Put on your shock face

Thursday, February 24:

We landed in Addis and after making it through immigration were met by our driver and our coordinator from the YGF Guesthouse, Hanania. They took us to the guest house to get settled in. We expected, based on what we had been told, that we would be settling in today and have our first visit with Sophie tomorrow.

I literally hadn't gotten the luggage up to the room and Hanania said "I hate to bother you so soon, but would you like to go to Toukoul and visit your child?"

Ummmmmmmm, yes!

I went up to the room and told Paige and she nearly hyperventilated right there.

So after a quick breakfast, off we went to Toukoul.

Here is Hanania, while we wait in the room for our daughter to be brought over.

And here is our daughter being carried back to the orphanage after our visit.




Unfortunately I can't post any pictures of her yet. But it was awesome. She was terrified at first, stiff as a board, staring at us with a wrinkled brow frighteningly similar to Luke's. She wouldn't even let me touch her while she was sitting on Paige's lap without pulling away. But after a while she started warming up. We even ended up getting some smiles and laughs and strawberries from her (Paige informs me it is "raspberries" and I have my fruits confused.)

So first impressions:
- She likes playing rough, tossing up in the air and ladies ride type stuff. That got us the smiles.
- She is just getting her first tooth.
- She can sit up by herself.
- She has a nasty cough. Her nurse said that is typical, and all the kids there have it.
- She's got a decent sized flat spot on the back of her head. Poor kid, all that time lying in a bed.
- She loves her nanny. She got comfortable with us, but when her nanny came back to get her she was anxious to get back in her arms.
- She is even more adorable in person.

After our one hour visit was up, they gave us a tour of the orphanage. No pictures of the kids were allowed, but here are some pictures of the orphanage.