Day 4: Meeting the other families and seeing the City

Today was a busy day as we went back to the Transition home to meet the other families who were travelling this week. Our agency scheduled 8 famlies this week.  We were the last 2 be picked up because we already had the girls. The rest of the families were seeing their children for the first time. It was good for our girls because they got to see everyone who they spent the last 4 months with again.  They will only get one more opportunity before we leave so they were very happy.  We got to talk to the nurse to see if there was anything we should be aware of. Rahel has stomach problems periodically but the nurse said it was common with children who come from the country into the city. Tigist has not had any problems that she noted.  We put them on antibiotics yesterday because they both had runny noses, and Tigist was tugging on her ear. 

 

 Tigist has been full of emotions today...Happy , Sad, Silly, Mad.  She has them all and we love it.  We could tell she didn't want to leave the HOH today and think that is what drove her mood swings but all is good now.  Andrew and William had a pretty good day.  We started Andrew on antibiotics because his stomach had been bothering him but he is eating and drinking.  William is doing fine and has had no issues. Mom and Dad are good just sleeping is a challenge still.

 

We toured the city this afternoon which was nice, but the city is so spread out, we only got to see a glimpse of what I saw last year. We are going to take a longer tour on Saturday.  There is so much to see and I am impressed at how much building is going on. Last year I did not see as much. The tour guide told us the gov't is building more and more subsidized high rise apartments because they want to clean up the shanty towns(my term for the current living conditions of most people).  I pray it works because that is what is so sad about the city.....the poverty, pollution, sewage, and housing just makes you very sad. 

 

We finished the day off with a traditional Ethiopian meal of Enjera and Wat(like a stew) with vegetables.  Fun to eat because you don't use silverware.  The boys tried it and that is all we wanted.  Hopefully they will get used to it because it will now be a part of our meals at home. 

 

Hope everyone is doing well and staying warm. 

 

Tomorrow is the National Museum tour and preparing for our Embassy visit on Thursday.  Wendesay we are going to the orphanage and hopefully will meet the birth mother.