Travel Journal ~ April 26th

The kids slept in until about 8:00 am this morning. It was like a little slice of heaven since Fletch is a habitual 5:30 am riser.

The Johnsons and Webers went to church with Milkiyas...or went to his church...but didn't actually see him there. The Mellits headed back to the airport to pick up their luggage that had been delayed. We sat and played with the kids, quickly realizing this was going to be a very long day if we were going to be hanging out at the guesthouse entertaining them all day.

Caleb and the man who guards the compound / attends to the gate both loved playing with the kids, which was a great help. Caleb staged these photos of the kids dunking...

Felix watched Caleb pump up the soccer ball, then tried to do it himself. He got the needle in the hole and started pumping after watching Caleb do it only once. I'm amazed at how observant he is!
Snack time...

After church and lunch, we decided to join the rest of the families in going to the Shalom transition center to meet their children. It was fun to see them go through the same surreal car ride and the same "Wow, our lives are about to change forever!" feelings that we had experienced the day before. We were also able to video tape the other couples meeting their children.

Milkiyas explained to Macy & Felix that we were going there to pick up the other kids, and that we wouldn't leave them there. They handled it pretty well and Macy was happy to see Moges again, but she was ready to leave pretty quickly.

All of the happy families...

Back at the guesthouse we ordered traditional Ethiopian food for dinner and pasta for the kids. (After Macy had a sick stomach at Shalom that afternoon, the nanny told us that the kids shouldn't be eating that kind of food and that they like spaghetti, pasta, pastini and rice.) When the food arrived they were not happy to be eating pasta and they dug into the injera and veggies anyway. They've been eating all sorts of food since without issue.

Macy had a rough day. She did a lot of fighting with Moges and, unfortunately, it was her starting it 99% of the time. She seems to think that everything belongs to her. The ladies at the guesthouse were translating and telling me "she is very bossy". She kept saying "give it to me" and "it's mine"about everything. If someone told her no she would hit them and/or throw anything within reach and/or throw herself on the ground crying. If Moges or Felix had something she wanted she would wrestle them to the ground and take it from them.

Marc and I were spent physically and emotionally by the end of the day, so we went to bed early with the kids.