May 31, 2013 - The day we did nothing...

Today was an uneventful day.

We woke up and did our normal morning routines.  We were hoping for some news about some paperwork today, which would then allow us to complete some more paperwork, but we didn't receive what we wanted in the morning.  Because we were waiting for this, we had nothing planned for the day.  One thing of note, is that we actually ran out of something today.  Hilary was meticulous with all her planning for this trip, and the first thing we ran out of was the instant oatmeal.  Eli loves oatmeal for breakfast, and we will need to go shopping for some more.  To give you an idea of how much Eli eats for breakfast, here it is: He eats a bowl of oatmeal, and some cheerios at 7:00 AM, then eats a pancake, a boiled egg, and a banana at 9:00 AM.  He eats more than both of us combined.

We had lunch, and naps were had by Hilary and Eli, while I went out and ran some errands with Markos, our driver.  We were gone for about an hour, and once we got back, we were able to skype with my parents and with Hilary's sister, Heather.  It was so nice to be able to see those familiar faces from home.  While it did not work perfectly, it is nice to know that it can work, and that we should be able to attempt this again in the future.

We fed Eli supper, and put him to bed.  After he was in bed, we received an email saying that we had received the birth certificate for Eli.  Even though it was later in the day than we had hoped, it is another huge step in getting the paperwork required to get Elijah home.

There will be no pictures today, as we didn't take any worth showing on the blog.  Hopefully you will see some tomorrow.  Tomorrow, we will get to meet another friend who is coming out here for court.  Their family arrived today.

Once again, we thank you all for your emails, and notes of support.  Hilary received one today from a very special friend, and it totally made her day.  Thank you all for your support.  We love you all, and miss you.

May 30, 2013 - The day we went swimming....

Once again, the day started off a bit rough.  Eli woke up numerous times during the night, and could not be consoled.  After a while, he was willing to lie on his stomach on my stomach.  He would not let me put him onto his spot in the bed.  Each time, he was able to fall asleep on me, but would wake up as soon as I moved him, so we spent a considerable amount of time in this position.  Prayer request here would be that Eli would a) sleep through the night, and b) allow Mommy to console him once in a while.  We know that this will pass, but it is a little frustrating for Hilary right now, but she is taking it in stride.

We had made arrangements on Wednesday to accompany a family from Winnipeg to the Sheraton for a fun time of swimming.  Although we knew that we would need to be careful with Eli and his ear problems, we very much looked forward to see his reaction to a swimming pool.

In the morning, we went out and did some grocery shopping, and went out for lunch.  Eli was not very impressed that he had to sit on either of our laps for the entire time that we were there, so we ate in shifts, while the other one carried him around outside.  It seemed to work reasonably effectively, but at some point, he's gonna have to get used to the idea of sitting down in a restaurant for a meal.  Maybe we'll try and get him used to it when we get back to Canada :).

We got back to the hotel and got ready for our swimming adventure.  He had slept in the morning, so we figured he'd be good for the afternoon at the pool.  We got there, and got ready to swim.  I took the camera while Hilary took Eli.  She took him into the pool, and he was not impressed.  He started to warm up to this new adventure after a while.  He started to enjoy the splashing.  We had to continue to be careful though about not getting his ear wet.  We tried to get him to walk in the shallow end, and it took quite a bit for him to warm up to that idea.  By the end of this, it seems that he was really enjoying himself.  The water is actually quite warm, and stepping up out of the water made us quite cold...  So, he definitely preferred to stay in the water instead of us picking him up and out of the water.  We also experimented with me throwing him up, which he absolutely loves, with or without water in the picture.  We went to the smaller kiddie pool, which has a bit of a useless slide, but he also seemed to enjoy that.  All in all, we think he had a great day, even if it was a bit tentative at some points.

Trying to walk to Mommy

We got home around 5:00.  Eli was very dry, so Hilary oiled him up for the 2nd time today.

I'm so shiny, AND I smell like Coconuts

We ate some supper, and went to bed. Eli fell asleep fairly quickly (even though it was earlier than his normal bed time), but sadly woke up around 10:00, 1:00, and 3:00 with his screaming sessions, and we spent some time consoling him before being able to go back to sleep.

May 29, 2013 - The day we went shopping

The day got off to a bit of a rocky start.  Around 1:00 in the morning Eli woke up from what I think was probably a nightmare.  He was totally beside himself, and it took a considerable amount of time to get him back to sleep, but in the end, he did fall back to sleep.  You would think that this would mean that he might sleep in a bit... nope, up at 6:00 or so, and ready for the day.  Hilary took care of some of the morning routine stuff once again, while I slept in till 8 or so.  At this point, Hilary went and had a nap, while Eli and I went downstairs to play outside.  We had a good morning, playing soccer, and going for a walk.  He climbed all the stairs and went down them by himself.  He was quite tired though, so we went back to the room around 10:30 or so, and he had a nap on my lap.  He slept till around 11, and I woke him up, so that he would still be able to nap in the afternoon.

Hilary and Eli went and made some lunch for him (noodles and spaghetti sauce), and Hilary fed him.  We are focusing more on making sure that Hilary is always the one feeding him, as a way to concentrate on the attachment bonding process between them.  After lunch, we played a bit more, and then Eli and I went and had a nap.

