Day two of our journey to Seth Kidus

After a good night's sleep in Washington D.C., we were off to Dulles airport first thing in the morning for our Ethiopian Air flight. As soon as we got in line we saw the Hahn family (the family who would be spending the week with us) a few rows ahead. This was the first time we had all met, but soon we would be spending a lot of time together.

Getting through the gate and security was a breeze for us. Being the pessimistic person that I am, I began to wonder what was going to go wrong since everything seemed to be going right. I know - lack of faith - I am working on it :)

The flight to Addis Ababa was a very smooth flight and the food was about as good as you can expect on an airline. It wasn't bad, but I am pretty sure that Rachel Ray is not in the back whippin' up a 30 minute meal. Anyway, I slept most the way because I was hoping to avoid severe jet lag.

We had a short stop in Rome where we did not de-board, but waited for the crew to change and the cleaning crew to cleanup. One thing I noticed about this flight that I had never seen on other flights: there was a lot of socializing going on. Since the majority of the plane was Ethiopian, many of the Ethiopian people were standing in the aisles chatting with one another. This was my first experience with how friendly and outgoing the people of Ethiopia could be.

We landed in Addis Ababa about 8:30am in the morning, and were immediately ushered to the line for a visa ($20.00, and very easy questions). Once through that hurtle, we went to claim our luggage. That was crazy, to say the least. We stood there and waited, and waited, and waited... I was convinced that we were only going to have two out of the six suitcases we brought. Finally, the luggage came through. The interesting part of the Addis Ababa airport is that you send your luggage through screening and x-ray machines as you are leaving the airport. In case you leave with too many bags of peanuts, I guess.

The Addis Ababa airport is pretty nice. The entire front is glass so as you enter into the main area (where everyone is waiting), you get a beautiful view of the mountains.

We found Alemu (our contact and host while in Ethiopia) fairly quickly. Once all the formalities were behind us, we told him that we would like to pick up Seth Kidus immediately. At this point, it felt as if we could not wait another second to get him in our arms. The Hahn family joined us in our little huddle and we learned that we would drop them off at their daughter's orphanage on the way to ours, but first we all needed to get settled in.

Alemu's house is less than five minutes from the airport, so we were there and unloaded before we could even catch our breath. There was a coffee (Amharic: Boona) ceremony put together by Geezaish (I am not sure if this is the proper spelling, but it is phonetic). First, she roasted the beans in front of us, then ground them, put them in the coffee pot and let it cook for about 15 minutes. The whole process takes about 45 minutes and the result is the best espresso you have ever had. The ceremony is usually accompanied by popcorn and colo (barley) to snack on.

Once the ceremony was complete, we rushed around to get ready to go to the orphanage. What does one wear to pick up your son? I think I may have had a little melt down in my mind while preparing to leave. I wanted to go get him so badly, but part of me was scared - of what, I don't know.

On the way to the orphanage, we picked up the Hahn family at their hotel, then dropped them off at the Enetalem Orphanage. Kidus' orphanage (Adera) was a little but more of a drive.

We arrived at the orphanage and met the wonderful director there. After talking to him for a few minutes, Taylor says "Ooohhh, I see him." His nanny brought him through the door, he took one look at us and tried to go right back out the door. He was scared and you could tell. I walked over and rubbed his arm, trying to calm him, but it was just making him more upset. The director finally said, "You need to just take him." So I did. I ripped him out of the arms of his nanny and walked back across the little room to his father. We oohed and aaahed over him, but all the while we were mourning his loss with him. His nanny obviously took good care of him. He clearly loved her and we are so grateful he had that in his life.

The rest of the day was a blur, so I will skip the details. We went back to the Enetalem orphanage to pick up the Hahn family and dropped them off at their hotel. Upon returning to the guest house, we had dinner with a departing family. They were adopting three little girls who had lived in the same orphanage as Kidus. All four children were very excited to see one another.



After that, we called it a very early night. Seth Kidus did wake up one or two times, but this time was very important for us. It was during those late night "meetings" that James, Seth Kidus, and I truly began interacting. He was really starting to warm up to us. Of course, Taylor was able to sleep through this because he already loved her. As I was just reminded tonight, she was the first one to make him laugh. He loves his big sister and has from the beginning :)











I will post day three soon. Seth Kidus is waiting for mommy to come play... Who can keep this face waiting?