A Day We’ll Never Forget!

We were both so anxious about our “big day” that neither of us slept much at all.  We were running on pure adrenaline that morning!  We all got ready and went down for breakfast.  While we were eating, another American couple walked in with their little girl in a baby carrier.  We immediately knew that they were another AGCI family and that they were there for their Embassy appointment (which is why they had the baby with them).  My (Lauren) stomach started churning as my anxiety built to a new level.  It was even more real now than ever before.

After breakfast, we waited in the lobby for our driver to take us to Hannah’s Hope.  Our emotions were definitely going crazy!  Finally (15 minutes late felt like an eternity!) a man approached us and asked if we were going to Hannah’s Hope.  Yep, we sure are!  We loaded up and started on our way.  We prayed together during the drive.  Luckily Hannah’s Hope isn’t far from the hotel—we arrived at the gates within 5-10 minutes.  We were greeted and shown to the office where we met Almaz, the Director of Hannah’s Hope.  She was as kind as we had been told!

She said that since we weren’t there for a tour (heehee!), she would take us directly to meet Eden.  She actually said Eden’s full name and it was so great to hear it in her native tongue—and to hear that we had been pronouncing it properly (which meant that our nickname of “Eden” makes sense).  Almaz noted that it is typically very pretty weather in March, but that since it rained the night before (and was currently drizzling), all of the children were inside, rather than in the courtyard.  We all removed our shoes and put on the shoes provided (various sizes of shoes that look just like Crocs), then we headed inside!

Following Almaz to meet Eden!

When we entered behind Almaz, our eyes immediately scanned the room to find Eden.  Almaz spoke to the special mothers in Amharic and asked them which one Eden was.  We didn’t need them to tell us—we had found her on our own. ;)  We had agreed beforehand that I would get to hold her first (Ben is very sweet!), so I knelt down to her bouncy seat and started talking to her, telling her that I was her Mommy.  I quickly scooped her out of the seat and into my arms.  I had tears streaming down my face, but wasn’t “crying”—I guess that’s the definition of “happy tears” that I always hear about!

Eden was drawn to my curly hair and grabbed on to it right away.  That made me feel good since my curls are one of the few physical characteristics that I share with my daughter!  There was a lot of commotion around us since we were standing in the middle of the room where all of the infants were, so we walked over to an area of the room where we could settle in.  After about 5 minutes, I passed our daughter to her Daddy.

It was a special moment for me to watch Ben with Eden.  As most of you know, he is great with kids and truly loves them!  So, for him to hold his OWN child had to have felt surreal for him!  I watched (and took pictures) as she snuggled in to his chest and kept reaching for his face.  So sweet!  Surprisingly, he didn’t cry.  I heard him tell Eden that he had cried enough tears and that now he was just happy to hold her in his arms!

We settled in to a corner of the room and made ourselves comfortable with our daughter.  We brought a few toys/lovies with us for her to play with.  Ben took out the little pink cloth bunny that we bought on our “babymoon” vacation to San Diego (before we thought we’d get matched with a girl, I might add).  Eden quickly grabbed it and started sucking on one of the bunny ears.  She must be teething because she wanted anything we had to go into her mouth!

She also played with Sophie the Giraffe (google it if you don’t know about this toy—it’s great! Thanks to the Prescott’s for giving it to us!).  She loved the feeling of it on her gums, but I don’t think she was used to the sound of the squeak that came out of it when we squeezed it.  It was funny to see her reaction (just startled her—she didn’t cry).  She also chewed on the pink and orange giraffe lovie that we brought for her.  But, by far, her favorite toy of the day was the little pink bunny.  Ben definitely loved that, since he’s the one who picked it out!

The “gear” we brought for Eden on this trip...

She started to get a tab bit fussy (I use that term loosely—she didn’t really make any noises at all—just got a bit squirmy) around 10:30am, and we could tell from the sound of the other kiddos that it must be bottle and nap time.  We asked the special mothers for a bottle and they brought it to us.  I was holding her for the bottle feeding and it was truly a special moment!  She had GREAT eye contact with me and quickly slipped off into a “milk coma.”  I passed her to Ben, and he finished the bottle with her as she dozed off completely.  For those who know Ben, he absolutely LOVES rocking babies to sleep, so I know that this was a very special moment for him to share with his daughter!  I heard him tell Eden that the two of them were going to do this a lot!

Eden had her left hand wrapped around my finger and her right hand wrapped around Ben’s finger—so precious!

After holding her for about 15 minutes of her nap, we weren’t sure whether or not the special mothers wanted us to put her down to rest (looking back, I’m not sure why we cared—we’re her parents—but we were trying to be respectful of the fact that these ladies still take care of her daily, and we didn’t want to disrupt them).  Partly because of a language barrier and partly because maybe she wanted to show us how she puts her down, Eden’s special mother came over and took her from us to a little bassinet right next to us.  We paid close attention to the words (in Amharic) that she said to Eden so that we can do our best to duplicate sounds when she’s home.  It was sweet to watch, and Ben told me later that he had a complete déjà vu moment watching that—like we had watched her put Eden to bed before.  Interesting.  

Rather than sleeping, Eden actually started “playing” with her special mother.  Again, it was very sweet to see and we paid close attention to what words and motions were made.  In an appropriate moment, I scooped Eden up and we started playing with her.  This part of our visit was especially precious, as Ben and I sat on the floor bonding with our daughter.  We sang songs, played patty-cake, made faces and sounds with our mouths, etc.  She was very engaged and started mimicking some of our mouth movements!  We felt like she had truly started to see us as more than just another caretaker.

Patty (my Mom) was so sweet to videotape the ENTIRE thing for us!  She did an awesome job!  And yes, she got to hold Eden…but only for a minute before we took her back. Heehee! (She totally understands why.)  

Shortly after our play time, we were told that it was time to leave.  We were very bummed, but it wasn’t too hard to say goodbye since we knew that we were coming back the next day.  We arrived back at our hotel, downloaded all of the pictures and videos (thankfully, we have a TON of documentation of our special day!), had lunch, and then crashed.  The adrenaline had definitely worn off.  We woke up around 6:00pm, looked at the pictures again, had dinner, and then started journaling all of this.

A description of our little Ethiopian princess: downright beautiful, darling, and precious with a petite frame (except long fingers and toes), gorgeous dark brown eyes, cupid's bow mouth, and full lips.  She has lost some of her baby chub look (since the 3-month-old picture) and we think she’s about 12 pounds or so.  She is very easygoing, alert, and focused.  We couldn’t be more proud to be her parents!

P.S. We have a TON more pictures that we will share with you after we have her home.  We will not be posting any identifiable pictures of her just yet.

That was truly a day we will never forget!  Thank you for all of your prayers for our family—we truly appreciate it and can’t thank you enough!

Eden, we love you SO much and can’t wait to have you home with us!  You have a LOT of people who love you and are anxious to meet you!