Meeting Day
The day we met our son started with a spectacular sunrise over Egypt, the sun arcing blue and orange over the curve of the earth as we raced through the sky towards Addis Ababa. When our 12 hour flight landed in Ethiopia's capital, I peered through our small window to see hills of green, city buildings in the distance, and men and women harvesting grasses along the runway with machetes, bundling them neatly onto their backs. We found our driver and he confirmed our identity by asking, "Firomsa's parents?" We grinned and nodded ecstatically, the first time we'd heard an Ethiopian say our son's name, which tripped awkwardly off our American tongues.
Our flight had landed late so when we arrived at the guest house, we had only a minute to drop off our bags and give hurried introductions to the other families staying there. Time was ticking on our visiting hours, 10-12 and 3-5. We wanted to be there every second we could. As I was about to leave, the guest house manager stopped me and explained there was a problem. My tired mind raced and tried to decipher the broken English and quell the rising panic. It sounded like we might not be able to see him today. Mr. Bere struggled to make his point clear. "You know chicken box?" "Chicken in a box?", I repeated blankly, thinking it was way too early for KFC. Thankfully another mom came to my rescue. "Chicken POX!", she translated. A minute later we had determined that one of the older children had chicken pox and they were worried the visiting room needed a day to ventilate. Solution- we could bring our baby back to the guest house, all day long. As far as I know this has never happened for a court visit. We had absolutely nothing for him! But we were ecstatic.
After a short, but harrowing, drive we pulled up to the pink gates of the foster home. The nannies welcomed us and chattered and someone called for Firomsa while I struggled to hand off my camera. And then there he was, a little bundle, looking just like his pictures, but unsure of me.
I think I was nervous to meet him, I didn't know what he'd think of me, but it's hard to remember the feeling now because now... He's our son! We tried not to overwhelm him and they gave us a bottle and then hurried us back to the car. Five Americans carried their two new Ethiopian babies on their laps, African style. And then there we were, suddenly with a new baby, all day long. It was sweet.
That first day we were full of quiet wonder. What does he like? What does he do? We had lots of questions for our almost-11-month-old. He sat quietly at first and then fell asleep after his bottle. Along with another family we took our new babies to a hotel nearby for lunch, giddy with the freedom of parenting our kids for the first time and exposing them to new things. We fed him from a spoon for the first time, saw him stand, smile, and grab for our food. Later as we struggled to push through the jet lag, he surprised us by crawling to the foot of the bed and sitting attentively while we FaceTimed with Bo. Our last activity of the day was a family nap, mom and dad overcome with jet lag and Firo snuggled between us for his afternoon nap. We returned him to his nannies at the foster home and thanked God for a perfect first day together.
After that, we fell into a routine of two visits a day, two hours each visit. Each time we learned something new about our son as he grew more comfortable with us. He is small but mighty! He crawled, pulled step standing, cruised along furniture, clapped his little hands, and chanted DaDa after Matt showed him how. He loves balls and other babies and was most animated when one of his baby friends was out to play. He loved the nannies too, always pausing to acknowledge them with a smile.
It was a honeymoon week. He was perfect. We never saw him cry and never changed a dirty diaper either. I know those days are coming! We are excited for them, but we treasure that first week together, getting to know our boy.
