We Arrived

Lots of romanticized blog posts had this momma arriving in Ethiopia with great expectations.

I expected to arrive at the hotel with endless energy. I was tired.

I expected to be staring off my balcony over the care center. I was on the other side of the hotel.

I expected a sleepless night. I'm not sure that happened because of excitement but rather the uncomfortable bed.

I don't need to compare every moment for you, but you get the idea, right?

I think I was crying the moment we walked into the care center. I knew what was coming. When the time came for them to carry Judah down the stairs, I thought it was my son but what if I was wrong? After all, I'd read that you immediately know it's your kid and they know you. But then again, I'm the parent who got a refferal picture and a few months later an update picture and thought they weren't the same child. I was an emotional wreck.

As I took Asfaw from the nanny, I prayed that he wouldn't cry. I feared rejection. He did fine. Problem was I knew he was overwhelmed. I expected that. Have you ever been in a scary new place where you sulk, drop your shoulders and wait until it's over and back to normal? That was our Asfaw. He let us hug and hold him but he didn't reciprocate any emotion. Where I was finally wanting to make that emotional connection now that he was in my arms, he was there. Just there.

The glamour of that first meeting didn't occur with us. It did for other families. I remember Tami running into his parents arms almost knocking his dad over. I remember Mebratu's big eyes as he saw Claire and Michael. It was so cool to see them. Our little Asfaw didn't move much, didn't even make a sound. Maybe that was because they had him in 3 layers of clothes and he was hot. Kidding. He was sweating though. Even so, it didn't stop us from taking a ton of pictures.

It had been a long journey so far. We had finally arrived and were able to touch his face, smell his skin, hug his little body and give him lots of kisses.

Click to read my Journal Excerpt: Meeting our Son

And because the others are linking, I wanna link to... I had a wonderful travel group. Some of them are bloggers and you can read their accounts in the order of my favorite to least favorite.

Kerry hails from Missouri. Her Semi Feral Mama blog is one of my favorites to read. We are so different. I certainly wouldn't have thought she'd be one of my friends. After all, she's not a fan of DVM's and I happen to love one. Check her out if you need a smile on your face. This one is my favorite posts lately from Kerry.

Sarah may be from Oregon but I think the Southern Belle style fits her well. It was great to meet and get to know (a little) Sarah and Jason. I didn't take the time to get to know her well enough. My bad. I'm still learning new things about my friend by reading her blog Petals of Zuzu. I wanna be like Sarah when I grow up. She homeschools, has adorable children, and amazingly independent. Her facebook status updates are sure to make me laugh! I look forward to Sarah passing through this summer, even if we are a little out of the way.

Jamey is a military wife. I had been reading her blog for months before we travelled. We were very close in the paperwork process together and I remember commenting more than once that maybe we'd travel together. Jamey's tell-it-like-it-is personality is much like my own. I knew we'd get along. Lots of people know Jamey because of her Zahlahlum Family blog and/or her soft and cute adoption flag blankies she makes (have you ever made a blankie from Holland or Mexico???). We did travel together of course. One of these days I hope we meet up again! I hear Ms. Lauren travels well... come on over.

And then there's my dear and sweet and wonderful friend, Shonda. Yes, I may be sucking up a tad to try to get her to come see me this summer. I met Shonda at GodWillAdd before she had her own domain name. Yes, she's that cool. She broke my heart and gave me hope when she emailed asking if I was going to be part of Travel Group 8. Shonda is a wonderful hostess, even when she's in bed puking. She's following an amazing journey right now to adopt her 5 year old son. Read about it with her "Call that Changed it All" post.

Of course I was kidding about the favorite thing. Seriously! There are a few others that either don't have blogs so I can't link to them to tell you how cool they are!