With all exciting things in life there are always highs and lows. We had plenty of both on our trip to meet our little Sunshine:) We arrived in Ethiopia on the 30th of Nov. and met Sunshine on the 2nd of December. Being rather jet lagged on Wednesday we decided to lay low and explored the city a little more but did not make it to Entoto Mountain, which was a good choice since I was so tired and the elevation is hard enough on me as it is. I felt like I hardly slept on Wednesday night and because of my exhaustion felt rather ill the next day. I also had a hard time emotionally because I was missing my boys so much. Lack of sleep turns me into a complete basket case, I was a wreck and panicked about everything.
On Thursday we had a jam packed day. Starting with an orientation meeting, meeting our child, lunch, a visit to the lepracy hospital and gift shop, legal document review for court the next day, followed by seeing our children again and then meeting with the pediatrician. There was a lot of driving and even more getting lost and confusion as we often ended up with the "other" driver, who was lovingly nicknamed Waldo by a fellow travel mate. It was a fitting nickname since the regular driver probably often wondered about his whereabouts.
We met Sunshine for the first time on Thursday and despite everyone saying we would be meeting them without telling them we are their soon-to-be parents it did not happen this way. I was looking forward to watching Sunshine interact with her age mates and nannies and instead she was thrust into our arms looking concerned and untrusting. I can't say I was unhappy holding my soon-to-be little girl because I wasn't. I was thrilled but I do think her ability to quickly fall asleep was a defense mechanism to cope with the stress of the situation. She seems to use her ability to sleep the same way Giggles does. Can't say I blame her either I would want to sleep through that situation too.
About Sunshine, she is beautiful, with her big deep brown eyes and her round face and boy oh boy is she chubby. She weighs at least 24 lbs, maybe more and is probably about 28inches long. I think her feet are about a size 5 and she is a year old. Her hair was recently cut to treat an antifungal infection on her scalp. We are told she loves to be social and play with other kids. She does not like to be left alone and likes for the nannies to hold her. She also can sit, pull to stand, cruise and stand on her own. None of these skills were witnessed by us as she was either asleep or clinging to me while carefully observing Will. Luckily, Will is used to being rejected and will weather the storm as he did with the boys. He did hold her and kiss and love on her while she was sleeping since she didn't care at that point. She is completely beautiful and I think she will love her big brothers. She was in love with their pictures in her photo book. (Wish I could post a pic but will have to wait until after our court decree arrives).
On Friday we had another busy day. We had court in the morning. We arrived with the 8 other families at 8:30 in the morning and waited with what turned out to be about 25 total families until about 9:30 when the judge finally started the court proceedings. We were in the judges chambers for a total of 63 secs. Yep, that was it the judge asked us 5 questions and we were done. After court we went to change, then to lunch and then to the care center to see our children. Again, despite my asking to just observe Sunshine in her room with her nannies and peers, she was brought down to us. So, we took her and tried to get her to play with some of the other kids that were with the other families. A bottle was delivered and we were told to feed her. She loves her bottle and started squaking at me because I was not fast enough. She drank most of it and promptly fell asleep, yep again. She did wake up for a bit right before we left. We were lucky though she is not sick. 4 of the other 8 children were sick. 2 with upper respiratory infections, 1 with pnemonia and 1 they were trying to narrow down the possibilities (we are all pulling for it to just be a fever). Those little children are in my thoughts and prayers right now. I hope for them and their families they make a speedy and full recovery. After that we said goodbye to our babies and headed out to shop, which most of us didn't feel like doing, and home to eat. We went out to eat with a few of our travel mates that night and had a delicious Italian meal at Avanti very near our guesthouse. It was a nice end to our day.
I am missing our little Sunshine very much right now and finding it very hard to focus. We have a lot of things to do before she comes home but it's hard not to wonder how she is doing and hoping she doesn't also get sick. It was a beautiful and exhausting week. It's good to be home but boy oh boy I hope we get an Embassy appointment soon.
