I almost didn’t get a post up today… I typically write after I get Belane asleep, and tonight I fell asleep with her.

I am sitting here in the dark of our hotel room, listening to the Muslim prayer chanting over the loud speaker outside and to the rhythmic sound of Belane’s breathing (which gets quieter every night as her cold gets better and better).

We had a fun day today. Another family and I took all of the AHOPE kids on a field trip to Vera Wonderland, an amusement park of sorts. It rained a ton yesterday and again this morning, and it was a big muddy mess. As we pulled up at the park, all of the kids started calling out Belane’s name and running towards us. Some of... more

It’s Friday night here in Addis, and I have had two full days of Belane all to myself. She is an amazing little person.

She definitely can hear, as she has started repeating things that I say, even things that I say in a quiet voice. She may have a mild hearing loss as I do notice sometimes that she doesn’t hear things when there is a lot of background noise…and it could be that she had ear infections along the way that affected her hearing and caused others to worry. Whatever the deal is, it is a minor issue and not a major one. She is a chatterbox!

She is still potty trained…not a single accident day or night. She does enjoy trips to the bathroom, and has quite the routine... more

Today has been a good day. Not a great day (no waiver news) but a good day. The last news I heard on the waiver was that our contact in the Senator’s office was going to have her superior call DHS in Nairobi and try to get an update/put pressure on. I put a call into the Embassy here and they were very encouraging (they are the ones that will receive the waiver and then issue the visa). They understand the situation, and have promised to keep checking the mail, and said that the moment it is received, they will issue her visa and call us (there is no more processing that will need to be done). So, there is not much more we can do at this point.

Belane has been awesome today…she is... more

As emotionally and financially hard as it is, it is a risk we knew we were taking when we left. And honestly, I don’t think I would change what we did. Belane needed us. She has several minor conditions that really needed attention and treatment before they became something major. She needed us…she needed her parents. And as awful as it is being away from my kids at home, they are safe and warm and fed and loved, in their home, with their family (minus me). Belane was alone… AHOPE is great and the nannies are great and very kind, but an orphanage just cannot even come close to a parent's love. We took the risk we did because she needed us the most.

And I have to say that I am surrounded... more

We finished up our visit at Layla and Wanna, and then headed back to the Hilton where we could change our flights. That is where we got bad news number two. Our plan was to change our tickets to the flight on Friday night, but that flight is totally full. No flights on the weekend. We could buy tickets on British Air for the weekend, but we would be out over two grand. Ethiopian Air can get us on a flight out on Tuesday, and we can TRY to see if there are any cancellations in the morning for the Friday flight (I guess they get a lot of last minute cancellations).

So, since Josh couldn’t risk not getting home until next Wednesday for work, we had to hurry up and pack him up so he could... more

Today was a rough day.

It started off great…Belane woke up happy and singing, singing, singing, which is the MOST adorable thing ever. She sings “If You're Happy and You Know It” in blurred English, and also “This is the Day that the Lord Has Made” and “Deep Down in my Heart”, which are two Christian songs that the kids sing in a lot of the orphanages. They are also in English, and she was very surprised I knew the words.

She was very sweet with Josh this morning…not hanging on him or being completely care free, but she did sit and play with him happily for about half of my shower, she smiled and showed off for him quite a bit, and she didn’t give him the “no shoulder” even... more

So let’s see…what did I forget….

Belane is a copy cat and she is a very girlie girl. When I was getting ready for the day with my one-gal audience, she had to put on moisturizer when I put on moisturizer, she put on lipgloss when I put on lipgloss, she brushes hair when I brush hair, etc. She is darling! She is not overly fond of the crayons, games, dolls or other toys we brought, but she has been sporting the pink sunglasses we brought her almost constantly.

She was a little less standoff-ish with Josh today. She does this “one shoulder shrug” which we have been told means “no” and that is what she does to him if he gets too close and she is not in the mood (mostly when she... more

We got back to the hotel and even though we knew Belane was exhausted and due for a nap, she was starving. She polished off the left over pizza we had in the fridge and some more Chex Mix. I tried my darndest to get her to sleep but she never did. Josh took a nice nap though!

We got ready to head downstairs and meet Selamneh and the other family to go to AHOPE and brought all of our donations. We were worried about bringing Belane… I worried she’d be scared that we were bringing her back, and I was worried she’d be sad when it was time to go because she was hoping we were bringing her back. She fell asleep on the ride over and woke up when the van stopped.

It took her a minute,... more

Today was another great day in Addis.

It is now getting close to 11pm our time, so I am going to post this, send some emails and get to bed. (Josh and Belane are snoring away behind me.)

We got up this morning and ordered some room service. Belane continued her eating streak…downing banana pancakes and oranges, and showing some very mild interest in the oatmeal.

She slept pretty well…she moaned and groaned and rolled around a lot, but never woke up…and a few times she rolled over to me and wrapper her arms around me neck in her sleep and settled right down. To know that my physical closeness is enough to comfort her is awesome beyond words.

We finished breakfast... more

Let’s see, what did I forget…

She does seem to really be potty trained. I have her in PullUps, but she either whines and points to it or whispers something I can’t understand, and then I take her to the potty. I did ask her a few times if she had to go and she shook her head “no”, and she hasn’t had any accidents. We’ll see how she does during the night (and I am not completely convinced yet, as I know the back of her dress was wet when we first got to AHOPE.)

She is a peanut…we had a waitress try to bring her an infant high chair (she wasn’t buying that). Quite a few Ethiopians have asked if she is a boy (I am sure because of her hair). However, short hair or not, you’d think... more