We had made arrangements to meet our driver around 3:00, to go shopping in the silver market here.  We were not sure exactly what we wanted to buy, and it probably showed in the vast array of stuff that we purchased today.  Eli was pretty good for the entire excursion (about 2.5 hours), but was definitely getting restless.  We bought some necklaces, some pendants, some more wood crosses, some toys for Eli, a hat, two traditional outfits, and a couple of little stools.  We had a great time, and we were ready to call it a day once the excursion was over.  Our driver got a call from someone else that he was going to go and pick up, so we headed over to the Sheraton (which was only a minute or two away), and lo and behold, it was A, B, and I.  It was a great surprise, and we chatted a bit on the way back to the hotel.  We expect to hang out with them at some point again this weekend, when another friend will be showing up for their court date.

This evening we ordered out again, and Hilary and Eli had some Tibs.  Eli absolutely loves injera, and the food.  We have found some tricks to see what Eli really doesn't like, and what he does, and it is great to see that he is moving away from being so much like his father :)... He really does eat almost anything we put in front of him.  When we put him to bed today, he did not fight too much, so hopefully that means he will be fast asleep the entire night tonite.

Eli proudly showing off his new hat (which he prefers to wear backwards)

Eli playing with some toys we bought today.  Isn't he so cute when he is excited?!

May 28, 2013 - The Day we tried....

We woke up this morning, with plans to visit our driver/friend's house.  We were scheduled to be picked up at 1:00 to meet him, and his family as well as A,B&I.  We spent the morning, relaxing, and getting ready for for the afternoon excursion.  Eli needed to have a bit of a pre-emptive nap, due to the fact that he was probably going to miss his afternoon nap, and seemed to be extremely tired.  Hilary had a little nap as well, as she has been having some trouble getting a real good sleep.

At 12:45, we were ready outside, and our driver picked us up.  We went over to his house, and sat down in the house.  I'm not sure what we expected, but I know that this was not exactly what we expected.  We were ushered in and sat on a couch with A&B.  Shortly after we arrived, we were served some Doro Wat and Tibs and of course injera .  We tentatively dug in, but of course with my most excellent eating habits, I stopped pretty early in the game.  I think I could've eaten some of it, but it was just too spicy for me.  Hilary loved it.  Eli loved it as well.  We kept feeding him and feeding him.  Hilary tried some raw beef, which seemed to be something special for them.  We had a coffee ceremony there as well, and I actually enjoyed the coffee.  It was great to meet some of our friend's family, and we felt that his mother (who served us for the few hours that we were there), was very similar to my mother.  Making food for many people, and spending many hours making sure that everyone is satisfied.

We got back to the hotel around 5:30, and Eli was incredibly tired, so we ordered in supper, and prepared him for his bed time.  Even though he was tired, we tried to hold off as long as we could before putting him to bed.  He lasted until 7:30, and we got him into bed.  We relaxed and watched a movie, as we got ready for bed.  All in all, it was a great day.  There will be no pictures today, but hopefully they will continue again tomorrow.

May 27, 2013

It was a good day.

We woke up this morning around 7:00 (well, I should say that Hilary and Eli woke up around 7:00, I was allowed to sleep in until 8:30 or so).  The wake-up routines were followed, and Eli surprisingly did not wake me up immediately :).

We went and ordered breakfast from the lobby, and ate in our room.  We called our driver to determine when we could get a ride to the doctor.  We made the decision to be picked up at 11:30, which ended up being closer to 12:15 or so.  We went to pick up the swab from Eli's ear, and then on to the doctor.  He basically told us that Eli was more or less healthy.  It appears that he has an ear infection so we were given some medication for that.  Hopefully that can clear up relatively quickly as we would love to take him swimming at the Sheraton.  Maybe later this week, but we shall play that one by ear (no pun intended).

We got back to the hotel, and I went with our driver to pick up a internet stick, and a book about Ethiopia and it's many touristy things to visit, and eat.  Sadly, we were not able to load up the internet stick with some "time", and will try to do that on Wednesday.  Tomorrow is a government holiday, so it appears that everyone was trying to do something at the internet and telephone building.

I got home, and we spent the rest of the day, playing...  Eli and I went into the courtyard and played some soccer, and "throwing the ball".  We had a late supper, and put Eli to bed.  He was exhausted, and was definitely ready for bed.  Now, hopefully he sleeps until 7 at the earliest :).

Watching Blue Planet

One thing we noticed today, is that Eli was very interested in "Blue Planet" (a documentary)...  We have tried to see whether he has any interest in Looney Tunes and Barney, but he spent more time watching "Blue Planet" than any of the other videos we've shown since we've been here.

And now your bonus picture.  It has been somewhat difficult to catch Eli smiling a totally carefree smile, on camera, even though he does it a lot.  So we attempted to get this on camera today before going to bed.  There are many times where he gets the giggles, and can't stop smiling.  Here is one of those times!

May 26, 2013

Today was a bit of a lazy day.

Eli woke us up a bit earlier than normal around 6:15, and had a full diaper, and a bit of leakage, so we spent some time cleaning everything up.  Luckily, it wasn't too bad, and we were able to get it all cleaned up without too much of a hassle.

We ordered some breakfast, and waited in our room for it.  Eli spent most of the morning "testing" us.  It ended up not being too bad, but there was quite a bit of crying.  The 3 of us went for a bit of a tour of our building, and explored a balcony on the top floor of our guesthouse.  Eli was able to walk up and down the stairs, and tire himself out a little bit.  By 11:30, Eli was totally wiped, so we felt that it might make sense to get to bed.  We tried to feed him some lunch, and there was no interest, so we put him to bed.  He slept for an hour, and was wide awake again.  Hilary and I laid down with him to try and get him to sleep a bit longer.  It was a no go, although it did put Hilary to sleep.

