out and interview the birth family (if there is one), tape the child's birth place, etc. They don't provide all of the footage on the DVD we take home, but they do keep the raw footage. When the children are 18, they can ask to see all of the footage in case they want to find their birth families. It is really wonderful of CHSFS to gather this information for us. Tomorrow morning is when we see Merete's video (or part of it, as they are still taping I guess). We went to the care center in the afternoon for a while. We stayed downstairs with all the toddles. Merete recognized us right away and came running! I really wish I could take pictures, but we're not allowed until Tuesday when we get to bring him back to the guest house with us. We only stayed for about an hour, then we had to come back to the guest house for dinner (home made pizza, yum). E played ball again in the court yard then we headed back to our room. BTW, room 209 rocks! It's pretty big (fits a double bed, a twin bed, and a toddler bed, plus a large closet area and our own bathroom. There is another family staying in this house with us, plus 4 volunteer students who are teaching at a local school. Everyone we've meet has been incredible nice. Maybe because it was a school day, we didn't see many children when walking from house to house. E only saw a couple kids to offer crayons and candy to (and one said no). E is looking forward to give out more stuff; hopefully there will be more kids around tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, we have another visit to the CHSFS office to view our videos and meet with our team (social worker, doctor, nurse, and nanny) and we spend more time with Merete at the care center. After lunch we will visit AHOPE (tomorrow is when we can give them all the donations) and we have some time in the afternoon to do some shopping. So far, this trip has been so amazing. Merete has the cutest little smile that turns into a huge grin when he's excited. He really seems like a very sweet little boy who likes to play hard and also loves to snuggle :-)

A couple of other interesting things: there are many nice houses around here, but every single one is surrounded by a solid fence topped by razor wire. Both of the guest houses are like this. There is a large gate and we have to ring the bell to come in. It is very secure here, but they do encourage us not to walk alone outside by ourselves. Also, their time keeping is very interesting. Because they are so close to the equator, the sun rises and sets pretty much a the same time year around. Their day starts when the sun comes up. So, what we would consider to be 6am is 0 to them. 1 am is 7 am our time. Thankfully the staff here go on the US clock consistently, so we aren't all confused all the time. Their method makes sense to me though, why not start the clock when the sun comes up!?!?