It has been three months since we first set foot in Ethiopia so I thought it appropriate to start blogging about our trip.
Monday May 24-
Our day started out early in Dubai. A short flight later we landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It was all very surreal. I couldn't believe we were just a mere few hours from meeting our daughter. We were greeted at the airport by Travis N.(Gladney staff) and our driver Yaftahe around 11:30am. Travis N. asked us if we wanted to meet Ephrata today or wait until the next day. Of course we said today, as soon as possible! We had to wait until Matt and Eryn arrived at our guesthouse for Travis N. to bring both little girls to us. Upon arriving at Bejoe's guesthouse we were greeted by Mark and Heidi and their boys. So fun! I couldn't believe that we were actually there. I'd seen so many pictures from other people's trips and now it was finally our turn.
At 2:30 we met our sweet Ephrata. She wasn't quite sure what to make of us at first. She looked a bit dazed and confused but didn't seem to mind us too much until little Lucy started crying. Ephrata soon joined in in sympathy cries. I was walking around with her trying to get her to calm down when all of a sudden I felt something warm go running down my front. She had had a diaper explosion and it was everywhere. And I do mean EVERYWHERE. I ran her down to our room while she cried even harder. I really had no idea what to do. We were both a mess and I couldn't put her down to grab anything. I was able to get a very small changing pad and lay it on the bed. Then I found out she was wearing a pull-up and not a diaper! Of course pulling it off meant smearing poop all down her legs. Now I had a naked screaming baby covered in poop and I was also covered in poop. A baby wipe wasn't going to help that mess so I decided she needed a bath. I was in a bit of a panic as I had no idea how to hold a screaming poop covered baby, run a bath, and find the bath supplies. I couldn't figure out why Travis (husband) hadn't come to my aid when he heard the inconsolable crying. I ran into the courtyard with my dirty, naked, screaming child and yelled for him. Luckily he was just coming down to see what was taking me so long. It turns out they couldn't hear a thing from where they were all sitting upstairs. We gave Ephrata a quick and not so thorough bath because she was still crying and we couldn't get any warm water (poor baby!). Finally after the bath she calmed down and we were able to pacify her by letting her chomp on our fingers. I felt so bad for her. What a traumatic introduction to her new family! After we went back upstairs to get the necessary info from Travis N. we played with her for a bit and then gave her a bottle. We all crashed for the next 4 hours and woke up at 8pm.
She's only taken three steps a few times and today I happened to catch this on video. Liya took several steps before I got the camera rolling, so about a total of ten steps! Of course she wouldn't do it again for me after that.
Liya at 9 months. I am sorry for the brevity of the videos. You have no idea how hard it is to capture her on video!
What you didn't see in this first video is her taking a step before I turned the camera on. I was really only trying to catch her standing anyway.
And we thought she was already too mobile with her crawling. So far she has taken three steps at one time. After hearing from other people who have had early walkers, we are not trying to encourage her too much with the walking, though it is terribly hard to contain our excitement when she does something new.