I put Eli in the baby carrier, and Eli and I went for a walk.  We were gone for nearly an hour, and it was amazing to see the encouragement that I got from many men on the street.  I got 6-10 thumbs up from the men there...  I thought that was kinda cool.  While I've been nervous going out on the streets, this definitely made me feel much more comfortable.  Not everyone has ill will out there.  I may not have blogged about it last week, but someone did try pick pocketing us last week... Definitely makes a guy feel just a bit less secure about everything.  So the positive thing that came out of this was to see the kindness and respect from the people here.

We got back, and there was no way Eli was going down for another nap, so we spent the day playing with Eli, and just generally killing some time.  He was pretty good for the rest of the day, and even was able to try some new food, Reece's Pieces.  And it seems he likes it.  Hilary and Eli were also able to try some traditional Ethiopian food.  They both enjoyed it, although it was very spicy (classic for this culture, it seems :)).

We got Eli to sleep around 7:30-8:00, and he has slept quite well so far.  We find that we sing a bunch of songs to him, and then do some devotions together (we read a story to him, and pray), that he seems to relax quite well.

We are now preparing for bed, and look forward to running some errands tomorrow.  We are going to see the doctor again tomorrow, as well as possibly head out to purchase some other items and maybe souvenirs that we can.  We shall see how it all unfolds.

Sheldon & Eli playing with the Speak & Spell (aka Eli's computer)

May 25, 2013

The internet was down, so we were not able to upload to the blog last night.  That is one of the adjustments we need to make... the internet is not very stable, and is very slow.

We woke up around the normal 6:30 - 7:00 time, and began to get ready for the day.  We had made plans to spend part of the day with A,B & I.  At 10:30, we left the hotel to drop off a sample at the laboratory, and then kept on walking to A,B&I's place.  We chatted there for a little bit, and then we called our driver to pick us up.  We drove around a bit, and then to our final destination for lunch to a cupcake place (Cupcake Delights).  We had a great lunch, and great conversation all around.  After lunch, we drove home to get Eli into the bed for his nap.  This was the beginning of a tough afternoon.  Eli, it seems, has begun to test us on almost everything.  He did not want to nap, He did not want to go on the potty, He wasn't a fan of whatever we fed him, He demanded to be held all the time, etc.  It was exhausting, but I think the situation will end up being positive.  We have heard from friends, that there can be a bit of a honeymoon period before the child feels comfortable enough to begin to test.  This past week, has been amazing, but we feel he probably hasn't been totally comfortable.  Once he starts complaining as much as he did this evening, he must feel somewhat confident that we aren't leaving, and maybe he is losing his need to impress us at every turn.. Who knows, we shall see how it goes going forward.  We may look at this as being a very positive stage even though it is exhausting.

As mentioned before, the power was down, as was the internet.  Very frustrating.  I had hoped to have some communications with my family, but sadly, it was not to be.  Just another reminder of how much of a different country we are in than our own.  We would be quite upset if our power was down for for a few hours, and would feel so out of touch if our internet was down for 24 hours.  Obviously first world problems, but frustrating nonetheless.

On the wait for citizenship documentation, it appears that the court order will probably be signed on Monday.  We had been in contact with the representative here for our agency, and she feels that it should've happened today, but due to extenuating circumstances, was not.  It should be done on Monday.  Then we can begin the application for a new birth certificate, and a passport.  Once these are in place, then a Travel Visa can be issued.  We're really hoping that we will be able to be coming home before the beginning of July, and that seems to be realistic.

Thanks again for all the support.  We read all the comments on the blog, and on Facebook.  We may not respond to all of them, but we are reading them, and feeling encouraged.

May 24, 2013 - Relaxing day

The 3 of us did not really have a great night, but that did not translate into the day.  Eli seemed to be even more active this night, and woke us both up a number of times during the night, and woke up pretty early.  Neither Hilary or I felt like waking up as early as he did, so I went back to sleep as Hilary took care of Eli during the early morning.  Then when I woke up Hilary went and had a nap, while I took Eli for a walk in the carrier.  I got looked at funny all the way through.  We walked over to Bole Road, and I was shocked to see that there were no vehicles driving on the street, and the people walking were not walking on the street.  Seemed quite odd.  There were also lots of military type personnel every 30 feet or so down the street.  Turns out that there was a African Union conference happening here, so there were lots of important people driving from the airport to wherever the conference was happening.  In a stroke of luck, Eli and I witnessed one of these convoys driving by.. Was kinda cool.

We had lunch around noon, and spent some time playing in the hotel room...  Eli was mostly happy, but really wanted me to hold him almost all morning.  It feels like there is more responsibility here, as Eli now depends on us for everything.

We had a small meltdown as he went down to sleep.  He really does not like to sleep.  That being said, once he is lying down, he very rarely gets up, and seems to understand that this means he has to go to sleep, and generally falls asleep within a few minutes.  (obviously takes after me in the ability to sleep easily :))

After the nap, we hung out, and generally played around.  Hilary and Eli went out to watch the rain.  Eli loves the rain, and would probably have run out into the rain, if he had been allowed and wasn't in the carrier.  He was content to play in the hotel, as we looked forward to supper.  Eli and I went down to order supper, and as a result, we decided that we would eat our supper in the lobby area where there were a number of other families and their adopted children hanging out for supper.  We enjoyed supper, and visiting with the other families, and just generally feeling a little more settled.

