Meeting Sid, Friday, August 7

Got up early this morning to take showers. The power went out during Pete's shower. Power in Ethiopia is hydro-electric. The reservoirs do not have enough water for power 24/7 at this time, so the power is out every other day. We dressed Michael as he slept, and woke him up to go down for breakfast.

We roamed the guest house driveway and terrace momentarily, wondering which door of which building would lead to the dining room (building B, the long stairway, FYI). I was really excited to see that they were serving pancakes for breakfast, because I thought that Micheal would like that. Sadly, he was still in that "settling in" mode, and didn't eat much.

After breakfast, we boarded the bus to head to the CHS Office. There, we climbed the stairs to the 4th floor (numbering: Ground, 1, 2, ...) for the beginning of our orientation. It was short, but seemed long as we were waiting to meet our children.

We then headed over to meet the kids. All families waited nervously for their child's name to be called. When they called Sidamo's name, we followed the Social Worker & the camera man up the stairs to his room. I am sure I started crying on the first step, and I was nervously trying to keep the provided slip on shoes from falling off my feet.

We walked into Sid's room, and one of the nannies handed him to Pete (I think I was trying to set Michael down). Pete handed Sid to me. It was a wonderful moment. Sid is such a content baby, and while obviously concerned, he did not cry or push us away. We posed for the agency photgraphers to snap some photos (we are not allowed to bring cameras to the care center), then we were able to take Sid downstairs to the common room to play. The common room was scattered with parents anxiously waiting to meet their little ones, and other families just united for the first time.

After playing, we took Sid back to his room for lunch. We got to help feed him the very first day! After feeding Sid, it was time for us to go back to the guest house for lunch. The rest of the day was filled with more orientation, then more precious time with our beautiful Sid.