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Friday, February 25: Day two in Ethiopia

Today we awoke well rested (after having gone to bed around 8) and ready to go visit our sweet Sophie again. We ate breakfast, headed to the Hilton to exchange some money, and then off to Toukoul. We are allowed only 3 one hour visits with Sophie while we are here this trip, so we are trying to make the most of our time and enjoy every second with her. And today's visit went great.

Today when the babies (our and Pat's) were dropped off we could immediately tell they were more relaxed then the previous day when they had been placed in our arms and saw their very white parents for the very fist time. It is possible that we are the first white people they have ever seen, and they hardly ever see males. So yesterday Sophie was not the biggest fan of us and our excitement and she was NOT going to let Jason touch her hands. Today was SO much better. She came to me very easily and had lots and lots of smiles and even a few giggles. We had so much fun playing with her, and the best part was, I think the nannies forgot about us and we got to have her for 2 hours and 17 minutes! (but who's counting)





I'm telling you this girl is perfect for the Addink family. She loves to play "rough", like lifting her high and tipping her upside down. It gets her smiling and squeaking every time. Reminds me of a little boy in our family who asks his daddy to "throw me high!"

By the end of our visit we had throughly worn the poor kid out. She popped her thumb in her mouth and fell asleep on my chest as I sang her the love song I sing my other kiddos each and every night. It was WONDERFUL! We are so blown away that we are to be her parents. I keep asking out loud to Jason if he can believe they are really going to let us have her. How can we be so blessed?





Only one visit left with her and that will be on Monday after court. Hopefully on that visit we will officially be Mommy and Daddy, although we have already introduced ourselves to her as such. She hasn't objected, so I think that's a good sign. :)

Honestly Monday is going to be a tough day. We have court at 9 am. (That will be 11pm Sunday night for family in AZ.). Please pray with us that we pass court, and MOWA has our paperwork ready and correct. Then pray for our hearts as we get to see Sophie one last time and have to kiss her goodbye for what may be as long as 12 weeks or as short as 6. It is going to be terribly hard to return her to her nannies arms.

The rest of our day today was another adventure as we went across town to visit the Kolfe boys orphanage to drop off two care packages for friends. Joy and Jeanette, your gifts have been delivered, and my heart will never be the same. I gave them hugs as promised, Jason did too.





Tomorrow we are headed off on a weekend adventure to Awasa to visit none other than Lake Awasa. The plan is to go on a boat ride and see the hippos, visit the fish market, and see the beauty of Ethiopia. We are headed there with our new friend Pat (who is here on her first visit as well for her sweet baby girl Zoe), and our awesome driver Ephrim, from our hotel.

We were told there would be Internet access there so maybe we will post about our adventures while there. So far the Internet cafe by our guest house is not cooperating all that well so we have been a bit frustrated, only because we would like to communicate more with our kids and see how things are going back home.

Psalm 126:3