Gotcha Day and Day 2

Gotcha Day

Well, it was our day for no power today.  Every other day we have no power because that’s what the government wants.  We rode over to the Thomas Center transition home with Abdissa (the director of CHI).  The pollution was THICK...you could taste it.  We pulled in to the Thomas Center and had NO idea that Luke would be standing there waiting for us!!!!  We didn’t have the video camera or camera ready or anything!  We were stunned!  It was very emotional seeing him standing there waiting for us with Abdissa’s wife (she runs the Thomas Center).  There were no other families doing it, just us.  He wasn’t too excited but let us hold him.  We toured the Thomas Center....so hard to see so many orphans!  We were stunned by how well behaved all the kids were.  They had them separated out by age and they chanted WELCOME to us.  It was sweet.  We saw Luke’s crib (it’s only been his crib for a few weeks...we go to his previous orphanage on Thursday).  Outside there were hundreds of little clothes drying EVERYWHERE (it was not raining).  

We then left and went to the CHI headquarters to fill out paperwork.  We were up in a room alone for a long time unsure what we were to do but we started getting to know our new son!  Troy then left to fill out the paperwork and Luke and I stayed in that room.  In that time I found out lots about him...he likes raisins (we soon learned he likes to eat ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING and a lot of it!!!)...he likes to color...he loves toy cars..he loves to go outside...he wears 18-24 month clothes.  We were kind of thinking that maybe he didn’t utter any words or noises or anything then all of a sudden he copied me after he picked up something from the ground, “yucky”.  I nearly fell over!  After we left we took him to a few places and he napped in our arms.  We took him to a little shop and the women working there were kissing and hugging him and wiping his boogars....Ethiopians LOVE their children.  The women then asked what his name was and we said Mamoosh (his African name) they told us that WAS NOT a name that just meant ‘little boy’.  We then said his American name was Luke and they were very dissatisfied with that and said we needed to name him Lazarus.  Too funny.  They then told us he looked African and not Ethiopian...whatever that means!  When we took him home he really started copying us saying, “mommy, daddy, puppy and other funny things!  It was so precious!  He loved his first bath until he pooped in it.  

It was bitter sweet today because one of the other families staying at the guest house got a 6 month old baby today and were told he was very sick and needed to go to the hospital.  He weighs 9 pounds and is severely malnourished!  We couldn’t sleep for a large chunk of the night and kept praying for little Efa.

Day 2

Luke only woke up once in the night and Troy patted his back for a while and he went back to sleep.  There was thunder in the night that shook all of Ethiopia....I literally thought we were being bombed.  Luke didn’t wake up!  He does have a cough thing going and coughed for a couple hours in his sleep.  He woke up happy and has been quite a kid today!  Smiling (Yes Lynda and Tammy...smiling!!!...I found his tickle spot), chuckling and getting into 2 year old mischief.  He loves to talk!  I decided to try feeding him a bottle (older kid formula) before nap and bed and he LOVED it.  He is very easy to put to bed.  It was our embassy appointment today which went without a hitch.  Another family in our guest home did not get their kids’ visas because they had a paper missing!  We are praying for them!  Little Efa continues to throw up and have diahrrhea and cries continually.  We keep praying.  They are next door to us so it should be a long night (we never sleep much anyway).  

We met a man today that first was with Luke at his first orphanage and was with him for over a year.  He told us he has pictures of Luke and his good buddy that go way back.  WE were thrilled and are trying to figure out a way to meet with him.  There appears to be some weirdness because he no longer works for CHI and Abdissa is acting weird about it.  We are determined to meet with him though to get as much history as possible for Luke.  We ate an Ethiopian lunch with the one other CHI family adopting this week.  YUCK....I did my best to get some down.  I also drank a tiny cup of coffee...since we were in Ethiopia and all.  I found an Ethiopian nativity set I am so excited about...I had been searching for the past 2 days and no one even knew what I was talking about but I finally found a woman who knew!  Luke has scabies (yum) and we applied the medicine head to toe.  He is SO good about sitting still for stuff!  We also put stuff on the molluscum warts on his face.  He took another bath and was cracking up this time as he spilled water out of cups over his head....too cute.  Our little boy is So precious...molluscum warts and all!