Meetcha Day!

It's been a while.  Since we returned home on Christmas Eve things have been crazy! We celebrated the birth of our Savior and tried to figure out what time it was.  We visited family out of town and had some sickness.  Now life is starting to get back into a groove.  It's important that I write about our trip, where our adoption is and how I'm feeling about it.  It's important for Noah one day and I hope to be an encouragement to other adoptive families, as well as paint a realistic picture.  The times I have picked up the computer to write I haven't found the words.  But I'm going to give it a try.

We landed in beautiful Ethiopia on Tuesday, December 20th about 8am.  The bright African sun and warm breeze were so welcome after the very long flight.  Standing in line to get our visa was an appropriate depiction of African time and culture.  There were two men sitting at a table hand writing visas for the 100 plus people in line.  They were not in hurry.  They were not being lazy either.  They had their work in front of them and took a pace that we might consider slow and went about what they had to do.  I love Africa and I love the people.  We laughed as we watched the man write out my visa and pause to chat with the other man then continue writing.  We finally got through the line and headed to get our luggage.  We made our way out and standing in front of the many people waiting was Woudneh, our in country director.  What a welcome site!  He got us to the car where our driver took us to the transition house.  We pulled in the gate and I saw a beautiful little garden that welcomed us into the guest house.  I was yards away from our son.  All I wanted to do was go and squeeze him.   But because Ethiopians are so hospitable we had to eat first.  A very delicious breakfast was served of eggs and homemade bread.  Then sweet Betty (Woudneh's wife) came in and I told her we were waiting to meet Noah.  She said, "Oh, I will go get him."  I could have kissed her!  So we waited...a little excitedly!

And I know we look awesome...please remember that we just got off an almost 13 hour flight and it was about 2 am our time!  And No we did not realize that we both had on red until we looked at the pictures :)

Then I saw him, reached for him, and he smiled!  My breath was taken away and I was in love.

 Our precious son, a gift from God was finally in my arms.  He is beautiful and perfect.  He smiled and laughed and played with my hair.  I gave him lots of kisses and squeezes.  Mostly I just stared.  Because for 10 months we have been praying for this sweet boy, praying for his birth mom and his journey to get home to us.  At that time he was still in the womb.  Now he was in my arms and I could not have been more elated.  

I do realize he has on pink, I promise he is a boy!  They don't really have gender identity like we do with color and it's an orphanage....you have to use what you have.  

After I caught my breath and thanked God for blessing us with this sweet boy I let Dan hold him a little :) 

We spent the day loving on Noah, feeding him, rocking him to sleep.  It was perfection. 

It only took an hour for me to get spit up on (it was a little more extreme but I'll save you the details) so I took the opportunity to put him in a "boy" shirt.

This one melts my heart...wish I was there right now.

After Noah went back to the nanny for the night Woudneh and Betty took all the families to a traditional Ethiopian dinner.  The food was AMAZING and the entertainment was great.  It's probably a good thing there was singing and dancing because Dan and I were about fall face forward asleep.  Here's a picture of us at dinner.

It was one of the most beautiful perfect days in my life.  I had anticipated it for months and holding him for the first time brought on emotions that have no words.  Just like when the doctor handed me our girls.  It was love.  Hopefully I'll get to write more about the rest of our trip and court date soon!  Please keep praying that Noah will be in my arms forever very soon.