After supper, we came back to our room, and did some reading to Elijah.  Here is a picture of Hilary reading to a newly pajama'ed Eli.

Again, tantrum before going to sleep, and it seemed to take a bit longer to fall asleep, but he eventually did, and we spent the rest of the evening killing some time online.  It was a good day.

May 24, 2013 - Doctor Day

Today was an interesting day.

We woke up this morning, and made the decision to try to go to a doctor to have a look into Eli's ear issues, as well as into the incessant scratching that he seems to do.  Finally, we also wanted to ensure that he was not having to deal with parasites, and if he was, how we could clear that up before coming home.

We got picked up at 10:00 by our driver, who is an excellent driver, and if any of you ever need a driver, let us know and I can give you his contact information.  We had not called him until today, but had ridden with him a number of times when going somewhere with A&B.  He is very soft spoken, so I have a tough time understanding him, but he is incredibly knowledgeable with the streets of Addis, as well as what "tourists" might want to see.  He also seems to know everyone, and is able to communicate when we can't understand.  We have been blessed to have been directed his way, and we will use him again for any of our excursions.

I digress, we left the hotel around 10, and got to the doctor's office.  We were ushered into a room to get some numbers for Eli.  He got weighed (sadly, I forgot to see exactly what his current weight is), and his temperature (thermometer under his arm... Eli wasn't very impressed with this).  Then we were brought in to see the doctor.  He chatted with us for a bit, and then did some of his tests.  He was great with Eli, even if Eli still wasn't all that happy with all the poking and prodding that he did.  He ordered some blood tests, and wanted us to get a stool and urine sample, and also a trip to a different clinic for a culture of some of the leakage that was coming from his ear.  So we drove, what felt like across the city, to get the swab, and then headed back to the doctor for him to actually do the swab, and then back to the other clinic to drop it off.  Seemed like a bit of a waste of time, but hopefully something will come from this, so that we can treat all that ails our dear son at this time.  We also got a blood test done, which sent this little boy into a tizzy.  He screamed and flailed and kicked as they tried to draw blood.  They also seemed to have a hard time finding his vein, so they wiggled the needle around a bit.  Our driver was great as he tried to distract Eli, and was all around just fabulous all day with helping us getting things done.

All these little issues have not tempered this boys enthusiasm for life though.  He is almost always happy, and willing to come to both of us.  We had a little bit of a tantrum today when we were trying to get him to sleep, but after a while, he fell asleep.  It was a long day for him, so I thought it could've been because he was overtired.  We spent the morning, and into the early afternoon driving all around the city with various doctor stuff, and then had a nap.

In the afternoon, we played together, he played a bit by himself, and we went downstairs to play with soccer balls in the courtyard.  That boy loves to play with balls, even though he isn't the most coordinated kid out there.  He often will kick it somewhere other than to me (sometimes on purpose, and sometimes not).  The soccer ball is a little bit too heavy for him, but one of the security guards here has a great little light ball that bounces all over place, and we have played with it a few times as well.  He loves being able to run free.  From what we understand, the kids only got outside time on Monday's, Wednesday's, and Friday's.  As a result, we want to ensure that he gets outside every day if at all possible.

One thing we did do today for Elijah, was buy a piece of cake from a restaurant nearby.  We decided that today, we would celebrate his 2nd birthday, with a candle and a piece of cake.  A fairly low key celebration, but a celebration nonetheless.  He did not enjoy the cake, and sadly, our lighter didn't work for lighting the candle.

Eli's 2nd Birthday Cake

As we got him ready for bed this evening, we spent some time singing to him, and it seems he really calms down once he hears singing.  He is sleeping right now, and Hilary and I are unwinding and will jump into bed in the next hour or so.

May 22, 2013 - A day of adjustment

Today was a difficult day, and we are happy it is now over!

Hilary and Eli woke up around 6:30, and prepped for the day, while I woke up around 8:15 or so.  We got ready to meet with some friends for a short little excursion today.  We were going to check things out for getting Eli's stool tested.  They showed us where to go, and we even got a specimen "jar".  Whenever we decide to actually get this done, I will have 20 minutes to a half hour to get this to the testing station.  Probably have to walk a little quickly, but should be able to get it there in time.  We introduced our new son to our friends.  It was a good moment, and Eli seemed to take it all in stride.  Hilary wore him in our baby carrier, and we got many strange looks.  We may be ferengi (how we are referred to here in Ethiopia), but wearing a black baby, increased the curious stares.  One thing we have learned here is that the people here are not shy about their curious stares.  Apparently in years past there have been lots of positive comments by the locals about adoption, but in recent years, that has switched into more of a negative emotion.

We had a great little walk with A&B&I, and had a great little chat.  They are leaving for a couple of days, so we were sad to see them go, but it will be a great experience for them.  We look forward to when they get back, and we spend some more time with them.

We went out for some ice cream and bought a bunch of croissants, which we hope to eat over the next few days.  It tastes pretty good, and it seems that Elijah likes them.  We purchased a pot, and some macaroni, and sauce.  We got the fridge working in our hotel, as well as the hot plate.  Hilary made the macaroni and sauce for the 3 of us, and it got devoured.  We shall be doing this at least a few more times.

