A year ago today…

We met our son, Benjamin.

I wasn’t sure if I would be able to sleep with all of the excitement and jet lag, but good old exhaustion took over and I slept soundly until somewhere around 5 a.m. I heard the unmistakable (and very, very loud) call to prayer. Definitely a vivid reminder that we weren’t at home anymore!

At that point I had slept for about 8 hours, and as much as a few more hours would have done me good, excitement and jet lag took over and I was wide awake. I took another shower, got ready for the day, packed and repacked my back pack for Benjamin and willed the time to go by more quickly.

Josh finally got up and got ready, and at 8 a.m., we met Dan outside and walked up to the main building at the Ghion for breakfast. The weather was perfect…we were surrounded by the most beautiful sunshine, and the early morning air was cool with a slight breeze and no humidity whatsoever.

Seeing the grounds of the Ghion for the first time in daylight was wonderful…trees and all sorts of greenery and gorgeous flowers of every color surrounded us. I was so happy to be in Ethiopia and feeling so good… I smiled at everyone. We passed the playground and pools that were right outside our room and looked forward to playing there with Benjamin in the very near future!

Breakfast at the hotel was a buffet style, and I tried some “safe” things, as well as some Ethiopian dishes. It was my very first encounter with Ethiopian food, and I can honestly say that I really liked it.

There were some other adoptive families at breakfast, and seeing them with their children made it seem a lot more real and very exciting! I tried not to stare, and couldn’t help but smile at them.

We quickly ran back to our rooms to get cameras, video cameras, back packs and water, and got ready to be picked up. T. picked us up again and was as cheerful in the morning as he had been the night before. We swung by another hotel to get the other family, and then we were on our way to meet our children.

Continued...