Adoption Travel Part 1

Here is a rundown of our first few days of our Ethiopian journey. We started in Spokane, WA on July 8th and flew to Seattle, WA to London, England and on to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We arrived in Ethiopia at 2 am their time! We went directly to the Hilton and were finally in our rooms at 4 am. I don't think I slept that night as I was to meet my new children in just 4 1/2 hours!


Here is us waiting in the Spokane Airport.













This shot was taken in Seattle of our plane that would take us to London.














Here are the 3 teenage boys on the flight from Seattle to London. If only we had these seats coming home!















This is our view from our Hotel room in the Hilton.













Waiting for the incredibly slow elevator so we could go meet our kids!














Here we are mommy and daddy!
















The boys view and reaction to their new siblings and hubby's new kids!














I was in love immediately. They were so quiet and shy. It didn't take long for them to open up!













We got to play with the kids for about 4 hours. We ate breakfeast, played soccer, blew bubbles, colored and tickled. It was a great first meeting.
















The kids just loved their sunglasses. This is one of the nannies who cares for the children. She was so in love with Sophia!










In the afternoon the kids went back to the orphanage for the last time. We would see them the next day when it was time for our embassy appointment. That night we ate at the pizzeria with some other CWA families. It was a wonderful way to spend our "last" night without little ones. That afternoon and night I frantically got the room ready for new children. I also tried to pack some as we would soon leave the Hilton for the guest house. I was also able to get to know some of the other families a little more. It was so great to have all the support of the families there.

The next day we woke up, had breakfeast and lunch and prepared to go to the US Embassy to get the children's Visas. It was an intersesting trip. As usual (well according to my husband) I slowed things down. I had to many metallic things (Don't carry Altoids in a diaper bag or a voice recorder or your cell phone and forget about them!) I underestimated our payment and we owed 500 more than we thought! Oh well. At least we had the money. The questions we were asked were easy (for us). Do the kids act their age, do they play well with others, what is their history, any medical issues, etc. In all it took only about 20 minutes. CWA had to help with some of the questions. Once all the families were finished, we headed back to the Hilton and the kids were officially ours!



That afternoon we took the boys swimming in the pools. They had such a great time!











That night we had dinner with all the families for a traditional Ethiopian mean complete with a coffee ceremony. Unfortunately I forgot the camera so I need to get some pictures from other families. This was our first meltdown of Giovanni. He pouted the entire meal. We don't know what really set him off. He went into this funk the minute the food came. By the time we went home he was fine. I am sure he was stressed and scared.




It didn't take long for the baby and daddy to fall asleep!













Or the little boys. We gave each one a bath and put their medicine on them. They were out pretty quick!














The next morning we woke up, got pastries and the boys soon learned their older brothers were pretty cool!









I will post more later about our adventures outside of the Hilton walls. Our family is doing so well and the boys definitely fit in. Giovanni has had some minor food issues in the last few days, but I think he is just now "testing" us. All in all things are still great and I love these kids more and more each day.