Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Thursday July 21^st & Friday July 22^nd

We dropped off Lily at Mitch and Lexis’s house. It was tough to say goodbye for us, but she was as happy as could be! We stopped for a quick lunch and then headed for the airport. Our journey has begun. We arrived at Logan at 3:00pm, quickly went through security and then boarded our first flight at 5:00pm. We headed to Frankfurt Germany, which took a little less than 7 hours. We arrived at 6:00am Germany time. There we had 7 hours to ponder the next leg of our journey, a 7-hour flight to Addis Ababa. A pint, a pretzel and a nap later we boarded the plan at 1:15pm and landed in Addis Ababa at 9:00pm Ethiopian time (seven hour time difference.) There we got our visas, went through customs, exchanged our currency and then waited, and waited and waited for our luggage, which eventually did come. We then went through a sea of people to find Hermella, our CHI representative, who would take us to the hotel “The House of Hope”. By this time it was close to 11:00pm and we where totally whipped after a day and a half of travelling. The drive to the hotel was sketchy at best. Fortunately, Tanya was used to this after driving with me for so many years! The area surrounding the hotel, as well much of what we saw of Addis Ababa is very depressing. With make shift houses and stores. The hotel has a gated courtyard with 24-hour security. I don’t think we will be doing much adventuring on our own, although, the people here are all so beautiful and extremely polite. They greet you with a big smile and a welcome.

Saturday July 23^rd:

Woke up this morning at 6:00am to the sound of prayers. Today is the day we finally get to meet little Z. We are so excited. The transition house is just a short drive from where we are staying.

Meeting Eyob: We arrived at the transition home with two other couples that are also meeting their little boys for the first time. Hermella brought in the other two children first and then it was our turn. Little Z is just that little, except for a pair of enormous feet! He is soo cute. We were able to spend a few hours with him, which gave us enough time to feed him, have him take a nap in our arms and take a zillion pictures and a few videos. We then headed back to the House of Hope for a wonderful lunch with our news friends. The food has been great so far. The injera bread with a spicy sauce for lunch was awesome!

We are planning to go back to the transition house this afternoon for another quick visit with the boys and then out to an authentic Ethiopian restaurant for dinner and a show. Tomorrow is a down day, so we are planning on catching up on some much needed rest.

The traditional Ethiopian restaurant was perfect. The food was awesome, as was the traditional dance and music.

Sunday July 24^th:

So much for a day of rest. Tanya and I, along with two other couples, decided to hire a diver for the day to take us around Addis Ababa to see the sights. We plan to eat, shop and take many pictures, although it look like it is going to be a rainy day here in Addis.