Friday March 7th -- Gotcha day

Today we are going to pick up our beautiful little girl we are pretty excited. It is windy today but sunny about 24 or 25 degrees. We are slowly adjusting to the time. This morningI did not wake till the call to prayer at 5:30. I am told that there are two different calls to prayer, one for Muslims and one for Orthodox. I cannot yet distinguish between them but whatever it is it is quite beautiful.

Later: We could not pick up Marie in the AM since Haregwoin was in court this morning. So we went to the National Museum and saw Lucy to pass the time. It was pretty neat. I was surprised at how small the museum really is. After that Messfin took us to a restaurant near the museum and we got to see our first coffee ceremony. After that we were able to go to the foster home to pick up Marie!

I think she recognized us from the last time. They brought her down to us in the clothes we brought. I was happy to see that they fit so well. We played with her, took some pictures and got a little bit of information about her schedule. I found out she gets up in the middle of the night for an hour and a half! That is something to change sooner rather than later! She also takes two naps a day. She is drinking formula as well as wheat cereal from her bottle. She has two teeth though and is coming up on ten months so I think we will try to introduce her to solids soon. Whatever they have been feeding her she certainly isn't suffering! Messfin says he thinks she breaks the record for weight at the foster home! I am not sure how much she weighs now but at Christmas she was around 11 kilos. She certainly feels heavy! She has rolly polly legs and a round little tummy.

We said goodbye to Haregwoin and thanked her for caring for Marie all these months. We left all the donations we had brought for babies. I took a picture of the outside of the foster home and I wish I had been allowed to take pictures of the inside so that I could show Marie later in her life where she waited for us. Messfin took us to buy a couple of supplies (the formula and cereal she was used to eating) and then back to the guest house. We spent the afternoon getting to know each other and resting. It's funny, we expected this to be a really emotional day, but it really wasn't. It just felt normal. I think possibly because we have waited so long for this, we were emotionally prepared or had already expended so much emotion? I am not really sure. The only thing that could have made the day more complete was to have the boys with us. But even with that, I feel like we made the right decision because it will be nice to have time with just the three of us to establish a bit of a bond without dealing with the needs of Ryan and Paul as well. All in all it was a pretty perfect day.