Day 2 - Ethiopia

Today is Thursday. Zane slept fine last night. We were told he feeds every four hours and takes 7 ounces with each feeding. He definitely operates like a clock and is hungry at 4 hour intervals. But we have yet to get him to eat more than 6 ounces at a time. I wish I could post a photo of the "crib" the hotel supplied to us (I'm having trouble transferring pics from the camera to the computer). It's a mini sized crib that sits just an inch or two from the floor. He has napped in it but we kept him in bed with us last night. I thought we might have trouble sleeping with a baby in bed but we're exhausted and slept great....aside from his 2AM and 6AM feedings. In spite of our early wake up call, it was simply amazing to wake up to this gorgeous baby boy we can now call our son.

We did not do much today. We wandered the grounds of our hotel. It has a number of restaurants, a hot springs fed pool, squash courts, clay tennis courts, lots of little shops, etc. Yesterday was cold and rainy but today it was nice. Taking advantage of it, we sat outside at a pastry shop and sipped cappuccino. Are we really in Africa??

We met up for lunch with the other 3 Gladney families that just arrived. So surreal to sit in a restaurant in Ethiopia with other caucasian Americans all with their new African children. The restaurant was called Biergarten Inn - yes, a german microbrew. The beer was actually pretty good! Evidently the owner previously spent some time in Germany. During our two restaurant meals thus far I've yet to see other children. Evidently people who can afford to eat out like this have a nanny at home and don't take children out to eat. However, children are adored here - from the grandmothers down to the young teenage boys, they all coo and kiss on babies passing by. It's quite common at a restaurant for the staff to offer to hold your child while you eat. We experienced this today at lunch when our waitress swept Zane away. Thankfully we had our hosts there to explain away our bewildered faces.

Zane continues to interact with us. He locks eyes with us when feeding, turns his head to our voices, coos and babbles to us, and laughs and smiles when we play. Although it's hard being away from L&C this long, we know it's good to have all this one-on-one time with Zane to help him bond to us. We are quite smitten with him!

By the way, Chris thinks this post should be about poop. He just finished changing a bad one (not that any are good). Figured I would mention it to make him feel better.

Tomorrow we are picked up at 9am and taken to a "U.S. Embassy approved doctor" for Zane's physical. The embassy requires one last physical and blood test before issuing travel visas. So a doctor's appt, lunch and then we will visit the orphanages that house the "older" boys and girls. Older simply means older than a toddler. I'm anxious to see how these kids live.

Something very cool we found out today, most of the caretakers at the infant foster home and the toddler foster home are grown up orphans themselves. It's great to see Gladney's continued investment in these children, even when they pass the age of living in an orphanage (I think the age is 16?).

Zane just fell asleep. We can now relax and enjoy a glass of wine as we sit and listen to a "call to prayers" man (Ethiopia is 40% muslim) chanting on a loud speaker across the street. Still can't believe we are here.