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| View from the restaurant on the 6th floor of the Addis View Hotel |
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| Everywhere you look |
We've been having an amazing time here in Ethiopia. Addis Ababa is an amazing town with amazing people. We feel so blessed to be here. Yesterdays journey taught us that the people all over Ethiopia are in general very loving, hardworking and respectful people. Addis Ababa is growing at a rapid rate of about 2 million a year. Due to the growth within the city, there are tons of new buildings being built. On average a small apartment building takes approx 5 years to build.
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| Connie & Baby Girl |
Today was a day we'd been waiting to enjoy for almost 3 years. We finally got to meet our precious baby girl. I wish I could post photos of her but its against the rules until we've passed court. At that time the court acknowledges her as our daughter. We will be going everyday this week from about 9a - 1p. Then court on Friday and then we'll just have Embassy left before we get to bring her home.
We had a driver provided by our adoption agency today. His name is Brook (which means "blessed"). He is very nice and helpful. He was surprised with how much Amharic we had learned so far. We had him stop by a fruit stand on the way to the care center to buy fruit for all the children. The fruit is so fresh and sweet and completely natural here. After arriving at the care center, we were shown up to the infant/toddler room.
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| IAN Care Center |
Along the way we passed the boys floor. Each boy came over and greeted us and gave us hugs. Then we made it to the girls/baby floor and the girls there did the same. Then we were taken into the baby room where we saw our daughter in person for the first time. It was very emotional and such a blessing. Our hearts overflowed with love for her.
The nannys there are so caring and loving. They spend a lot of time with each of the children. The children are not void of any attention or love. It was very helpful to see the nannies interacting with the children. We spent a few hours there and played with all of the infants and toddlers. Emily, pop pop and I played with all the children while Connie began the attachment process with baby girl. Emily loved playing with all of the children but it was hard for her to stay back from baby sister. Baby sister was overwhelmed with all the strangers in the room and was out of her comfort zone. So she would help mom any chance she got and would sneak a kiss or holding her hand/foot when baby sister wasn't looking.
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| Amazing Food |
After getting to spend a few hours with our daughter, Brook took us back to our hotel. We gathered a few things and decided to venture out on our own. We walked approx 2 kilometers to Lucy's Restaurant and had some more amazing food. I tried the Bozena Shiro, it was really good. Connie had a pizza, Gary some grilled tilapia and Emily had chicken nuggets and fries. :) We enjoyed machiatos for desert. While we were enjoying our machiatos, Joel showed up and sat down with us. It was a great surprise and we were able to share photos of our time at the care center.
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| Worth seeing |
After Joel left we all ventured over to the Ethiopian National Museum next door to Lucy's. It was very cheap to get into and they have homosapien bone fossils that date 3.2 million years old. They have named the remains Lucy. The museum is four stories and has all sorts of great fossils and Ethiopian artifacts. It was a great educational opportunity for us.
After the museum we walked back to our hotel. Now we're all exhausted and ready for a good night's sleep. Enjoy these few photos, sorry we can't share any of our daughter yet, but we should be able to after Friday.
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| IAN Care Center |
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| Brook on the left as we're entering Care Center |
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| National Museum of Ethiopia |
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| We found the model for this sculpture |
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| One of the first cars in Ethiopia |
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| Which was first, this one or the Thinking Man in Philadelphia |
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| My two girls, soon to be three |
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| Smell so sweet |
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| Couldn't get the pollen off of her face after this photo. |
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| Real baby elephant taxidermy |
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| Roundabouts are everywhere and work great |
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| 5p traffic |
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