Day 2:

We woke up to a beautiful morning, but not so beautiful smell! Our body clocks are still on Michigan time, so we both felt like we "napped" all night. But around 5:30-6 in the morning, I woke up to a smell that was like a cross between cigarette smoke and diesel fuel. It was so strong I couldn't go back to sleep, so I finally gave up and spent some time reading my Bible. The smell was so strong yet though, I thought it might help to open the window, but then I discovered the source. The hotel's diesel shuttle van was parked running right below our window which is 3 floors above the entrance of the hotel. They seem to make a habit of this, as last night they parked it out in front running until someone waiting with us in the lobby had the courage to go ask them to move it. I hope this isn't a repeated experience for us in the morning! So far, the only thing I don't like about Ethiopia (moreso Addis Ababa) is the diesel fuel! It is everywhere, and it is strong, and it STINKS!

After enjoying a big breakfast, we waited patiently (okay, I'm exaggerating for me anyway!) for the Hannah's Hope driver to arrive. I am definitely being challenged in terms of time here! 9:30 so far means 10:00 or a little after, and when I'm waiting to spend time with my new baby girl, that extra ½ hour feels like eternity! Thankfully Aaron's always there to bring me back to reality and remind me that this technically is extra time with "G" that we weren't originally going to have. And yes, he's right!

Danny brought us to Hannah's Hope today, and we arrived to find the babies sunning themselves—we saw more of the infants today—one little boy immediately caught our attention and took to Aaron. He is "new" according to the staff and is such a cutey! He kept mimicking Aaron and would use him to cruise around. We would take him home along with "G" if we could. And of course, I immediately went to "G" who was just finishing her bottle. Cute as ever, I noticed she was wearing a newborn size dress yet today—although I think she's going to graduate to 0-3/3 month soon! I cannot wait to go through Anaiya's clothes to see what might fit her when we return to bring her home. We spent the first part of the morning enjoying the sun outside together. These babies are kept on a schedule though, and right on cue, "G" started getting really sleepy after a little playtime so we changed her diaper and headed inside to the "napping room." I was able to give her part of another bottle before she fell asleep quickly in my arms. I held her sleeping the rest of our time at Hannah's Hope this morning, and actually had to leave her sleeping today. I love to watch her sleep: her black eyelashes fan across her cheeks, and her little mouth keeps sucking like she's still drinking her bottle. She makes the cutest little pout with her lips and is just peaceful. Aaron and I continue to marvel over her TINY hands and feet—I don't think my kids' hands and feet were that small even when they were newborns. This is a new experience for me! "G" has a head of beautiful black curls—the special mothers and staff at Hannah's Hope have commented several times that she has beautiful hair—"so different," I think because the curls seem a little looser. She has a sweet little cry, though I haven't heard much of it as she is comforted easily. She cooed a little for me today, but seems to be a fairly quiet baby, and just takes her surroundings in with her beautiful eyes. Aaron had the highlight of his trip today I think, as during naptime while I held "G" we watched a Spanish soap opera voiced over in English with the special mothers. They were very excited about what was happening in today's episode, and Aaron I know was equally excited! 

The special mothers at Hannah's Hope truly are wonderful women who love these children like their own. The way they speak to them and stroke their hair makes it completely evident that these little ones are loved in the best way possible until they can be home with their forever families. We are so blessed to have our daughter in their care while we're waiting to have her come home. Day in and day out they love these little ones knowing that eventually they'll need to say goodbye. Amazing.

Once we left Hannah's Hope for the day, we met a tour guide I had been referred to by a different adoptive family named Tsegaw. I had arranged for a small day trip north of Addis called Debrelibanos. He met us at our hotel, and we left immediately because of the long drive there: about 100 km outside of Addis, but 100 km of first very bumpy and crowded and diesel scented roads, then curvy roads, then roads with people and cattle crossing every few miles or swerving into the road (the swerving was because it's Saturday here and according to Tsegaw, is a ½ work day, and a day that many people spend eating raw meat—goat mostly—and drinking honey wine. This combination makes their walking skills not so reliable! It was a beautiful drive though, and as we rose above Addis, the landscape changed to hilly pastures with more traditional housing with the straw roofs and mud walls. We saw a lot of livestock today both off and on the road! Many of the herds are supervised by children with switches—a big responsibility to say the least. Tsegaw and his wife had prepared a home cooked lunch for us of some traditional Ethiopian food. He stopped at an old hotel off the side of the road once we were well outside of Addis and paid the owners a small fee to use their meal house. It was such a nice lunch break: we sat inside a building with a thatched roof and ate using a traditional injera table for our food. He kept feeding us until we finally had to beg mercy and tell him we couldn't eat another bite: seriously! The food was delicious though: rice with small bits of beef, some type of ground beef seasoned patty and meatballs, bread, and then… French fries! (not sure how traditional those were, but they seem popular here!)

