Thursday morning some of our travel group went to the Fistula Hospital to visit & the rest of us spent time at Hannah's Hope. The guys showed the HH guys how to use their new power tools & built shelves for a closet in one of the baby rooms. The girls played with the kiddos. It was a very relaxing morning. We were there for the children's lunch & were excited to experience that. They put little tables & chairs in the schoolroom. The kids were so cute as they ate. OE decided to give me a bite of her lunch, and that spured some of the other kids to want to share their lunch with me. Someone gave me a bite of something that had a strange texture, &, as I tried to swallow it quickly, I ended up getting choked. I left the room to try to avoid throwing up & to regain my composure (it was one of those moments when I needed a drink of water, and couldn't find my water bottle quickly enough...future travelers~always keep your water bottle with you...you never know when you'll need it!). When N came to check on me he said all the kids were wondering if I was okay. When I went back in they were all laughing, so I guess N was able to explain to them that I was fine & just being silly. N & several of the kids starting mimicky my silly choking & we all just laughed & laughed. All the HH children are amazing--what fun times! For our lunch we went to Kaldi's Coffee (the Ethiopian version of Starbucks). It was nice, but OE was not in the mood to sit still & eat so it was not too enjoyable for me ;-) . We decided to walk back to the hotel thinking we might find some of the chammas (shoes) OE was wanting. It started raining hard as we walked back, and it was a pretty long walk (we were pretty wet & tired by the time we made it back). When we got back to the hotel, OE outwardly expressed the grief that she was bound to be feeling. It seemed as if she realized that our time in Ethiopia was coming to a close. I held her, & she ended up falling asleep. After her nap, it was time for us to walk over to Hannah's Hope to help fold the clothes for the shelve the guys made. Some of the other ladies had done most of the work by the time we got there, but we helped them wrap things up. We hated to miss out on helping, but Almaz makes it very clear that the adoptive parents should be intune to their children's needs & help them whereever they are...future travelers~flexiblity is SO important. We really wanted to spend more time out & about around Addis taking in our daughter's birthcountry, but we came to a realization before we traveled that the primary purpose of this trip was bond with our daughter & help her through this transition. God-willing, there will be another time to experience more of her amazing birthplace. We are so thankful for all the time we got to spend at Hannah's Hope & were so sad to see our time there come to a close. As we said goodbye, we had special moments with several of our favorite people there (Almaz, OE's special mothers, kids we had grown close to, etc.). Then, it was time to walk back to the hotel. It was a quiet walk back. I cried most of the way. At the hotel, it was time to say goodbye to one of the families we traveled with--the family we began our trip with in Detroit. We were so sad to see them go. There is a special bond that is formed between the families that you share all these life-changing moments with. After we waved goodbye, we sat down for dinner & the lights went out for the first time. We enjoyed a candlelight dinner & OE had fun playing with her lightstick that we had brought for power outages. Then it was time to go up to our room to get ready for bed. OE searched through her suitcase for a hairbow she wanted to give to one of the other girls in our travel group. She is such a giving little girl...throughout our time in Ethiopia, she was constantly sharing her new things with her HH friends. Then it was off to sleep for the last time in Ethiopia. We were excited to be going home to the boys but sad to be leaving our daughter's birthcountry.
The guys working on the shelves...
The HH guys checking out their new power tools!
Kind of random, but I just love how the kids always lined their shoes up all neatly in the schoolroom area.
OE loving on the baby in our travel group.
The big container of Injera that the kids chowed on for lunch!
OE loving her "Mirinda" (the Ethiopian orange soda drink) at Kaldi's.
The view from the bridge we walked across on our way back to the hotel from Kaldi's (just minutes before the down pour came)!
The finished product of our group's shelf project.
The Hannah's Hope gate after we walked out of it for the last time....so sad!
Our travel buddies heading off in the van to the airport...more tears!
Fun times with our candles & lightsticks during the power outage!
1 comment:
I love the pictures,
as usual! OE in her orange shirt drinking orange pop! CUTE!
So sad to say good-bye....it makes me sad!
Michelle
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