What a day we’ve had so far and it’s only 5pm here right now. This morning we woke up and had a nice breakfast in our guest house with the other three families that came at the same time as us. We love the other couples already, and have spent the day with them first visiting our kids, then eating lunch at one of the local restaurants, then doing a little bit of shopping for souvenirs. It’s been good to have others around that you can not only relate to, but to laugh and cry with. One of the couples is adopting a little boy that is best friends with our four-year-old, Surafel. They happen to live in Houston, TX so we are already talking about planning a meeting once or twice a year for the boys to see each other.
We went over to the care center this morning around 9:30 and were able to stay for a couple of hours. We pulled up to the gated pink building, and as we entered we heard the nannies start calling the kids to come down and say hi. As we walked into the building, the first child I saw was our little Esrael (2 years old) standing in the hallway, wide-eyed and timid. I went up to him and bent down to look into his eyes. I looked at the nanny and said, “This is Esrael, right”. She said, “Yes, yes! Esrael.” I picked him up and said “Seulam” which means “Hello”. He put his little arm around my neck but looked terrified, like he had no idea what was going on. Then Surafel came running down the steps and out the door. The nanny called him back and pointed to Stephen and told him that this was his new dad. He stopped quickly and looked up at Stephen. Stephen held his arms out and asked to pick him up and he let him hold him. They stood there for several minutes with Surafel’s arms around Stephen’s neck and his head on his shoulder.
Then Stephen took him to the front steps and opened the large bag of toys and snacks that we brought. He picked up the two stuffed animals first and ran to Esrael to give him one. Esrael hugged it and we went over and sat on the steps too. I quickly realized that Esrael LOVES cars and planes. Those are the main things he wanted to hold. For the first hour we were there Esrael seemed timid and quiet. Stephen gave Surafel one of the juice boxes that we brought, which he loved, but Esrael didn’t want to eat or drink anything at first. I didn’t see him smile or really play much. He just watched everything. After a while, Stephen passed out some little chocolates to all of the kids (there were probably about twenty at this care center, not including those in the infant room). We gave Esrael a piece of chocolate, which he surprisingly took and started to nibble on. I watched and took pictures and video as it started to melt on his fingers and he would lick it off and put it in his other hand, then lick that one and switch back. It was so cute, and he ended up with it all over his hands and face. After that he let me pick him up again and clean him up and put a new shirt on him that had cars on it. He kept saying “Makina!” which means “car”. When I showed Surafel his new shirt and shorts and shoes he ran up and cried “Ah!!” and quickly put them on. He looked so proud!
All of the kids were called to an upstairs room for lunch and the parents sat on the couches and helped our kids eat. They were served injera, the flat bread, with lentils on it. Each child sat, and even the one-year-olds knew how to feed themselves . I watched as Esrael picked a piece of injera up, dipped it in the sauce, blew on it, and put it in his mouth. This was the cleanest I’ve ever seen a two-year-old eat! Meanwhile, Surafel sat in Stephen’s lap and was fascinated as Stephen showed him how to play Angry Birds on his iphone. I took soooo many pictures and video that I hope to be able to share soon. It’s really hard to find internet here, and when you do it’s goes off and on.
After lunch is when Esrael really warmed up to me. We played in the upstairs hallway with a bouncy ball for a few minutes before it ended up going over the railing and landing in the court yard. I held my hand out to see if he would hold it while we went down the stairs. He grabbed it and we walked down together to get the ball. On the way up, I walked behind him and he took it step by step. When we got half way up, he turned around and held his arms up for me to hold him. It was the first time he initiated it. I picked him up and gave him a hug, and he looked at me for a second and then said, “Amaye” which means mommy. I almost cried right there. We spent another hour or so with the boys, playing in the courtyard with bubbles, balloons, cars and trucks. Stephen and Surafel had a game of catch going with one of the balloons and he ran over and pulled me in to join. Esrael then wanted to sit in my lap, and he let me feed him a cookie and juice box. Then we sat on the floor and played with the trains and cars going “vroom! Vroom!!” It was so adorable. I took a picture of Esrael with his tongue stuck out to the side and when I showed it to him he couldn’t stop giggling! We were really becoming friends!
We had to go shortly after, and while Esrael gave us a hug and kept playing like any two-year-old would do, Surafel’s face dropped when he realize we had to go. Stephen picked him and and hugged him so tightly and kept saying “It’s okay. We’ll be back tomorrow. I love you. You’re my boy.” The nanny translated for him, but Surafel started to cry. We all hugged and started crying before climbing into the van with the other families that were also in tears. I can’t wait to go back to them tomorrow. We have the option of bringing them to our hotel, and while all the families agree that it would be too confusing for the kids if we keep them with us overnight, we are going to bring the boys to stay here for the day tomorrow or the next day along with the other family that has the boy that is best friends with Surafel. That way we can have all day to play with them, and maybe get them some ice-cream and play games.
We’ll try to update some more tomorrow. There’s so much to say, but I think most of it will have to wait until we’re back in the US. I hope to upload at least a few of the many pictures we took, though. We are already so in love with these boys!!
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