Today we met our boys...

Today we met- and held and kissed and fed and played with- the two little boys we are grafting into our family.

Our agency sent a driver for us at 10:30 this morning but we had been told to be ready between 9 and 10, so of course we were ready to go by 8:30, just in case they were early. Silly thought. We are in Africa.

Really, the time waiting passed just fine as I got to talk with Leah about homeschooling, adoption, parenting, church… Casey and I have enjoyed getting to know Leah and James and being able to share this experience with like-minded believers. James entertained us at breakfast with his creative narrative of the 2 AM barking dogs. Perhaps he’ll share later…

We had a twenty minute ride to Acacia Village and were amazed at the amount of new construction going on everywhere. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to what is built where. No such thing as zoning here. Shops set in metal shacks next to huts made of wooden poles with thatched roofs, vegetable gardens butted up to garbage dumps, fresh (ie bloody) goat skins sold from the concrete medians of the road. Always plenty to look at as you zip down the road, dodging donkeys, people, goats and cars.

The Acacia Village Children’s Home, our boys’ home for the last 2 weeks, was built just a year or so ago and is set outside the city in the Oromio region. The mountainous countryside is very beautiful. The home is not what I had pictured. Because it is new, I guess I imagined it to be more… American. Nice lawn, or at least some yard for the kids to play in, right? Rather than a paved driveway we pulled up to a metal corrugated fence with razor wire atop.

We entered into an open foyer with gray marble steps going up to the two sleeping floors above. On either side of us were two large open play rooms, full of happy children and a group of volunteers from the States. We met the very kind, all-Ethiopian staff and then waited at the bottom of those marble stairs.

There were five of us, all looking up in eager, nervous anticipation of meeting our children for the first time. Casey remarked that it felt kinda like prom, waiting for “ours” to come down.

A nanny soon came walking down with a sweet 2-year-old boy in hand. She announced his name and Daniel, traveling alone from NC, stepped forward to claim his son. Casey and I cried. Didn’t want to. Told myself I wouldn’t. Figured meeting two white strangers is weird enough for these little boys—without us sniffling and sobbing.

Helen (the lady who took the smiling pictures for us) motioned for the rest of us to follow her up the stairs. As we got to the first landing, another darling little boy was brought down with a nanny and announced. Nothing familiar registered. I took a good second look and then looked back at Leah. He didn’t look like ours and he didn’t look like theirs. We were both very confused and asked for his name again. Ephraim. Nope, not ours. Not theirs. Poor little guy was then taken back upstairs. (His mother did come later—our driver had forgotten to pick her up. Remember, we are in Africa.)

Leah and James’ baby was napping so they were taken into the nursery. Our boys needed diapers changed so we waited a little more, now outside on the back patio.

And then a nanny showed up with a little boy we recognized. His name means “our blessing.” B was very shy, but warmed up a little when we set him down with a little soccer ball. We kicked it around and he was definitely more interested in the ball than in us strangers. He was… tolerating us. Then T joined us.

Honestly, I thought they’d made another mistake and brought the wrong child. They shaved his head since the pictures yesterday and he just looked so much smaller than I thought he would. More babyish (which I’m just fine with).

Casey knew him right away. He is very content and mellow, has no teeth, little paws for hands, and long crimped eyelashes. We got a few smiles from him and got to see him crawl and roll over and suck his thumb. Fed him his bottle and watched most contentedly as he fell asleep in my arms. He looked just as content as I felt. He is beautiful. Just sat there watching him sleep for 45 minutes or so, until Casey wanted his turn and then till they came and told us it was time to go.  

B was a little wary of us. We were taken to a private room and he wasn’t so sure about that. After a few unsuccessful attempts to distract him and cheer him up, I took him back down to the room with all the other kids and he took off running to his buddies. Another little boy took a liking to me and came and sat in my lap. Then another. Now I wasn’t quite so scary to B and he wasn’t quite so stingy with that beautiful smile of his. Boy, is he a social kid!

I pulled the rubber band out of my hair and began a game of shooting it up to the ceiling or across the room so they could run and fetch it. They would race to it and then race it back to me, grinning and squealing all the while. I taught them how to do it and was glad I had four bands in my purse as everyone wanted to play. Now we were on pretty good terms with B. I ran to get Casey and he joined the game.

My sunglasses were the next big hit. Picture six toddlers sitting in bucket seats around a kidney shaped table with B in the teacher’s spot on a big chair. I’d place the glasses on his face at his request and he would look around at his audience with a huge grin as if to say, “Would ya’ll just look at me!” Then he’d pull them off and ask me to do it again.

Twenty times later I remembered what it was like to have a 2-year-old and do things again and again and again. Josiah is going to get a kick out of this kid… and a run for his money.

Fortunately, lunch was served before my glasses were broken. I was handed a bowl of rice and told B cannot feed himself. So I sat him on my lap and fed my boy. Halfway through his meal he made it clear he wanted to sit at the table and I obliged. I let him hold the spoon and helped him get a bite to his mouth. He then proceeded, all by himself, to get about six bites into his mouth and just one flung on the floor. Good job!

Casey and I both look forward to being parents to these two little boys. Teaching them simple things like how to hold a spoon and not so simple things, like self-control.

B is a little fire-cracker. Our work is cut out for us, but both of us are very hopeful. Both boys are healthy, slightly developmentally delayed but nothing alarming. Both seem friendly and happy. We’ll think they’ll be perfect additions to our family.

Can’t wait for you to meet them and are so thankful that they get to know you! Thanks for caring and reading. More tomorrow. It’s bedtime now. 

Oh, we still haven't gotten our letter from MoWA. Please keep praying. Not having it just stalls things.