New Flower continued/ and the Gotcha Day part 1

I just am learning to put on photos. This was taken at the end of the trip. Someone lives in this metal shed. There is a lock on the end of this shed, like a padlock. So they leave during the day and lock it up and sleep there at night.

I hate this computer. I hit one too many keys and then I couldn't get back to my post so here goes with the continuation.

( a smashed pop tart that is the plane ride was hard on my pop tarts) I had a pop tart everyday for breakfast. Bill usually had eggs and coffee. One morning G and B had pancakes. Very thick ones.

After breakfast we were off to the Morning Coffee Guest House to pick up Emily, Terri and Elliott.

Gretchen had been talking to Emily on the internet for quite a while but had never met her. Terri is Emily's sister and Elliott is Emily's little girl, an 8 month old that they had picked up at the transitional home the day before. Elliott is BEAUTIFUL, but the I hadn't met Yohanna yet. Sorry Emily but Grandma's are jaded. Elliott has piercing eyes and it also an Ethiopian Beauty. After picking up E, T and E ( Emily, Terri and Elliott) we were off to the Shalom Transitional Home were Yohanna was. Traffic wasn't as bad as it had been the day before. Of course it was after everyone had gone to work. Instead of a 1000 cars on the road maybe there was only 800. hahahaha More like Chicago at rush hour. Abel pronounced Ebel was our guide. He arrived at the guest house in a van with an Ethiopian driver named Abeselom. Everything is enclosed here, well not everything but most things. With locking gates and gate keepers. Metal or cement walls. The walls are high enough I couldn't reach the top standing on my toes and then there is barb wire, razor wire on top. Some places had broken glass embedded in the top and some hotels had electric fence on top. They are serious about not letting anyone into their compounds. Piles of rock lay along the road. Garbage either laying on the sides of the road or huge piles of it outside the compounds. There were street sweepers working in big straw hats and blue long sleeved clothing. I'm not sure they were accomplishing much there is soooo much dirt. We were dressed in capris and short sleeves and enjoying the temperature. The Ethiopians were covered up, in sweaters and coats, winter coats. It rained yesterday and it's raining here again, very hard, with lightening and thunder. It sounds worse because of the metal roofs. One of the things we were told before we went is that they don't get rain except during the rainy season, July-Sept. Wrong, I think it rained everyday we were there, not much but some. Stores with open fronts covered their wares with tarps. Speaking of tarps, we drove by one high rise and it was covered in blue torn tarps. I took a picture of it. When we got closer the sign on the side of the building said Weather Proofing. Hahahaha The van honked and the gates were opened and we drove in, then the gates were locked behind us. We walked in the doors of Shalom, forgot to take off our shoes ( which is custom, you either go sock footed or wear shoes they provide for you) and were up the steps to the infant room where Yohanna was in a matter of seconds. There she was in a Nanny's arms, eating, of course. I think that every picture we have gotten lately was her with a bottle in her mouth or milk running down her chin. Gretchen wanted me to run the video camera. I tried and tried, it kept turning off. Low battery. So I took some pictures. We put her back into her bed and took a picture of her there. If you look at that picture you can just imagine that is going through that little girls head. Who are these people? Where are they taking me? Where is my nanny? Where is my bottle? Soon, very soon we were downstairs. They gathered up the things that G and B had sent to Yohanna. She was dressed in the outfit that they had sent and was wrapped in the prayer blanket. We only spent about an hour there. You needed a permission slip from the adoptive parents to take pictures, so the head Nanny had a fit when we took any pictures. The older kids want to see and use our cameras so we let them take as may pictures as they wanted to. There are even pictures of them taking each others pictures. Ethiopia is on a 13 month+ calendar so it was just after the New Year there and there were Christmas decorations up, a tree on top of the TV stand. Merry Christmas above the door. It is also 2002 there so if you look at Yohanna's birth certificate it looks like she is older than Caleb who is 6+. That will all change when the new birth certificate is issued. The transitional home is bright and clean. There is a large playroom and kitchen down stairs. The Nannys are beautiful and all wear uniforms. Yohanna is beautiful , just a bitty baby. She has gone from 1 kilo to 5 kilos since she arrived at the orphanage. The Nannys had tears in their eyes when we left. They truly loved Yohanna. They also were very excited to see Elliott. I offered suckers to the older children. There were also little ones there, maybe 18 months, walking but not very old. I didn't offer them a sucker because I didn't know if it was ok. I think I made the head Nanny a little mad. She came over and curtly asked if they could have one too. Of course they could, I unwrapped several and gave them out. All the children were bright and happy, one little one was a bit quite and shy but who knows how long he had been there. It probably was quite over whelming. I know I was overwhelmed. Gretchen handed Yohanna to me. How light she is. I can hardly pick up Sam, he was the last baby we've had. Her skin is soooo soft and her hair is like peach fuzz. It is long if you stretch it out but it curls right up. Her eyes are so big, I'm not sure if that is normal or if she has sooooo much to take in she looks rather surprised all the time.

Who are these people? They don't look like me. Maybe she can't tell that yet, when do babies distinguish color? Oh well, I certainly hope she can feel how much we love her and how excited we are to have her with us. I'd love to take them all home with me. These children at this home all have parents waiting for them thank goodness. They just have to wait for court dates and embassy dates. Please God make those dates come quickly, these children need to be home with families. We are lucky though the caregiver/child ratio is 1 to 2 for infants and just a little higher for older children. Other orphanages are 1/20 or much higher.