Trying to catch you all up...

Jet lag + colds + 3 kids = no time for blogging!!


I'll try to give an overview of the trip and what's been going on here. It may, no it WILL, take a few posts to catch up!

Fri/Sat:
We woke up Fri night at 2 am to leave for the airport. We flew Pittsburgh to DC, had enough time to eat breakfast before getting on the next flight (15 hours) to Addis Ababa. Eliana was amazing on the flight! She slept a lot, hardly fussed... she was just great.
When we got to Addis (now Saturday morning) we were picked up at the airport by an agency employee. He took us (and 5 other families) to the guest house where we ditched our stuff, freshened up a bit and then walked over the the big kids' house to meet the girls!
When we walked onto the grounds there was a small group of kids playing in the front area. Eldana was there! We scooted a little closer and the other parents went inside to meet their kids. One of the nannies directed Eldana's attention to us and wow! What a great reaction! She got a huge smile on her face and came running at me saying 'Mommy!'... she threw her arms around my neck in a big hug. Yeah.... that was a pretty good moment..... That first picture of the last post is from that hug.
Then we went inside to meet Abigia. They have the kids divided up into smaller groups at times through the day. We went to the room where Abigia was playing with her group (there are about 6 kids in her group) and joined the fun! As soon as the nanny pointed us out to Abigia she went straight to Matt for a hug.
We stayed and played there at the big kids' house for a couple of hours. We had so much fun! Eldana was very excited to show us everything and show us off to her friends. All of the kids there are so much fun. They just love any bit of love and attention you show them. There was lots of hugging and chasing and spinning and playing.....
Eliana LOVED her time at the big kids' house. We thought she might be overwhelmed by all of the activity and attention, but she had a great time. She was like a celebrity! Every time we walked onto the grounds that week we would hear 'Eliana! Eliana!' from kids and nannies. Everyone wanted to hold her (and did), everyone wanted to kiss her (and did).... she had a great time.
Before we left that evening we asked one of the bigger kids (who spoke English and Amharic) to explain to Eldana that we wouldn't be there the next day. Sunday we were going to visit with the girls' birth family.


Time to dress the girls. Be back later....