We stopped briefly by the side of the road just before we reached the end of our first drive because Tsegaw spotted baboons just off to the side! This particular kind of baboon is specific to Ethiopia and are fairly numerous in this area. We snapped pictures, but the highlight for me was meeting several of the local children who greeted me eagerly in English: "Hello, how are you? What is your name? My name is… and I am ___ years old." You could tell they wanted to practice what they learned in school, but were so sweet and excited to meet someone from the U.S. Before we left they asked for ink pens which I was sooo excited to have, thanks to a fellow adoptive mom who sent some along with us when she knew we would be going to the North. Apparently, ink pens are very much needed for school, and so this small gift brought a smile to their face and a light to their eyes. Can you imagine: because of an INK PEN?

As beautiful and interesting as the drive was, I was relieved when we reached our first destination: Debrelibanos Monastery. This monastery is hundreds of years old and is located on the edge of a cliff in Jemma Gorge which has the Blue Nile River running through it—this river connects to the Nile river that runs through Egypt. The cliffs are beautiful—many shades of orange and red because much marble is found and mined in them. We had a very interesting tour led by one of the monks who told us much about the history of the monastery including its founder who according to legend, stood on one leg praying for 7 years and subsisted on one seed a year before eventually his spare leg withered away and fell off! The modern church was built in the 50's by emperor Haile Selassie to replace the original one destroyed by fascists. We saw beautiful paintings and stained glass depicting scenes from the Bible, and then many old religious artifacts that were used throughout the church's history. Very interesting. Our tour guide was very friendly and even shared a piece of his daily bread with us: yes daily bread. Monday-Friday, the monks get one meal of bread in the afternoon, which I have to say is definitely tasty in my opinion. Brown in color, and kind of sour/fermented tasting. He also explained to us why churchgoers wear shawls when attending service: they wrap one end over their left shoulder and the other around their right, making a "cross" shape to remind them of Christ.

After the monastery we drove to a nearby historical landmark called the Portuguese Bridge. The story behind this was fascinating. It was constructed of limestone and ostrich egg shells between the 19th and 20th century. It was built as a way for Christians from southern Ethiopia to get to northern Ethiopia to help those Christians fight the Muslims that were trying to invade. It is believed that the Christians were eventually able to defeat the Muslims because of the passage this bridge allowed. This was a beautiful area that overlooked the Jemma Gorge as well and during the rainy season has a beautiful waterfall. We spotted more baboon families and caves along the cliffs. We had two polite guides who shared the history with us, and we ended up purchasing a small basket and a cross carved of marble from them as a thank you for their time. We enjoyed a quick "soft drink" and headed for the journey home. Tsegaw insisted we finish the food he had packed, which I have to admit was still delicious even cold. The drive home was LONG—it was dark by that time.  Visually the trip back was not quite as interesting, but we were kept on the edge of our seats and trusting in God's protection as we swerved around curves, dodging people and cattle, and passing slow moving double trailer truck an hair pin turns, all with two small headlights to see.  Once we were back in town our tour guide decided to tell us about the overturned blackened double trailer oil truck that we saw on the side of the road going down the mountain.  Apparently, a month ago the truck collided with a minibus (like what we were riding in) and burst into flames, unfortunately killing 8 people. Tsegaw joked that he thought it probably wasn't a good idea to tell us what had happened until we made it home safely! He was probably right!

   It was a fabulous day, but we were so relieved to be back at the hotel. Now for some sleep! And then…more time with "G" tomorrow afternoon!