Gotcha day-----December 8, 2008

Yes, we are officially back from Ethiopia and have our precious daughter home, for a week now----wow, so hard to believe it's been a week. We left for Ethiopia on December 6th, and boy what a long plane ride it was to get to Ethiopia...a grueling 27 hours, and with all that pent up excitement and raw emotion, not an easy trip over there. Dear hubby came down with a case of nervous diarrhea the he just knew was the stomach flu, but it wasn't just nerves, like I told him it was!!!!!!LOL. We traveled with 7 other families, all great families that I enjoyed getting to know so much and miss them lots. After arriving in Addis Ababa, we were all so weary. We were taken to the hotel by bus, our luggage was unloaded and we were tucked in for the night. Did we sleep????? Are you kidding?????? There was no way I could sleep knowing that my baby girl was little more than a block away. The next morning-----December 8th, 2008, we got up, was met at the hotel by Almaz, and finished our paper work. Almaz is completely awesome guys, I adore this woman!!!!!!!!, then it was time to go meet my little girl. We all went to Hannah's Hope as a group and stood out in the driveway and got to watch as each family met their precious child and children. 3 families met their babies, then some one came to me and Eddie and said---Tigist is upstairs asleep....Asleep, oh no, I want to hold her!!!! I can barely remember going upstairs, I was so exicted, so nervous, just completely overwhelmed with emotion. 2 of the people I just witnessed getting their precious children were very dear people in my life, I was completely moved by what I had just saw, and now it was my turn, but she was asleep. How was that going to go? We got upstairs, walked over to her tiny crib, and there she was, resting so peacefully. She was absolutely beautiful, she took my breath away. After standing there in complete awe, she woke up, looked up at us and smiled so big, as if to say, Hi mom and dad, it's about time you get here. She never cried, only smiled and cooed. Then we had to leave her there, to go eat lunch and go shopping....SHOPPING..... I hate shopping....I just wanted to stay with my girl. But we left and I couldn't think of anything besides going back to get my little girl. At 5:30 that day, Ethiopian time, we took her to the hotel with us, she will never be an orphan again, she will never live another day in an orphanage.----Praise be to our Holy God--------
Our time at the Union Hotel was so special. We all 3 just hung out, did what ever we felt like----which was mostly nothing----- and bonded with Natalie Tigist Grace Meade.

During our trip to Ethiopia we met Natalie's birth mom. I will leave that info confidential, but I can tell you it was difficult, but well worth the heart ache. We also got to bond with the other families, and Eddie and I spent some much needed time together. The plane ride home was again torture, but we survived.

We've been home a week now. I can tell you that Natalie's breathing has improved. She wheezed a lot in Ethiopia, but not so much now. She's growing like a weed, but is very short for her age---she takes that after me, LOL. She found her feet yesterday, is sitting up on her own some, and grasping things and bringing them to her mouth better. I started her on cereal today, I hope it helps her sleep better at night. She sleeps in 2 hour interval, and gets up for bottles at that time. We definately hope that gets better. I know that she would rather for me to hold her all the time than to be put down, she stares at me when someone else holds her, and I think she reached for me today, at least I like to think she did. We are having so much fun getting to know her. She definately has us wrapped around her little finger, and is definately running this house right now.

My prayers now are for continued good bonding and attachment, good health and happiness, many prayers for Hannah's Hope and Almaz----such a great orphanage, and for Natalie's birth mom. We feel that she is now part of our family and love her so much.

What a pleasure it is to finally post about our gotcha day, and bringing our little girl home. People are asking if we're going to have any more new additions to the family. We honestly don't know, can't really see that far ahead right now. But know that we have our ears open to God's will and would gladly walk in complete faith again, no matter where He calls us....

I leave you with the lyrics to one of my favorite songs....Our God is an awesome God He reigns from Heaven above, with wisdom, power, and love, our god is an awesome God.

Thank you all for your diligent prayers as we've walked this path, and I look forward to continuing to share pictures and stories of our little family.