Tuesday May 19th

Today was an overall good day. We did wake up without power and haven’t had power all day which means Jason didn’t get a hot shower and I didn’t get to curl my hair. I’m sure far worse atrocities are happening worldwide BUT for now that’s as bad as it’s been. We took Henok with us looking for a café and couldn’t find it so some kind girls showed us a different one and to our surprise NO ONE spoke English so we ordered bunna “coffee” and Henok got to pick a pastry which he thoroughly enjoyed then back to the hotel for more coffee and some breakfast.
After breakfast we took Henok to Hannah’s Hope because we went shopping at a large market and it’s frowned on now to bring the children with us – Ethiopian’s are upset that Americans are taking the kids away. So we shopped with anxiety I might add. I’m a look at 3 shops then make a purchase kinda gal and this was like “how much you pay??” in your face. So I hope we hit everything on our list. Whatever we forgot we can make up with some coffee. We bought like 20 kilos of coffee! Yum yum!
Jason found an old Bible written in Amharic on leather that he bought and also got a painting of Jesus that is pretty darn cool. So we got some fun stuff to hang on the walls and such.
After shopping we went to this extra yummy Italian restaurant and I ordered this Gorgonzola pasta which was just delicious. We also got a pizza to go on recommendation from previous traveling families which Henok is diggin!
Then Jas went to get Henok while I took a nap cause we both hit a wall of exhaustion – the time change isn’t being good to us to say the least. Luckily we have a child who sleeps the night through so it’s not like I’m up with baba’s every few hours. Hallelujah! When I woke up Jas took a nap and Henok and I played soccer in the hotel which made me nervous so we went to Hannah’s Hope and it was fun to have his special mother have him say “America I’m very excited!” Too cute. He also played a little bit of soccer and I would’ve thought he would want to stick around for dinner but he said he wanted to go to the hotel. So we came back scarfed banana and some pizza and he’s going to try some more clothes on!!
I am ready to head home but the next major check off on the list is the birth mother meeting which hopefully we can meet her tomorrow. Almaz the orphanage director said that his mother has seen him 3 or 4 times since she relinquished him and he does ok when she’s there and when she leaves so she had no worried about his reaction to seeing her one last time. I would like that piece of the puzzle for Henok. So as he grows and wants answers like why didn’t she keep me, or what do we know about her we can tell him honest answers. So I’m praying that she comes tomorrow so we can have that treasure of knowing his mommy in Ethiopia.
One side note, Henok LOVES Jason. He is always walking around Mommy Daddy, it’s quite precious and I’m so thankful that at this point he’s excited and happy to be with us!
More tomorrow,
Kala