In the morning, Elijah was not really interested in coming to me.  Only Hilary was allowed to hold him, or play with him.  In the afternoon, it seems that that was completely switched.  Oh, the fickle emotions of a two year old :)  By the evening, he could enjoy both of us, except if I tried to hug him.  He does not like the beard, or at least the feeling of it on his arm or back.  I'm scared to shave it because it might be another face that he has to get used to.  We shall see how that goes.

We ordered supper, and it came very very late.  By the time it came at almost 8:00, we were starting to get really cranky.  Hilary and I put Eli to bed by singing some songs to him, and reading him a story.  He fell asleep within 10 minutes (even though he fiercely resisted bedtime for a few minutes).  Once Eli was in bed, Hilary and I sat down, and did some work on the computer.

We are glad that this day is done, if for no other reason, than to say that we are now one day closer to being in our own beds in a more comfortable country for us.

One thing we did decide today, was to try and do a little more sight seeing and touring.  What form that takes we will figure out as we go.

Eli's first sunglasses

May 21, 2013 - The First Day of the rest of our lives

We have had a good day here.  We have gotten to know Elijah just a little bit more.  He loves to kick soccer balls around.  He loves to play with some of the toys we brought him.  He still adores his sippy cup.  It is very difficult to separate him from it.  He will NOT set it down while we are changing him or putting on his bib, he rather will transfer it from hand to hand.  He loves to throw things.  We are trying to correct this, but we are trying very hard not to make too big a deal of it.  This is all so new for him..  Everything.

We were told that he would eat everything... We found out today, that this is not necessarily the case :)  We fed him pancakes this morning, and he was ok with that.  We fed him noodles this afternoon, which was a favorite lunch in the orphanage, so he ate that too.  Hilary had bought a pineapple and a few mangoes so we were going to see if he would like them (the nannies said he like it), but it was a no go.  We tried to hide the mangoes in the noodles, and that was the end of noodle eating as well.  We figured that this means that everything he had eaten in the orphanage had been pureed.  We had some chicken in the evening, and tried to feed him some of it.  He would have none of that, so we made some porridge for him.  He ate it right away, but was a bit leery of it, but by the end of supper, I don't think we will have any more problems with porridge for him.

Sheldon & Elijah playing on the floor

We hope to head out to a doctor in the next couple of days to make sure that we know what we need to take care of while we are here.  We believe that we will need to deal with some parasites, as well as a cough that he has, and some ear discharge (the orphanage gave us some medication that he had been taking up to this point)..  He also seems to itching all over these days as well.  We want to check into that.  Maybe psoriasis is hereditary, and he got it from me :)  So please pray that we will be able to get in to get him checked out, and that there would only be small things that we can work on correcting while we are here.

For all those praying for us out there, please pray that all of our paperwork would be done lickety split.  While we appreciate the country that our son was born, we are also not extremely good travellers (which may already have been said a number of times in the blog)...  We are homesick (to be expected), and very much look forward to seeing our family members and friends once again.  That being said, please pray for us to continue to have a positive attitude out here, as we need to form attachments with our new son, as well as keep each other upbeat.

Elijah's Birthday, and Our Forever Family Day

We sit here at 9:00 on Monday evening, sitting in awe of the little cute one sleeping in our room.  We have Elijah in our room, and we are officially a forever family.  It is also Elijah's 2nd birthday today, and what a birthday it was for him, and for us!  He got a forever family, and we gained a son! Here's how the day went.

We woke up around 9:00 this morning and headed out to get some supplies.  We knew that Elijah would be coming home with us today, so we needed to make sure we had some diapers.  We knew his approximate weight, so we figured we could find them somewhere.  We found them in a market, just down the street from us.  It is great that we will be able to run out and get them whenever we need it.  We went to New York, New York for macchiato (sp? - for those who don't know, this is supposedly to die for in Ethiopia, an incredibly rich coffee, that everyone seems to love.  I'm not a fan of coffee, so I did not partake, but Hilary loved it), and a little breakfast.  We got back to the hotel around 12:00, and prepared for the trip back to the orphanage to pick him up.  We were told that we would be picked up around 1:30, so we were ready to go around 1:00.  As we sat there waiting, we ran into a couple that are adopting their child, and are also from Winnipeg.  Who knew that there could be so many Winnipegger's in Addis right when we are there.  We spent some time chatting about adoption, and some other things as we waited for our ride, who finally showed up around 1:45 or so.

As we got into the van, we re-met another couple that were attending court today.  It was a great experience to go to court in a bit of a different situation than we had originally been, and with no stress of that appearance.  We chatted about our different situations, and it was great getting to know them.  They now have a son that is right around the same age as Elijah.  It also sounds like she may join us at our hotel so that our boys will be able to play together.  What a blessing to have so many adoptive couples around.  It is awesome also that so many adoptive couples are so willing to share their stories.  Hopefully as a group, we can continue to share the positive stories that are our adoption stories, not necessarily easy, but positive.

After court, Hilary and I had to go to the agency offices to sign the waiver form that would allow us to take Elijah from the orphanage.  We went in and had a great discussion with Martha about timelines, and the process, as well as signing the document.  We now would have the authority to take Elijah out of the orphanage as we wait for the next step to be completed.

We got to the orphanage, and went straight into an isolation room with this couple.  We spent some time in this room chatting with them while we waited for the kids to join us in the room.  We were able to see Elijah on his potty, and he seemed to recognize us right away, and his face lit up.  It was a cool experience.  The kids were brought into the room, and we played with them, and of course took some pictures...  It was cool to interact with this other couple and their child as well as with Elijah.  He was generally quite relaxed as we fed him, and got him to warm up to us again.

