2nd Visit

Yesterday with our kiddos was nearly magical. We had over 2 hours with them, but it went by in the blink of an eye. Baby T was sleeping again when we got there [her morning nap starts at 10am and that's when we arrived!]. She looked beautiful sleeping in her little bed, but the nanny picked her up and gave her to "mama". She cooed and snuggled into my chest...ahhh, love. Brian went to get Lil' A, and he also looked pretty sleepy. It started to look like we were in for another sleepy day together. Baby T slept on my chest for about 15 minutes, and Lil' A snuggled on Brian.

Lil' A :: Then, the head nanny, Sister Asayech, came in with Lil' A's snack, a cup of milk. Brian fed him the milk in a sippy cup and he started to perk up. They started playing together on his lap, and Lil' A's personality started coming alive. He started smiling, showing off his big chiclet front teeth. Some friends gave us a book where we could record our voices as we read the book - it was a BIG hit with Lil' A. It was the first time that we could really see his sweet personality come alive!!!! THANKS KIM'S AND MERRITT'S! He read that book multiple times. You could tell that his little brain was making connections between the voices coming from the book and our voices. Again, LOVE! Next, we showed him the photo album book that we made for them. We put in about 20 pictures of Brian and I [it was funny to see how many different hair colors and cuts I've had in the past couple years...haha], 6 pics of our families, and 4 pics of Lil' A and Baby T. Lil' A looked through that book countless times. It was like he was memorizing the pictures, and making connections to us. It was so adorable to see him look at pictures of himself and his baby sister. I wish I could know what he was thinking, because it was clear he was truly processing all that information. Brian also started playing peek-a-boo with him, and he went from little smiles to full on giggles. We couldn't stop laughing. It was priceless!

Baby T :: She is the smiley-est baby ever. I'm already kissing the heck out of her big, gorgeous lips. And she loves it!! She's really developmentally on target. She's rolling from front-to-back and back-to-front. She's scooting on her belly [probably would've done more if she wasn't on a bed], and sitting up for long periods of time. She's got a killer finger grip, and she eats like a champ. I got to feed her some milk [not from a bottle - from a container like a little shot glass!] and cereal. And the girls' got ROLLS of fat all over her legs and arms! She's soooo healthy. We bonded BIG TIME yesterday. She was reaching for me, smiling, cooing, and even giggled a couple times. It was a great 9 month birthday together. She's my girl, for sure!

In just 4 hours we leave for court. We've been told that the actual court appointment this afternoon will last about 1 minute. Our kids' bio mothers will be at court this morning agreeing to their adoption. What an emotional day for all of us. I can't imagine what's going through their hearts. Adoption is truly supernatural, but is filled with pain and brokenness. Praying God will heal their mothers, give them peace, and allow court to be successful today.

I don't know how we are going to get on that plane tonight without them! I fear I will be a basket case boarding our plane. I will definitely leave a significant part of my heart here - both with our kids and in Ethiopia. I've really fallen in love with this place! Being with our kids is definitely causing me to pray for the quickest wait time until our Embassy appointment...more than ever. I just talked with a family who only had 3 weeks between their 2 trips. What a dream come true that would be!!!

**When we get back to the states, I'll do a couple blog posts on travel tips - what to see, do, and how to plan your trip to make the most of it. We definitely learned a few things!