Home at last!

Just a quick note to let you know that we are home safely after a very long journey. Thanks to all for your love and support and the comments on our blog. We're totally jet lagged and off schedule, as you might imagine. Ethiopia is 10 hrs ahead of California.



Here's a pic from SFO, where we were warmly greeted by some close friends, including Cork, Beer & Roo, Di & little Ansel, and Jill who picked us up in my car. Bek and I big had some woozy vertigo after the long travel and little sleep, so thanks Jill for getting us home safely. And thanks Jill and to cork mike and ruby for the yummee meals to go!

Oh, and another wonderful surprise greeted us when we got home...



Welcome Bedilu from the Fines!

More to come about how we are and the journey. But for now, sleep...

Rainy Season

The weather now is so different from our first trip. It's rainy season now, and they can be torrential! Though this is "summer" the weather is surprisingly cool. I guess the rains bring relief from the heat, but it wasn't even ever that super hot when we were here in April. I guess it's the elevation? With the rains came blackouts. we had power outages for a few hours in the late evening. good thing we brought headlamps! but being in the dark made us tired and everyone went to bed early.

I forgot to mention that Bedilu has a chest cold. You can actually feel some knocking around in his lungs. Apparently it is not uncommon this time of year, as several other of the babies also have the chest cold. Poor baby B! But he's still a happy fellow. We got to hang with him at the guest house for a an hour and half yesterday afternoon. He was awesome for the first 40 mins. super vocal and active. Then he started getting fussy. feed time! we got to try spoon feeding him again, this time with a little less success than earlier in the day. But we managed, and made a little bit of a mess. After taking him back to the care center, Bek and I were exhausted! And we know this is only a taste of what is to come. So with the black out, we went to bed early.

Today we are going to do a little morning excursion by hired car to Putajira, the halfway point between Addis and Hosanna, the town where Bedilu is from. It'll give us a chance to show Bruce some of the countryside. We'll have lunch and turn around. then this afternoon we are meeting up with our local friend Liwam. He is the best friend of our across-the-street-neighbor's brother. (yes they are Ethiopian). We hope he'll be able to show us this hospital that bekah wants to see. She can chime in on that in a later post. We'll probably grab coffee, too. maybe dinner.

then tonight we are going to get ourselves ready for the big day tomorrow!! We'll take Bedilu into care and custody. Embassy and goodbye ceremonies.

love from Ethiopia ~ chaatie & bek

Update #1

Hi all!
long trip to ET. Flew Lufthansa through Frankfurt to Addis. Lufthansa wasn't as nice as we recall, but it was pretty cool to fly on the new A380, the largest passenger plane in the world! But it wasn't as roomy as I thought it would be. 10.5 hrs to Germany, two hour layover, then 6.5 hour flight to Addis. Arrived late last night. takes about an hour or so to do visa, immigration, customs.

Today we got to see Bedilu!! Hung out with him at the orphanage for a couple of hours. Happy to report that the boy looks good! smaller than we thought he would be, but he is a very happy boy, just like papa. He also got to meet one of his grandparents! Bruce is along for the journey, and that has been special. We can't wait to bring Bedilu home to meet his other grandparents, uncles and aunties, and cousins.

The orphanage was also very nice. very friendly staff. We got to change his diaper (boom! that's a lot of poop! but bekah said she's seen more). Also got to feed him. we're back at the guest house for lunch and quick break. we'll pick him up in an hour to bring him back to guest house for a few hours for some hang time and fun. this is great! we're thrilled.

tomorrow's agenda is unclear, thursday is embassy. we'll try to send another update if we can, but internet is spotty. love to all!

And we're off!!!

Hi all. We're at SFO about to check in. What a whirlwind it has been! The last two weeks have been a mad scramble, closing loops at work,


baby showers, getting the house ready for Bedilu, squeezing in our last bits of life as we know it (mountain biking, dinner for two, a movie, etc.). Last night we were up late packing. So typical for us. But we've never packed for a baby before, much less one we haven't seen in 3 months. It feels like guesswork.

We are totally thrilled and excited for the biggest adventure of our lives. I meant to write sooner and in much more depth, but you'll have to settle for this iPhone update on the go!

We're flying Lufthansa to Frankfurt, then to Addis and arriving late Monday. Less layover than on Emirates, and more comfortable plane (Airbus 388, then A340).

Okay, gotta check in...

CLEARED BY EMBASSY!!! 2 WEEKS TO BEDILU!!!

BREAKING NEWS!!
Yesterday morning we got a call from our agency with news that we got clearance from the embassy! That's the last major hurdle. Now it's all about getting him home.

Our appointment with the Embassy is on Thursday, 14 July. We'll leave on Sat 7/9, gone for the week, and home for his 9-month birthday.

We just got the embassy date itinerary and will buy tickets soon. So far the prices are ranging between $2100 and $2400 EACH. That's 50% and more than the $1400 tickets when we went in April. Anyone got some frequent flier miles? Seriously. The choices are United, Lufthansa, or Emirates. Let me know!

More details and the chronicle of our experience to come...

Inside the churches

The contrast of these two versions of Mary and Jesus - the Ethiopian and the European - was so bizaare to see, especially because they were actually placed next to each other in one of the churches, and it seemed that each was regarded equally by the churchgoers.

Lalibela

Lalibela is a town
set high in the mountains of
northern Ethiopia and is known for its beautiful rock-hewn churches. Probably the only good thing that came out of the new two-trip requirement is that it gave us the opportunity to travel a little and get to know more of Ethiopia. If we were picking up Bedilu on our first trip there's no way we would have travelled, as we would've wanted to get home ASAP. So after our week in Addis we traveled north for a week and were lucky enough to see these spectacular sites. The setting of Lalibela alone is mind-blowing; it's perched at an altitude of 8,628 ft amongst wild, craggy mountains and has a very mystical feel about it. There's about 13 churches - all carved below ground level (most likely to hide from the Muslims, as the majority of Ethiopians are Orthodox Christian) in the 12th and 13th centuries. The churches are ringed by trenches and courtyards, and connected to each other by a tangled maze of tunnels and passages.
Anyway, they definitely deserve to be considered one of the wonders of the world and why they aren't is too long a story, but we absolutely loved wandering in and out of them and seeing people in deep prayer during the week of Lent.
It was a very intensely emotional time for us to be in Bedilu's country, but not with him, and yet, seeing his land made me feel more connected to him. I can't wait to tell him about it!