At around 5:00, it was time go, and we started saying goodbye to the nannies.  Oh the nannies... we could tell that they loved him.  They all wanted to say to goodbye, and hold him one last time.  I think he was a bit shocked here, and didn't cry or complain at any point during this.  He even waved goodbye to all the nannies, and we left.  We got back into the van, and rode home... Eli was a model child.  He sat on Hilary's lap, enjoying the scenery around him.  I'm not sure he had ever really been in a vehicle before, so I think this was a new thing for him.  We arrived back at the hotel just the 3 of us.

Riding to the hotel, as a family of 3!

We got him into the baby carrier immediately, and he seemed to like it.  He seemed to be quite relaxed in the carrier with Hilary.  He had a sippy cup we had given him at the orphanage, with him, and would NOT let go.  It was very cute.  At some point during the evening, I had him on my lap, and he was just about falling asleep.  It was early, so we tried to keep him awake just a bit longer.  We got him to sit on the potty, and he did his business.  We dressed him in his pajamas, and laid him down to sleep between us on the bed.  It took a bit of Hilary singing to him, but he fell asleep, and is sleeping now.

We have a child, and he is with us.  Praise the Lord.  We are enjoying this first evening together, but we know that it will not all be easy.  We have absolutely no idea what tomorrow will bring.  When will he wake up?  Will he have problems with us at first?  We will continue to trust that the Lord has the situation in His hands, and that we will take whatever comes our way.  Thanks again, everyone for your prayers and encouragement as we've taken this next step.

May 17, 2013

Today is the day for court.

We felt that today, we would not do much other than prepare for the court date, and for the visit we hoped to have later in the day.

As a result, we slept in a bit, and just relaxed.  We ordered lunch, and we prepped packages to go to the orphanage in both cases (if we passed and if we did not).  We had made arrangements to be picked up at 1:30 in preparation for a 2:00 court time.  We were a bit eager and went down at 1:00.  At 1:15 our ride showed up, and we went to Afroland to pick up Martha, who is the representative who looks after the adoption cases from the Ethiopian side.  She's a very friendly and down to earth woman.  We asked the question at this point whether we would be returning to our hotel before going back to the orphanage in either situation (passing or not passing), and we were told that we would come back first, so we left our packages in the room.  The 4 of us drove to the courthouse for court.  We arrived, and were seated in a room with many chairs, that was about the size of a large hotel room.  There were about a dozen other people waiting in there as well.  Apparently it was a very slow day.  We waited about 15 minutes.  We were called into another small room where there was a judge and a clerk.  The judge asked us a number of questions, ranging from "Have you met the child" to "How long has the adoption process taken".  It was very informal, and lasted about 5 minutes.  At the end of this she said "You are now the legal parents of Rufael, He is yours".  That was it.  We were now the parents of the most beautiful Ethiopian boy.  We left the room, and headed out to the car, and we drove Martha back to the agency office.  At this point, we realized that we were going to be driven back to the orphanage, without going to the hotel first.  As a result, we had not brought our package that we wanted to give to Elijah, to break the ice, and win his trust.

We arrived at the orphanage, and were ushered into the same room we had been in in the previous visit.  At this point, we realized that there were things painted on the walls.  We asked our driver whether those had been there the first time, and he said yes... I guess we were too focused on the children to notice the surroundings when we came the first time.  We waited for a while as they woke the kids up from their naps, and put them on the potty..  We peeked around the corner, and it was a very cute sight to see all the little kids (about 25 of them) all lined up in the hallway each on their own potties.  Very cool.  They are all in diapers, but learning.

We waited a few more minutes, and Elijah was brought into the room, by one of the nannies.  We spent just over an hour with him in the room, trying to get him to warm up to us.  He seemed very worried and concerned most of the meeting, but at some point, he was giggling and smiling, as Hilary held him, and danced with him a bit.  Hilary was also able to feed him lunch, Raman noodles, and he ate without a problem, and made sure that she got every last noodle onto the spoon.  We were able to get some pictures of him, and the two of us, which is what you've seen on Facebook and the blog so far.

At about 4:15 or so, we left, and our driver brought us back to the hotel.  The traffic was much crazier than we'd seen to that point.  I may never complain about our traffic back home, again.  There is a lot of road construction, and lots of detours that need to be taken.  We haven't seen any traffic lights that are actually in operation, and even when there are police directing traffic, it still seems to be a bit of a free for all.  We may have mentioned it already, but it bears repeating.... How many of us could deal with a 16 lane uncontrolled intersection?  The vehicles crossing this intersection, all seem to know what to do, but I wouldn't even contemplate driving here.  It's easier sometimes, just not to watch the traffic.  And the pollution... craziness..  My throat and eyes were burning yesterday as we were stuck in the traffic jam.  Hilary's glasses had a thick layer of dust or grime on them..

We got back to the hotel, and washed up.  We called our parents to give them the good news, and then went to Facebook to update it there.  We were blessed by the comments and likes that seemed to never end.  We spent the evening relaxing, and enjoying the fact that we are now officially a mom and dad!

Introducing Elijah (Eli) Dueck

WE PASSED COURT TODAY!, and gained a son, Elijah!

The First Dueck Family Photo

We will provide more of a journal entry on this day later, when we have had a chance to let it all sink in.

