Coming home!

Sorry I have not been posting much. The internet is difficult and slow and, to be honest, I'm pretty much too tired to do much more than function. Things are going pretty well and I'll try to catch you up about the last several days...I'll post more later when I'm home. Which BTW will be Monday now...we are finished up here and, with Monday being a holiday, there is not much open to do and Christmas was celebrated at the HOH today. For those of you who have children at the HOH, they are beautiful and very well-behaved and getting wonderful care.

So Wednesday...this was of course a great day with Mari because it was "gotcha day." I, however, did not sleep at all. Mari has a bad cough (getting better but still yucky) and was coughing and wheezing all night...she slept through it, I didn't. So by Thursday morning, I was already tired and stressed.

Thursday...we went over paperwork with Tsegay and then Ephrem (our beloved driver) took us on a tour of the city. We went to the Lion Zoo (more on that later) and the National Museum. Then back to the HOH for a traditional Ethiopian meal. It was better than the one that I had tried back in the States but still not really my cup of tea (or coffee in this case). Then we went for our visa appt. We had to wait about 45 minutes in a hot, hot, hot room filled over capacity (saw 3 other adoptive families there that we met on the plane). The interview took 30 seconds, 2 signatures and we were done. On the way back to the HOH, we hit a pedestrian...she wasn't hurt. Silly traffic here--MORE on that later! By the time we got back to the Hilton, I was exhausted. Mari was screaming with a belly ache (very constipated--also fixed now!) and I pretty much had a little breakdown--close to 40 hours with no sleep, what do you expect? But we both got settled down with Dad's help and slept the night pretty good. By Friday morning, I was much better

Friday...we traveled to Numan orphanage to meet Mari's birth mom. The drive was about 3.5 hours through some truly African terrain (thatched huts, camels, mountains, gorges). The meeting was very nice and I even got to meet Mari's sister. I won't give out a lot of details (that stuff is private) but it was a great experience and we will definitely keep in touch through the agency. After a good lunch (which I started feeling sick in the middle of--everyone that knows me, knows my stomach!) we traveled 3.5 hours back in the blazing hot weather (yes, it is HOT here). We hit another pedestrian (different driver) and again, no injuries. Crazy driving! When we got back, Tsegay was armed with Mari's passport, visa, and packet of "do not open" paperwork!!! So we headed back to the Hilton and cooled off and played. Dad went out with Ephrem to find dinner and came back with hamburgers and French fries from Burger Queen (no joke--and they were good). We slept pretty well although Mari woke up a little fussy. We checked with the airlines and found that there was space on the Sunday night flight and there was no charge to transfer. So we are leaving Sunday night at 10:15pm.

Today we dropped Mari off at the HOH for one last day with her beloved nurse Alam and we headed to the Mercado (market) with Almaz. After some HEAVY negotiating, we survived the crowds and headed back to the HOH. We had lunch at the HOH (I think they are a little disappointed by the way we eat);neither myself or Dad can eat a lot when we travel and they seem surprised that we pickat our food. It is really quite good but I don't trust my stomach. Anyway...we headed back to the Hilton and started packing.

I have prepared my gifts for the staff at HOH and we will head there tomorrow to say our goodbyes before Ephrem takes us to the airport. Mari is upstairs (hopefully asleep) playing with her grandpa...she has become extremely mobile but only in reverse, still needs to figure out the forwards part!

I'll post more once I'm home&...looking so forward to getting back to the states. This has been an unbelievable experience but also very draining, physically and emotionally. I pray that my stomach holds it together for 48 more hours and that Mari rides in a plane as easily as she does in the car.