Tuesday

Tuesday: The Big Day, as E has called it all week! Today is the day Merete came back to the guest house with us for good, and the day we got the final approval from the US. According to all interested parties, Merete is official ours!

The day started of as usual…a wonderful breakfast at the larger guest house. We then went to the care center and began with a tour. The different sections of the care center are named after the first four children who were adopted through CHSFS Ethiopia (whose names I can't remember, of course). There is a section of the building where all children spend a couple of weeks when they first get to the care center. They are separated from all the other children, treated for parasites (most over 1 year old will have some sort of parasite when they first arrive) and various other things. Once they are deemed healthy enough, they join the other children. I believe the care center can take up to 120 children at a time! Now there aren't as many children because of the recent court closure. Rooms are divided by age, and we got to see some of the tiny infants! Most are in wooden cribs of solid walls. For those who have already been referred to a family, their family's pictures are hanging on the wall. The toddlers are in cute little beds, and we got to see Merete's! We also noticed that two of his roommates are two of the other toddlers who are in our travel group, so now we know who Merete was chatting with when he was supposed to be sleeping! By each bed there is a growth chart, exactly like the one we received monthly. The baby's formula feeding schedule is listed on the wall so each nanny knows what to feed them and when. Speaking of nannies, they have so many!! They take 8 hour shifts and they are not allowed to sleep on their shift, so the overnight nannies stay up and watch all the children. More on the nannies later…continuing the tour we visited the kitchen where the toddler meals are made. There was this huge appliance that is used to make injera. I mean huge! I couldn't tell exactly what it was like because it was closed, but for now let's just pretend like the reason I can't make decent injera is because I don't have one of these things! And if I did have one, I have no idea where I'd store it!!

After the tour, we were lead to a room where there were already 10 or so toddlers in chairs on one side. It was time for the going away ceremony! These toddlers are the ones who weren't yet going home. A few weeks ago, someone emailed me that they had seen Merete sitting among that group, flashing smiles at them! This time it was the same toddles who had played with us on Friday. Some of their faces I hope to see in pictures on the forum soon as they are matched with families and make it through court. The others, I truly hope they find good homes soon. It is so heartbreaking to think that they sit through this ceremony each week but do not yet know if they will ever be among those leaving. Yet they fully and joyfully participate and are so happy for their friends! I'm glad they taped this ceremony for us, because I'd love to show you all one day. The nannies came in with our children, who were dressed in traditional Ethiopian clothes. Merete was the smiliest of them all, grinning at us the whole time! And to think I'd been going months wondering if he ever smiled…turned out he does it all the time and melts hearts wherever he goes. One of the social workers described how happy everyone was that these children had found homes, but also mentioned that they were sad to see them go. These nannies take such wonderful care of these kids, and they really do love them so much. It is evident every time we meet anyone at CHSFS how much these children are loved. From the nannies to the social workers to the cooks and videographers…so many people and so much love. They presented each child with a special card that they had made, whishing them well. Each was so personal and so heartfelt. Next the children took turns putting their handprints on paper for the care center to keep. They used to put the handprints on the wall (and they are still there for all to see), but now I suppose there are too many ! The toddlers watching started chanting each child's name as they put down their handprints and then clapped for them. Next our toddlers joined the rest and they sang for us! One song was the one that goes "pointer finger, pointer finger, where are you? Where are you?". Seriously, with their little accents, their big smiles…the cutest little concert ever!! I think next the parents and staff made a circle with the children inside and we prayed for them. First the staff prayed in Amharic, and someone in our group led us. Finally (well, I think I have the order right…) they handed out special cake and soda to everyone. We played a while and Merete went around and kissed the nannies and everyone good bye. If I could I would have found every single person who ever took care of him and let them say good bye and thanked them personally. Have I mentioned how loved these kids are??

We then rushed back to the house, as we had an hour to get them feed and changed before heading off to the US embassy. The cooks made special food for the kids to make sure their diets didn't change too drastically, and the rest of us had amazing lasagna! Merete and E were pretty easy to please, as E got to eat leftover pizza the ladies had made just for him the night before and Merete gobbles up whatever is in front of him. I'll take this time to rave about the cooks. The food here is amazing! Most of the time it's very American type stuff, although they do make us Ethiopian dishes as well. They also try to make E a version of things that he can have, which is so incredible nice! And they love to do it to, you can tell they want to make him happy! So we ate, dressed and headed off. The US embassy is like a fortress, but I suppose it has to be. We went through several check points and sat in a waiting room for a couple hours. We took
turns going up to get our final approval. CHSFS had already turned in our paperwork, so all we had to do was go up, sign a couple things, and answer a few standard questions. And that was that, he's ours! The whole thing took 2 minutes, if that. In the waiting area, the kid where having a great time with bouncy balls and bubbles. Considering that they were missing their naps, I think they all did amazingly well! After a short trip to the Hilton, we headed back to the guest house. We went to our smaller one for a while to chill out. E had been asking to play his video games all day (not allowed in the Embassy), so he started playing one while Merete tried out another. E was showing him how to play and Americanized him very quickly! Then they discovered the plastic golf set and started playing hockey and having a wonderful time together. Dinner tonight was hamburgers and French fries, which consisted of homemade buns that were out of this world! They also had this wonderful soup, that I think may have been red peppers or tomatoes, but it was all pured so I couldn't tell what was in it, and of course the cooks barely speak English and I speak no Amharic. Can you tell I'm sad about not being able to get these recipes!?!?

After dinner a group of us ventured out to the local grocery stores, which was an adventure. The streets are packed with people, construction, and cars going all over the place. Many people begged for food or money, but we've been told that if we give to one, we will be literally mobbed by the rest. The store was very nice and we found what we needed (this milk power the kids drink and baby oil, which the nannies use on their skin and hair every day…plus some tic tacs and new shades for the boys ;-). When we got back , we discovered everything was dark as there was a blackout at both houses. This was the first time we were without power for more than a couple minutes. Apparently this happens often, and we've been pretty lucky so far. Back in our room, we gave both boys a wipe down by flashlight and Merete watched his first Sponge Bob episode on my iphone! E was so excited to be able to share this experience and Merete giggled a lot. They also watched some Scrat (from Ice Age) videos. By the time the electricity came back on it was nearly bed time, so we put both boys down. Merete struggled to sit up a couple times, but I laid him down gently and kissed him. He was mad and turned away, which is the "worst" thing he's done (and frankly pretty cute). It must be frustrating for him not to be able to communicate with us; he doesn't even try to say anything to us in Amharic! He will though speak to the staff here and the other kids, though none of the parents have a clue what they are saying. Nevertheless, he and E fell asleep in minute and are peaceful as I write this. You won't be reading about this until some time later, as the computer downstairs is making very strange noises tonight and I just turned it off for fear of killing off completely! I think I'm pretty much on Ethiopian time now, just in time to change back to US time in a couple days!