Wednesday, May 15 & Thursday, May 16

On Wednesday, we spent the day mostly inside.  Sheldon was not feeling very good, and we were worried that he could be coming down with what it seems everyone comes down with here, where they spend lots of time in the bathroom.  As a result, we felt that we should go and explore just a little bit.  We explored down Bole Road, which is the main road closest to us.  There are a number of restaurants on the street, as well as many shops, and a shopping mall.  We spent about an hour to an hour and a half walking up and down the street, and scouting out where we would purchase items such as children's clothing, toys, and if we really are in the mood, more electronics :)  It was good to get some fresh air, and Sheldon began to feel a bit better by the end of it.  We went back to the hotel, had some lunch, played some games (we've been playing monopoly deal quite a bit), and watched a few TV shows.  We settled in for bed around 10 PM, with the hope that we would be able to sleep through the night, something that has not happened for both of us yet this trip.

We both slept well, and basically slept right through the night, which gave us a bit more of a positive outlook on things to start off the morning.  We went down to the lobby for breakfast, and ran into a family that is here to pick up their daughter.  And lo and behold, they are also from Winnipeg.  It was great to touch base with them, even though our scenarios are a bit different, it was cool to make a connection like this right in our hotel.  At 10:00 AM or so, other friends of ours whom we met on this trip, came to pick us up.  We had decided that we would attempt to venture out to the Merkato.  For those of you who do not know what this is, here is the wikipedia entry:

Addis Mercato (Amharic for "New Market", popularly just Mercato, from the Italian for "market") is the name for the large open-air marketplace in the Addis Ketema district of Addis Ababa,Ethiopia, and for the neighborhood in which it is located.
Mercato is the largest open air market in Africa, covering several square miles and employing an estimated 13,000 people in 7,100 business entities. The primary merchandise passing through the Mercato is locally-grown agricultural products — most notably coffee.
The Addis Mercato was instituted by segregationist policies of the Italian occupational government. They restricted the historic St. George Mercato to Europeans, causing the mostly Arab tradesmen to relocate a half mile to the west. Over time, local shopkeepers displaced the Arab merchants and, since the 1960s, the Addis Mercato has had a mostly local flavor.
The Addis Mercato has over 120 stores and one massive shopping center with 75 stores.

It was a crazy experience, even though we were going on a slow day, Thursday.  Apparently it is much busier on Friday, Saturday, and Sundays...  The sheer number of people in this market is nuts.  And the size of the stores would rival most American bathroom stalls, the number of goods crammed into this space was crazy.  We were lucky to have a very trusted driver, and a very competent barterer in our group, which allowed us to walk through and figure out things that we might want, and negotiate a better deal for it.  We basically purchased a few souvenirs, as we would not dare venturing into this space with our son once he is here...

By noon, we were all ready to call it a day for the market, and headed back to the hotel.  We made the decision that we would join this family for a swim at the Sheraton.  Again for those who do not know, the Sheraton has a big swimming pool, and allows people to come in and use the pool for a reasonable price.  The five of us swam and chatted for the entire afternoon, and it was a blessing to hang out with a family that has very similar values as we do.  We are blessed to have this family here while we are, and we look forward to spending more time with them as we each continue to wait for our paperwork to be completed.  We left the Sheraton, a lot more refreshed, and a bit redder.

By the time we got home around 6 PM, we were about ready to zonk out.  We spent some time watching TV, and preparing for bed.  Tomorrow is the big day.  Tomorrow is court, and is the day that our son could legally be declared as being our son.  How will we sleep?  We sure hope we will be able to sleep :)

Thank you again everyone for your prayers and support.  Even though this week was a difficult week for us, it is getting better, and we are starting to settle in a bit more.

Visiting Day

Today was the first of the days that we have been looking forward to.  We got to visit our son.

We were driven to the orphanage, and it took about a half hour from the guesthouse.  We were told it was not far, so we're not sure what "far" is.

We were escorted into the building, and into small room on the 2nd floor of the orphanage building.  There were 15-20 kids (all under the age of 2 1/2 or so).  It was cute chaos in there.  We could tell from the interaction we observed that the kids are all very loved.  In situations where the children would cry, there was someone to love them up immediately.

Given the strict rules that we had, we were not allowed to pick up, or pay any special attention our son.  We played and played with all the kids.  Hilary had 5 kids trying to sit on her lap at once.  She was holding one child, and had 4 on her lap at one point.  They are all beautiful children.

Our son is beautiful as well.  We did interact with him on a few occasions in the hour that we were in the room.  He enjoyed putting pieces of lego on his head, and we were to repeat this.  We did this a number of times, and he enjoyed it.  He also seemed to enjoy throwing things.  Another thing he did a number of times was try to climb onto a container to look out the window... He got reprimanded for it a number of times, but he still kept on doing it.  What a beautiful little boy... We can't wait to see him again, and be able to take him home...

As we rode along to the orphanage and back, we noticed a lot of interesting things that we would find odd in Canada.  Cattle herded down the street, 16 lane un-controlled intersection (talk about confusion corner, I would not even think of driving in this city), many honks (saying, "I'm here", "get off the road", "don't angle me out", "thank you"), extreme poverty, vehicles with waaay too much loaded on the top of the vehicles, and a variety of different smells as you move down the street (from good smelling things to garbage smells).

