We spent Saturday and Sunday at our guest house getting to know Oscar. We
headed over to AAI on Monday morning to fill out some paperwork and hang out.
We walked in the baby house to start taking pictures while waiting for Gail only
to discover the chicken pox! We did not want to expose Oscar to that, so we
snapped a few pictures and left.
We relaxed at the guest house on Tuesday and then Wednesday went to the Embassy
and visited M of C again. This was the day that we got our tour, the first day
we just got him and left. I was pleasantly surprised by my visit to Missionary of Charity. The
facilities were clean and decorated in a cheerful way. I only saw the baby
rooms, but I was happy with what I saw. Sister Joan of Arc is very gentle and
loving and everything you expect a nun to be :) They had us wait in a room
while she went to get him. It took quite awhile to bring him, but when they did
it was obvious they had "spiffied" him up for us. He was very clean and was
shining with lotion.
I thought Thursday would be the highlight of our trip and was what I was most
looking forward to, we went to Dire Dawa where Daniel is from. The day started
off terrible and right now I am not sure I would say the trip was worth it. I
think I might look back someday and feel differently, but it was horrible in
many ways.
To start off with, I was feeling sick. It was the only day on either of my
trips to Ethiopia that I was sick, but I was in pretty rough shape. Our flight
was supposed to leave at 7:00 am, so we got to the airport at 5:30 am only to
discover that it was delayed until 9:00. We sat there forever, lined up to
board at 9:00 and then they told us they had to make a "test flight" so it would
be another hour or 2! We were debating whether we should still go, but decided
that we would as long as the plane left before noon. We took off at 11:30 and
arrived in Dire Dawa at 12:30.
The social worker had told us she would be at the airport to pick us up, but
wasn't there. We had a moment of panic while finding Gail's number to call and
get the social worker's number but we did get ahold of her and she arrived a few
minutes later.
We drove straight to the orphanage and met Sister Jean. She took us back to the
baby room and all of the nannies swarmed Oscar. He started crying and freaking
out. This was the first time the whole we that he cried and he was really
wailing and inconsolable. Sister Jean had taken us back to another room and was
talking to us about his history, but all I could focus on was my screaming baby
in the other room. I finally went to get him and we began a "tug-of-war." I
would take Oscar and try to comfort him and the nannies would take him right
back. They were convinced that they could get him to stop crying and the last
thing he needed was me! It was terrible. We finally decided that we just
needed to leave. Sister Jean let us video tape our talk with her, so I know I
will be glad to go back and watch it later. Right now everything is just too
fresh to have positive feelings about it yet.
We went to lunch at a really nice hotel and then it was time to go back to the
airport for our trip back. We arrived at the airport at 3:30 to discover that
the 12:00 flight to Addis had still not taken off. Our flight was supposed to
leave at 5:20 and they told us to expect delays. The AAI social worker arrived
a few minutes later with a new baby that she was bringing back with her. He was
a baby boy about a month old named Dawot. I am so curious to see if any of my
friends get a referral for him!!! He was very tiny and very sweet. I got to
hold him quite a bit in the airport! The social worker convinced the airline
workers to give us the last 3 seats on the flight since we had babies and I am
so grateful that she did! The flight left at 5:30 and they were expecting our
original flight to be cancelled!
Friday morning we had to meet Gail at the Embassy to pick up Oscar's passport
and then we had to go to the Japanese Embassy to get him a visa. We had no
difficulties in getting the visa (once we found the Embassy) and we were back to
the guest house in time for lunch.
I had fully expected Oscar to have the runs while we were there, but he had the
opposite problem. He would grunt and turn red every time he tried to go and was
only pooping about once a day. After lunch on Friday he had the worst time and
was really in a lot of pain with trying to go. We were really worried about how
it would go flying home that night, but he seemed to work it all out before we
left!
He traveled really well. He slept a lot and was very charming to the flight
attendants. He was flirting away and really cute. That helped make the flight
better for us too, since they all wanted to accommodate our cute baby!
We had a great trip. I will write more about how things are going at home later
since my little prince just woke up!