It was a better day today.  I assume that we are still feeling the effects of jet lag, and being constantly tired, despite not being able to sleep in the middle of the night.  This morning, we were blessed to chat a little bit with Hilary's parents (even though the internet connection was terrible) which gave us a little bit more energy for the day.  All in all, it was a good day.

Thank you all again for your interest, prayers and support.  We've been reading your encouraging words to the previous few posts.

Monday, May 13

We had a great day in Ethiopia!

We spent the day getting to know a new couple here in Addis, and spending time celebrating a birthday of their son.  We were able to go to an orphanage (not the one where our son is at), and celebrate, complete with a bouncy castle, and oodles of food.  The kids were adorable, and we enjoyed getting to know some of them a little bit by having the sit on our laps, and just generally interact together.  It was great.

It was also awesome to get to know a couple in the same situation as what we are in.  We hope to get together with them some more over the next few weeks.

Please once again pray for us as we struggle with the isolation.  Even though we had a great day with a couple whom we would definitely consider friends now, we are still struggling with how we are going to make it through multiple weeks of this.  Obviously, we will also soon have a little one to help adjust to living with us, as well as take care of our needs.  Please pray for us as we go through a difficult and exciting time.

Pictures will probably not get uploaded very often as the internet connection seems to be poor, and intermittent.

We were blessed to have a chance to chat with Hilary's parents this morning (at 4 in the morning here, since we could not sleep).  Hopefully this will re-energize us going forward being able to have some of this contact with our families.

On that note, we shall try and get back to bed.  And, today we get to meet our son for the first time.  Please pray that this will be a positive experience, and that it will give us a boost as we move forward.

Sunday, May 12

We woke up around 9 or 10 o'clock on Sunday morning, and felt somewhat rested.  We spent the morning unpacking, and getting our bearings straight.  We were feeling quite out of sorts here, as we see just how many people are out there, and how we are totally the outsiders.  We headed out for lunch at a restaurant that we had heard about, and felt fairly confident would be safe to eat at called "New York, New York".  The food was good, but of course, it wasn't quite the same as it is back home :)

We went out and bought some supplies (water) and returned to the guesthouse to relax again for the rest of the day.  We watched some TV, and went to bed.

All in all, an uneventful day, but the enormity of the situation is starting to sink in just a bit more.  We will be here for a while, and it will be outside our comfort zone for the next number of weeks.  We also realize how our support system is back home, and isn't as readily accessible as it usually is.  It will be a stretching experience as we learn to cope with this.

Trip Beginnings

After years of feeling like this trip was never going to happen, on Friday May 10th, it did, bright and early.

We were all packed up and ready to go when our ride showed up on Friday morning at 6:00 AM.  We were at the airport by just before 7.  We checked our bags in, which was a huge relief.. One bag was slightly overweight, but as Hilary said, the scale started at 0.6, so our bag was actually bang on :).  We were incredibly blessed by the show of support from both of our families as well as my roommate from Bible School who is also in the process of trying to adopt from Ethiopia.  It was great to feel that support from all who were there.

We boarded the plane just before 9:00, and were off, basically right on time.  This flight was just a little hop skip and a jump compared to what lay ahead.  Hilary and I both watched a movie on the flight till Toronto, and had no issues with the flight.

Then we waited.  Our plane arrived at 12:30ish Toronto time, and our next flight wasn't until 6:50 PM.  Hilary had a nap at some point during the wait, we ate lunch, and mentally prepared for the rest of the trip.

The flight from Toronto to Frankfurt was a little bumpy at many points during the trip but was relatively uneventful.  One interesting thing about this flight was that the bathrooms were on a bottom level (and it was nice and cool there).  There were lineups basically the entire flight for use of these bathrooms.  The plane was quite hot as well, and it made it very difficult to get comfortable to get any sleep.  Neither of us were able to get any real sleep on this flight, and it made us both a bit cranky, and ready to get off the plane.

There was no rest of the weary, as our next flight left a few hours later from Frankfurt.  We were both a little frazzled as we navigated through the Frankfurt airport, which was a tad complicated....  In the end, we arrived at our gate 1.5 hours ahead of the next flight...  Hilary had a nap on the benches once again, while I went out in search of some food.  I got back to the gate, and it appeared that there was virtually no one left to get onto our flight... Something seemed a bit off, so I got online, and checked to make sure there had been no changes to our flights....  It turns out that they had changed the gate on us... We found this out just in time, as our boarding time was also the time I figured this out... So we ran off to find the gate where we were supposed to be.  We must have been among the last few to board.  Luckily, this flight was very empty.  It allowed us to sleep stretched out a bit more on the plane, and both of us got some good sleep time in.

I'm not sure anything really prepared us for the chaos that was the Addis airport.  We had made arrangements to be picked up, so at least we didn't worry about that at all until after we were through customs and purchasing a Visa.  We spent about 1/2 an hour in the lineup to buy a travel visa, and then another 15 minutes to 1/2 hour in the lineup to hand over our entry card or whatever it is called.  We had received this on the plane to fill out in preparation for this.  Then we went and got our pile of luggage, and walked out in another 15 minutes or so...  The lineup to put stuff through the customs scanner was fairly long and very chaotic... We were happy once we stepped out, but we did not see our ride...  It took a while, and a few phone calls, and we figured out that there had been a small misunderstanding and that our driver was waiting down the path rather than in the terminal which is what I thought we had been told...  When all was said and done, the driver was great, and soon we were checked in at the Guesthouse.

We unpacked only what we needed and got ready for bed, and zonked out.